Living Proof: Telling Your Story to Make a Difference

by John Capecci, Timothy Cage

Living Proof is the first comprehensive guide to telling your personal story as an advocate for a cause or organization. New material for this 3rd edition includes more advocate stories, additional help organizing talks and presentations, and new chapters on the art and science of why stories work to engage and move listeners, and motivate action.

This easy-to-use handbook has everything you need to decide what to tell, deliver your story effectively and authentically, and give powerful presentations or great media interviews. Living Proof is for anyone who hopes one person's story can move audiences from apathy to empathy to action.

Living Proof contains examples, tools, principles, exercises and worksheets to help prepare speakers at all levels. It's organized so you can work through the book in a weekend, a week, with a course of study or flip to sections most immediately useful. Whether you're just starting out or looking to take your communication skills to the next level, Living Proof provides the grounding, the confidence and guidance needed to advocate with the power of a well-told personal story.

Genres: Writing, Nonfiction, Business

332 pages, Paperback

First published March 22, 2012

About the author

John is a writer, communication trainer and story/advocacy coach.

John is co-author (with Timothy Cage) of "Living Proof: Telling Your Story to Make a Difference" (2019, Granville Circle Press), a guide to using personal stories to advocate for change. He's also co-editor (with Irene Ziegler) of a best-selling series of monologue and play anthologies for actors and students. John delivers keynote presentations on communication effectiveness and the use of personal stories for advocacy.

John's clients range from large and small nonprofit organizations to for-profit businesses and individuals. He's developed and conducted custom training programs for health professionals and advocates, educators, spokespersons, senior executives, artists and museum professionals, designers, non-profit leadership and marketing/pr agencies. Home base for John is Minneapolis, MN, where he's active in neighborhood and local history work.

Reviews

[Unny · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book was both an incredibly easy read and a great resource for telling your story! I'm a long time activist who has slowly moved into telling my story and helping my organizations/causes tell stories. The advice this book gives is so simple and at the same time effective! The book reads like a workbook, with many, many exercises. The caveat with this review is that I didn't actually do the exercises.

[Jessica (Decky) · Rating 4 out of 5]

I just used this for my graduate class in storytelling and in many moments it allowed the creative process for some students to surge. There are many innovative, bendable and thoughtful entrances to building an advocacy story including mechanisms like 'making the cut' and 6 word reason.

I allowed my students to define advocacy for themselves and then use that definition to help guide the development (intent/goal) of their story. Additionally, I focused on the idea of oral telling and story'ing vs. written/literary story and integrated that element in to an assignment. Much of these stories could sound less like 'story' and more like a 'speech' without the an exploration/discussion on the sound and look of oral storytelling.

[John Capecci · Rating 5 out of 5]

Worth the five stars? We think so. We hope so. We enjoyed writing Living Proof almost as much as we enjoy meeting and working with the amazing individuals and groups committed to making a difference in the world with their stories. It's awesome work, and we've dedicated the book to all who are using personal stories to bring about positive change. And that's a lot of people.

Please let us know how the book works for you.

All good wishes,

John and Tim (authors)

[Katie Pierson · Rating 5 out of 5]

Practical, meaningful guidance for social entrepreneurs by my buddy, John Capecci.

[Marie · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a fantastic book for advocates on any level. I plan to purchase it so that I use it as a reference for specific projects. Very clearly written, with plenty of constructive advice, exercises and checklists.

[Greg Owen-Boger · Rating 5 out of 5]

Living Proof makes storytelling accessible to everyone whether they are born storytellers or not. I read Living Proof in (mostly) one sitting, and I return to it often.