Working Artist Coach: I Pack Parachutes

Do you need your parachute packed? Or, are you taking a leap and hoping you magically discover a net below?

Just reflecting today on how one sentence from a good coach coach can change your life. That's happened to me on several occasions. One huge statement came from a coach that never charged me a dime and several other life-changing moments from coaches to whom I paid more money than what most storytellers make in a year.

The power of a good coach is phenomenal. As artists, we've got to get our navel-gazing, narcissistic selves out of the way so that we can learn how to truly impact our world with our art form. Any coach that wants you to think more about yourself than your clients is not helping you. Get a coach who will nudge you off the cliff.

"Leap and the net appears." Just BS and it's wrong. Leap with a parachute instead. Find a good coach to help you pack your chute if you have never done it before.

I am very grateful today to those that have coached me and continue to do so both formally and informally.

If you need some help with that leap, contact me. I will be glad to push you over the edge.


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The official blog for K. Sean Buvala, storyteller and storytelling coach.

Corporate Storytelling Techniques: Five Ways to Convey Your Passion

Corporate Storytelling Techniques: Five Ways to Convey Your Passion

Stories are being told about your company all the time. Unless you have never had a customer, someone somewhere is talking about your company. When they do so, they are speaking with passion either for or against your business. You need to have your passionate stories ready to add to that conversation. To create raving fans in your business, you need to be a raving business.

When a customer experiences your company, they leave with an impression. If they were offended, hurt or feel they did not get good value, they will passionately talk about (create the story of) their perceptions of your business. Likewise, if you exceeded their expectations, they will also talk about that story. When a person hears one of these customer stories about your business, do you have your own equally passionate company stories to counter or confirm? Can your customers find these passionate stories on your website via video or audio links?

Here are five storytelling for business tips to help you express your passion:

1. Do not be afraid to be full of passion about your product or service. For example, I am always amazed at the way small brick-and-mortar business owners can be so alive and excited about their offerings but yet have zero expressions of that anywhere on their websites, other advertising or in casual conversations. Real passion ignites real passion. Don't tell me that you're "passionate about the perfect cup of coffee" at your coffee shop. Rather, through business storytelling, show me your passion by telling me the story of how you spent a year travelling the country to find the best and most unique roasting machine. I want to see that look in your eyes as you tell me about the best/worst coffee you ever had that led you to start your own business. Let me laugh with you about your obsessive interviewing and auditioning in order to find the perfect baristas. Help me to feel your focus as you tell me about going through a dozen suppliers (and their unique personalities) looking for the perfect coffee beans.

2. Your employees are your best source of truth about your company. Train your employees in ways to gather and collect their own company stories. Then, on a regular basis, gather employees together to share these stories. The sharing of these stories must not be mandatory. Requiring employees to have a story results in faked stories. By the way, my clients will sometimes hesitate to use this story-gathering process with employees because the session will generate "nothing but complaints" from the participants. All stories have value to your company and if you are getting lots of complaints, let those stories be the catalyst for internal change. Take the cue to understand: if your staff is producing uncomfortable stories, then you can be assured that your customers are unhappy, too.

3. If your company is very large with multiple locations or large departments, start your storytelling process in just one section of the company. Nothing squashes passion more than yet another management project that "we are all going to do." Choose one department and let them be the first group to experience the power of business storytelling. Once they have learned and applied storytelling techniques successfully, then other departments or locations will want to join in.

4. The elevator speech is dead. For any size company, learn to tell each of your stories in a variety of time formats such as two minutes, six minutes or fifteen minutes. Always be ready to tell potential customers about your work. Your preparedness will help convey your passion.

5. Remember that storytelling is a person-to-person experience. Take every opportunity to be in front of customers or employees to tell your stories. Digital storytelling, print advertisements and social media are all fine tools, but they can never replace the benefits of experiencing your story passionately told live and in person.

Storytelling is one of your business communication essentials. Add passion to your public speaking!

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Sean Buvala is a storyteller and corporate coach focusing on communication skills through the art of storytelling for business. He can be reached at www.seantells.net . You may also follow him on Twitter at @storyteller.



The official blog for K. Sean Buvala, storyteller and storytelling coach.

Get My Daily Tips On Twitter

At noon (AZ time) every day, Monday through Friday, I post a a storytelling tip or concept. I have to be very succinct to get it to 120 characters. The other 20 characters are take up in the title.

