TRAINING 55. Tell Your Story Share a personal story that relates to the subject matter. It not only starts the training on a humorous note but also lets the audience know why you’re giving the training. When I train on humor, I often tell this story: When I was 5 years old, I never imagined I would be a speaker and author, especially not on a topic like humor in the workplace. No, at first, I wanted to be an international soccer superstar. But, as I soon discovered, it’s difficult to make it at the professional level when you’re scared of the ball. When that didn’t pan out, I moved on to engineering—it suited me better. I loved math and constantly looked for ways to 1 improve processes (including how to load a dishwasher ). I graduated in the top 1% of my high school class and later Magna Cum Laude with a degree in Computer Science & 2 Engineering from The Ohio State University... 1 Sort the silverware when loading to save at least 20 seconds on unloading. 2 I then go on to explain how I went from CSE to humorist. To see the full story, you can hire me (or just go to htww.co/aboutthehumorist). 40