Question: If a picture is worth a thousand words, how many pictures is a video worth?

A lot.  We live in a video world.  More than 1.3 billion people use YouTube.  Almost 5 billion videos are watched on YouTube every single day.  The total number of hours of video watched every month?  3.25 billion.  

And video isn’t just for personal use.  More than 9% of U.S. small businesses use YouTube.  “Business leaders are increasingly … continue reading

Mark Burnett arrived in Los Angeles on October 18, 1982 with no job, no place to live, and less than $300.  

“A working-class kid from London’s East End with no return ticket,” writes Carmine Gallo in The Storyteller’s Secret.  Mark’s friend Nick picked him up at LAX and brought some good news: a family in Beverly Hills was looking for a nanny.  Mark had an interview that night.

The … continue reading

1: Every time Sara Blakely put on white pants that hung in her closet, she didn’t like what she saw in the mirror.  
Traditional women’s undergarments didn’t help.  They felt “uncomfortable and unsightly,” Carmine Gallo writes in The Storyteller’s Secret.

Then, inspiration struck.  Sara got out a pair of scissors and cut the feet from a pair of pantyhose.  

Voila.  Problem solved.

Sara was selling fax machines door-to-door at … continue reading

1: Pope Francis has spoken to some of the largest audiences in history.  In July 2013, he spoke to more than 3 million people on the beach in Rio.  Only to outdo himself two years later during his visit to the Philippines where he spoke to a crowd of 6 million people, Carmine Gallo shares in The Storyteller’s Secret.

No matter how large the audience, Francis often relies on … continue reading

1: The date was June 4, 1940.  Nazi Germany was on the verge of victory over France.  The situation was desperate.  Prime Minister Winston Churchill had to prepare the British people for a momentous challenge ahead.

“We shall fight in France.

We shall fight on the seas and oceans.

We shall fight with growing confidence and growing strength in the air.

We shall defend our Island, whatever the cost may … continue reading

“Show me an MBA and your sales numbers, that’s fine.  But tell me a great story about how you got started and your vision, and we’ll talk.” —Barbara Corcoran, Shark Tank

1: Bryan Stevenson  was nine and playing with his cousins.  A small gesture was about to set him on his path to becoming a prominent civil rights attorney, Carmine Gallo writes in his book The Storyteller’s Secret.  

Bryan’s grandmother … continue reading

1: Adam Levine struggled in school.  He “found it impossible to sit still, stay focused, or finish his schoolwork.  He was hyperactive and impulsive,” Carmine Gallo writes in The Storyteller’s Secret.

Years later, as an aspiring musician, he continued to have trouble focusing – not in class, but in the studio.  “I had 30 ideas floating through my mind and just couldn’t document them…  When I can’t pay attention, … continue reading

1: One of the biggest mistakes we make as presenters is being overly complicated and sharing too much information.

“Any fool can make something complicated. It’s hard to make something simple,” says Virgin founder Richard Branson in Carmine Gallo‘s The Storyteller’s Secret.  

“From the beginning, Virgin used clear, ordinary language,” Richard recalls.  “If I could quickly understand a campaign concept, it was good to go. If something can’t … continue reading

1: Sir Ken Robinson’s TED talk has been viewed over 71 million times making it the most viewed talk in TED’s 30-year history.

Wow.

How our educational system kills creativity is “certainly a topic of popular interest,” Carmine Gallo observes in his book The Storyteller’s Secret.  Yet, this alone does not explain its popularity.

“What does explain it?” asks Carmine.  

“If they’re laughing, they’re listening,” says Sir Ken.

In … continue reading

1: A standing ovation following a TED talk is a rare occurrence.

Canadian astronaut Chris Hadfield had the TED audience on their feet after his 2014 talk “What I learned from going blind in space.”  

The critical moment of Chris’s story?

When his eyes slammed shut in the middle of a space walk while his spaceship was traveling around the world at five miles per second, Carmine Gallo shares in … continue reading