Are you ready to transform your storytelling and captivate your audience? Join me on an exciting journey through Soledad O’Brien’s “Powerful Storytelling Today” course on Skillshare. In this review, we’ll look at the secrets of crafting captivating stories and how Soledad’s years of journalistic expertise can inspire you. What sets a great story apart, and how can you master this skill regardless of your background? Join me as I delve into this course and the lessons it offers. Are you ready to take your storytelling to the next level? Let’s explore what the course covers.
Table of Contents
What is "Powerful Storytelling Today" about?
Stories have the power to connect, engage, and inspire, making storytelling a valuable skill for professionals from various fields. “Powerful Storytelling Today: Strategies for Crafting Great Content” is a Skillshare course led by experienced journalist Soledad O’Brien. The course comprises seven lessons, with a total duration of 36 minutes. It’s a condensed yet comprehensive exploration of storytelling, focusing on the core elements that make a story great. The course’s main goal is to equip you with the knowledge and skills required to tell authentic and effective stories that captivate people.
Who is Soledad O'Brien?
Soledad O’Brien is an experienced journalist, entrepreneur, and producer with a long career of over 30 years. O’Brien is best known for her documentaries “Black in America” and “Latino in America.” In 2013, she founded Starfish Media Group, a multiplatform media production and distribution company with the mission to produce inspiring stories that address societal issues. She is also the co-founder of the PowHERful Foundation, a non-profit organization that supports young women from low-income backgrounds to pursue higher education.
Who is this course's target audience?
This course is designed to teach you the art of storytelling regardless of your background, but the storytelling skills taught can be especially valuable to:
- content marketers,
- social media managers,
- entrepreneurs, and
- freelancers
Whether you’re an experienced writer or someone who has never considered storytelling before, Soledad O’Brien’s course can teach you a thing or two, as it’s designed to help both professionals and beginners understand the power of storytelling.
Course overview
- Introduction: Soledad introduces the basics of storytelling and the course structure.
- What Makes a Great Story: You’ll explore the core elements of compelling stories.
- Getting Started – The Idea & Support: In this lesson, you will learn how to find the heart of a story.
- Preparation – Casting & Research: You will learn the essential steps in preparing for a character-focused story.
- How to Lead a Great Interview: This section focuses on how to conduct effective interviews by asking the right questions.
- Crafting Your Structure: You will learn how to structure your narrative and the processes that come post-interview.
- Closing: Soledad shares useful tips and advice for interviewees who are not professional writers.
What I liked about the course
- The course is well structured, providing a comprehensive understanding of storytelling that is accessible to beginners and experienced learners alike. Soledad O’Brien’s approach takes complex storytelling concepts and breaks them down into easy-to-understand steps. This makes the course an ideal starting point for those who may be new to storytelling or wish to reinforce their foundational knowledge.
- One of the standout features of this course is the incorporation of case study learning: Soledad uses her work as a resource to illustrate the concepts she’s teaching and allows you to understand the real-world application of the concepts discussed in the course.
- I really liked Soledad O’Brien’s advice on active listening and embracing awkward silence as tools for prompting interviews. She teaches you to conduct more effective interviews and connect with your subjects on a deeper level.
- Soledad’s approach to interviews, which combines prepared questions with the flexibility to be surprised, ensures dynamic conversations between your subject and yourself and helps you add a layer of authenticity to your stories.
- I particularly liked her emphasis on understanding your audience. This piece of advice is shared by copywriting specialist Jack Zerby, and is of critical importance for effective storytelling. Without a firm understanding of your audience’s preferences and needs, your story will simply not work.
What I didn't like about the course
- The course is quite short, leaving you wanting to know more about the subject. Expanding the course content would improve the learning experience.
- The inclusion of case studies is a great aspect of the course. However, they could have been analyzed in greater depth to better understand the lessons.
- The course lacks practical exercises to apply what you learn. Hands-on practice exercises would reinforce the learning and allow for immediate application of the concepts.
How much does the course cost?
Courses on Skillshare can not be bought individually – they can only be accessed by signing up for a Skillshare membership. The good news? Skillshare offers e-student.org learners a full month free trial if you use our link (if not using our link, there is normally only a 7-day free trial). As virtually all Skillshare courses will take you less than a month to complete, you can in effect take this or any other Skillshare course for free – or any number of courses that you can finish in a month.
Once your free trial is over, the cost of Skillshare is $165 per year, which averages out to $13.75 per month. This gives you full access to all 34,000+ Skillshare courses. But if you're not happy to continue, you can easily cancel any time before your free trial ends – just go to your payment settings in your account.
If you have no need for a free trial, you can instead get %30 discount on your first year by using this special link instead. With this link, your first year will be just $115.50, averaging out to $9.63 per month. Note that this offer is only valid for new accounts, so it can't be combined with the 30-day free trial.
Conclusion – Is the course worth it?
By taking this course, I learned that storytelling is not just a craft for writers or journalists but a universal skill that can elevate any form of communication, and I gained more confidence in my storytelling abilities.
In conclusion, “Powerful Storytelling Today: Strategies for Crafting Great Content” by Soledad O’Brien on Skillshare is worth giving it a try. The course’s well-structured content gives you the basics of storytelling in a step-by-step way.
However, you should be aware of the brevity of the course and the absence of practical exercises. Despite these minor drawbacks, the course equips you with invaluable skills that can be applied across various professional settings.
If you want to improve your storytelling skills and make a lasting impact, “Powerful Storytelling Today” is the course for you.
Ready to discover the power of storytelling? Enroll now and start creating stories that captivate people!