Here's a sample:

Come follow me on Twitter to get these mini ideas. I am having much fun with them. My user name is @storyteller .

The official blog for K. Sean Buvala, storyteller and storytelling coach.

Newest "Storytelling in Business" Podcast

Our next edition of the “Storytelling and Narrative for Business Podcast” is now available. This time around, we respond to a listener's email asking about the use of jokes, anecdotes and stories. Sean discusses the differences between each of these items as well as tells you the story of "Just Enough." Sponsored by http://www.executivespeakertraining.com/ and presented by http://www.seantells.net/.


Please send your questions and comments to sean@storyteller.net and be sure to put "podcast comments" in the subject line.

Click below to listen in!

Storytelling In Business Podcast #3

Find previous podcasts in this series at this address:
http://seantells.net/audio-and-video/podcasts/


The official blog for K. Sean Buvala, storyteller and storytelling coach.

Storytelling in Business Podcast #2

Our next edition of the "Storytelling and Narrative for Business Podcast" is now available.

This week, "What Did the Plumber Know?" and Sean is talking about telling an old-hat or familiar story for your business. Sponsored by http://www.executivespeakertraining.com/ and presented by http://www.seantells.net/.

Listen in:
Storytelling and Narrative for Business Podcast #2

Send us your thoughts and questions in the comments below or find Sean at http://www.twitter.com/storyteller .

The official blog for K. Sean Buvala, storyteller and storytelling coach.

Corporate Storytelling: 3 Tips For the Nervous Public Speaker

Do you remember your first days without the training wheels on your bike? Were you nervous? Were you even a little bit afraid? Did that fear make you hyper-focused? Was there someone holding on to your bike's seat, guiding you and cheering you on?

When it comes to public speaking, do you find yourself nervous and maybe even afraid? Like that first experience on your bike, let me hold on the seat and help you learn.

1. Let Your Nerves Work for You

I am probably right when I say those few moments of being on a bicycle without training wheels were some of the most focused moments in your life. All your senses were ready to learn. Your nerves, in that case, were working for you.

Nerves are not the enemy. I have been presenting public speaking courses for over two decades and I have never found a good speaker who was not nervous about their work. Notice that I wrote "a good speaker." There are plenty of cocky and arrogant public speakers who are "never nervous" but they present without energy or enthusiasm.

What good are nerves and nervousness for the public speaker? Your nerves keep your energy level high and your focus sharp. Speaking with high energy while focused on your presentation benefits your audience. They are getting a speaker who is truly present to the subject they are presenting instead of someone who is spewing out just another average speech. Before going onstage, accept your nerves as part of being human, take several slow deep breaths, smile big and step onto the stage with energy and enthusiasm.

2. Remember: Your Audience Wants You to Succeed.

When you were riding without the training wheels, were your family or friends standing on the sidewalk hoping you would fall off and hurt yourself? Of course they were not hoping that you would fail.

In public speaking, your audience wants to you to be at your best. They do not want you to be boring as that means they will be bored. Your audience wants to see you having fun or deeply in touch with your subject. In the old days, people were told to imagine the audience in their underwear. That was just horrible advice. Your audience is on your side and you are in partnership with them. Remember, you are the expert and you are giving them a valuable presentation. They want to walk out of the event saying, "Great! I can really use what that speaker was talking about."

3. Good Coaching and Training is Invaluable.

When you were a small child, you did not just hop on to your bicycle and hurry down the street. No, you started with training wheels. Then, someone took off those training wheels and ran behind you, holding on to the seat, while you wobbled down the road. Several falls later, more running and wobbling, and then, whoosh you took off down the road.

Coaching and training for public speaking are invaluable ways to get to the whoosh moments of public speaking. We who coach and train public speaking skills are always getting letters of thanks from our clients who successfully used simple techniques taught in public speaking workshops or private coaching. Seek out the experts who can take you to the next level. You will discover that it is an incredible experience to have a speaking coach who can point out areas where you need to improve and support you in your natural skills as a presenter.

Learn to focus your nervous energy to achieve excellence as a speaker.

For more information about Sean's workshop that teaches you to harness the power of business or corporate storytelling, please visit our website at http://www.executivespeakertraining.com You are also invited to follow Sean via his Twitter account at http://www.twitter.com/storyteller today.

