REFERENCE

A one-page reference basic story structure with some tips for how to work through mapping your story idea to the structure.

ResourcesStephanie JuddOctober 8, 2024storytellingComment

Where You Should Tell a Story in your Presentation

Presenters want to include stories in their presentation, but have no idea where the stories should go or what they should be about. Here are a few moments in your presentation where leveraging a story is particularly effective.

ArticleStephanie JuddSeptember 30, 2024influence, stories, presentations, storytelling, messaging, key messagesComment

Influential Storytelling Program

BROCHURE

Read our detailed brochure about our flagship and longest-running program for business leaders.

ResourcesStephanie JuddSeptember 18, 2024storytellingComment

The W&H Way to Craft an Influential Story

Crafting an influential story is tough. Where do you start? What do you do along the way? How do you know if and when you’re ready to share your story? We thought it would be fun to try to lay out our process from beginning to end. During our Influential Storytelling program, we take participants through the entire process of crafting an influential story, but it’s something else to see it laid out on a page. Let’s see if we can do it!

ArticleKara DavidsonAugust 19, 2024influential storytelling, story, storytelling, influenceComment

Guiding Principles of a Storytelling Learning Journey

We are firm believers in the value of empowering leaders (and people) to be compelling communicators who can inspire and persuade others with stories. Now that we’re almost a decade into delivering our flagship program, Influential Storytelling, we’ve partnered with clients ranging from Google to the University of Michigan, Uber to McGraw Hill. In that time, we have developed a strong point of view about what it takes to create an effective storytelling learning journey.

If you’re designing a storytelling learning journey for your employees, here are a few guiding principles we recommend you keep in mind…

Adding Pitch and Pace to Your Delivery Skillset

Voices have rhythm, beats, texture, and timbre… all qualities of music. By thinking about our vocal chords as if they’re instruments to practice playing, we can open up an entire world of vocal delivery techniques that are both learnable and measurable in their impact.

ArticleStephanie JuddFebruary 12, 2024leadership, storytelling, delivery, presence, presentation, pitch, pace, voice, charismaComment

Wolf & Heron Founder Selected as Featured Speaker for DisruptHR Capital Region Event

Wolf & Heron announces that founder and managing partner Kara Davidson has been chosen as a speaker for DisruptHR Capital Region 3.0. The event will be held on Thursday, Sept. 28, at Armory Studios NY in Schenectady, New York.

Press ReleasesStephanie JuddSeptember 14, 2023storytelling, speaker, conferenceComment

BOLD Business with Jess Dewell: How to make informed decisions with imperfect information

PODCAST

Stephanie sat down with Jess Dewell of BOLD Business podcast to discuss how to make informed decisions with imperfect information.

PodcastStephanie JuddAugust 11, 2023storytelling, in the mediaComment

How to Add Stories to Your Next Presentation

A key point relevant to stories and presentations is that stories must follow story structure while a presentation doesn’t have to. In fact, presentations often have a very different narrative structure. That being said, because human beings respond so well to stories, it can be helpful to embed short stories that follow this structure into a broader presentation narrative.

ArticleStephanie JuddJuly 24, 2023storytelling, presentation, coachingComment

Case Study: Juniper Square

CASE STUDY

Juniper Square was excited to host it’s first ever in-person Sales Kick Off event. Given what they knew about the power of stories, the leadership determined that the SKO would be designed around storytelling with the theme Ignite: Stories Brought to Life. Wolf and Heron drew from the foundational Influential Storytelling program and created a series of storytelling training experiences for team members at all levels.

Download our case study to explore more about our partnership with Juniper Square to deliver an impactful SKO 2023.

ResourcesStephanie JuddJuly 18, 2023storytellingComment

Transforming Your Presentation into an Interactive Workshop Part 2: Making Your Workshop Effective

The best workshops put the learning into the hands of the participants at every stage of the learning process, but sometimes the timeline—both for development of the workshop or the runtime of the experience itself—can result in more of a hybrid experience that contains both presentation-style and interactive moments. When we work with clients transforming their presentations into workshops, this is how we typically break it down.

