Customer Reviews

Never Be Boring Again: Make Your Business Presentations Capture Attention, Inspire Action and Produce Results

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Doug Stevenson's book "Never Be Boring Again" makes a pretty bold claim. One thing that I learned in my childhood is if you are going to make a bold claim you had better be able to back it up because someone will call you on it. Then again you can get away with making a claim like that when you can back it up and Doug Stevenson does exactly that. If you've done much public speaking at all you know that it is easy to tell if you have an audience eating out of your hand or if you are losing them. The problem is finding a way to consistently keep your audience interested.

This is the same problem that has been around forever in the theater industry. How do you get your audience involved in the story? Well, actually that is the answer. People get involved in stories. Lists of numbers are useless unless they can be converted to an illustration that points out their effect. Using his "Story Theater Method" as the base on which to build, Stevenson takes the reader on a trip into the world of preparing powerful, effective presentations that lead people to action. Stories involve the audience and once it is involved the audience will pay attention. When the audience pays attention they remember the phrases you use and your "phrase that pays" has the effect you desire.

I had the opportunity over the last few weeks to try a presentation to various groups. So, I tried to redo part of it using the techniques in the book. The bottom line was that a great deal more of the people remembered much more of the presentation in the group where the techniques were used. They also asked more and better questions because they had been listening throughout the presentation.

"Never Be Boring Again" deserves the highest recommendation that I can give and should be required reading for anyone who is not a hermit because we are always speaking to an audience, even if it is just one person.

People love stories. That's why the 'Chicken Soup for the Soul' books are so popular. But even better than reading a great story is the experience of seeing and hearing a story performed by a skilled story teller.

Doug Stevenson knows how to make a story come to life, and in 'Never Be Boring Again,' he shows you how you can do it, too. He makes the process (almost!) painless, even if you are not a natural story teller.

This is not a book about how to give a speech. It is a detailed how-to about making powerful connections with your audience through vivid and engaging stories. And it's not just 'rah-rah.' Doug walks you through the nine steps of story structure to help you craft stories that will engage listeners and get your point across. He shows how to incorporate The Phrase That Pays-a message that your listeners will remember and take with them. Then, Doug helps you use your body, voice and emotions to deliver a presentation that will hold the attention of any audience.

If you have ever watched a gifted speaker hold an audience in the palm of his hand, and wanted to know how you could do that, too, this is the book you have been waiting for. Don't wait any longer. Put Doug Stevenson's powerful Story Theater Method to work for you.

Cathy Stucker
Author, Speaker and Consultant

I am preparing a PowerPoint class for people who already know the mechanics of PowerPoint but need a class on how to better design slides and prepare a presentation. One of the topics will be preparing a script using story-telling techniques. I thought this book would offer some good advice, especially since the reviews were so good. I was sorely disappointed.

Ironically, this book bored me. I admit that I am a tough audience, but if you are a corporate trainer or speaker addressing a sophisticated, intelligent audience, the advice in this book may do more harm than good. The stories are not very interesting and I don't think it's good advice to tell readers they need to act out or pantomime parts of a story. That may work for some, but there are other ways by which a speaker can enliven a presentation or a talk. This book would be more appropriate for people doing info-commercials than for corporate speakers. In fact, as I was reading it, the book reminded me of the exaggerated gestures and pasted-on smiles that info-commercial people affect.

A great example of how stories are used to enliven a presentation and illustrate points is the book Blink by Malcolm Gladwell. I am listening to the book on CD while I do my daily walks. (I checked it out at the local library.) Gladwell (not the most exciting person in the world) had to use stories to get his points across and he does a masterful job. You will learn more about using stories from Blink than from Never Be Boring Again. And you won't be bored!

"To be nobody but yourself - in a world which is doing its best, night and day, to make you everybody else- means to fight the hardest battle which any human being can fight, and never stop fighting. ~E. E. Cummings

Doug Stevenson is the creator of the Story Theater Method. As a master storytelling coach, he teaches the secrets of telling compelling stories and also explains how to add humor and fun to your presentation.

