Happy new year! I hope you managed to have a safe and relaxing time over the Christmas period. As I am fortunate enough to still be on leave, I am writing this from our holiday home overlooking the kangaroos on the lawn, birds in the trees and even a couple of bush rats feasting on some nectarines.

My Relaxation Scale

While on holidays I gauge my level of relaxation by how many jigsaws and books I have completed. The current tally is four jigsaws and four books, including Any Ordinary Day by Leigh Sales that had me crying on the beach for days. I also completed one audio book, The Handmaid’s Tale by Margaret Atwood, and one podcast, The Teachers Pet by The Australian (which was addictive!) …so pretty high on the relaxation scale.

Story Challenge

You may also have noticed my Story Challenge that I set myself and my social media network. I wanted to encourage you to find stories from events in your daily life, that you could attach to a business message. I started the first day with finding a snake in my vegetable garden and other challenges included why you shouldn’t name rodents, the runaway pontoon, identifying rips at the beach and even challenges with jigsaw puzzles.

Many attendees at my training workshops state that they “don’t have any stories”, that they are “just normal”. However, these “normal” day-to-day stories can be the most powerful to share. The skill is being clear on the message, knowing what story to use and how to construct it.

Effective Storytelling

On the one hand, sharing stories can seem easy because it is how we naturally communicate. Yet there is skill involved in sharing stories effectively in business. If it was easy everyone would be doing it well and I wouldn’t have a role to play.

So, check out my Story Challenges for some inspiration and if you would like to hone your skills further, register for one of my public workshops in 2019.

Melbourne – 1st March
New York – 20th March

Feel free to also contact me for information on an in-house workshop.

Now I am off to the beach…