Storytelling Tips for Your Speech You Probably Haven't Thought About

(Be prepared: I am going to “should” all over you about storytelling in your speech. There are always ways to bend rules, but as a general practice, I find these to be effective in regards to creating an emotional powerful moment with the audience – which is a huge part of what stories are for.)

 Annnnnd Action. 🎬

He was an old white guy rambling on for an hour. His speech was basically a thinly veiled sales pitch to hire him for his services. Right when I thought he couldn’t annoy me anymore, he pulled out the ol’ sports hero story to end his sales pitch/speech.

 He wasn’t an athlete. If he was and it was HIS story - that would be different. It wasn’t. It was something I could have googled and read about on Wikipedia. I, and half the room, don’t care about sports. We politely endured what I am assuming was what he considered motivational.

When he was done, I imagined him getting his hefty speaking check, sauntering over to the bar to order an Arnold Palmer or Whiskey Sour, hitting on a waitress, popping some peanuts in his mouth then going to bed because I’m a judgmental jerk sometimes.

 There is no story that is more powerful or important than YOUR story. You. Yourself. I don’t care about someone random who fumbled a pass three seconds before the end of a game that means nothing to me and winning anyway.

 You mean something to me. Because you are real and standing right in front of me.

 Which brings me to my first tip on storytelling in your speech:

 -The story should be your own.

 You don’t have to be the main character of the story. It could be you sitting on the floor, pulling on the green shag carpet strands while listening to your grandfather retell stories of World War 2 while smoking a cigar and eating biscuit cookies from a can. It’s still your story.

 -You need to “set the stage”.

 When you tell a story you are asking the audience to use their imagination. You need to “set the stage”.

 Shakespeare did his plays in the afternoon because there were no lights. In the opening f all his plays his character set the who, what and when. (Stacy’s version: “Hark ‘tis dawn in the forest”. “The mighty king has fallen.” You get the gist.)

 If I share a story about me waiting to catch a bus, and the story takes place when it’s 100 degrees outside midafternoon in July, it is a much different story than if I was stuck in a blizzard around midnight. It’s also a different story if it’s me by myself, or there is a homeless woman ranting because she’s on meth. The who, what, where, when matter.

 -Your story should utilize the senses.

 If you go back up to the example I use of you listening to your grandpa, there is a difference between, “My Grandfather told me stories about the war. One particular story…”

 Then: I would sit on the shag carpet, running the long green strands through my fingers while my grandfather sat in his patchwork recliner. The room was thick with the smell of cigar smoke. I can still hear the crunch of him eating biscuit cookies from a blue tin can. He’d take a puff of cigar, brush cookie crumbs off his beard and then tell me stories about the war. One particular story…

 The stage has been set. You know where I am and who I am with and what is happening. I did this, not just with facts, but by bringing the senses of the smell of the cigar, the biscuit crumbs, the feeling of carpet on your hands, being young and sitting cross legged on a floor.

 By doing this:

 -You should be “inviting people into the story”.

 The beautiful thing about a well told story is it’s not simply to be heard, it’s something an audience can experience right along with you. This is what action movies do. You feel like you are experiencing it yourself with being startled, or getting an adrenaline rush, or feeling anger while you are watching it.

Setting the stage and bringing in the senses help the audience visualize and even feel what is happening because they can relate. Many people my age sat on dirty shag carpet with our grandparents smoking telling us stories about the good ol’ days.

 -Saying is better than telling. Meaning dialogue is better.

This is where proper staging comes in, but it’s almost always more engaging to have the actual conversation between two people in the story verse just talking about the conversation.

 Here is an example:

 "Son"

"Yes, Grandpa?"

 "Did I ever tell you about the time my buddies and I…"

This is more interesting than saying, “My grandfather told me stories and my favorite one was a story where he and his”

 Again, there are staging techniques to pull this off effectively with focal points but that's a whole other article.

 -You should move while you tell the story but only with purpose.

 Moving on stage is a thing many speakers do to try and keep an audience’s attention. The problem is, especially in stories- there’s no rhyme or reason to it. 

 If I walk all over the stage waving my arms and pacing and talking as I go saying, “I felt the blood drain from my face and my stomach flip as I looked around the board room. I stood there a with the scent of old coffee and my hopes and dreams burning to the ground. Their shocked silence was deafening.”

 Now, imagine I stand down center stage perfectly still and says those exact words. Which is more powerful? The second. I’m controlling the space, the attention, the timing by being comfortable enough as a speaker to command the stage with stillness and words. I’m not flapping all over the stage like a beheaded chicken.

 -The lesson in the story needs to be about them not you.

 Whatever the lesson is in the story shouldn’t be just about what you earned in the end. Once again inviting them in so it relates to their lives is crucial for them to get the “take away”.

 Phrases such as:

 “Have you ever”

 “You know how when you”

 “Then next time you”

 Finally:

-The story should have an emotional arc that takes them on an emotional journey.

 Any story that you read or movie that you watched that is now your favorite, most likely had a strong emotional impact of some kind that made it memorable. It could be funny, scary, uplifting.

 It’s not just the lesson you’re teaching. The facts won’t stick. You don’t remember most of what you learned in American History class. Those were just facts. If you watched the movie, “Hacksaw Ridge” or “Old Glory” or ‘1917”, you remember things because of the emotional impact it had on you.

 I think I ‘shoulded” enough on you for today.

 My storytelling brain is for sale. Meaning I do private coaching if you need to take your speech up a notch or 10. You can learn about it here: https://www.boringtosoaringspeeches.com

Don't be boring!!

Kindly, Stacy P.