Self Improvement Site
On The Internet! Take the Self Improvement Tour
On The Internet! Take the Self Improvement Tour
Articles from Doug Stevenson | Selfgrowth.com
- Corporate Storytelling - Brain Science & The Story Theater Method - by Submitted on Feb 08, 2012 from Doug StevensonWhy do you think Malcolm Gladwell is so successful? All three of his books, The Tipping Point, Blink and most recently Outliers – The Story of Success, are best sellers. The answer lies in the subtitle of his most recent book, The Story of Success. Malcolm is a synthesizer, a pattern ...
Views: 2338 - How to Close Your Speech - Corporate Storytelling Training - by Submitted on Feb 08, 2012 from Doug StevensonWhat’s the point? I ask that question of every private coaching client. The response is usually three or four sentences long. The answer to the question, “What’s the point?” needs to be concise and simple, not a lengthy explanation. Can you state the point of your story in five or six ...
Views: 1647 - Corporate Storytelling in Business - Third Party Storytelling Tips - by Submitted on Feb 08, 2012 from Doug StevensonHow to Make a Third Person Story Personal I always advise my coaching clients to use personal stories whenever possible. Personal stories establish credibility by letting your listener know that your wisdom comes from your life experience, rather than from reading the latest book. Personal ...
Views: 3941 - Corporate Storytelling Strategy - Fill In the Gaps - by Submitted on Feb 08, 2012 from Doug StevensonMoby Dick When I was in high school, in the sixties, a company called Cliffs Notes (aka Cliff Notes) published book summaries. (Remember the yellow and black striped covers?) These little books enabled you to read passages from the book in a summarized form so you wouldn’t have to read the ...
Views: 1669 - Life Skills - Success - Take the First Step - by Submitted on Jan 27, 2012 from Doug StevensonI can remember growing up in Chicago when the year 2000 was a long way into the future. And now, in 2010, as we enter the second decade of the 21st century, I’m taking stock of how far I’ve come and what it took to get me here. As a child watching movies, I dreamed of being an actor in ...
Views: 1496(3 votes) - Corporate Storytelling for Business - How to Choose What Story to Tell - by Submitted on Jan 27, 2012 from Doug StevensonI recently gave the luncheon keynote speech for a state association. In the program that I presented, Emotional Eloquence, I usually tell three stories, which I call: The Oscar Story, The Chicago CEO Story and the Dagger Lady Story. Because I was speaking after lunch, I knew I needed to keep ...
Views: 1747(6 votes) - Corporate Storytelling - Engagement - How To Make Facts and Data Compelling - by Submitted on Jan 27, 2012 from Doug StevensonI once had a cat named Hermione. She got sick. So I went to the vet and he gave me some pills and told me to give them to her. That sounded pretty simple until I tried to do it. Hermione did not want to take her pills. She gagged and wiggled and scratched my hand, but she would not take her ...
Views: 1997(2 votes) - Public Speaking Presentation Skills - How to Open Your Speech - by Submitted on Jan 27, 2012 from Doug StevensonAt a recent corporate storytelling workshop for Microsoft, I was asked a question that I hear frequently: “How do I open my speech?” Several others in the room agreed that the first two or three minutes of a speech are often the most awkward. Is it that way for you, as well? Do you have a ...
Views: 3365(2 votes) - Corporate Storyelling in Business - Engagement - Persuasion - by Submitted on Jan 27, 2012 from Doug StevensonRecently, while providing a corporate training for the top sales agents in a large pharmaceutical company, I asked the following question: “Have you ever been speaking, and you look out into your audience and see ‘screen saver eyes’? You know – that glassy-eyed look that let's you know ...
Views: 1434(3 votes) - Beware of the Speakers Smile Trap - Corporate Storytelling - Authenticity - by Submitted on Feb 08, 2012 from Doug StevensonOne of the most common mistakes speakers make is to plaster a smile on their face and keep it there, regardless of what they’re saying. This is as true for my public speaking students as it is for my corporate storytelling students. I encountered this situation twice in the last month. One ...
