Transcripts from Audio CDs:

Storytelling

What are the two biggest mistakes you see guys make when telling stories in the field?

The two biggest mistakes, um. Once they're if they're really I mean the bigger mistakes has to do with opening and body language and that kind of stuff. That's by far the biggest mistake. Around stories, the two biggest mistakes that I see are that guys tell really long versions of their story and they don't realize it. So that's by far the biggest mistakes are guys telling uh versions that are longer than they need to be and not kinda noticing that their audience is kind of uh becoming less interested because the story is getting a little too long. And I think the other thing I notice a lot is guys just kind of just literally focusing too much on the story and not enough on the audience. And kinda really failing to check in with the group, even if you're telling a quick version of a story, you still need to stop. And kind of check in with people and you can just be vision or you can be through kino or it can be kind of verbal. But uh, but you need to do that if you don't do that you're really gonna. People might laugh and they might listen to your whole story but they're not gonna feel a connection with you, they're not gonna feel attraction, they're not gonna feel you convey personality. I don't know Joe what do you, I wanna hear kind of maybe from Joe. You know I think you went through this whole process of maybe using stories and then kind of um, getting to a place where it's more adlive. I know that transition process seems to be a lot of kinda being you know to react to the group. And I think a lot of problem is not being able to react. So I don't know if you wanna talk about that a little or what that process was like for you.

Yeah when I first started telling stories, I just kind of ran through it real quick. And God some of them are like where the hell is this coming from like "why are you telling use this?"

Yeah

As I got better I'm starting to slow it down and started to check in more and I was doing more kino. And actually like I would get halfway through my story and I would get into banter they had fun off shoots of my story. (Lance: Yeah) And then it got to a point where like I just go into straight banter. You know it's true like you said, um, when you start telling story, you're so aware of what else is going on because you told it so many times. You know exactly what's next that you really can pay attention to like what's going on in the group. Like you can see where people are looking or if they're trailing off or they're totally into it or there's other people coming into sets or where you need to pick up the energy. With my story to you uh, you know like I totally present like I'm a chick and mimic that. (Lance: Yeah) Adding like the vocal tonality into it like I got these great reactions that's something I add in. Just when I'm bantering (Lance: you're not gonna do for us?) "Oh my god, you'll never understand. Jees Joe" You know I'll totally bust on girls like that and they're like "oh my god, where did you learn to do," or "why are you like that, you're so weird. But it's cool." (Lance: That's awesome man. That's totally like that's the stuff that girls love. That's awesome) Yeah they totally get off on it. It's crazy. And then like you know when they're responding like I just look at them like that's all you need the best look and they're dead. (Lance: awesome)