Featured Video: Ira Glass on Storytelling
November 22, 2009
An icon in the world of broadcasting, Ira Glass of “This American Life” is talking about the building blocks of a great story.
Let The Change Be YOU: Every Litter Bit Helps
November 19, 2009
“From a spiritual point of view, a leader is only a reflection of the consciousness of the people. Therefore, that leader will only be as strong and powerful as the people he serves. Bad leaders are meant to rouse us to take action. When we see something we don’t like in our leadership, it is to show us what is what we need to recognize and transform within ourselves.” Yehuda Berg, The Power to Change Everything
We are on the verge of a revolution. Not the militaristic kind but it is definitely time for a change. It is time to stand up and speak out. We need to stop complaining, stop moaning and get into positive action. No one is going to do it for us. It is up to us to lead the way.
There used to be a category of people called Leaders. Linguistically speaking, if there is a leader there must be a follower. But today we don’t have time to waste following others. Each of us in our own way need to be leading our own personal revolution.
What needs to change in you, your world, your household, your body or your neighborhood? If it needs to be done then guess who’s the one to do it? That’s right it’s YOU.
How many times do you go out the door, see some trash and walk on by? But then you come home, see that your neighbor dropped his cigarette butt on the sidewalk in front of your house and you get pissed.
I know I do because that’s exactly what my neighbor does and it really makes me mad. But I also noticed that I could feel very justified for being mad at him and blame him for the trash on my street. But the truth is, it’s up to me to change that, not him. This is what I mean by a personal revolution. I am choosing to be the change that I want to see.
So instead of knocking on his door and asking him to pick the butt up, I went inside, got my little baggie and picked it up myself. But then I realized that I couldn’t stop there. I went across the street and picked up a few more and now every time I’m out for a walk with Miss Sweetie, I pick up as many as I can. It’s up to me.
The only way to create a universal revolution is to create a personal one. And that’s not easy. It is not fun. It’s not fame producing. It doesn’t earn you any bread and butter. The only thing it does for you is to let you know deep inside that you are doing what it takes to create a better world. That’s it. That’s all you get out of it. If that’s not enough then this world is not going to change.
In picking up my neighbors cigarette butts I am not going to win an award or get written up in the paper. In fact no one really cares. But on a more universal level, if I can do those things that need to be done, without try to get a personal reward then I can sleep well at night. In other words, be at peace in my soul.
The gift is that my neighbors nasty cigarette butt made me realize that I need to go beyond the scope of my own personal pitiful annoyances and make the difference that I can, right here on my own street.
What about you? Where do you need to lead the way to your own personal revolution? What are you complaining about that you are leaving up to someone else to change? Think about it. It’s not pretty. If you truly find the honest nugget of what you need to change, you will get a kind of queasy feeling in the pit of your stomach. Like, “Ugh I know I need to be doing that but I don’t really want to.” That’s the one to go for.
I don’t honestly enjoy picking up cigarette butts, especially from my unconscious neighbor who could so easily put them in the trash! I annoys me and I’d rather be doing something else with my time, but I have to get beyond that annoyance and think about my other neighbors, the neighborhood and the world. Would our world be better if I picked it up rather than just complained? The answer is yes - Every litter bit helps!
Remember that saying? It’s true. Every tiny action, every tiny thought, every miniscule change that you personally make will be imprinted on the universe forever. And I’m not just getting meta-physical with you, it is scientifically true. Although the mystics have always been far ahead of the scientists in this regard, they are now catching up. Even science says that this is a good idea.
Change in one part affects change in all the others.
So today let the change be YOU. Don’t wait for President Obama or your neighbor or your neighborhood, today be the leader that you wish was leading our world.
Stop complaining and start acting. Well I gotta go. If I’m going to walk my talk I better get outside right now with my little baggie and start my morning pick up! Let me know how you are leading the way for a better world, starting now.
Yours in stories that change the world,
Annie
“Cut The Crap” Goes Live on the Radio
November 18, 2009
Today I had a wonderful virtual coffee with my new friend and colleague Thomas Magnum on his Virtual Coffee radio show. Boy was that fun!
