How to tell a good story
A successful story makes the receiver feel a certain way, while a bad story fails to do so.
In one of my LinkedIn posts, I quoted:
“Good stories surprise us. They make us think and feel. They stick in our minds and help us remember ideas and concepts in a way that a PowerPoint crammed with bar graphs never can.” — Joe Lazauskas and Shane Snow, The Storytelling Edge
Telling compelling stories to sell products and ideas is nothing new.
But it's this incredible, timeless way we share messages, stir up emotions, and connect with others, all wrapped up in a neat little narrative package.
As easy as it may sound, not many know how to do it.
Look around you. Good business leaders don’t drown you with facts and numbers to get their points across. They use stories so that you get the bigger picture.
Let’s talk about comedy. Have you ever heard a comedian telling a joke with all technical terms that you won’t understand? If they were to use it, it’s probably part of the joke. Mainly, they’re telling a story – to bring you along with them on a journey.
By now we should all know, facts and numbers don’t create ‘sticky’ memories. So then how can we create stories that people love and will remember?
“People forget facts, but they remember stories.” - Joseph Campbell
Start with a message
Who is your audience? What do you want to share with them? What’s the key message you want them to take away with?
Knowing these, you’ll know what to include in the story you tell.
For example, at my Fintech API hackathon win last year, my team and I knew the panel of judges we’d face. So we know how our deck should be structured and how technical our pitch should be.
We also noted down the key pointers we want them to take away. With all that covered, it comes down to how the message was delivered. And we delivered it well.
So before figuring out the best ways to deliver them, settle your message first.
You must purposefully turn your life into a story
One of my favorite tips I’ve received about storytelling was “Make it personal.” Personal experiences make the story easily relatable. What I meant is, that everything you see, everything you’re working on, everything you use, are all part of a story – your life.
Think of every detail of the story. Structure it in a way the audience can understand and make sure only to include the important parts that can make up the story. Never overwhelm your audience with unnecessary information.
You need to have the skills to evoke emotions
A big point to remember is that people buy (get sold) with emotions and justify with logic. It has to do with something called “The Elaboration Likelihood Model”.
The Elaboration Likelihood Model taps into two routes of attitude change in humans:
The Central Route Processing: Using logic, reasoning, and deep thoughts/thinking
The Peripheral Route Processing: Using cues, imagery, and examples to elicit emotions
The central route encourages you to really think more critically about it – using your rational mind to consider the issues and arguments before reaching any decision.
Whereas the peripheral route encourages you to unconsciously focus on superficial images (or even examples that create an image in your mind) and “cues” in order to influence attitudes and decisions, without any serious consideration of the content.
Have a balance between the two in your story i.e. using imagery and examples, as well as useful data and tech jargons.
Hopefully this helps.
Thanks for reading.
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Top Learnings of the Week
Met Allen Lau, founder of WattPad and Operating Partner at Two Small Fish Ventures: He was here in Singapore the past week and was at multiple panel discussions at HSBC, SGX, etc. He discussed how Singapore enterprises can expand to North America and how family offices (FO) can seek geographic diversification in North America.
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