The Art of Storytelling

Lauren lets you experience how you can use a story from your own life to convey a message and convince the people around you to follow you. A leadership skill that has garnered a lot of attention in the past decade and has proven to be crucial for business leaders. Lauren shows examples of the best storytelling and provides insights into easy-to-apply storytelling techniques.

During the expert session, Lauren Maxwell engages the audience through a mix of storytelling and interactive exercises using the Mentimeter app. She shares personal anecdotes and business cases illustrating the importance of effective storytelling in creating human connections and influencing decision-making. The expert also introduces various storytelling techniques, such as narrating in present tense and incorporating sensory details, while encouraging audience participation through real-time polls and discussions. These activities help the audience grasp the practical uses of storytelling in diverse scenarios and inspire them to apply these techniques in their own work.

• Harnessing the Power of Storytelling: Incorporating captivating narratives into professional settings can create human connections, evoke emotions that aid decision-making, and enhance memory recall.
• Techniques for Effective Storytelling: Utilizing storytelling techniques such as present tense narration, high-tension openings, sensory detail incorporation, vulnerability, and reverse engineering can significantly increase audience engagement and impact.
• Understanding Your Audience's Values: Choosing stories that resonate with your audience's important values is essential for inspiring action and overcoming objections in various communication scenarios.

In this expert session, Lauren Maxwell shares insights on effective storytelling in professional settings. Lauren starts by recounting a personal story and highlights the power of capturing an audience's attention through engaging stories. She emphasizes the importance of standing up for what one believes in, even in uncomfortable or risky environments.

 

The discussion then transitions to the significance of storytelling in business contexts. Various reasons are explored for using stories as a means of communication, such as creating human connections, evoking emotions that aid decision-making, and enhancing memory recall. Lauren shares an example of Antonio Deasio, a psychiatrist who discovered the importance of feelings in decision-making through a patient named Elliott. This story illustrates how a lack of emotion made it difficult for Elliott to make decisions. Thus, storytelling emerges as a powerful tool to help influence and guide individuals toward favorable choices.

 

Lauren then delves deeper into storytelling techniques, explaining the impact of narrating a story in present tense versus past tense. She argues that using present tense makes the story more vivid and allows the audience to immerse themselves in the moment. Next, she introduces "vertical takeoff," a technique that involves starting a story with a high-tension moment to grab the audience's attention. This method is useful when following other storytellers or trying to mix things up for variety.

 

Lauren also shares his favorite technique, called "lots of lots," which involves incorporating sensory details into the story to create a more immersive experience for the audience. She invites a volunteer from the session to demonstrate this technique. Lastly, Lauren emphasizes the importance of vulnerability in storytelling, which creates an emotional journey and fosters compassion between people. She shares that allowing vulnerability in a story can lead to unexpected emotional changes and stronger connections with the audience.

 

Throughout the session, Lauren encourages participants to recognize techniques in examples that can be applied to their own presentations for maximum impact. The expert continues by discussing the concept of reverse engineering, starting with the end in mind. She argues that the end is a call to action, emphasizing its importance in any speech or presentation. By defining the desired outcome, one can analyze and understand the reasons for affirmative (yes values) and negative (no values) responses from the audience. This process allows the speaker to identify potential objections and find ways to address them, ultimately leading to a more compelling call to action.

 

Lauren's engaging and insightful session emphasizes the power of choosing the right stories and values to connect with audiences and inspire action. She provides various examples throughout the discussion, utilizing interactive tools like the Mentimeter app to encourage audience engagement and participation. The session concludes with Lauren inviting attendees to share their thoughts on her questions in the chat and asking if anyone has any final questions for her. She also offers alternative ways for those experiencing issues with the survey link to access it, before thanking everyone for their participation and expressing interest in conducting longer storytelling workshops.

No other sessions available at the moment.

• I've learned just how powerful a technique storytelling can be to really communicate a message or call to action. 

• I didn't expect it to be so interactive and interesting. Amazing masterclass, thank you!

• I learned how to use personal experience, engage and inspire by using your own story from the past, a set of techniques to make a storytelling successful and how to keep the audience's attention.