Esther Choy, Author at Leadership Story Lab

How to Tell a Three-Act Story: An Annotated Example

Structure is critical to stories, just as it is to buildings. When the structure of a building is solid, we don’t give it a second thought! Same goes for story structure, which holds all the elements together, usually without your realizing it. In fact, all strong stories share the same basic three-act story structure. The…

Tired of Small Talk? Start Story Collecting

This article originally appeared on Forbes. Of all the best kept secrets in storytelling, this is my favorite: To become a great storyteller, one must first become a great story collector. And the first step to story collecting is to listen aggressively. How do you listen aggressively so you can begin story collecting? Four ways.…

This Is How Leaders Can Identify Good Stories

In 2015, Neha Agrawal, a marketing executive at a global medical company, was selected as one of the opening speakers at her company’s multi-day leadership off-site. She needed to set the tone for the day as she spoke with peer senior executives on the topic of leadership. She had about 45 minutes to speak, with…

Storytelling Can Persuade People To Take COVID-19 Precautions

The story of Patient 31 in South Korea has become a cautionary tale about why social distancing is a crucial precaution. But will it persuade skeptics? On February 15, 2020, while hospitalized after a car accident, doctors advised Patient 31 to get tested for coronavirus because she had developed a high fever. “Instead,” according to…

Don’t Tell Stories During The Pandemic

A very distant cousin’s mother recently passed away. My cousin lives in the Midwest, while the rest of her family lives in Seattle. Two days after her mother’s passing, her mother-in-law called her crying, begging her not to attend the funeral. The line of argument went like this: my cousin would have to fly. That…

3 Principles of Data Storytelling

My favorite professor Karl Schmedders released a webinar during the pandemic lockdown. I was dying for a bit of intellectual stimulation after being cooped up inside for weeks. Karl came to the rescue! He wore his signature three-piece suit with a bow-tie, paired with his unmistakable mix of personal warmth, high energy, and a hint…

You Need Leadership Storytelling When You Work From Home

As coronavirus has begun to spread in the U.S., many companies have urged or mandated that employees work from home. However, the U.S. Department of Labor estimates that working remotely is only possible for 29% of the American workforce. The rest of the U.S. workforce has jobs that must be done in person—there’s no virtual…

Working Remotely? Storytelling Builds Your Credibility

Recently, Legal Zoom listed “credibility issues” as the top disadvantage of running an LLC from home. What they had in mind was the physical office space. And it’s true that it can be hard to reestablish authority after your friendly golden retriever has jumped up and licked a potential client’s face, or your children have…

5 Quotes to Help You Connect With Everyone

As much as we hope that a lecture or presentation is going to change our lives—especially when we’ve paid big bucks to hear from an expert—one-on-one conversations usually stick with us much better. That’s because, as Mark A. McDaniel and Peter C. Brown argue in their book Make It Stick: The Science of Successful Learning,…

Why Introverts Are Storytelling Superheroes

Introvert pondering how to best share their story.

I have a confession: I’m an introvert. This might be surprising if you know what I do for a living. I’m an introvert who loves to tell stories, and I even love to teach groups of people how to tell better stories. I firmly believe introverted business leaders can tell some of the most compelling…