Faith Wood

Stories grab us. They take us in, transport us, and allow us to live vicariously and visually through another’s experience. But have you ever considered how the stories you tell yourself are impacting your ability to lead, communicate and even believe in yourself and your own identity. People are attracted to stories, “because we’re social creatures and this is how we relate to other people.” It is also how we influence and/or are influenced by others. It’s no surprise. We humans have been communicating through stories for upwards of 20,000 years, back when our flat screens were cave walls. Centuries ago, people passed information from one person to another via storytelling long before they could read or write. As a result, today our brains are hardwired to listen to and respond to stories. Stories form the very fabric of what we think and how we think and if you are not telling the story, then you are likely the audience of someone else’s – perhaps even accidentally.

The limbo game of life can affect us. It is easy to keep things in perspective when the limbo bar is high in the air—life coasting along smoothly and without hazard, not too many decisions to be made, minimal demands, no one agitating or making us crazy. But what happens when the bar gets lower and requires more tactical maneuvering than we’re used to; when our effortless existence and well-laid plans start to go awry? Fortunately, it is when we are standing hip-deep in life crises that we realize we can often bend more than we ever dreamed we could. These defining moments show us how to tap into the resilience we need to maintain our balance as we navigate life’s challenges and scoot below the proverbial limbo bar. When we slow down and relax our standards, we soon find that we have quite a lot of balance and flexibility within us, no matter how low the bar goes.

Good communication has always been about the story you have to tell. If your story is that you have no time, no patience, get no respect, never get the resources you need or the rewards you deserve, your first job in building your ability to influence will be to find a new story. Influential storytelling demands that you abandon the safety of being “on the outside looking in” and step inside an experience or imagined experience with all the messy details, consequences, and personal feelings that happen in real life. In this half day seminar, Faith Wood, will help you “Crack the Code” on your personal story with all the limiting beliefs attached to it. Then help you discover and develop a framework for improving your influence through better story telling.