Do you want to inspire and motivate people? Want to build a community, or rally people around your cause? Need to get buy-in (and potentially funding) for your idea, mission, or organization?

If so, this episode is a must-listen, featuring Sandy Dang.

Sandy Dang is a social entrepreneur, leadership trainer, community organizer, and management consultant. She is the Co-founder and Principal of Co-lnnovate Consulting, a company that provides leadership training, capacity building, and strategic planning to companies, foundations, and nonprofits.

Born in Hanoi, Sandy left Vietnam when she was ten years old. After living in rural China and Hong Kong refugee camps, Sandy resettled in the United States at the age of thirteen.

Sandy went from a childhood without books and very limited education, to being the only kid who didn’t speak English in her school, to becoming an internationally recognized speaker, leader, educator, and master storyteller. Most of all, Sandy has used her experiences and stories to empower others.

For more than a decade, she served as Founder and Executive Director of Asian American Leadership, Empowerment, and Development (AALED) an organization that supports refugee families through a broad array of educational and social services. Sandy was also appointed by President Obama to serve as Executive Director of the Vietnam Education Foundation (VEF).

These days, Sandy teaches leaders — especially community organizers, and founders of mission-driven organizations — how to use storytelling to enhance their leadership capacity, and inspire and motivate others. She serves people all over the world, and works in both the US and Asia, including Vietnam and Thailand.

In this episode, you’ll hear Sandy’s inspiring story, and gain all kinds of useful intel about powerful, purposeful storytelling. Themes we explore:

– Storytelling as a survival tool: Sandy details how she used storytelling to get support, gather resources, build community, and navigate life in the US (even when she was just learning to speak English)

– Using your story to help others: Sandy shares how she used her story to build her non-profit, going from $15,000 to over $1.7 million dollars in its annual budget

– The truth: Why the heart of storytelling is truth-telling, and how honesty and authenticity are essential to build connection, community, and support

– The healing power of storytelling: Why telling your story might be one of the most healing and important things you can do for yourself, and for others

– The power of public narrative: How to translate your lived experience into a story that demonstrates your values and makes people feel inspired and motivated to join your cause

– Taking control of your own story: Why leaders need to share stories about themselves; how to use your story to build trust; and the problem with letting other people decide your story for you

– The three stories all leaders must have in their arsenal — plus, Sandy’s process for putting the stories together into a cohesive narrative.

– “This will only work in the US, not here”: How to adapt the concepts of personal storytelling for a more community-oriented mindset, and how to work around concerns about humility and bragging

– Tips for trainers, coaches, facilitators, and leaders: Sandy distills her advice into her #1 takeaway.

Practical advice, heartfelt insight, and an inspiring and uplifting story…this episode has it all.

How do you know if you’re becoming a better writer?

What kinds of things should you focus on to improve your writing skills?

And for that matter, should you even bother trying to improve? Why not just take shortcuts?

If you’re a thought leader (or you want to be), or just someone who wants to express their thoughts and ideas more effectively, you’ve come to the right place.

Communicating effectively is a MUST to get your ideas across and make an impact. But it’s so much more than that. Strengthening your writing skills can be immensely satisfying—especially when you can observe (and many even celebrate) your progress.

In this “Coaching with Cam” episode of the Storytelling with Heart podcast, Camille explores:

- The value of improving in the first place…why sucking at a thing and being a beginner is awesome, and why it’s worth putting in the work to improve your skills

- Why the skill of writing *still matters*, and why it’s worth fighting for, even if you use other services or experts (like me!) to help you do it better

- How to avoid the danger of “de-skilling” yourself — and keep building your skills (rather than eroding them)

- Why you shouldn’t rely entirely on audience feedback to know whether your writing is improving

- Top 10 signs your writing is improving…some signs and signals that indicate your work is getting better (regardless of audience response!)

Along the way, you’ll get some great hints and tips about how to improve your writing too!

Communications — particularly professional, technical, and educational materials — can easily become boring, unrelatable, or stiff.

How do you write, speak, and educate in ways that other people will actually enjoy?

And, how do you make the process more meaningful, engaging, and interesting for yourself?

These are the kinds of questions I explore with Dr. Krista Scott-Dixon.

Dr. Krista Scott-Dixon is an expert coach, communicator, and thought leader in the fitness and health industry. She has more than 20 years in fitness and health coaching under her belt, and 10 years of university teaching and course direction.

Krista is currently the Product Director at Simple, a nutrition app with global reach. Previously she served as Director of Curriculum at Precision Nutrition, leading the development of the PN Academy and PN Certifications.

She is the author of several books and co-author of textbooks, many of which we worked on together, plus she has an extensive portfolio of academic publications, book chapters, articles, and reports, not to mention own self-published book Why Me Want Eat.

Before working with Precision Nutrition, Krista was a researcher and faculty member at York University in Toronto. In the mid-1990s, her website Stumptuous.com was one of the first to promote women's weight training, and since then she's focused on helping people make meaningful change. She has lectured and taught internationally across North America as well as in the UK, Ireland, China, Australia, and Southeast Asia.

Krista is undoubtedly a professional communicator, but she has also built her career around making her communications relatable, playful, interesting, and fun (even funny) — even when they cover technical, educational, and/or “serious” material.

In our conversation, I dig into Krista’s process, sifting through her childhood experiences, her personal beliefs and habits, and some of the methods she uses in her own life and work as both a coach and communicator.

Through our conversation, we explore how we can all communicate better by employing humor, empathy, curiosity, experimentation, collaboration, play, and getting out of our own boxes.

We cover:

→ The value of letting your freak flag fly.

→ Why empathy is non-negotiable for all communicators, and how to cultivate it.

→ Why interest, curiosity, and skill are such a powerful combination, and how to nurture them.

→ The danger of waiting for someone else to give you permission to create your thing.

→ Where good ideas ACTUALLY come from, and the problem with “The Great Man” theory.

→ The role of practice, rigor, feedback, experimentation, and collaboration in developing and refining your ideas and knowledge… and why you should never try to develop good ideas in isolation.

→ How to get out of your own box or comfort zone, and why you should seek out unfamiliar and deeply uncomfortable experiences.

→ The role of play in communications and creative work, and some unusual ways to make your work more playful.

→ The difference between Creator Brain vs Editor Brain, and why (and how) you need to put the Creator Brain in the driver’s seat.

→ Plus, a fun assignment to challenge writer’s block.

Follow Krista on Instagram (@stumptuous) on Facebook (www.facebook.com/coach.krista.scottdixon) or Linkedin.