Don’t tell me you have no stories. Okay, so maybe you’re not a natural jokester or captivating yarn-spinner. I get that. Without question, though, you have anecdotes, examples, and vignettes from your life and your work that are illuminating, instructive and/or inspiring. There’s also no question you have audiences and stakeholders to reach.
Let me ask you a few questions: Are you responsible for attracting new clients and, therefore, frequently making new business presentations? Are you involved in a nonprofit and occasionally need to speak in front of your board or member groups? Are you possibly starting something new — a creative venture or perhaps even a book club? Or are you an executive or manager who needs to motivate your team through a difficult period? Maybe you’re a visual artist and you‘ve been asked to make some remarks on the opening night of a gallery show, or you’re slated to be a guest on a popular podcast and you want to be engaging.
Regardless of the type of presentation you need to make, stories are the best way to capture your audience’s interest and leave them with something impactful.
Your ultimate goal is to grab your audience’s attention and make them care about and remember your talk. A long narrative, chronological recitation, nor a fact-laden case is going to get you there. But sharing a story can teach a lesson or illustrate a point like nobody’s business. Research shows that stories activate and engage the brain differently than plain old information. Therefore, if you want to influence people — either inform or persuade them in a way that makes them care and remember — stories are the way to go.
With storytelling, there is a critical hierarchy to keep in mind: Every story needs to illustrate a point, and every point needs to support the overarching goal of your talk. Stories that don’t support a point or the goal are the blah blah blah of a presentation. The stories that illustrate a point and reinforce the goal are the yeah yeah yeah and can energize a room. Your goal for your presentation is the ultimate litmus test for whether or not a story makes its way into your talk.
So, what if you’re not a natural storyteller? How do you even begin to think about creating one? The simplest way to construct a story is in three sections:
• A few sentences that set it up and explain the situation. (When I say a few, I’m hoping for five or six sentences max!) This is where you give some background.
• A few sentences (same limit as above, if you can do it!) that create some drama, tension or suspense. This is where you might share particular difficulties, challenges, surprises or details that add depth or dimension.
• And finally, a few sentences about the resolution, how it all ended, which should circle you back to the point.
Tying your story back to the point is like making sure you have a punchline. Here’s an example: Let’s say you’re an architect, delivering a presentation to a prospective client. One of the main selling points you always make is that your firm has unique experience designing environmentally sound renovations as well as new construction. The story you tell is about a gorgeous early 20th-century building that other architects struggled to make green (section 1) but that your firm was called in and was able to save the façade and the bones of the building (section 2) while bringing the building to 21st-century standards for sustainability (section 3) per your firm’s expertise (point).
You don’t need to be a raconteur to tell stories. Think of stories as examples or anecdotes that illustrate your point better than data. Stories are the connective tissue all human beings share. We’re drawn to them: we stretch them, we repeat them, and we enjoy them long after they were first told. Stories rise above the typical, ordinary narrative — replete with its detailed background information and point-proving data — to paint a vivid picture that sticks. Most of all, though, stories tend to cause you, the speaker, to shift your delivery from robotic to animated, thereby making you more appealing, real and interesting.
