“In your story, give listeners the emotional experience of working with your company or your product — and succeeding!”
~ Michael Hauge
In the last two blogs, you read about the first two steps of Michael Hauge’s story creation process:
1. Talk about the everyday life of your character
2. Show the crisis she faces that motivates her to take a new action.
In this post, you’ll read about the next part of your story — the pursuit.
Pursuit shows the first steps of the character’s experience with your product or service. The key to this part of your story is that your character shouldn’t experience quick success. Stories that show someone struggling, then easily realizing success aren’t believable. That’s not how life happens.
Think about what happens when we face challenging situations. We try new ways to overcome them. We experience a success, then a failure, some more success, another failure. That’s how we learn and grow. When your story shortcuts this process, listeners may doubt it’s honesty.
Patti’s Story
Consider the story of my client Patti. When I met her she asked for my help. She said, “I have to give this speech and it’s making me sick to my stomach, I’m not sleeping well, and it’s got me stressed out.”
In the shorter version of this story, I jump ahead 11 months to the night of her speech. She confidently presented her talk. It was compelling, entertaining and evoked a few tear and many laughs.
HOW did she make such a dramatic change?
When I ask this question in workshops, I always get this response:
“Because she hired you!”
The Purpose of Pursuit in Your Story
She did, but that’s not the reason I ask the question. The purpose is to shine a light on her. She is the hero of the story. At a deeper level, I want to let the audience know that Patti did the work. She invested her time, money and emotions to become a better speaker.
She didn’t magically improve her skills because she paid me a fee. She also didn’t wake up after a couple of sessions and absorb these skills. She wrote her talk, practiced, got feedback and then repeated the process. She continued this process until the night of her speech.
I share that story because I don’t want prospective clients to think there is a ‘magic bullet.’ You have to put in the work. As sales coach Mark Hunter says, “I will guide you and give you the map, but you’ve got to drive the car.”
The Power of the Realistic Journey
The pursuit aspect of your story can create a deeper bond with your audience. But, only on one condition. It must illustrate a realistic journey of your character implementing your product or service.
Do this, and you’re ready for the fourth step of Michael’s six-part structure. By now, you know that you won’t discover what that is until you read next week’s post.
Enjoy your storytelling.
Recommended Resource
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"Michael transformed our everyday managers into conference presenters by coaching them and by challenging the traditional methods they were using to present. The outcome was phenomenal.
Our conference was elevated to a new level of professionalism. Michael will be retained to help make our trainers become better communicators, both visually and verbally and to assist us with next year’s conference. We highly recommend him and Speaking CPR to assist with your next event."
Robert Gerbus, President, Trans Ash, Inc.
Speaking CPR
5
2018-05-10T09:44:06-04:00
Robert Gerbus, President, Trans Ash, Inc.
"Michael transformed our everyday managers into conference presenters by coaching them and by challenging the traditional methods they were using to present. The outcome was phenomenal. Our conference was elevated to a new level of professionalism. Michael will be retained to help make our trainers become better communicators, both visually and verbally and to assist us with next year’s conference. We highly recommend him and Speaking CPR to assist with your next event."
“As a former Green Beret and professional storyteller, I give dozens of speeches every year. I am very selective about who trains me.
Michael Davis exceeded every expectation and was one of the best coaches I ever worked with. His quiet professionalism, and unsurpassed knowledge of storytelling helped make my Ted X Cincinnati talk extremely powerful. I would recommend Michael, as a story and speaking coach to anyone with a high stakes talk to give. Michael will help you take your speech from good to great!”
LTC (Ret.) Scott Mann, Green Beret, Storyteller, Trainer, Coach, Author
Speaking CPR
5
2018-05-10T09:45:38-04:00
LTC (Ret.) Scott Mann, Green Beret, Storyteller, Trainer, Coach, Author
“As a former Green Beret and professional storyteller, I give dozens of speeches every year. I am very selective about who trains me. Michael Davis exceeded every expectation and was one of the best coaches I ever worked with. His quiet professionalism, and unsurpassed knowledge of storytelling helped make my Ted X Cincinnati talk extremely powerful. I would recommend Michael, as a story and speaking coach to anyone with a high stakes talk to give. Michael will help you take your speech from good to great!”
“We are privileged to have Michael Davis of Speaking CPR as one of the Speaker Coaches for ourTED x Cincinnatievent. I had the opportunity to be on several of the calls with Michael as he worked his craft with his speakers.I was impressed with howgenuine, exuberant, and in touchhe was with each speaker.
He truly has agift in connecting with the heart of each personhe works with and helping them to unleash their story into their talk.All of the speakersraved about his work with them.Each of them has had broad experience in speaking, but they all felt that working with Michael raised the bar on their ability to speak. You can listen to all of his speakers, Anthony Munoz, Richard Bernstein and Graeme Joffe, at http://www.tedxcincinnati.com/talks/.”
Allison Wonders Gars Speaker Coach Manager, TED x Cincinnati
Speaking CPR
5
2018-03-20T17:08:04-04:00
Allison Wonders Gars Speaker Coach Manager, TED x Cincinnati
“We are privileged to have Michael Davis of Speaking CPR as one of the Speaker Coaches for our TED x Cincinnati event. I had the opportunity to be on several of the calls with Michael as he worked his craft with his speakers. I was impressed with how genuine, exuberant, and in touch he was with each speaker. He truly has a gift in connecting with the heart of each person he works with and helping them to unleash their story into their talk. All of the speakers raved about his work with them. Each of them has had broad experience in speaking, but they all felt that working with Michael raised the bar on their ability to speak. You can listen to all of his speakers, Anthony Munoz, Richard Bernstein and Graeme Joffe, at http://www.tedxcincinnati.com/talks/.”
“Investing in Michael is one of the best investments I have ever made. I speak on the subject of diversity in the workplace, which can at times be a difficult topic to discuss.
Michael taught me a repeatable process that allows me to create a foundational concept, a logical structure, an opening that grabs the audience’s attention, and a conclusion that encourages my audience to take action that will save them time and money.
I found Michael easy to work with, flexible with his schedule, and a wealth of information about the art of speaking. If you need to improve your presentation or speech, I highly recommend you consider hiring Michael. It is one of the best investments you can make in your own growth.”
Natalie Holder Founder, QUEST Diversity
Speaking CPR
5
2018-03-20T17:33:18-04:00
Natalie Holder Founder, QUEST Diversity
“Investing in Michael is one of the best investments I have ever made. I speak on the subject of diversity in the workplace, which can at times be a difficult topic to discuss. Michael taught me a repeatable process that allows me to create a foundational concept, a logical structure, an opening that grabs the audience’s attention, and a conclusion that encourages my audience to take action that will save them time and money. I found Michael easy to work with, flexible with his schedule, and a wealth of information about the art of speaking. If you need to improve your presentation or speech, I highly recommend you consider hiring Michael. It is one of the best investments you can make in your own growth.”