How to Craft Compelling Stories That Move Your Audience

Before everyone dives into fall planning, this month, we’re revisiting some of our favorite conversations that every executive should have fresh in their mind!

In this conversation with Melinda Lee, structural engineer and author Wayne Kalayjian reveals how he transformed the untold story of Michelangelo’s collapsing dome, a crisis that birthed modern engineering, into a compelling narrative. He reveals how he translated 18th-century Italian archives and complex physics into a gripping narrative and explains why clarity, concision, and audience-centric communication are at the heart of good writing.

In This Episode, You Will Learn:

The "Spaghetti Method" of Storytelling

"You can’t serve a tangled bowl of pasta, straighten one strand at a time."

Wayne’s approach to untangling concurrent events: isolate threads, introduce them logically, and rebuild the big picture.

Writing for Humans (Not Just Engineers)

"If your readers don’t read it, writing a book is meaningless."

Wayne’s mantra: Simplify without "dumbing down." Use analogies (like domes as living organisms) to make technical concepts visceral.

The Counterintuitive Power of Constraints

Why Wayne embraced the "hardest story to tell" and how constraints (like 18th-century Italian translations) forged sharper communication skills.

Audience Connection Without Crossing Boundaries