Thomas is an inspiring and educated speaker and trainer who has a real knack for putting people at ease and creating connections. He was fascinated by the many levels of depth that storytelling provides for creating impact in your life, your message and business.
We had a great virtual coffee together, Thomas in sunny California and me in Philly-delphia. We both relate in the area of knowing that relationships are a most important factor in all transactions of life.
If you’d like to enjoy the show as I did, listen below and I hope you will get to know Thomas. He has certainly has a lot to share.
Dare to Stand Out in the Crowd
November 5, 2009
dare to stand out
As a wise sage (me) once said,
“If You Want to Be the Best, You’ve Got to Stand Out From the Rest.”
Let me ask you this – do you want to be liked or do you want to make a difference in the world? Do you want to be one of the crowd or do you want to stand out and be exceptional? Guess what? You can’t do both.
Nope. To stand out from the crowd you have to risk, dare to be unique, be vulnerable and feel alone at times. But what’s the alternative? To be bland, boring, average, mediocre, middle of the road and like all the rest? Again as that wise sage says, “If you want to be the best, you have to stand out from the rest!”
So if that’s what we want, why don’t we dare to stand out? To answer that I’ll have to tell you a little story about Mr. Lizard. Mr. Lizard loves lounging in the sun, sleeping, eating and chasing flies, but that’s about it. He’s not seeking to do big things in the world, change the status quo or be different than any of the other lizards right. No, he’s seeking to be the same and do the same. Same old, same old.
If I go up and grab Mr. Lizard by the tail, hang him over a cliff and ask him if he’d like to learn to fly – his wriggling, quivering body will shout NO with every ounce of his being!
Mr. Lizard does not want to learn to fly, ever. He likes to lounge. Only a fool would drop Mr. Lizard off that cliff and imagine that he will fly. He won’t. Mr. Lizard cannot fly because he does not have any wings and I don’t think he’s going to sprout them any time soon.
So that is our lizard brain. Stuck in it’s ways, likes to stay the same, fears change, is scared of flying and oh did I mention that it does not want us to stand out in the crowd? To a lizard being different means sure death. “Do not be different. Be the same.” That is the message of our lizard brain. Don’t be mad at Mr. Lizard. He evolved a long time ago.
In short Mr. Lizard illustrates why we don’t dare to stand out in the crowd and be different. We want to take risks but we don’t because it threatens our status quo. Whenever we fear change of any kind it’s because Mr. Lizard has got his finger on the control panel of our brain. So what should we do?
Let me tell you another story. Imagine that you have a beautiful baby parrot from the rain forest. Now take that baby parrot and try desperately to keep it on the ground. Use nice language and speak to it politely. Explain in great detail why it’s not in it’s best interests to fly and that it’s better to stay on the ground.
Is the parrot going to listen? No. He may hear your words but he’s not going to follow your directions because the instincts in his body are telling him to lift off into the skies. Oops, there he goes, just lost him. Well maybe he’ll be back.
The instincts of our higher brain, the one is the most evolved and sits on the top of our heads, is to soar. Our higher brain loves to dream, see the bigger picture and stand out from the crowd. The higher brain is comfortable with difference and in facts even seeks it out.
A flying creature like the parrot is not content to stay on the ground like all the herd animals. He likes to fly and soar above the rest. That’s our higher brain.
So when we’re stuck and unable to move forward with what we really want there is only one problem and only one solution. We’ve got to get Mr. Lizards little paw off the control panel and put our high flying parrot in charge instead.
How do we do that? Well one way is to be willing to tolerate the discomfort and fear of loss. Anytime you dare to to stand out in the crowd and be different, you are going to come across your fear of not being liked and not being part of the herd. Eeek! Mr. Lizard hates this part.
Be kind to him. He can’t help himself. Don’t try to shut him up and definitely don’t put him in a closet somewhere. He’ll die. Just let him rant a bit as you go ahead and move towards what you really want. And what you really want is to dare to stand out and make a difference in the world.
In other words, face the fear of your lizard brain. Know that it feels strong but it can be overridden. Mission, passion and personal desire for making a difference are much stronger than fear. Mr. Lizard may scream, but he will eventually come along. He’s a better solider than he is a the leader.
