Cat Slack's speaking reel for We Are Our Stories keynote
[Video Desc] Cat Slack’s Speaking Reel is a stitched together presentation of some of her keynote speeches, keyshops, and workshops. Cat is an authentic speaker, and you can see how she warmly greets and engages with people in this video. She alters between speaking on a stage to sitting with small groups of people. She is energetic, moving to emphasize and encourage participation from the audience. As these clips play, a narrative is voiced-over, included below as a Video Transcript. Within, you’ll find excerpts from her most celebrated talk - How to Tell From a Scar, Not a Wound.
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Thanks for coming. My name is Cat Slack, and basically I like to bring Joy back into fundraising and help people tell the story of the work they do in a way that honors those they serve, but also themselves. We're going to be doing some storytelling today. Sometimes the best thing you can do as a leader is nothing, just stop and listen.
I was stationed in Armenia and in my village. Nobody spoke English. So I became, exceedingly proficient at Armenian. When I'm in an L.A. cab and I see the cabbies name ends in I-A-N – I'm about to make a lifelong friend.
We're going to talk about how to make story stick, how to tell sticky stories. I think the thing about sticky images is when they're done really well, the listener, the audience, the reader can't help but be very present in the story because they see, they smell, they hear, they touch, they feel it with you.
Stories engender empathy to create change. Good ones can. But bad stories can also exploit or hurt. And it's really important to know the difference if you're telling the stories of others. Is it from a place of having healed? Because we don't want to reharm. Because what you as a leader needs to do is take away all the obstacles that could possibly exist for getting people who aren't you involved.
So if you have stories that you tell about yourself over and over. Your brain, over and over, it makes those neural pathways much easier to access. And so when you wake up in the morning and think, who am I? I'm trauma. If you tell that story over and over, who you are isn't that thing, that trauma, that scar and maybe that wound, who you are is where you're going when you really connect with someone authentically, you develop trust.
And there is nothing faster than the speed of trust.
Cat Slack is a keynote speaker, closer, and nationally recognized fundraiser.
She has spent her career at the intersection of generosity and strategy, raising nearly a billion dollars for meaningful causes around the world by helping people truly see the need in front of them.