Unlocking the Power of Storytelling with Melinda Lee

Do you want to be an influential leader? A leader

that makes a lasting impact? A leader that delivers

presentations with flow with ease, and with memorability? If

you do, then you need to include stories. I encourage you to

build your skill of telling stories that matters, story

stories or your experiences. Yes, your presentations do need

to include facts, they need to include visuals. Don't forget to

layer in stories. When I say this to leaders, sometimes they

will often tell me Well, I don't want to include fluff. In my

presentation. story seems like I'm beating the bush, and I'm

just including fluff. That's some resistance there. That is a

way of repelling and not trying to build this powerful skill. If

you listen to every orator, powerful, great orator they are

including visuals, stories, details that tug at us details

that bring a multi sensory effect. And in a couple of

episodes back, I did a series a whole series on how to include

visuals, sound, smell, and touch within your stories. Then it

brings out your your lesson, it brings out what you've learned.

And it also connects you to the audience because you're sharing

a meaningful experience. And then you could tie it to a

lesson, tie it to a new perspective that you want them

to see. So I encourage you to go back and revisit those episodes.

But the reason why I'm saying this because I want us to be

that leader. If you're the leader that commands in your

presentations, you give only the facts, and you tell people what

to do, then so be it is that the leader you want to be it could

be a time and place for that type of style and approach. So

it behoves you to understand that the type, the time and

approach that I need as a leader right now, back, go forth and do

or for the most part, we don't, we don't have to be that way.

For the most part. Most of our timelines and sense of urgency

requires that we inspire our audience and motivate them, we

stir something up inside of them, so that they go forth and

conquer and move without you needing to demand anything.

Which means you include experiences and stories, because

it allows you to connect with the audience. Including the

details and multisensory effective. I mean, you have to

go overboard does not mean that you have to include a lot of

fluff, it just could be very simple. Including the sense the

aspect of sight, a visual within your story, you can set up your

story at the beginning with a powerful visual to bring people

in. And to do a visual you go from large to small, right?

There I am sitting in this gymnasium, right gymnasium, high

ceilings. There's basketball hoops on either side of the

court. And I'm in the bleachers amongst a large crowd, hundreds

of people. So in your visual, you can go from large to small.

I smell sneakers and sweat in the air from the running back

and forth of the players. There's a sense of smell using

smell including smell. What am I smelling? My nephew, fourth

grade nephew is at the free throw line. They had been

playing and it has been a intense game. They're a double

OT. Like they are tied. And they went into overtime twice. And my

nephew gets fouled. So he's at the free throw line. If he makes

these shots, we win. He wins. It's the championship game. He

grabs the ball, the tacky, smooth basketball, I can feel

the reverb, I can feel the bounce between his fingers. So

including the sense of touch, when you could touch you think

about texture. You could think about the shape or the time

pitcher, like including, I include texture, the shape, and

the temperature and temperature I didn't include in the

basketball but you can feel the round, smooth, tacky basketball.

So those are the aspects of touch. And then finally he goes

to shoot the ball. And he misses the loud sigh from our audience

of disappointment of fear. A huge sigh rumbles in the

audience. That's a set of sound, including sound. Just describe

the sound is it a worrying? Is that a thigh? Is it a thunder

loud thunderstorm, rumbling so using and you can look up online

sound, how to describe sound, how to describe touch, how to

describe a visual, so just get creative, but it doesn't have to

be overcomplicated. So my nephew misses that first shot. This is

his moment. He looks focused, he doesn't look bothered, he

doesn't even look nervous. He dribbles the ball, he shoots the

second one. And he makes it. So the crowd goes wild, everybody

stands up and screams. And people run out to the court, the

team members run out to the court, they give him a high five

and they hug him he's a hero of the day they win the

championship with that one point. It was amazing. He was so

focused, so present and just like what we want to be and who

we want to be in our talks in our presentation, we want to

stay focused, regardless of what is happening around us. The

pressure does fear. He just looked really calm. And he

looked like he was present in the moment. And that's the

opportunity that you can have when you're delivering your

presentations, calm, present, focus connected to your

audience, he was connected to that ball and that hoop. There's

that ball was going into the hoop. So I want you to remember,

when you go out to deliver your presentation, you are connected

to the audience, there's nothing else around you. And you're

focused on problem solving, you're focused on what can you

do to serve your audience? What can you do to connect to the

audience? Keep asking yourself that question. And that is what

you want to do shine a light on connections shine a light on

speaking and flow and not thinking about every single

word. It's more important that you connect more important that

you're focused on present with them. That is what matters. That

is what inspires telling your stories from the heart telling

your experiences and using them to share what you learned.

Right? That is actually the power of story. It's not because

Oh, it's another tactic or it's another strategy. I mean, that's

what we've done for for decades and, and aeons that's how we

pass our experiences and our lessons. That's what we do as

humans. So continue to do that continue to pass on your

experiences and your stories that are matter that are sacred.

This Was Your Life. So why not share your stories in an

impactful way that engages your audience connects you to them,

builds your trust builds your credibility, and again, helps

you make a lasting impression helps you be memorable. be

memorable as a leader be memorised be as a speaker. That

is where we're going. That's the journey that we're on. If you're

on board continue to just reach out to me continue to listen to

these episodes. Until I see you on the other side. I'm your

sister in flow. Take care