But you are a leader, leading the way for others in whatever you’re doing that. Know that when you dare to stand out in the crowd and be unique, you truly make a difference in the world.
Today follow that wise sage’s advice and “Dare To Stand Out.”
I’m Annie Hart and I help leaders and big thinkers to stand out in the crowd and make a difference in the world.
Corey’s Story Journey: Corey’s On Fire
November 4, 2009
Annie’s Note: For those of you not yet familiar with Corey Blake’s work – one of his projects was to help Robert Rentera write and tell his story in a wonderful book called, “From the Barrio To The Boardroom.. This book is making a huge impact in areas of social change that formerly seemed impossible.
From Corey: This morning I was working on a blog post that Katie had sent me about Barrio and was adding my two cents to it when I felt the emotional stir of what we are building. Then I dove into some pages that she had prepared from our last call and suddenly felt the hairs stand up on my arms. I needed to talk about Barrio today.
So when Annie, Katie and I got on our weekly call, Annie bought us a virtual round of coffees and teas and we dove right in. I am compelled to start this story with one of the last lines from Annie on the call, “I appreciate how totally fucking passionate you are to be out there doing the impossible…”
Today I just ripped. Not only about Barrio, but about what our work stands for to me. Robert and I each have our own agendas with the book of course — it’s incredibly personal. My secret agenda is that I want teachers all around this country and the world to start using storytelling in their work with kids.
My main focus around creating the Barrio curriculum was to create a program that inspired these kids to use Robert’s story as a launching pad for them telling their own. Story is powerful. Story is what makes us stand out in a crowd. What makes us three dimensional.
For example, last week, we were presenting our curriculum to a group of 50 social workers and I asked them to tell me what they did for a living. Most of them were too afraid to try. A few of them gave me longwinded, uninspiring answers. Then one woman said, “I put bandaids on bullet wounds.”
WOW. Suddenly, everyone in that room turned and recognized this as a woman who was passionate about what she was doing. A woman who was trying. A woman who recognized the disparity between how they were trying to solve the problem (bullet wounds) with their solution (bandaids).
With those few words, that woman was suddenly understood by her peers who would otherwise not have even seen she was there. Isn’t life like that most of the time? Don’t most of us feel invisible throughout our day? Story makes us visible. And good story motivates people to do something. To introduce themselves to us. To say, “I don’t know why, but I think we are supposed to talk.”
Imagine how different life would be if at a young age our stories had been pulled from us? Imagine how less judgmental our peers might have been of us. How much more visible we would have felt. Imagine if we could have articulated what we stood for when we were in high school or earlier. Life changes when you know who you are.
Life changes even more when others see who you are. Through story comes understanding. Through understanding confidence is built. Through confidence we make better choices. It’s called character. And every story starts with one.
Annie’s Notes: It is so exciting to see Corey on fire with his project and to know the true power of story to change lives and change the world. Bravo Corey and Robert, for impacting so may people through story.
Cut the Crap & Dare To Be Yourself
October 29, 2009
Schmaltz: Yiddish, shmalts - literally, rendered fat
In my humble but large opinion there is too much schmaltziness in this world and not enough realness. So many people are trying too hard to be experts and guru’s. They are trying to stand out in the crowd and be known, but that is exactly what will make you obsolete very quickly.
Schmaltizness is not what we need now. We live in a world in which time is is speeding up. What we need is not to follow the crowd and do what we’ve always done, but to stand out in the crowd and dare to do doing something different.
Let this begin with you. Dare to take off the mask that you wear because you fear won’t like you if you are yourself. The truth is that many people won’t like you no matter what you do. So give that up as your goal and work instead to be genuine.
Try this in your conversations, your blog posts, even your marketing materials. Yes I’m suggesting that you cut the crap and dare to be real.
Honestly, it’s not easy. The brain and nervous system are wired with a deeply ingrained circuitry that being different will get us killed. The archaic part of the brain perceives difference as a life or death matter. It’s part of the ancient law of the tribe. So to live a full, real life, you have to override that ancient impulse and go in the direction of real life. That is where all the meaning and the juice are anyway.
