1 00:00:00,000 --> 00:00:06,200 G'day leaders. In this podcast, we talk about storytelling and why great leaders use it 2 00:00:06,200 --> 00:00:12,800 to engage and motivate people and inspire them to connect to purpose. Enjoy. 3 00:00:12,800 --> 00:00:17,040 Why did it count backwards? Are they? We're now recording. 4 00:00:17,040 --> 00:00:20,160 What? Hello, captain. 5 00:00:20,160 --> 00:00:21,280 What do I say? 6 00:00:21,280 --> 00:00:30,640 Come fly with me. Let's fly, let's fly. 7 00:00:30,640 --> 00:00:31,840 What are we going to talk about? 8 00:00:31,840 --> 00:00:36,000 I don't know. So leadership, life and everything else. 9 00:00:36,000 --> 00:00:36,560 Yeah. 10 00:00:40,400 --> 00:00:41,360 And we're live. 11 00:00:41,360 --> 00:00:42,800 No, we're still recording. 12 00:00:43,360 --> 00:00:44,240 Hey Michelle. 13 00:00:44,240 --> 00:00:44,960 Hi Guy. 14 00:00:44,960 --> 00:00:45,920 How you doing? 15 00:00:45,920 --> 00:00:48,400 Good, good. Up bright and early on a Sunday morning. 16 00:00:48,400 --> 00:00:52,400 Yes. You had a great idea this morning. We were getting a morning coffee and you suggested we do 17 00:00:52,400 --> 00:00:54,400 a podcast on a particular topic. 18 00:00:54,400 --> 00:00:58,480 Yes. Storytelling. We went and saw Bert Kreischer last night. 19 00:00:58,480 --> 00:00:59,920 Yeah, the machine. 20 00:00:59,920 --> 00:01:04,720 The machine. That's right. An amazing comedian. A packed house. It was awesome. 21 00:01:05,280 --> 00:01:11,920 And one of the things that really came out was how he is such a great storyteller. 22 00:01:11,920 --> 00:01:12,960 He's so gifted, isn't he? 23 00:01:12,960 --> 00:01:20,000 He is. He's funny, very funny, but just the way he could weave stories in and take you on this 24 00:01:20,000 --> 00:01:24,880 journey. And you thought that he was drunk and had no idea, but very, very skilled. 25 00:01:24,880 --> 00:01:26,160 I think he probably was drunk. 26 00:01:26,160 --> 00:01:29,760 Yeah, that's right. He's done it a number of times. 27 00:01:29,760 --> 00:01:30,880 But very skilled. 28 00:01:30,880 --> 00:01:35,280 Yeah, incredible, wasn't it? That he'd start a story and then go off on a tangent. 29 00:01:36,640 --> 00:01:42,080 Tell another sub story, a little joke on the side. And then you come back to the main story 30 00:01:42,080 --> 00:01:43,600 and you go, oh yeah, that's where we were. 31 00:01:43,600 --> 00:01:44,240 That's right. 32 00:01:44,240 --> 00:01:48,400 Yeah. We've got another favorite comedian who does that as well. Sarah Silverman. 33 00:01:48,400 --> 00:01:49,120 Yes, yes she does. 34 00:01:49,120 --> 00:01:50,560 She does it very differently, doesn't she? 35 00:01:50,560 --> 00:01:53,440 She does. She actually says, oh, put a pin in it. 36 00:01:53,440 --> 00:01:55,440 Yes, let's put a pin in that and we'll come back to it later. 37 00:01:55,440 --> 00:01:55,920 Yeah. 38 00:01:55,920 --> 00:01:58,800 Yeah, what a great gift it is to be able to tell stories. 39 00:01:58,800 --> 00:02:05,040 Well, then we were discussing how with storytelling, how in your keynotes and training, 40 00:02:05,040 --> 00:02:06,000 you tell a story. 41 00:02:06,000 --> 00:02:06,640 And yours. 42 00:02:06,640 --> 00:02:07,200 Yeah, and mine. 43 00:02:07,200 --> 00:02:08,320 That's your keynotes. 44 00:02:08,320 --> 00:02:15,120 Excuse me, and how then you're actually taking the room, the audience on a journey with you 45 00:02:16,000 --> 00:02:22,400 and people can relate. So I've been very fortunate to sit in your keynote a couple of times 46 00:02:22,400 --> 00:02:29,040 and there's not a dry eye in the room. They honestly, people are with you in the great times, 47 00:02:29,040 --> 00:02:35,280 they're down with you in the ditches with the bad times and they really, really, 48 00:02:35,280 --> 00:02:38,720 they're part of your journey. And one of the things I thought, oh, you're very, 49 00:02:38,720 --> 00:02:41,360 when I first saw you, you're very gifted at storytelling. 50 00:02:41,360 --> 00:02:42,640 Thank you very much. 51 00:02:42,640 --> 00:02:50,000 But I realized when I saw the, and could feel in the room, and this was to thousands of people, 52 00:02:50,000 --> 00:02:56,960 that that moment when it clicked and it clicked for me, what was happening was that whilst people 53 00:02:56,960 --> 00:03:02,480 were seeing you and feeling you, they also then started to put themselves in. 54 00:03:02,480 --> 00:03:03,360 They assimilate. 55 00:03:03,360 --> 00:03:04,240 They did. 56 00:03:04,240 --> 00:03:04,400 Yeah. 57 00:03:04,400 --> 00:03:08,560 They did. And then we started thinking as we were getting our coffee this morning, 58 00:03:09,280 --> 00:03:12,640 how great leaders also have that ability. 