Well howdy Reader!

This week, my friend Shelly Waldman, Founder of Creative Camp and host of the Creative Campfire Podcast, has been the best London tour guide a woman could ask for. This week, she took me to Richmond, home of Ted Lasso and the fictitious AFC Richmond Greyhounds.

When Ted Lasso first premiered, it was easy to write it off as a fish-out-of-water comedy. If you’re not familiar with the premise, Ted is an American football coach hired specifically for his lack of knowledge about British football (soccer). The team's owner, Rebecca, thought Ted’s inexperience would destroy the club she’d won in a very public divorce—out of spite. Instead, the team thrived under his leadership, even when they were ultimately relegated.

The show quickly became a cultural phenomenon.

But what kept us coming back wasn’t the novelty. It was the heart.

Ted Lasso reminded us that optimism isn’t naïveté, it's strategy. The show’s pacing, tone, and emotional depth built trust with the audience over time, one awkward pun and one heartfelt locker-room moment at a time.

From a storytelling perspective, Ted Lasso is a masterclass in emotional pacing. Each storyline unfolds with patience. Whether it’s Ted’s panic attacks or Jamie Tartt’s growth or Rebecca’s ultimate redemption, the writers resist the urge to rush the resolution. They let us sit in discomfort, in awkward silences, in slow growth. That pacing is what makes the emotional payoffs land.

The warmth of Ted’s character becomes the narrative glue that holds everything together. Even when the plot veers into ruthless territory, Ted’s tone anchors us. That’s what tone does in storytelling: it keeps your audience safe enough to stay with you through the hard stuff.

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When Ted delivers this monologue, he isn’t trying to win at darts, he’s winning the hearts in the room. Every beat is intentional. He starts with humor, builds curiosity, and lands the emotional payoff with quiet confidence.

It’s storytelling that warms you inside and makes you feel smarter for having listened. Not because Ted outwitted anyone, but because he reminded you of your own capacity for grace.

That’s what great speakers do too.

Build trust and emotional connection first. Let humor and pacing carry your ideas naturally. The audience doesn’t need you to perform optimism, they need to feel it.

When you show up with warmth, humility, and conviction, your message lands not because it’s clever, but because it’s true.

As a speaker, your pacing and tone are your emotional compass. When you rush to the “lesson,” you cheat the audience out of the journey. When you lean too hard on the jokes, you risk losing the emotional core. But when you balance heart and humor, you build trust that lasts beyond the talk.

Ted Lasso didn’t win us over because he was the smartest guy in the room. He won us over because he made us believe we could be better. And that’s the power of storytelling with heart—your message becomes an invitation into something more.

As you write your next talk, think about your emotional pacing. Where are you rushing the resolution? Where could you linger, just a beat longer, to let your audience catch their breath and connect?

Is your tone consistent from start to finish? Does it make your audience feel safe enough to stay with you, even when the story gets uncomfortable?

Remember: you don’t have to tell people to believe in your message. When you show up like you already do, they will too.

Until next time,

Bonus! Not only is Ted Lasso an excellent storytelling mechanism, it's also a business lesson. Mary Williams of Sasquatch Media Grounds in Vancouver, WA, breaks it down on season 2 of The School of Moxie Podcast. I love that these are super short episodes so you can binge the entire season in a commute!