“That Reason, Passion, answer one great aim; That true Self-love and Social are the same; That Virtue only makes our bliss below; And all our knowledge is, Ourselves to know.” An Essay On Man: Epistle IV, Alexander Pope
I was there to deliver a full days ‘purposeful storytelling’ workshop with the first year cohort of the Andrew N. Liveris Academy for Innovation and Leadership, providing the students with a learning adventure exploring the different approaches in the narrative form, with the aim of igniting a passion in the oratory plus leaving them with a bunch of approaches / experiences for future application:
“This is one of those cases where the “relationship” category here catastrophically breaks down. DK and I have done work together in many different contexts since we met in 2012 when we were both giving keynotes at the same conference. Since then, he’s brought me in to give workshops at BizDojo and a keynote and workshop at the Creative Leadership New Zealand 2018 Conference, I’ve been a participant in a couple of the TEDxWellington satellite events that he organised, and recently, we flew him over from Wellington to run a workshop for the Liveris Academy Scholars on presenting authentically.
The thing that jumps out at you about DK in all of these different settings is that he is a wonderful human being. Connection and collaboration are at the heart of everything that he does, and this animates all of his activities. The second thing is that he is a SUPERB assembler of talent. I am still friends with several of the awesome people that he pulled together for CLNZ18 – both because they’re awesome people, and also highly skilled. Finally, DK is an outstanding speaker himself. He has clearly thought through the issues around speaking at a very deep level.
The workshop that he gave for us in the Liveris Academy for Innovation & Leadership last month illustrated many of his skills. While working with a younger cohort than he normally does, DK was still able to work out how to meet them where they are at, and he designed and delivered a fantastic day for the students.
If you ever have a chance to collaborate with DK, I highly recommend taking advantage of it!” Tim Kastelle, Professor and Director, Andrew N. Liveris Academy for Innovation and Leadership, Co-Founder The Intangible Labs, Innovation Guy
Huge thanks to Tim and Kate from the program in making this happen and for the opportunity plus the students for their attention, trust and wonderful participation.
Apparently, many generative AI text spitting platforms produce content with em dashes “—“ versus just a en dash or hyphen “-“, but I’ve been using them for 20 years…
I’ve been using em dashes in my online work due to knowing the difference between punctuation and showing the difference between a range of figures or connecting two words together. It also has a better aesthetic and I’ve pre-programmed the text replacement on my Mac / iPhone so that when I double type “-“ it replaces it with “—“ (in those linked instructions even Apple uses it as a suggestion in the ‘Use smart quotes and dashes’ section):
“Automatically convert straight quotation marks to typographical (“curly”) ones, and double hyphens to em dashes (—).”
As someone who is not yet convinced of the positive impact of generative AI and don’t use it in my writings, I thought it quite ironic my online offerings (both historic and current) might be identified as such.
A deconstruction of one of the best songs on the planet (check out the Alchemy live version—you’re very welcome). Illustrated with demonstrative talent, intersecting performance and historical / lyrical context, with no jump-cut and all done in one-take. Masterful.
The Idiosyncratic Nightmare Podcast discusses and explores painting with a guest artist whilst the two interviewers paint a portrait of said guest. The five camera set up offers a unique and multi-layered evolving experience and is damn impressive. Would be wonderful to have seen the response from the guest to their portraits.
It’s taken me months to individually contact the majority my 3,100+ connections in my LinkedIn network via the direct messaging option.
After a personal opening paragraph saying hello and looking at what they are currently up to, I mention their work and / or how long it’s been and / or reminder of where we met plus ask of how I can support their endeavours. I then continue with the following reason for the message:
“Am reaching out to let you know I don’t know how long I’ll be actively using LinkedIn going forward, so if you’re not already please subscribe to my site / blog to ensure you get all the important updates from me: https://justadandak.com/blog/ -> there’s a box on the right hand side to pop your preferred email into or there’s the RSS feed to snag and add to your reader. It’s never more than a handful of posts a month plus you can unsubscribe at anytime, your data is never shared on ;-)”
Out of the folks contacted I’d say 10%, maybe 15% responded. A third of those shared support / understanding with the issues of the platform (whether it be direct experience of lack of utility / reach / use). Got about 100 new subscribers to my blog via email (no way of telling who snagged the RSS feed) and had three direct speaker coaching clients which was a nice unintended outcome.
