Business Storytelling: 4 Lists for Your Stories

You're convinced that stories will help you make your points quickly and memorably. So the question is: "where do I find stories for use in my business presentations?"

Find them in your own life and experiences. Create four lists on a large piece of paper or in a word table or excel spreadsheet:

1. My business life the past 15 years
2. My business life more than 15 years ago (may include college)
3. My personal life past 15 years
4. My personal life more than 15 years ago.

You want to have all the lists viewable at once because you're going to let your mind wander and memories will randomly come to you. Make a brief note in the relevant list as your memories surface. You're not writing anything now, you're just recording triggers that remind you of the story. This is your own private worksheet, so use any language that works for you.

Do NOT edit or weed out stories that come to you. Memories that may seem hard to connect to a business presentation could be crafted in a way that makes them perfect for one of the 7 story types.

Check back for the next post to learn what to do with these 4 lists.

Comments

[Terry Gault]

Susan,

I like the idea of creating four lists to help come up with stories for presentation.

Still, I'm going to have to disagree about whether stories should be edited or not.

Personally, I suggest a few things:

1: Fashion personal stories that show you in a vulnerable light (when you were struggling as a young sales rep, at your first job out of college, etc.) They will help you gain empathy and get the audience rooting for you.

2: Refine details

A good story needs to be refined to its most compact, crystallized form by selecting the pertinent details and then letting those details vividly delivered with expressive non-verbal behavior do the work.

3:Details not objectives

Carefully selected, vivid details are always more powerful than vague, general adjectives.

Thanks for the post

[Terry Gault]

Susan,

I like the idea of creating four lists to help come up with stories for presentation.

Still, I'm going to have to disagree about whether stories should be edited or not.

Personally, I suggest a few things:

1: Fashion personal stories that show you in a vulnerable light (when you were struggling as a young sales rep, at your first job out of college, etc.) They will help you gain empathy and get the audience rooting for you.

2: Refine details

A good story needs to be refined to its most compact, crystallized form by selecting the pertinent details and then letting those details vividly delivered with expressive non-verbal behavior do the work.

3:Details not objectives

Carefully selected, vivid details are always more powerful than vague, general adjectives.

Thanks for the post