Ryan Reynolds’ storytelling abilities aren’t just a quirky element of his public persona — they’re the bedrock foundation of his success across multiple industries, he says.

Reynolds, a longtime TV and movie actor, learned that his storytelling chops could benefit him in a business capacity while starring in, co-producing and promoting the 2016 movie “Deadpool,” he said at the Fast Company Innovation Festival 2024 on Tuesday. The movie’s budget didn’t leave much room for marketing, so Reynolds shouldered some of the load himself, filming and posting comedic advertisements on social media.

Multiple of Reynolds’ posts went viral, and “Deadpool” grossed $782.6 million in box office sales against a $58 million budget, according to IMDB-owned Box Office Mojo.

The experience prompted Reynolds to invest in multiple companies — Aviation Gin in 2018 and Mint Mobile in 2019, for starters — and launch marketing and production firm Maximum Effort to help promote them, he said. If you’re searching for a connective thread between a gin brand and a mobile network operator, you’re not alone.

“I have a devotion and love for storytelling in weird places,” said Reynolds.

The ensuing marketing campaigns, marked by Reynolds’ particular brand of humor and timeliness, helped Aviation get acquired for an initial payment of $335 million, and up to $275 million more in potential future payments, by beverage giant Diageo in 2020. Reynolds retained an ownership stake in the deal, according to the announcement, and Maximum Effort went on to sign big-name clients like Match.com and Kraft Heinz.

Mint Mobile’s parent company, Ka’ena Corporation, was similarly purchased for up to $1.35 billion by T-Mobile last year. “Reynolds will continue in his creative role on behalf of Mint,” T-Mobile said at the time.

Good storytelling is a crucial workplace skill in nearly every job or industry, Stanford University lecturer and communication expert Matt Abrahams tells CNBC Make It.

If you can craft a compelling narrative for your specific audience — whether that’s your boss, your interns or a room full of executives — you’ll get people to listen to you, understand your perspective and even change their minds, says Abrahams.

To use your storytelling powers to gain influence, you need to do four things, he says:

1. Hook your audience with an introduction that breaks a pattern in the first couple of seconds. Think of it like the opening scene of an action movie: You can use an alarming statistic, or enter the story with an emotional scene.
2. Mention why it’s relevant and salient to the audience. This will convince the other person why they need to listen, and establish some narrative tension that’ll pique their interest.
3. Establish expectations like a tour guide. Once you have their attention, introduce yourself and set expectations of what they’ll gain from the rest of the conversation. This is a good time to introduce some humor or relatability.
4. As you tell the rest of the story, maintain your audience’s attention with physical, linguistic or mental reminders of why they care. Be as concise as possible, always tying each sentence back to the main point.”

“The biggest mistake people make in their communication is they don’t focus on the needs of the audience,” says Abrahams. “Attention is the most precious commodity we have in the world today. If I’m not tailoring my message to you, you’re not going to pay attention to it.”

Reynolds agrees: Maximum Effort focuses less on creating perfect ads and more on grabbing an audience’s attention as quickly as possible, he said. Being relatable and relevant to the viewer is more important than just about anything else, he added.

“The idea is that if you can move at the speed, or as close to the speed of culture and the cultural conversation, then your brand is much more likely to create emotional investment in a consumer,” said Reynolds. “I’m so, not at all, an entrepreneur … but I’m very interested in, and pretty good, at emotional investment.”

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The national household median income grew by about 4% between 2022 and 2023, according to the latest Census Bureau Current Population Survey estimates. 

That may not seem like much, but it’s the first significant annual increase Americans have seen since 2019, the Bureau reports. From 2018 to 2019, the median household income nationally grew about 7%. But then it stayed around the same or dropped slightly — until 2023.

At the state level, income changes were even more drastic. South Dakota saw the largest increase both in dollars and percentage growth.

The median household income there was $81,740 in 2023, up from $69,850 in 2022, according to Census Bureau data. That’s $11,890 more, or an increase of 17%.

South Dakota is among the fastest-growing states in the country, population-wise, according to a Pew analysis of Census Bureau data. Many of the people moving into the state appear to bring bigger salaries with them. South Dakota lands at No. 21 in a recent SmartAsset ranking of states with the highest net inflow of households earning $200,000 a year or more.

The six U.S. states where household incomes grew the most in one year all increased by over 10%. Two of the states with the largest annual increases — Arkansas and West Virginia — were, and continue to be, some of the lowest-earning states.

