“Those who tell the stories rule the world.”

As freelancing is becoming common, people with powerful personal brands have a leg up on getting jobs and being promoted. And personal brands are built on, among other things, telling and sharing great stories.
Stories help us hold attention, remember and persuade. Savvy leaders tell stories to inspire and motivate us as they understand that “what you say” is often moot compared to “how you say it.”

Workers and Leaders Need To Tell Good Stories

Most CMOs think content is the future of marketing and that branded content is superior to PR, direct mail, and print advertising.
As the people get used to interacting with companies and most corporations start thinking of themselves as publishers, the defining characteristic among the successful ones will be the ability to not just spew content, but to craft compelling stories.

Businesses Need To Tell Good Stories

Stories makes us think and feel and are an essential drivers of change for humans.
Although it can be hard to tell a good story, in the modern world, storytelling is becoming essential. As we spend increasing amounts of time consuming content, businesses and individuals who master storytelling have more opportunities to stand out, spread messages, and make change through storytelling.

The Power Of Storytelling

Last year, a pale woman with crazy eyebrows and a keytar strapped to her back made a video of herself, wearing a kimono and holding up hand-Sharpied signs on a street in Melbourne. One by one, the signs flipped, explaining that the woman had spent the last 4 years writing songs.

This Will Be The #1 Business Skill Of The Next 5 Years

...the process of using fact and narrative to communicate something to your audience.
Some stories are factual, and some are embellished or improvised in order to better explain the core message.

Storytelling is...

<ul>
<li>Stories solidify abstract concepts and simplify complex messages;</li>
<li>Stories bring people together: stories connect us through the way we feel and respond to them;</li>
<li>Stories inspire and motivate, by tapping into people’s emotions and baring both the good and bad.</li>
</ul>

Why we tell stories

<ul>
<li>Entertaining. Good stories keep the reader engaged and interested in what’s coming next.</li>
<li>Educational. Good stories spark curiosity and add to the reader’s knowledge bank.</li>
<li>Universal. Good stories are relatable to all readers and tap into emotions and experiences that most people undergo.</li>
<li>Organized. Good stories follow a succinct organization that helps convey the core message and helps readers absorb it.</li>
<li>Memorable. Whether through inspiration, scandal, or humor, good stories stick in the reader’s mind.</li>
</ul>

Good stories are …

<ul>
<li>Characters. Every story features at least one character, and this character will be the key to relating your audience back to the story.</li>
<li>Conflict. The conflict is the lesson of how the character overcomes a challenge.</li>
<li>Resolution. Your story’s resolution should wrap up the story, provide context around the characters and conflict(s), and leave your audience with a call-to-action.</li>
</ul>

Components of a good story

<ol>
<li>Know your audience;</li>
<li>Know your audience;</li>
<li>Decide what kind of story you’re telling;</li>
<li>Establish your call-to-action;</li>
<li>Choose your story medium;</li>
<li>Craft your story;</li>
<li>Share your story.</li>
</ol>

Steps of the storytelling process

If your objective is to:<ul><li>Incite action: describe how a successful action was completed in the past and its steps.</li><li>Tell people about yourself, feature genuine, humanizing struggles, failures, and wins.</li><li>Convey values, tap into familiar emotions and situations so that the story feels relatable.</li><li>Foster collaboration, tell a story that moves readers to discuss and share your story with others.</li><li>Educate, feature a trial-and-error experience, so that readers can learn about a problem and how a solution was discovered and applied. </li></ul>

Story objectives

While this definition is pretty specific, stories actually resemble a variety of things. This graphic from ReferralCandy helps outline what stories and are not. Storytelling is an art form as old as time and has a place in every culture and society. Why?

The Ultimate Guide to Storytelling

Stories are a very integral part of being persuasive. 
Stories trump data when it comes to persuasion because stories are easier to understand and relate to.

Persuasion through storytelling

<ul><li>Suspense and “cliffhangers” allow you to create an addictive narrative;</li><li>Creating detailed imagery;</li><li>Using literary techniques for turning simple stories into memorable works of art.</li><li>Change made easier by providing an example. </li></ul>

What makes a story engaging

<ul><li>Delivery: matters as much as the content.</li><li>Imagery:  the brain “lights up” in reacting to imagery, truly transporting the reader to the events being described. </li><li>Realism: poeple need a “human” element in the story that is easy for them to imagine.</li><li>Structure: people prefer stories that follow a logical manner.</li><li>Context: significant impact on the persuasiveness of a story.</li><li>Audience: determine who you don’t want reading your content along with who you do.</li></ul>

Characteristics of persuasive stories

Philip Pullman once said: "After nourishment, shelter and companionship, stories are the thing we need most in the world." There are few mediums more captivating than a well told story. From 'what happened next?' to personal connections we make through characters and events, everyone loves them.

The Psychology of Storytelling

In the workplace, storytelling serves as an essential, powerful tool for effective communication.It gets people excited around an idea, or a value, or perhaps some drier information that might not have been as interesting before.

