The Best Leaders Tell the Best Stories

Storytelling tips from Nancy Duarte.

When I transitioned from my first startup, Asseta, to my current role as a Partner at Prime Movers Lab, I spent time reflecting on the biggest lessons learned from my first startup experience. One thing that jumped out at me is the importance of communicating a compelling narrative. Many of the most challenging responsibilities of a startup CEO, like raising money, recruiting and motivating employees and getting customers, largely comes down to your ability to tell a good story. That’s not to discount the criticality of having a great product, team and vision but, that in and of itself, will not be enough. People don’t make decisions based on facts — they make them based on emotions and storytelling is the oldest and most effective way to generate emotion in your audience.

This was why I was so excited about a podcast I listened to recently between Mike Maples Jr. of Floodgate and Nancy Duarte. Nancy is an expert in telling stories through presentations. She worked extensively with Steve Jobs and helped Al Gore create the presentation that went on to become the Inconvenient Truth. I sincerely believe this is one of the top 3 fundamental skills of a leader and this podcast has some incredible tactical suggestions on how to improve these skills. Here’s a summary of my takeaways:

Joseph Campbell’s Hero’s Journey

• The Hero’s Journey is one of the most common and effective storytelling templates. Examples include Star Wars, Lord of the Rings, Wizard of Oz, Harry Potter, The Matrix and countless others.
• The hero begins in their ordinary world and receives a call to adventure. After initially resisting the call, they proceed with the help of a mentor across the threshold into a special world where they face many trials and tribulations. After a near-death experience, they are transformed as a result of the hardship and go on to reach their ultimate goal before finally returning back to their ordinary world.
• When you present your company, the audience is the hero (e.g. Luke, Frodo or Harry) and you are their mentor or guide (e.g. Yoda, Gandalf, or Dumbledore). As a founder, you have a vision of a better future that your company will create. Your job is to use that knowledge to guide the audience into that special world. Show them how their life will be better in that future and support them to join you in co-creating it.
• The common mistake is to think that you are the hero of the story and that blocks you from having the empathy required to tell a compelling story. Take the time and think about what might move them, what might touch them, and what’s really on their mind. Often we think they need to come and meet us where we’re at, but in real storytelling, you go into their world.

What Is and What Could Be

• The other pattern that Nancy has found from many of the greatest speeches (Gettysburg Address, MLK’s “I Have a Dream”, Steve Job’s iPhone announcement, etc.) is they use a three-act structure to paint a contrast between what currently is and what can be. The greater the contrast, the greater the emotional impact you will have on the audience.
• Act 1 is about establishing shared norms between you and the audience about what’s wrong or missing about the present and introducing your big ideas. This is critical so you can establish credibility and trust with the audience. The first moment you go from what is to what could be is called the “inciting incident.” This is the moment that the audience decides to jump in or not jump in with you.
• Act 2 is the “messy middle” when you are communicating the substance of your presentation. The audience will likely be offering resistance because you are asking them to transform in some way. It will be your job to get past their roadblocks by handing their objections with compelling specifics.
• Act 3 is when you have your call to action and you restate just how amazing this new future will be.

STAR Moment

• Every great presentation has a STAR moment — “Something They’ll Always Remember.”
• It can be a shocking statistic, a theatrical element, a humorous moment, etc. An example would be when Bill Gates released mosquitos during a malaria presentation at TED.
• This is similar to what Malcolm Gladwell describes as including “candy” in his books. The point is to make the presentation more memorable and easier to spread.

Becoming a Great Presenter

• Nancy’s top three attributes for being a great presenter are being comfortable, dynamic and empathetic.
• When she works with founders who are lacking dynamism or comfort, she starts by asking them a series of questions to get to the heart of why they’re doing what they’re doing and has them present from that place.

Here’s a link to the podcast if you want to listen to it.

Prime Movers Lab invests in breakthrough scientific startups founded by Prime Movers, the inventors who transform billions of lives. We invest in seed-stage companies reinventing energy, transportation, infrastructure, manufacturing, human augmentation and computing.

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