Storytelling & Media Skills Trainer, 13 Times

Michelle Davies

Michelle Davies is a storytelling and media skills trainer and coach with 13 Times. She is a trained newspaper journalist who is highly skilled in interviewing techniques and employee coaching. She has interviewed thousands of people of all levels throughout her career, from Fortune 500 CEOs and London mayoral candidates to TV presenters and pop stars including Beyonce. She is media trained herself and has been interviewed live on Sky News, ITN and BBC News and on national radio, including Radio 1. She has also participated in a number of documentaries for the BBC and Channel 4 among others. As a senior editor on some of the UK's most successful market-leading magazines, including Grazia, Heat and Stylist, Michelle has coached numerous junior colleagues to rise to the role of editor themselves. Michelle has also worked in internal and external communications with high street brands including John Lewis & Partnership, Holland & Barrett and ASDA. She's also an eight-times published author who speaks regularly at public events. Michelle has been teaching storytelling and media skills presentation with 13 Times for the past year.

Programmes with Michelle

Data Storytelling

Coming soon

3.5 hours · Class size 6-15 · Online or in-person

How not to drown in data. Marrying data with storytelling can be hard to do well, but follow our rules for presenting data, analysing data and structuring the insight and stories you unearth and you'll find it far less complex than you think.

✓ A simple to use structure for telling an effective story
✓ The difference between data storytelling, storytelling with data and infographics
✓ How to hack your PowerPoint charts to clarity and excellence
✓ How to find a killer statistic and put it in the proper context
✓ How to find the stories hidden in large data sets
✓ How many numbers people can actually remember and how to get them to remember yours
✓ Data storytelling best practice - what we can learn from TED, TV and journalism

Talking Tech to Non-Techies

Coming soon

3.5 hours · Class size 6-15 · Online or in-person

How to get the outcome you need. Technical teams, no matter how skilled, can no longer rely on technical ability alone. AI is increasingly writing the code, and tech teams are tasked with explaining what's happening, why decisions are being made and what the potential risks are. And no-one understands them. This masterclass tackles the habits that get in the way of clear communication: over-reliance on jargon, retreating behind technical language, and data presented in ways that confuse rather than convince. By the end, participants will know how to strip out the complexity, build dashboards that make a point, and deliver messages that stick, in plain English, every time.

✓ Stop using jargon that your key stakeholders don't understand
✓ How to build useful analogies to clearly explain technical concepts
✓ A clear and simple status update structure, and how to use it to tell the right story for the right situation
✓ How to hack your PowerPoint charts to clarity and excellence
✓ How to find a killer statistic and put it in the proper context
✓ How to find the stories hidden in large data sets

Introduction to Storytelling

Coming soon

1.5 - 2.5 hours · Class size 6-20 · Online or in-person

Why and how to use storytelling at work. Humans have been telling stories for tens of thousands of years - but people still think storytelling is something you're either good at or you're not. They're wrong: storytelling can absolutely be learnt and improved, all you need is the right tools. Which is where this short course comes in.

✓ Why storytelling is useful and why it works
✓ A clear and simple story structure, and how to use it both to tell stories and to identify which stories will work best in which situations
✓ The five elements that make a good story great: character, change, emotion, sensory detail and meaning
✓ The difference between personal and impersonal stories and when fictional stories are effective
✓ How to create your own Anecdote Library of useful stories to use in future presentations, meetings and conversations

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