59 00:03:12,640 --> 00:03:17,280 Yes. Yeah. It's like Steve Jobs and Richard Branson. 60 00:03:17,920 --> 00:03:23,680 Yeah. And then, and the opposite of that, there are leaders who don't have that ability. 61 00:03:23,680 --> 00:03:24,080 Yeah. 62 00:03:24,080 --> 00:03:24,480 And- 63 00:03:24,480 --> 00:03:25,920 To get people on the journey with them. 64 00:03:25,920 --> 00:03:32,720 Yeah. And just the disengagement of the employees and they're really, people have this, 65 00:03:32,720 --> 00:03:36,480 they don't know the person, the leader necessarily, but they don't like them. 66 00:03:36,480 --> 00:03:37,680 Yeah. Yeah. 67 00:03:37,680 --> 00:03:38,400 Which is weird. 68 00:03:38,400 --> 00:03:45,120 It is weird. I love storytelling and listening to great storytellers. And I said to you, 69 00:03:45,120 --> 00:03:48,320 when we first met, you've got an amazing ability to tell stories. 70 00:03:48,320 --> 00:03:48,560 Thank you. 71 00:03:48,560 --> 00:03:54,000 Some of your stories are still blowing me away. And the world will get to read them and hear them 72 00:03:54,000 --> 00:04:01,520 very soon. But the gift of being able to tell a story takes somebody on a journey. And I researched 73 00:04:01,520 --> 00:04:08,240 a little bit of this many years ago, that when somebody's hearing a story, it engages much more 74 00:04:08,240 --> 00:04:13,120 of their brain. So lots of areas of their brain light up when they're listening to a story, 75 00:04:13,120 --> 00:04:17,040 because they have to create the pictures in their mind. They have to then start to assimilate, 76 00:04:17,040 --> 00:04:22,560 like you said before, associate it to their own story. And that's why it's so much easier 77 00:04:22,560 --> 00:04:27,760 to listen to a story than somebody just drawing on about facts. You've probably sat in somebody's 78 00:04:27,760 --> 00:04:32,640 presentation where they've got PowerPoint slides or visuals, and they're just reading those visuals 79 00:04:32,640 --> 00:04:35,520 to you, just throwing data at you, and you quickly get asleep. 80 00:04:35,520 --> 00:04:40,080 Yeah. Oh, definitely. And you know that they've spent hours upon hours collating this, 81 00:04:40,080 --> 00:04:44,560 and even spending money to have it professionally done, but they lose the audience. 82 00:04:44,560 --> 00:04:44,960 Yep. 83 00:04:44,960 --> 00:04:46,320 Because it's not personal. 84 00:04:46,320 --> 00:04:52,160 Yeah. I used to do a lot of presentations at the end of conferences. And so I was asked to, 85 00:04:52,160 --> 00:04:58,080 at one particular conference I went to, it was here in Sydney, and everyone just got up and read 86 00:04:58,080 --> 00:05:02,880 bullet points to the audience for two days. And I was sitting in there because I wanted to know 87 00:05:02,880 --> 00:05:07,360 what the other speakers were talking about. Like I have to say, they weren't professional speakers. 88 00:05:07,360 --> 00:05:12,560 They were presenting on their area of expertise at this particular conference. But you could 89 00:05:12,560 --> 00:05:17,440 just see the audience fighting really hard trying to stay awake. And it was so sad to see that 90 00:05:18,080 --> 00:05:21,600 all these people were just doing what they thought a good presentation was. And that is just 91 00:05:21,600 --> 00:05:26,160 here's some data, and I'm going to read it to you on a slide. And for two days, and at the end of 92 00:05:26,160 --> 00:05:32,800 the two days, they gave me, I think I had 25 minutes, and we were sponsoring the conference, 93 00:05:32,800 --> 00:05:37,840 the company I used to work with. And so I got up on the stage and I said, hey, all right, everyone, 94 00:05:37,840 --> 00:05:42,480 I've got some slides for you. And I went click. And I showed a picture of a child coming down a 95 00:05:42,480 --> 00:05:46,960 slide. And I went click, there's another slide. It was a water slide. Click, there's another slide. 