Want to Know How to Tell a Great Story in a Presentation? The Steps of Storytelling Are Not as Important as the Story Itself.
Storytelling in our personal lives is very normal. When we get together with friends or family, we build rapport by sharing good stories about ourselves. I went to my High School reunion a few years ago. I was visiting with friends that I haven’t seen for a long time. One of the funniest things, though, was that I expected that it would be a bunch of old people reminiscing about stories from our teenage years. However, the opposite occurred. It was really interesting to hear about what my friends had done since High School. We spent hours catching up. And the way that we caught up was by telling great stories to each other about our experiences. Many of my friends had accomplished some pretty impressive things. However, none of them sounded like they were bragging.
The biggest public speaking secret that I know is that you can do the exact same thing in your speeches. When you share stories of your successes, your audience lives vicariously through your stories. I remember growing up hearing the phrase, “Experience is the best teacher.” After being a business owner for 20 plus years now, I realize how dumb that statement is. Experience is NOT the best teacher. Someone else’s experience is the best teacher. When I hear a story about how someone else accomplished a goal that I want to accomplish, I can learn from it. I don’t have to experience all the turmoil that he or she went through.
So, follow the steps of storytelling below. However, just realize that the steps, in and of themselves, are not as important as the actual stories. Pick a good story to tell, the steps don’t matter.
The 5 Steps of Storytelling During a Presentation. Follow these Tips to Become a Better Storyteller.
Below are the Five Steps of Storytelling that we have identified in our presentation skills class. These best practices will help you organize your stories better. Remember that audience members have a short attention span. Good storytelling, though, can help you capture and hold the attention of your audience. In fact, inserting better stories is a simple way to improve your presentations dramatically.
The tips below can help you improve your story structure,. However, the best way to deliver a story in your presentation is to just play the video in your head. Then just tell the audience what you are seeing. Great storytelling is really just sharing your own experience with your audience. So if following these steps is a little out of your comfort zone, start by just inserting a single personal story from your own experience into your next presentation. Then try each of these tips, one at a time, in future presentations.
- Focus on a Single Incident.
- Great Storytellers Get the Audience Involved with a “Hook.”
- Narrate the Story Using the When, Where, Who, and What.
- Use Lots of Details. Paint the Picture of Your Story During Your Presentation.
- The Last of the Steps of Storytelling is to End Your Presentation Story with a Call to Action.
1. Focus on a Single Incident.
In the early days of my presentation classes, I stopped using the word “Story” and started using “Incident.” The reason was that a novel is a story. However, a novel may contain hundreds or even thousands of incidents. I was listening to a talk radio show recently, and an ad for Legacy Box played. This is an organization that digitizes old photos, films, and videos. The narrator said something interesting, though. He said, “We don’t remember days, we remember moments.” That is so true.
8 Hours of Boring Story
1 Year Story in 2 Minutes
Great storytellers don’t try to tell us a verbal novel. Instead, they focus on a single, interesting incident. The videos above give two dramatically different examples. The first is a tongue-in-cheek example of a person telling a long-winded, rambling story about nothing. The speaker spends eight hours telling about opening a box of sponges.
The second is the actor Will Smith telling about learning a lesson as a child. He tells of his father knocking down a brick wall of his story and telling Will and his brother to rebuild it. The story was an entire year of Smith’s life. However, he tells the entire year in two minutes. He does this by focusing on specific incidents. He tells about the day his father knocked down the wall. Then, he tells about the day he and his brother laid the last brick. This technique is the key to the art of storytelling.
It makes for a fantastic story.
2. Great Storytellers Get the Audience Involved with a “Hook.”
Sometimes, a compelling story doesn’t necessarily follow the correct chronological order.
I remember watching the Quentin Tarantino film, Pulp Fiction years ago. In the opening scene, a couple is discussing places to rob. Eventually, they decide to rob the diner they are eating in. As soon as they pull out their weapons, the scene cuts. The two are not seen again until the very end of the movie. I admit, when I watched Pulp Fiction the first time, I was confused. However, when Samuel L. Jackson and John Travolta end up being in that diner, it made me laugh. The Hangover had a similar “start with the end” technique…
Great movies, TV shows, and News Programs use this technique a lot. They give you a taste of what is coming at the beginning. You can do the same as one of your steps of storytelling. Foreshadow something that is coming. One of the best examples is The Hangover. The bachelor party group wakes up and realizes there is a tiger in the bathroom. None of them can remember how that it got there. The story unfolds to tell us the answer later. It is obvious that the person who wrote this script has exceptional storytelling skills.
