09. CHARITY
Better Stories
inspire action.
It’s not enough for a story to make an audience FEEL something. Better Stories contain CHARITY. A mission, a purpose or a call-to-action which creates so much urgency and optimism that the audience is inspired to DO something.
09.1
Hope.
Jane Goodall is like a preacher. She has 52 different ways to tell her story each week! I had fun breaking down her talks in this video, to show how Jane takes the same narrative and weaves it into different versions of the same story. So can you. [14 mins]
09.2
You Can Change the World in 1,000 Seconds.
16 minutes and 40 seconds. For some of the world's best communicators, it doesn't take much more than that to inspire action. MLK? 970 seconds. Malala? 981 seconds. Volodymyr Zelenskyy? 1,000 seconds. Sanna Marin (966 seconds). [Click image to read the post]
09.3
Purpose Driven Storytelling.
Patagonia's Yvon Chouinard is my favourite business leader. Mostly because he doesn't want to be one. Each of these four books are amazing, but if you want to be inspired just watch any of his talks.
[Click image for my book review]
09.4
COP Storytelling.
When I was preparing to write some remarks for the COP climate summit, I reviewed some speeches from COP26 in Glasgow to break them down. This behind-the-scenes look at some of the best presentations might give you a few ideas, and inspire you to create more action and urgency in your stories. [14 mins]
09.5
Best Presentation Ever?
At a Climate Reality Leadership event in Minneapolis in 2019 I watched Al Gore give the best presentation I'd ever seen. This video breaks down WHY I think it was such an amazing presentation and I reveal some of the tools and techniques he uses that you can copy, to make your own presentations even better. [5 mins]
09.6
The 3.5% Rule.
How many people does it take to change ther world? If you really want your story to make a difference, you need to understand how many people you need to influence. I love Erica Chenoweth's concept of the 3.5% Rule because it makes systemic change feel much more achievable. [4 mins]
09.7
Urgency + Optimism = Action.
The Earthshot Prize is a wonderful example of how to inspire action. In the same spirit as Product [RED] it exists at the intersection of entrepreneurship and the environment. This simple equation taken from Prince William's Earthshot book should be applied to any purpose driven presentation. [337 pages]
09.8
Call for Code.
How do you turn a moment into a movement? From scientists to storytellers, sales people to strategists, Call for Code is a wonderful example of what happens when science and storytelling meet technology and activism. Be inspired, get involved or start a movement of your own (?) because you really can change the world just by sharing YOUR story. 💙
09.9
Best Presentation Ever?
At a Climate Reality Leadership event in Minneapolis in 2019 I watched Al Gore give the best presentation I'd ever seen. This video breaks down WHY I think it was such an amazing presentation and I reveal some of the tools and techniques he uses that you can copy, to make your own presentations even better. [5 mins]
09.10
Jeremy's Keynote.
In October 2026 I gave a keynote at the Marketing Society's Change Makers conference in front of 600 CMO's. Designed as "A Love Letter to Comic Relief" these are my slides from that presentation, aimed at inspiring those CMO's to serve their customers, have fun, and change the world. The 25-minute keynote mixed live AI demo's, video, audience interaction.
09.11
Uncharitable.
Every so often a film changes your life. This film changed mine. If you want to tell purpose-driven stories, and especially if you work for/with a charity or NGO, it's worth stopping whatever you're doing and watching this movie. [Uncharitable website]
09.12
The World's "Most Persuasive" Keynote?
TED’s Chris Anderson called this “very UNLIKELY candidate for a successful talk" and "ONE OF THE MOST PERSUASIVE STORIES I HAVE EVER HEARD.”
I like taking stories to pieces to see why they work, so that I can show others and help them to communicate a bit better. My current favourite example is Dan Pallotta's TED talk from 2013 – “The way we think about charity is dead wrong.”It looks like it shouldn’t work but it does.. 💙 [POST] + [PDF]
09.13
"Best Presentation Ever" Deconstructed.
How Do You Turn a Moment into a Movement? In this pilot episode of The Truth in Ten Podcast, host Jeremy Connell-Waite takes you behind the scenes of a ten-minute presentation which won not one, but two Academy Awards! It's a presentation which Jeremy has given many times himself, and he shares some insights about where the presentation came from, and what you can learn from it. [12 mins]
09.14
The Hill We Climb.
How Do You Turn a Presentation into a Performance? In this episode of The Truth in Ten Podcast, we go on a journey to discover how the world's most famous spoken word poet, Amanda Gorman, overcame her fear of public speaking (and a speech impediment). Just two weeks after hundreds of protesters stood on the exact same spot and stormed the Capitol Building, 22-year old Amanda had just 6-minutes to try and heal a nation with her words, with millions all around the world watching to see what she'd say.
09.15
The Arc of Justice.
Why Do Great Talks Do Six Things?
How do you connect with an audience who has no idea who you are? And more importantly, how can you inspire an audience to do something which they didn't expect to do - especially if that concerns giving you a lot of money?
This episode is a fast but thoughtful deep-dive into the art and science of persuasive storytelling according to civil rights lawyer Bryan Stevenson. His TED Talk received the longest standing ovation in TED history, but not only that - he received $1.3M in donations to his organization from the audience without even askibng for it! How did Bryan's 21 minute talk do that? Especially when, on paper, it looks like this talk shoud not have worked. [13 mins]
09.16
How Did Sesame St. Tell Stories Which Changed the World?
How Do You Make Education More Entertaining?
In the 1960's TV had a problem. Kids were watching hundreds of hours of ads and cartoons but they weren't learning anything. That was until Joan Ganz Cooney came along. She revolutionised TV and invented a whole new genre when she launched Sesame Street in 1969 against all the odds. She quickly became one of the most influential people in TV.
The story of how Sesame St. came to life is a real hero's journey about fighting systems, challenging the status quo and taking the advice of kids over consultants.
In this episode of The Truth in Ten podcast, Jeremy takes a quick look behind the scenes of how Joan created Sesame Street, and I share the actual report that secured the original $8M funding.
A little inspiration perhaps for something you're trying to change at the moment... 🌈 🍪 [13 mins]
