I wonder how many of the people who read my articles have heard of the Five Elements of Speaking? I’d like to know, because I wrote them, and it's about time I got them out there. As a shiatsu therapist, I worked with Chinese medicine, which uses the Five Elements of Health. I wondered if these five elements could be applied to other businesses? Can it be applied in your business? I believe they can. The First Element of Speaking is Fire. How many times have you seen a boss, a speaker, who's fired up? Who’s really buzzing, emitting energy, and naturally attracting people to them, just as fire attracts people to its flame. “They’re on fire”. Who hasn’t heard that said before? You see, it was Fire that started the universe. The Big Bang. It started everything. It's the idea, the emotion generated by enthusiasm. We’ve all the theme of your speech; that's your fire. It’s the way you introduce yourself to the audience. Fire in the belly can inspire people to fight, to achieve, and change other people’s lives. But Fire needs the elements around it in order to draw the crowds safely. Storytellers need FIRE. Physical fire is great when the storytelling takes place outdoors; inside, they have to create the fire by marketing, the location and their opening. They need the audience to gather, move closer and feel comfortable enough to listen. The storyteller, the artist, brings laughter, song, and silence. Our heartbeat is raised; we feel hot; there is passion, and the circulation/persperation improve. We love being with people. Nature tells us that FIRE is associated with maturity, laughter, the colour red, and sex. FIRE is used to bring a spiritual nature to an event; pagans, christians, muslims, jews, buddhists, bedouin, you name the culture, fire sits at its heart. And many of them ‘worship’ the Sun. Religion, of course, is heavily involved with FIRE as a symbol of judgement, purification and power. Many references to “Burning bushes”, “pillars of fire”, “tongues of fire”, spirits and of course, Hell. Most other spiritual practices have Fire at the centre of their faith.

Attention: Coaches, Consultants, Business Owners and Performers…Join me on my Facebook Page Storytelling is about telling your story before somebody else tells it for you! A stage for coaches, consultants, business owners and performers to use storytelling so that they can educate and entertain a live audience on stage or by camera, in a unique environment for the spoken word. 1: Storytelling is about: ‘Turn Up - Stand Up - Speak Up’. Turn Up means exactly that. Do not just be at the event. Be at the event for a purpose and make that purpose is to be memorable. One of my daughters has had a roller coaster of a life over 39 years and has stories to be told, but her latest is among the most interesting. England has not been a happy place for her since her mother and I split up in 1999. That event had a profound effect on her and led to a life where stability was impossible. Her life went off the rails. In January this year, I contacted a business leader I’d contacted through networking, and described my daughter’s desire to go to Egypt, a country she had dreamed about since the age of eight. Thanks to that connection, my daughter took the leap of faith, along with a bucket load of determination and the experience of jumping into the deep end, to fly to Egypt and spend a few weeks with my friend, where she was introduced to the sights and sounds of the places she’d always wanted to see and experience. During those three weeks, she carried out my blueprint naturally. She Turned Up Not only turning up to the airport and to my friend’s home in Egypt, but also to a university where she applied for a position teaching English as a foreign language. She Spoke Up at a local travel agent’s, where she offered her skills as a social media creator, and a “chaperone” to clients who booked tours into the Egyptian desert (she speaks passable Arabic, so can translate for the visitors). She Stood Up. Over the 25 years since the break up of our relationship, my daughter has ploughed her own path and, I can say, followed her own star. A star she can now experience under a sky where only the Moon and stars provide light, (unless the Bedouin provide the evening entertainment).

How Stories Change Lives...For the Better or Worse! When business owners, employees, networkers, or friends use the words “Anxiety or Dread”, while they’re asked about speaking to a live audience…What’s the question you’re looking to ask? But, can’t. On my podcast channel, ‘No Story Stagnates,’ I interview people whose life stories reveal the lessons they’ve learned. And that shaped their lives and their choices. In the years before COVID, I had a small therapy room dedicated to my Shiatsu Practise. Clients came, often as a “Last resort”, for treatment of chronic pain, stress and anxiety. Shiatsu has been a therapy I was using since I qualified in 2002. Shiatsu had provided me with the tools to work with people on chronic, long term physical and psychological trauma. COVID closed it down. It was a different approach to western medicine and began with a consultation, a one-to-one session, in private, where the client's past medical history and life experiences were used to plan the first sessions of treatment. The sessions were designed to get a full picture of the client's past and included my ability to listen not only to the answers given, but also to what was not said. This one client came to mind: On her first visit, she displayed many of the blocks associated with trauma, where her answers were constrained to “Yes” or “No”, but this was an introductory session and not a full treatment, so I was careful with the methods I used. The following day, she rang to say how well she had slept, and agreed to sign for a course of six treatments. The first one being a full consultation, in private (her friend sat outside the room as requested). This is her Story: But first, 3 Questions for you: Are you a business owner or an employee who has to speak to a live audience on a regular basis? 1. Would you use the words 'Sleepless nights, Anxiety, or Dread to describe your emotions as your turn to speak approaches? 2. Are you frustrated by the barriers that words can prevent you from making the maximum impact on your audience, clients or sales force?

Work Your Way Out Of The Desert. Is this how your business sometimes seems? Is it a lonely trek across a desert with no landmarks, no signposts and no trace of help? Are you reaching the point where survival seems hopeless, your destination just a mirage and even your life in danger of ebbing away? If the answer is YES, you must keep hold of the thought that, unlike the picture, where the footsteps disappear without a trace, you do still have options. You always have a choice as to your next move. This was me physically and in business. I spent six months in the Negev Desert and always found the "short looking walk" to the mountains took 2 hours, before the climb. 2020...And My Personal Desert In 2020, I found myself in the desert that was the pandemic and the loss of my businesses. I was on my own, stability was years away, and the future bleak. So bleak, I spent four months in a tent in the woods. Fortunately, help was available, and thanks to Helping Hands in Leamington Spa and the support groups, I am able to step back onto firm ground and start a new journey. - Have you been there? Are you still in that desert with the footsteps disappearing? - You keep going, determined that things will work out. You give in and set about rebuilding your life... Or you have planned for hardship and prepared for backup. - I'm just curious to see if, working together, we can both thrive. Everyone knows they will face events in business that will test them to the limit, but those who have prepared, have reached out to fellow professionals for support, and have the best chance of survival. - Reach out NOW! You can plan not just for survival but also growth and success. You have the opportunity to spend an hour with me to Make More Impact On More People and chart your path back to success. This is your chance to plan for success and prepare for survival. TAKE IT BEFORE THE FOOTSTEPS IN THE DESERT DISAPPEAR... You will walk away with a personalised Plan for a Perfect Presentation: A MindMap for your Perfect Story, and a 30-minute one-to-one Zoom call with me.

https://www.skool.com/storytime-skool-7852/classroom/cb127f2d?md=7a3bd4e39306467dbd7fc006ec898ea2 How one man's story was so memorable, I can still hear the delivery after over ten years.