How often do you find yourself talking to someone and you’re both fully engaged in the conversation, but suddenly someone says ‘what were we talking about?’

What probably happened is that one of you interrupted the flow of conversation – and concentration - by introducing another topic or story and you’ve forgotten what the original topic was.

This can happen in your business talks too. I call it ‘taking your audience down a rabbit hole’ and it’s to be avoided.

It happens when you include a part of your story that’s not relevant to your key message. However fascinating a part it is, if it’s not relevant then it confuses your audience and leaves them wondering what you’re talking about.

So when you’re deciding which bits of your story to include, keep asking yourself ‘is it relevant to my key message this time?’ If it’s not, leave it for another time.

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Do you have a favourite place? Perhaps more than one?

And what on earth does that have to do with promoting your business?

By sharing your insights on some of your favourite places and why tells your audience something about you. Do you like the bustle of a city, or a secluded island beach, or is somewhere from your childhood dear to your heart?

It doesn’t even need to be a specific location but might be some thing like the bow of a ship in a storm, the quiet and cool of a place of worship or the buzz of a busy market.

Just giving your reflections on anywhere does the job and of course at a later date you can write or speak about somewhere else. What does need to be genuine are those reflections because they’re the window to you, the person behind the business persona.

‘Your favourite place’ is just one of over 100 prompts you’ll find in my Story Prompt Cards and Story Journal.

To get the other 99 check the cards and...

I was recently asked whether I could help someone craft a speech for an industry-specific audience.

Without being an expert in her industry and never having given a speech to that industry, I could, with hand on heart, say ‘Yes I can.’

The reason is simple – the principles for addressing any audience are the same.

Here are 3 basic questions to ask either yourself or the person who booked you to speak:

1. What’s the audience’s general level of knowledge and understanding of your topic?
2. What are their pain points right now and how can you help?
3. What story/ies can you tell that illustrates all of that and that are most relevant to them?

You’re an expert in your own field and they’re there to learn from you. You don’t need to be an expert in their field too.

If you would like more help with this, and with crafting the speech from the outset, just get in touch.

https://calendly.com/storycoach/30min

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A question I’m often asked is ‘How many stories is it OK to include?

The answer of course is ‘It depends.’

It depends on the message you’re using the stories to convey. Does using more than one add value to your message and to your audience or does it water down the value of the single one you might share?

Can a talk be one long story? Again, it depends.

Some stories are powerful enough to not really need a narrative. The message or learning is so obvious that it doesn’t need to be spelt out.

Others are not and you’ll need to let the audience what you, or the main character learned from their experience within that story.

It all comes back to basics. Which stories, or parts of a story do you need to tell this particular audience to convey this particular message?

Need help with that? Let's have a chat.

https://calendly.com/storycoach/30min

Rachel Maunder is a communication...

Have you noticed how different groups and organisations have their in-phrases that everybody uses, that don’t mean much at all to others outside the group?

During my time as Cabin Crew, one of our in-questions was ‘Are you going or have you been?’ meaning, are you about to go out on a trip of have you just arrived home.

When stopped for speeding on the airport perimeter road by a policeman and asked where I was going, my default reply was ‘I’m not going anywhere. I’ve just been.’

‘Now we must be going somewhere, mustn’t we?’ he said, in that semi-amused semi condescending way police officers often have.

He clearly didn’t know Air Crew speak.

Back on sensible street, the conversation continued and I was allowed on my way with a warning.

It’s the same when you’re addressing an audience. Make sure that your phrases and language match theirs. If they’re not in...

Within less than a minute of small talk with a prospective client, I learned that she’s game for an adventure such as kayaking, is married to someone she enjoys spending time with and has children.

I learnt that because she told me how she’d spent her weekend.

As it happens, I’m also someone who’s game for things like kayaking so we’re already resonating with each other at a different level. We created a meaningful connection.

And that’s what sharing information about yourself can do.

Even if you shy away from sharing stories as such, just letting your audience take a peek into your world tells them something about you, about the things you like to do and about your lifestyle and that’s what can create connection.

People like to work with people they relate to and can have that connection with – so how can you take more of yourself to your business?

Why not a book a call with me...

One of the things I love about podcasts is that I often hear a phrase that really makes me think.

‘There’s no such thing as a true memory’ is one of those lines.

We talk about our memories being something that nobody can take away from us.

But are those memories true?

The speaker explained that because we’re constantly evolving and changing ourselves, however imperceptibly, our view or perception of the memory is slightly changing too so that we recall it differently as we move through life.

What then does that say about stories?

They too are subject to perception both from the storyteller and the listener, so even though you might see little value in sharing your story, it might be just what someone else needs to hear at that moment in time.

Why not a book a call with me now to see how I can help?

https://calendly.com/storycoach/30min

Rachel Maunder is a communication skills and speaker coach and...

Walking along the beach in glorious sunshine I chatted to a family having a picnic lunch.

‘What better way to spend Mother’s Day!’ the father exclaimed. The mother didn’t look so convinced.

It seemed he’d already been trying to persuade her to his way of thinking and there was a bit of an atmosphere.

Maybe she’d had her sights set on a different scenario – a luxury lunch served at a table-clothed table, with a glass of fizz to hand.

It made me reflect on how often we might find ourselves living someone else’s story and/or trying to persuade someone else to live the story we’ve written for them.

‘You don’t really want to….’.

‘If I was you I would…’

No right or wrong here but sometimes it’s important to note when you’re living your own story and when you’re not – and when or how you can change that.

Why not a...

Working with juvenile offenders and exploring the young people’s offending behaviour, we were discussing the impact on people when their home gets burgled.

’How do you think it feels to discover that someone’s come into your home and made a mess?’ I asked.

Jamie spoke up and became upset.

‘I would never make a mess! That’s someone’s home!’

On exploring this, in his world it was OK to take possessions (in this case TV, stereo, etc.) - because after all they’re covered by insurance – but it was crossing the line to make a mess.

I was intrigued – and learnt a lesson.

Snippets of conversations can be useful to:

• Tell people something about your background and insights.
• Demonstrate how we all make assumptions.
• Show that we all have different boundaries and see things differently.

When a conversation intrigues you, note it down. You never know when it will be...

Driving home recently from an outdoor party, I noticed as I was getting near to my home town that the road was wet – very wet, with puddles at the sides.

‘I wonder what’s happened here?’ I thought. ‘Perhaps there’s been a burst waterpipe.’

It was only when I realised that the roads were very wet for the final 2- 3 miles home that it dawned on me that there must have been a local downpour.

I laughed at myself for not thinking of that in the first place. I live in England after all!

But no rain had been forecast, it had stayed dry for the party and we hadn’t had rain in a few weeks so it wasn’t my first thought.

That made me think about how our experience shapes our viewpoint and perception and why it’s important to hear from people with different experiences and different perceptions.

Which is why it’s important to share your stories.

Why not a book a call with me...