What is the Campfire Method?

The Campfire Method is a storytelling & public speaking training method. It is based on 3 pillars, a mission, a concept, and a process.

Human beings have been sitting around campfires and telling stories for thousands of years. It has always been a vital form of spreading information, teaching or building a community. We love sharing experiences and learning from each other.

We still have these gatherings, even though today we call them conferences, events or meetings. And the reasons why we come together are still the same, to share experiences and information.

So why are presentations at conferences often stressful for the speaker and boring to the audience? Because in these business settings, we sometimes lose track of what makes us human: heart, humility, hope.

The Campfire Method will help you concentrate on these aspects, so you can communicate from the heart, be heard and remembered.

Mission

My mission is to empower you as an individual and help you learn the storytelling skills and speaking techniques to create positive, joyful, and effective communication for yourself and your audience.

Concept

The Campfire Method has a modular concept. The general idea is that communication is a complex beast and therefore, it’s best to work on the different aspects separately.

The concept has 3 pillars. First, each pillar will be dealt with individually, based on your specific needs. Then, all of them will be combined to empower you to deliver the performance of a lifetime.

People

The WHO. This pillar is about you. It is about how you communicate, verbally and non-verbally, through body language, voice, breath, rhetoric, para-language, prosody and all other forms of human communication.

Here we train your skills as a speaker or presenter. We look at how you perceive yourself, how the audience perceives you. We talk about authenticity, nervousness, anxiety, about stage and camera presence. As a result, we find out how you can make sure you will deliver your best performance.

Place

The WHERE. When you are communicating as a speaker or presenter you are always in a specific place, a stage, in front of the camera or even in front of a room full of people.

This pillar is about the physical location of your presentation. It covers all the specific tools and pitfalls of the place of your presentation, including technical aspects like microphones, lighting and audience setups.

Story

The WHAT. Communication is about transporting information. When you speak to someone, you want to make sure you get your information across and consequently, make them remember what you told them and inspire them to act on it.

This is where the story pillar comes into play to help make your content emotional, fun, engaging, memorable and persuasive. Stories can help deliver your information and communicate your message precisely the way you want.

Process

My process is called APE, which stands for 3 simple steps:
analysis, preparation, execution.

The first step is analysis. At this step, we find out what your individual wants and needs are, where you are and where you want to be.

The next step is preparation. At this point, we work on your storytelling and public speaking skills and focus on the 3 pillars People, Place, Story to prepare you for the final step.

The final step is execution. At this final stage, we put all the work from analysis and preparation into practice and make sure your delivery and performance is spot on and where you want it to be.

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Sounds good, how do I get started?

If any of the above resonates with you and you would like to work on your storytelling and/or public speaking skills, please get in touch and let’s start talking about you.