96 00:05:46,960 --> 00:05:50,640 That would be the last slide I show you. And I turned off the projector and I just jumped off 97 00:05:50,640 --> 00:05:55,200 the stage and just walked amongst the audience and started to just tell them a story. And I wasn't 98 00:05:55,200 --> 00:06:02,400 doing it to kind of dismiss the other presenters. Obviously, they've been asked to present on their 99 00:06:02,400 --> 00:06:08,240 area of expertise and they just do what everyone else does. And that is they just simply read data 100 00:06:08,240 --> 00:06:14,000 to their audience. But I wanted to show the audience that the best way to engage people is 101 00:06:14,000 --> 00:06:19,680 through storytelling and to really get people to use their own brain rather than just listen to 102 00:06:19,680 --> 00:06:25,680 your brain reading data. Well, how many times have you heard and thought a book is so much better 103 00:06:25,680 --> 00:06:32,800 than the movie because your mind and how you create it, it's personal. Whereas the movie, 104 00:06:32,800 --> 00:06:38,720 it's like, oh, actually, I prefer the book. Yes. It's very, very rare that a movie is better than 105 00:06:38,720 --> 00:06:42,800 the book because when you read the book, like you say, you create your own pictures, you create 106 00:06:42,800 --> 00:06:46,640 your own characters, you know exactly what they look like. And then they bring in somebody else 107 00:06:46,640 --> 00:06:54,800 to replace your picture in your head. Yeah. Well, with leaders, I can imagine. And I will put in 108 00:06:54,800 --> 00:07:02,080 the show notes where it is and I can't recall where I read this, but that employee engagement 109 00:07:02,080 --> 00:07:10,960 leads directly to revenue, increased revenue, etc. And there's a magic number. So 75%. If employee 110 00:07:10,960 --> 00:07:19,520 engagement is above 75%, that the increased revenue is huge. Like it's a marked difference. 111 00:07:19,520 --> 00:07:24,320 So there's a strong relationship between those two metrics. There is. And it's again, the employee 112 00:07:24,320 --> 00:07:32,320 engagement. And in Australia, again, I will find where I read this, but employee engagement in 113 00:07:32,320 --> 00:07:42,080 Australia is often 66% and below. And I immediately came to mind was Qantas and Alan Joyce. So I think 114 00:07:42,080 --> 00:07:48,320 he's the leader that people love to hate. And despite, you know, they're coming back post 115 00:07:48,320 --> 00:07:56,480 pandemic with profits, people are actually united and engaged because he's potentially leaving. 116 00:07:56,480 --> 00:08:04,960 Oh, okay. I didn't know that. And then I think back to some of the leaders I worked for that 117 00:08:04,960 --> 00:08:10,800 were very autocratic. And, you know, there was, there was high amount, you'd never go to the crew 118 00:08:10,800 --> 00:08:20,400 room because people love to hate on this particular leader and would go out of their way to go against 119 00:08:20,400 --> 00:08:26,560 within the law and the rules, but go against what this leader was spruiking we needed to do. You 120 00:08:26,560 --> 00:08:32,160 know, they'd want to spend extra money or they'd want to make things not as economical as what it 121 00:08:32,160 --> 00:08:36,000 could. And that was because they were very autocratic and... Yeah. And they were just not 122 00:08:36,000 --> 00:08:42,400 engaged. This particular leader, and I won't say his name, that comes to mind is he wasn't with the 123 00:08:42,400 --> 00:08:49,680 people. And he, so there was no storytelling. We got the bullet points, we got the numbers. And often 124 00:08:49,680 --> 00:08:55,680 in a way that put blame, so you immediately switched off. Okay. And you created this picture 125 00:08:55,680 --> 00:09:00,800 in your mind that this person was up there and he was the, you know, almost in storytelling books 126 00:09:00,800 --> 00:09:07,840 where he was the ogre. Yeah. And yeah, whereas then the next person who stepped into that role 127 00:09:08,400 --> 00:09:15,920 really humanized and remind, reminds me actually of what Steve Jobs did and created this passionate 128 00:09:15,920 --> 00:09:23,600 work environment and encouraged people to drop in, told stories about where he'd been prior. 129 00:09:23,600 --> 00:09:29,120 And yeah, people were engaged. They loved him. Yeah. Yeah. Oh, my mind's going million miles 130 00:09:29,120 --> 00:09:34,560 an hour. I love this. So you're saying that staff engagement leads to greater revenue. I haven't read 131 00:09:34,560 --> 00:09:40,160 this research. I'd love you to send me a copy when you get it. And your experiences with leaders who 132 00:09:40,160 --> 00:09:44,960 tell stories and engage and bring you on a journey, the staff engagement goes up. Yes. You know, 133 00:09:44,960 --> 00:09:51,120 people are just trying data and figures and we've got to reach these figures. Yeah. Yeah. So, and 134 00:09:51,120 --> 00:09:57,280 I've noticed in your training, I don't think you have there, like you do 10 slides and there aren't 135 00:09:57,280 --> 00:10:01,840 any words at all. I don't use any words. I'm sorry. I shouldn't say that. I do have some slides with 136 00:10:01,840 --> 00:10:08,160 words on it, but yeah, every module that we run, my theory is that you have to engage people. You 137 00:10:08,160 --> 00:10:12,160 have to get them interested in what it is you're about to teach them. You have to get them to be 138 00:10:12,160 --> 00:10:17,840 able to assimilate and put it into context in their own life, their own career, their own situation, 139 00:10:18,720 --> 00:10:23,920 tell a story, get them engaged and help them discover the information. So through storytelling. 