“Dad, tomorrow I’ll be in charge of taking the younger kids to the school Carnival parade. Cool, right?”
“It sure is, baby. Just make sure you don’t take them blocks away from the grown-ups like you did last time.”
That was a week ago. Alice, who’s 9, was in charge of her sister and two other younger kids and, instead of staying in the main square like we told her to, she took her little gang three blocks away to catch the start of the parade. I wasn’t pleased.
“Daaad, how long are you gonna keep bringing that up??”
I turn to her mom and ask,
“Patricia, how long can I keep a joke going for?”
My wife misunderstands me, because what she replies is,
“You weren't so funny before. You got funnier.”
Huh. I wasn’t expecting that.
I mean, I’m happy to hear it, but it caught me by surprise — even though I immediately know what Patricia means.
When I started speaking in public, I realised I could be funny, so I leaned into that. I knew that over the years I had gotten funnier onstage, but I’d always thought it was because I’d learned to bring something I was already doing into my speaking.
I never thought it could’ve been the other way around.
“Thanks, but that wasn’t exactly what I asked. Can you tell Alice how long I can keep making the same joke?”
“Oh, years.”
So I turn to Alice and say,
“Actually, I can keep it going forever.” She makes a face, so I add, “Or until you do something worse.”
I take pride in being funny. It’s a big part of who I am — but I can also be annoying as hell.
I never worked on that.
That’s a talent, really.
It bleeds
Maybe you’re not sold on this who storytelling thing. Maybe you hate public speaking, and avoid it like the plague. That’s ok. Many people can get away with that if their work doesn’t require them to.
But here’s why I think you should anyway:
Speak onstage more confidently, and you start sounding more confident overall
Organise your ideas better, and your emails and meetings get clearer
Get better at finding stories, and you start noticing more what happens in your daily life
And yes, become funnier when you’re presenting, and you become funnier with your friends and family
When you work on your presentation skills, that work bleeds into the rest of your life.
So don’t practice them because you’ll become a better speaker. Or a better storyteller.
Do it for a much better reason:
To become a better you 🤘
-Francisco
Whenever you're ready, there are 3 ways I can help you:
Getting clarity through your story to stand out from all the other coaches, speakers and entrepreneurs out there
If you dream of speaking on the Red Dot, take this Scorecard and instantly discover how likely your idea is to be accepted by a TED-style organizing committee
If you (or your team) got any storytelling challenges, I’m sure there’s something we can do together ;-)
Thanks for reading! Reply any time.