The official blog for K. Sean Buvala, storyteller and storytelling coach.

New Lower-Price offer on the Storytelling 101 Kit!

Hey, we changed the bonus items for the Storytelling 101 kit and dropped the price a whole bunch. Come and check it out. Mention this blog when you order and I will send you an extra gift. http://www.storytelling101.com


The official blog for K. Sean Buvala, storyteller and storytelling coach.

Roadblock #3: Echo Chambers

Let’s continue the “10 Roadblocks to Your Success as Professional Teller” series. Today I am writing about number 3: You are talking to the same people over and over again who are talking about the same subjects over and over again.

In looking through my latest copy of Storytelling Magazine (no online options as it is a printed magazine you can get only as a membership benefit or paying the $7.50 each cover price), I was scanning all the advertisements for storytelling festivals. Going from festival ad to festival ad, you’ll see mostly the same featured faces. Miss a storyteller this year at your festival? Fear not, because they’ll be back in two to three years.

Very frequently, we are hearing the same voices. Most are talented. But they are the same voices. The same sounds reverberating at our audiences. It is an echo of the echo of previous events.

Storytelling, festivals and otherwise, suffers a bit from an “echo chamber” effect. To help explain what I mean, I looked for a good definition online. I found one in Wikipedia, the best source never to be believed: Metaphorically, the term echo chamber can refer to any situation in which information, ideas or beliefs are amplified or reinforced by transmission inside an ‘enclosed’ space.

There are a number of conversations going on about storytelling, but they are behind closed, protected doors. Tim Ereneta writes much more eloquently about these things than I do. Some of the most common of these groups are the Storytell listserv, the new professionalstoryteller.ning.com and Storytelling Magazine. There is the Festival circuit as mentioned above. On the local level, you probably have a guild you participate in. I am part of all these lists and groups.

In most of these online groups, there are few fresh new discussions. Safe topics and queries get rehashed. There is often a fine sense of community once you find your way past the virtual gate, once you learn the rules. Community is valuable, but does it spread the word and power of storytelling? Mutual admiration is good and sometimes deserved, but there is little real critique of the work of storytellers both near and far. Part of this gentleness is due to the usually generous nature of we middle-aged storytellers. However, the other part is in fear. “If I make a direct statement, someone might do the same thing about my work.”

For example, in trying to develop a recognized Storyteller.net award system for storytelling recordings, the biggest problem was trying to find a panel to judge submissions. I am unwilling to be a panel of one like other award programs use. I could not gather a panel as not one storyteller wanted to be identified as part of the group that passed opinion on another storyteller.

First: “Your CD is great!
Second: “YOUR CD is great!”
First: “Oh, thank you. Your CD is great.”
Second: “Thank you, your CD is great too.”
First: “Oh, really? Yes, your CD is really great.”
And on and on and on, echoing down the line.

As I listen to other tellers describe things to me directly, it appears to me that many storytelling guilds in the U.S. are simply social clubs. There is much patting on the back, much nurturing, much caring community. Guest speakers are always other storytellers who do little to rock the boat or bring in fresh ideas. After the meeting, it is lunch and snacks. “I will say nice things about your storytelling so you’ll say nice things about mine.”

In these enclosed spaces, in these echo chambers, storytelling withers.

Generally, I do not think any of these groups or membership in them are a problem. What is the problem is our collective lack of outreach to the world. What is the problem is our fear of critique. In testing our new “Outside In” coaching method, the biggest challenge is having the coaching group have a non-apology-wrapped opinion about the work of another teller.

I suggest that we open the doors and windows, let the echoes out and begin to hear new voices or old voices in new ways.

New Conversations In Our Guilds
Invite guest speakers from outside of your storytelling group and indeed from outside of the storytelling artform. Stop separating the “youth tellers” from the adult tellers, throw them all into the same room at the same time. Invite such people as accountants, yoga teachers, marketing consultants, musicians, theater critics, painters and others to attend. Learn from them. Maybe you will even end up teaching them.

Find new ways in your guild to coach each other, being fresh, supportive, honest and challenging. Make this article a subject of your next meeting. Hash it out, own what’s real, congratulate yourselves if these thoughts do not apply to your group. Try something new if your guild has become an echo chamber of warm-fuzzy thoughts.

