Our Story Pollinators program will transform you from a good storyteller into a great storyteller and support you in activating engagement. You’ll learn to animate your audience's social ecology so that your story touches and energizes their stories, deepening connections and inspirations that live on beyond the event. You will be a Story Pollinator, inspiring your audience to move from passive consumers to active pollinators!

We work with change-makers to tell powerful stories and connect audiences to multiply action and impact. So if you are a speaker who desires to share your story in pursuit of catalyzing engagement with your mission and intentions then read on!

Testimonials -

“ Pollination is now front and center of my ideation. The main purpose of creating events now is Pollination and getting the audience to retell the stories after they leave. I want to create events that have ripple effects.’ Kate Walsh, WELA

I really enjoyed the training sessions and found them valuable to consolidate my story and improve my storytelling delivery - Jo Love, Sea Health Products

Loved the carefully curated examples of pollination that you all presented; it all stirred my imagination and made such sense! And I've come away with a strange sense of a gap, a question around what the audience can actually grip onto and run with from my own story - Helene Fisher, EarthWell

I want to be a better storyteller for campfire events. I Got a lot more than that. I realize I can be a good storyteller - Nikki Thompson, Soil2Soul

I was so moved by Louise’s story and how she told it. I had met her before but felt deeply connected to her WHY and her essence after I heard her speak at the Story Pollinators event. Their process and approach result in super powerful narratives. Can’t wait to go through it myself. - Vicki Saunders, Coralus

Our online Story Pollinators program is a dynamic and lively mix of exercises, theory, practice, and coaching.

By the end of this program, you’ll gain confidence and delight in learning to craft and tell your stories in a way authentic to you and the audiences with whom you speak.

You’ll work with expert storytelling and social ecology facilitators from the Wicked Elephants Co-op to animate the power of your storytelling. You’ll deliver more impactful messages to your audience – be they the media, your donors, supporters, volunteers, or your colleagues.

Wicked Elephants is changing from the old model of one-way delivery of information, where your audience is a passive consumer, to a pollinator model where you animate your audience, engaged in the landscape of change. Your stories will light up the field of stories in your audience's social ecology and once we pollinate that rich nectar we get a blossoming of inspiration.

You will learn

The neuroscience of stories.

How to access the power of imagination and story.

Powerful storytelling frameworks.

The secret of Sense-sational storytelling techniques.

How to fully express and harness your authentic presence.

Confidence and clarity of what story to share and when.

How to frame your key messages.

Connect and animate social ecologies.

How to touch hearts and minds and imaginations.
Become more flexible in your patterns of communication.

Program dates and times February 2024 (all times in AEDT)

Thursday 22nd - 4 pm - 6-30pm

Friday 23rd- 4 pm - 6-30pm

Saturday 24th and Sunday 25th - 10 am -12 pm - LUNCH - 2 - 4 pm

Tues/Wed 1.5hr coaching sessions (various times which we will work out to suit you)

The program culminates in an event where you share your story with a broad audience of supporters, friends, and colleagues.

Thursday 29th - 2.5hrs - early evening

Debrief session - Tuesday, March 5. 4 pm - 6.30 pm

There are payment plan options if required - please reach out to inquire.

Your facilitators

Johanna de Ruyter – Story facilitator

Hello, I have been working with stories for 35 years now. I have a history of storytelling via my extensive theatre experience. Over the last 15 years, I have been translating my story-based theatre skills for organizational communication and delivering storytelling training for leaders worldwide.

Dr Caresse Cranwell

Hi. I’m a storyteller and an award-winning short filmmaker! I’m also a spoken word poet as well as an eco-philosopher and experiential therapist. Our stories are living ecologies. We create one another and the world through them. If we consciously pay attention to our why and focus attention on what we’re creating we can create social ecologies, webworks of mutual inspiration and action. Stories catalyse but it is how we weave webs through our stories and events that most interest me.