140 00:10:23,920 --> 00:10:29,600 So I love talking about leaders that I've met along the way. I talk about a particular leader 141 00:10:29,600 --> 00:10:34,240 that I had a business partnership with Steve and I talk about how he was so approachable. And 142 00:10:35,200 --> 00:10:40,960 the way I do it is I tell them a story about what it was like to walk into his office and how he 143 00:10:40,960 --> 00:10:46,240 would violently push himself away from his chair and then he'd spin around and then he'd lean forward 144 00:10:46,240 --> 00:10:50,560 and he'd look you in the eye and say, I don't have time for you right now, but I'll be ready in 10 145 00:10:50,560 --> 00:10:54,560 minutes. Can you come back in 10 minutes? And you go, yeah, absolutely. No worries. And then he'd 146 00:10:54,560 --> 00:10:59,680 spin back around violently and go back to his computer. And he was one of the most approachable 147 00:10:59,680 --> 00:11:04,880 people because with his body language, he constantly told you that, hey, I've got time for you. But he 148 00:11:04,880 --> 00:11:11,360 even did it when he didn't have time for you. Another leader that I ended up working with, 149 00:11:11,360 --> 00:11:16,000 you walk into his office and he would sit there with his hands over his keyboard and you'd call 150 00:11:16,000 --> 00:11:20,800 out his name and instead of turning around violently like Steve used to do and lean forward and say, 151 00:11:20,800 --> 00:11:24,560 hey, how can I help you? This leader would just sit there with his hands over the keyboard and go, 152 00:11:24,560 --> 00:11:29,120 yeah? And he wouldn't even look at you. So I love telling that story. So I didn't do it very well 153 00:11:29,120 --> 00:11:35,120 just then, but I tell that story in a classroom and I can just see people's eyes going, oh, 154 00:11:35,120 --> 00:11:40,480 I've done that. I keep typing away while people are talking to me or I'm on my phone while my 155 00:11:40,480 --> 00:11:44,960 kids are talking to me and I'm not approachable. And so they walk away and quite often at the end 156 00:11:44,960 --> 00:11:49,440 of the course, I'll say, hey, that story about your business partner who was really approachable, 157 00:11:49,440 --> 00:11:55,840 that really resonated because I do that. But if I said to them, okay, here's a PowerPoint slide. 158 00:11:55,840 --> 00:11:59,840 All right. When people come to you, you've got to look at them. You've got to get your hands off 159 00:11:59,840 --> 00:12:03,920 the keyboard. And I just did it in a typical presentation style where you're just giving 160 00:12:03,920 --> 00:12:08,800 people data. Each point coming with each click. It's not working. No. It's not working. Storytelling 161 00:12:09,360 --> 00:12:13,760 is the best way to get information into people's brains. 162 00:12:16,560 --> 00:12:23,760 It's really how you drive innovation and strategy in a business. Yeah. Well, even just letting the 163 00:12:23,760 --> 00:12:30,560 staff, your fellow staff know what is it, why we do what we do. It's a purpose. Yeah. Yeah. The 164 00:12:30,560 --> 00:12:36,480 backstory and yeah, for purpose. Yeah. Connecting people to purpose is, have we spoken? I don't 165 00:12:36,480 --> 00:12:40,720 think we've spoken about that in a podcast yet. No, not yet. No, purpose is such an important 166 00:12:40,720 --> 00:12:47,280 thing. You've probably seen Simon Sinek's Ted Talk on connecting people to the why. And I love 167 00:12:47,280 --> 00:12:54,160 talking about Disneyland. At Disneyland, their purpose is making magic happen. In every moment, 168 00:12:54,160 --> 00:12:59,520 your job is to make magic happen. And in the customer centricity workshop, we do this section 169 00:12:59,520 --> 00:13:04,160 on purpose. And I say, okay, I want you to imagine you're a cleaner at Disneyland. Yeah. What is your 170 00:13:04,160 --> 00:13:09,440 job? And everyone goes to clean the park and make it look beautiful. I said, okay. All right. And 171 00:13:09,440 --> 00:13:14,080 then I tell them the story. I want you to imagine that you've taken your kid to Disneyland, right? 