Communicate in English in a way that makes you feel amazing, that people actually 'get' you, are interested in you and want to hear more

...Said My New Friend From England, Mark.

We’d just met at a little Caribbean cafe near where I was staying in Lisbon, and I was intrigued.

Arrested?

How?

Why?!

Tell me more!

“Now’s not the time for that story,” said Mark dramatically.

And indeed, it was two weeks before I finally got to hear all about how Mark got arrested. But it was well worth the wait — a real zinger of a story. 

What happened was, Mark, and some other British friends in Lisbon, decided to have a get together at my apartment one Friday. We had a couple of drinks and shot the breeze. In total there were five of us — three guys and gals from the UK, myself, and another friend of mine currently living in Lisbon from Taiwan. 

Mark’s story started with a fake Rolex, included a splash (pun intended) of toilet humour and ended with him being escorted into his hostel in "Chung King Mansions" in handcuffs for doing nothing other than being in the toilet when some random people decided to sod off home and leave him with a huge bill he couldn’t pay. 

It was a funny story, and Mark is an excellent storyteller.

That evening we shared a lot of stories, and you know what? I don’t think I’ve laughed so hard in months.

Only, the thing was…. one person in the group was keeping very quiet.

My friend from Taiwan. 

"You’re awfully quiet," someone said. 

“Tell us something!”

Amy had been laughing along with everyone else, but not adding much to the conversation... but my British friends weren’t going to let her get away with it so easily. 

“Mmmm," she said, before telling us about an experience she had in Bangkok.

But somewhere something went wrong...

Essential elements were missed. Unimportant details over explained. Things weren't described well. And the twists and turns that make a story entertaining were mistimed. And because of that, everybody listening was left blank faced and didn’t really “get" it… they were listening politely, but obviously waiting for the story to finish, and for the conversation to move on.

A couple of days later Amy told me she’d woken up the next morning feeling frustrated and embarrassed.

The story she’d told was a funny one… EVERYBODY in Taiwan thought so. And although her English is excellent—good enough to live and work in the language—as soon as it comes to being fun in a group conversation, or sharing an anecdote in her work things just never go to plan. Stories that should be inspiring seem to have no point. Interesting things from her life come out sounding boring, uninteresting and, well, pointless.

We all tell stories every day in conversation — it’s fundamental to human communication. We’re all wired up for story telling. 

But few of us learn to do it well.

Mark did.

And once upon a time, so did I. 

But here’s the thing: a good story told well has the power to capture the interest and imagination of everyone you’re talking to — wether it’s a casual conversation, a business meeting, a presentation or teaching a class.

“In my native language, I’m fun… 

but in English I’m boring!”

That’s what Amy, my friend from Taiwan, said.

And it’s something I’ve heard many times from my coaching clients over the years.

I get it.

In your native language, you’re funny and entertaining and people love listening to you talk. You’re the life of the party. The centre of attention. People hang off your words, begging you to tell them more...

But as soon as you speak English?

You transform into this dry, boring individual who nobody wants to listen to.

Wouldn't you love to have that "zing" in your English conversations—to catch the attention of your listener and keep them interested? 

Tha'ts where my new group coaching course comes in.

It starts January 2021. 

But before we get into that, let me tell you another quick story.

You see, stories aren’t just for casual conversations and small talk — good communicators use them intelligently in all manner of public speaking, teaching, meetings and sales situations.

If time machines were real, I’d ask you to go back to 2009 and watch one of my English classes.

They were dead boring.

None of my students paid attention, and they didn’t care what I had to say. English was boring, they didn’t want to study it… and I was boring, and they didn’t want to listen to me.

Then one day I did something that changed the way I taught English forever.

I didn’t mean to do it, it just happened.

I told a story. 

It was a simple story of something I did over the summer holiday, but it had a funny twist.

In that moment I realised something was different. 

None of my teenage students were talking to each other, and they were actually paying attention. They were listening to what I had to say — actually listening, in English, as a second language.

From that day onwards, I began to use stories in all of my classes to educate, engage and entertain my students. I wrapped teaching points up in stories, and I used stories to start and end classes on a fun note.

Since then, I've used stories in everything I do — from my daily emails (the engine of my business), sales and information pages just like this one, and of course, in all of my lessons, trainings and courses.

More: dedicating myself to understanding the psychology and power of great conversational storytelling is something I've spent countless hours on over the years. In 2014 worked with Michael Hague (storytelling consultant to Will Smith, Tom Cruise and many other Hollywood actors, as well as working on films like the new "Karate Kid"). Several years ago I did coaching with Megan Macedo (probably one of the world's best "Brand Story" coaches) to write my story, "Forgetting English Isn't Your First Language", and I've worked one-on-one with people just like you coaching them through the same process I learned.

