Becoming a Storyteller

I am not a storyteller, I tell myself. I feel the sweat in my hands as I hold the pen on top of the blank page. “Your story is not good enough” I hear the internet saying in my mind, building up my self-doubt and dragging my confidence down. I try to focus, but hell is my brain charistmatic and distracting! Trying to focus on writing is like Peter Parker trying to keep his mind quite on his first day as Spiderman.

Could it be my anxiety? What do I fear? I ask myself as I shift my attention to my emotions. If I let the fear of what other people will say about my opinions, or how they will judge my journey, then I will never truly discover what is beyond this wall!

Now, I feel inspired, BY MY SELF! I am fired up, and I am ready to go.

For the past two weeks, I have been sharing my life journey with the world and it feels extremely empowering. I do not care if no one reads my posts, or if people do not like them with a thumbs up on Facebook. I am writing **for myself. ****I choose to tell my story to show myself who I really am. And I now believe that this is how I become a real storyteller, by sharing my most authentic self.

The best part is that I have published more words in a month than I have in the past three years combined. That is the power of doing something first for yourself, that your motivation is intrinsic. Surely, telling a story has the objective of impacting the reader, of sharing an emotion, of passing on a message and planting a seed of an idea on someone’s mind.

This writing journey, that my friends at Nevo started, has given me the opportunity to re-write my story. Today I choose to tell my story, first for myself and my own understanding, visioning and purpose. And second, to actually share my thoughts with the world and try to impact those around me. As arrogant as it can sound, I truly believe that I have ideas that are worth spreading (maybe I should give a TED talk 😛), and I would not be fulfilling my potential if I kept them to myself and my close circles.

Yesterday I went through a very powerful workshop, led by Inon Tagner from Project 21, on how to tell my story in an impactful way. There are many tools and models out there, but in general always try to keep the story as close to your values as possible. This will help the most with creating raport with the audience. I will briefly share what stuck to me and what I want my stories to focus on:

1. Start with an Attention Grabber. It is obvious, we want to grab our audience’s attention very fast, yet it is not always easy to do. People have a very short attention span, and talks are becoming shorter and shorter. Start your talk directly with a personal story that connects to the content of the talk, or by displaying a single picture or a number that carries an important fact to remember. People like short and to-the-point messages they can identify with, so do that. For sure, always refrain from telling your audience who you are with the usual details, or telling them what you are going to talk about. Just talk about it.
2. Stick to the Heroe’s Journey. This is the usual way that Hollywood builds stories. There is a heroe (you) who sets on an adventure to discover some value. She encounters some challenges that need to overcome, usually with the help of a mentor, and then she faces her deepest fears and inner shadows. The path to facing her fears makes her a wiser person. In essence, a good story has a beginning, a middle and an end.
3. Tell the story Through the Senses. It is more powerful to describe a scene through the feelings of the character than to explain in detail what happened. Allowing the audience / reader to connect through their imagination is super powerful. Use it often, and especially to get people to reconnect. What were you feeling? What smells surround you? What did you hear or see? Was the wood rough or the floor flat? Use silences and breaks in a speech to create tension and suspense.
4. Use Analogies. There are many things that people are familiar with, like how overwhelmed Spiderman was when he first started hearing everyone around him. Or how it feels to get water splashed by car on a rainy day. It will help you to convey your message much more succinctly and will again get the audience to feel identified with your story. Use some, but not too often, you still need to tell YOUR story.
5. Remind people of The Higher Purpose. As you get deep into your story, make sure you reframe the story within the context of the main message you are trying to convey (e.g.: we are here to make an impact in the lives of our children). This helps your audience fill in the puzzle by looking at the bigger picture.
6. Use some Narrowing and Expanding. Sometimes there are sub-stories that you can share, like “double-clicking” on a specific word or concept, as Inon says. You can zoom-into that story like going down the rabbit whole, taking your audience with you. The seeming change of topic will catch people’s attention. Other times, you want to summarize what you just said, taking a step back to again bring people’s attention to the bigger picture. Use one word if possible (e.g.: this just tells me that people are dreamers).

💡 Pro tip: when you prepare a presentation, build it as a story, everyone will thank you for it. There are plenty of people who can explain a concept in technical terms, but telling it in the form of a story takes practice. So go ahead and practice. Feel free to reach out if you need someone to hear your story!

For the full list of posts, see The Real 30 Under 30.