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The storyteller’s rope

Why did the storyteller bring a rope to his talk? To tie his stories together, but he just ended up tangling them more!

No, seriously, there’s a stark difference between crafting a cohesive narrative and cobbling together a bunch of stories, hoping that something sticks. The latter is like trying to make sense of a jigsaw puzzle with pieces from different boxes. Sure, each piece might be colorful and captivating, but together they’re just a confusing mess. The former, however, is an art form – using individual stories to guide the audience to a meaningful destination on a meaningful path.

Kudos to anyone who can weave in that hilarious story about their cat, a trip to Bermuda, and that one time they met a celebrity in an elevator. But if by the end of it, I’m left wondering what the connection was, or worse, what the entire talk was about, then we’ve missed the mark entirely.

It’s not about how many cool anecdotes you can cram in. It’s about making sure every thread counts. Don’t distract with the flash and the flair. If you’re just shooting for the “wow”, you’re probably missing the deeper “aha”.

Storytelling is a powerful tool, but think first about how the talk itself can be turned into a compelling story and only then about which stories and anecdotes can be used to illustrate your points.

The storytelling difference

There’s a huge difference between telling stories DURING a speech and telling a story WITH your speech.

Most storytelling advice aims at the former. It helps you tell anecdotes and share experiences effectively.

But too often it stops there. It’s used to decorate the communication or hammer home a point.

But the most compelling pieces of communication go way beyond that. They don’t merely tell stories. They turn the whole piece into a compelling story that takes the audience on a profound journey.

Interestingly, professional speakers often excel at the former but fail at the latter. They are super good at sharing experiences and telling anecdotes to hammer home a point. But way too often their speech as a whole lacks a compelling structure and a clear story arc.

Good marketers vs. great marketers

Good marketers tell stories.
Great marketers tell true stories.
True stories about the things they deeply care about.
True stories that make it obvious for our audience what to do next.

Great marketing is grounded in three things:

  1. Work that matters – because it is the result of caring deeply and sweating the details.
  2. Empathy – because the work is super relevant and aligns with what matters to the audience.
  3. Respect – because it trusts in the audience’s ability to make the right decision.

Therefore, great marketing doesn’t need to rely on sneaky tactics, click-baity language or promising the blue from the skies.

If the product is actually great, then all we need to do is tell a true story about it. If it deeply resonates, our audience will make the right decision.

For the first time ever, on October, 26th I’m launching a public masterclass to help you achieve that. It’s designed to help you craft messages that resonate so strongly that it incites action and creates movements. You’ll find clarity about your message, trust in your own voice, and gain confidence to tell your story in a way that feels like this is the way you always wanted to tell it, this is the way it’s meant to be told. The beauty of it is this: it’s always been in you. We’re just letting it out.

Find more information about the masterclass here.

The stories we make

“I don’t tell stories.” the restaurant owner said, “so that’s not relevant to me.”

Which is half the truth. Because while he doesn’t tell stories, he surely makes stories.

By the name he chose for the restaurant. By the way he designed the interior. By the way, guests are greeted when they enter the restaurant. The way the tables are laid out. And the menu looks. What’s on the menu. What music is playing. By the smile on the waiters’ faces. And many more details … all of which turn into stories that his customers tell.

And it’s a lot of stories.

Even if we don’t tell stories, we still have a story by the things we make and the way we make them. Everything we do influences our story. And the stories that people tell about us.

Magic happens when we get conscious about it. When we see the story we make. When we understand and feel why our audience feels welcome at our place. Why they enjoy the interaction so much. Because then we can adjust the tiny details to make it even more enjoyable. To attach even better to what our customers love. And influence the stories our customers tell. Make them consistent. So that others recognise the stories’ origin.

What’s the story you make?

History vs. Story

It’s spelled “story” – without the “hi” at the beginning. Still, many people approach telling stories as recounting historical events. In a chronological order. Even if their audience couldn’t care less about how it all began.

It’s much more interesting to ask yourself what gets your audience most excited. What’s most surprising to them? Or most interesting. And then work from there. Once you tell them, what do they want to know next? And next. And so on.

For example, sometimes it’s more interesting to work backwards by asking “How was that possible?” or “What led to this?” Just like some of the most exciting detective stories start with knowing who the murderer was but leave the audience dying to learn why she did it.

The guiding star is our audience’s curiosity. What are they dying to know? More often than not this is different from the chronological order of events.

Don’t make your story a history lesson, make it an interesting story!

A short story

Think of a room somewhere in a house. Maybe there’s a sofa inside. Someone’s reading a book.

What do you see?
How does her hair look like?
How old is she?
What’s her name?
What book does she read?
Does she look over as you enter the room?
What does she say?
How do you reply?
What time of day is it?

I just don’t buy that you don’t know how to tell a good story. Because you just started a good story. Everything you see now is coming right out of you. It’s not my story. It’s yours. Go on. What happens next?

Sure, there’s a lot of literature on how to tell stories. But all those rules are secondary. First comes imagination. And imagination you have.

You have all you need to tell a story when you have a life.

Where to find compelling stories

When we look for compelling stories, we tend to look for the extra-ordinary. Yet, more often than not, the stories that fascinate us most are the stories that are taken from real-life. Asked about his biggest influence, comedian Ricky Gervais puts it this way:

Being honest is what counts. Trying to make the ordinary extra-ordinary is so much better than starting with the extra-ordinary. Because it doesn’t really connect.
[…]
If something is real for one person, it touches their life. I think, as a creator and a director it’s your job to make an audience as excited and fascinated about a subject as you are. And real life does that.

