by Doug Stevenson, CSP

Storytelling in business started out as a fad and quickly gained acceptance as an essential communication skill. It’s also an essential leadership development skill, and a powerful sales skill that leads to increased sales and higher closing ratios. For train-the-trainer programs, it’s a smart addition to a curriculum that is often stacked with dull technical classes.

Strategic storytelling can be used internally to increase stakeholder engagement or to improve morale. It can be used to leverage your initiative over someone else’s, or to gain buy-in to your proposal.

Storytelling for business is serious business. When you provide strategic storytelling training for your leaders, salespeople, marketers, engineers, fund-raisers, IT professionals, human resource team and members of the training department, you give them a competitive edge.

Storytelling for business should be considered a mandatory class. In my strategic storytelling and Story Theater Method skills training workshops, seminars and keynotes, I find that my attendees, audience members and participants enthusiastically embrace these skills because they know they need a competitive advantage.

Salespeople want to improve their storytelling skills. While their competitors are regurgitating facts, data and statistics and using boring PowerPoint templates, they are hungry for skills that will make them more engaging and successful at changing hearts, minds and attitudes. The bottom line is that they want to close more deals. When the salesperson sells more, customers are served and corporate profitability improves.

In my instructional keynotes and skill-building workshops, I teach people to start with the point in mind. What is the outcome you are seeking when you give a presentation? What do you want people to do differently? How do you want them to think differently? If you know how to tell the right story that makes the right point for the right situation, you will increase the odds of achieving your desired outcome.

By beginning with the end in mind, you can identify the story that will lead to that outcome. This is not about telling a story because it’s fun or entertaining. My approach to storytelling for business is strategic, decisive and tactical. And yes, it can also be fun and entertaining at the same time. The stories I help people identify may be personal stories that act as metaphors, or business stories, or case study stories. Each story is chosen, crafted and delivered to achieve a specific outcome.

If you take storytelling seriously by devoting time, energy and resources to the skill building initiatives that give your employees this essential influence, negotiation and persuasion skill, you will see a tenfold return on your investment. My Story Theater Method and Aikido Story Selling System will give your people a competitive advantage that will improve your bottom line. But don’t just take my word for it. Here’s what my clients have to say:

Training

“We brought Doug Stevenson in to teach his Story Theater Method to both our senior trainers and our senior management here at Oracle University. He was a huge success. Since that time, I’ve personally used what I learned from Doug and have found it to be practical, valuable and fun. I’ve also hired him two more times to work with other groups. His workshop is both inspirational and very practical, with easy-to-use tools and techniques. I highly recommend him. Doug Stevenson delivers!”
Elizabeth Wiseman, VP, Oracle University

“My firm hired Doug to do a 3-hour business storytelling workshop for our Private Client group prior to our annual meeting. Our associates are pretty demanding, and anything less than excellence is not worth their time. Doug made it worth their time. He teaches very practical storytelling skills that are easily understood and specific to the kind of client conversations we have daily. Hiring Doug was the right choice.”
Scott Brophy – Banking Executive

“Doug Stevenson has built a reputation as a storytelling in business expert. When Deloitte asked me to find someone to teach storytelling skills to our associates, I hired Doug. He worked with me to create a highly customized workshop, even going so far as to incorporate our corporate themes into his workbook. Doug is a true professional. If you’re looking for a storytelling speaker or trainer, I highly recommend Doug Stevenson.”
Alexandra Davis, Advisory Talent Development, Deloitte

“The overall feedback from your storytelling training at SAP was extremely positive. Here are a few of the comments I received:
• “Doug had a lot of energy and provided a good storytelling framework in his workbook that we can use along with our current process.”
• “The speaker’s acting background helped him deliver a compelling session.”
• “The most important part was to learn that engineers do care about bringing in the human elements in a technical/business discussion.”
Pranav Wankawala, Director of Strategic Customer Engagements, SAP Labs

Fundraising

“I found Doug Stevenson’s Story Theater Method to be a unique way of teaching the art of good presentations. I took away a valuable lesson on how to “tell the story” to a prospect donor to close a major gift. I used it in a group setting of several donors and they seemed to enjoy it. We had 3 people sign up for our $10,000 Medallion Society as a result.”
Michele A. Conley, Executive Director, Cabell Huntington Hospital Foundation

“We set a fundraising goal for the night of $30k. Including ticket sales, we raised $90k!
We couldn’t have done this without you. We had a 12-month fundraising goal that we have now far exceeded in 4 months. Thank you is too small of a sentiment. My gratitude is profound. The ripples of the investment that you made in our presentations will be felt for generations.”
Alyx Porter Umphrey – Founder, ElevatedMeD Inc.

Keynote

“I wanted to drop you a line to say it was a pleasure to meet you in Vienna. Thank you very much for the remarkable opening keynote performance at our summit. It made such an impact. People were employing your tips throughout the break-out sessions for the remainder of the day. We finished the summit with the spectacular performance of Dutch and Belgian team to convey Patients First perspective to payers. It goes without saying, it’ll be a pleasure to continue the collaboration.”
Marina Roudaut – Director – Pfizer France

“Doug Stevenson gave an informative and entertaining keynote on storytelling for sales at our 2017 Global Sales Kick-Off. We know storytelling will help us close more sales and Doug’s methodology is what we needed to get us started. Doug was a big hit for us, and he’ll be a big hit for you.”
Patrick Stuver, President and Co-Founder, Everbridge

“We brought Doug in to be the opening keynote speaker for our 2016 senior leadership summit. The room was filled with 120 of our VP’s and above, so the stakes were high. The greatest accolade I received in relation to Doug’s storytelling keynote was when our CEO texted the senior manager of talent development saying we absolutely nailed it with our keynote speaker. There is no question that Doug is one of the top tier speakers on storytelling in a business context.”
Adnan Barqawi, Asurion

In Conclusion:
If storytelling is on your agenda for professional development, let’s talk. In less time than it takes to get a tall Caramel Macchiato from Starbucks, we can determine if I’m the right fit for your organization. For the past 25 years, I’ve been the right fit for the following corporations, associations and government agencies all over the United States and in 17 countries around the globe.

