In a recent Achievement Code Training about becoming a clear communicator, I was talking about the effectiveness of telling good stories.

I have a sign in my office that says, “Facts Tell and Stories Sell.” Stories truly are important in building rapport, holding attention and making our points more entertaining and memorable.

During the training, one of our participants asked a good question. He wanted to know how you get good at telling stories. Well, I’m the son of a very good story-teller, and I think I tell a pretty good story myself. But I hadn’t really thought about how one becomes good at this art.

Obviously one gets better with practice. But I think what this person wanted were some concrete methods for improving our ability to spin a tale that teaches.

Toastmasters International is a good place to practice and get feedback on all kinds of presentations. So joining your local Toastmasters could be a good place to start.

Beyond that, I think it’s a matter of analyzing a good story when you hear one. What got your attention? What made it interesting to you? How did you relate to it?

The sweet spot is to tell a story that’s not too long, yet not too abbreviated. And one that’s not so detailed the listener gets lost but not so general that it lacks the richness that paints a picture.

Share the emotions you were feeling. Talk about why you felt a certain way and what memories it brought back.

Taylor Sternberg has a formula he uses to construct an engaging story. He recommends breaking your story into six parts:

1. Who: Start with who is involved. Was it you alone, with another person, or a group of people. How are you related to those people?
2. What: Communicate what the action was, such as being at a party or driving to a friend’s house.
3. Where: Actively describe where you are, using senses. If you’re good at establishing the location, you can get the listener to start re-living the senses with you.
4. Conflict: This is the bulk of the story. What is the importance of this story? What happened, and what action did you take to try to resolve what was happening?
5. Resolution: How were you able to handle the task set up in “conflict”?
6. Tag: This one is a bit tricky. It’s the aftermath of the resolution and usually is a joke or the big finish of the story.

I encourage you to try your hand at becoming great at telling short stories to improve your ability to communicate more effectively.

And don’t say, “To illustrate my point, let me tell you a story.” Just tell the story. And let your story do its work.

I can think of no better investment of your time and effort than the study and practice of becoming a clear and effective communicator.

And right now, you can grab these two FREE resources with proven techniques to help you deliver more powerful presentations.

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Happy Valentine’s Day! As people around the world shower one another with hearts, candy and flowers, I trust you and your valentine will make this day special—even if that valentine is only you.

Eighteen years ago today, I asked Dawn to marry me. She must have seen some potential in me and in us because, at the time, I had no job, no business and no money. I’m fortunate she accepted my proposal and I’m grateful to spend my life with her.

Since that time, we’ve done our best to practice love. I think love really is a verb. I know it’s much more than an emotion. Love is what you give your time and your attention to. It’s an action, even if that action is one of thought—and thoughtfulness.

I also think that to love someone, we must first love ourselves. If we don’t do that, we have little, and maybe no love, to give anyone else. And loving ourselves, just like loving another person, requires action.

What do you do to love and nurture yourself? How do you treat yourself on a regular basis? What things do you do to actively bestow love upon yourself? I hope the answers are not hard for you to find, but I think for many people they are. Loving ourselves is not a selfish act, it’s a generous one. And it allows us to have more capacity to love others.

And while we’re on the subject of love, how about loving what you do? I haven’t always loved my work. But I’ve always worked to be able to love what I do. And I love writing, sharing, serving, learning and teaching what works. And I’m very appreciative of being able to do so.

If you don’t love what you do, I encourage you to find something you do love. Because I believe that if you don’t love what you do, you’ll likely lose out to someone who does.

Life is too short to work mostly out of obligation and need. You deserve to be doing something you truly enjoy doing. You, and the people in your life, will be better off for it.

So again, Happy Valentine’s Day.

Make it a great one.

Our theme for this month is Focus and Concentration. And one of the things we all need to focus on is increasing our knowledge and improving our skills. Investing in personal and professional development has lifelong pay-offs.

I believe that one of the best ways of learning and integrating knowledge is to teach it. When you organize and deliver information, you learn it at a much deeper level.

It’s one of life’s better deals: What knowledge we give away we get to keep. And with spaced repetition, we get to own it even more than when we first acquired it because it penetrates deeper into our psyche, and our brain makes more connections.

In the last year, eBook readers like Kindle and Nook have been selling like crazy. You can also get free readers for your computer, your tablet and your smart phone.

As publishers and authors, it became evident we needed to learn how to best format our books and reports, and make them available via Amazon Kindle and ePub format. And we’re pleased to announce that we have several SuccessNet SmartGuide now published.

You can see a list of them in our Amazon Store.

Our latest SmartGuide is How to Publish and Sell Your Book on Amazon Kindle: Free, Fast and Easy. Using this simple guide, you can make your books (or reports) available to millions through the power of Amazon.

We researched all the best practices and now we can show YOU how to publish and sell with this easy, simple and quick-to-grasp SmartGuide. We took the complex and made it simple. We organized, encapsulated and systematized the best ways for you to format and sell your intellectual capital on Amazon.

It sells for only $9.99, but if you’re an Achievement Code or Diamond Club Member, don’t order it because it’s being sent to you at no cost.

Anyone else who wants to access this critical information and get your books and reports in this format for sale and distribution, go here . . .

If you’re looking to market yourself as an established authority, publishing a book (or even a booklet) is one of the best ways to do so.

If you haven’t already written your book, I encourage you to do so soon. Published authors are automatically elevated to a higher status with more credibility.

And if you have written a book, but don’t have it on Amazon Kindle, you are surely missing the boat.

Get your copy today right here . . .

And of course, you can always join The Achievement Code or Diamond Club and this SmartGuide will be available to you, along with hundreds of other products, resources and services—all at no additional cost.