A venture capitalist named Josh recently told a long but interesting story of Francis Bates (read more on page 1014 of this PDF download), who invented the flags that come on mailboxes to indicate that there’s mail in the box. The story is an analogy for a company that Josh’s … Continue reading
Author Archives: KatHansen
Real Women’s Stories of Success and Inspiration
The Forté Foundation is a consortium of major corporations and top business schools that has become a powerful change agent in educating and directing talented women toward leadership roles in business. Forte’s mission is to substantially increase the number of women business leaders by increasing the flow of women into … Continue reading
Last Road-Trip Wordle
Winding up a cross-country road trip. Here’s this week’s Wordle.
Storytelling Weekend Resources
I’ve written several times about the wonderful Washington, DC/Smithsonian/Golden Fleece weekend, which I seem to attend in odd-numbered years. Here’s a link to resources from the 2008 weekend. Links for 2006 are also available; wouldn’t you know that there aren’t any for 2007, the year I presented at Golden Fleece.
Pitch Wizard Helps You Write Quick Elevator Pitch
Here’s kind of a nifty tool if you’d like the beginnings of a “pitch” to sell yourself to employers or clients. In my book, Tell Me About Yourself, I argue that the best elevator pitches are supported by a story. Still, the Pitch Wizard at 15-Second Pitch provides an easy … Continue reading
Coming Tardily to the Scientific American Storytelling Article
While the goal of bloggers is often to virally spread breaking news, I find myself resisting blogging about the most current happenings in the storytelling world because, for better or worse, I dislike blogging about what everyone else is blogging about (such as the YouTube videos of Ira Glass on … Continue reading
Q&A with a Story Guru: John Caddell
I’m so happy to present the eighth installment in this series of interviews with some of the gurus of both performance and applied storytelling. This interview is with John Caddell, who founded the Ning social networking group The Mistake Bank, “a place to share stories of mistakes people have made … Continue reading
Storytelling to Warn Against Pandemic Complacency
Storytelling is a natural in heath and healing, as I’ve blogged about previously. Narrative medicine is also a growing field. The Centers for Disease Control (CDC) is trying to prevent the complacency that CDC Director Dr. Julie Gerberding calls “enemy number one when it comes to preparing for another influenza … Continue reading
Use Stories to Win an Audience’s Trust
Terrence Gargiulo advises telling a “Who Am I” story when speaking to an audience to build trust and make your motives clear. As Gargiulo says, “A simple and clear story enables the audience [members] to build their own picture of what’s driving the presenter’s actions.” The same approach works in … Continue reading
More Awesome Downloads from Generous Story Gurus
Here are some more free downloads I’ve come across from the always-willing-to-share story world: Terrence Gargiulo offers Six “Story Energizers” Activities You Can use With Any Group. (Terrence has another one of his terrific free webinars coming up on Oct. 15; see Story Events section.) Another download offering from Terrence … Continue reading