Often I hear people say, “but I have no remarkable stories.” It seems easier to cling to precious power point slides. Like Gollum from Lord of The Rings. But, it’s a lost opportunity. Because stories engage and move people. And everyone….yes everyone… has a wealth of stories. Often, people don’t see them. And here’s why.
Often I hear people say, “but I have no remarkable stories.” It seems easier to cling to precious power point slides. Like Gollum from Lord of The Rings.
But, it’s a lost opportunity. Because stories engage and move people. And everyone….yes everyone… has a wealth of stories. Often, people don’t see them.
And here’s why.
Do you remember the Wombles? A TV series about fictitious furry creatures with long pointy noses? Children’s author Elizabeth Beresford created them.
Their mission was to sniff out ‘rubbish’ and collect and recycle it.
Well I say rubbish. But to a Womble, things that everyday folk might eschew as garbage, was treasure.
The Womble tales were set on Wimbledon Common in London. But legend has it that Wombles, are found all over the world.
What does that have to do with storytelling?
Everything.
To discover great stories – go wombling.
Rarely do you find a rich story, gift-wrapped on your doorstep. Instead you forage through things that seem unremarkable to other folk. Even discarded, as trash.
To a storyteller these are gems. Albeit, diamonds in the rough. And what are diamonds? Just carbon that has withstood heaps of stress.
But once honed and polished diamonds sparkle. And people fall in love with them.
Wombles mine for treasure that looks like furniture, boxes, fabric and old boots. Wombles are naturally good at foraging and up-cycling or ‘wombling’ as they call it. It’s innate to them.
Like storytelling is to humans.
Storytelling skills, like wombling, need to be enriched.
Discovering, crafting and broadcasting stories can be learned. You too have heaps of amazing stories. Most are hidden like diamonds waiting to be mined, honed and polished until they shine.
The trick is to slow down.
And open-up to the idea that your life is laced with amazing story fodder.
You can begin with a theme like trust, winning against all odds or boldly moving forward. Or consider times when you’ve had peaks and troughs in your life. Is there a story there? Or what about your duh moments? You realised something that’s so obvious now.
When I wrote The Tao of Storytelling I began with story discovery. Then I story crafted before broadcasting the 30 stories in the book. Each story is based on a theme. And it’s choc-full of story discovery questions. So you can mine for your treasure too.
Often, I tell these and other stories live. So when I’m running storytelling workshops I’m walking my talk. Stories engage people. They make it easy to give your message.
You don’t have to throw power point. away.
Edge a story or two between your slides.
Woven into your business presentations, stories enchant your audience. And move them into inspired action. Who wouldn’t love that?
Your message lands with impact. Because storytelling creates chemistry. It connects people.
Storytelling is now an essential business tool.
It’s place goes way beyond presentations. Story enriches leadership, culture, strategy, branding, selling and innovation, by connecting people.
Would you like to learn how to mine, hone and polish the treasure in your stories?
You can begin your storytelling journey now.
DOWNLOAD FREE – THE 12 SECRETS TO INFLUENCING WITH STORY
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