Scary Tales of a Far-Right America Right-wing media is informing the way you think in more ways than you realize. Read this month's newsletter to find... Read More January 6, 2025 5 Minute Read
ICYMI: Why We Are “Wired for Story” Story expert Lisa Cron lets you in on the secrets to captivating storytelling. Spoiler Alert: stay far away from boring. Read More December 19, 2024 7 Minute Read
Finding the Humanity in Complicated Laws: Learning from The Nature Conservancy Federal legislation can be so complex that it’s difficult even for lawmakers themselves to understand how these laws will affect... Read More December 12, 2024 10 Minute Read
ICYMI: How Bad Presentations Are Born Ensure your presentation has more snazz and less snooze with these six questions to ask yourself before delivering. Read More November 21, 2024 7 Minute Read
Tools to Build Connection and Strength During Times of Upheaval Now, more than ever, you need tools to transform apathy into caring, caring into action, and action into lasting change.... Read More November 18, 2024 5 Minute Read
ICYMI: Five Fast Ways to Ruin a Webinar With distractions and multitasking aplenty, even the best-intentioned webinars can set you up for failure. Don't let that be you!... Read More October 17, 2024 5 Minute Read
Scary Tales of a Far-Right America Right-wing media is informing the way you think in more ways than you realize. Read this month's newsletter to find... Read More January 6, 2025 5 Minute Read
ICYMI: Why We Are “Wired for Story” Story expert Lisa Cron lets you in on the secrets to captivating storytelling. Spoiler Alert: stay far away from boring. Read More December 19, 2024 7 Minute Read
Finding the Humanity in Complicated Laws: Learning from The Nature Conservancy Federal legislation can be so complex that it’s difficult even for lawmakers themselves to understand how these laws will affect... Read More December 12, 2024 10 Minute Read
ICYMI: How Bad Presentations Are Born Ensure your presentation has more snazz and less snooze with these six questions to ask yourself before delivering. Read More November 21, 2024 7 Minute Read
Tools to Build Connection and Strength During Times of Upheaval Now, more than ever, you need tools to transform apathy into caring, caring into action, and action into lasting change.... Read More November 18, 2024 5 Minute Read
ICYMI: Five Fast Ways to Ruin a Webinar With distractions and multitasking aplenty, even the best-intentioned webinars can set you up for failure. Don't let that be you!... Read More October 17, 2024 5 Minute Read
Finding the Humanity in Complicated Laws: Learning from The Nature Conservancy Federal legislation can be so complex that it’s difficult even for lawmakers themselves to understand how these laws will affect... Read More December 12, 2024 10 Minute Read
Tools to Build Connection and Strength During Times of Upheaval Now, more than ever, you need tools to transform apathy into caring, caring into action, and action into lasting change.... Read More November 18, 2024 5 Minute Read
Need Hope? Tell Stories. If you want to create communities to participate and advocate for change, building hope is a necessity, and telling stories... Read More February 5, 2024 4 Minute Read
Brilliant Ideas to Build a Storytelling Culture for Fundraising The team at Pinky Swear Foundation has created two powerful ways to focus on storytelling for fundraising. Read more to... Read More July 10, 2023 5 Minute Read
Five Faves from frank Once again the frank gathering was an extraordinary gathering of artists, activists, academics, and changemakers from around the world. Check... Read More May 1, 2023 4 Minute Read
Why We Win Hearts and Minds (Not Minds and Hearts) In this month of hearts, it seems fitting to focus on the role emotions play in connecting your audience to... Read More February 2, 2023 3 Minute Read
ICYMI: Once More With Feeling You've said the same words a thousand times. So how do you keep them fresh for today's audience? A legendary... Read More February 16, 2024 4 Minute Read
Five Faves from frank Once again the frank gathering was an extraordinary gathering of artists, activists, academics, and changemakers from around the world. Check... Read More May 1, 2023 4 Minute Read
A Brilliant Tip for Virtual Presenting on the Road What happens when I am traveling for an in-person workshop and have a virtual session planned while on my trip?... Read More February 24, 2023 2 Minute Read
The Best Way to Recover from Mistakes When Presenting? Improvise! Nobody’s perfect. Mistakes happen to all presenters, but what distinguishes the best from the rest is how they recover. This... Read More September 8, 2022 11 Minute Read
