August 1, 2021
Do you want to improve your storytelling skills, but you just don’t find the time to work on it?
Well, how about listening to some of the best storytellers, while you’re on the go (in the car, supermarket or gym)?
Here are the 5 podcasts that I love – two podcasts on storytelling in business and three podcasts on storytelling in personal life:
ANECDOTALLY SPEAKING
By Shawn Callahan & Mark Schenk
If you want to become a great storyteller, you need to be comfortable sharing a variety of stories. It is not enough to have 2-3 stories ready. Instead you’ll need to build a pool of 30-50 stories that you can pull from when it matters.
A fantastic resource to build this pool of business stories is ‘Anecdotally speaking’. Each week, Shawn Callahan & Mark Schenk share a short business story, discuss what they like about it and tell the listeners where to use it.
If I had to pick one podcast on storytelling in business, it would be this one!
LEAD WITH A STORY
By Paul Smith
Paul Smith is the best selling author of ‘Lead with a Story’ and ‘Sell with a Story’. Both are fantastic books to help you improve your business storytelling.
In contrast to ‘Anecdotally Speaking’, his podcast ‘Lead with a story’ does not follow the same structure and does not always include a relevant business story. But when a story is shared, it tends to be extremely compelling.
The Moth is the most recognized story slam in the world. The stories told at The Moth tend to be shorter, personal and, often, very inspirational stories.
You’ll find hundreds of stories in their podcast and their YouTube channel. Here is one of my favorite stories, told by Amanda Gorman and recorded at Cutler Majestic Theater in Boston in 2017:
Risk! is The Moth, just on steroids. It features longer, personal stories, covering topics that may be inappropriate for certain audiences (e.g. more body fluids, swearing, etc.).
If you have a long car ride in front of you and you want to stay awake, this is the podcast to go! Here is one of my favorite stories, told by Joel Kim and recorded in Brooklyn in 2016:
This is a bonus for the Dutch speakers. Very similar to The Moth in regards to the format of the stories (short, personal stories) – only difference is that it is in Dutch.
The stories are recorded at Echt Gebeurd’s live event in the Toomler in Amsterdam.
As you see, there are plenty of podcasts on storytelling that you can listen to to get inspired, build your story bank, and learn what techniques you can use in your stories.
While you can enjoy them passively, my suggestion is to listen to them actively.
Listen to them and think what you like about them, what you could be improved and where you could use the story (or a similar one) in your life.
Keep us posted as you embark on this journey. In a few weeks, you’ll have listened to some wonderful stories. Are there any podcasts on storytelling or stories that you found particularly inspirational? Leave a comment below with the link to the episode (in any format: article, video or podcast).
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