Verizon, Hewlett Packard, Microsoft, Well Fargo, State Farm Insurance, Alphabet/Google, Aetna Insurance, UPS, CISCO Systems, Asurion, Insperity, Gartner, Caterpillar, John Deere, Lockheed Martin, Coca-Cola, Oracle, John Deere, , USAA Insurance, AbbVie Pharmaceuticals, Novo Nordisk, Gilead Pharmaceuticals, Amgen Biotech, Abbot Labs, Eli Lilly, Bristol-Myers Squibb, Gilead, Con Agra Foods, Nordstrom, Viacom, Time Warner, NBC Universal,  SAP, Rockwell Collins Aerospace, Deloitte,  UCB Pharma, Kaiser Permanente, Whirlpool, Medstar Hospitals, Everbridge Software, US Bank, The American Medical Association, The National Association of Realtors, The Arizona Hospital and Healthcare Association, The Kellogg African American Resource Group, Nurse Next Door, The Project Management Institute and hundreds more…

Doug Stevenson, CSP, speaks to leaders, salespeople, brand managers and executives to help them make an emotional connection through storytelling mastery. He delivers customized keynotes, training and individual coaching. Call us for your free 30-minute consultation.

Doug is the author of Doug Stevenson’s Story Theater Method, and the Next Level Storytelling Video eLearning Series. He travels from Tucson, Arizona.

Connect with Doug on LinkedIn, watch his videos on You Tube and subscribe to his newsletter.

Contact Doug at deborah@dougstevenson.com
or call 1-719-310-8586.
www.storytelling-in-business.com

Doug Stevenson, copyright 2020, All Rights Reserved. Reprinted with permission.

Back in 1995, when I was first getting into the professional speaking business, I was doing presentations around town to various service clubs and networking groups. I talked about communication and presentation skills. Having been an actor for 25 years, I was comfortable at the front of the room. I was funny and spontaneous and had some good content. People told me I was a good speaker and that I told good stories. And then one night, I had a breakthrough.

The Breakthrough Moment

I was giving a presentation at the Pikes Peak Library in Colorado Springs, Colorado. It was a freebie on a Tuesday night. Somewhere in the middle of my talk on presentation skills, I asked my audience if they wanted to hear a funny story from my Hollywood years. Of course, they said yes.

It was a story I had told many times before. I did say “told.” But this time, for some reason, I was unleashed. It was a funny story about going streaking and getting arrested naked. Without having planned it in advance, I acted out getting in the back of my VW bus with my acting class partner, George, and getting undressed. Next, I acted out jumping out of the bus and running down the street naked as we passed about 30 people waiting in line to see a movie.

As I was acting out running down the street naked, with George right behind me, I could hear the audience laughing hysterically. I acted out coming around the corner to head back to the safety of the bus, when a police car came screeching around the corner and a voice yelled over the speaker for us to “freeze.”

“Freeze! Put your hands up.”

I acted out freezing in mid-stride, and then remembering that I was naked and exposed. At this point, the audience was shrieking with laughter. Shrieking! They were laughing so hard tears were streaming down people’s faces.

I didn’t just TELL that story. I became the story. I re-enacted those key parts of the story. That was the day The Story Theater Method was born. That was the day I learned the difference between standing outside of the story and “telling” it, and “stepping in” to the story and re-living parts of it.

The Story Theater Method
When I analyzed what I’d done differently that night in the library, it was the acting moments. I’d spontaneously created a hybrid of narrative storytelling and acting. And it worked so well that I could never go back to narrative story-telling alone.

There’s nothing wrong with telling a good story. It’s worked for millions of years and will continue to work. But if you want to move your audience to laughter and tears, you need to take your storytelling to the next level, the Story Theater level.

Actions, Reactions, Decisions and Conversations

A play is a story, told on a stage with actors pretending to be in an imaginary time, place and circumstance. The actors bring each scene to life with actions, reactions and conversations. Sometimes an actor is alone on the stage reciting a monologue, as if they were talking to themselves out loud. The audience gets to hear their thoughts in the form of self-talk. Sometimes an actor is silent, but you can still “hear” their inner monologue through their expressions and body language. These acting techniques, and many more, can be applied to storytelling.

When you apply Story Theater techniques to your story, you first identify the scenes in your story that are most hilarious or dramatic. Then you act them out as if they were taking place in present time. These are called “IN Moments.” The majority of your story (70% – 80%) is still spoken in past-tense narrative “OUT” to the audience, but these acted-out IN moments make the story come alive.

Some of the techniques you can employ to make your stories come alive are:
• Recreating the actions in your story:
       Running, typing, packing, cooking, reading, lifting, streaking, driving…
• Acting out the reactions in your story:
       Surprise, shock, elation, anger, frustration, relief, sadness, despair, joy…
• Portraying the conversations in your story:
       Telephone, two-character, self-talk…
• Revealing your decision-making process:
       Which choice to make, what to do next, good vs bad options, who to call…

Take Them Inside the Story

At the end of my keynotes and workshops, people share with me that they felt like they were inside my story as I was telling it. For example, after telling my Streaking Story, one person told me, “I was sitting at a street-side table having dinner as you ran past us!” Another told me, “I was in the crowd at the end of the alley watching you get handcuffed and thrown into the police car.” Story Theater invites people inside your story.

Kinesthetic and Visceral Stimulation

I’ve now been teaching the Story Theater Method for over 25 years. What I’ve learned is that Story Theater stories are more engaging and compelling because they stimulate a physical and visceral response. People don’t just listen to these stories, they see, feel and experience them.

Why is this important? Most presentation put people into a content coma. They’re chock full of important information, but often devoid of emotional stimulation. Without some form of visceral and emotional stimulation, presentations fail to achieve their intended purpose. The presentation wastes people’s time, and the presenter is often blamed for being boring. Kinesthetic and visceral stimulation is needed to engage the listener and emotionally move them to really “get” and remember your message.

Standing Ovation Storytelling

Do you want a standing ovation? Do you want your stories to be remembered long after your presentation is over? Do you want your stories to inspire people to new thinking and action? Do you need to take your stories to the next level of authenticity, engagement and relevance? Put some Story Theater into your stories and you will be amazed at the difference it makes.

My streaking story was always a good story, but it was never hilarious until I acted it out. No one ever shrieked with laughter before. It’s as if the Story Theater Method transformed my story from black and white to technicolor.

The acting parts of your story are right there waiting for you to have some fun with them. And, you don’t have to be an actor to use these techniques in your story. All you have to do is look for the actions, reactions, decisions and conversations in your story, and SHOW them.

Standing ovation storytelling is within your reach. Let’s work on it together.

