Storytelling School

We’re sitting around a fire pit at my Master’s Circle retreat for speakers, looking out at the ocean as the sun is setting. One of our Mastermind members asks:

“Kymberlee, what comes before the story…

I’ve just finished speaking at a live event when one of the attendees approaches me and asks:

“Was your whole story about the moped accident true?”

“Yes,” I reply.

“All of it?” he asks incredulously.…

It’s 1999. I’m attending Pepperdine University for my MBA program when I ask myself, “What else can I do?”

I decide to learn computer programming at UCLA. In my first class there, I’m sitting in a ro…

I’m on the last day of a five-day, 12-hour daily intensive Improv class at The Annoyance Theatre. Our instructor comes in and has us count off by threes. Once that’s done, he instructs us to find eve…

It’s circa 2010 and I’m running the software company I co-founded with my husband Mark. One of our clients is among the largest advertising agencies in the world and they’re preparing a big pitch for…

It’s 2018. I’m working with a Syrian-born American filmmaker named Sam to get him ready to hit the TEDx stage. We’re forming the foundation of his Talk--his idea worth spreading--when I ask him, “Why…

I’m a sixth grader with a dream: I want to be Student Body President. So I get to work on dazzling my fellow students, relentlessly preparing and rehearsing every word of my speech for days and days,…

I’m walking off the stage after giving a Keynote at a Southern California university. A few of the audience members make their way over to me. 

“Kymberlee,” one of them says, “Your presentation was s…

I’m invited to a very high-level martial arts seminar to provide communications training to the attendees. These attendees are not your average martial artists, however: they train governments and mi…

I’m at a TED event when Sarah Silverman takes the stage. She launches into her comedy set and as she gets going, I notice something interesting.

A couple of jokes in, some people in the audience are …

I’m at an Improv class doing a scene with a partner when the instructor stops us. He says to me, “When you think about your character you just acted out, what was their point of view? What was their …

With each podcast episode we release, I send an email out with a story to highlight it. My favorite part of these emails is the “PS” where I can spotlight news, make announcements, or ask you a quest…

It’s 2003. I’m at my very first TED event and I’m in the computer industry. Over a period of five days, I’m not hearing typical presentations on one subject matter. Instead, I am listening to Talks a…

I’m meeting with one of my clients. And she says to me, “Kymberlee, every time I ask you, ‘How are you doing?’ you always say, ‘I’m amazing.’ How is that possible, and how can I do it too?”

It’s simp…

It’s 2006. TEDx announces that they’re holding the first-ever TEDx University. They invite all of us who are attendees to submit a description of what we want to share and teach the group. And a hand…

My husband Mark and I are back in California after our Hawaiian vacation. We loved the kayak adventure we had there, so we decide to get a two-person kayak.

But not just any kayak. We need one that’s…

At the age of 101, my grandmother, Beverly’s, dementia is really starting to show. I’m over at her house one day when her new social worker comes by.

I hear him talking to one of her caregivers in th…

I’m working with a client in one of my Mastermind programs. She asks, “Kymberlee, what’s the difference between a story that we will remember versus one we will forget?”

At that moment, I can choose …

It’s Tuesday morning, and I’m so excited! I’m leading a storytelling workshop for a group of speakers and entrepreneurs who give presentations as part of the work they do. To start, I ask all of them…

Growing up, I spent a lot of time with my grandmother, nicknamed Moo. We always had fun; we’d play, make things up, sing songs, write poems… just be creative together.

As she gets older, though, and …