Telling your story →

Storytelling has in many ways lately become, as many good things do, a buzzword. Companies and individuals are all trying to get their message out and storytelling promises a way to do so. However, most people go about storytelling wrong. They’re trying to tell their story and push it on others the same way the cliche used car salesman comes out and tries to sell you your next lemon. The stories typically go something like this, “I started doing X in 19XX, and I have done A, B, C, J, M, and T. I’m pretty amazing. Buy my product/hire me/listen to me, etc.”

Instead storytelling should be about connecting with your audience. You can’t connect with your audience unless you know who they are, so your first step is determining who your audience is. If you are producing a marketing piece, who will be seeing this? If you are giving a presentations or pitch, who will be listening to it? This group is called your target audience, and while you can have more than one, your target audience is never “everybody”.

Sure everyone may be a potential audience, but we’re talking about your target audience. Who do you want to target?

Your goal is to find out as much as you can about your target audience so that you can cater your message and story to them. What are they like? What is their education and background? What are they afraid of? What excites them? These are just a few questions you should be asking yourself before you start your story.

Then you need to consider the type of story that would be most engaging and make the most sense for your audience. Try to storyboard your idea out and practice with a few individuals before you settle on what you will say.

Three story options you should consider are:

1. Audience-centered
   Are you trying to sell to your audience? Do you need to convince them that you or your product/service is the best? Are you trying to market your skills, business, or idea? Then audience-centered stories are key. This means you remove yourself as the main character and substitute the audience (think: second person “you”) as the protagonist and make yourself the guide to help steer them along. This is done in countless movies, books, and presentations. Karate Kid and Mr. Miyagi. Dorthy and Glenda. Simba and Timon, Pumbaa, and Rafikii. Some stories have one guide, some have multiples. It depends on how detailed the story is that you are telling. The idea here is that you are having your audience picture using your product, service, or idea themselves. When they visualize this, it is powerful. They’re more inclined to stay with you on the ride and hear your story than if you were to babble on about how amazing you, your product, or idea are. Duarte is the key proponent of this idea if you want more ideas on this way of presenting.

2. Case Studies
   Are you trying to showcase examples of past customers? Are you trying to explain how a theory works in real life? Do you just want to exemplifying a point you are making in your presentation? In all of these situations case studies are great. Research shows that the general public comprehends stories easier than research, and our brains have been wired to process stories. Some research even suggests that when individuals read a story of one individual that story weighs the same as a research study who might have looked at 100s of individuals. Stories are powerful. Case studies are an easy way to showcase ideas that may be complicated. They can also easily explain how or why research works. If you’re selling products, people want to know that your product is effective, and case studies can make that claim.

3. Journey
   Have you just completed years of researching a drug, phenomenon, or theory? Have you been working on a project and want to give an overview? Are you telling your own personal story or giving advice? These are all great reasons to use the journey story. The journey story can be a mix of the previous ones. You may use a case study to highlight the journey that clinical trial patients go through. You may use the journey to talk about what the audience has/will go through if they buy your product/grant you the proposal you’re applying for. But the journey story can also highlight you. Here you can talk about the difficulties you (or your character) faced and how you overcame them. Think of the standard story arc all movies and books use. A setting is set, the protagonist encounters a problem, something or someone guides them on the right path (don’t make yourself both because it feels like you’re gloating), the main character struggles and succeeds.

There are countless other story options out there, and I encourage you to experiment with different types for different audiences. Ultimately though, you should be thinking about what creates a connection with your audience? What engages them to buy, invest, pay attention, follow up, or connect with you? Think of what you would want to hear if you were in their shoes. It’s probably not a laundry list of items. Instead it’s probably how the clothes got dirty in the first place.