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Feels right

Some narratives just

won’t go away.
Why?

The data is clear.
Yet people believe the lie.
But why?

Because it feels right.
That’s why.

People aren’t good at feeling data.

That’s why it’s hard to compete on facts with a story that resonates on an emotional level.

If something feels right, we’re pretty good at coming up with good reasons for why it is right. If something just is right but feels wrong, that’s much harder.

Have you had that experience?
How did you deal with it?

The simple truth about storytelling

Contrary to what some storytelling coaches want you to believe, in the end there’s only one thing you need to understand about storytelling.

And it’s this question: “What happens next?”

I mean, of course, you can say a lot more about storytelling. The hero’s journey does work. “Show, don’t tell!” is useful advice. As is the three-act-structure and many other techniques …

But in the end, all of that is optional.

Because the only thing that matters is whether your audience is curious to learn more. If you nail that, it doesn’t matter whether it’s through the hero’s journey or some other fancy framework.

Storytelling really isn’t a mystical art locked behind gates of complexity. At its core, it’s simple, straightforward, and something anyone can absolutely do.

Just tap into your audience’s curiosity!

That’s it.

If your audience wants to know more, you’ve nailed it. Even if you’ve never heard of the hero’s journey or any other storytelling formula … when your story makes people sit up and wonder what’s next, you’re telling a great story.

“What happens next?” is the only questions you need to ask for that. The better you understand your audience’s needs, their desires, their questions, the easier it will become to find a compelling answer to that question.

If it’s using the hero’s journey, that’s totally fine (it means you’re using it right). But if you’ve never heard of it, don’t worry! The more important information is to know your audience.

So, what is your audience dying to know?

The story of 2023

A common struggle with storytelling is that people don’t know where to find good stories.

The truth is, you don’t find good stories, you create them. It is through the telling that a story is born.

A great place to start is 2023.

2023 delivered unique events, both globally and in my personal life. I’ve met people who’ve challenged and inspired me. I’ve faced setbacks, celebrated victories, discovered joys, and made some tough decisions.

What did 2023 bring you that made an unexpected difference?
What did you learn that changed your course?
Who crossed your path and left a mark?

Why not take the time in between the years to turn one of the answers into a story, your story of 2023?

PS: We’d love to hear it! Why not share the lessons in a post (or in the comments).

Stop scrolling

Watch someone flick through TikTok reels and you’ll see a repeating pattern:

Lame! -> Flick
Lame! -> Flick
Lame! -> Flick
Oh, what’s that!? -> Stop scrolling !!

Only to discover – usually in a matter of 2-3 seconds – that it’s still kind of lame. So: flick again to continue the loop:

Lame! -> Flick
Lame! -> Flick
Oh, what’s that!? -> Stop scrolling !!

And this time, it’s actually kind of interesting. And before they’ve even noticed it, they’ve watched the reel for 40 seconds.

It’s a very simple principle:

  1. Get their attention
  2. Spark their interest
  3. Only then dive deeper

With presentations it’s much the same, albeit on a very different time scale.

Someone starts their PowerPoint, you think: “Lame!” and tune out to switch your attention to planning your evening.

Another one starts their PowerPoint, you think: “Lame!” and tune out to switch your attention to improving your tennis swing.

Another one starts their presentation, you think: “Oh, what’s that!?” but they land on a generic agenda slide and you go “No, still kind of lame!”

It’s the same principle:

  1. Get their attention
  2. Spark their interest
  3. Only then dive deeper

Your audience’s tolerance to dive deep – and therefore your impact – is limited before you’ve established attention and interest.

Keep lighting the path!

We can’t say it in one sentence can take an unexpected turn.

Or life, for that matter.

Maybe you never wanted a career in marketing turned out to be your passion.

Or you thought you were bad at public speaking is now what people admire you for.

Perhaps you thought that you need to be born as a genius is actually the result of hard work.

And when it looks like someone’s locked the status quo can actually change.

Where has your perspective seen an unexpected shift?

(Inspired by this brilliant campaign using “reverse sentences”.)

Getting from here to there

A simple truth: If you care for what you do, there’s always going to be more interesting things to say than you’ve got time to say them.

