Tell me a story and I will relate to your hero, be your hero, learn from your hero’s journey. If the learning is irrelevant and I cannot continue to relate, the story is lost, wasted. Make me, (and I am your client, your student, your prospect), my possibilities, my needs and my problems the prototype for your […]
Trying to get your message heard? Build an iconic brand? Welcome to the battlefield. The story wars are all around us. They are the struggle to be heard in a world of media noise and clamor. Today, most brand messages and mass appeals for causes are drowned out before they even reach us. But […]
Stories are a subtly powerful way to support your speaking outcomes. You can use them to support the points you want to make, but you can also use them to position yourself in the eyes of your audience. When you speak you need to be seen as an expert, though an approachable expert, and the […]
And who are you to deny it? Because that is the power of story. It can cleanse. It can heal. It can lead its listeners and readers to a new way of living – a new story for themselves. It can inspire. You can do that because you are a storyteller, we are all storytellers […]
Those who tell the stories. It’s a powerful statement this. There’s a mystical, mythical element to it, being a native American saying. I find it interesting that Plato said much the same thing “Those who tell the stories rule society.” Two such disparate cultures and societies recognising the power of story. Just about anyone […]
Every day you put yourself on the line as a leader. Don’t you? Every day you feel the weight of responsibility. Don’t you? Every day you need your team contributing to the organisation. Don’t you? Of course you do. You don’t, you can’t, protect yourself at the expense of others. You don’t, you can’t, […]
“Every great leader is a great storyteller,” says Harvard University psychologist Howard Gardner. According to master storytellers Richard Maxwell and Robert Dickman, storytelling is a lot like running. Everyone knows how to do it, but few of us ever break the four-minute mile. What separates the great runners from the rest? The greats know not […]
“Always lead with a story”. I wonder who gave him that advice? It sounds feasible, even powerful. Stories ARE powerful. They engage, build credibility, create an emotional tone, set the scene. And all of those things are what is needed from a speech opening. But they are not the only options for a speech opening, and […]
Your story matters. It matters because you matter. It matters because it can serve you. What happens, then, if you add bubbles? What are bubbles? Fun? Imagination? A symbol of something else – dreams, beauty, the ethereal? What happens if you add that to your story – fun, imagination, dreams, beauty, the ethereal? Your […]
All Marketers Are Liars: The Power of Telling Authentic Stories in a Low Trust World (2005) This was the seventh published book by Seth Godin, and the third in a series of books on 21st century marketing, following Purple Cow and Free Prize Inside. Basically, Seth Godin suggests that there are three questions to […]