Storytelling

People crave a good story, even your prospects and clients. We’ve been told that for years and maybe you’ve even received some training on the topic.

Yet, some of us don’t feel we have a story to tell. Not true. We all have stories deep inside of us. And you’ll want to pull them out because a good story lulls your prospects and clients into a more receptive state. They just need to be relevant.

If you’ve never done this, start by building a database of stories in two categories.

1. Life-Changing – Some examples include moving away from home for the first time, getting married, having a child, or getting sick.

2. Significant Events – Some examples include a car wreck, a big break-up, or a new job. These aren’t really life changing, but they’re still meaningful and they usually teach a good life lesson.

There’s quite a bit of subtlety in these two categories as any event could be considered life changing for you.

Once you have the event selected, start listing key elements like what happened and why it was so pivotal. What life lesson or lessons were taught? From there, organize it into a plot line, a set-up, your punch line or lesson and visceral, relevant details to paint the picture in your audience’s heads.

Now you want to edit it down. Keep it punchy & pithy. A good story is engaging or surprising. It’s full of meaningful insight or belly laughs. But it is not a list of facts or features. It’s not a well-planned logical argument. It’s not an avalanche of details.

Fast and pithy. Nail the emotional sweet spot. That’s your goal.

To paint the mind pictures, your best friend is a thesaurus. Raise your vocabulary just a little bit and they’ll listen to your stories. But don’t go heavy on the adjectives. Let the verbs do the work for you.

Instead of “he walked down the street”, “he bolted down the street in a blind panic” or “he floated down the street in a cloud of love” or “he skipped along the parkway oblivious to anyone around him”.

To Do: Start building the framework of your stories – set-up, plot, your point.

Next level: Stories based on insignificant observations. These are minutia like from comedians Jerry Seinfeld or Larry David or stories that contradict common knowledge. These are fantastic attention getters but take a bit more work to master.

Have a great weekend!

Bob

P.S. How to use stories (basic & next-level) in your presentation is a key part of my Developing & Delivering Great Presentations course, now available for individuals and corporate teams. Just send me an email: [email protected] if you’re interested in learning more about the program.