Monday, March 25, 2013

Master Storyteller

When you become a master storyteller, your assets will grow exponentially. You will be more popular. You will be invited to more events. You will make more money than at any time in your life. Larry King is a name we will all remember for many years to come. Larry is a better public speaker than he is a talk show host and he is a damn good talk show host. Larry’s style is simple. He spins yarns. He tells stories. One of his best is the Moppo story which I am not going to repeat here. Google it and you will see what I mean. It is true that most of us fear public speaking. Why? From what I can figure from my years in the classroom is that most feel public speaking comes with great memorization. Guess what? They are wrong. Most speakers use memorization, index cards and power point presentations and they are as boring as watching paint dry. What can they do to change it overnight? Start telling stories. Take a look at my story GIFT TO MY DAD (Amazon) for reference. I had a dad who was often overbearing and abrasive. I had a 50 year relationship with a man who had great difficulty understanding what was necessary to become a parent. Born in 1911 as the first American born to Russian parents who had come to America in 1903, my dad had more problems figuring out his purpose in life than focus on what his kids needed. I was the victim for many years of that acerbic tongue. In GIFT TO MY DAD, one scene sums it all up. I was a very fast runner, as my dad had been in his youth. I was most likely all arms and legs and might have looked more like Remco’s Mr. Machine than Bruce Jenner. And dad wanted me to know how ridiculous it looked to him. Did you ever see yourself run? I thought about that question over the years. It was classic dad. It dripped with sarcasm. What he was telling me was that my running looked dumb and the fact that I was fast meant nothing to him because I looked like a fool in the process. I hated my dad for that comment. I didn’t fully forgive him until after he died in 2000. And when I tell a story about my dad to audiences around the country focusing on my motivation, I never leave a dry eye in the house. Compare that with a power point presentation. You just can’t. Do you want to make your audience laugh, cry and think? Tell stories.

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