The storyworthy Learning Zone

The best available resources to improve your storytelling skills.

Effective communication often requires you to do what others are not newsletters stories storytelling tips

I had just settled into my seat, preparing for the second leg of my flight from Hartford to Victoria, British Columbia, when the pilot emerged from the cockpit and introduced himself to us. He told...

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13 Rules for an Effective (and Perhaps Even Inspiring) Commencement Address storytelling tips

I have been listening to many commencement addresses over the past two weeks, and I've been a listener of commencement addresses for a long time.

NPR's The Best Commencement Speeches, Ever, with...

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A profoundly unpleasant person storytelling for business storytelling tips

This is a long one, but it’s also an important one, so please bear with me.

Someone recently described me online as "a profoundly unpleasant person.”

He wrote:

“I friended him on...

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Creating Momentum storytelling for business storytelling tips

I competed at a Moth StorySLAM in Boston earlier this week.

Finished in second place. Lost by a tenth of a point to the storyteller who went last.

So annoying.

Sadly, I remember the second-place...

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Preparation for a storytelling or public speaking performance storytelling for business storytelling tips

Here's a bit of lunacy:

I was working with a storyteller who will be performing onstage next month. She's nervous. The audience will be sizable, and she's never performed in a setting like this...

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Building Suspense in Your Story storytelling for business storytelling tips

A storyteller recently asked me for a specific strategy to build suspense in a story.

My answer (and thus my definition of suspense) was simple:

Don’t say everything. Say some of the thing...

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Download: Five Lessons Learned from Delivering 10 TEDxTalks free downloads storytelling for business storytelling tips tedx talks

The best strategies for delivering a talk from the stage. I also include lessons I have used to help others craft, prepare, rehearse, and deliver their talks. These lessons will empower you to...

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Oftentimes, your biggest stories are not your best stories storytelling for business storytelling tips

Back in the spring of 2016, five years into my storytelling career, I won a Moth GrandSLAM championship in Somerville, MA.

I told the story of my decision to confess to a crime I did not commit...

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Storytelling Is For Everyone storytelling for business storytelling tips

I often say that everyone should learn to tell a better story for lots and lots of reasons.

My TEDx Talk - What Is a Story? ( Watch it here) - offers five of those reasons.

Storytelling can enrich...

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Direct but funny is the perfect combination storytelling for business storytelling tips

I spotted this sign at the wedding of my former student, sitting atop the bar.

I love it so much.

Designed by the same couple who advised guests to respond to their wedding invitation by a certain...

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My three greatest acts of storytelling cruelty stories storytelling tips

I like to think that I have been a supportive and positive force on the thousands of storytellers who I have performed alongside over the years, but I've also had moments when my judgment and...

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