See a photo of Stewart, his bio, and Part 1 of this Q&A.

Q&A with Stewart Marshall, Question 2:

Q: How did you initially become involved with story/storytelling/narrative? What attracted you to this field? What do you love about it?

A: My background is as a Designated Management Accountant working in industry. Over the years I’ve sat through countless business presentations from all levels of management. The vast majority of these have been terrible! Typically, there are too many slides with too many words which the presenter reads to his/her audience, half of which are busy reading their email on their Blackberrys whilst pretending to listen. If the presentations include numbers they are usually far less engaging!

I looked at my own presentations, what I was reading and what I was starting to learn at Toastmasters. I realised how powerful a good story could be and how much I enjoyed using it. What’s more when I looked at my career I realised that a lot of what I’d been doing all these years was storytelling. I also realised some of my heroes were great storytellers. From Winston Churchill “We’ll fight them on the beaches …” to Sir Alistair Cooke (Letter from America) and more recently Stuart McLean (Vinyl Cafe). The more I read, be it Joseph Campbell, Annette Simmons, Robert McKee or Steve Denning the more storytelling resonated with me.

What I love about using storytelling is the emotional connection I can create with my audience. I love the fact that if I am successful they are sitting there making up their own personalised versions of my story in their heads. When numbers are involved I love being able to demystify the data and enable more people to understand and benefit from the stories within.

Some influential references:

• Winston Churchill’s famous speech
• The Toastmasters District I belong to
• Alistair Cooke’s home on the BBC.
• Stuart McLean’s home on the CBC
• Information about Joseph Campbell
• Annette Simmons’ website
• Robert McKee’s “Story” website
• Steve Denning’s website