Annette Simmons

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Episode #9 – Jane Praeger: The Role of Personal Stories at Work

Episode 009 Personal Storytelling in Business

jane-praegerJane thinks there is definately a role for personal storytelling in business. The best application is when you can turn a case study into a case story by making it more personal…making it about the people. She teaches this with a NASA case story that you can request by contacting Jane on her website www.ovicinc.com.

Listen as she describes a Jetta car commercial as an example of the element of surprise in good storytelling technique.

websitepodcastgfxJane says the biggest obstacle convincing business people that stories work is the idea that taking the risk of sharing a piece of yourself will pay off instead of making you regret being vulnerable. The goal is to get comfortable with sharing something you might not be comfortable sharing. Revealing imperfection is a fast track to trust. No one is perfect so it isn’t as big of a risk as you might first assume.

We discuss various ways to pull a story out of others and ways to handle stage fright.

Jane says the best part about teaching business people how to use stories is when someone goes from “paper to people” and starts telling their stories without notes. She loves it when a client realized that not only is storytelling better, but it is easier as well.

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Feed link: http://archive.org/download/StoryfactorPodcast009/StoryfactorPodcast009.mp3

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Episode #8 – Jane Praeger: Story and Suspense for Business Presentations

Using Personal Stories and Adding Suspense to your Storytelling

jane-praegerJane 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.

The content of his speech was painfully boring. He didn’t need presentation skills – he needed better content!

websitepodcastgfxRather 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:

  • MP3 Download or play this
    episode directly.
  • iTunes Subscribe to The Story Factor Podcast directly in iTunes.
  • RSS Add the podcast to your RSS reader, podcast player or
    manually into iTunes.

Feed link: http://ia801002.us.archive.org/26/items/StoryFactorPodcast008/StoryFactorPodcast008.mp3