I joined LinkedIn during 2009.
I had 15 years online under my belt by that time and that year marked 3 years into MediaSnackers, where we were championing the astonishing creativity and collaborative force social media offers through training courses / talks delivered across several continents and for / to an impressive group of clients.
I still truly believe in the magnificent power of connecting humans / ideas through online mediums plus the incredible ways it enables others to have voice. However, as exemplified by Facebook and Twitter, the corrosive strategy to hollow out of any kind of human-first approach and replace that with everything run by algorithms / data-sucking-bots illustrates the aim of commodifying attention to the degradation of it’s own usefulness (see ‘enshittification’)
For what its worth, LinkedIn has an opportunity to differentiate with the following:
remove the alorithmic or at least allow an opt-out version of the main feed, serving content only from 1st connections (they could even go further and introduce private groups where you can curate humans into topic areas which only you can see)
remove or label or have an opt-out to any AI text / image in someones feed (although being owned by Microsoft can imagine it’s a sales funnel play for Co-pilot LLM plus all of the content on the platform has already been sucked up into the database)
allow a block feature on certain words or phrases to again cut through the trend-aligned posts and content
Until then and for the time being, I’ll log in every now and again to see if anyone has left me a message or tagged me in something of interest. For the reasons shared above, LinkedIn has now been relegated to an amazingly useful modern-day-Rolodex for when I travel and need to find folks in a particular place (within my network) until such time they remove that feature also.
The first was a ‘purposeful storytelling’ presentation and Q&A with the whole third year student body of about 100 souls. After which, a self-selected group attended a two hour masterclass experience in which students presented. During the latter, we explored different critiquing and feedback techniques so they could continue to aid other peers in this arena, whilst also seeing how they can apply some of the lessons from the initial presentation in their future presentations.
DK gave a brilliant presentation to 3rd year architecture and interior design students at the School of Architecture, Te Herenga Waka – Victoria University of Wellington in May 2025. Following the presentation, DK gave a masterclass in public speaking/presenting to a smaller group of the students. The students got personal feedback and coaching. DK was very engaging, entertaining, and informative. He demonstrated some aspects of presenting that can’t be unseen afterwards! The students loved it and gave very positive feedback. They learned valuable techniques to bring grace, credibility, and emotional resonance to their presentations. As an experienced public speaker myself, I also got excellent value from organising and attending DK’s presentation. I will certainly be reshaping my future presentations based on what I took away from it. And I will be looking for future opportunities to bring DK back again to work with our students.”
Elrond Burrell, Program Director for Building Science, Faculty of Architecture and Design Innovation, Victoria University of Wellington
It’s a delicate balance creating presentations for an audience versus finding your own voice and expressiveness—especially if you’re early in your career—although, if one can absorb tried and tested approaches which hold attention whilst also allowing room to explore you’re own way of sharing story, then it sets one on a path of confidence and effectiveness.
As way of an example, this could simply mean unburdening slides with so much data and allowing more of a conversational tone to the work being shown—and with more space the most impactful elements such as the graphics can take center stage).
Lots of gratitude to the students for their time, attention plus to those who were brave enough to stand and speak in the masterclass.
Thanks also to Elrond and the rest of the staff for the opportunity to collaborate.
How to be impressive at public speaking by exploring the intersecting disciplines of storytelling and oratory (they are two different things).
What a wonderful experience to participate in this podcast and have such a curious human steer the conversation with superb questions, provocations and personal insights—Daniel described the episode in the following way via this LinkedIn post:
“You’re not weak. You’re not broken. You’re just wired to survive, and standing in front of people feels like a threat to that. But what if you could rewire that fear into confidence? What if your voice became your superpower, not your source of anxiety?”
A brilliant summary and invitation to watch.
Here are the show notes if you want to jump to certain topics:
0:00 The Power of Storytelling and Public Speaking
2:20 Storytelling vs. Public Speaking: Which Is More Impactful?
