Story Warriors

Mel Kelly is a glutton for punishment. The transplanted Irishman was killin' it with his standup comedy acts in Munich, Germany. So he took his show on the road. He got himself booked with six gigs in his hometown, Dublin. Spoiler alert: he bombed. "It was a car crash." His story will have you laughing and crying at the same time. He also shares some pearls of wisdom for telling stories to different audiences.

"Life is so simple when you're on your deathbed," says Patrick Ney. After surviving a traumatic blow to the head on the streets of Warsaw, the native Brit took to video to tell the stories of Poland’s World War II heroes. The host of "Heart of Poland" now finds heroes everywhere, every day. Some consider Patrick himself a hero of Polish life.

"I felt like I'd lost the true voice of what social media was supposed to be." The former marketing agency head knew he was at a crossroad. "The artist in me was always wanting to go out and shoot that photo, to find that story." So Geoff Livingston blew up his Twitter account, folded his agency, grabbed his camera and hit the street. Today his photos are making a difference for causes that matter.

One morning in 1965, John walked in to the recording studio at Abbey Road and made a confession to Paul. What happened after that marked the end of Beatles 1.0, as the Fab Four went on a four-year tear of defining the social narratives with timeless character-driven stories. Turn up the volume on this one.

Islamophobia in America drove Sarah Khan to a fear of white people.
Post 9-11, the Muslim American was unable to leave her home.
That's when she discovered the power of storytelling. 
Sarah had to take a chance. Now she wants you to.

"When the doctor came into the emergency room dressed like an astronaut, when I was trying to take breaths of air into my lungs and it wasn't getting there, that's when it became clear. I had COVID-19," Josep tells us from Barcelona. Through it all, and through the power of story, he found renewal.

If you want to be at your most creative, put all aspirations of success aside.
Today Ajay Mathur lives without such expectations, and he's never been so creative.
"The ideas don't come from me," says the singer-songwriter, "but from the muse."
"You can't force it. You just have to be ready to accept the muse when she comes."

Sebastián Lora tells us about his prolific journey as an influencer on YouTube.
"The journey is only worthwhile if you have a purpose," he says, and he tells us why.
"Would you tell a better story if you were staring into the gun of a gangster?"

Titans of enterprise really don't know how to tell stories, says Chris Brogan.
So he's created three types of stories that leaders should be using today.
And as a creator, a storyteller, Chris tells us about his monster with 18 billion faces.

Though we don't always admit it, deep down inside we feel our flaws and conflicts.
That's why stories without flawed and conflicted characters usually fall flat. 
Chris Corbett, author of Nirvana Blues, explains how to "show don't tell" this.