172 00:13:14,080 --> 00:13:19,440 And they're in their happy place. Disneyland's number one on most kids' lists. And you give them 173 00:13:19,440 --> 00:13:23,120 an ice cream. And ice cream is number two on their list. So you've given them an ice cream at 174 00:13:23,120 --> 00:13:27,520 Disneyland, the magical place. And they're sitting there. How happy would they be? And people go, 175 00:13:27,520 --> 00:13:32,080 oh, they'd be, you know, they'd be happy. Ecstatic. Yeah. Ecstatic. And I say, okay, 176 00:13:32,080 --> 00:13:35,280 so I want you to imagine that that child's eating the ice cream and all of a sudden, 177 00:13:35,280 --> 00:13:41,040 they drop it on the floor. What happens to the child? The child starts crying. So you can imagine 178 00:13:41,040 --> 00:13:45,280 the child at Disneyland is standing there crying. Now you're a cleaner. You see that ice cream on 179 00:13:45,280 --> 00:13:49,680 the ground. What do you do? And all the people go, well, you clean it up. I go, no, you don't. 180 00:13:49,680 --> 00:13:54,400 Because at Disneyland, they're all connected to something bigger. That cleaner would run over to 181 00:13:54,400 --> 00:13:58,640 the ice cream parlor and they'd say, code red, vanilla on the ground or whatever it is. And 182 00:13:58,640 --> 00:14:02,800 they'd run back to the child. They'd get down to the child's level and in their best impersonation. 183 00:14:05,520 --> 00:14:08,080 I can't do that very well. You've been wanting to do that though, haven't you? 184 00:14:08,080 --> 00:14:14,000 I do. And then they'd give the child a new ice cream to put that smile back on their face. And 185 00:14:14,000 --> 00:14:20,320 then they'd clean up the ice cream because at Disneyland, if you're a cleaner, your job is not 186 00:14:20,320 --> 00:14:25,360 to clean the park. Your job is to make magic happen. Oh, by the way, you also clean up the park. 187 00:14:25,360 --> 00:14:31,040 Yeah. And the way Disneyland do it, they do it very much through storytelling. It's all about 188 00:14:31,040 --> 00:14:36,640 making magic happen and connecting people to purpose. So I think that ties in very well with 189 00:14:36,640 --> 00:14:43,840 the storytelling that we're talking about today, that the leaders who can connect their organizations 190 00:14:43,840 --> 00:14:50,400 to the purpose through storytelling are the most engaging. They're the ones that drive culture and 191 00:14:50,400 --> 00:14:55,040 drive innovation and drive staff engagement like you were talking about before. Because 192 00:14:55,600 --> 00:15:00,160 when you're connected to something that's bigger than what you do, connected to something bigger 193 00:15:00,160 --> 00:15:07,040 than your role through engagement, that's where motivation and drive comes from. 194 00:15:08,560 --> 00:15:14,080 Yeah. So this gift of storytelling, it comes naturally to some people, for example, you. I 195 00:15:14,080 --> 00:15:15,440 love listening to your story. You, I just- 196 00:15:15,440 --> 00:15:19,760 Thank you very much. But it's something we can learn, isn't it? 197 00:15:19,760 --> 00:15:25,280 Yeah. Yeah. It's just a matter of getting out of your head and getting out of those bullet points. 198 00:15:25,280 --> 00:15:28,720 Or becoming human and showing your human side. 199 00:15:28,720 --> 00:15:35,680 Your frailties. Yeah. Yeah. And people, you know, no one's a robot. No one's a superhuman, 200 00:15:35,680 --> 00:15:37,440 apart from you. But they're- 201 00:15:37,440 --> 00:15:38,640 How am I a superhuman? 202 00:15:39,200 --> 00:15:45,840 I just thought the same thing. But yeah, if you can show your vulnerability as a leader, 203 00:15:45,840 --> 00:15:51,920 then you get people on board with you because they can connect. You're not a position, a role 204 00:15:51,920 --> 00:15:57,520 higher than. You're a human as well. Yeah. That reminds me of something that they 205 00:15:57,520 --> 00:16:03,680 do in the Navy SEALs to create team culture is to share vulnerability. Did you know that? 206 00:16:03,680 --> 00:16:04,320 No, I didn't. 207 00:16:04,320 --> 00:16:12,800 So the way they create a strong bond in their team and they're always moving towards psychological 208 00:16:12,800 --> 00:16:20,720 safety is they get people to share where they failed after an action. So in after action review, 209 00:16:20,720 --> 00:16:27,040 I think it's called an AAR, after action review. Every time you perform an action, you review it. 210 00:16:27,040 --> 00:16:31,200 So whatever it is, they go out into theater, they do whatever they do. But when they come back, 211 00:16:31,200 --> 00:16:35,120 they're encouraged to share vulnerability. And so if I share my vulnerability with you, 212 00:16:35,120 --> 00:16:41,200 and then you share your vulnerability with me, the trust between us goes up and we're creating a 213 00:16:41,200 --> 00:16:46,080 connection. And I've seen leaders