Say WHAT?

Can you imagine telling a (your) story and leaving people with their jaw dropping? How about leaving them speechless? Or what about seeing the goosebumps and tears well up in their eyes as you wrap up an emotional presentation?

And WHAT if all of these reactions came from telling the same story? The same story told with the emotional tone you wanted to evoke? Could you tell your story three times with three different emotional tones in order to evoke your desired response?

During the writing of "Pacoima Days - The Events and Incidents that Inspired the Hit Movies, The Sandlot, Sandlot 2 and Radio Flyer" - I recalled how people reacted to some of the stories as I told them how my life was back in the early '70's. Depending on the reader's emotional state, different readers will be affected in different ways, so your job, in part, is to set the emotional tone of your delivery through tone of voice, cadence of speech, emphasis on words and phrases and your choice of picture words. It really all comes down to framing (setting the stage for) the delivery before you settle in and tell the story.

Here's a passage from my coming book:

I was a bottle fed baby and ate baby food from a jar. Mom smoked while she was pregnant and while she sat me in her lap and stuffed a bottle in my mouth. Later I would hear all sorts of reports about how smoking during pregnancy leads to stunted growth of the child. I grew up to be six feet one inch tall, maybe I was supposed to be six or eight inches taller but I’ll never know. When I was young I was like a puppy, big head, big hands and big feet and finally grew into them. You know what they say about a guy with a big head, hands and feet don’t you?  Big hat, gloves and shoes, and man did I go through shoes growing up.

Revealing a part of yourself is truly helpful, it helps build rapport. People tend to like the fact that you're being honest and open.

Here's another sneak peak:

We were inspired by all the sport super stars and we had favorite teams. Football, Basketball, Hockey and of course America’s game, Baseball. We knew we were all going to the majors, we just had to keep at it and our time would come. Our shoe boxes were full of sports trading cards. I wasn’t always the sharpest when it came to trading cards, but the upside to trading a good card for a dud was then I had a card to clothespin to my bike near the rear spokes for that “motor cycle” clicky-clack sound as the card got beat by the turning spokes, it was sweet.

Once you get in the groove of making story telling a part of your regular communications you will have reached a "next level" in life and business.

All the Best,

Scott Evans

THE TURNIP