When Presenting, Observe the Platinum Rule Impact your audience by following the #1 rule of presenting. Effective presentations give your audience what they want in the... Read More August 1, 2022 2 Minute Read
The 21st Annual Summer Reading List The Summer Reading list is back with books that can help you tell stories, gather with purpose and look good... Read More July 1, 2022 6 Minute Read
How to Get the Most Out of Brainstorming Brainstorming at its best follows one “do or die” rule. This month, we explore our #1 brainstorming tool, why we... Read More June 1, 2023 5 Minute Read
ICYMI: How to Avoid Brainstorming’s Hidden Trap Your brainstorming session is over, your list of possible solutions isn’t worth the paper it’s written on. What went wrong? Read More September 22, 2022 3 Minute Read
The 21st Annual Summer Reading List The Summer Reading list is back with books that can help you tell stories, gather with purpose and look good... Read More July 1, 2022 6 Minute Read
Scary Tales of a Far-Right America Right-wing media is informing the way you think in more ways than you realize. Read this month's newsletter to find... Read More January 6, 2025 5 Minute Read
ICYMI: Why We Are “Wired for Story” Story expert Lisa Cron lets you in on the secrets to captivating storytelling. Spoiler Alert: stay far away from boring. Read More December 19, 2024 7 Minute Read
Finding the Humanity in Complicated Laws: Learning from The Nature Conservancy Federal legislation can be so complex that it’s difficult even for lawmakers themselves to understand how these laws will affect... Read More December 12, 2024 10 Minute Read
ICYMI: How Bad Presentations Are Born Ensure your presentation has more snazz and less snooze with these six questions to ask yourself before delivering. Read More November 21, 2024 7 Minute Read
Tools to Build Connection and Strength During Times of Upheaval Now, more than ever, you need tools to transform apathy into caring, caring into action, and action into lasting change.... Read More November 18, 2024 5 Minute Read
ICYMI: Five Fast Ways to Ruin a Webinar With distractions and multitasking aplenty, even the best-intentioned webinars can set you up for failure. Don't let that be you!... Read More October 17, 2024 5 Minute Read
ICYMI: Strategic Communication Saves the Family Dog Dog-lovers will do anything for their dogs. They'll even do Strategic Communication for their dogs. Check out how the principals... Read More September 19, 2024 8 Minute Read
Are You Still Deficit Framing? How are you introducing your colleagues, your clients, your boss, the individuals you are hoping to help? It may be... Read More September 4, 2024 5 Minute Read
ICYMI: Five Questions for Better Meetings Meetings are essential. Bad meetings? Not essential. Check out these five questions to ask yourself to help your next meeting... Read More August 15, 2024 7 Minute Read
The 23rd Annual Summer Reading List You won't want to miss these books to add to your must-read list... Read More August 6, 2024 5 Minute Read
ICYMI: Numbers That Don’t Numb You'll be surprised to discover the most effective ways to use Social Math! Read More July 17, 2024 3 Minute Read
In Presentations: Access is Everything An interview with James Warnken, a Digital Accessibility Consultant with Blind Institute of Technology, about how to make presentations more... Read More July 9, 2024 12 Minute Read
ICYMI: The 10 Questions We Hear Most Often Ten frequently asked questions that still apply today! Read More June 20, 2024 9 Minute Read
Feel the Facts Data gives us the facts. Stories give us the feels. Dive into the importance of emotion in storytelling! Read More June 6, 2024 3 Minute Read
ICYMI: The Art of Playing Yourself When it's your turn to present, is the audience seeing the real you? In an interview with the late Eda... Read More May 21, 2024 7 Minute Read
New Report: Foundations, Tell Your Stories! A report from The Center for Public Interest Communications guides foundations in telling their own stories to build (or rebuild)... Read More May 3, 2024 1 Minute Read
ICYMI: PowerPoint Corrupts Make the most out of your PowerPoint presentations. Don't let the infamous slideware corrupt your presentations. We're here to offer... Read More April 2, 2024 7.3 Minute Read
“Yes, And” Your Way to a Brilliant Brainstorm Impactful leaders use this simple & fundamental tool of improvisation to supercharge any brainstorming session. This month's article is all... Read More March 31, 2024 2 Minute Read
ICYMI: Five Questions for Better Meetings Explore a simple model designed to improve all kinds of user experiences and make your meetings more engaging and more... Read More March 14, 2024