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Doug Stevenson is the author of Doug Stevenson’s Story Theater Method and is an internationally recognized speaker and trainer on strategic storytelling for leadership, sales and marketing. For over 20 years has has taught the science of the art of storytelling in 18 countries. He had delivered over 1,000 keynotes and training courses for corporations, associations and government agencies.

His clients include Google, Verizon, Coca Cola, NBC, Deloitte, Blue Cross Blue Shield, Pfizer, Con Agra Foods, Caterpillar, Microsoft, SAP, Wells Fargo, US Bank, USAA, Aetna, Lockheed Martin, The American Education Assn, The National Association of Realtors, The American Medical Association, Rockwell Collins, Junior Achievement, Amgen, AAA, Oracle University, Red Bull, Deco Proteste, Asurion, Medstar Hospitals and hundreds of associations and non-profits.

Contact Doug at 1-719-310-8586 or email: deborah@dougstevenson.com. Visit his website at: www.storytelling-in-business.com.

My stories serve as metaphors for a problem or challenge that the organization as a whole, or the individuals in my audience, might be dealing with.

The stories that work best are what I call “hybrid stories”. They start out as personal stories that take place in a non-business setting, and then they transition into a business application. You can think of it as part one and part two of a story.

The first part of the story is a personal story that I’ve chosen because of the lesson that it illustrates. The second part of the story is the application of the lesson to the business client’s day to day activities.

For example: a story I use in many of my presentations is the Pill in the Peanut Butter story. It’s a story about having to give my dog, Jaya, a pill because she was sick. Since I’d never done this before, I did what the veterinarian told me to do. I opened her jaw with both hands and then placed the pill as far down in the back of her throat as possible. Then I clamped her jaw shut and waited for her to swallow.

The theory was that she would swallow the pill. The reality was that she just kept staring at me with those big brown eyes, obviously not understanding what she was supposed to do. After about sixty seconds, I figured she must have swallowed the pill, but when I released my hold on her jaw, she coughed up the pill.

I went through three pills that way before I gave up and called my friend John. John had lots of experience with dogs. He told me to get some peanut butter and put a glob of it in my hand. Then he told me to hide the pill in the peanut butter and when she ate the peanut butter, she’d swallow the pill. Which she did. Voila…success.

That’s the end of part one of the story. The lesson: Hide the Pill in the Peanut Butter.

Part two begins by relating the metaphor of the pill to the “hard to swallow” facts, data and details that make a presentation dull, boring and complex. I take a few minutes to talk about the “pill” in the specific context of that client or audience. Having made that connection, I relate the look of confusion on Jaya’s face to the glassy-eyed look on someone’s face when they’re on the receiving end of a data dump.

Part two continues as I equate the “peanut butter” to the use of a story instead of bullet points, data and details. Like peanut butter, information contained inside a well-told story sticks. The metaphor continues by equating storytelling to information that sticks.

At this point, I like to paint an imaginary story scenario of someone in my audience making a typical presentation filled with good information and data, but without story. Then I share some of the same data and information at the proper place in a story. I show how you hide the pill in the peanut butter.

You must connect part one and part two for your story to be a Hybrid story.

In the end, it’s not about the information you share in a presentation, it’s all about what they remember. If you’re not memorable, you lose and they lose. You lose because you failed to engage and connect on an emotional level. You become forgettable. They lose because they don’t remember the point or lesson long enough to change their behavior and achieve better results from your ideas.

In order to make a personal story relevant, you have to understand your audience and what keeps them awake at night. You have to do your research by interviewing people who will be in your audience and letting them tell you their stories. I like to interview at least three people and ask them to tell me the story of a day in their life. This pre-program research helps me connect part one and part two of the hybrid story.

Take the time to make sure you connect the dots between whatever story you intend to use in a presentation and the challenges your audience, employees or sales prospects are facing.

Data gets dumped unless it’s hidden inside a story. Next time you make a presentation, hide the pill in the peanut butter.

Click this link to watch a video of me performing my Pill in the Peanut Butter Story.

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Doug Stevenson, CSP, works with individuals and organizations to help them identify and tell inspiring stories that make a point, teach a lesson or sell a product or service. He is the president of Story Theater International, a Tucson, Arizona based consultancy. He is the creator of The Story Theater Method and the author of the book, Doug Stevenson’s Story Theater Method and the Next Level Video eLearning Series.

His has delivered keynote speeches, workshops and training courses on storytelling and story selling for clients in 18 countries since 1996 including Aetna, Abbott Labs, Amgen, Caterpillar, Con Agra Foods, Coca Cola, Deloitte, Google, Genentech, Hewlett Packard, Red Bull, Lockheed Martin, Microsoft, Pfizer, Oracle, SAP, Volkswagen, Verizon, NBC, The Nickelodeon Channel, The Department of Defense, The National Education Association, Association of Financial Professionals, Project Managers Institute, CALIBR, and many more.

To inquire about Doug’s availability email: deborah@dougstevenson.com

Doug can be reached at 1-719-310-8586. Learn more about how Doug can help you tell your story, purchase the book, eBook or Story Theater audio six pack, and sign-up for the free Story Theater newsletter at: www.storytelling-in-business.com.

Watch Doug’s preview video here:

Heck, I dropped out of college at 19 to be an actor. I hitchhiked from Chicago to Hollywood with $200 in my pocket and was able to make a fresh start in a new place without money, contacts or resources. The only resource I could draw from was my belief in myself.  After 13 years and some modest success acting in TV, movies and on stage, I left with my tail between my legs. Hollywood beat me down.

But I am resilient. I’m a Chicago kid who learned to work hard, long hours and to get back up when I got knocked down. Like many of you reading this, I just keep trying. If one thing didn’t work, I tried something else. And so, I moved to Colorado Springs and began again. I became a Realtor and helped people find their home, their nest. It was an honorable career choice. Real estate was always an interim professional for me. 

Even though I left professional acting behind, I never stopped being an actor. I’m a performer, an entertainer, a communicator. I have something to say. Can you relate?

Then I discovered professional speaking and my life has been on an upward trajectory ever since. I’d find myself delivering a keynote speech in front of 800 people and suddenly it dawned on me, I was performing a one-man show. It wasn’t in a theater, but it was a form of theater. I was on stage. I had an audience. And I had written, produced and starred in my own play. Only now it was called a keynote speech. Amazing!

The most important moment in my life however, was not a career achievement. It was when I proposed to Deborah Merriman and she said YES. That was the pinnacle of success for me. We just celebrated our 25th anniversary in June, 2019.

