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If you want to grab your audience’s attention and hold it for the duration of your speech, tell stories. Everyone loves a really good story. In public speaking, storytelling is an art, and if we want to become effective at using stories we need to learn how.
There are many sources for stories, but the very best is your own personal stories, things that have happened to you. When you tell your personal stories, you tell them with passion and energy. Craig Valentine, the 1999 World Champion of Public Speaking in Toastmasters, gives us the perfect way of telling a story. He says, “Don’t restate your story, relive it, and invite your audience into your re-living room. When it’s personal, that’s a whole lot easier to do. Gather your stories as they happen. When something happens to you that makes you laugh, cry, get mad or think, write it down or record it somewhere.” Start a little folder on your phone. Include as many details as possible. The power is in the details.
For any story, as with any opening for a speech, have an attention grabber. Make a statement or ask a question, something to catch the audience’s attention and make them want to hear more. For example, if I wanted to tell the story of the time my business partner and I rearranged our products, which were stored in a huge walk-in refrigerator, I could start my story with: “Have your employees ever refused to let you do something?” People will be wondering, who is the boss? How can employees get away with something like that? Don’t they have any control over their employees? They’ll be hooked; they’ll want to know what happened. Or maybe you’re reading this and wondering. Let me tell you how this story unfolded. Overnight, our rearranged products collapsed the shelves. There was a horrible mess in the refrigerator—boxes, products, broken products, and shelves all over the place. The gal in charge of the products, rightfully so, banned us from ever going in the refrigerator again.
Tell your stories in chronological order. It will be easier for you to remember all the details and easier for the audience to follow.
Don’t tell stories just for the sake of telling a story. Ensure your story fits in with the points you are making in your presentation, the message you’re trying to get across to your audience. Tell stories that fit in with your audience. School stories for school kids, losing weight stories for women over 40 years of age, business stories for business people. They’ll be able to relate and feel your emotion.
Practice, practice, practice! This is my repetitive point for any speech. It’s even more important when you’re telling your story. Know the details of your story intimately. Then it’s easy to add the passion and enthusiasm. You’ll speak with tons more confidence as well.
Marc Adams makes a wonderful point. “Some stories make us laugh, some make us cry. Some stories make us think, some cause us to question. But all stories, if used right, can do the same thing—move us to act. And this is the goal of every speech giver; to compel the audience to respond. Use the emotion of the story.”
It doesn’t matter if you’re a professional speaker or giving a business presentation, stories always add. If you think about excellent speeches you’ve heard and remember, I’m willing to bet that you remember those speeches because of the stories sprinkled throughout the speech.
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