But never before have I done this in a group coaching setting. 

Well, it's been long enough.

So, let's...

“ZING!” Is a four-week group coaching course dedicated to mastering the art of using story and anecdotes in English conversation. 

You’re not going to learn how to write long, elaborate film scripts or novels. 

No.

It's not about that. 

Instead, you’re going to learn how to tell fun (where appropriate — not all stories are “fun”), engaging and inspiring conversational stories that have your listeners fully engaged and gladly giving you all their attention.

By the end of the course, you'll understand the power of storytelling, what makes an interesting story (and what makes it boring), and how to structure the way you tell the story for maximum effect.

A secondary thing you'll learn from this course is how to describe things in interesting ways.

I say secondary because you're primarily learning to tell conversational stories well. Not all "descriptions" of things are stories. But all stories are descriptions of events or things that have happened (whether real or fictional). This means that learning to describe things well is an essential element of storytelling and since the skill is the same for non-stories you're really getting two skills for the price of one.

Now, I won’t piss on you and tell you this course is going to be easy. 

It won’t be. 

It’ll be a ton of hard work.

And in fact, ZING! is only intended for the small number of people reading this that already understand the power of engaging, entertaining and inspiring their listener with well-executed conversational stories and anecdotes.

This is something you either know you want, or don’t.

So if you’re not 100% sure if this is for you… don’t join and save the place for someone who does want it.

Since ZING! is only open to people who have graduated my MEFA course, the format will already be familiar to you.

Each week for four weeks over January, we’ll do a live training session to teach you all the information you need to know (these will be recorded, so don’t worry if you can’t make it live). Each session includes a set of homework tasks to complete, which you will need to submit for feedback from me personally.

By the end of the course, you will have at least one personal conversational story polished and perfected. But of course, the important part is the framework you'll learn – my goal is for you to be fully equipped to be consistently interesting every time you describe an event or thing that has happened to you.

You’ll also have access to me to ask questions about the course via an email discussion group, or from the weekly Group Coaching Q&A calls I do.

PLEASE READ THESE NOTES CAREFULY BEFORE DECIDING TO JOIN.

There are a few things you need to know before you decide whether or not to join:

• If you got my original “Tell Great Stories” product I did back in early 2017, some of the information in the new course is based on that. It’s not completely the same because I've updated it a lot. But a lot of the content is the same. This said, the focus of the new course is implementation — me coaching you through the process. Either way, if you have the old version, you will have to determine whether the investment is worth it or not (I'm not offering a discount for people who had the old version).
• If you are currently doing MEFA: I DO NOT recommend you join, as doing MEFA and ZING! together will simply be too much work. 
• If you join, I expect homework submitted on time each week — so if you have even the tiniest doubt, just don't join.
• Places are limited, and so there are no refunds on the course for absolutely any reason.
• This is the only time ZING! will run in 2021 – the earliest I will run the course again will be in 2022.

Because there are two weeks between enrolment and actually starting the course, I've included some bonuses so you've got something to get your teeth into right away.

These include:

BONUS 1
"Telling Your Brand Story" with Megan Macedo + the worksheets + additional training video recorded for one of my one-on-one coaching clients. 

We are not going to cover writing long brand stories like my "Forgetting English Isn't Your First Language" story in ZING!.

It's a slightly different skill and these stories have a different purpose to conversational storytelling.

However, because I know some people are going to want to do this (especially if you're a business owner, freelancer or entrepreneur) I'm going to give you the training I did with my own storytelling mentor Megan Macedo, as well as the worksheets I created for my one-on-one coaching clients and a video explaining step by step what to do that I recorded for one of my clients.

Note: the training with Megan is already in EES, but the worksheets and overview video are not.

Indeed, these worksheets have never been given to anyone other than my one-on-one clients previously.

BONUS 2
How To Be More Fucking Interesting:
Living Life Like You're A Flamingo At A Penguin Party, With Vicky Fraser

This is an interview originally done for Extraordinary English Speakers about being more interesting and using stories.

Note: if you're in EES you already have this.

BONUS 3
Several videos taken from my Small Talk Superhero event relevant to ZING!

Including how to build drama into your speaking, how to use anecdotes well, how to using analogies and how to talk about stories and things you've heard in the news, on TV or in the media. 

Note: if you were at the STS event or purchased the "Home Study Course" you already have these videos.

Enrolment for ZING! will open on December 15th 2020 at 8am to a maximum of 15 people.

The full course fee will be €450.

Extraordinary English Speakers members will get first chance to join, as well as a significant discount on the enrolment fee.

Enrolment is now closed.

If you've got questions, email me: julian@www.doingenglish.com