Scene Work makes the Story Work Scenes will launch your storytelling from snooze to success! Don't miss our scene breakdown: what they are, where to find... Read More March 2, 2024 7 Minute Read
ICYMI: Once More With Feeling You've said the same words a thousand times. So how do you keep them fresh for today's audience? A legendary... Read More February 16, 2024 4 Minute Read
Need Hope? Tell Stories. If you want to create communities to participate and advocate for change, building hope is a necessity, and telling stories... Read More February 5, 2024 4 Minute Read
ICYMI: The 10 Immutable Laws of Storytelling The Goodman Center's ten immutable laws of storytelling! Read More January 18, 2024 8 Minute Read
Missing Stakes is a Big Mistake Story stakes grab your audience more than any other tool in your storytelling toolkit! Check out this article on act... Read More January 8, 2024 6 Minute Read
Three Act Story Structure Refresher A quick refresher on the three act story structure! Read More January 2, 2024 2 Minute Read
ICYMI: The 5 Parts of the Perfect Pitch Five essential questions to answer to make your perfect pitch a home-run! Read More December 14, 2023 8 Minute Read
Beginnings and Endings A strong start and solid end are what presentations need to truly shine. Learn the steps to prime your audience... Read More December 2, 2023 6 Minute Read
ICYMI: Falling Flat on Your Ask? Amp up the ASK of your story or campaign with tips from The Goodman Center! Here are two campaigns where,... Read More November 21, 2023 6 Minute Read
Storytelling for Community and Advocacy at El Centro Erica Andrade and her team at El Centro are putting storytelling to work in so many ways... Read More November 9, 2023 4 Minute Read
ICYMI: The Road to Action: See-Feel-Do (Updated!) Activate your audience's mind's eye to create emotion and elicit action. Plus, our addendum, that dives into all the senses. Read More October 19, 2023 8 Minute Read
How To Honor Your Audience’s Experience It's a common mistake that all public speakers make, here's how to avoid it! Read More October 4, 2023 4 Minute Read
ICYMI: Five Questions to Build Your Message A campaign that demonstrates how answering just five questions can help any public interest group craft the most persuasive message! Read More September 21, 2023 7 Minute Read
The Existential Meeting Question: Why Are We Here? Tired of meetings that drain energy and waste time? Here's a tip that might turn your meeting nightmares into dreams! Read More September 6, 2023 4 Minute Read
ICYMI: Telling Tales in Tight Spaces The storytelling conundrum: "this is the age of TikTok! What if I don't have the time or space time to... Read More August 17, 2023 6 Minute Read
The 22nd Annual Summer Reading List It's time for summer reading! If you can find a spot in the shade (or a/c), there are three books... Read More August 7, 2023 4 Minute Read
ICYMI: The Single Best Predictor of a Successful Meeting is… A sneak peak at techniques for crafting an effective meeting agenda! Read More July 19, 2023 9 Minute Read
Brilliant Ideas to Build a Storytelling Culture for Fundraising The team at Pinky Swear Foundation has created two powerful ways to focus on storytelling for fundraising. Read more to... Read More July 10, 2023 5 Minute Read
How to Get the Most Out of Brainstorming Brainstorming at its best follows one “do or die” rule. This month, we explore our #1 brainstorming tool, why we... Read More June 1, 2023 5 Minute Read
Five Faves from frank Once again the frank gathering was an extraordinary gathering of artists, activists, academics, and changemakers from around the world. Check... Read More May 1, 2023 4 Minute Read
Stories in the Wild: Dramatic Narrative at Work in Public Interest This month, we are featuring the interactive digital storytelling project “Neighbors, Not Strangers," and we will break down what makes... Read More April 4, 2023 6 Minute Read
A Brilliant Tip for Virtual Presenting on the Road What happens when I am traveling for an in-person workshop and have a virtual session planned while on my trip?... Read More February 24, 2023 2 Minute Read
Why We Win Hearts and Minds (Not Minds and Hearts) In this month of hearts, it seems fitting to focus on the role emotions play in connecting your audience to... Read More February 2, 2023 3 Minute Read
ICYMI: Ads So Bad They Can Actually Do Some Good Lessons that still ring true about how to avoid bad ads! And stay tuned to the end for a 2023... Read More January 20, 2023 6 Minute Read
Starting Your Story Strong: What I Learned from Improv In an age of ever-shrinking attention spans, if we don’t grab the audience’s attention right away, they will tune out... Read More January 10, 2023 4 Minute Read
