Everyone has a story to tell.  Life experiences are the threads that are woven into the fabric of who we are and what we are about.  People choose to chronicle their stories in many different ways.  Some take photographs and videos of their adventures, travels and family gatherings.  Others choose to journal and keep diaries of various events.  Motivational speakers keep “snippets” of these experiences in their heads.  They archive people, places and things and use these materials in their seminars and keynote presentations.  They link these life experiences to intended outcomes and purposes.  Expert motivational speakers have the ability to take a personal life experience and transform it into a poignant and hopefully, useful message.  Their skills at story telling can bring listeners to laughter, sometimes tears, and at times meaningful silence.

Stories can be as grand as the adventurer who spends twenty five days traversing the frozen tundra by dog sled or as life changing as surviving a horrible auto accident only to be left a quadriplegic.  Most stories are about human triumph and tragedy even if on a smaller scale.  The motivational speaker taps into the universality of human existence through stories.

Below are some examples of “snippets” that often times find their way into my presentations, whether at keynote engagements or team building seminars.

There is the story about the time I decided to give the other girls in the boarding school a tour of the nuns  cloistered sleeping quarters (which are off limits) while all the good sisters were supposed to be in chapel. Of course, Sister Lucy wasn’t feeling well and remained behind that fateful day.  The punishment? Cleaning the chapel hardwood floor with soft cotton balls. What lessons do you suppose were reaped from this experience?

Another story was when a wood chuck got into the garage and chewed its way up the inside wall all the way to the ceiling header.  Leaving the door open for a day made no difference.  It refused to come down, or get out and I solved the problem by standing on a step ladder, above the point of entry and driving a nail into the wall only to remove it and fill the hole with hornet spray in the hopes of driving the animal down the wall and out the door.  The spray forced the animal down the wall and out the hole directly under me!  Dazed and fogged, the wood chuck moved into a corner of the garage.  A pair of heavy fireplace gloves and a straw broom were the weapons used to rid the building of this intruder.  No amount of noise and sweeping would move the heavy animal and with frustration mounting it was time to finish the deed.  Placing the broom on the woodchuck’s head and quickly grabbing the tail and madly swinging it above my head to keep it from biting my arm was almost too much.  Laughter always comes when that visual is rekindled.

Then there was the summer job between my freshmen and sophomore year of college when I worked in a poultry plant standing eight hours a day in rubber boots, rubber apron, rubber gloves and hair net on my head pulling chickens off a hook and pulling their insides outside! The motivation to finish college was never so clear.

Many more stories unfold.  There is the one when I climbed Mt. Washington, not by car either.  Or when I found out at thirty four that I were adopted.  Or the story about sitting in a tree stand deer hunting only to have a huge bull moose decide to stand directly under that same tree.  How about the night I heard coyotes howling for the first time while  camping in a tent?  And of course, the time I stuck my tongue on the frozen chain of the playground swing set.  The stories go on and on.

From childhood to young adulthood, to middle age and to older age, we all continue to acquire stories.  Hang on to them, re-visit them now and again for it is these stories that reflect our common humanity.  We are the authors of our lives.

Good motivational speakers and good cooks share many similarities.  Both are seeking to engage their audiences.  Both activities invoke a great deal of preparation.  Both often draw from personal, life-time experiences.  Both rely heavily on presentation.  Both know that timing is critical.  And, both are expert at adding just the right amount of ingredients to bring out the full flavor.  Good speakers and good cooks garnish, measure, ad lib, and caramelize.

Good speakers and good cooks begin by identifying the major focus.  For the speaker it is selecting the primary theme; for the cook it is selecting the main course.  As part of identifying the primary theme and selecting the main course, the speaker and the cook need to know their audience and the occasion for which they are speaking or cooking.  A speaker will approach a formal keynote address at an annual conference differently than an afternoon presentation at the town’s garden club.  By the same token, a cook will approach a seven course pre’ fixe’  dinner with white tablecloths differently than a backyard barbecue of a whole roasted pig for a fortieth birthday party.  Each event is equally important.  But, the audience, the occasion, the preparation and the delivery will be designed very differently.  So knowing the audience and the occasion is critical to identifying the major focus.  It is what allows good taste and good fun to come together in a seamless presentation.

Assembling the right ingredients and putting them together in right measures is critical to both the speaker and the cook.  The speaker mixes a splash of substantive expertise with a sprinkle of humor, adds a generous amount of energy, caramelizes a sweet thought, folds it all into poignant life experiences and bakes it with a good laugh.  The cook gathers each ingredient, pre-heats the oven, sautes, grates zest, browns, sprinkles, drizzles, caramelizes a sweet onion, bakes, and finally plates the dish.

A good speaker will oftentimes draw from the memories of his or her youth and adulthood.  Moments will be shared with an audience starting out like, ” I remember when Momma caught me…”, or, “I remember when my teacher said…”, or,” I remember the smell of my father’s after-shave…”, or, “I remember when the lights went out and I was alone in the dark…”, or, “I remember when I thought I could not go on…”.  Listeners can usually resonate to these universal moments and the feelings they engender.  These thoughts and feelings usually linger long after the speaker is gone.  Similarly,  a good cook will oftentimes tap the old neighborhood and long held family traditions serving up memories on a plate complete with the sights and smells of Grandma’s kitchen. “I remember my Mommas cannolli…”, Papa was a baker, so he…”,  “Friends would gather at graduation, weddings or funerals and bring…”, “With a large family, making things from scratch…”,  “Chili, a family favorite, was kept hot in a pot wrapped in …”,  “Friend green tomatoes always remind me of…”.

A cook is striving to create a taste that is memorable and a speaker is striving to create a message that is memorable.  Whether you are a casual cook or an aspiring pro with serious foodie credentials; or, whether you are a casual speaker or an aspiring pro with serious speaking credentials, chances are you have learned the importance of timing and delivery to the success of your efforts.  The timing and delivery of the cook’s dish may call for being served immediately from the oven, or it may be better to let it rest and meld and set up.  It takes practice to know when to deliver the food so that it is at its best in taste, in texture and, in aroma.  But, for the good cook the hard work and practice are a labor of love.  A good cook sparkles in his/her zest for the culinary arts.  In like manner, a good speaker must time the words just right sometimes using dramatic pause, sometimes rushing up to a major point and then slowly unravelling it to the audience.  Sometimes the language presented may be figurative, sometime literal, sometimes carefully couched, sometimes brutally straightforward.  It takes practice to know how to deliver so that your presentation is at its best in meaningfulness, in motivation, and in style.  But, like the good cook, the hard work and practice are a labor of love.  A good speaker sparkles in his/her  joy for the speaking arts.

So, to the speaker and to the cook: may your work be refined; may it also be big and bold; may you continue to push the boundaries with bursts of flavor and dollops of meaning.  And, may the finish of your labors be as long as that of a truly world class red wine, lingering and continuing to develop for a long time.