Update: I’m a little rusty about posting to this blog after my 5-month hiatus and forget that when I embed things like slideshows and videos, email subscribers can’t see them. In addition, yesterday, I found something else inexplicably running in the space where the slideshow should be. Bottom line: It’s … Continue reading
Category Archives: Storytelling and Presentations
11 Tips for (Humorously) Storying Presentations: Margot Leitman #story12
Margot Leitman, Grand Slam winner at The Moth — see her winning performance above — got started in oral-pertormance storytelling because she was bored with standup comedy, she said in her session at Reinvention Summit 2. She started by just telling one story, but discovered the reception to her work … Continue reading
Competition, Community, Generosity … and their Relationship with Storytelling
In a thoughtful and thought-provoking blog post, Storytelling: Community through… Competition?, Katie Knutson talks about how, even in competitive settings, storytellers generate a strong sense of community. Knutson recalls that despite the “fiercely competitive” storytelling category in her high-school forensics contests, a sense of community persisted in that category as … Continue reading
Story Gets an Analysis and a Critique: Two Presentations
Two TED Talks came to my attention in the last couple of days — one that embodies an affecting story (as many TED Talks do) and another that casts a critical and suspicious eye on stories themselves. I often see storied presentations, and I often see written pieces on integrating … Continue reading
Story of a Competent Communicator (Who, Me?)
Well, I did it. I got through the 10 Toastmasters speeches that comprise the organization’s initial manual. That qualifies me as a “Competent Communicator.” It’s the point at which I initially envisioned that I might end my Toastmasters experience. Apparently a large percentage of members do quit after reaching that … Continue reading
Public-Speaking Horror Stories Are Necessary
So there I was, cruising along toward the first major Toastmasters benchmark of 10 speeches. I gave my ninth speech this week. In every speaker’s career comes a speech, or perhaps more than one, that he or she beats himself or herself up over. In his blog, Manner of Speaking, … Continue reading