do this very, very well in their storytelling. So when they're 214 00:16:46,960 --> 00:16:52,960 engaging their organization at a conference or they're talking to a team, they tell a story, 215 00:16:52,960 --> 00:16:57,840 they bring out some vulnerability, they show how they fail, they showed what they learned, 216 00:16:57,840 --> 00:17:03,200 and then how they improved and went forward. And you can just see that sort of style of 217 00:17:03,920 --> 00:17:09,920 communicating changes people. It changes people because you're now a human being to me, 218 00:17:09,920 --> 00:17:15,360 I've assimilated with your story because I've brought in my own past, and now I'm connected 219 00:17:15,360 --> 00:17:20,160 with you and I trust you. But that the opposite where they just stand up and say, okay, these are 220 00:17:20,160 --> 00:17:25,120 the quarterly figures we're going to hit this week and just throwing data and expectations at 221 00:17:25,120 --> 00:17:33,920 people. It just doesn't work, does it? No, no, that's right. Guy, I know in your courses, 222 00:17:33,920 --> 00:17:40,160 part of your leadership training workshops that you hold, you actually teach the art of storytelling 223 00:17:40,160 --> 00:17:46,560 to leaders to get that engagement from employees and to build that team culture. Yeah, we do it 224 00:17:46,560 --> 00:17:52,240 as part of some of the bigger leadership programs that we run over six, seven months. And we also 225 00:17:52,240 --> 00:17:59,120 have a standalone workshop that we run, so the gift of storytelling. I used to do it in just 226 00:17:59,120 --> 00:18:05,040 a presentation skills course. It was a module in that and then everyone got so much out of it. 227 00:18:05,040 --> 00:18:09,360 And I thought, well, that's really the gift of presenting is not just standing up there with a 228 00:18:09,360 --> 00:18:14,000 bunch of slides talking about bullet points, but it's telling the story. So, yeah, years ago, 229 00:18:14,000 --> 00:18:19,680 I started to teach the gift of storytelling. And I called it the gift of storytelling because it's 230 00:18:19,680 --> 00:18:24,400 a gift to your audience. If you're sitting in an audience and the speaker is telling a story, 231 00:18:24,400 --> 00:18:29,440 it is a gift because you're not sitting there going, oh, when's this going to end? You're not 232 00:18:29,440 --> 00:18:36,880 wanting it to end. A great story. This all started many, many years ago. So I saw one of the most 233 00:18:36,880 --> 00:18:42,240 gifted speakers and his name's not coming to me at the moment. It'll pop into my head. But he 234 00:18:42,240 --> 00:18:48,400 he started Kentucky Tours and I saw his presentation and it was one of the best 235 00:18:49,760 --> 00:18:56,800 keynotes that I've ever seen. So I had spent all day running a workshop. At the end of the day, 236 00:18:56,800 --> 00:19:02,400 I was extremely tired. I was exhausted. We'd had a lot of fun during the day. And then I had a 237 00:19:02,400 --> 00:19:08,000 couple of hours before I was going to go and watch this keynote. His name will come back to me in a 238 00:19:08,000 --> 00:19:14,720 second. I've gone over to North Sydney where I'm going to watch him talk. And John, John, John, 239 00:19:14,720 --> 00:19:19,760 John Anderson, John Anderson. Sorry, I knew it was going to pop into my head. Now he, sorry, sorry, 240 00:19:19,760 --> 00:19:24,000 I'll go back. So I spent a whole day training. I'm exhausted. It's the end of the day. And so I went 241 00:19:24,000 --> 00:19:30,160 and had dinner just at a pub. I've got a counter tea and I've got a big schnitzel. And so I'm sitting 242 00:19:30,160 --> 00:19:34,800 there eating schnitzel and chips and filling up. So now not only am I tired from the day, I'm tired 243 00:19:34,800 --> 00:19:38,720 from a big meal. And I'm thinking that was a bit silly because I'm about to go and watch somebody 244 00:19:38,720 --> 00:19:43,920 speak and I'm going to be very tired in the audience. And then the mate that I was with said, 245 00:19:43,920 --> 00:19:48,320 hey, how about we have a beer? And I went, all right. So I had a beer as well. So I've spent a 246 00:19:48,320 --> 00:19:54,080 whole day on my feet training. I've had a huge meal and I've had a beer. That's the ingredients 247 00:19:54,080 --> 00:20:01,920 for a sleep for me. Anyway, so I went into this room, sat down and John comes out, the founder of 248 00:20:01,920 --> 00:20:09,440 Contiki to us. And he started this story. And I was captivated. Now I was quite young. It was early 249 00:20:09,440 --> 00:20:13,680 on in my career. I was just captivated by the way he told his story. So we'd be moving around