The quotes in this book are especially intriguing, especially the one by Virginia Satir. In just a few sentences, she explains how communication skills can determine the quality of your life.

How do you choose a story?
Where can you find stories?
What are the seven types of stories?
What can you say that your listeners won't expect?

Doug Stevenson teaches you how to entertain all while getting your message across. I remember the first time I gave a speech and said a line that caused the entire audience to laugh. It was shocking to me when it happened, it made my day and it was something I never forgot. While I am much more of an introvert, that extrovert moment in my life was definitely due to the fact that I said something the audience didn't expect.

This book will teach you all the essential skills for communicating with an audience and they will learn while they laugh.

~The Rebecca Review

This book gots me going in the right direction from the very beginning. It not only describes what to do, it showed me how to do it to make my presentation better. The clear and concise descriptions, through the use of examples and stories, made it easy to relate to. The book provided the steps needed for me to develop and craft my story. Then I learned how to make it come alive. The book is an excellent teaching tool for those of us who love a "show me how" book. It's easier for me to make the connection with my audience now that I understand how to do it. The added value I received of developing a powerful presentation was well worth the investment of time to read it.

After I ordered 10 books from Amazon I finially found this one. If you want to write a great speech and include story telling than this is a 'must-own'. So much more than the others that are very basic and all common sense. This has 'stuff' you can use!

Wow! "Never Be Boring Again" gave me an easy-to-follow process that impacted my business immediately. I used the Story Theater Method for a brief business presentation. Each speaker only had 15 minutes so I created a "Phrase That Pays" using Doug's method and made sure I repeated it often as the key benefit of using my services. Plus, I used Doug's technique of stepping in and out of story for extra impact. Within 48 hours of my presentation, I signed 9 new clients. "Never Be Boring Again" gave me the tools to stand out in a crowd and be remembered -- several of my clients still use the original "phrase that pays."

Never Be Boring Again is a solid, 352-page guide to spicing up business presentations in such a manner so as to fully captivate attention, inspire and motivate action, and bring about tangible, practical results. Expertly written by the creator of the "Story Theater Method", speech writer, and presentation consultant Doug Stevenson, Never Be Boring Again focuses on stories as power for getting and keeping the audience's full attention, peppered with tips, tricks, and techniques to keep 'em coming back for more. If you are charged with speaking in public, then Doug Stevenson's Never Be Boring Again is enthusiastically recommended reading for you!

I loved this book. Finally someone tells it like it is about speakers who bore us all to death with stilted language that sounds like they're trying to impress someone. Business people want to be talked to, not at. They want speakers to be themselves, to be conversational, especially in their storytelling. This author encourages authenticity over artifice while laying out, in a step-by-step sequence, how each of us can raise our storytelling skills to the next level.
In this book, Mr. Stevenson provides the most detail specific examples of how to write and present stories I have ever read. His approach to the crafting of a story is thorough and precise. His advice is practical. I found myself putting the book down numerous times and going to my keyboard to work on my stories. He inspired me.
If you can only afford one book on storytelling for a business application, this is the book to buy.

I've been waiting for this book for about four years, since I fist saw Doug Steveson tell a story from the stage. I was absolutely mesmerized and thought, "I'd sure like to learn to do that." So when the book hit the stands, I was among the first to read it. I'm glad I did because within weeks I made money by following the advice Doug offers.

There were two sections of the book I found particularly helpful: the Nine Step formula for crafting compelling stories and the advice on how to develop and use "A Phrase That Pays." Not only did Doug's powerful examples and specific tips help me develop better stories in my presentations, I was able to blend his advice with advice I was already giving to my clients. As a professional media coach, I've taught hundreds of Fortune 500 executives how to handle media interviews and develop their own corporate story. Doug's book gave me some additional ideas, which I immediately put to use.

Since implementing Doug's advice, I've seen an increase in the number of bookings I've received and my evaluations are the highest they've ever been. Already, I find myself referring back to the book as I develop new presentations.

You don't have to be a speaker or corporate executive who gives speeches to benefit from this book. Read it and become more confident, entertaining and even profitable!