Don't Tell Stories, Relive Them

• 00:05 Here's an important tip if you want to be a great storyteller.
• 00:09 And it's something great storytellers do.
• 00:11 You ready for it?
• 00:14 Be lazy.
• 00:16 That's right.
• 00:16 I want you to actually be lazy.
• 00:18 I don't want you writing and re-writing and editing and
• 00:21 polishing this story 1,000 different ways.
• 00:25 It's too much work, and
• 00:27 if you were to try to memorize it, it would probably sound canned and phony.
• 00:32 Instead, I need you to take the lazy way out.
• 00:35 And that is simply relive the story.
• 00:39 Don't try to memorize the story.
• 00:41 The beauty of a story is you were there ideally.
• 00:45 You can use stories recounted to you from other people,
• 00:48 in which case, talk about your conversation with them.
• 00:51 But if you're talking about a story of a problem that happened for
• 00:55 you with a real client, real colleague,
• 00:58 a family member, just see it in your mind's eye.
• 01:03 It's easy for me to tell the story of that prime minister at the moment
• 01:08 getting angry with me for telling him his speech was boring cuz I can see it.
• 01:12 I can see this ornate room.
• 01:14 I can see all of the guards out.
• 01:17 I can I see the machine gun.
• 01:18 It's easy for me, I'm simply reliving an actual experience.
• 01:24 I'm seeing it.
• 01:26 I'm walking through it.
• 01:28 It's probably not that hard for you if someone says, well,
• 01:30 how did you meet your spouse or your significant other?
• 01:32 Or what town are you from?
• 01:35 You're seeing it.
• 01:36 You've said it a bunch of times before, but you're seeing it.
• 01:40 Use your eyes.
• 01:41 It's easier for you, guess who else it's easier for?
• 01:44 It's easier for your audience.
• 01:46 That's the beauty of stories.
• 01:48 Easier for you to say cuz you can see it.
• 01:51 Easier for your audiences to see it in their mind's eye and easier for
• 01:55 them to remember it.
• 01:56 So don't try to get it word for word the same way, don't memorize it.
• 02:02 You can tell a story a little bit differently every time, and
• 02:06 it still works as long as you have the central elements.
• 02:10 First of all, an important message for your audience, a setting, a character,
• 02:14 some dialogue, some emotion, a problem, a conflict there, and how it was resolved.
• 02:21 Do that, and you'll be in great shape.

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