Story Settings

• 00:04 Early in my career, many years ago, I was in eastern Europe for the first time,
• 00:09 I was working with a prime minister on his public speaking skills.
• 00:13 I'll never forget, we were in a former dictator's palace, this was now
• 00:18 post-communist era and I was working with the democratically elected leader.
• 00:23 But it was this beautiful old communist palace, remote area,
• 00:29 there are armed guards everywhere, I'm with the prime minister.
• 00:35 And he says T.J., if you don't mind,
• 00:37 I'd like to practice in my own language if that's okay.
• 00:40 I said, sure.
• 00:41 So he stood up, gave his speech, and he's reading it.
• 00:46 I, of course, don't understand it.
• 00:48 But he's reading the speech head down, recording it, I play it back.
• 00:55 He watches it, I watch it.
• 00:56 He turns to me and he says, T.J., tell me what do you think?
• 01:01 And, a little bit of a dilemma because I thought it was incredibly boring, awful.
• 01:08 But I'm a little bit nervous.
• 01:09 I'm in Eastern Europe for the first time, the Cold War hasn't been over that long.
• 01:14 I'm surrounded by armed guards.
• 01:18 Nobody really knows I'm there other than staff and family.
• 01:22 So I'm feeling a little nervous.
• 01:24 But I finally thought, okay, this guy's paying me a bunch of money to give
• 01:28 him honest feedback, so here's what I said.
• 01:32 Well, Mr. Prime Minister, I have no idea what you said, but
• 01:37 with all due respect, you bored the hell out of me.
• 01:41 He looked shocked, he looked at me, he looked at the guys with the machine guns,
• 01:48 he looked at the screen again, and he turned back to me and
• 01:52 said TJ, you're right, it was boring as hell.
• 01:56 And at that moment we took the speech
• 02:00 we tore it into little pieces and we threw it on the ground.
• 02:05 We got a clean sheet of paper, I breathed a sign of relief,
• 02:09 we brainstormed on messages, narrowed it down to the top five,
• 02:14 he stood up, this time he didn't read the speech and
• 02:18 he gave it again, we record it, he watched it.
• 02:22 He thought he was a thousand times better, and
• 02:25 I thought he was a thousand times better.
• 02:27 And that's the typical reaction many people have when they go
• 02:32 from reading a speech, to just narrowing it down,
• 02:37 to a simple outline with a few message points and stories.
• 02:42 Okay, so what did I do there?
• 02:43 I told a story.
• 02:45 I really just wanted to make the point, which is, it's a horrible idea
• 02:50 to read a speech, and you're gonna be a lot better off using a simple outline.
• 02:54 But I told a story, the story had a setting.
• 03:00 Now it doesn't matter if you remember every part of the setting, but
• 03:03 the setting helps your audience remember things.
• 03:06 They can visualize being in a former dictator's palace, remote area,
• 03:12 eastern Europe, surrounded by guards with machine guns.
• 03:17 The setting is critical when you're telling a story.
• 03:21 Not because you're trying to make a movie or have someone remember every part of it,
• 03:26 but you are trying to make a movie in someone's brain.
• 03:30 You're trying to help them visualize it.
• 03:32 The human brain is much more of an image processor than it's a word processor.
• 03:38 So when you're telling stories, you're forcing people,
• 03:42 against their will, basically, to run a little movie reel.
• 03:47 So they're seeing what you're saying.
• 03:50 It's easier for them to remember.
• 03:51 It's also easier for you to tell the story.
• 03:56 Because you're reliving an experience in your mind's eye.
• 03:59 It's easier for you.
• 04:02 Another element that's crucial to a story is the emotion.
• 04:06 How did you feel?
• 04:07 The fact that I was feeling nervous, oh what do I say, there's armed guards here.
• 04:11 Should I be honest?
• 04:13 It creates variety in how you speak.
• 04:17 It makes it easier for people to remember.
• 04:20 It provides some ups and downs to the flow of what's coming out.
• 04:25 Because unfortunately, too many presentations are just okay,
• 04:29 here are the tips, when you're telling a story, make sure you have a setting,
• 04:33 use emotion, bring in.
• 04:34 It's not interesting.
• 04:36 It's too much like a conveyor belt.
• 04:39 Bang, bang, bang.
• 04:41 When you stop to talk about how you feel, it doesn't matter if anyone really
• 04:46 remembers, but it's some punctuation to the story,
• 04:50 to your presentation, it creates variety, makes you more human.
• 04:54 It makes it a lot more easier for people to remember.
• 04:59 So remember, you've got to describe the setting of where you were.
• 05:03 It doesn't have to be as dramatic as what I just said.
• 05:06 It could be I'm on the second floor
• 05:08 in my office building in downtown Fort Lauderdale, Florida.
• 05:12 It doesn't have to be anything dramatic.
• 05:14 Just something where people can visualize it and
• 05:18 you need to talk about how you felt and how the other people felt in your story.
• 05:24 Do those two things, your story will start to take shape.

Lesson notes are only available for subscribers.