Posts by Esther Choy
What Video Games Teach Us About Storytelling
“I only usually stop when my iPad runs out of battery.” That’s what one woman said about her habit of playing Candy Crush Saga. When she picks her son up from school, she says, she doesn’t give him a hug until she’s reached the next level of the game. Other Candy Crush devotees find that,…
Read MoreFeeling Stressed This Holiday Season? Try Reminiscing
There’s a word for what happens when we go home for the holidays. Revertigo. Dr. Dan Gottlieb, host of WHYY Philadelphia’s Voices in the Family, recalls watching his wife experience “revertigo”: “When we left… she was a wife, a mother, a wonderful woman—and she gets home, and with her family, and she’s an obedient little…
Read MoreHow I Finally Met One of My Storytelling Goals
Fifteen years ago, I enrolled myself in a creative writing class at Columbia College Chicago to meet my storytelling goals. At the end of the semester, the professor took the class to visit a local author so we could hear how a pro stayed committed to writing and made a comfortable living doing it. One…
Read MoreHow SAFER Foundation Took Its Fundraising Story to the Next Level
Rob Gorman had a good story about an on-the-job experience. It was so good he shared it with friends, family and colleagues. But he had never thought to use this story as a fundraising story: a way for donors to learn about the Safer Foundation, where he serves as Grants Manager. Then, all of a…
Read MoreFind Common Ground By Admitting Secrets
I belong to a private club in downtown Chicago. It occupies a regal, historic building in downtown Chicago. To qualify for membership, one must possess a minimum of a bachelor’s degree, three letters of support from current members, and an ability to shoulder a monthly membership fee that will dwarf the cost of a daily…
Read MoreTelling Your Tradeoff Story
Picture a dark and crowded bar. The bartender rattles a cocktail shaker and prepares a tray of drinks. This isn’t just any bartender, however. By day, he’s an entrepreneur, and he’s bartending so he can raise the cash to pay his employees while he waits for his business to turn a profit. Launching a…
Read MoreStorytelling Builds Meaningful Business Relationships
People are seeking meaningful work and meaningful business relationships, a topic Esther explored in an interview with Leadfully: 1. Why do you believe authentic communication is an essential leadership skill in the 21st century? This past Monday (July 19), I was speaking at the Healthcare Analytics Conference in Chicago on leadership and storytelling. Over and…
Read MoreA Better Presentation Deck Starts with Storytelling
“I had information I could have talked for hours about,” says Daniela Garza-Sokolowski, Director of Marketing at InnovaFlavors, as she reflects on a recent talk she gave. The only problem? She didn’t have hours to talk. She had a matter of minutes and needed to craft a better presentation deck. Her five-to-ten minute talks were…
Read MoreWhat’s the Story Behind This: Asking for Stories
Furious typing. That was usually what greeted my friend, Heather, each morning when she walked into the office she shared with her boss. Heather would head to her desk and see her boss hunched over her keyboard, elbows out, clattering away. Then her boss would hit the final key like she was striking the…
Read MoreBig Data for a General Audience: “What Do I Want To Leave With Them?”
“What do I want to leave with them?” That is the question Vinodh Balaraman, a principal and senior partner at ZS Associates found himself asking as he prepared to give a talk at the world’s largest hospitality technology conference. The topic for his talk was complex: “Maximizing the Impact of Customer Reviews and Ratings Sentiment…
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