Storytelling to Improve Communication by Sara Elkins of Elkins Consulting
Course Description
Story sharing is the most effective communication, professional development, and relationship building activity, helping us reach the goals of individuals and organizations. We all face challenges in identifying the right story to share with the right audience, and often underestimate the impact of those stories on our internal messages and on the perceptions of the people around us.
Course Objective
- Participants will better understand their role as an ambassador, and how their personal brand can help build their own success and the success of the organization
- Participants will leave with more specific goals in terms of developing a personal brand and demonstrating it, and shrinking the perception gap between how they perceive themselves and how others perceive them
- Participants will leave with a portfolio of personal stories to share in order to better demonstrate their personal brand, and will understand how their behavior, actions, and stories impact that brand
Sara Elkin Bio
Sarah is a communication coach, Gallup certified Strengths coach, keynote speaker, writer, and professional musician. She uses storytelling as the foundation of her work with management teams and individual clients to improve communication and relationships. Her podcast and upcoming book, Your Stories Don’t Define You, How You Tell Them Will focus on storytelling as a means of self-reflection, knowing that the stories you choose to tell, and how you choose to tell them, impact your internal messages and the perception of those around you. Her podcast was named in the top 50 in the category of emotional intelligence on player.fm.
She has had what she lovingly calls a “gypsy career,” crossing all kinds of boundaries in industries and skill sets, from public affairs to compliance officer, from being a hotel’s director of sales to being a meeting facilitator. She’s finding this current iteration of her career as a keynote speaker and Gallup certified Strengths coach particularly satisfying because throughout her career, her focus has been on improving communication, the key to great relationships. She works with individuals and teams to improve their communication at work and at home.
Sarah and her family live in an 1890 Victorian home, aka, a project house. In the nearly 20 years in there, she has learned to patch drywall, make minor plumbing and appliance repairs, replace a faucet, and more… thanks to YouTube.
Sarah’s passion for connecting people and helping them learn to better connect with others is embodied in the events she hosts, called No Longer Virtual, which are small, interactive conferences based on the theme of connecting beyond the keyboard, recognized twice by Forbes as “Can’t Miss Events for Entrepreneurs” in 2017 & 2018.