ICYMI: What Stories Can Learn from Jokes The next time somebody says, "Three guys go into a bar," pay attention. There's a lesson in storytelling behind the... Read More December 22, 2022 4 Minute Read
After 24 Years Helping Good Causes Tell Better Stories, Andy’s 5 Parting Requests Five requests for those who still aspire to tell truly world-changing stories Read More December 1, 2022 6 Minute Read
Lessons Learned from a Decade of Story Collecting The co-founders of the Rye Y Story Project share 10 years of experience gathering and sharing community stories. Read More November 3, 2022 4 Minute Read
ICYMI: Story Collecting: The Y Shows How A good story is hard to find! Goodman Center alum Celia Hoffman offers insight for nonprofits that want to collect... Read More November 2, 2022 3 Minute Read
Talking About Poverty? This Report Can Help How to avoid being one of the "organizations in the nonprofit and philanthropic sectors are reinforcing repressive, victim-blaming narratives" Read More October 2, 2022 1 Minute Read
6 Commitments for More Ethical Storytelling The six commitments which Define American recommends making to anyone with the courage and generosity to share their story with... Read More October 2, 2022 2 Minute Read
A Label Past Its Expiration Date? If you use the term “vulnerable population” to describe an audience you serve, Rashad Robinson has a word of advice... Read More October 2, 2022 1 Minute Read
ICYMI: How to Avoid Brainstorming’s Hidden Trap Your brainstorming session is over, your list of possible solutions isn’t worth the paper it’s written on. What went wrong? Read More September 22, 2022 3 Minute Read
The Best Way to Recover from Mistakes When Presenting? Improvise! Nobody’s perfect. Mistakes happen to all presenters, but what distinguishes the best from the rest is how they recover. This... Read More September 8, 2022 11 Minute Read
When Presenting, Observe the Platinum Rule Impact your audience by following the #1 rule of presenting. Effective presentations give your audience what they want in the... Read More August 1, 2022 2 Minute Read
The 21st Annual Summer Reading List The Summer Reading list is back with books that can help you tell stories, gather with purpose and look good... Read More July 1, 2022 6 Minute Read
Kirsten Farrell Named Director of The Goodman Center As The Goodman Center enters its 25th year, I’ve decided it’s high time to “pass the mic,” and I’m delighted... Read More June 1, 2022 2 Minute Read
A Story a Day: Healthcare Workers Share Stories to Treat Burnout To get on stage in front of an audience of 700 of your peers and tell the story about a... Read More June 1, 2022 9 Minute Read
Asset-Framing Case Study: How SEARAC Got it Right This month, in response to such enthusiastic feedback, we’re spotlighting an exemplary use of asset-framing by the Southeast Asia Resource... Read More May 1, 2022 6 Minute Read
Why Asset-Framing is Better Storytelling In stories told with deficit framing, the people we meet are already in a distressed or perilous state. They are... Read More March 1, 2022 6 Minute Read
How Stories Make Two Hearts Beat As One (Literally) Chelsea scooches her chair closer to the small, candlelit table for two and takes in her date’s uneven dimples. He’s... Read More February 1, 2022 4 Minute Read
100+ Tips for More Visually Engaging Presentations If you’re completely satisfied with your PowerPoint, Keynote or Google Slide presentations and believe they couldn’t look any better, please... Read More February 1, 2022 2 Minute Read
New Year, New Lies – How to Fight Back Here’s one prediction for 2022 that I can make with confidence but no joy: your social media feeds will continue... Read More January 1, 2022 8 Minute Read
A Good Time to Talk About Endings (and How to Make Yours Better) Imagine attending a dinner party that begins with scrumptious hors d’oeuvres and drinks, proceeds to a delicious meal with lively... Read More December 21, 2021 6 Minute Read
The #1 Tool for the #1 Mistake in Communications Planning As you look down the road of communications planning, take heed: there’s a huge pothole ahead that can swallow your... Read More October 1, 2021 3 Minute Read
How 9/11 Reminds Us of the Awesome (but Volatile) Power of Living in the Same Story Where were you that day? I was in Los Angeles, three thousand miles away and three hours behind, but the... Read More September 1, 2021 5 Minute Read
Your Summer Viewing List (Part 2) We hope you had a chance to check out the five award-winning campaigns featured in our July issue and, as... Read More August 1, 2021 5 Minute Read
Your Summer Viewing List (Part 1) Long-time subscribers to this newsletter will recall that our July issue traditionally presents a “summer reading list,” but since the... Read More July 1, 2021 7 Minute Read