Thirty years ago, as a young TV journalist, I pitched dozens of stories a day to frantic News Desks and busy Editors. Sometimes people would lean in: “Yeah, great story!”

But often they’d lean back: “Hmmm, nah. Boring.”

Curiously, nobody ever explained why some stories worked and others didn’t.

They just had a gut feeling. Twenty years later, after researching, pitching and telling thousands of stories, I had a gut feeling too.

When I left the BBC, I thought “People need to tell better stories about their work. I can teach them how to do it.”

But the problem is – you can’t teach a gut feeling.

So I began to read. I read great literature and the best science on storytelling. I listened to authors and psychologists. (These are some of my favourite books, by the way)

And I learned by teaching too. Listening to thousands of clients helped me become a better storytelling consultant.

And now – I can tell you why some stories work and others don’t.

The CV stuff:

• Journalist for 20+ years, mostly with BBC TV.
• Author of Storyteller Tactics.
• Consultant for clients like Google, IDEO & the UK Government.
• Trainer with the BBC Academy for 3 years.
• Skills: writing, public speaking, video journalism, producing events & conferences, design & deliver training programmes.

I’ve helped thousands of customers tell better stories. Here are three ways I can help you.

Training

100,000 people have bought Storyteller Tactics, a training guide to telling great stories about your work. These cards are based on 30 years experience as a storyteller and ten years of classroom experience, teaching others.

I can run online or in-person training sessions for an hour, a half day or full day.

Contact me to discuss what you need.

Consultancy

I can design a training programme to suit your needs. I’ve created bespoke packages for to promote export sales (Estonian government) or culture change in large organisations (BBC). And I’ve run 1-2-1 story coaching programmes over several months (see a before-and-after case study from the property investment industry here).

Contact me to discuss what you need.

Keynotes

I’m a pretty good public speaker. I have 1000+ hours of live TV experience, so I don’t get nervous in the spotlight. I’ll add energy, interaction and laughter to your conference whenever you need to show people how to talk about their work.

Watch one of my keynotes here:

I have over 50 personal recommendations here on LinkedIn. They are my social proof. Get some tips on writing your own Social Proof stories here.

Get in touch if you’d like me to help you with your stories.