New Conversations In Our Festivals
Fight to eliminate the “regional teller” or “new voices” labels. Sure, bring in one of the circuit-riding hired lips. Have fun as most are lively, talented folks. Then, fill the rest of the event with your own local talent, talent you are growing in your freshly-refocused guild meetings. Remember the theater critic from the paragraph above? Invite them to the festival and hope they write about you or talk about you in their newspapers, TV and radio programming.

By the way, the idea that “if we do not book XYZ teller, then we won’t have an audience” is letting fear dictate your festival or event roster. Remember, when you started, no one knew who XYZ was. And if XYZ teller joined a monastery tomorrow, took a vow of silence and never spoke into the echo chamber again, would you shut down your festival?

New Ways to Communicate In Our Online Presences
Keep participating in the closed groups if it helps you. And, for every few postings you have in these groups, post something on your open, public Blog that the general public can read, see, agree or disagree with and learn from. Be a visible storyteller. Develop a thick skin and put yourself, and your opinions, out there. Develop a professional “social network” right out in public, where young people and others can see we are active, real and engaged. Post your videos and stories for all to see and hear.

We have lots of “niceness” echoing in storytelling. Why not knock down some walls and let’s have some “freshness” resounding as well?

(The illustration at the top of this article was done by www.gapingvoid.com. Warning: don't go there unless you can handle adult language and directness about marketing.)
The official blog for K. Sean Buvala, storyteller and storytelling coach.

On The Storytelling Journey. Happy 2008!

“On the journey to Truth,
Stories are the bridges between
there and here,
far and near,
no and yes,
fear and understanding.”
-Sean Buvala

Adore My Work

Last night, at one of the family Christmas gatherings, the brother of my brother-in-law was telling us how he “adores” his work. My in-law was astounded that anyone could “adore” the work they do.

His brother works for a company that is, essentially, a playground supply shop for the recreation needs of adults for such pastimes as skiing, beaching, outsdoorsing and so on. He said that people come to his store ready to spend money, eager to buy new toys and for the fun and excitement that the items in his store will bring to their lives. Hence, his customers are always happy and they see him as someone who can help them meet their needs.

I chimed in with the fact that I also adore my work. I don’t like the traveling, it’s not romantic. To survive, I have learned to think of the traveling as part of the workday and not simply a conduit between A and B. By that I mean I’ve learned to think, “Today my job is: travel.” That helps.

But once I arrive where I am to be, I adore my work. I love the audiences. I love the sounds an audience makes when they “get it.” I adore the moments when one of my corporate storytelling clients says, “That was the lightbulb for me!” In those same corporate settings, I am excited about how those clients start to apply the integration of story with their mission statements.

I adore this job when the scruffy teenage boys, at the end of a story, say out loud to each other “Damn, that was a pretty good story.” I adore those moments when the teenage girls stop (unconsciously) in the middle of their “texting” to watch my story finish.

I adore my work when school administrators say, “We’ve never seen anything get the attention of our (parents) (students) like your storytelling.” I adore it when little kids see me in the library or store and say, “Hey, you came to our school and you told us the story about the moose and the loud cricket and all those animals and the moose got bit on the butt and he jumped in the air and the fish had no water and then he fell on the ground and the water came back up and then the fly......”

I adore my work of promoting other storytellers when a sponsor writes to me to tell me how through Storyteller.net they found the perfect teller.

I adore my coaching work when my coaching clients call me and tell me they had a “nirvana” moment during our coaching session.

I love my role as "community service" work when someone at Storyteller.net sees their new page unfold with pictures and audio and they are so excited by that. I am crazy wild about storytelling when a Storyteller.net directory member sends an Email expressing shock that they got booked via their listing with us. As my kids say, “no duh!” If you are a working storyteller and you are not listed at Storyteller.net, you are missing jobs. Period.

I adore my work as a storyteller. Thanks for letting me be a part of your life in some way.

Sex and Weight Loss

Headlines. How do you use them on your marketing materials?

The Reader’s Digest magazine, on the checkout stand at the grocery store yesterday, has the headline SEX AND WEIGHT LOSS at the top on the overwrap of their little magazine. My first thought was: “Reader’s Digest still exists?” Then I thought, “Where does the apostrophe go?”

Finally I thought, “Ooops, they got me. I looked at their magazine. They broke through, even with that cheesy and predictable headline, they broke through. They’re gonna get me to mention their magazine. I guess they win.”

