Be a Storyteller, Not Just a Speaker

by Sandra Schrift

Published on this site: April 7th, 2005 - See more articles from this month...

Stories develop themes. The themes chosen to illustrate the possibility of stories are:

Relationships, Choice, Creativity, Making a Difference, Celebration.

Speakers are ordinarily people, from teachers to grandparents, from mountain climbers to cancer survivors. The platform provides them with a privilege and awesome responsibility to share their stories in a way that helps the audience to "wake up." Good stories make people say, "Wait a minute. I can think or act differently about everything than I did before." Stories are everywhere.Speakers learn to retrieve them and retell them to audiences as a way to show their humanness to show they care; to open people to possibility thinking and how making mistakes will lead to the courage to finally help them succeed. Because most of us delineate our thoughts visually, great stories help to enhance and even transform our lives.

Be unique. Think funny thoughts. Live and re-live your story when you are telling a story. Words are critical so be sure to pause when necessary and BE IN THE NOW. Your words need to create an image in the audience's mind so that they can remember your story. They may be a step away from their own story. This will strengthen the connection between you and them.

It's a good idea to use props to enhance your humor. Remember most people have an attention span of six to eight minutes.

The Coach asks. what is your story?

Are you ready to take your business to the next level? Get more clients and consistent monthly income? Judy Cullins, book coach, and Sandra Schrift, speaker coach, invite you to join a "Business Marketing Achievers" small group coaching beginning May 25th. We are looking for 12 committed people who are ready to use speaking and writing to catapult their business. For more details, contact Sandra at 1-800-340-3683 between 9-6pm pst. Hurry! This group will fill quickly. For details and to register go to: http://www.schrift.com/group_coaching.htm

Sandra Schrift 13 year speaker bureau owner and now career coach to emerging and veteran public speakers who want to "grow" a profitable speaking business. I also work with business professionals and organizations who want to master their presentations.Get more speaking skills at our "Summer Sizzle" webpage: http://www.schrift.com/summer_sizzle.htm Join my free bi-weekly Monday Morning Mindfulness ezine http://www.schrift.com/monday.htm