The Storytelling Hero

THE STORYTELLING HERO: SPEAKING FOR POWERFUL COMMUNICATION With expert guidance from veteran public speaking coach Stewart Bewley, you'll discover how to gain the confidence needed to become a phenomenal public speaker.

Brené Brown says that storytelling is 'data with a soul'. I love sharing this with my clients, who generally think data is boring. Whether you are a data analyst, high school teacher or startup founder, pretty much anyone, anywhere on the planet, agrees that stories are powerful — but so much of it is in the telling.

Great storytelling is a lifelong skill, from business meetings to initiating new relationships, from having drinks in a pub to standing in line at a barbecue. And telling stories well is what makes life more memorable.

In Time and How to Spend It, James Wallman spends an entire chapter talking about the psychological importance of stories. He argues that the telling of stories is not a nice-to-have, but is critical for our happiness, because stories provide unity, purpose and meaning.

A Story is 22 times more memorable than a fact.

The brain is wired to process two- thirds of all the information it ever receives in pictures.

I'd been acting professionally for ten years. My friend Mia asked me to help her present a talk and I thought, 'Well, I'll have a go.' She was so nervous that when she spoke literally nothing came out. I gave her a couple of exercises on how to stand tall, and breathe, and project her voice. Mia got her voice back. And that's when Amplify, my business, started.

Success is about being present to the people in front of me. And every time I get to coach someone now — over Zoom or over Teams or in person — I find another piece of another person's story put back together, and that's another part of my healing and my living out, helping me unlock my voice and helping others unlock theirs.