On the flip side, 11 states saw their incomes fall in 2023.

Maryland experienced the largest decrease to its median household income at 9%, and it is the only state to experience a five-figure decline. The state’s median household income, $102,000, remained one of the highest in the country in 2023. Still, that’s down $10,500 from 2022.

High-earners appear to be leaving the state in droves: Maryland lost over 2,000 households that earn at least $200,000 between 2021 and 2022, according to SmartAsset. The state’s economy has been fairly stalled since 2017, according to a 2023 report from the state’s comptroller. 

In 2024, Maryland fell nine spots from the previous year to No. 31 in CNBC’s annual best states for business rankings. That’s mostly due to declines in the state’s infrastructure and business-friendliness.

The state with the next-worst decline in incomes, North Dakota, experienced a 6% decrease to its household median. 

Here’s where incomes fell the most.

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My mornings in the small village of San Antonio Tlayacapan, Mexico, are filled with birds. There’s the soft cooing of doves, the chirping of kiskadees, and the iconic shrieking of roosters, which begins not at sunrise (go figure) but hours before. 

It’s a far cry from Mazatlán, the city on Mexico’s Pacific coast where I spent 18 years before moving inland. While there’s so much I love about Mazatlán, the harsh reality is that the laid-back, mid-size beach town I’d moved to in 2006 is gone. 

Mazatlán has become a bustling resort city filled with tourists all year round. The once-quiet beaches are now lined with 20-story condo towers, and all the problems that tend to accompany rapid growth — like traffic, infrastructure issues, and noise — have become unfortunate facts of everyday life. 

Mazatlán changed so much that I didn’t want to live there anymore. It was time for me to leave.

My friends were shocked and, truth be told, so was I. There wasn’t anywhere else I’d thought about living — until I went to see a friend in Lake Chapala.

A friend in Lake Chapala, a seven-hour drive away from Mazatlán, invited me to visit. It seemed as good a place as any to begin my search for a new home. 

Part of the allure, for me, of the Lake Chapala area is that it’s quite rural. I’d lived in a growing, bustling city for so long that I was yearning for more nature, less traffic and noise, and a simpler lifestyle. 

The main “highway” here — really just a two-lane street — is paved, but as soon as you turn off of it, you’re on roads made of cobblestones or packed dirt. People have horses, goats, donkeys, cows, and chickens. It’s not unusual to see men riding to work on horseback. The weather is often touted as “perfect,” cool and pleasant most of the year. 

I could imagine settling here. But I told myself that if it was meant to be, I needed to find exactly what I wanted: a cute, two-bedroom, yellow house with a yard that I could afford. Though most listings I saw on real estate sites and Facebook groups were out of my budget, I ended up stumbling across the ideal place and rented it on the spot. 

A friend took over my Mazatlán apartment and bought all my furniture and appliances, which made the move a million times easier.  I packed only what I could fit in my car and made the drive inland to my new home in March 2024. 

San Antonio Tlayacapan, where I live now, is located between the bigger towns of Chapala and Ajijic, barely a 15-minute drive in either direction. Guadalajara — which has great medical care, an international airport, and all the conveniences and big-box stores you could want, including Home Depot and Costco — is less than an hour away. 

Everything I need is within reach. And in my new home in this smaller, slower town, I found the peace and tranquility I was looking for. 

The casita, or cottage, I rented has a pretty, walled front yard with a gated parking space. I’ve planted a flower garden that attracts butterflies and hummingbirds. I like to sit outside in the mornings with coffee.

The front door opens to the living room, separated from the kitchen by an island.

All the rooms are smaller than the ones in my apartment in Mazatlán, but they feel just right for me. 

My bedroom is spacious, with a nice built-in closet and two windows that provide lots of natural light. I’m thinking about painting the walls but haven’t decided on a color yet.

I use the second, smaller bedroom as an office. 

Outside the kitchen is an enclosed patio, which I’ve filled with plants, a table for working and eating, and a washing machine.

I hang my laundry to dry on the patio or roof, which could easily be turned into a more usable space. If I stay another year, I may do that.

My rent is only 9,000 pesos a month, or about $460, and includes water. My electricity bill hovers around $12, 5G internet runs about $29, and my cell phone plan comes in at about $17 with free international calls. 

I may be semi-retired, but my days are quite busy. My freelance work seems to be either feast or famine, and I’m currently working on two new books about expat living as well as offering consultations to help people navigate their journeys abroad.

When I can escape from the computer, I gravitate toward quiet activities: sharing a meal with friends, walking along the lake, exploring the area.

