7 Storytelling Techniques to Tell Great Stories

in this video you'll discover seven storytelling techniques to move your story from this to that let's go first technique sell your story before you move into your actual story say one sentence to get your listeners excited about the story for example last year I had an experience that completely changed my outlook on life yesterday I had the probably worst meaning of my entire life this one sentence makes your listeners Wonder they're like wait what is that what completely changed your life what was that worst meeting they want to know they will listen to every word

you say until they know the answer second technique share the goals often times when people share stories they give tons of context but mostly useless context they're like oh it was a warm Summer Afternoon birds were chipping and I I felt a slight breeze on my body don't do that the better way is to share something interesting about the character in this case share what the character wants to accomplish their goals for example I really wanted to finish that Marathon I wanted to prove to my kids that really anyone can do it I needed that

job offer without it I'd have 3 months before the government would kick me out of this country the moment you share the gos your listeners will be on the sideline cheering they're wondering have you made it they'll pay super close attention until they know if you've reached that goal third technique throw in obstacles the average Storyteller spends way too much time on the good stuff how great they did in that one situation how incredible they felt after well the more experienced story tell us they share that as well but they focus much more on on

the drama on the physical or on the emotional challenges they go deep into the struggle for example and about one week before the Big Run I was out training and it was this dark rainy day I couldn't really see where I was stepping and right then this terrible thing happened I I think I stepped on this plastic thingy slipped with my right foot flew into the air and landed on my wrist my manager walked up to me and said what the heck was that you were all over the place terrible presentation so by sharing the

obstacles that stand in the way you build an emotional connection with your audience technique four show the emotions emotions are absolutely crucial for any story but what most people don't know is how to share the emotions correctly because most of us they just tell the emotions they say something like I was disappointed I was sad I was happy these subcriptions they're not visual they don't create pictures in your listener's mind so the better way instead of telling the emotion show the emotion how does the body the face change when experiencing the emotion of the story

for example completely in shock I got up looked at my wrist immediately all the color from my face was just gone my wrist was covered in blood immediately my heart started racing my entire face turned red and sweat just rushed down through every pore of my body see much more visual we can now see the scene in front of our eyes technique five share the thoughts another way to make any story more emotional is to share what the character was thinking during that crucial moment of the story what were the hopes the goals the dreams

the fears in that moment for example I thought how can this keep happening to me in a few days I'm supposed to run what should I do I thought oh man this is bad how am I going to turn this around my manager hates me right now see it's a tiny change but it makes a big difference I know when we speak we often try to speak super smart super sophisticated but when you share your stories please don't do that because our thoughts they are not smart as sophisticated they are raw unfiltered often times we're

cursing so give us the raw unfiltered thoughts that will make it much more interesting technique six add a time crunch you can make any story immediately more interesting by adding a time constraint show what the character has way too little time to complete this huge task for example the marathon was in 3 days and I never run more than 10 km in my life life how am I supposed to do that I had 2 hours to produce aund slide presentation that presentation would be sent to the CEO sharing that time constraint immediately increases the tension

it makes your story much more interesting to listen to technique seven share the dialogue share the exact words that one of the characters said in that crucial moment of the story it doesn't have to be this full-blown conversation going back and forth back and forth doesn't have to be just one sentence can be enough to bring your listeners into the story for example as I was sitting on that wet floor I got a call from my sister after she listened to me cry for a little bit she said something so freaking profound Phillip this is

the moment that you were training for this is what you wanted embrace it 3 weeks later my boss walked up to me patted me on my shoulder and said hey um I don't know how you pulled that off but yeah I'm impressed I'm honored to say that I want to extend your contract sharing that dialogue brings us into the visual moment of the story it's a simple way to make any story much more interesting give them a try take any of your stories and try these techniques even if you just add one of them your

story will already move much closer to this but hey for those techniques to work you also need to have the right foundation in place you need to have a good structure for that you may want to check out this next video in which I share a simple full-step story structure enjoy oh [Music]