Voices have rhythm, beats, texture, and timbre… all qualities of music. By thinking about our vocal chords as if they’re instruments to practice playing, we can open up an entire world of vocal delivery techniques that are both learnable and measurable in their impact.
Read MoreOn December 06, 2023, Wolf & Heron hosted the inaugural annual showcase to discuss the leadership problems we solve and the solutions we offer.
View the showcase and download the slide deck here.
Read MoreWolf & Heron announces that founder and managing partner Kara Davidson has been chosen as a speaker for DisruptHR Capital Region 3.0. The event will be held on Thursday, Sept. 28, at Armory Studios NY in Schenectady, New York.
Read MoreStephanie sat down with Jess Dewell of BOLD Business podcast to discuss how to make informed decisions with imperfect information.
Read MoreA key point relevant to stories and presentations is that stories must follow story structure while a presentation doesn’t have to. In fact, presentations often have a very different narrative structure. That being said, because human beings respond so well to stories, it can be helpful to embed short stories that follow this structure into a broader presentation narrative.
Read MoreCASE STUDY
Juniper Square was excited to host it’s first ever in-person Sales Kick Off event. Given what they knew about the power of stories, the leadership determined that the SKO would be designed around storytelling with the theme Ignite: Stories Brought to Life. Wolf and Heron drew from the foundational Influential Storytelling program and created a series of storytelling training experiences for team members at all levels.
Download our case study to explore more about our partnership with Juniper Square to deliver an impactful SKO 2023.
Read MoreThe best workshops put the learning into the hands of the participants at every stage of the learning process, but sometimes the timeline—both for development of the workshop or the runtime of the experience itself—can result in more of a hybrid experience that contains both presentation-style and interactive moments. When we work with clients transforming their presentations into workshops, this is how we typically break it down.
Read MoreWe help leaders engage and inspire others. A lot of the time, that ends up meaning that we help leaders be better storytellers and presenters, but once in a while, we have a client that’s truly interested in taking engagement to the next level, and they’re looking for help transforming what was going to be be a presentation into an interactive, engaging, and compelling workshop.
Read MoreAs Story and Presentation Coaches, we partner with organizations planning conferences. Conferences have always been a way for people to gather outside of their day-to-day routine, share insights, learn, and grow. In a time when fewer of us are gathering in person, it’s even more important than ever to ensure those conferences are thoughtful and productive experiences for attendees.
Read MoreStephanie sat down with Business Radio X to talk about critical skills that leaders should develop in a hybrid work environment, how managers support and motivate employees during layoffs, sustainable leadership practices, and how important it is for organizations to invest time, money, and resources into professional development.
Read MoreAt a recent coaching session, Kara was asked, “Do you have any tips for non-native English speakers at an English speaking company? I’m worried about how I come across.” There are so many considerations when it comes to working, presenting and speaking in front of audiences that are linguistically or culturally different from you.
Read MoreMaking people feel seen, heard, and understood is an important leadership skill. Here we offer tips from our executive coaching training that we think are particularly powerful ways to do just that: restate what you hear, ask powerful, future-oriented questions, trust your conversation partner has it in them to find the answers, and be mindful of your purpose.
Read MoreA presentation is not a story, they are not interchangeable, but you can certainly use lessons from storytelling to make sure that your presentation has an organized narrative and leaves them with the takeaway(s) you want them to hold onto.
Read MoreWolf & Heron announces the relocation of its headquarters to Atlanta, Georgia. Founder Stephanie Judd was also tapped to speak at a Leadership Lab sponsored by the Council of State and Territorial Epidemiologists (CSTE). The in-person event was designed for the public health staff members throughout the United States and hosted on January 4 at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).
Read MoreWe empower your high-potential people and executives to engage and inspire others with storytelling. Download our one-page overview and keep it on hand as a reference.
Read MoreLike many event-based learning, there’s always a risk that the skills, knowledge, energy and momentum developed in our workshops may get lost in the mess of daily worklife. We have pre- and post-event activities built into the Influential Storytelling program to help people integrate storytelling directly into their workflow, but there’s always more you can do to make storytelling part of your organizational culture.
Read MoreOne of the most powerful things you can do throughout your story—but especially at the beginning—is to use language that allows your listener to visualize what’s happening. When your listener is able to visualize the story, it becomes more experiential to them, it’s easier to follow, it feels more tangible and authentic in its specificity and it’s easier to remember.
When we’re coaching someone to do this, we encourage them to find the scenes, to avoid generalizations, to go beyond the plot and uncover the cinematic potential within their story. Think SHOW, not TELL.
Read MoreWhen brevity is the most important thing, stories may not be the best tool of choice. But when coming across as a compelling and memorable communicator, consider stories—especially ones that lean on specificity—to carry your message.
In our work as storytelling coaches, one of the most common challenges our clients face is bringing their stories down to specifics. Recently, Stephanie had a client, let’s call her Jane, come to her for support in preparing for an interview. Jane knew that she was going to be asked about her origin story. In her case, the question was going to be something along the lines of, “What inspired you to get into the field of Mathematics?” Here’s a rough approximation of the story she started with, and the final version that she landed on. Read on to compare the two to eachother.
Read MoreIt’s not all that uncommon for salespeople to be armed with a presentation or demo slide deck that was put together by the marketing department. The purpose of a “single source of truth” like the corporate-approved slide deck is to ensure that all salespeople have the same talking points and are communicating a consistent narrative in the marketplace. This is a noble goal, but one of the unintended consequences of a company-wide narrative in the form of a slide deck is that it can become stale and devoid of any kind of personal, authentic touch.
Read MoreStephanie sat down with Philip Lanos of Entrepreneur’s Action & Ambition podcast to discuss the genesis of Wolf & Heron, the entrepreneur journey, and the power of storytelling
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