Chapter 7

Secret storytelling business

In order to succeed, your desire for success should be greater than your fear of failure.

Bill Cosby, comedian and actor

Jamie Oliver’s cookbook, Jamie’s 15 Minute Meals not only contains lots of recipes, as you would expect, but it also includes some really useful techniques and tips. One great technique is to construct your salad on the serving platter in layers and then drizzle dressing over the top. Do not mix the dressing through the salad in one bowl and then put it into another salad bowl. This is time-consuming and the salad looks so much better on a platter than in a salad bowl.

Storytelling is similar: there are secrets that no-one talks about which can take your mastery to a whole new level. That’s what this chapter will unravel.

Assessing your success

By now you should have prepared at least one story, practised it and, most likely, delivered it. Congratulations!

As soon as you have told a story, the first thing you want to know is, ‘Did it work?’ We crave that immediate feedback. Sometimes, someone will tell you right away. Or you may find out later … if you are lucky.

Our business mindset demands that we have to be able to measure and identify how effective our story has been. So how do you do this? Do you gather feedback from the audience? Do you evaluate whether there were long, uncomfortable pauses? Was the audience queuing up to ask questions at the end?

We have seen our clients enjoy spectacular results — for example, ...

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