Eleven years ago, I discovered blogging. Inspired by my clients’ stories and their questions, I began posting weekly, then daily for a while. I hadn’t written for an audience since I left school more than thirty years before. Nobody was more surprised than I was to discover that people wanted to read what I wrote here and in the books that followed. Fast forward to 2019, when I decided it was finally time to follow my heart and begin writing my debut novel set in Dublin. And today, I’m thrilled to share it with you. The Making of Her publishes in the U.S. today and is available through all gre ..read more

My idea of a good non-fiction book is one without filler that I read to the end without skimming. I like to invest in a book that will teach me something in an afternoon that I can use for a lifetime. Those are the goals I had in mind when I wrote my new book, What Great Storytellers Know. We’ve always used stories to entertain, teach, and inspire. And despite what we’re often led to believe, storytelling is not an innate ability. It’s a skill anyone—from marketers and professional communicators to parents and teachers—can, and should, master. 
 In What Great Storytellers Know, I take you thro ..read more

What a year 2020 has been for every one of us. For the first time in human history, every nation around the world is working on the same problem. The leaders who earned our trust during these challenging times were the ones who spoke to our hearts, not just our heads. They harnessed the power of stories, our most persuasive technology. Storytelling is not an art reserved for the chosen few. It’s a skill anyone can get better at with practice. I’m on a mission to help people to tell better stories and use them for good. The last Story Skills Workshop of 2020 launches today. You can join us thi ..read more

The legendary British actress, Helen Mirren, says the hardest thing you can do is walk as yourself. She may have been speaking about acting when she said this, but I think her words carry wisdom we can use beyond the stage. Society conditions us to fit in from a young age. The way to fit in is not to do anything out of the ordinary. By definition, that means ignoring possibilities and opportunities to explore different paths. But progress, fulfilment and joy are a by-product of exploration. Ironically, what the world that tries to make us conform needs most from us, is for us to walk as oursel ..read more

My favourite childhood stories were those written by Laura Ingalls Wilder about her pioneer family and life in the Big Woods of Wisconsin. Her family lived on their wits. They were grateful for what they had and prepared for uncertain seasons. In tough times they made do and relied on their skills, but also turned to their community for help. The world of the Ingalls Wilder books was in sharp contrast to the era of the TV industrial complex I was growing up in. Non-stop advertising taught us not only that what we had wasn’t sufficient. But that somehow we were not sufficient, unless wore the ..read more

Last week, an Australian journalist was quoted in the media as saying that millennial workers lack resilience. She expressed concern over their need for thanks and hugs. On the same day, our millennial plumber was due to arrive to investigate a leak. Even though we’re isolating during the pandemic, this was an essential repair, and tradespeople were still working. That morning, he called ahead to let me know he’d be on time. When I opened the door, he was standing on the front doorstep masked-up, next to his new Gen Z apprentice. They were already removing their boots. ‘The last job we were o ..read more

When we want to get a project off the ground, we are often confused about the best way to achieve our goal. We believe if we could only reach more people, we’d immediately have traction. But reach is a poor substitute for the trust of a handful of the right people. A deep connection trumps fleeting attention every time. Image by Daniel Funes Fuentes MORE LIKE THIS FROM THE STORY OF TELLING Build A Trust Engine Giving Attention Vs. Getting Attention Bridging The Change Gap What's Beyond Reach? Attention Deficit ..read more

Years ago, when the owner of our local bakery decided to bake only gluten-free bread and cakes, it would have sounded like a risky strategy. Many people would have advised her to sell both conventional baked goods alongside her gluten-free loaves. Instead, she put a stake in the ground. We are naturally inclined to want to hedge our bets. But it can be liberating to say this is the real work I care about doing. These are the exact people I want to serve. Those decisions about what’s important to us and how to do our best work can mean the difference between standing out and fitting in. Joy an ..read more

Every decision you’ve ever made was influenced by a story—every single one. From the decision about whether to wear a mask during a pandemic, to the charities you choose to support.

 A story you heard, the story you believed or that story you told yourself, had an impact on those choices. If stories are our most persuasive technology, why don’t we do more to put them to work? Why don’t we leverage the power of stories every day in our work and our lives? Over the past fifty years, we’ve come to believe that storytelling is a professional discipline. A skill for the master storytellers at the ..read more

When my sons were younger, they loved listening to the straight-talking comedian and radio presenter, Karl Pilkington. One of their favourite Pilkington quotes is: ‘You won’t get anything done by planning.’ They often quoted it to me during exam times when I made hints about the benefits of revision timetables. I’m not sure if Pilkington ever explained what he meant when he said this, but there’s wisdom in his words. Plans are a necessary starting point for any project. But plans and projections alone won’t get us to where we want to go. We learn what’s next by making a start, with a leap of ..read more