The Personal Story

For me, stories are a speaking essential.  Every great speaker I know tells stories.  My preference is the personal story following the classic hero's journey format as detailed in The Hero with a Thousand Faces by Joseph Campbell.

First Love:  About falling in love in the eighth grade, afraid to tell her fearing rejection,
only to have her accept me, then reject me because I was a jerk.

  Mrs. Eckert:  How my high school English/Journalism teacher had a great effect on my life.  It highlights four important events over thirty years.

Nov. 19th, 1986:  Laid off at forty eight I started a speaking business which lasted until I retired in 2001.

They're Losers!:  How being given a class of poor students, assured they weren't
worth teaching moved me from being a speaker to an explainer.