 Have you heard the advice that you should share your messaging as a story before? There is a lot of research behind this that says people remember stories far longer than they remember anything else. This is an approach that can be used not only during presentations, but also in one on one conversations.
Starting out a presentation with a story immediately gets the attention of the audience because they want to hear what happens. It is a great way to set the stage for what you want to talk about and why you are there. You can share the lessons you learned that brought you to this point in your career and what they can learn from you. The other thing that it does is that it builds affinity with people in the audience. They may have gone through something similar or at a minimum can relate to what you went through. People have short attention spans, so finding a way to pay attention at the beginning will help them to be more engaged throughout your presentation.
In a one on one conversation, it can also be useful as you are delivering feedback to someone or sharing a new way for them to think about a situation. Use your own story and share an experience that taught you a lesson. What you learned by going through it and where it developed you. Share someone else’s experience that you are aware of (you can leave out the names) as a way to let them know that they are not alone as they go through this experience. Stories can be very powerful as a way to teach others.
Although many people may say that they don’t have any stories to share. It is not true. You have so many stories in your life that can be shared. Just think about the ones that made the biggest impact to you. These could be stories where you learned a lesson or had successes that took you far past your own expectations. Sharing stories is a valuable way to help other people grow and develop from what you are sharing and it helps to build relationships with them. What story can you share that would help someone else learn from it?
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