Purpose of storytelling

Great stories reveal a piece of yourself. 
Ask yourself:
<ul>
<li>What makes you care about the work that you do? </li>
<li>What part of you outside of your work is present inside of that world? </li>
<li>If in financial services, for example, what is it behind the numbers and data that are at the emotional core of your work?</li>
</ul>

Make your story personal

“What gets you excited about what you’re talking about? Why do you care? If the audience knows why you care, they’ll have a reason to care.” In other words, the story needs to have stakes. And they don’t necessarily need to be significant. You can conceivably make a great story about a smaller thing if the storyteller is very interested in it.
Tiffany Haddish passionately shared the crazy, amazing story of how she ended up taking her Girls Trip costar Jada Pinkett Smith and Will Smith on a Groupon swamp tour in New Orleans. “It’s just this perfect illustration,” says Tellers. “She showed us what she really cared about, and it really paid off in spades.

Show passion when you're telling a story

The mark of a great story is that the experience being shared has changed the person in some way. It doesn’t have to be a drastic change,. It could simply be a perspective shift or a reinforcement of a belief or an idea.
When communicating in business, ask yourself what change you want to see in your audience. If you’re pitching a new idea to people, start in a place where you can relate to and understand any reason why they would have skepticism or questions or feel discomfort. Identify that and then use the story as the map to where you want to land them. You’ve given them a relatable way to come to a place where you have a common understanding.

Demonstrate change

Your theme or big idea is your editing tool.
You always want to think about what you’re leaving your audience with thematically. What’s the theme of your story, what’s the big idea?. Your story will be filled with lots of specifics, of course. In fact, one of the most beautiful things in storytelling is that specificity breeds universality. So the more specific you are in a story, the more universal the story becomes. But think about how every single detail in your story relates back to that big idea.

Focus on one big idea

As human beings, we've been telling stories for thousands of years-to share our experiences, to pass down lessons, to understand and relate to one another. But in the workplace, storytelling also serves as an essential, powerful tool for effective communication.

4 Storytelling Tips That Will Make You A Better Leader

A story can put your whole brain to work.
When we are being told a story, not only are the language processing parts in our brain activated, but any other area in our brain that we would use when experiencing the events of the story are too.

Your brain on stories

A story, if broken down into the simplest form, is a connection of cause and effect. And that is exactly how we think. We think in narratives all day long.

We are wired for storytelling

Exchange giving suggestions for telling stories.
A story is the only way to activate parts in the brain so that a listener turns the story into their own idea and experience.

Giving suggestions

The simple story is more successful than the complicated one.
Using simple language as well as low complexity is the best way to activate the brain regions that make us truly relate to the happenings of a story. Reduce the number of adjectives or complicated nouns in a presentation or article and exchange them with a more simple, yet heartfelt language.

Go with simple stories

If you feel you don't have enough experience to share on a certain subject, ask for quotes from the top folks in the industry or simply find great passages they had written online.
It's a great way to add credibility and at the same time, tell a story.

Bring in stories from yourself or an expert

A good story can make or break a presentation, article, or conversation. But why is that? When Buffer co-founder Leo Widrich started to market his product through stories instead of benefits and bullet points, sign-ups went through the roof. Here he shares the science of why storytelling is so uniquely powerful.

The Science of Storytelling: Why Telling a Story is the Most Powerful Way to Activate Our Brains

...by attaching emotions to things that happen. That means those who can create and share good stories have a powerful advantage over others.
Facts and figures and all the rational things that we think are important in the business world actually don’t stick in our minds at all.

Stories create “sticky” memories

First, settle on your ultimate message; then you can figure out the best way to illustrate it.<div>Every storytelling exercise should begin by asking: Who is my audience and what is the message I want to share with them? Each decision about your story should flow from those questions. </div>

Start with a message

The best storytellers look to their own memories and life experiences for ways to illustrate their message. 
Think of a moment in which your own failures led to success in your career or a lesson that a parent or mentor imparted.
There may be a tendency not to want to share personal details at work, but anecdotes that illustrate struggle, failure, and barriers overcome are what make leaders appear authentic and accessible.

Use personal experiences

You can be a central figure, but the ultimate focus should be on people you know, lessons you’ve learned, or events you’ve witnessed. The more you celebrate your own decisions, the less likely your audience will connect with you and your message.

Don’t make yourself the hero

Good storytellers understand that a story needs conflict. A story without a challenge simply isn’t very interesting.
Don’t be afraid to suggest the road ahead will be difficult. We actually like to be told it’s going to be hard,” followed by "but if we all pull together and hang in there, we’ll achieve something amazing in the end."

Highlight a struggle

Not every story you tell has to be a surprising, edge-of-your-seat epic. Some of the most successful and memorable stories are relatively simple and straightforward. Don’t let needless details to detract from your core message. Work from the principle that “less is more.” One of the biggest mistakes you can make is putting in too much detail of the wrong kind.

