How to Tell Engaging Stories That Captivate Audiences
Why Stories
If you've been interested in using stories in your speaking and presenting, but you just don't quite know how to make them work for you, I've put together a free guide called crafting stories that resonate in business. I'm not holding anything back here. Everything I cover on this podcast and more is documented into this easy to read and easy to follow guide to help you to find craft and utilize.
The power of storytelling in your presentations, in your speeches and conversations. Using stories will connect you with your audience like nothing else. So, grab your free guide by going to www.LisaHugo.com/stories. All right, let's dive in.
Stories have the power to captivate, to inspire and connect. And when they're used well, they can elevate your business to new heights. And why? Because stories create emotional connections. They make complex ideas relatable, and they are more memorable and shareable than boring facts and figures. In business, we're often faced with the challenge of how we can convey our vision, our mission, or our product or our product's value in an interesting way.
Stories can cut through the dry content, they can touch hearts and they can make lasting impressions.
Categories of stories
Stories fit into different categories. There are three main categories of stories. The first one is pivotal moments. That's pivotal moments that you've experienced in your life, where you've had a turnaround or a transformation. Or pivotal moments in your entrepreneurial journey, where you've found a solution to something, and you've switched and you've turned the situation around.
It can also be challenges and breakthroughs, things that you've gone through and how you found the solution to come out of that. And then there's personal experiences, which are very often the richest form of stories.
Stories fit into different categories. There are three main categories of stories. The first one is pivotal moments. That's pivotal moments that you've experienced in your life, where you've had a turnaround or a transformation. Or pivotal moments in your entrepreneurial journey, where you've found a solution to something, and you've switched and you've turned the situation around.
It can also be challenges and breakthroughs, things that you've gone through and how you found the solution to come out of that. And then there's personal experiences, which are very often the richest form of stories.
Now I know some of you are going to be thinking, Lisa, I don't have any stories that would be relatable or interesting for an audience. Or if I do, I don't remember them, but trust me, you do have stories. You've lived and nobody's lived like you. Some people may have had similar experiences, but they're not going to be your experiences. So, you just need to learn how to tap into them and then learn how to craft them and deliver them.
Recording your ideas
I personally like to keep a library of my stories in a Google document that I can then add to as I remember something. You can also then categorize your stories by theme and emotion.
We've all got a smartphone and I'm pretty sure now all smartphones can record a voice note. What I do is, the moment I have an idea, I'll either voice message or voice to text message that idea into my phone so that it's saved away.
It doesn't need to have any special structure yet. It's just an idea or a memory. Structuring it comes later. Just remembering and recording your stories is a great place for you to get started.
Now, if you are going to use the voice notes in your phone, I recommend that you give them a title because if you're anything like me and you use a lot of voice notes for your ideas and you never delete them, then you're going to find it really difficult to find that recording again in that long list of recording 1, recording 2, recording 102, recording 1002.
You know what I mean? So, once you've got those ideas saved, then later on, you can extract the stories from your voice messages or however you find it easiest to record your idea, it could be written down, but now you can add them to your library to work on when you feel inspired or when you need a story for a special event.
This helps to build on your database so you have stories available to you that you can throw into a conversation or a presentation at any time. You would be amazed at how stories that you find totally irrelevant can be incredibly powerful when linked correctly to the message. I'm going to talk about linking a little bit further on, so make sure you don't drop off because linking is the secret ingredient that will make your stories relevant.
Refining your story
Once you have a story, you now need to refine it. Every great story has a framework that includes three key sections.
The first section is the setup, where you introduce the characters and the context.
The second section is the conflict, where you're presented with a challenge or an obstacle or a problem.
And the third section is the resolution, where you've worked through that problem, and you reveal how the conflict was overcome and what the outcome was.
So, that's the framework, but now you need some essential ingredients to make that story come alive. The story needs to be relatable, and by that, I mean the audience needs to think to themselves, I've been there. I understand what that feels like. Or I know someone who has experienced what you're talking about. It needs to have some element of tension and discomfort that will make your audience want to know more about how you overcame that. And it needs to have a happy ending. Nobody likes a story that ends in sorrow.
Make sure that the story offers hope and transformation. Look at the positive side of a story. Even if it's a tough ending to the story, focus on the positive. It's got to be some form of hope. Use characters and make the characters come alive. You can do this with your voice. Your body language, your gestures, and your facial expressions.