No, I didn’t buy it. Even a good headline only goes so far if your product doesn’t serve the needs of the viewer.

A good headline grabs the reader and forces them to STOP and look at what you are saying. Even the latest RD.

What headlines do you use in your marketing postcards? What works? If you are still sending letters in an envelope, do you know how to improve your chances to get them opened?

We do.

October 2007 PodCast from Storyteller.net Is Here!

It's time for those late October seasonal storycasts and you're in for a treat. You can listen now when you click here!

This Storyteller.net Amphitheater Podcast features storyteller Jeff Gere telling "Daddy One Shark" from his CD "Haunted Hawaii, Volume 1."

You'll hear from Storyteller.net director Sean Buvala as he retells the Grimm tale of the "Willful Child" recorded live at one of our "www.storytellingatborders.com" events. Sean also shares a coaching moment about asking your clients for their stories.

Kevin Cordi lends his theatrical flair to the multi-voiced version of "The BabySitter" from his CD "The Road to Urban Legends." All CD's are available in the store at Storytellingproducts.com .

Also featured in this podcast is a recording of "Into the Hall of the Mountain King" by the "string metal" band of "Judgement Day." Their website is at www.stringmetal.com. Permission sought. Permission given. Way cool.

You can find us at Itunes as well! Find our previous podcasts all listed here

New Project: Storytelling and Gaming

3 Brothers and 1 Golden Axe:
Real Storytelling in Virtual Worlds

Welcome to our newest interactive workshop from Master Storyteller K. Sean Buvala

Increase the immersive feel of your gaming world and tap into essential human needs and desires with the power of real storytelling!

Learn what real (not the ethereal read a book to kiddies!) storytelling can teach you about virtual worlds.Learn more at: www.seantells.com/gaming.shtml

Learn: What is the basic structure of storytelling? It's got nothing to do with reading books.

Experience: What are the dark sides of fairy tales? Why are stories so cleaned up from the original versions? Sean will take you through the "unvarnished versions" of some popular tales.

Learn: What are "tale types" and what do they teach about human nature? Tap into these cross-cultural realities and bring new breath to your gaming world!

Explore: What is the "Geometry of Storytelling?" Why good storytelling allows every audience to have a unique experience every time.

Learn: What is the role of numbers in storytelling? 3 brothers, 7 Ravens, 12 tasks? Learn which numbers have significance and what they can tell you about the story and storyline.

Explore: How can the concept of "many voices/one story" help designers? Immerse yourself in quests and game experiences by playing a game of "shifting looks."

Ready to get started? Assemble your designer team and contact Sean for more information. Workshop can be presented in one (good!) or two (best!) workday format

About Your Presenter:
K. Sean Buvala, a 21 year veteran and master storyteller, is the director of storyteller.net, now celebrating their 10th anniversary online! Working throughout the U.S., he is storytelling, training and presenting to and for corporations, schools, churches and private coaching clients. Sean recently received a 2007 Oracle Award from the National Storytelling Network. He is an approved Roster Artist with the Arizona Commission on the Arts. Sean specializes in the folktales of Ireland and the Brothers Grimm, working with adults and teens. He has a variety of CD's released, ranging from stories for children to a specialty product for teenage guys to unvarnished world folktales.

Sean is an "avid casual" gamer with a long history back to the Compuserve days of "Islands of Kesmai." (Here is a picture of his original character: "A"). He currently plays in a variety of gaming world as his travel schedule allows. He's worked as an independent-contractor GM and customer service rep for an old-school gaming company, consulted and taught IT with the

Listen to the Luckiest PodCast Ever: 07/07/07

It’s time for the luckiest podcast of the year! The 07/07/07 podcast is here. Included are two "luck" stories recorded just for this podcast by Sean Buvala, a piece of a wonderful story by Dolores Hydock, and a coaching moment about voice control for stage and recording booth. Listen in (it’s an mp3) and let the luck spread! You can find the CD’s mentioned in the podcast at our podcast sponsor of storytellingproducts.com: "Calling Out a Rising Sun" by Sean Buvala and "Silence" by Dolores Hydock. Visit Storyteller.net for more Podcasts or you’ll find us as well at Itunes. You can learn more about Sean at seantells.com.

Lucky, lucky you! Click Here Now to Listen or Download.