6:46 How to Capture and Hold Audience Attention
12:50 Avoiding Overwhelming Audiences with Data
15:12 Designing a Presentation From the Audience Perspective
17:50 Breaking Self-Imposed Limitations in Public Speaking
20:55 The Lizard Brain: Why We Fear Public Speaking
24:10 Reframing Fear as Excitement
26:26 Adapting to Different Speaking Styles
29:04 Shifting Focus from Validation to Giving Value
33:08 Grace, Credibility, and Resonance: The 3 Pillars of Great Presentations
41:28 Mastering Grace in Virtual Presentations
43:40 Tools for Engaging Online Audiences
48:20 Humanizing Data for Impactful Storytelling
50:01 Navigating Speech Creation: Scripts vs. Bullet Points
Thank you again Daniel for the opportunity to share my voice, to be part of your offering to the world and to simply spend time with you (looking forward to part two)—pure honour!
Along with my personal / professional history, am sharing here direct lived-experience strategies of how I work with others when it comes to their own oratory practice—making the case for not using scripts and how to manage nerves as well as analysing the impact of the success of my recent TEDx talk with a nice little social media rant at the end.
Thank you again Noa (and Ash from the tech side) for the opportunity to participate and for what you’re doing by creating this platform / space for others to share their stories along with your wonderful curiosity which drives the conversation in all the episodes.
A few chosen narrative examples, to uncover forms, inspire the soul and stir the creative spirits.
Loving the conversational manner of this video deconstructing and showing / applying / exploring the bass playing of Steve Harris from Iron Maiden (one of my favourite bands from youth). The two camera set-up and post production narrative editing to creates a distinct format flow which keeps your attention (even if you’re not a bass player or into the music).
Revealed through a static view of a fixed cam, here’s a visual feast showing all the camera operators and angles, dancers and tech people, backdrops and lighting, in-sync and aligned to create this one-shot music video by Jungle. This literal and layered choreography makes my brain tingle in all the right ways as a producer!
A nostalgic look behind one of the most popular songs of 1993, watch and learn from the song writer and uncover both the stories behind a song and also the wonderful insight in how the place-holder of the “mmm’s” becomes the hook to the whole tune.
Distilling the core tenets to align more to my own personal values.
Been exploring Julia Cameron’s “The Artist’s Way” twelve week course for the past few weeks and took the time to turn my attention to the ‘basic principles’ as one of my ‘morning pages’ activities:
“CREATIVITY IS NATURAL AND GIVES ENERGY TO LIFE. UNLEASH AND EMBODY AND CELEBRATE YOUR OWN CREATION TO GIFT BACK TO THE WORLD YOUR NATURAL AND CREATIVE SELF. MOVE IN THE DIRECTION OF ABUNDANCE AND POSITIVENESS. IT IS SAFE TO OPEN YOURSELF UP TO GREATER AND GREATER CREATIVITY.”
It was a year of living my personal and professional standards.
This meant orienting away from people and a path which had already eroded much of my time, had taken me away from cherished communities, emptied my energy / bank account / sense of belonging and left me adrift.
These decisions were massively challenging although were right to make, and made easier by those who ask for mundane, those who say things then do the opposite, those who prefer to stay small and who have yet to develop the courage to take responsibility for situations they have created!
It truly was not a good year for others bringing positiveness to my life, however, it was one in which I discovered my own worth… then I added tax!
The talk is flirting with the one-million-views mark so currently working out what to do to recognise this. Sign up in the sidebar to get that notification as will announce it on my blog.
The accompanying Speaking With Purpose book continues to sell in its tens… many purchasers have gotten in touch afterwards saying nice things and / or asking follow-up questions.
I’m currently story-boarding a ten-part videos series on my three pillar approach and it being applied in different ways, so again stay tuned to that in the first half of the new year via this blog.
FEATURES
Was quadruply-thrilled to be invited to participate / featured in the following podcasts:
After chalking up a healthy five-figure return which sustained me through the lean-years of post-Covid-times, will now be folding the lessons and insights into the following:
NEW SERVICE
Launched publicly after a successful pilot with a multi-national (who promptly ordered a second cohort plus now in talks for future ones in 2025), the Purposeful Storytelling Impact Course is a tailored leadership learning experience, aimed at greatly improving storytelling techniques and oratory skills, as well as enhancing the capability to deliver exceptional showcase presentations across diverse fields.