I like to cook and bake, and I can find many of the organic brands and products I prefer here, both imported and made locally. Asparagus, figs, and all sorts of berries — blueberries, strawberries, raspberries, blackberries — are inexpensive and plentiful. I can buy fresh milk from a dairy that’s five minutes from my house. Huevos del rancho (farm-fresh eggs) cost about 5 pesos, or roughly a quarter each.

I mostly eat a plant-based diet, but sometimes I buy chicken, cut to order, from a local farm.

There’s a Walmart and a Soriana grocery store nearby, but I prefer to shop at smaller local stores and at the many weekly outdoor markets. Prices are lower, produce is fresher, and it’s always a good time. 

At this point in my life, I think I needed the tranquility of my new home in San Antonio Tlayacapan. Every afternoon as the sun goes down, I’m thankful for the quiet of the approaching evening, so different from the 24/7 party atmosphere in Mazatlán. 

I’m still getting used to not having the ocean to jump into and clear my head. That may be what makes me move again, maybe to another Mexican beach town. 

My dream, though, is to live in Sicily or another spot in southern Italy part of the year, then a month or so with each of my kids and their families in the U.S., and the rest of the time in my “home base” in Mexico, wherever that ends up being.

Janet Blaser is a writer who has lived in Mexico since 2006. A former journalist in California, her work now focuses on expat living. Janet’s first book, “Why We Left: An Anthology of American Women Expats” is an Amazon bestseller. Follow Janet on Instagram and Facebook.

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In 2016, when I was 35, and my wife Courtney was 32, we sold our house, a 4 bed, 2 bath 1,600-square-foot Arizona home, moved into a 200-square-foot Airstream RV with our two dogs, and set up our new home in a KOA campground in Tucson. 

It was the first of many big changes for us. 

By that point, I had saved about $900,000, enough to give myself some breathing room, and quit a job that I hated in software development. Courtney, a rocket scientist, joined me in throwing off the bonds of a 9-to-5 in 2017, and we hit the road.

DON’T MISS: How to master your money and grow your wealth

Over the course of the next three years, we traveled across the country full-time, filming videos for YouTube and writing about our experience. 

At 42, I’m a self-made millionaire. Looking back, that decision to downsize was one of the key reasons why I was able to build wealth.

One of the biggest challenges was getting rid of most of our stuff before moving into the Airstream. We were amazed at how much junk we accumulated. 

We unloaded some things on friends and family members. We donated a lot to Goodwill, probably enough to fill an entire store. We held garage sales over several weekends and digitized thousands of photos onto CDs instead of keeping physical photographs. That helped a ton.

We found that we didn’t miss what we got rid of to pursue this life. Maintaining fewer things was actually quite freeing.

Living small made household chores quick and easy. In five minutes, I could vacuum the entire home. Another five minutes dusting. Tidying up took two or three minutes. In 30 minutes or less, our entire Airstream was as clean as the day we bought it. That was a great feeling. 

We were able to keep our travel expenses low by staying as much as we could on Bureau of Land Management land. RVers can camp for 14 days on most Bureau land free of charge. It was beautiful.

The only catch was that there were no electricity, water and sewer hookups. Instead, we used roof-mounted solar panels to charge our batteries. 

Our 72 gallons of freshwater storage on the Airstream provided about two weeks worth of fresh water, if we were careful. Our solar system made it easier for us to remain off-grid. We carried a 2,000-watt generator in case we needed extra power due to clouds or if trees blocked our panel’s view of the sun. 

We genuinely loved traveling and getting to learn so much about the country. We camped in about half of the 50 states, from New York to California.

Some of our favorite experiences were parking right on the water at Lake Powell, Arizona, camping along the ragged mountains by California’s Alabama Hills, and driving around the grassy hillsides in New York’s wine region. 

When you’re camping out in nature, though, you get to experience less-pleasant weather firsthand.

I vividly remember staying at a campsite in Leavenworth, Washington, in the summer of 2018. It was so hot that the electrical breakers kept malfunctioning because of all the ACs blasting. 

Every week or two, we had to pack everything up and move. This routine included securing items inside the Airstream like toiletries on our small bathroom counter and virtually anything lying out that could move or break while driving. We used a bungee cord to bind my external computer monitor to my small desk so it wouldn’t fall. 

For the first year of travel, we spent about $35,000. This included all of our expenses, including food, gasoline, insurance and camping fees. 

