The one (fun!) thing you MUST do to become an excellent storyteller

It’s very important to understand THIS about the culture of the London Underground:

It’s not just that the passengers don’t talk to each other.

It’s that they don’t communicate IN ANY WAY.

Even when you’re smushed right up against your neighbour, your head jammed into the gap between their face and neck, the custom in London is to do everything you possibly can to act as if you are the sole occupant of that subway carriage. Casually check your phone. Read your book, even though it’s three inches from your eyes. Listen to your music on full volume, the tinny sounds trinkling out of your headphones. It’s surreal. But it’s What We Do.

On this particular morning, I had a seat – one of the advantages of living quite far from the centre. I had my headphones on, but there was no music, and the voice that I was listening to was quiet and calm – which made it even easier for everyone around me to imagine that I wasn’t there.

Suddenly, I gasped – and with the sharp in-breath, a loud, high-pitched noise escaped from my mouth before I clapped both hands over it.

Everyone in the carriage – EVERYONE – jerked their heads to look at me.

For three months, all I’d listened to was this one podcast. The Moth is a live show in the US, which I’d been obsessed with for about a year. I’d discovered it through This American Life – the first podcast I’d ever heard (and still one of my favourites). Though that show – specifically through Mike Birbiglia’s story, Sleepwalk With Me – I’d discovered The Moth’s own podcast, and hungrily listened to every one they had. I’d never encountered this idea before – people telling true stories on stage; sometimes funny, like the stand up comedians I’d been working with for years. But often, moving, tragic, or – as was the case with the episode I’d been listening to on that packed tube carriage – really, really shocking.

On a visit to New York a few months before, I’d gone to a live Moth Show and been knocked sideways by it. I bought the CDs – you could only buy them in sets of 10 – and then spent the next three months listening to as many as possibly could. I started wondering what my Moth story would be. Then I started thinking that surely there must be a similar show in London.

This led me, eventually, to find True Stories Told Live, and then to tell the story of my granny onstage – the one you can watch and hear here – and, finally, to start my own branch of the show in Toronto.

Here is what you need to do if you want to become excellent at telling stories:

Listen to people being excellent as they tell stories.

Here are some places to do that:

The True Stories Told Live Toronto Youtube Page – I’d suggest starting here, here or here.

The Moth podcast (which is free and still going strong!) – subscribe on iTunes here, or Stitcher here. Or listen to my favourite Moth stories here and here.

This American Life – although a lot of the stories are in documentary format, they also hand-pick some of the best Moth stories – plus Ira Glass almost always starts with a little story of his own. Here’s the first one I ever heard, featuring David Berkeley (the guy whose music is in all my Yes Yes Marsha videos)

Be aware of it out in the world. When you hear someone – a friend, a server, your chiropractor – telling stories excellently, start to notice what it is about the story that made it so compelling. My money’s on the fact that it’s probably not the content, but the way they tell it. Start to notice what it is they do.

If you want to be an excellent storyteller:
you have to listen to people telling excellent stories

(TWEET THIS HERE!)

I learned how to be a powerful story coach by working on myself, partly from birth (I am Russian, so storytelling is currency in my family), but mostly from 15 years as a music radio DJ, where I had to cut my stories from 20 minutes down to twenty seconds.

But when I really honed my skills?

It was because I was listening to as many excellently told stories as I could. Please do the same.

If you feel you need a little more help crafting your story, this is literally my favourite thing to do.

I’d love to do this with you – find out more about how I can help you tell your story on stage or on screen here: Yesyesmarsha.com/storycoaching, or tell your business “Why” story, here: yesyesmarsha.com/whystory. 
So tell me, where do YOU hear excellently told stories? Is it somewhere online? Or from a particular family member or friend? Let me know in the comments below!

Thanks so much for reading! If you know someone who wants to hone their storytelling skills – or would just LOVE a list of places to find great stories – please send them to this blog by sharing it using one of the round buttons below.

You RULE,

xx (Yes Yes) Marsha

PS want to know my best-ever client secret – and get even more advice, tips, plus stories that I won’t put on the internet? Come and join the Yes Yes Family – it’s free! Just pop your details in below:

Photo Credit: brownpau via Compfight cc and Connie Tsang – who is my favourite person on Instagram – you should follow her, here: instagram.com/conniemtsang

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