GET TO THE HEART
Big Blend Radio
interview with Ted Frank, author of ‘Get to the Heart: How Storytelling Secrets Can Make Your Presentation Clear, Compelling, and Earn You a Seat at the Table”.
For anyone planning a presentation, keeping the audience intrigued can be an agonizing challenge, especially in the age of smartphones. According to scientists, humans now have an average attention span of 8.25 seconds—shorter than that of a goldfish. But somehow, people can sit through an entire movie for more than two hours. Now, film professional Ted Frank is revealing how techniques of moviemakers can transform boring projects into inspiring stories that will move your stakeholders, get you the buy-in you deserve, and give your company the ideas it needs.
In Get to the Heart: How Storytelling Secrets Can Make Your Presentation Clear, Compelling, and Earn You a Seat at the Table, Frank outlines a variety of moviemaking methods that can make a huge difference for stakeholders, colleagues, and customers through the simple art of storytelling. Tailored specifically for real corporate projects, this unique guidebook provides step-by-step instructions that will energize your audience and help put your plans into action.
“There is now scientific evidence to show how movies open us up, inspire us and even align us with the same headspace,” says Frank. “So I studied all the ways movies tell stories and ran them through with real corporate strategies to identify tactics that anyone giving a corporate presentation could use, without a camera. And anyone watching that presentation will find it inspiring.”
In each chapter of Get to the Heart, you’ll find specific strategies that will get your stakeholders out of the conference room and into the world of your insights and ideas. “There are so many storytelling books for executives speaking to their staff,” adds Frank. “Get to the Heart goes in the opposite direction; it helps mid-level managers presenting to executives. But I think those executives will love it even more because I aim to make sure they never have to watch another boring presentation again.”
Through Ted Frank’s his game-changing new book, you’ll discover:
- How to take your everyday work and transform it into a powerful presentation that will get you heard and enable you to make a bigger difference
- The value of making your presentations more concise, more relevant, and more focused in order to help stakeholders understand and appreciate your message
- How to map your story like a pro: Frame it through heroes, so your stakeholders can not only see your key points, but feel them
- Fresh ways to connect with your audience, fitting their natural learning style and inspiring true action
- How to use strong visual elements throughout your reports in order to tell a cohesive story that will be relatable and memorable
- The two essential questions you must ask yourself before starting a presentation
- How to get to the heart of what matters to your stakeholders and eliminate the clutter that keeps you from connecting in a meaningful way
Ted Frank is a story strategist at Backstories Studio, which uses movie-style storytelling to help people make their presentations quicker, more visual, and more emotionally effective. A longtime veteran in advertising, marketing, consulting, and filmmaking, Frank has discovered how to transform corporate projects into powerful stories for companies such as Netflix, Fiat Chrysler, Twitter, and Pacific Gas & Electric. His experience in advertising taught him how to be simple, consulting taught him about the inner-workings of corporate life, and film studies showed him how movies tell stories in an engaging manner. Frank has combined all of those skills to help people in corporations get their insights and ideas heard.
Get to the Heart is available on Amazon and at www.gettotheheartbook.com.