I am no longer driven to prove that I am worthy. I don’t need an award or certificate to lift me up. I’ve made a full-time living speaking and teaching storytelling for over 24 years. As an actor, I acted inside someone else’s story. I played my part and said my lines. Now, I tell my own stories. I am the author of my own play. I get to use my acting chops in a new way and by golly, I get paid well to do it.

I get hired to speak or conduct a training more than enough and every once in a while, I get a standing ovation. More often than not, people stay seated when I’m finished. That’s because I wasn’t there to be celebrated. I wasn’t going for the standing O. I was there to help them, to serve them, to make them think and feel differently. I was there for them, not for me.

I share my wisdom through my stories. They are my gifts, the songs that I sing that make people think, feel and smile. My life has come full circle. I am where I started out to be, only better. Every failure has led to a new beginning. I have lived a life of significance. There will be no Academy Award on my mantle. No worries mate.

My reward, if there is once, is in hearing from one of my students or audience members many years after we met. They tell me that I have made a difference in their life. They share with me that I have helped them to tell their story and that it is making a difference for THEIR audiences.  

My reward is to be happy on a daily basis and know that I am providing value with my words and deeds. I do my best with what I’ve got. It is enough. I’m #1 with Deborah. My grand kids give me wonderful hugs. I love completely and am loved in return.

At the tail end of your life, you will tire of the striving for accomplishment and settle into the warm cuddly present. Know this, what is yours will find you. Regardless of your age, you’ve already done enough. Take a deep breath. Breathe in the perfection that is all around you.

You are loved. You are respected. you are worthy.

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Doug Stevenson is the author of Doug Stevenson’s Story Theater Method and is an internationally recognized speaker and trainer on strategic storytelling for leadership, sales and marketing. For over 20 years has has taught the science of the art of storytelling in 18 countries. His clients include Google, Verizon, Coca Cola, NBC, Deloitte, Blue Cross Blue Shield, Pfizer, Con Agra Foods, Caterpillar, Microsoft, SAP, Wells Fargo, US Bank, USAA, Aetna, Lockheed Martin, The American Education Assn, The National Association of Realtors, The American Medical Association, Rockwell Collins, Junior Achievement, Amgen, AAA, Oracle University, Red Bull, Deco Proteste, Asurion, Medstar Hospitals and hundreds of associations and non-profits.

Contact Doug at 1-719-310-8586 or email: deborah@dougstevenson.com. Visit his website at: www.storytelling-in-business.com.

This is the the story of how telling a story healed a deep and painful emotional wound. 

Back in 2012 I participated in a local evening of storytelling called The Story Project. The theme for the evening was Actors, and because I was a professional actor for 16 years in Chicago and Hollywood, I was invited to tell a story.

Hollywood, California 1974

Over 44 years ago, when I was a young actor in Hollywood, I joined an experimental theater company. One night we did an exercise called Outer Theater. The task was to find a partner and then go out into the surrounding community and do something we would never do. It had to be a risk, something outside of our comfort zone.

The year was 1974, during the height of the streaking craze. So my partner and I decided to go streaking. As it turned out, we not only went streaking, we were ambushed by some overly zealous cops and got arrested…naked. I thought it was funny. The cops took it very seriously. 

As an actor, I usually played the part of the comic relief. I was the goofy side-kick. In other words, I was the funny one, the one who got the laughs. I was a character actor and had become really good at acting the nerd. I even had the bow tie and dorky glasses to complete the look.

All of my friends told me that because I was so funny, I should try stand-up comedy, but I never felt that I had any good material. After getting arrested naked, I felt like I had something funny to work with. I had a funny story.

A couple of weeks after the streaking experience, I went to an “open mike” night at a comedy club. It was the typical comedy club stage with a microphone on a stand and a red or brown brick wall in the background. When it was my turn, I stepped up to the mic told my streaking story. But no one laughed. I tried it again at another comedy club and once again, no one laughed. I tried to use that story as comedy material at five different clubs before I gave up. It was embarrassing and painful. 

The Wound

I decided that I’d never try stand-up again. It had left a mark on my psyche, a wound. 

Life moved on and 17 years later after I’d left Hollywood, as I was speaking to a small audience in a meeting room in a public library, I told my streaking story. I hadn’t planned on telling it, it just happened. But this time, I wasn’t in a comedy club and I wasn’t trying to be funny. And it worked brilliantly. It was hilarious and the audience howled with laughter.

It wasn’t that the story wasn’t funny, I just didn’t know how to tell it.

I discovered how to tell my streaking story so well that it became the one story I could always count on for laughs. It’s a story that’s brought me countless speaking engagements and more that a million dollars in revenue. In fact, the revelation and analysis of how I told that story became the foundation for The Story Theater Method.

Fast forward to December 13, 2012, the day before I was to present the streaking story for The Story Project.  I was doing some research by watching a You Tube video of people telling their stories onstage in the Story Project theater. And there it was, the stage with the microphone on a stand and the brick wall. It looked exactly like one of the clubs where I’d bombed in Hollywood.

The Fear

During the day, I noticed that I was starting to panic. I was getting all plugged in to the emotional states that I had experienced so often in Hollywood. The fear of stepping onto that stage and telling the same story in almost the same environment, was making me crazy. I finally realized that those comedy club experiences had created an emotional wound that had never healed.

But it made no sense. In my mind I knew that my streaking story was one of my best stories and that it had worked in front of hundreds of corporate and association audiences. But in my gut I felt like a struggling 24-year old actor. The emotional wound from the comedy club failures was very real and present.

That evening, when I got to the Story Project theater I started to relax. I was no longer a scared kid in Hollywood trying to prove myself. There would be no Hollywood agents in the audience looking to discover the next Jim Carrey. I was now a 62-year old successful adult in another time and place with nothing to prove to anyone – except to myself of course.

I Had Nothing to Prove

The people in the audience were just local folks who loved to hear good stories. A number of my friends had come to support me. And of course my loving wife, Deborah, was by my side. Suddenly, I was very calm.

I was the fourth of four storytellers. While the other storytellers did their presentations, I listened and laughed and was totally present with them. When it was my turn, I performed my Streaking Story the way I have now performed it hundreds and hundreds of times all over the world. The audience howled with laughter and at the end, I got a standing ovation.

Afterwards, as people came over to congratulate me, I basked in the glow of success. I had faced the old demon emotions of fear and insecurity and I had prevailed. 

