Lessons in Communication from a Professional Storyteller

  Donald Davis regularly engages in the purest and oldest form of communication. He is a professional storyteller.
  Davis, 66, gets paid to tell his original stories to audiences nationwide. For 43 years, the North Carolina native has traveled around the U.S. entertaining listeners at schools, churches, civic clubs and festivals.
  In 2010, he spent 294 days on the road sharing his true tales from childhood and beyond with people of all ages. His audiences vary in size from less than 25 in a classroom setting to more than 10,000 at an outdoor amphitheater in Orem, Utah.
  On Monday, Davis was in Columbus, Ga., telling stories to an intimate group of students and teachers at Columbus Technical College. With his dapper looks and folksy style, Davis relayed a tale about the time his little brother broke his collar bone playing football in the yard with the neighborhood kids. They called his little brother "chicken boy" to make him mad and play football with abandon. But when "chicken boy" snapped his collar bone, their father said, "No more football."

Dapper Donald Davis delivers dynamic stories.

  A few months later, the family was packing to go on vacation and little brother's collar bone had healed. While their father was finishing packing, the boys decided to run off and play football.
  "Chicken boy" got tackled by big brother and another large boy, and hit the ground hard. When he got up the other boys noticed that one of his shoulders was pointing straight down in a very unnatural position. Little brother had broken his other collar bone.
  The trip got cancelled.
  Although not funny at the time, Davis had his collegiate audience smiling and laughing as he delivered the story with spirited enthusiasm, multiple voices and animated body language.
  At one point, Davis dramatically tilted his shoulders, slumped his body and agonized his facial expression in a humorous portrayal of his little brother with a broken collar bone. The audience howled.
  During a break, Davis encouraged the audience to find the time to learn the stories about their own families.

"Family stories are very important," he said. "If the stories get lost, there is nothing left. Family stories are the most valuable thing that we can pass on to our children. They enable children to learn more about their parents and grandparents."

  After the show, I spent some time with Davis and asked him several questions about the art of storytelling. Davis described five basic tenets of great storytelling, which also apply to any form of communication related to marketing, advertising, public relations, fund-raising, and social media.

1. Be audience-centered. Davis said he spends time analyzing his audience before and during each performance and selects stories to tell based on the make up of the people. Are they young or old? Blue collar or white collar? Rural, urban or suburban? Church audience or college crowd? "You have to know your audience," he said.
2. Keep the plot simple. "If your plot is too heavy, you will lose your audience," said Davis. In marketing and design vernacular that translates to KISS, keep it simple stupid.
3. Be very visual. This comes from a guy whose career relies on words and language. But Davis  said the visual effects of storytelling are just as important. He enhances his stories with facial expressions, body language, animated behavior, hand and arms movements, and by displaying palpable emotions of joy, fear and sorrow.
4. Adjust as you go along. Davis said a storyteller has to be nimble and quick, and able to adapt to the mood and feedback of the audience. Likewise, today's marketing and PR professionals rely on speed and real-time technology to respond to market trends and news, and to meet the needs of the shifting buying habits of consumers.
5. Engage the audience. Davis said the engagement experience is like playing tug-of-war with the audience. "They pick up the other end of the rope and pull it tight. The story is walking back and forth on the rope," he said. "You're playing the audience." This sounds like the battle cry of social media advocates. Engage, converse, connect, inspire!

  Davis said his favorite audience is a mixed-generational crowd. 
  "It's an enjoyable audience when you have grandparents, parents and kids all together," he said. "You try and find material that they have in common or bridges the age span. You plant some conversational seeds that the kids will catch on to."
  The storyteller and author recently published his 18th book, "Tales From a Free-Range Childhood." The book is a compilation of 20 short stories from Davis' childhood. All of his books and CDs can be purchased at his website. The road warrior performs next at the Azalea Storytelling Festival in LaGrange, Georgia, on March 4-6.

###########