Here are some quotes from those who have participated:
“I appreciated the three pronged approach that DK showed us, backed by the wealth of experience he brings to the training. Public speaking is such an art and with practice and the right training, can be a powerful tool for delivering story and message.”
“This course provided me with the mindset, toolsets and experience/feedback to confidently approach speaking in a modern context. The quotes inspired me, the challenges felt relevant and the peer support (in addition to expert feedback) helped me develop quickly.”
“Overall, the entire course was wonderful. Really appreciate the guidance provided by DK. It was also a great opportunity to network and build connections with colleagues across the globe, with such diverse backgrounds and areas of work expertise.”
“Thank you for an amazing few weeks. I learned so much, i was pushed out of my comfort zone, and I’m looking forward to applying these techniques to my work.”
“DK and the overall training have been extremely professional, appropriately safe and fun. I enjoyed it plenty and learned a lot! Judging this as a highly impactful and worthwhile investment into the success of our people and with it our company at scale. I was and am grateful for the chance to participate in this first cohort.”
“I appreciated the three pronged approach that DK showed us, backed by the wealth of experience he brings to the training. Public speaking is such an art and with practice and the right training, can be a powerful tool for delivering story and message.”
“I really enjoyed this program and am so glad we piloted it with the group we had. There was community within the cohort and I look forward to working alongside a powerful group of speakers. Thank you DK for sharing your brilliance. Your coaching and guidance was supportive and affirming, and you created a space that encouraged respect for the craft. Appreciate you!”
If you care about having your leaders internally gain crucial oratory / communication skills then this is something to check out and then get in touch to explore booking.
SPEAKER COACHING
Always a joy to sit and collaborate with others on their voice and story, plus how they will share that with the world.
As I continue to hone my speaker coaching skills I’m finding a lot more fluidity in approaches I’m taking, informed by the accrued years of practice, an intuition stemming from the thousands of individuals I can now say I’ve interacted with. And even so, I continue to learn constantly and constantly reevaluate the limits of my own understanding in this discipline.
Along with the 1-2-1’s (which now includes an Olympian in my alumni of clients), I continue to offer speaker coaching through my established half/full day ‘purposeful storytelling’ masterclass sessions (foundation and advanced options available), again, get in touch for more info.
CREATIVE PRODUCING
Apart from some pro-bono and friend-consulting in this space have done very little this year. Although triple-keen to explore briefs from those looking to gather humans in one room for ‘delicious learning experiences’—check out my pedigree and lets talk.
I did sign up for Mastodon and Bluesky although not interested in diverting my time from other things to cultivate a following on there or diluting my curative / creative efforts.
Tumblr has become my go-back-to curation platform and have enjoyed the interesting things it thinks I should be interested in, but again, spend no time on there shaping the feeds and not using it beyond feeding my monthly digital breadcrumbs posts.
As where I get my information and stimulation from, am going back to the more ‘traditional’ blogs and online communities like Reddit plus personal newsletters (especially ones with RSS feeds I can pull into my reader).
So for now the focus will be blogging and creating here (again, sign-up in the sidebar please).
2025
I’m hungry to find the edges of things, to build, rebuild, to collaborate, to Shake The Dust, plus orient towards those who are principle-led and celebrate / nurture creative actioneers.
For this reason I’m taking the opportunity to return to Aotearoa New Zealand (for at least six months) and in terms of future travels, unless something radical and wonderful occurs, will be staying put for a while as really need to ‘land’ somewhere to counter the adrift-ness being felt deeply.
So what about you? Where do you find yourself at the beginning of the new calendar year? How can I serve / add value in your adventures in 2025?And if nothing else, please feel me sending you light:
![Amazing Stories v26 n10 [1952-10] - William P Mcgiven](https://i0.wp.com/justadandak.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/04/Amazing-Stories-v26-n10-1952-10-William-P-Mcgiven.jpg?resize=543%2C741&ssl=1)