Be aware that when you begin to do this you may feel scared. You will feel scared in the beginning, scared all the way through and maybe even afterwards. But this is normal. Think of the experience of a roller coaster ride. Personally I feel fear the entire way through. But that doesn’t have to stop you. You’ve got to BE FIERCE to cut through the crap. It doesn’t come easily.
But consider the benefits of really truly, genuinely being yourself. Here are a few of mine, please let me know about yours:
Benefits of Daring To Cut The Crap and Be Yourself:
- You make genuine honest connections with people.
- People come to love you for who you are.
- Those that don’t will naturally drift away and that is good.
- You will be happier and sleep more easily because genuineness is good for your peace of mind.
Today I had an inspiring conversation with my fellow Trainer and Coach, Eva Reiff of Nurnberg, Germany. Eva and I have coached each other every week for over eight years, amazing!
We support and encourage each other to continue to live big and dare to do things that seem scary, uncomfortable or even impossible. And together we have gone much further than we ever imagined.
After our talk today Eva sent me this beautiful note:
I am so amazed at how you have decided to cut through the crap and just be raw and real in the world. I admire your courage to lead the way and to follow what you sense the world needs. You care about real connections, and you use that as a filter to everything. You are ahead of your time. 
Today be fierce in your intent to be honest, real, vulnerable, scared, on-the-edge. Dare to be yourself and live out of the box. You will be glad you did. And besides, you have nothing to lost but your schmaltz, which I’m pretty sure you’d like to give up anyway!
Let this be your motto:
I am willing to cut the crap and dare to be myself!
Let me know how it goes.
Oh and by the way, I dare to tell stories raw and real because I’m pretty sure that’s what the world needs.
Lead the Way With Story: Creating Trust & Credibility
October 25, 2009
Storytelling, definition by Annie Hart
An effective and congruent communication that embodies your commitment, your beliefs, your values and your vision.
This is part of a series on the use of storytelling in leadership. Leaders need to inspire and motivate others. They need to help people get along, collaborate and go where they haven’t been before. Nothing does this more effectively than the power of story.
Although the word story means many things to me, for the purposes of leadership, I’m going to give it the above definition, so that it will show you exactly how you create connection through story. To illustrate this effectively, I need to tell you a story.
Several years ago I was giving a presentation to a small family business that was not my typical client. One of the owners was a private client of mine who really benefited from my work and she wanted me to do some consulting for them. But I was pretty sure that the rest of the company wouldn’t see me as a natural fit and might not want to hire me.
So what did I do? The first step to building a connection is to get inside someone else’s story to find out how they think, believe and act. To do this I asked myself the question, What goes on inside of their world? This is how you discover the daily problems, frustrations and mindsets of whomever you want to communicate with.
The key to this is to do it from the mindset of sharing and the intention to build connection. When you begin by relating to our common human problems, then we start on the same page.
In business the number one priority is often the famous ‘bottom line’. But the key to a sustainable business is actually not the bottom line at all. People are the most important commodity of any successful venture.
As a leader, relationships should be of prime importance. If not then everything else will go downhill. The bottom line of is not and can never be number one,. Taking care of people comes first.
So by the time I went to give my presentation, I had already put myself in the mindset of the people that I was speaking to. I walked into a group of people that looked harried, distracted and uninterested, but I was prepared for this. So I started by telling them their own story.
I introduced myself briefly and then told them that I would be right back, and I walked out of the room. I returned minutes later, rushing in with a briefcase spilling papers and frantically talking on a cell phone.
I began my presentation all over again, but this time I was speaking at breakneck speed. “Hi I’m Annie Hart and I’m here to….” But imagine this with words flying at 500 miles an hour!
When I looked up they were speechless. Maybe dumbfounded is a better word. I paused and looked at them carefully. I asked, “What was that like for you?’
“That’s exactly like our daily lives!” they said. They couldn’t believe that I got them. I said, “How did it feel to experience me that way?” They unanimously said, “It was awful, very stressful and anxiety producing.” Exactly. Exactly like their daily lives.
This dramatic enactment of their everyday way of being, opened up a discussion of trust and openness, whereas just moments before they had considered me a complete stranger. So how did they accept me so quickly?
I used the power of story, THEIR STORY, to speak their language.