ArticleKara DavidsonJuly 10, 2023storytelling, presentation, coachingComment

Transforming Your Presentation into an Interactive Workshop Part 1: Know When a Workshop is the Right Call

We help leaders engage and inspire others. A lot of the time, that ends up meaning that we help leaders be better storytellers and presenters, but once in a while, we have a client that’s truly interested in taking engagement to the next level, and they’re looking for help transforming what was going to be be a presentation into an interactive, engaging, and compelling workshop.

ArticleKara DavidsonJune 12, 2023storytelling, conference, presentation, coachingComment

The Making of a Conference Theme

As Story and Presentation Coaches, we partner with organizations planning conferences. Conferences have always been a way for people to gather outside of their day-to-day routine, share insights, learn, and grow. In a time when fewer of us are gathering in person, it’s even more important than ever to ensure those conferences are thoughtful and productive experiences for attendees.

ArticleKara DavidsonMay 25, 2023storytelling, conference, presentation, coachingComment

Stephanie Judd on Business Radio X Podcast

PODCAST

Stephanie sat down with Business Radio X to talk about critical skills that leaders should develop in a hybrid work environment, how managers support and motivate employees during layoffs, sustainable leadership practices, and how important it is for organizations to invest time, money, and resources into professional development.

PodcastStephanie JuddMay 4, 2023storytelling, in the mediaComment

Public Speaking Tips for Non Native English Speakers

At a recent coaching session, Kara was asked, “Do you have any tips for non-native English speakers at an English speaking company? I’m worried about how I come across.” There are so many considerations when it comes to working, presenting and speaking in front of audiences that are linguistically or culturally different from you.

ArticleKara DavidsonApril 10, 2023presentation, presentations, storytelling, presentation designComment

Make People Feel Seen, Heard, and Understood - Part 2: Coaching Tips for Leaders

Making people feel seen, heard, and understood is an important leadership skill. Here we offer tips from our executive coaching training that we think are particularly powerful ways to do just that: restate what you hear, ask powerful, future-oriented questions, trust your conversation partner has it in them to find the answers, and be mindful of your purpose.

ArticleKara DavidsonMarch 20, 2023presentation, presentations, storytelling, presentation designComment

Using Lessons from Storytelling to Design Your Presentation

A presentation is not a story, they are not interchangeable, but you can certainly use lessons from storytelling to make sure that your presentation has an organized narrative and leaves them with the takeaway(s) you want them to hold onto.

ArticleKara DavidsonFebruary 6, 2023presentation, presentations, storytelling, design, presentation designComment

Wolf & Heron Relocates Headquarters to Metro Atlanta and Delivers First Presentation of 2023 at the CDC

Wolf & Heron announces the relocation of its headquarters to Atlanta, Georgia. Founder Stephanie Judd was also tapped to speak at a Leadership Lab sponsored by the Council of State and Territorial Epidemiologists (CSTE). The in-person event was designed for the public health staff members throughout the United States and hosted on January 4 at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).

Press ReleasesStephanie JuddJanuary 25, 2023storytelling, product manager, speaker, conferenceComment

One-Page Overview of Wolf & Heron

REFERENCE

We empower your high-potential people and executives to engage and inspire others with storytelling. Download our one-page overview and keep it on hand as a reference.

ResourcesStephanie JuddOctober 5, 2022learning and development, L&D, professional development, training, storytellingComment

How to Develop a Storytelling Culture at Your Organization

Like many event-based learning, there’s always a risk that the skills, knowledge, energy and momentum developed in our workshops may get lost in the mess of daily worklife. We have pre- and post-event activities built into the Influential Storytelling program to help people integrate storytelling directly into their workflow, but there’s always more you can do to make storytelling part of your organizational culture.