That’s why it’s a bad idea to start your preparation by collecting all the info. It will almost inevitably be too much info.

A better way is to start with the gap between where your audience is coming from and where you want to lead them and then to bridge that gap step by step:

What’s the first step they need to take in order to get from here to there? (Not the the first dozen or even the first five steps but THE first step.)

And then what’s the second?

And then the third?

And sooner than you think you’ll have led them there. More importantly, I bet you’ll discover that you didn’t even need all the info from the beginning of this post to lead them there. A couple of key steps were sufficient to take them there. It’s basically a shift from what I want them to know towards what they need to know.

The beauty of it is this: Some of your audience will have enjoyed that journey so much that they’ll ask you to take them on an extended tour that explores the side roads and branches, too. When they ask “tell me more”, you’re in a much better position to give them the rest of your info.

Cliffhangers

Cliffhangers s*ck.

You wanna know so badly what happens next but the show just won’t tell you. You’ll have to come back for the next episode. Which you’ll do.

Is there a moment in your communication where you could do the same? Where you could stop and your audience would be super excited and super frustrated at the same time because they need to know badly how the story unfolds?

If you stopped there, would they come back for the next episode?

If not then what could be a piece of information that does the job?

You don’t actually stop, of course, but you’ll have your audience glued to your lips.

Backwards stories

Some of the best crime stories work backwards. We witness the murder and know who’s the murderer right from the start. And then we want to find out why they did it. Or if (and how) they can get away with it.

Traditional crime stories work the other way around: We don’t know who the murderer is but want to find out. Great movies exist for both approaches. That’s because none of the approaches is inherently better than the other.

It depends.

Great storytellers know that and will consider both directions before settling with how they tell their story. (In fact, they will explore even more ways to unfold the story than just these two.)

How about your story? What would happen if you turned it upside down? If you started with the big reveal and then used your audience’s curiosity to find out how that’s even possible and use that curiosity to craft a compelling storyline that leads them ever deeper into the fascinating details?

There are a million ways to tell a story.

“How long?”

“How long?”, she asks the doctor.
Immediately, we’re right in the middle of a story.

Which is typical for modern movies. It’s one of the aspects in which storytelling in movies has changed significantly over the past few decades.

The average early 90s movie is hard to bear for many teenagers because they started soooo sloooowww. Part of the reason was that filmmakers back then felt the need to start as early as possible so we would have the back story to understand what was going to happen later.

Today’s movies (and TV shows) are very different. They will start as late as possible, ideally right in the middle of the action … at the most captivating event.

And they will give us only exactly the pieces that we absolutely need to understand the action. They make us care first, before they inform us. If, at some point, we would need backstory to understand what’s happening, modern movies will give it to us at that point, a point where we absolutely need that piece of information to be able to follow along.

This makes for a much more tense story.

Actually, today’s most brilliant filmmakers push that principle even further. They will make sure that we want a piece of information, before they finally give it to us. They make us curious for the backstory.

In contrast, yesterday’s filmmakers considered backstory as pure information. Often, they would give us the information before we wanted it, just to make sure that we had it when we needed it.

How about your own communication? How do you treat background information? Are you starting your presentation with it? If so, can you re-structure your storytelling in a way that you’re giving the backstory at a point when your audience is dying to learn it?

The story of 2022

What did 2022 bring you? What did you learn? Who did you meet?

Why not take the time in between the years to turn one of the answers into a story, your story of 2022?

One of the most common complaints about storytelling is that people don’t know where to find good stories.

The truth is, you don’t find good stories, you tell good stories. It is through the telling that a story is born.

The three questions at the top are just the tip of the iceberg. It’s been a wild year for most of us. We saw unusual things unfold, large and small. We met unusual people in the most unusual places, some of them hidden from the public, some of them on the global stage. We failed. And succeeded. We stumbled. And got up again. We found beautiful things. And some of us have lost close friends.

2022 was a year in which we made profound experiences.

Pick one. Start with one. And tell a story about it.

PS: I would be honored if you shared one of your stories with me. I’m writing this blog for you and I’d love to get to know you a little better. It would mean the world to me.

Spread the Word

Dr. Michael Gerharz

Dr. Michael Gerharz