Posts by Esther Choy
Want Your Business To Survive The Pandemic? Facilitate Stories.
During Covid, over 72,000 restaurants have permanently closed in the U.S. The National Restaurant Association reports that the industry lost $165 billion in sales between March and July, and that the pandemic has cost over 8 million restaurant employees their jobs. During hard times, companies hunker down, lay off workers, and cut costs. All of this is necessary.…
Read More3 Storytelling Techniques To Steal From Jeff Bezos
Whether you are an entry-level employee or one of the richest people on earth, eventually everyone faces the same challenge. Everyone has to convey the essence of who they are. On July 29, 2020 when four big tech CEOs testified before Congress, Jeff Bezos crafted his testimony as if a member of Congress had asked…
Read MoreCreate A Story Library in 1 Minute Per Day
It’s pitch dark in the room and the floor feels exceptionally cold. I fumble my way to the closet only to trip over a book one of my kids left on the floor the night before. “It’s time for my swim,” I think. But deep in the morning haze, I forget that I am no…
Read MoreThe #1 Reason Authentic Business Storytelling Is So Difficult
“So, let’s go around the room—everybody say something about yourself so we can get to know each other.” This request is common at work and elsewhere, but it’s totally ineffective. That’s because when we are with strangers or acquaintances, it’s tough to talk about ourselves in genuine and relatable ways. Authentic business storytelling is incredibly…
Read More4 Obstacles to Authentic Business Storytelling
The most common obstacle to authentic business storytelling is that it simply takes guts. But that’s hardly the only obstacle. Here are others. A Laundry List Authentic business storytelling can be hard when we have a laundry list of things we want to communicate about ourselves. Laundry lists are not stories. Recounting events is not…
Read MoreA Storytelling Checklist for Job Interviews
At a time when every job opportunity matters, an easy-to-use storytelling checklist can be extremely useful. The U.S. economy saw a “modest recovery” in the early weeks of June 2020, as Shahar Ziv writes for Forbes. However, he notes that the recovery has been uneven. A disproportionate number of Black employees, in particular, are seeing…
Read MoreBoost Productivity With This Storytelling Exercise
What if spending 15 minutes a day on a storytelling exercise boosted your work performance? Research has shown that when employees spent just 15 minutes per day reflecting on what they learned that day, they began to perform 23% better after just 10 days. This may sound overly simplistic, but think about moments when you…
Read MoreIntroducing Esther’s New Podcast: Family IN Business!
John Nelson, the CEO of Seed Beauty, stressed that a family in business together makes “a conscious decision to come together…[understanding that] the business that we’re in today is not necessarily going to be the same business in the future.” This is a distinction that goes beyond defining an organization as a “family owned business.”…
Read MoreCollecting Stories Will Make You Happier
This article originally appeared on Forbes.com. A few years ago, a colleague of mine told me she and her husband needed to move to another apartment. “Okay,” I thought, “such is life.” I had no idea the ordeal that she actually went through until recently when we were chatting about non-work-related topics. “Esther, remember a…
Read MoreBe Less Awkward About Sharing Stories
You know leadership storytelling is powerful. You’ve figured out how to choose the right stories to tell. Just one small problem. For many leaders, sharing stories in everyday conversation feels awkward. As a participant in one recent Leadership Story Lab workshop put it, “How do we incorporate stories professionally so it doesn’t seem so ‘off’…
Read More