The Story That Healed the Wound

The next day, as I was re-living the experience, I was ecstatic. I realized that by telling my story in that particular venue, I had healed the emotional wound of failing at all of those comedy clubs. I had told the same story, in a very similar environment, and this time I was hilariously funny. I faced my fear and walked away renewed.

We all know that stories have the power to heal our audiences. What I have also learned from helping my students is that they can be healed themselves, through the telling of their most painful and intimate stories.  And now I understand that firsthand, for myself.  

Storyteller, Heal Thyself

How about you? What story do you need to tell that will heal an old unresolved wound? Isn’t there an old saying:  “Storyteller, heal thyself?” or something like that!  Be brave and use your stories to heal your audiences, and to heal yourself.

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Doug Stevenson, CSP, is a storytelling-in-business keynote speaker, trainer and speaking coach. He collaborates with salespeople, leaders, professional speakers, trainers and fundraisers to help them make a point, teach a lesson or sell a product or service. He has delivered storytelling keynotes and training in 18 countries and has coached thousands of business professionals who want to need to improve their storytelling skills to advance to the next level.

Doug is the author of Doug Stevenson’s Story Theater Method, and the How to Write and Deliver a Dynamite Speech System.  Some of his clients include Microsoft, Oracle, Google, Cisco, Deloitte, SAP, Aetna, Amgen, Bristol Myers-Squibb, Genentech, Pfizer, Novartis, Wells Fargo, US Bank, Medstar Hospitals, NBC, Verizon, Red Bull, Lockheed Martin, Coca Cola, Caterpillar, Association of Financial Professionals, Hospital Corporation of America, The American Medical Association and hundreds more.

Contact Doug at deborah@dougstevenson.com

call 1-719-310-8586

or visit: www.storytelling-in-business.com

While all stories are not equal, all stories can be appropriate, relevant, and powerful if they fit the situation and address a business issue or topic. A story is an essential communication tool, regardless of whether it is big or small, long or short, or dramatic or comedic. 

If you want to be a compelling and engaging communicator, you must choose the right story that makes the right point for the right situation. If the story doesn’t fit, don’t use it.

It’s All About the Fit

From 1972 to 1985, I lived the life of an aspiring actor and movie star wanna-be in Hollywood. I took acting classes, acted in plays and auditioned for movie and TV roles. Because I wasn’t making a living as an actor, I had to do something to pay the bills. I needed a job. One day my friend Michael called me and said the contractor he was working for was looking to hire another guy for his carpentry crew.

I learned a lot about carpentry while working for that contractor. When I began, I didn’t even own a hammer. So every week I took a portion of my paycheck and bought more tools. I eventually started my own carpentry and remodeling business and continued to purchase more tools. Every job seemed to require a specific tool that I didn’t have. After ten years in the carpentry and remodeling business, I had carpentry, plumbing, and electrical tools for every kind of job and need.

I never did become a movie star, but I did become a very accomplished carpenter!  What I learned from that experience was that it’s not about how many tools you have, it’s all about having the right tool for the job. And it’s not about how many good stories you have, it’s all about having the right story for the point you want to make. It’s all about the fit.

Start with the Point in Mind

Your story can be long or short, as long as it does the job. Just as there are many kinds of screwdrivers, there are many kinds of stories.

To find the right story, start with the point in mind. What do you need a story to do?

• Inspire someone to believe in themselves?
• Get someone to work within established guidelines?
• Teach a better way to do something (behavior)?
• Communicate why a change is being made?
• Illustrate the danger of making bad choices?
• Persuade someone to buy your product or service?
• Help people to lighten up and laugh a little?
• Make a complex idea simple?
• Introduce a new perspective?

Develop Your Story Using the Nine Steps

Great storytellers don’t just hope to get lucky. They spend significant time choosing the right story and crafting it for maximum impact.  Many other speakers spend far more time building boring PowerPoint slide decks than developing their stories. You don’t have to reinvent the wheel when it comes to storytelling. Classical story structure has been around for thousands of years, and it works!

Here is my Story Theater version of classical story structure. I call this The Nine Steps of Story Structure.  Follow these steps and your story will have a logical sequence, as well as solid dramatic tension. It will also contain a clear and concise, actionable lesson.  

1. Set the Scene – when and where?
2. Introduce the Characters – who else was there?
3. Begin the Journey – what was the task or goal?
4. Encounter the Obstacle – what goes wrong or impedes progress?
5. Overcome the Obstacle – how was the problem dealt with?
6. Resolve the Story – how did things work out in the end?
7. Make the Point – what is the one thing above all else that you learned?
8. Ask the Question – transfer the lesson to the listener, “how about you?”
9. Restate the Point – restate the lesson of the story as a call to action

Each Story Makes One Point Each Time You Tell It

Just about every story you come up with has the potential to make a number of points or teach a variety of lessons. Pick one and only one. Keep it simple. The more points you add at the end of your story, the less powerful each one becomes.

Make the point of your story a call to action. I call it a “Phrase That Pays.” Start with a verb. Here are some examples of verb oriented, call-to-action phrases:

• Make your move
• Take it one step at a time
• Run your own race
• Start yesterday
• Ask for what you want
• Stand in your power
• Get to the starting line
• Look for the Limo

Whether you’re telling a story to one person, ten or ten thousand; on the phone or in-person; in the office or on the main stage, it’s all about the fit. Make your story relevant.

For many years I had a few brilliantly-crafted stories that I told all the time. I told them because they were great stories and audiences liked them. After a while, I started to get so dependent on those stories that I was sticking them into keynotes where they didn’t belong. I recall one time, I told one of my stock stories in a leadership keynote, and immediately realized that it was the wrong story for the audience and their current situation.  It just wasn’t the right fit.

You may have some wonderful stories that people love. Before you decide to use them in your next program, ask yourself if they are the perfect fit for that occasion. If you realize that the audience needs something different than what is already in your story toolkit, develop another story just for them.

Remember, it’s all about the fit.

Here are some links to articles that will assist you in finding and crafting the right story that is relevant to the points and lessons you want to share with your audience.

