Become an outstanding speaker
You can also use stories to bring your message to life.
They are very important because stories, simply operate a different part of your brain. You know they connect emotionally and often in a presentation a vividly told story will be the part that they [your audience] remember most rather, rather than all the the data and the information.
Now a lot of people think they're telling stories, but they're not.
They've got it wrong and you've got to be very aware of the structure at the essence of story is conflict:
- Somebody wants something
- They set out to get that
- There is an obstacle in the way of getting it. They have to take action to deal with that obstacle in order to get it through there.
So without that conflict: 'what is stopping you getting what you want', there is really no story.
And the audience must be thinking 'what comes next', 'then what happens, then what happens' so that they are emotionally involved. They're going through the action with you.
Language in stories
Now, the language and stories is very important. It needs to change from abstract language.
You know, words like 'system', 'technology', 'accessibility' to picture language.
If I say 'tiger', 'baby', 'Eiffel Tower', you immediately get a picture.
So in stories, you're using picture language. You're painting a picture to make us see those images, and you're finding action.
Time and telling stories
But the important thing with stories is there must be concise and by concise I mean, a minute [in length of time], a minute and 1/2 at the most.
Now you can't just improvise the story that has to be really practised and carefully structured.
But, if you can tell stories well and the stories are relevant, you will become an outstanding speaker.