Make sure that you're authentic and you're not afraid to express your feelings. Audiences love vulnerability and authenticity. So don't hold yourself back from showing your expression. These are the building blocks of an unforgettable story. Now you have your story, how can you deliver it in a way that's really going to connect and it's not just going to be a recitation?
Well, as I said earlier, you need to express your feelings. When you deliver the story, take yourself back in your mind to how you felt when this experience happened to you. When you see the story unfold in your own mind, you'll be able to tap into how you felt in that moment a lot easier and will enable you to connect that feeling with your audience.
Make sure you use characters and make those characters come alive. If you've got more than one character in your story, then change your voice to differentiate between your voice and the voices of the other characters. I'm just going to say this…don’t be afraid to go way outside your comfort zone on this one.
An example of powerful, yet simple storytelling
I recently heard a speaker share a story about his young daughter who was asking her dad a really normal, relatable question. I found this on YouTube, so I'm going to share the link with you below. The little girl says to her dad while he's cooking dinner, “Daddy, is it okay to pick my nose?”
Dad says, “no honey, you should always use a tissue.” The little girls says again “Daddy, did you ever pick your nose?” The dad is feeling a bit awkward “I probably did when I was younger, but I learned to use a tissue, baby.” And then after pondering this for a while longer the little girl asks “Is it okay to eat your boogers when you pick your nose?” Firmly Dad replies “ No, honey, you should always use a tissue.”
Now you might be able to guess what the next question was. I'm not going to give it away it here.
The daughter was testing and questioning what is the right behavior? In the video, you will hear the presenter used a child's voice to represent the child and his adult voice when replying back… go watch the video and you'll understand. He looked upwards towards the taller dad when he played the child and he looked downwards towards the small child when he played the adult.
He also changed positions to represent those characters. These simple uses of voice, body language, changing position, and a topic that we all understand and can relate to made the story intriguing, connected, and we wanted to know where he was going with this. Why is he telling us this story? As a listener, you become intrigued.
Therefore, you want to make sure that you include characters that your audience will care about, like with the little girl. You want your audience to feel empathy. I'm sure we were all feeling for the poor dad and his vulnerability in this moment. And you want to make sure you express your own feelings.
When to use stories?
Now let's talk about when you would use a story like this and how can you link it to the topic that you're speaking about? Well, this story was told by Google manager, Brad Green at an international Angular conference in Seattle with around 1500 people in the audience. Again, I’ve share the link below for you to watch.
So why did Brad Green tell a story about his daughter picking her nose to a conference of developers?
Well, it was used early in the opening to not only make the mood light-hearted, but to connect what his daughter was asking with the opening of the conference, which was basically, what's the right way for me to behave? He used this as a stepping stone to talk about the expectations of people at the conference and how they should behave when they'd all flown in from different countries with different cultural backgrounds.
How to link your story
Now we get to the secret ingredient and that's how can I link the story back? The crucial part in linking a story to the main topic that you're speaking on is in six simple words.
I'm telling you this story because…
These words make the entire story make sense in the context of your entire presentation. So, if you're telling a story and people are starting to wonder, why is he telling me this story? Once you say these words, they're going to be riveted in to find out why you're telling the story and how it relates to the main theme of the presentation.
These words make the entire story make sense. So think about the story and the underlying theme, the emotion, or the lesson. When you write your story, also make notes about connections that this story could have. For example, in this story, the connections could be…
bad behavior, code of Conduct, Germs, seeking approval, role models, and many more that I'm sure we brainstorm on as to how this story could connect to different situations or themes.
Conclusion
You can link almost any story back into a presentation if you use this technique. So that means that you can use stories to illustrate points, to humanize your topic.
You can use Stories in sales to address objections.
You can use stories to build trust and you can use them when you're networking as a connection with others.
The more stories you have in your story library, the easier it's going to be and the more choice you're going to have to draw on a story in the moment that you need one.
Don't forget to grab your guide on crafting stories that resonate in business at www.lisahugo.com/stories. I really hope that this has been helpful. I encourage you to start recording your stories as voice notes in a Google doc, whatever works for you.
It will help you to give you a database that you can draw from, but even better than that, it will keep your stories alive.