How to Find Your Stories:

https://www.storytelling-in-business.com/find-your-stories-five-quick-tricks/

The Nine Steps of Story Structure:

https://www.storytelling-in-business.com/the-nine-step-of-story-structure-updated-for-2011/

The Phrase That Pays

https://www.storytelling-in-business.com/page/2/?s=phrase+That+pays&submit=Search

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Doug Stevenson, CSP, works with individuals and organizations to help them identify and tell inspiring stories that make a point, teach a lesson or sell a product or service. He is the president of Story Theater International, a Tucson, Arizona based consultancy. He is the creator of The Story Theater Method and the author of the book, Doug Stevenson’s Story Theater Method and the Next Level Video eLearning Series.

His has delivered keynote speeches, workshops and training courses on storytelling and story selling for clients in 18 countries from Singapore to San Diego, Copenhagen to Chicago and Bogota to Boston. His clients include Aetna, Abbott Labs, Amgen, Caterpillar, Coca Cola, Con Agra Foods, Deloitte, Google, Genentech, Hewlett Packard, Lockheed Martin, Microsoft, Novartis, Oracle, Pfizer, US Bank, Wells Fargo, Volkswagen, Verizon, The Nickelodeon Channel, The Department of Defense, The National Education Association and many more.

To inquire about Doug’s availability for your next meeting, conference or convention, email: deborah@dougstevenson.com

Doug can be reached at 1-719-310-8586. Learn more about how Doug can help you tell your story, purchase the book, eBook or Story Theater audio six pack, and sign-up for the free Story Theater newsletter at: www.storytelling-in-business.com.

©2019 All Rights Reserved

When you go shopping at a shopping center or mall, there are a couple of large brand name stores that are called Anchors. These stores are strategically positioned at prime locations in the mall or shopping center. Positioned between these anchors are the smaller stores and restaurants. The anchor stores spend the most on advertising and attract the crowds.

From early on in my speaking career, I designed my speeches around two very popular anchor stories. One was my Streaking Story about going streaking as part of a acting class / theater exercise and getting arrested naked. The other was my Airport Story about deciding to travel to an after-dinner keynote speech on the same day as the speech, and almost being late to deliver my keynote. These were the anchor stories of my speeches.

Story Strategy One: Using Anchor Stories

The process of designing a presentation around one or two anchor stories is a story strategy.  Rather than starting by building PowerPoint slides with bullet lists, charts and graphs – you start by choosing the stories that create context for your content.

In his book, Start with Why, Simon Sinek suggests that we “start with why and follow with what and how.” Stories answer the WHY question better than most any other form of communication, and they create context. Without context, content is often hard to process.

After you choose your anchor stories, fill in the rest of your presentation with ideas and information customized to the event where you’re speaking. That may include other stories, processes, quotes, ideas, activities and lessons. My approach to every program I’ve delivered in the last 24 years has been to start by choosing my anchor stories. I do it because it works. It works to keep my audience engaged and it works because they remember the stories.

To use the story strategy of anchor stories, you must first acknowledge what the research into adult learning has been revealing for over 20 years: facts fade, data gets dumped, but stories stick. People not only process new information more easily when it is presented in story form, but also their retention and comprehension is enhanced. They recall more information and with greater accuracy that when information is presented only in a logical, fact-based manner.

In other words, start with a story, follow with facts and data.

Story Strategy Two: Start with the End in Mind

How do you find the stories that best say what you want to say?  Although not all the key points of your presentation have to be conveyed by a story, it is essential to include at least one or two stories to keep your presentation engaging and stimulate the imagination of your listeners.  Stories captivate attention and create imagery and emotion.

To find the right stories for the right points, answer the following questions when designing your presentation:

• What is the one idea or concept I want people to remember?
• What is the lesson or point I want them to understand?
• When and where did I learn that lesson or point?
• Should I use a personal story as a metaphor to teach that lesson?
• Should I use a business story to illustrate that lesson?
• How do I want them to feel at the end of my presentation?

In order to design a presentation that achieves your goals, you have to know what the end result looks and feels like. Don’t just throw everything and the kitchen sink into your presentation. The more information you include, the less they remember. Most people include two or three times more content into a presentation than is realistic to cover in the allotted time they have been given. Too much content means you rush through it, which is counterproductive and boring. Not to mention way more content than their listeners can digest and remember!

If your intention is to make your message stick – tell a story. If you need to be memorable and make a positive impression – tell a story. If it’s critical that you inspire people to think in a different way or to change their behavior – tell a story.

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Doug Stevenson, CSP, is a storytelling-in-business keynote speaker, trainer and speaking coach. He collaborates with salespeople, leaders, professional speakers, trainers and fundraisers to help them make a point, teach a lesson or sell a product or service. He has delivered storytelling keynotes and training in 18 countries and has coached thousands of business professionals who need to improve their storytelling skills to advance to the next level.

Doug is the author of Doug Stevenson’s Story Theater Method, and the How to Write and Deliver a Dynamite Speech System.  Some of his clients include Microsoft, Oracle, Google, Cisco, Deloitte, SAP, Aetna, Amgen, Bristol Myers-Squibb, Genentech, Pfizer, Novartis, Wells Fargo, US Bank, Medstar Hospitals, NBC, Verizon, Red Bull, Lockheed Martin, Coca Cola, Caterpillar, The American Medical Association and hundreds more.

Contact Doug at deborah@dougstevenson.com

or call 1-719-310-8586.

The most powerful vehicle you have to inspire people is a great story. Here are some tips and techniques to help you be more persuasive and inspirational in your next big presentation.

Mistakes, Failures and Small Disasters

Finding stories to tell that are relevant and engaging is simple. Stories revolve around moments: big moments, small moments, and meaningful moments. I call these “meaningful moments” M&M’s.

Garrison Keillor, the host of A Prairie Home Companion on NPR radio, says that “your best stories are about mistakes, failures and small disasters”. In the context of my Nine Steps of Story Structure, I call these “obstacles”. They can be big obstacles, like a life-threatening illness or a tragic event; or small obstacles, like a misunderstanding or getting stuck for two hours in traffic on the way to an important meeting.

Think about your life over the last six months. Did any challenges or obstacles cross your path? Were there things that didn’t go according to plan: big things, little things, important things? Now go farther back. Go on a story safari and recall those moments that were difficult at the time, but in retrospect, they taught you valuable life lessons.

The mistake, failure or small disaster is the obstacle that gives your story tension and infuses it with emotion. Think of “the moment” that you encounter the obstacle as the pivot point of your story. This moment causes you to make choices about what to do next. I call this “The Iceberg Moment.” In the story of the Titanic, everything was going along fine, until the ship encountered the iceberg. If there hadn’t been an iceberg, we wouldn’t have a story worth telling – it would be a boring story about a big cruise ship that got where it intended to go.

