Joe Dager of Business 901 and I begin by talking about the similarities between storytelling and art in this podcast.
I promise to send out a new Story Factor Podcast soon. I’ve been writing and editing the second edition of Whoever Tells the Best Story Wins and there is so much I want to add! [Read more…]
Lea Thau was creative director of TheMoth.org for a decade (2001-2010), developing the format and process that has become one of the most popular storytelling organizations in the world. From the beginning, Lea favored the idea of sticking to true stories told in the first person – a critical decision that created what we know as “the Moth format.” If you haven’t subscribed to the Moth podcast do it now. You will become a better storyteller simply by listening to the craft, detail and structure embedded in these wonderful stories.
Lea now has her own show called Strangers on KCRW – a podcast I also highly recommend. [Read more…]
Jane Praeger’s thirteen years of documentary filmmaking helps her coach executives and improve their presentations. She says,
“I realized I could bring all I learned about narrative, theme, characters…to the business world… where it was missing.”
Initially Jane delivered media training. One day a client complained, “Everyone falls asleep when I speak.” He sent Jane a video but “he didn’t seem too bad.” Only after she read his speech did she understand the problem.
Rather than go into media training mode and film him speaking she spent the entire session helping this man rework his content, his thesis, and his point of view. Most importantly they added stories and made it suspenseful. She said they never got around to using the camera but told him “go try this out and call me in three weeks and we will do some camera work.” After he didn’t call she checked in. He told her “I don’t need media training anymore! Everyone is awake and I even get applause now!” Media training was targets delivery and performance but most of the time it is a content problem.
The best part for me is how Jane explains using suspense and surprise makes stories exciting. Here is a clip from the end of one of Jane’s documentaries. Heart stopping, suspenseful, and packs a punch. Have a look:
Feed link: http://ia801002.us.archive.org/26/items/StoryFactorPodcast008/StoryFactorPodcast008.mp3
The closest thing to mind control is asking a good question. As in the old example:
This podcast includes a fantastic short clip from my first interview with Karen Dietz. I tell a story so she can demonstrate the questions she uses to encourage “reflection and flow.” It is less than ten minutes long. [Read more…]
I recently posted that Coke shifted half their marketing content research budget from qualitative research to iterations.
One of my friends responded: “So?”
Okay, fine. I went all geeky. I will try to redeem myself with an example of how that works. [Read more…]