Supercharge Your Storytelling Impact With This One Key Change

For years, I’ve suggested that presenters re-connect with key moments in their story so that the audience feels like they’re experiencing it with them.

My intent has been to help speakers recreate emotions.

A Better Perspective

Recently (OK, this afternoon) I heard a different perspective that makes this suggestion more clear. It’s this insight from director, actor, and acting coach Jason Cannon:

Storytelling isn’t about telling WHAT you experienced; it’s about recreating HOW you experienced it.

This perfectly sums up the difference between delivering a presentation and creating an experience for your audience.

If I tell you the facts of my story, that’s reporting. For example:

The night I discovered the power of storytelling was like any other financial presentation I had given.

It’s the fall of 2007, the early weeks of the Great Recession. I’m a Certified Financial Planner. I’m presenting a retirement planning workshop to 49 professional women.

Five minutes into my presentation I’m interrupted by an attendee and asked if I’m there to sell them something. I’m so flustered I don’t immediately answer the question. This increases the tension in the room.

That is an example of reporting the facts.

Did this help you create a mental picture or movie of my experience?

Did you have an emotional reaction to that scene?

If you just said “yes” to those questions, you’re just being nice to me. That’s not an emotional rendering of my experience.

A Better Way That Generates An Emotional Bond

Compare that version to this one:

It’s the fall of 2007, the early weeks of the Great Recession. I’m a Certified Financial Planner. I’m presenting a retirement planning workshop to 49 professional women.

Five minutes into my presentation, I see a hand go up in the back of the room. “Yes, Leslie, how can I help you?”

“Michael, what’s your deal”

“Excuse me? “What’s my deal? I don’t understand.”

“I mean, what’s your deal? I attend a lot of these presentations. You all sound the same. You show us a bunch of slides we can’t read; you tell us how great your company is; and then you try to sell us something. Cut to the chase – tell us what you’re here to sell us!”

I look around the room and those 49 women who, one minute earlier were enjoying after-dinner coffee and cake are now sitting there looking at me like they’re thinking, “Yeah, what’s your deal?”

Think about a time when your brain went completely…empty. I mean, there’s nothing going on in there. You could hear air bouncing around inside your skull, it’s that empty.

That’s where I was.

This is re-creating an experience.

Did this help you create a mental picture or movie of that experience? Did you have an emotional reaction to the scene?

If you just said, yes, then, you’re not just being nice to me, it was designed to help you experience the same feelings I had when I was challenged by Leslie and I saw the reaction of the women in that room.

The facts are still the same, but by using dialogue and reactions, I re-experience that and you get to share it with me.

That’s the power of what Jason meant when he said that sharing the HOW is more powerful than telling the WHAT of an experience.

Thank you, Jason Cannon for providing that inspiration, and a new insight on this game changing delivery method.

Use this approach for your next story. It will feel awkward at first, but with repetition, you’ll get more comfortable. You’ll recreate those key moments that bring your audience into your world and enable them to walk out of your presentations having enjoyed a shared experience with you.

P.S. If you’d like to see this idea demonstrated, check out this video: CLICK HERE

P.S.S, Struggling to make your story more of an experience? Schedule time to talk with me here: CLICK HERE.