The Event Doesn’t Have to Be Tragic

Iceberg aside, the moments that make for a great story don’t have to be profound or dramatic. Most of the stories my coaching clients bring to me to help them with are about everyday events and situations. They’re about things that go sideways at home, at work and everywhere in between.

The power of story lies not in the event, but in finding the meaning in the moment. Often, the story and the lesson-learned turn out to be metaphors. You don’t have to have an interaction between a leader and an employee to have a story about good leadership. The story could be about hiking, traveling, or coaching a little league team, as long as the lesson learned from overcoming the obstacle or crisis is relevant to the business at hand.

Here are a few examples of lessons from stories that are metaphors:

• “Get back on the bike,” is a metaphor for picking yourself up after a product launch doesn’t go as planned.
• “Run your own race,” is a metaphor for being authentic to who you are rather than trying to be someone else.
• “Take the stairs,” is a metaphor for not taking the easy path.

Find the Meaning in the Moment

Just last week I went into a store to purchase something. As I was standing in line at checkout, the person in front of me paid for his purchase and left the store. As I was checking out and paying for my purchase, the man came back into the store, walked up to the clerk and said, “You gave me too much change,” and handed him a dollar bill.

The clerk who had made the mistake was dumbfounded. The guy standing behind me said, “At least someone is still honest.”

It was a nice moment. What meaning can you find in this moment? How could you use that story in a business presentation? What lesson can be learned? What could the metaphor “Bring back the dollar bill” signify in your business environment?

Look for Turning Point Moments

I can vividly remember a moment in my life, from over 30 years ago. I was in rehearsal for a Shakespeare play, All’s Well That Ends Well. I was 33 years old and had been acting for 14 years at that point and had yet to make much headway in Hollywood. I was a typical young struggling actor. No one in the cast was being paid in this production.

As I looked across the stage, my eyes settled on a couple of men in their late 50’s who had small roles as dukes and magistrates. In that moment, I made the decision never to be a 50-year-old actor working for free.

That was a turning point moment in my life. From that moment forward, my life took on a new direction. A year later, I left Hollywood, relocated to Colorado Springs, and became a realtor. During 11 years in real estate, I became successful, bought my first house, met my future wife, and discovered the profession of speaking.

All’s Well That Ends Well, indeed!

Turning point moments happen to you and me all the time. What really counts, though, is more than the moment itself – it’s your ability to find the meaning in the moment. Stories are teaching tools. When told with elegance and craft, they bring meaning to life. They help people see new possibilities and alternative choices.

Stories have the ability to make sense of the seemingly random obstacles, pernicious pitfalls and happy coincidences that insert themselves into our daily lives. They teach us how to live.

All Stories Are About Change

In the end, all stories are about change of some sort: change that is forced upon us by outer circumstances, like car accidents, health challenges and hurricanes; or change that takes place within us, such as the decisions we make about how we want to live our lives.

Our lives pivot one way or the other at moments of change and choice. If you want to serve the needs of your audience, employees and stakeholders, you simply have to find the meaning in these moments.

Consider the moments of change and choice you have faced over the course of your life and career. Were they challenging, painful or just plain frustrating? Regardless of how big or small the moments are, your job is to find the meaning in the moment, and share that story.

Find a New Perspective

My role, as a storytelling speaker, trainer and coach, is to help leaders become the wise men and women their employees expect them to be. I help them become the Yoda in their organization who challenges people to consider a new perspective in a compelling way. Together we identify and craft relevant stories that can change hearts and minds.

When I’m hired to give a keynote at a conference or meeting, I’m often preceded by a high-level executive. As I watch a CEO clicking through dense PowerPoint slides filled with bullet points, charts and graphs, I often turn my attention to the audience. I’m watching to see if they’re engaged or bored.

Far too often, the CEO has lost their audience. They’ve failed at the most important job of a leader – inspiration. If you know you can be more engaging and inspiring, let’s talk.

Stories are Metaphors
My stories serve as metaphors for a problem or challenge that the organization as a whole, or the individuals in my audience, might be dealing with.

The stories that work best are what I call “hybrid stories”. They start out as personal stories that take place in a non-business setting, and then they transition into a business application. You can think of it as part one and part two of a story.

Part One
The first part of the story is a personal story that I’ve chosen because of the lesson that it illustrates. The second part of the story is the application of the lesson to the business client’s day to day activities.

For example: a story I use in many of my presentations is the Pill in the Peanut Butter story. It’s a story about having to give my dog, Jaya, a pill because she was sick. Since I’d never done this before, I did what the veterinarian told me to do. I opened her jaw with both hands and then placed the pill as far down in the back of her throat as possible. Then I clamped her jaw shut and waited for her to swallow.

The theory was that she would swallow the pill. The reality was that she just kept staring at me with those big brown eyes, obviously not understanding what she was supposed to do. After about sixty seconds, I figured she must have swallowed the pill, but when I released my hold on her jaw, she coughed up the pill.

I went through three pills that way before I gave up and called my friend John. John had lots of experience with dogs. He told me to get some peanut butter and put a glob of it in my hand. Then he told me to hide the pill in the peanut butter and when she ate the peanut butter, she’d swallow the pill. Which she did. Voila…success.

That’s the end of part one of the story.
The lesson: Hide the Pill in the Peanut Butter.

Part two begins by relating the metaphor of the pill to the “hard to swallow” facts, data and details that make a presentation dull, boring and complex. I take a few minutes to talk about the “pill” in the specific context of that client or audience. Having made that connection, I relate the look of confusion on Jaya’s face to the glassy-eyed look on someone’s face when they’re on the receiving end of a data dump.

Part two continues as I equate the “peanut butter” to the use of a story instead of bullet points, data and details. Like peanut butter, information contained inside a well-told story sticks. The metaphor continues by equating storytelling to information that sticks.

At this point, I like to paint an imaginary story scenario of someone in my audience making a typical presentation filled with good information and data, but without story. Then I share some of the same data and information at the proper place in a story. I show how you hide the pill in the peanut butter.

You must connect part one and part two for your story to work.

In the end, it’s not about the information you share in a presentation, it’s all about what they remember. If you’re not memorable, you lose and they lose. You lose because you failed to engage and connect on an emotional level. You become forgettable. They lose because they don’t remember the point or lesson long enough to change their behavior and achieve better results from your ideas.

