The Public Speaker's Guide to Storytelling

Welcome to the course! Get to know your instructor a little bit better, discover the main intention behind the course and learn about how you can improve your public speaking skills during the course.

"If you can't measure it, you can't manage it."

This is the guiding principle of this lecture where you will assess your curent level in terms of Storytelling and Public Speaking and set a direction for your learning process. Excited? We hope you are too!

Meet Joseph Campbell, the man behind the Hero's Journey concept (also known as the Monomyth). The Hero's Journey is a format used in many stories and you can also apply to the stories inspired from your life. Overcoming your fear of public speaking is an example of a Hero's Journey.

What makes some speakers stand out more than others? It is mostly related to their stories of facing ordeals and adversity. In this lecture, you will look into those moments in your life that have truly transformed you and that could inspire your audiences as well. By completing the exercise of this lecture, you will manage to create an impressive collection of powerful personal stories. Public Speaking is not just about boasting on your success.  It's also about sharing your wisdom gained through failure. 

What do you stand for? What drives your personal motivation of being in front of people and talking to them? By answering these questions, you will have more clarity regarding your message and mission as a Storyteller.

Throughout our lives we meet a lot of people and they each leave a mark on who we are today. In this lecture, you will discover who were the most influential people in your life and discover what role they played in your life story.

Like many thousands years ago, humans assemble in tribes and they will continue to do so. In order to be a great Storyteller, you need to understand the dynamics that help tribes form. At the end of the lecture, you will have a clearer idea of the important role you are playing when doing Storytelling and Public Speaking.

Let's dig deeper into the story of the tribe you want to reach. This is a fundamental building block in creating your future stories.

In this lecture, you will learn how to connect with your tribe and empathize with their biggest challenges. What is will take is for you to truly get inside their heads. You can't do great Storytelling and Public Speaking if you can't empathize with your audience.

Many speakers make the mistake of considering themselves to be the saviors of their audiences and the smartest people in the room. Storytelling and Public Speaking are not means of showing off. How about we learn about how we can avoid that in the future, shall we?

Time to get to the bottom of stories! In this lecture, you will learn the definition of a story and it's 3 main components. Storytelling is more intuitive than you might think.

How do you craft a story? It's not as complicated as you might think. First, let's go through the 4 defining elements of a good story.

Once you are clear about the 4 elements, now it's time to put into a nice structure. Use the Classical Story Structure as an inspiration. Gradually, Storytelling is revealing its secrets to you.

Adversity is at every step of our lives. This is a story format that we invite you to discover in detail and apply to one of your own stories whenever you want to send out a powerful message. Overcoming Adversity is a central theme in Storytelling that you should not undermine.

There are times when we need to establish an authentic connection with our audience, as well as credibility. Not only that, this is what audiences are hungry for: to intimately know the person speaking in front of them. It shows them that you are human just like them and that you are not positioning yourself above the audience. That's the secret of great Storytelling and Public Speaking.

Let's see how you can better communicate your Origin Story to your audience!

Yes, failure is such a pain in the butt sometimes. It is an excruciating experience at times. While it hurts to look back on such moments, they are experiences you need to look back on. By understand their underlying lessons we can communicate them to others and minimize the risks of them doing the same thing.

A good storyteller puts himself in the service of his audience. Talking about your failures is one of way of accomplishing that. Which failures can prove to be empowering and inspirational for your audience?

Brendon Buchard will be our guide in a story format which I am sure you will love - The Credibility Story. In case you have a highly skeptical audience to deal with, this type of story can help you break through that skepticism and establish a positive rapport with your audience.

Since we have covered a lot of ground regarding how to craft stories, let's refresh our memory before we move on to the next section, shall we?

Ah, the voice, one of the most powerful instruments that humans are born with, besides the brain of course. In this lecture you will understand the different layers of the human voice and how you can build your vocal dexterity. Leverage your voice for masterful Storytelling and Public Speaking.

Like a motor or a muscle, you need to warm-up your voice before telling a passionate story. We have some nice tongue twisters and exercises to help you out before you go on stage. Enjoy!

Let's see how you can avoid the most common mistakes in terms of body language. In Storytelling and Public Speaking, you need to convey the message through your body as well and in this lecture you will learn which moves or gestures can stop you from doing that.

In order for a story to stick and to grab people's attention, it requires a dynamic way of interpreting it. In this lecture, you will learn how to put the story in action mode and the basic principles of acting from Russian actor and theatre director, Konstantin Stanislavsky.

Let's have a look at just a few important principles we have learned about in this section.

In order to properly embody and master Storytelling and Public Speaking skills, you need a place to practice and receive feedback on your stories. Luckily for you, you have some options to choose from.

Here are some books and resources for further reading and learning because the learning journey of a storyteller never stops. It is a constant cycle of self-improvement.

Let's talk about vulnerability. By the time you've reached this lecture,surely this has gone through your mind: "Is being authentic and vulnerable a good idea?". While it is counter intuitive in our culture, it is necessary and very much needed nowadays.

We need to embrace our imperfections, our vulnerable sides and not be ashamed of them. Of course, there will be critics and judges along the way, but who said that becoming a hero is an easy task? 

The past is not your only source of inspiration for stories. A good storyteller is mindful about what is going on in his or her life right now. In this lecture you will learn how you can document small events in everyday life that can late prove to become great stories.

Last but not least, don't forget to use the Q&A section in order to share material and stories that you plan to share with the world. Use the collective wisdom of the group and benefit from the feedback of other students.

Before you finish the course, please answer one last question...