Most of our expenses went down considerably after we moved into the Airstream, except for one. Our grocery bill increased by about 25% because we weren’t always in a big metropolitan area where Costco or Safeway locations were plentiful. Instead, we often had to shop at more expensive local grocery stores in smaller communities. 

We typically spent about $3,500 per month, which included:

• Propane: $40 
• Pet care: $75
• Health insurance: $350
• Auto maintenance: $400
• Fun money: $1,000
• Groceries: $600
• Camping fees: $500
• Fuel: $500

Better equipped campgrounds in prime locations charged upwards of $100 per night. These pristine sites were level and well-maintained, and offered hookups to power, water and sewer.

Two weeks on Bureau land cost us nothing in camping fees. A $40/night camp spot with amenities would have cost us $560 for those 14 days. That difference adds up quickly!

Over that three year period, living cheaply in our Airstream allowed our net worth to climb while we drove, even though we no longer worked full-time jobs. 

We made a few hundred bucks a month on YouTube as we filmed our lifestyle. I maintained a blog about early retirement that I’ve since sold, which brought in about $1,000 a month. 

We lived primarily on what we made from these smaller sources of income. We hardly touched our stocks. Instead, we let our capital gains continue to grow for those three years of full-time travel. 

We started with about $900,000, and our net worth increased by about $150,000 by the end of our travels. That foundation set me on a path to become a millionaire today. Not bad for never setting foot in an office! 

Steve Adcock is a financial expert who blogs about how to achieve financial independence. A former software developer, Steve retired early at the age of 35. He occasionally writes about money for MarketWatch, Forbes and Business Insider.

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Some people think asking questions — to friends, peers or bosses — can make you look weak or insecure.

But the simple act can actually help you garner influence and even get the people around you to change their minds, says communication expert Matt Abrahams — if you know the right questions to ask.

“Asking a question puts you in a position of power,” Abrahams, a Stanford University lecturer, tells CNBC Make It. “I can actually raise my status and lower your status when I ask a challenging question.”

Asking good questions “demonstrates you care, it demonstrates empathy, it demonstrates you’re willing to learn and, in some cases, admit you don’t know everything,” he adds. “Those are all valuable tools and assets to have when you’re trying to grow your career or deepen relationships.”

Effective leaders often balance their credibility with humility, a willingness to learn and connect well with their colleagues, experts say. But not every question will help you get ahead. You need to know how, when and why you’re asking the question for it to help make you more influential, says Abrahams.

Here’s how to ask the right questions, at work, home and in your social life, to get ahead and strengthen relationships, he says.

Good questions contain three elements, says Abrahams:

• They’re concise, so the listener doesn’t get distracted
• They build on what the other person has said — furthering the conversation, rather than paraphrasing or summarizing
• They revolve around a focused idea, or the conversation topic’s “bottom line”

“It can have multiple purposes,” but it should be quick, clear and focused enough so people understand the point of I’m trying to make,” Abrahams says.

You should consider your intention or goal before asking any question, he adds. Do you want show you’re listening and understanding, or that you’re very interested in the subject at hand? Maybe you want to subtly help the other person understand another perspective, or simply move the conversation along.

One of the worst intentions, Abrahams notes: trying to get participation points in workplace meetings. Your questions always need to be thoughtful, he says — if you aren’t helping clarify a point or furthering a conversation, your colleagues may just roll their eyes at you.

Asking good questions, especially to persuade, influence or change someone’s mind, takes practice. Start small, and try approaching your casual interactions like interviews, where you’re trying to learn more about the other person or conversational subject, recommends Abrahams.

If your questions often ramble, and you want to become more concise, he suggests turning to artificial intelligence: Ask a chatbot like ChatGPT for shorter ways to phrase specific questions, then analyze the results. You can also ask real people for feedback — after a big meeting or serious work conversation, find a trusted colleague and ask them what they thought of the questions you posed.

Above all else, always listen to other people before asking them anything, Abrahams says.

“Anytime you are listening, you’re doing yourself a service. You are showing the other person you’re here,” Abrahams says. Then, your question is more likely to feel like you’re “inviting the other person to collaborate, and solving the problem [together] helps you foster that relationship in the long-term.”

Want to master your money this fall? Sign up for CNBC’s new online course. We’ll teach you practical strategies to hack your budget, reduce your debt, and grow your wealth. Start today to feel more confident and successful. Use code EARLYBIRD for an introductory discount of 30% off, now extended through September 30, 2024, for the back-to-school season.

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