Tag Archives: leadership

How to Tell Better Stories

The difference between a $100 public speaker and a $1000 speaker, is $1000 stories. If you want to be a more powerful public speaker and command higher fees, you need to tell better stories. With this in mind, I spent last weekend at a 2-Day Storytelling Bootcamp run by Craig Valentine and Darren LaCroix here in Sydney, Australia.

Craig and Darren are past World Champions of Public Speaking, and this was Craig's first visit to Australia. His specialty is Storytelling, so I really wanted to go along and learn from one of the best in the world. Craig has a great storytelling system where each story incorporates these elements:

  • Curiosity.
  • Characters.
  • Escalating Conflict.
  • A Cure, usually provided by a Guru.
  • A Change in the emotion or attitude of one or more of the main characters.
  • Conversations, depicted with dialogue rather than narration.
  • A Carry-out message called a foundational phrase:
  • Continue reading…

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Communication, Public Speaking, and Leadership Skills Development at Toastmasters

I've concluded that our ability to communicate authentically with other people is the most important life skill that we can possess. We often spend a great deal of our education learning how to analyse, think, solve problems, and understand how things work; but tend to downplay the importance of subjects that teach us how to communicate. The ability to communicate, inspire and influence other people is also a key leadership skill. Whether in business, relationships, or just in our personal lives, our ability to communicate our thoughts, feelings and ideas to other people is absolutely crucial to our success... and ultimately our happiness.

ToastmastersLogo 300x266 Communication, Public Speaking, and Leadership Skills Development at ToastmastersFor the past couple of years, I've been improving my communication and leadership skills as a member of Chatswood Communicators Toastmasters club.  I have to admit that I wasn't really thinking of becoming a world-class communicator when I first came across Toastmasters. In fact, I was … Continue reading…

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