When I was in fourth grade, my aunt and two cousins came to live with us for about six months in 1973. My older cousin has an infectious laugh and smile that makes him fun to be around. One day during their stay, he and I get into it. He's a sophomore with an early schedule and is always the first one home from school, followed by me. Every day when I walk in the front door, my cousin is blasting Elton John’s “Goodbye Yellow Brick Road” on our Sony turntable in the living room. I love … [Read more...] about Stories From the Heart
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Three Ways To Use Storytelling In Your Technical Communications
This article was originally posted on Forbes. I was hooked just two minutes into the podcast. A renowned cancer specialist revealed that, although his book had won the Pulitzer Prize, he knew next to nothing about the discipline of writing. “So out of necessity,” he told Alan Alda, “I created my own rules. First: You can’t go six pages without meeting a real human character.” While still listening to the podcast, I drove straight to the nearest Barnes and Noble, bought the book The Emperor of … [Read more...] about Three Ways To Use Storytelling In Your Technical Communications
The Do’s of Storytelling During COVID-19
Just two days ago, Sunday, April 19, the Chicago Cubs should have been in D.C. playing their 20th game of the 2020 season against the 2019 World Series Champs—The Washington Nationals. But, alas, the pandemic has put baseball, and all of sports, on hold. So what do we root for now? Well...last summer, I was sitting in the stands at Washington Nationals baseball park on the evening of July 23 hoping for one thing. I was in D.C. on business, and my sister, a D.C. transplant and fifteen-year … [Read more...] about The Do’s of Storytelling During COVID-19
I Had One Thing On My Mind…
Almost a month ago today, on the evening of Thursday, March 12, I had ONE thing on my mind. I hadn’t been home too long from my evening speaking gig, and I’m lying on the couch watching Kelly Clarkson and John Legend on The Voice, when at 9:30 P.M. my husband walks through the front door and announces: “The grocery store is completely out of…TOILET PAPER.” I do a mental checklist of how many rolls of TP we have on hand. Like 4 or 5. For some reason, we had forgotten to buy toilet paper … [Read more...] about I Had One Thing On My Mind…
The Most Important Story You Will Ever Tell
I often tell people that I have the best job in the world because stories have the ability to inspire and change people’s lives. That’s the power of storytelling. But there can be a dark side to storytelling, too. Those stories we tell ourselves that keep us from being who we really want to be or doing what we truly want to do. Case in point. I was five days out from doing my new talk for the first time, and I was having a moment of doubt—my stomach knotting up a bit. Would what I have to … [Read more...] about The Most Important Story You Will Ever Tell