In order to make a personal story relevant, you have to understand your audience and what keeps them awake at night. You have to do your research by interviewing people who will be in your audience and letting them tell you their stories. I like to interview at least three people and ask them to tell me the story of a day in their life. This pre-program research helps me connect part one and part two of the hybrid story.

Take the time to make sure you connect the dots between whatever story you intend to use in a presentation and the challenges your audience, employees or sales prospects are facing.

Data gets dumped unless it’s hidden inside a story. Next time you make a presentation, hide the pill in the peanut butter.

Click this link to watch a video of me performing my Pill in the Peanut Butter Story.

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Doug Stevenson, CSP, works with individuals and organizations to help them identify and tell inspiring stories that make a point, teach a lesson or sell a product or service. He is the president of Story Theater International, a Tucson, Arizona based consultancy. He is the creator of The Story Theater Method and the author of the book, Doug Stevenson’s Story Theater Method and the Next Level Video eLearning Series.

His has delivered keynote speeches, workshops and training courses on storytelling and story selling for clients in 18 countries. Some of his clients include: Aetna, Abbott Labs, Amgen, Caterpillar, Con Agra Foods, Deloitte, Google, Genentech, Hewlett Packard, Lockheed Martin, Microsoft, NBC, Novartis, Oracle, Pfizer, Volkswagen, Verizon, The Project Management Institute, The Department of Defense, The National Education Association and hundreds more.

To inquire about Doug’s availability email: deborah@dougstevenson.com

Doug can be reached at 1-719-310-8586. Learn more about how Doug can help you tell your story, purchase the book, eBook or Story Theater audio six pack, and sign-up for the free Story Theater newsletter at: www.storytelling-in-business.com.

When I watched Jill’s talk, I was blown away. Jill Bolte Taylor is a brain scientist – a neuroanatomist – not a professional speaker. Her TED talk was about experiencing a massive stroke at 37, and how she observed the effects of the stroke, from a brain scientists’ perspective, while she was having the stroke.

Jill’s TED talk was absolutely fascinating, and it quickly went viral. Wikipedia says it was the first TED talk that ever went viral.  It became the second most viewed TED talk at that time, and still ranks today as number 7 “of all time”. Due to the success of her TED talk, Jill’s book sales skyrocketed, she hit the road speaking for huge fees, and was even a guest on Oprah’s show.

What happened to Jill Bolte Taylor is the stuff dreams are made of. Her TED talk changed her life. It’s the kind of thing professional speakers fantasize about: a NY Times bestselling book; higher speaking fees; going on Oprah. Who doesn’t want all that, right?

Over the next few years, the idea of giving a TED talk kept coming up in conversations with other speakers. I’d get emails from people urging me to watch their TED talks to increase the number of views. I applied to give a talk at my local TEDx, on my subject of storytelling, but was never chosen.

I decided to go to a TEDx event in Denver to see what it was all about. I knew there was something I wasn’t understanding about TED talks, because I kept seeing that people who weren’t professional speakers kept getting chosen. And some of the subjects that they were talking about seemed obscure and technical.

As the lights went down on this wonderful auditorium on the University of Denver, I was ready to be blown away. After eight speakers had spoken, I was appalled. They were all terrible. It seemed that they had no idea what they were doing and had very remedial speaking skills.

I was confused and angry. TED talks had become a big deal. Many TED speakers had become celebrities and yet, the speakers I had watched in Denver were terrible. I didn’t get it. Why would these ordinary people be chosen?  And, I had to ask: Why wasn’t I chosen?

In 2014, I moved to Tucson and got connected with TEDx Tucson. I volunteered to be their speaker coach. I also wanted to learn, from the inside of a TEDx community, what was going on. And, most importantly, I wanted to help the speakers give the best speech of their lives.

What I discovered was very surprising and eye-opening. TED has bylaws and guiding principles that govern how TEDx speakers are chosen and how events are to be produced. One of the most surprising guidelines is that TED is specifically NOT a showcase for professional speakers or coaches. TED does not want their speakers to be promoting their businesses as speakers, life coaches, business coaches, etc. 

TED and TEDx is all about your Idea Worth Spreading. That’s the main criteria. Now I understood why the speakers in Denver were so bad. They had a worthy Idea Worth Spreading, but they just didn’t know how to tell it in a compelling way.

Having used what I’d learned about what it takes to be chosen for a TED talk, and how local TEDx groups work, I submitted a topic and was chosen to speak at the TEDx San Antonio event this past November 3^rd. I was given a ten-minute time slot, as were the other 9 speakers. Five hundred people showed up to be part of this community event. It was awesome. I can’t wait to tell you more about it.

I’m pleased to tell you that all the speakers at TEDx San Antonio were excellent.  Each of us were assigned a coach and received extensive coaching before the event.  I believe it is the coaching that made all the difference.

Are you interested in giving a TED talk? Do you have an Idea Worth Spreading?

Jill Bolte Taylor not only got rich from her TED talk, but she also positively affected the lives of millions of people. I think she gets paid in the vicinity of $40,000 per speech. If you gave a successful TED talk, what would that be worth? If your TED video got a couple hundred thousand views, what would that do for you and your business? How could you leverage that?

Because there is so much confusion about TED and TEDx and how it all works, I’ve decided to host a webinar in February 2019, titled: 10 Things You Need to Know to Give a TED Talk. This webinar will happen at two times, to accommodate people all over the world.  It will not be recorded for later viewing.

Here’s what you’ll learn in the 10 Things You Need to Know to Give a TED Talk Live Webinar:

• The difference between TED and TEDx
• What it takes to be chosen for a TED or TEDx event
• How to audition locally, or virtually
• Five common mistakes that will keep you from being chosen

If you are reading this article later than February 2019, contact our office for information about TED coaching and future webinars on this topic. 

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Doug Stevenson, CSP, has been giving keynotes and providing training courses on strategic storytelling for over 20 years. His clients include Microsoft, Google, Oracle, SAP, Caterpillar, Pfizer, Genentech, Mead Johnson, Sanofi-Aventis, Wells Fargo, US Bank, State Farm, USAA, Blue Cross/Blue Shield, Verizon, Coca Cola, Nurses At Home, NBC, Red Bull, Lockheed Martin, and many more. Whether Doug is presenting an entertaining and informative keynote or conducting a one-day storytelling seminar, his presentations are high-energy, highly-interactive, and fun-filled experiences.