Locked lesson.
About this lesson
You don't need to invent new stories. Use real existing stories so you always know what to tell and why.
Quick reference
The Secret to Creating Great Stories
You don’t have to be wildly creative or a brilliant writer to tell a great story in a presentation. In fact, trying too hard can backfire. The easiest, most effective stories often come from your own real-life experiences — and they can make your message more powerful while covering up other imperfections.
Don't Try to Be a Creative Genius
- You don’t need to invent a powerful story from scratch — and you probably shouldn’t.
- Trying to create something "brilliant" adds unnecessary pressure and often leads to less effective delivery.
- The best stories come from real life: conversations, challenges, and problem-solving moments with customers, colleagues, or clients.
Why Personal Stories Work Better
- When you make up a story, you’re essentially acting — and acting well is hard work.
- Professional actors train for years to master performance. Most presenters don’t have that kind of time or training.
- Instead, take the shortcut: retell actual things that have happened to you in a business or professional setting.
- It’s easier to remember and more authentic, which makes your delivery more natural and believable.
The Surprising Power of a Good Story
- A great story can mask almost every other speaking flaw.
- People will overlook imperfect body language, verbal tics, and even visual distractions if the story is engaging.
- Example: Sir Ken Robinson’s TED Talk is the most popular of all time — despite breaking many “public speaking rules.”
- He doesn’t move much, yet audiences love his message because of the way he uses stories to deliver it.
Stories Make You More Forgivable
- “Ums,” “ahs,” awkward pauses, or minor wardrobe slips are all forgotten when the story is good.
- People aren’t grading your delivery — they’re engaged by your narrative.
- This is one of the biggest advantages of weaving real, emotional stories throughout your talk: they cover up imperfections and help your audience stay focused on what matters most.
- 00:04 How do you create interesting, compelling, emotional stories?
- 00:10 Where do you get the brilliant insights, the creative impulses to do that?
- 00:15 Now I'm going to shock some of you with my response to that question.
- 00:19 Don't do it.
- 00:20 Don't even try doing it.
- 00:23 The best source of stories, as I mentioned a couple of videos ago, for most people in most situations is just your own life.
- 00:32 What actually happened to you, conversations you had with real customers, clients, colleagues.
- 00:38 Let's go deeper into that.
- 00:40 The problem with trying to create this interesting, creative next version of Frozen or The Odyssey is that it's really hard work and you probably aren't a professional writer and creative writer.
- 00:56 The other problem with that is when it's not something you've actually experienced.
- 01:01 If you're trying to tell that story, you now are becoming an actor.
- 01:05 You're trying to memorize a script, Guess what?
- 01:09 That's really hard.
- 01:10 Meryl Streep had to go to Graduate School at Yale to be as good as she is.
- 01:15 I don't know about you.
- 01:17 I don't have time to go to two or three years of Graduate School to become a great actor just to tell stories in business presentations.
- 01:26 So my advice?
- 01:28 Take the easy way out.
- 01:29 Take the shortcut.
- 01:31 Take the lazy man, the lazy woman's technique.
- 01:34 And that is don't create new stories from whole cloth.
- 01:39 Instead, recycle your own stories based on what actually happens in your life.
- 01:48 Yes, you can retell other people's stories occasionally if it makes a point, but the best source of stories for you most of the time will be simply telling people what happened to you in interesting situations where you helped someone else solve a problem.
- 02:05 Here's something else you might not have known about storytelling, and it's going to be, I hope, a pleasant surprise for you.
- 02:12 If you can tell an interesting story in your presentation, people will forget and forgive any other flaw you have.
- 02:21 That's right, it sort of masks your errors.
- 02:24 Take for example, the top Ted speaker of all time.
- 02:28 Sir Ken Robinson gives a brilliant speech on creativity and education, But by most standard definitions, his body language is awful.
- 02:38 He stands there with his feet planted as if they'd been nailed to the floor.
- 02:43 Now, I don't want to seem insensitive.
- 02:45 Maybe he does have mobility issues, but from the so-called professional public speaking perspective, he should be moving around the stage naturally stopping moving.
- 02:58 He doesn't do any of that.
- 02:59 And guess what?
- 03:01 People love his speech.
- 03:04 They watch it, they share it, they tell other people to watch it.
- 03:07 It is by every single metric a huge, huge success and the all time at this moment, most popular Ted speech ever.
- 03:17 So keep that in mind.
- 03:18 I've also noticed that when speakers tell great stories, they can have ahs and umms come out of their mouth.
- 03:26 No one remembers a shirt tail can hang out, a collar can go up.
- 03:32 No one remembers or cares.
- 03:35 So that's the other beauty of putting great interesting stories throughout your presentation, is it covers up any other flaws you might have.
Lesson notes are only available for subscribers.