the 250 00:20:13,680 --> 00:20:18,880 stage telling the story. But then every now and then he would step out of his story. It was almost 251 00:20:18,880 --> 00:20:24,160 like he had this path on the stage that he would walk while he was telling you the story. Come on 252 00:20:24,160 --> 00:20:28,480 a journey with me. He was kind of saying with his body language, but then he'd step out of the story, 253 00:20:28,480 --> 00:20:32,960 come to the front of the stage, look at the audience as if, well, I'm not telling a story 254 00:20:32,960 --> 00:20:39,200 at the moment. And he'd deliver a valuable piece of business advice. And then he'd pause 255 00:20:39,760 --> 00:20:45,440 while we absorbed it. And then he'd go back on his little walking path. And then we went here 256 00:20:45,440 --> 00:20:50,640 and then we went there. And he did this for an hour on stage telling you the story of Contiki 257 00:20:50,640 --> 00:20:57,520 and how it started. I don't think I even blinked. I was wide awake. I had the ingredients of sleep, 258 00:20:57,520 --> 00:21:04,960 a big day, a can of tea and a beer. And John held my attention for an hour. And I went home that 259 00:21:04,960 --> 00:21:12,400 night and I thought to myself, I'm a speaker, but I want to be as good as him. And so I think he was 260 00:21:12,400 --> 00:21:17,840 one of the first people that I really observed had the gift, the absolute gift of not just telling a 261 00:21:17,840 --> 00:21:23,440 story, but weaving in business messages. And it's such a powerful thing for your audience, 262 00:21:23,440 --> 00:21:27,360 because I looked around the room at one stage because I'm thinking, is everyone else is engaged 263 00:21:27,360 --> 00:21:33,760 as me? And I looked around and everyone was wide eyed and smiling and laughing. It's like he reached 264 00:21:33,760 --> 00:21:39,920 into our brains, turned a switch on and took us for a journey, took us on a ride. And I'm getting 265 00:21:39,920 --> 00:21:44,480 goose bumps right now explaining it to you. Because it was one of those moments in my life, I thought, 266 00:21:44,480 --> 00:21:52,320 that's a master craftsman in this area of speaking and taking people on a journey. So I could imagine 267 00:21:52,320 --> 00:21:57,600 if you worked in Contiki with John, you would have felt the same because he was such a gifted 268 00:21:57,600 --> 00:22:02,800 storyteller. So I then started to weave that into a lot of my courses. And then the feedback was 269 00:22:02,800 --> 00:22:09,680 amazing. Oh, I really enjoyed that. And people would come back to me and say, yeah, I told a 270 00:22:09,680 --> 00:22:14,880 story and I had everyone's attention and the feedback I got was fantastic. And so I decided, 271 00:22:14,880 --> 00:22:18,400 no, that needs to be a standalone course. And anyway, that was a long story to tell you about 272 00:22:18,400 --> 00:22:25,840 storytelling and why I teach it. Because John Anderson, many, many years ago, he showed me 273 00:22:25,840 --> 00:22:32,080 what a true craftsman, a true storyteller can do with an audience and taking people on a journey. 274 00:22:32,080 --> 00:22:42,080 It's such a fantastic skill. I remember one tip you gave me, one of many, is that when you are 275 00:22:42,080 --> 00:22:51,520 telling a story, and especially when it's your own story, your whole body, your whole, and I'm sure 276 00:22:51,520 --> 00:22:59,840 it's a chemical thing as well, you can see yourself in that story. So there's this fear of speaking, 277 00:22:59,840 --> 00:23:04,960 this, it kind of dissolves because you're telling your story like you would your friends. 278 00:23:05,600 --> 00:23:11,520 And it makes it more personable. So rather than having to remember, you know, introduction, body 279 00:23:11,520 --> 00:23:17,120 conclusion, which was at school, you know, you get up and do public speaking, because it is your 280 00:23:17,120 --> 00:23:24,640 story. And you're seeing that the real in your mind of what your story is, you don't have problems 281 00:23:24,640 --> 00:23:30,720 remembering it, you don't have problems telling it. And that whole anxiety thing dissipates, 282 00:23:30,720 --> 00:23:35,920 it may not disappear, but it dissipates. Yeah. And I say, just get out of the way of the 283 00:23:35,920 --> 00:23:39,840 information. It's not about you up there. It's about the story. It's about the information that's 284 00:23:39,840 --> 00:23:45,360 coming through you. So you're just the conduit, the vehicle. So that's actually how I describe 285 00:23:45,360 --> 00:23:49,600 my job. A lot of people say, Oh, what do you do? And I say, I'm the conduit of other people's 286 00:23:49,600 --> 00:23:56,000 wisdom. And they go, what? Well, I'm just passing on wisdom that I've collected from other amazing 287 00:23:56,000 --> 00:24:02,880 people that from other experiences like John, the Contiki founder. And so yeah, if you're speaking 288 00:24:02,880 --> 00:24:09,360 and you can just get into the story, see the story in your mind, tell your audience that story, 289 00:24:09,360 --> 00:24:13,680 they then see it in their mind. And you're just together on this journey, this wonderful journey. 