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Welcome! Turn up the volume and click on the play button to hear about the ingenious storytelling tactic used by a then-unknown Hollywood director to create a movie which impacted a generation…
In a recent blog post, author Simon Sinek wrote about a little-known director who, in 1975, wanted to create a really good horror film. His goal was to center the movie around a violent sea creature that inflicted gory attacks on humans.
There was one problem. The mechanical creature he created for the film was not realistic at all. If he had used it, both he and the movie would have been a laughing stock.
Not to be denied, he and his team came up with a brilliant solution. Rather than show the creature attacking its victims, they would instead use the greatest storytelling tool available… the imagination of the audience.
If you’ve ever seen the movie Jaws, you remember the opening scene…a young woman swimming alone in the ocean… suddenly, she is jerked down under the water, re-surfaces, is jerked down again, then violently flung about. At no point do you see the shark directly attack her.
In other scenes, you don’t even see a fin – you see a yellow barrel surfing across the water. You know that the shark, deep below, is towing the rope attached to the barrel, swimming toward it’s next victim. The effect was so scary and powerful, it influenced our entire society, and it still does today.
Steven Spielberg is a master storyteller. You may not have the ambition to create blockbuster movies, but you can learn the art of storytelling from people of all backgrounds – directors, novelists, and professional speakers. In the 52 Storytelling Tips program, you will pick up tools and processes that I’ve learned from some of the greatest storytellers in the world.
If you apply the lessons you learn each week, and use them in your presentations, you’ll significantly improve your ability to persuade and influence others, and have an impact on their lives. The benefit to you is that you’ll be better known, your career can advance faster, you’ll gain confidence, and you’ll enjoy more opportunities to persuade others.
Enjoy the program. Whether you speak to 2, 200, or 2,000, these ideas will help you Stand OUT from the crowd each time you Stand UP before an audience.