{"id":1181,"date":"2017-04-18T20:15:56","date_gmt":"2017-04-18T20:15:56","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/commarts.pleather.us\/2017\/04\/18\/storycorps-champion-esther-choy\/"},"modified":"2017-04-18T20:15:56","modified_gmt":"2017-04-18T20:15:56","slug":"storycorps-champion-esther-choy","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.valdosta.edu\/m2\/2017\/04\/18\/storycorps-champion-esther-choy\/","title":{"rendered":"StoryCorps Champion: Esther Choy"},"content":{"rendered":"

Our generous donor Esther Choy has agreed to help support the StoryCorps Listening Challenge<\/a> by offering a challenge grant opportunity to match every gift dollar-for-dollar up to $5,000 until the end of our\u00a0campaign\u00a0on May 16. <\/span>Given this generous opportunity, we wanted our community to learn a bit more about Esther and why she gives to StoryCorps. \u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Esther is the President of Leadership at Story Lab, a training firm dedicated to teaching classical storytelling to modern leaders. She also lectures in Kellogg\u2019s Executive Education Programs.\u00a0<\/span>Since 2010, she has coached hundreds of executives, helping many gain promotions and motivate their teams and customers through storytelling. <\/span>Esther also recently published her first book, <\/span>Let the Story Do the Work<\/span><\/i><\/a>. She<\/span>\u00a0is a storyteller at heart and understands the power of our stories and the impact they can have on others.<\/span><\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

We wanted to get a better sense of what drives\u00a0Esther to support our work, so we asked her to share with us\u00a0why she is passionate about StoryCorps.<\/span><\/p>\n

Why do you love StoryCorps?<\/b><\/p>\n

Why do I love StoryCorps? Where do I begin?! <\/span>Listening to StoryCorps’ stories makes me smile, cry, laugh, ponder, reflect, think. Most importantly, I feel hopeful when I listen to StoryCorps.<\/span><\/p>\n

Why do you think listening is important?<\/b><\/b><\/p>\n

A very wise person once said, \u201cTo become a great storyteller, one must first become a story collector.\u201d Without listening, how can anyone collect stories?<\/span><\/p>\n

Since I train executives on becoming more persuasive through the application of storytelling, I see listening as a prerequisite for this very critical 21<\/span>st<\/span>-century skill set. Though most clients I\u2019ve met understand why listening is important \u2014 at least in their heads \u2014 they don\u2019t know how to do it well. Modern life is incredibly distracting, after all. That\u2019s why I devoted a whole chapter on how to listen even when you feel like you can\u2019t in my upcoming book, <\/span>Let the Story Do the Work<\/a><\/span><\/i>, which comes out in July 2017.<\/span><\/p>\n

Listening, however, is about more than becoming great storytellers.\u00a0<\/span>We live in a divided, partisan world. At times, it seems like there is no way back to any sense of unity. In fact, there is a way.<\/span><\/p>\n

Years ago, I was in a week-long mediation training. The most important message that the trainer stressed over and over again was how important acknowledgment is. He likened acknowledgment to stabilizing patients in the ER. It\u2019s the first thing you do with people in conflict. When people are hurt, it\u2019s nearly impossible for them to think rationally and work constructively until they feel listened to. <\/span>Listening is acknowledging. Listening is healing.<\/span><\/p>\n

Why do you give to StoryCorps?<\/b><\/b><\/p>\n

Like all good public services, we can\u2019t sit back and wait for someone else to pitch in. We all<\/em> have to pitch in. It\u2019s my job. It\u2019s your job. It\u2019s everyone\u2019s job!<\/span><\/p>\n

*<\/span>\u00a0 \u00a0* \u00a0 *<\/p>\n

We are beyond appreciative of Esther\u2019s generous matching gift for the StoryCorps Listening Challenge. If you would like to take advantage of this amazing opportunity and double the impact of your gift, take the Challenge today<\/a>.\u00a0Listen! Donate! Share!<\/strong><\/p>\n

Source: SNPR Story Corps<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Our generous donor Esther Choy has agreed to help support the StoryCorps Listening Challenge by offering a challenge grant opportunity to…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":245,"featured_media":1182,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_oasis_is_in_workflow":0,"_oasis_original":0,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_vp_format_video_url":"","_vp_image_focal_point":[],"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[1],"tags":[45],"class_list":["post-1181","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-careering"],"acf":[],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/blog.valdosta.edu\/m2\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/107\/2017\/04\/2016Reunion_Choy0174-636x837.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/paqOTj-j3","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.valdosta.edu\/m2\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1181","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.valdosta.edu\/m2\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.valdosta.edu\/m2\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.valdosta.edu\/m2\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/245"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.valdosta.edu\/m2\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1181"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/blog.valdosta.edu\/m2\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1181\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.valdosta.edu\/m2\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1182"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.valdosta.edu\/m2\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1181"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.valdosta.edu\/m2\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1181"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.valdosta.edu\/m2\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1181"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}