Views: 1612(2 votes) - Inspirational Storytelling - Motivational Speech Training - by Submitted on Jan 27, 2012 from Doug StevensonDo you want to inspire people? Do you have a burning desire to share your life experiences and tell your stories so that other people can benefit? If so, there are a number of things to consider when writing an inspiring speech. This last summer I was inspired by what I witnessed at the ...
Views: 9656 - You Are Always in the Right Place - Trust the Process - by Submitted on Feb 08, 2012 from Doug StevensonMy wife Deborah and I just returned from a month long trip to London and Germany. For the first 18 days we worked: a Story Theater Retreat in London, 2 Retreats in Munich, a keynote at the German Speakers Association annual conference and finally, a speech at a human resources convention in ...
Views: 1450 - Presentation Skills - Inspiring Speech - Eloquence and Change - by Submitted on Feb 08, 2012 from Doug StevensonI created my Emotional Eloquence program to encourage people to think of their presentations as opportunities to engage, influence and inspire, while simultaneously conveying important information. My research shows that speakers, leaders and audiences are hungry for a return to ...
Views: 2547 - Give Yourself Permission to Become a Success - by Submitted on Apr 20, 2009 from Doug StevensonYou are huge. You are enormous. You are magnificent! I’m not talking about your girth; I’m talking about your talent. I’m talking about your passion and depth of feeling. I’m talking about your potential to be an amazing speaker, communicator or leader. Have you given yourself permission to ...
Views: 1058 - Inspirational Corporate Storytelling Leadership Skills - Eloquence - by Submitted on Feb 08, 2012 from Doug StevensonI grew up with a father who was in love with words. His reverence for language, pronunciation and proper diction was an annoyance to me as a child, but a gift to me as an adult. I remember the way he would read aloud a passage from a book or a poem. He had a natural gift for rhythm and tempo. ...
Views: 1230 - Motivational Public Speaking Tips - How to Avoid Being Boring - by Submitted on Feb 08, 2012 from Doug StevensonLast month, I gave a keynote speech in Chicago for a Fortune 500 Company. The theme of the conference was engagement. Over 200 human resource professionals from all over the world gathered to learn how to increase the level of engagement among their 80,000 employees in 23 countries. Their ...
Views: 2211 - Inspirational Storytelling Power - A Leadership Development Tool - by Submitted on Feb 08, 2012 from Doug StevensonAs the waiters cleared the dessert plates from the banquet tables, Joanne, the VP of Sales, stepped to the podium and began the annual meeting. The CEO, Jeff Carlson, could feel the heat building under his collar. He wiped his sweaty palms on the linen napkin and took another sip of water to wet ...
Views: 1577 - Corporate Storytelling - Tips for Telling a Great Story - by Submitted on Feb 08, 2012 from Doug StevensonYou can give a presentation that’s a dazzling display of information and your vast intellectual knowledge, but when all is said and done, people remember the stories. Why do people remember stories but no other information? Studies about how adults learn show that memory is formed when a ...
Views: 1561 - Public Speaking for Powerful Women - by Submitted on Feb 08, 2012 from Doug StevensonThere were three men and three women at the Story Theater Retreat in Colorado Springs last weekend – a nice balance of energies. Each of the six participants came to develop their stories for presentation to a business audience. Interestingly enough, two of the female participants shared a ...
Views: 1650(1 vote) - How to Add Humor to Your Presentations - by Submitted on Feb 05, 2004 from Doug StevensonWhere did we learn that we have to be serious all the time to be taken seriously? In my experience, it’s just not true. As a speaker and trainer, I know that when people laugh, they learn. After coaching over 500 students on their stories and presentations in my two and a half-day Story ...
Views: 2543(1 vote) - Strategic Storytelling for Business Presentations - by Submitted on Feb 05, 2004 from Doug StevensonPeople remember the stories! You can give a presentation that’s a dazzling display of your vast intellectual knowledge, but when all is said and done, people remember the stories. Studies about how adults learn show that memory is formed when a person’s attention is engaged over a sustained ...
Views: 4892(1 vote)