You can do the same thing in your stories. Knowing how to tell a great story starts with a little showmanship. Telling the end of the story first can often be a good hook. To do this, think about the most action-packed part of the story. Then start with that part. Fill in the prequel later.
3. Narrate the Story Using the When, Where, Who, and What.
- When I was six-years-old, my dad caught me sneaking out of his bedroom with a dollar that I stole from his wallet.
- Back in 2005, I finished a team building activity where the audience gave me a standing ovation. One of the participants said, “That was worth a million dollars.” She was wrong. It has actually been worth over 20 million dollars.
- Last week, I made an uncomfortable phone call. I had to fire my new web guy.
In each of these, my goal was to both give you the when, who, and where. I also wanted to use the hook to try to get you to want to know what actually happened to get to that point. Now, when I fill in the “What Happened,” it should make for a more interesting story.
4. Use Lots of Details. Paint the Picture of Your Story During Your Presentation.
Bad Example: Abstract Concepts Are One of the Biggest Mistakes that a Lot of People Make in Storytelling.
Our team worked on a similar project last year. We all worked together and came up with a great solution. So, teamwork is important.
This just leaves the audience with more questions. Who was on your team? What was the problem? How did they come up with a solution? How did the solution work? How is it similar to what we are going through now? If this story was a painting, it would be some type of nebulous modern art. What we really want is something more tangible.
Better Example: Important Information Creates an Engaging Story and Creates an Emotional Connection with the Audience.
Last year, Abbie had a client who hired me to deliver a breakout session at their national convention in Tampa. The topic was how to design a persuasive speech. However, since the convention was going to have over 30 different speakers. Many of these presenters were experts in the industry, but not professional speakers. In past conventions, the sessions were somewhat dry and boring. So, the client asked Abbie and me to design a way to train 30 speakers in over a dozen different cities. To come up with a solution, we brought in our video producer, Evan. We also reached out to one of our facilitators, Fiona, who has a background in producing films.
We tossed around a number of ideas including webinars, having speakers come to the convention space early, and even going to the different cities for more personal coaching. The solution that we came up with, though, was to start with a webinar for the whole group. We delivered the webinar live three different times. We had each presenter work with one of our instructors one-on-one via Skype for about an hour. And, we also arrived at the convention hall a day early to work with any of the speakers who needed additional help. It worked perfectly.
5. The Last of the Steps of Storytelling is to End Your Presentation Story with a Call to Action.
You don’t want your audience to have a similar question. So go ahead and tell them what the point was. By the way we do this naturally. We will often finish a story by saying, “my point is…” or “the reason that I’m telling you this is…” I remember reading Aesop’s fables when I was a kid. They always ended with “the moral of the story is…” So, don’t leave your audience hanging. Leave them with a moral of the story.
The Real Secret of How to Tell a Great Story is to Practice Different Versions.
This final tip isn’t really one of the steps of storytelling, but it is an important part of how to tell a story. It is a good idea to practice different versions of your story. I got this from my friend Ton Antion when I interviewed him about building a personal brand. He suggested having a 30-second version, a one-minute version, and a two-minute version of every story.
By the way, I’m not saying to have three different kinds of stories. I’m suggesting that you get good at telling your stories in different ways so the timing of your story is the right length whether you have three minutes to speak, 30 minutes to speak, or three hours to speak. The best storytellers are able to condense the whole story down in time if they absolutely have to do so.
Although I had been teaching students how to tell a great story for years, I never really taught this. I’d just say something like, “If time is short, just condense your story down.” After Tom mentioned this tip, though, I began to pay attention to the look on my student’s faces when I said this. I’d sometimes see a little confusion. So, we actually started practicing this in class. It has been a big help. In fact, we sometimes find that a well-worded 30-second story can be more impactful than a longer one. Try it yourself and see!
