We are now experimenting with voice blogging rather than the standard written text. Have a listen and get in touch if you want to learn more. Thanks!
The New 2019 Definition of Content
Content as a word, a concept, a product … is something we are all familiar with. And today, every company is in the content business. Stacks of content that is being used to communicate something: internally to colleagues, externally to customers, clients, partners and investors. Content fatigue has set in, however (a problem I see […]
Scenes: The Energy Source of the Business Story
Recently a client a came to me with one question: Why aren’t we getting better results from the content we have spent months developing? As this is a question I frequently get, the next step was to request a meeting so that I could analyze what they had. The content they showed me (mostly PowerPoint […]
SpeakingEnergy Scene Thinking™. Transforming storytelling and problem-solving
After years of working closely with clients in the finance, banking, asset management, technology, real estate, insurance, health, government and media sectors, I am now structuring those extremely valuable case studies into a new book that will be complete by early 2019. Coaching and consulting multinational executives on the principles of SpeakingEnergy Scene Thinking™ enabled […]
Finding order in your scenes: Just wait
Eudora Welty, American writer best known for her 1973 Pulitzer Prize winning novel, The Optimist’s Daughter, was a woman of huge intellect and daring. (Her application letter to the New Yorker in 1933 is worth a Google search – as a sample, this is how it starts: Gentlemen, I suppose you’d be more interested in […]
Holy s**t! The terror and joy of launching a new novel
I love writing novels…and it scares the s**t out of me. Can these two conflicting emotions (happily) co-exist – without driving me insane? No guarantees on the latter, but having published five since two thousand and five – four novels, a book on public speaking – I have a few strategies (sic) that (sort of) […]
Behind every number is a story…
Recently, I had the pleasure of reading Aswath Damodaran’s Narrative and Numbers (Columbia Business School Publishing 2017). Right from the opening pages of this compelling book, NYU finance professor Damodaran makes it clear that numbers need narratives – and vice-versa. I couldn’t agree more! As I’ve stated in previous blog posts, it’s time corporations invested […]
The storytelling power of props
“Show don’t tell” is one of the most important phrases in storytelling. A phrase my clients hear me passionately repeat. And for good reason. It’s easy to “tell people” what you are capable of, it’s quite another to show them you actually can. In the showing is action. Quoting Socrates, “Say what the story demands…the […]
Finding powerful stories from simple scenes
On a recent trip to northern Laos (Xam Neua – extraordinary place!), I was given access to many things I have never seen before. Some of them scenes one would expect in Laos (the stunning landscape, for example) and some of them experiences that surprised me and made me think – a lot. The latter […]
Story scenes in 2017. Set your scene
The most obvious statement now is: we live in a storytelling world. How can companies be better equipped to participate in this world – regardless of our business or our products? My answer is: think much more clearly and strategically about the story scenes you create. Humans understand scenes. We live them every day. We […]