How to tell a great story.
Storytelling dates back thousands of years. It started before writing. It was how people connected. Through words, music, and art. This week on the podcast, my friend Abbie and I interviewed Neil Bardhan - storyteller extraordinaire.
Throughout our conversation I was reminded how much you're able to connect with someone through a great story. You take someone with you on a journey. You share a little it more about who you are and how you relate to the world around you. And I think that's so cool.
In this episode 7 of Things I'm Working On, we talk about: Neil’s background in storytelling, the parts of a story, how to compose a story, building confidence in your storytelling, how vulnerable to let yourself be when telling a story, when stories are useful to have, and Neil’s thoughts on words like “um” and “so.”
The conversation starts because Abbie and I are in a group at work focused on public speaking. Each month, we get together, choose a random topic from a list and try to share a 2-3 minute story with friends. Over the course of the last few months, I've gotten in the habit of telling my stories like an expository essay - here's my point, here's three things about my point, here's my point again. But through our chat, I was reminded that storytelling is just one half of a conversation - and instead of just listing bullet points, you should look for connections within your story to really take people on the journey with you.
Neil has a gift, I tell you. And you should probably be following him on twitter and instagram.
Podcast News:
This past Saturday I recorded the next episode for y'all as well with my friend Amber Burns, who also recently started her own podcast called Thank You For Asking. In that episode we talk about community and social media and re-entering the world post-pandemic. It's a great conversation that I can't wait to share with you. I left it feeling a bit more whole than I have been feeling recently. Which was much appreciated.
Things to Check Out:
Admittedly, work life has been a little crazy recently, so I haven't had quite as much time to be browsing the internet recently (or even listen to podcasts - which is shocking) - but I hope to get back to it soon. I did, however, find -
This article, which was a great reminder about 8 tips for fostering genuine connections in your career.
This New York Times article I found in Katie Dalebout's newsletter called Plan Your Life Again, but Keep It Simple, which talks about the worries I have (and apparently many others have) about the world opening up again. (I don't know about y'all, but I've already started booking myself.)
Two Thank You For Asking Episodes - You Can't Always Start Strong, which is about how sometimes you just need to dive into things and you can't do all the prep work you want, and Community Check In which is some real talk about mental health & well being.
Now that life at work has died down a little bit, I'll have some more time for a project I've been working on recently. I've decided to write a book. Any ideas on what the topic might be?
I'm also spending some time brainstorming how somebody is able to (seemingly) 'do it all,' have it on my list to write a blog post about values, and keep thinking about starting to memorialize some of my wedding planning activities. (Which feels appropriate for a community building blog.)
If there's any more topics you'd like to hear about, don't hesitate to reach out.
xo Chrystina