This is not about being funny as Ricky Gervais, though. It’s about resonating with your audience. Just like Gervais, as communicators it’s our job to make our audience as excited and fascinated about our ides as we ourselves are. In particular, this means:

  1. If you yourself are not fascinated by your idea, why would you expect your audience to be?
  2. Stories from real life fascinate people.
  3. People are fascinated by people.
  4. Real life is much more fascinating than you think.
  5. If you do not find anything fascinating in normal life, you do not look closely enough.
  6. Ideas that fascinate people relate to their lives.
  7. If you are looking for wow-effects, you either didn’t look closely enough or your idea doesn’t relate to the lives of the people in your audience.
  8. When people realize how an idea relates to their lives, they get an aha effect.
  9. Aha-effects are stronger than wow-effects.
  10. Real life creates aha-effects.

In memory of Sir Ken Robinson

It’s not the most spectacular presentation that works best but the one that resonates most.

This speech of Sir Ken Robinson not only resonated a lot with myself, but with millions of viewers around the world. It’s TED’s most viewed speech of all time. It lacks anything that would count as spectacular.

It’s pure conversation – Robinson letting us in to his mind. Inviting us to take a look from his perspective. Making us see the things he sees and feel the things he feels. Telling simple everyday stories turns his speech into a powerful message about our children’s creative potential.

It’s not fluff and decoration that makes his speech so powerful, but his thoughts that he invites us into.

On Aug, 21st Ken Robinson died of cancer. His message remains.

Silicon Valley und die Geschichte mit den Geschichten

Große digitale Firmen wie Twitter, Apple , Youtube oder Facebook setzen neuerdings auf Journalisten, wie die Zeit kürzlich im Artikel “Silicon Valley versucht Journalismus” berichtete.

Bei Twitter sollen diese Journalisten zum Beispiel im Rahmen von “Twitter Lightning” dabei helfen, Twitters unglaubliche Masse an Kurztexten, Fotos und Videos zu kuratieren und Stories zu generieren – nach einem ähnlichen Prinzip wie das Social Media Geschichten-Tool Storify.

Apple will mit seiner neusten App “News” direkt ins Nachrichtengeschäft einsteigen, wie Apples Marketingexpertin Susan Prescott kürzlich auf Apples Entwicklerkonferenz ankündigte. Auch Facebook setzt mit “Instant Articles” und Youtube mit “Newswire” auf journalistische Inhalte.

Die Idee dahinter ist einleuchtend. Journalisten können eines besonders gut: Spannende Geschichten erzählen. Und wenn uns eines fasziniert und fesselt, dann sind es gut erzählte Geschichten. Logisch eigentlich, dass Twitter und Co diese Macht nutzen wollen.

Und Sie? Haben Sie die Macht von Geschichten schon für Ihre nächste Präsentation erkannt?

Von Schritten und Wegen

Meine Jüngste hat gerade gelernt zu krabbeln. Das hört sich wie ein kleiner Schritt an, ist für ein kleines Baby aber eine riesige Herausforderung. Erst musste sie die Grundlagen lernen: Arme vorsetzen, Beine vorsetzen.

Was anfangs eher zufällig passierte, will später gezielt koordiniert werden – und sieht erst mal alles andere als filigran, sondern eher tapsig aus. Nach jedem Krabbelschritt musste sie kurz innehalten und sich für den nächsten Schritt neu konzentrieren. Dabei ließ sie sich auch leicht ablenken und hielt dann an oder bog ab.

Mittlerweile reihen sich ihre Krabbelschritte nahtlos aneinander. Wenn sie ein Ziel erreichen möchte, krabbelt sie schnell und zielstrebig dorthin, nicht in einzelnen Schritten oder bewusst koordinierten Bewegungen von Armen und Beinen, sondern in einer flüssigen Bewegung.

Von bewussten Schritten zum unbewussten Gang

Es ist der gleiche Prozess wie so oft, wenn man etwas lernt. Meine Große erlebt es beim Schreiben: aus Buchstaben werden Worte. Ich selbst erinnere mich noch gut daran, wie ich lernte, Gitarre zu spielen. Bevor ich meinem Instrumnet irgendwann einmal flüssige und schöne Melodien entlocken konnte, reihte ich mühsam einzelne Noten aneinander, mehr mit dem nächsten Griff beschäftigt als mit dem Blick für das Ganze, für den Weg der Melodie.

Und natürlich ist es auch bei Präsentationen nicht anders. Bevor aus aneinandergereihten Folien eine Struktur und irgendwann einmal eine flüssige und spannende Story wird, muss man viel, sehr viel üben. Und doch lohnt sich der Weg. Während die Krabbelversuche eines Babys oder die ersten Gitarrenversuche eines Kindes zumindest die Eltern vielleicht noch süß finden, wird man auf dieses Wohlwollen bei einer Präsentation in aller Regel nicht hoffen dürfen.

Die Schritt-für-Schritt-Präsentation

Erwachsene Männer werden zu „krabbelnden“ Vortragenden

Leider kommen viele Präsentationen aber über dieses Lernstadium nicht hinaus. Folien werden an Folien gereiht („auf der nächsten Folie sehen Sie …“). Zwischendurch kommen sie immer wieder vom Weg ab, lassen sich von Details ablenken und sind meist mehr mit dem nächsten Schritt beschäftigt, als mit dem Blick für das Ganze.

Die Kunst der Präsentation besteht darin, aus einzelnen Gedanken eine echte, flüssige Story zu machen, mit der man sein Publikum zielsicher zu seinen Kernaussagen bringt. Was sich einfach anhört, ist keine kleine Herausforderung.

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Dr. Michael Gerharz

Dr. Michael Gerharz