290 00:24:13,680 --> 00:24:19,360 It's like, it's why we go to the movies. We love stories. And if you think about human history, 291 00:24:19,360 --> 00:24:24,960 we've passed our knowledge through storytelling forever. We sit around campfires, we tell stories 292 00:24:24,960 --> 00:24:31,920 and myths and quests and, and we engage people through story. Could you imagine if Og and whatever 293 00:24:31,920 --> 00:24:36,640 the other caveman's name is? I've only got one name for a caveman. Ivan. Oh, Og and Ivan. David. 294 00:24:36,640 --> 00:24:43,760 David. No, I think now we need Og and I don't know, Olaf. I don't know. But imagine them sitting 295 00:24:43,760 --> 00:24:48,880 around a fire and one of them grabs, grabs a, you know, a, a piece of cardboard and says, okay, 296 00:24:48,880 --> 00:24:53,680 first bullet point. It just wouldn't have worked, would it? Human, I think we would have died off 297 00:24:53,680 --> 00:25:00,560 as a species. But telling stories has been a gift that we've passed down from generation to 298 00:25:00,560 --> 00:25:06,800 generation. But regrettably, we, we all of a sudden started to throw bullet points on a slide and, 299 00:25:06,800 --> 00:25:11,520 and thought that that was the best way to tell stories. But that's just lazy, isn't it? It is. 300 00:25:11,520 --> 00:25:16,240 It is. Yeah. Yeah. No, get out of, get out of your slides, people, get out of your slides and get 301 00:25:16,240 --> 00:25:21,600 into a story. It's a much more engaging way to, to take people on a journey and leaders who do this. 302 00:25:22,640 --> 00:25:27,840 So yeah, I love what you were saying, the gift of storytelling. So maybe looking at it like that, 303 00:25:27,840 --> 00:25:32,240 they, they, your employees, your, your fellow staff, your colleagues, 304 00:25:33,440 --> 00:25:38,400 very fortunate to experience the gift that you have of telling them your story. 305 00:25:41,920 --> 00:25:47,840 I will bounce that back to you. You have a real gift of telling your stories and we will tell 306 00:25:47,840 --> 00:25:54,000 it for you on this podcast, but your, your book is going to come out soon. And I love, love hearing 307 00:25:54,000 --> 00:26:00,720 your stories. Nothing like a bit of pressure to get that happening. Yeah. Well, the world needs to 308 00:26:00,720 --> 00:26:05,760 hear your stories, Michelle. There's a lot to learn from those stories. And I, I said to you, 309 00:26:05,760 --> 00:26:10,000 when we first met, you have a real gift for storytelling and I'll keep repeating that until 310 00:26:10,000 --> 00:26:14,720 the world hears your stories. Thank you, Guy. Yeah. So that was fun. That was fun. Yeah. Okay. So, 311 00:26:15,360 --> 00:26:23,280 and I will post up that on the notes where, yes, where that information came from. Yep. Cool. Okay. 312 00:26:23,280 --> 00:26:28,080 So how do we finish this off? More dogs, more dogs, definitely. The world would be a better place 313 00:26:28,640 --> 00:26:33,360 when there's more dogs. Yes. And more coffee needed. More coffee needed. Bollinger, we still 314 00:26:33,360 --> 00:26:37,440 haven't heard from you. What's going on? We, we're waiting for our sponsor to contact us. They don't 315 00:26:37,440 --> 00:26:43,280 know they're our sponsor yet, but we are waiting for Bollinger to get in touch. Yeah. How else do 316 00:26:43,280 --> 00:26:50,480 we finish this off? And well, to find you and New Memory. Yep. Newmemory.com.au. That's where 317 00:26:50,480 --> 00:26:56,640 we've got all the information about our courses and michellehuntington.com for keynote speaking 318 00:26:56,640 --> 00:27:04,000 and guynewman.com.au for speaking as well. Yeah. Yeah. So, and I can't wait for after this podcast, 319 00:27:04,000 --> 00:27:10,480 it's this episode. Yeah. We have an amazing interview with a leader that we will publish as well. 320 00:27:10,480 --> 00:27:16,720 Yes, we will, Patty. That was a great, great, great interview, great chat. Yeah. He's an inspiring 321 00:27:16,720 --> 00:27:20,720 man. All right. You have a great week. You too. Take care. Bye. 322 00:27:46,720 --> 00:28:09,200 And who's gonna listen to this? Maybe our mums. Thanks mum.