How to tell a killer 1 minute story

growing up I knew my brother and I were pretty different my brother believed he was a leprechaun for two years straight and I did not believe he was a leprechaun for two years straight you are here because you want to learn how to tell a killer one-minute story hi I'm Hannah I help people like you communicate with clarity confidence and charisma and I love storytelling and think it's one of the best ways to communicate with people if you're new here be sure to subscribe hit like save it and share it with your friends and family I promise you will use and need this information later here are four easy ways to tell a killer story step 1 engage your audience all of you are dying to hear more about my leprechaun brother because it's kind of cute kind of adorable kind of weird also what does it mean to be a leprechaun and what is it like having a leprechauns brother all valid points that I could talk about here is why you engage your audience first thing when you start telling a story attention spans gens ease by multiple reports have about a 7 to 9 second long attention span if you look at Millennials they have about an attention span oh it's been 10 seconds since I mentioned attention spans the first time it's not very long it's a short window of time you have to immediately get the audience's attention millenials they have about an attention span of 12 to 15 seconds it's why tick tock exists tick tock is most powerful in those 15 second or 30 second increments why attention spans my leprechaun brother and I also played sports very differently I was aggressive and competitive and third-hand within quote here and I liked to slide tackle people when possible my leprechaun brother would play soccer by laying down on his belly and hunting for four-leaf clovers for good luck during games it was during one of these ill-fated soccer games that my brother's leprechaun abilities became illuminated step2 quickly set the stage for your audience what I mean by this is introduce the key players who's important in the story where is it happening why is it happening there give us the context behind the story and where it's taking place here is why you want to do a quick set up and set the stage for your story your audience needs context in the words of bloggers cristoph Trappe some stories shared nowadays are just fact dumps with big marketing words that are pretty meaningless and they're just words that are used to fill space he says you need to cut those words and cut those phrases like you are running out of words like you have a hard and fast word count that you have got to stick to imagine if I had told you these facts instead of what I told you previously my brother was 5 my brother liked magical creatures and magical people I did not like magical people first of all snoozefest I've just shared with you a bunch of pretty boring facts I've also done just that I have just listed facts they're not part of a story there's no narrative happening there there's also zero context and because there is zero context the next factoid I'm going to share with you will make zero sense my brother was playing defense in a soccer game that does not connect at all to the fact that my brother liked magical creatures or magical people the fact that I did not like magical people there's no context what's happened there is a bunch of non sequitur Switch don't get me wrong I love a good non sequitur but this is not the place for a non sequitur you want your audience to understand the context it would be like telling someone about a speech that you heard and not mentioning the fact that it was a wedding toast that the maid of honor was giving for the bride that's pretty crucial context that you need to understand the story so my brothers in first grade he's like 5 or 6 years old and it's the very end of the game his team is up by quite a few goals so the coach subs my brother in to give him a little bit of play time unlike his teammates my brother's modus operandi when he gets into the game is to lay down on his belly and hunt for four-leaf clovers through the blades of grass all of the sudden though my brother is the most in person because he is the last line of defense between the opponent that's had a breakaway and is dribbling at him and the goal the goalies gone we don't know where the goalie is so all of us start yelling at my brother from the sidelines were like get up get the ball and my brother looks up stairs at the opponent flares as nostrils takes two running steps forward throws his arms in the air and flings his little body sideways into a cartwheel step three hit the gas pop in the fast lane and get to the point get to the action get to the climax of your story you are all on the edges of your seats you want to know what happens what is happening why is he cartwheeling what is going on here is why you want to hit the gas hop in the fast lane and get to the point ASAP your audience's brain is being pulled in thousands of directions every single day and it's listening to every direction it's being pulled in listening is actually a really tough skill for the brain it requires a lot of brainpower if you don't get to the point quickly enough your audience's active listening skills are going to decrease their attention span will go away and they're going to move on to something else because listening is such a hard thing to do it's why we tune out in meetings or sometimes we tune out when we're listening to people because they are not getting to the point fast enough and our brains don't want to spend the time to do that active listening when your audience is listening to your story they're also doing three things they are organizing the information you're