Keep it simple

Do:
<ul>
<li>Consider your audience: choose a framework and details that will best resonate with your listeners.</li>
<li>Identify the moral or message you want to impart.</li>
<li>Find inspiration in your life experiences.</li>
</ul>
Don’t:
<ul>
<li>Assume you don’t have storytelling chops: we all have it in us to tell memorable stories.</li>
<li>Give yourself the starring role.</li>
<li>Overwhelm your story with unnecessary details.</li>
</ul>

Dos and Don'ts in storytelling

We tell stories to our coworkers and peers all the time - to persuade someone to support our project, to explain to an employee how he might improve, or to inspire a team that is facing challenges. It's an essential skill, but what makes a compelling story in a business context?

How to Tell a Great Story

One of the oldest and most straightforward storytelling formulas:
<ul>
<li>Setup: Set the scene and introduce the character(s)</li>
<li>Confrontation or “Rising action” : Present a problem and build up the tension</li>
<li>Resolution: Resolve the problem</li>
</ul>

Three-Act Storytelling Structure

Also known as Freytag’s Pyramid:
<ul>
<li>Exposition: Introduce important background information</li>
<li>Rising action: Tell a series of events to build up to the climax</li>
<li>Climax: Turn the story around (usually the most exciting part of the story)</li>
<li>Falling action: Continue the action from the climax</li>
<li>Dénouement: Ending the story with a resolution.</li>
</ul>

Five-Act Storytelling Structure

<ul>
<li>Before: Describe the world with Problem A.</li>
<li>After: Imagine what it’d be like having Problem A solved.</li>
<li>Bridge: Here’s how to get there.</li>
</ul>
Set the stage of a problem that your target audience is likely to experience ( a problem that your company solves). Describe a world where that problem didn’t exist. Explain how to get there or present the solution (i.e. your product or service).

Before – After – Bridge Storytelling Formula

<ul>
<li>Problem: Present a problem</li>
<li>Agitate: Agitate the problem</li>
<li>Solve: Solve the problem</li>
</ul>
First, you present a problem. Second, instead of presenting the “After”, you intensify the problem with emotional language. Finally, you solve the problem by offering your product or services.

Problem – Agitate – Solve Storytelling Formula

<ul>
<li>Why: Why the company exists (Why are you in this business? What motivates you)</li>
<li>How: How the company fulfills its Why</li>
<li>What: What the company does to fulfill its Why (i.e. your products and services).</li>
</ul>

Simon Sinek’s Golden Circle

<ul>
<li>Incident: Share a relevant, personal experience, to grab your audience’s attention.</li>
<li>Action: Describe the specific action taken to solve or prevent a problem, showing that a change was needed.</li>
<li>Benefit: State the benefits of the action/change.</li>
</ul>

Dale Carnegie’s Magic Formula for storytelling

<ul>
<li>Introduce the character;</li>
<li>Bring the story to its lowest point;</li>
<li>Turn it around and finish with a happy ending.</li>
</ul>
Once you introduce the character of the story, describe how things went awful for him/her, using emotions to draw your audience into your story. At the lowest point of the story, turn things around, describe how things improved, and end the story on a high note.

Dave Lieber’s V Storytelling Formula

<ul>
<li>Star: An attention-getting, positive opening</li>
<li>Chain: A series of convincing facts, benefits, and reasons</li>
<li>Hook: A powerful call-to-action.</li>
</ul>
The star grabs your audience’s attention. The chain turns your audience’s attention into a desire. The hook gives them something actionable to fulfill their desire.

Star – Chain – Hook Storytelling Formula

Once upon a time there was.... Every day, ... One day, ... Because of that, ... Because of that, ... Until finally, ... 
The idea is to introduce a character or a group of character, describe their usual routine, present a twist that disrupts their daily lives, explain how they overcome it, and celebrate!

The Story Spine: Pixar’s Award-Winning Formula

<ul>
<li>Departure: A hero receives a call to go on an adventure, receives advice from a mentor, and heads out on her journey.</li>
<li>Initiation: The hero meets a series of challenges but eventually completes the mission.</li>
<li>Return: The hero returns and helps others with her new found power or treasure.</li>
</ul>
This formula is used by many of the greatest storytellers including George Lucas for his Star Wars films!

The Hero’s Journey Storytelling Formula

<ul>
<li>What is: The status quo</li>
<li>What could be: The future that could be possible</li>
</ul>
Go back and forth between the two and end off with a …
<ul>
<li>New bliss: The wonderful future with your idea/product/service adopted.</li>
</ul>

Nancy Duarte’s Secret Structure of Great Talks

Legendary marketer, Seth Godin, describes marketing as "the art of telling a story that resonates with your audience and then spreads." If you look at some of the biggest brands around, you might notice that they are often amazing storytellers.

Social Media Storytelling Formulas: 11 Quick-Fire Ways to Create Your Stories

How to get someone else to feel a connection to you and your purpose. How to get them to empathise with your story.

Persuasive storytelling

This Will Be The #1 Business Skill Of The Next 5 Years

The Ultimate Guide to Storytelling

The Psychology of Storytelling

4 Storytelling Tips That Will Make You A Better Leader

The Science of Storytelling: Why Telling a Story is the Most Powerful Way to Activate Our Brains

How to Tell a Great Story

Social Media Storytelling Formulas: 11 Quick-Fire Ways to Create Your Stories

It's time to

READ

LIKE

A PRO!