How to Tell a Great Story

What makes a great storyteller?

Come August 7th, 2015, my team and I will be pitching our startup, Ateré, to roughly 900 VCs, potential employers and other industry related people. Needless to say, it’s very important we tell a great story.

This past Friday, BDW Cohort 7 took part in an amazing storytelling workshop with the director of our program, David Slayden. For years, David was a Hollywood screenplay writer, and later leveraged his storytelling skills into the advertising word, where he helped to create some of the most successful brands around today.

I learned that a great pitch is no more than telling a great story. So how exactly do you tell a great story? For starters:

1. Make your main character likable
2. Be relatable because people notice what interests THEM
3. Don’t give a presentation, give a talk. Nobody likes a sermon
4. Use humor, have FUN and make it entertaining
5. Make yourself a character by being yourself. Be genuine. Don’t try to be something you are not. People care about characters, not stereotypes
6. Communicate with feeling and emotion
7. Bring in the details. Your audience will believe anything with detail
8. Find a theme to focus on and make sure it’s running throughout your entire story. It’s your spine
9. The secret sauce to a great story is being able to evoke wonder
10. Draw from what you know. Capture the truth from your own experiences

We started off the workshop by watching the charming Sir Ken Robinson deliver his 2006 Ted Talk “How Schools Kill Creativity.” By the end of the 20 minute talk everyone in the room had a good laugh, was inspired and totally digging what Sir Robinson had to say. He is hands down an amazing storyteller. He’s funny, lovable, likable, persuasive, believable and inspiring. But how exactly did he do it?

It was recommended for us to go back and breakdown Sir Robinson’s speech to see structurally how he uses the key ingredients of storytelling. I went ahead and did this and thought I would share my insights here. Hopefully this can help all of us become better storytellers, pitchers, talkers, public speakers, or even writers for that matter.

Sir Ken Robinson: “How Schools Kill Creativity”

Initial thoughts: he’s normal looking, seems nice, but appears that something funky is happening with one of his feet — one shoe is thicker than the other. Definitely looks smart with his square-framed, black-rimmed glasses, and plus — he’s suited up.

Introduction

1. At 0.11 seconds into his talk he makes a joke: “I’ve been blown away by the whole thing. In fact, I’m leaving.” The audience already loves him. His own genuine sense of humor is revealed. We are no longer intimidated by this smart looking man and he’s got our attention. He then takes the attention off of himself and begins to express his admiration for the Ted Talk conference in it’s entirety. This illustrates that he has a kind soul and an appreciation for others — he is not consumed only with his message. We respect this man.
2. Sets up the expectations of the talk and expresses his point of view about creativity. We know where he stands.
3. Reveals a little information about his background and his interest in education. This builds trust. He’s allowing us into his world.
4. Involves the audience by directly asking them a question. Wants to interact with them, as if they are having a conversation on the street: “I have an interest in education. Actually, what I find is everybody has an interest in education. Don’t you?”
5. At 0.56 seconds in, he gets four more laughs in a row. Asking people to imagine themselves in familiar situations and interactions, and using his genuine sense of humor to crack jokes. The audience is loving him and it hasn’t even been a minute into his talk. He’s warming up the crowd. We’re all ears.

Point of View

1. Expresses his point of view about education: “…children starting school this year will be retiring in 2065. Nobody has a clue, despite all the expertise that’s been on parade for the past four days, what the world will look like in five years’ time. And yet we’re meant to be educating them for it. So the unpredictability, I think, is extraordinary.”
2. Makes another statement about children’s extraordinary capacity for education. There is so much passion in his voice.

Hypothesis

1. At 3:03 minutes in he states his hypothesis: “My contention is that creativity now is as important in education as literacy, and we should treat it with the same status.”
2. Another dry joke to get the audience to laugh. The audience is loving him and then three more laughs in a row. It’s simple comedy, but we are completely amused by this character.

Examples

1. Funny story about a child drawing a picture of God that captures the young innocence in children and their creativity.
2. Audience again laughs, and Sir Robinson leaves room for the laughter. Great timing. He can feel the room.
3. At 4:07 minutes in he tells a story about his own son to illustrate the point that kids are not afraid of making a mistake and are willing to take a chance.
4. His examples are helping the audience realize just how special and wonderful children really are. We can all relate because since all of us were children at one point, and probably experienced similar situations.

Argument 1

1. At 5:21 minutes in he makes his first argument: “…if you’re not prepared to be wrong, you’ll never come up with anything original…” “…by the time they get to be adults, most kids have lost that capacity…. And the result is that we are educating people out of their creative capacities.”

Examples

1. Uses another personal story about his family to support the above argument.
2. Sarcasm and lots of laughter from the audience. They love that he uses his personal life to make his point. He’s making himself vulnerable and this creates trust.
3. Again involves the audience by asking them direct questions.
4. Uses descriptive details to explain how we educate children from the waist up. The descriptions allow the audience to visualize his points, thus forming a mental picture.

Argument 2

1. Makes fun of himself to make his second point: “…the whole purpose of public education throughout the world is to produce university professors. Isn’t it? They’re the people who come out the top. And I used to be one, so there. “
2. Humor — five more laughs in a row. Presents a scenario that everyone can relate to.
3. Gives a little history on the evolution of education to give the audience some reference points. Proves that he’s knowledgeable about this arena. We believe experts.
4. Makes a third point: “..the whole system of public education around the world is a protracted process of university entrance. And the consequence is that many highly-talented, brilliant, creative people think they’re not, because the thing they were good at at school wasn’t valued…”.

Argument 3

1. Another joke and at 12:06 minutes in he states: “… degrees aren’t worth anything….It’s a process of academic inflation. And it indicates the whole structure of education is shifting beneath our feet.”

Supporting Evidence

1. Uses research to support his argument that intelligence is diverse.
2. Makes a funny joke, and again using his personal life to support his argument. This time he uses his wife, touching on the universal man/woman differences that we can all relate to. The audience loves him.

Examples

1. Tells the story of a professional choreographer who found out at a young age that she loved to dance. She was only able to focus when she could move. I am sure there are other people in the room who can relate.
2. Big applause from the audience because the story is so spot on and inspiring. They are drinking the Sir Robinson Kool Aid.

Solution

1. He states what he thinks needs to change: “ I believe our only hope for the future is to adopt a new conception of human ecology, one in which we start to reconstitute our conception of the richness of human capacity….”

How

1. It’s our moral responsibility to make it work: “…the only way we’ll do it is by seeing our creative capacities for the richness they are and seeing our children for the hope that they are. And our task is to educate their whole being, so they can face this future. By the way — we may not see this future, but they will. And our job is to help them make something of it.” He gives all of the power to make a change to the audience. They feel empowered and inspired.
2. The audience is rich with applause because they have fallen in love Sir Robinson’s character and dreams. They believe what he believes, and that my friend is the telling of a great storyteller.

I am currently a student in BDW’s 50 week program. Learn more about the BDW program. Follow me on Instagram and Twitter.