The key to rapport and building connection is to think about others. Ask yourself, what do they need? What are they going through? What are their daily lives like?
It’s not how can I get them to do what I want? It’s how can I understand who they are? This is one of the key skills a leader can have.
Each of you in your own way is a leader. Start today to think how you can get inside the story of others, so that people will want to follow you where ever you go.
And if you’re wondering if I got hired? The answer is yes, and continued to tell stories and build rapport for an entire year. Storytelling is a key to building trust and credibility through creating connection.
Featured Story: Courage is in the Heart
October 18, 2009
Courage: from Anglo-French, coer heart. A quality of mind or spirit (heart) that enables a person to face difficulty, danger, pain, without fear.
I had done a five day intensive retreat with twenty-five, Youth at Risk on the coast of England. The course had been an amazing experience for everyone and I had been invited back to England to give a one-day seminar on how to deal with difficult emotions, particularly anger.
Many of the youth had “anger issues,” a term I particularly dislike because it labels people in a negative direction and segments anger out of our everyday world. In reality anger is a powerful force that when used for good, can move mountains.
Working with these youth was a unique challenge for me. Their emotions were high on the scale of being out of control. My job was not to contain, suppress or make these emotions wrong, but to teach them how to channel them through the heart. No easy task.
But I came prepared with my Heartmath presentation which would show their real-time heart rhythms on a large screen . According to the Institute of Heartmath in California, the rhythm of our heart shows all of our physical and emotional stresses. Heartmath has innovated a technique that shifts the heart rhythm from stressed to ‘coherent’. The coherent wave of the heart is where we feel balanced, centered, strong, energized, loving and kind.
The youth, though normally distracted, were immediately intrigued by the presentation. They seemed mesmerized by the giant heart rhythms moving on the screen. I asked who wanted to volunteer to demonstrate working with their heart rhythm and right away Ronnie shot up his hand.
“Oh no, not him,” I thought to myself. Ronnie was the most difficult kid of the group. During the five day intensive he had been obstinate and angry. He insisted on doing everything his way and breaking the rules over and over again.
He was the one kid out of all of them, who didn’t seem to soften, even after the numerous breakthroughs that had helped everyone else. Ronnie would have been my last choice for a demonstration subject. But turning down a kid like this wouldn’t send a good message, so I invited him up front.
Ronnie was tough and I was pretty sure that they only reason he wanted to come up front was because he wanted to show off in front of everyone or prove my theory wrong. Neither of these options felt great to me.
I taught Ronnie to breathe into his heart area and generate a loving feeling towards someone or something. I was pretty sure that he was either making fun of me internally or resisting everything I was saying, but I kept on. I encouraged Ronnie to focus on someone that he loved or cared about.
He was quiet for about 4 minutes which was the longest I had ever heard him silent. As he focused, the group watched his heart rhythms change in real-time on the screen. They were changing from irregular and jagged to smooth and rounded waves, all signs that the technique was working. But I was still not convinced that any of this would make any difference with angry Ronnie.
After we finished the demo, I had asked him to sit back down with the group. But to my surprise, he didn’t want to. He wanted to continue to sit by the heart monitor. I thought that was odd, but rather than choosing to enforce my rule, I let him stay. I continued on with the demo’s for another half hour or so and then finished my presentation.
At the end of the day, I asked for any of the kids to stand up and share what they had gotten from the presentation. Ronnie jumped up immediately. He practically shouted, “I realized that I really do love my parents.” Apparently Ronnie had focused on them during his session. “and for the first time in my life I feel that something might actually help me with my anger.”
I was blown away and I started to tear up. I had known the power of the heart in my own life but had never experienced it in someone who was as hardened and angry as Ronnie. I never saw Ronnie again but his story has stayed with me. The image of him sitting by the heart monitor, gives me great hope for the youth of the world.
What Ronnie showed me is that underneath of the pain and hardness of anger is the tender vulnerability of deep caring. When we get hurt sometimes we come to believe that ‘love hurts’ but it is actually in the restoration of our caring, that we regain strength. Thank you Ronnie wherever you are for being a leader in the power of the heart. I hope to see you again someday.
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