sharing trying to comprehend it and they're trying to remember it if there's too much preamble if there's too much before information if there are too many players in the game if there are too many details if all the sudden you're like remember and Ezra one of those 17 people I mentioned that was at Thanksgiving dinner who was sitting across the table next to Uncle Bob and you're like I have no idea who any of these people are because you didn't make them stand out or significant in any way who is Ezra that's because the brain was given too much information and it wasn't able to organize comprehend or remember it all because you spent too much time on the before the action to get to the action think about it this way let's say you only have 60 seconds to tell your story and you are 58 seconds in when you get to the action that means you have two seconds remaining to give us the aftereffects the aftershock the aftermath the results what happened audiences want to know what happened they want to know what the result was and you only have two seconds to do that which is not enough time it would be like watching The Wizard of Oz and you get to the point where Dorothy kills the Wicked Witch spoiler alert sorry everyone she kills the Witch and cut some turns off and you're like but but does she get to go home do they get their wishes granted you don't get to find out because you spent too much time talking in the beginning getting to the action that there's not enough time left anymore and I know there are so many of you out there that are like what all the details are important and I have to share all this when you only have one minute to tell a story I guarantee you everything before the action is not as important as the action you figure out very quickly what is most important when you only have a minute your audience doesn't have the capacity to do that active listening for that long be sure to hit the gas hop in the fast lane and get straight to the action so my brother flings himself sideways cartwheels at the same time it feels like time slows down because as his little hands hit the grass and he's upside down the opponent kicks the soccer ball it sails underneath my brother's upside-down body through my brother's arms and swish lands in the net of the goal and then time speeds back up and the entire crowd watching both teams everyone inside like it is erupting cheers cuz we're like what just heaven I never believe that my brother was a leprechaun there was just no way but as I watched that happen I thought you know what maybe my brother does have some magic step four create novelty how many of you have a leprechaun brother who played soccer but didn't play soccer look for four-leaf clovers and then when faced with an opponent decided to distract them cartwheel as they cartwheel the soccer ball went between their arms sailed into the goal and everyone erupted it in Cheers none of you have had that experience it's unique to me in my life that is novelty and I know there are so many of you out there that are like I don't have experiences like that or I don't have novelty that happens in my life yes you do even just going to the gas station is novel and different because no one else in this entire world has the same experience going to the gas station that you do let me tell you why no one drives the exact same car no one's wearing your same outfit no one is eating the same food that you're eating in the car no one's listening to the same podcast radio station or music that you're listening to no one pays with the same debit or credit card no one gets the exact same amount of gas and no one talks to the same gas station attendant no one else in the universe had all of those things happened to them when they went to the gas station you and your life are novel it's all a matter of how you tell it and how you make it novel to your audience here is why you want to create novelty when you're telling a story novelty or when we learn something new or exciting sends a little bit of a buzz through our brain and we get a hit of a drug we get a little bit of dopamine in our brains yep when you learn new and exciting information your brain releases dopamine when you tell a killer story that engages your audience quickly sets the stage hits the gas pops in the fast lane and gets the action right away and creates novelty with your audience your audience's brain is lighting up your audience's brains are getting a little high from your story because they are learning so thing new and exciting about you or about your topic and that is releasing dopamine according to the book talk like Ted by carmine gallo our brains love novelty and unfamiliar and unexpected and unforeseen or an unplanned event that you tell someone about in a presentation or in a story intrigues the audience and it jolts us out of our preconceived notions it quickly gives us a new way of looking at the world it's new it's different it's exciting it's engaging if you want to tell a killer story in one minute or less you need to immediately engage the audience quickly set the scene hit the gas hop in the fast lane and head straight to the action and create novelty to learn more about storytelling public speaking and communicating with clarity be sure to subscribe to my channel hit like save it and share it with your friends and family that's all I've got for you today and I will catch you next time

Channel: Hannah Michelotti

Views: 792

Rating: 5 out of 5

Keywords: How to tell a story, How to give a speech, How to speak in public, How to tell your story, storytelling, public speaking, learn how to tell a story, How to get better at storytelling

Id: RujEAc8DvvQ

Length: 11min 50sec (710 seconds)

Published: Wed Apr 29 2020