It was Scrooge who transformed from “Bah! Humbug!” to “I will honour Christmas in my heart, and try to keep it all the year.”
Storytelling is a universal archetype. It taps into fundamental human experiences that are relatable across cultures and time and creates shared human understanding. When storytelling is applied to a presentation, it makes a lasting impact. Stories are as important to us – almost- as breathing, from a mythical campfire tale, to a billboard in an airport, it dominates our lives. Whether it’s a monster story (Jaws) or the human form of a monster (The Shinning) or a Corporation (Erin Brockovich.) Or, The Hero’s Journey- (Raiders of the Lost Ark).
In all these films, the underlying architecture stays the same, the enemy is defeated.
All involve some kind of quest to find a way out of it, all have their own monster to vanquish, all plunge their characters into a stranger new world; all have as their goal, safety, security, completion and the importance of home.
How does this relate to your presentation or pitch? Who are the monsters in your story?The monster could be obesity, Alzheimer’s, cancer, or the time-consuming process of recruitment.
Dramatic structure is not a ‘construct’, but a product of human psychology, biology and physics. ‘You need the eye, the hand and the heart,’ proclaims the ancient Chinese proverb. ‘Two won’t do.’
When you begin the task of writing a presentation, a great place to start is to answer these three questions.
- Who are my audience? What do they want to hear? What do they need to hear? How do they want to hear it?
- What’s my Super Objective? It’s what you want in one sentence. ‘To invest in our new onboarding software.’
- What do I want my audience to feel? Excited, motivated, reassured
And then pin down the hook in your presentation. How will you or your company save lives, time, money, help us to be more efficient? The hook, will make us CARE.
Your audience probably won’t say; ‘What fantastic slides! I loved how the speaker used 25 slides!’
But maybe audiences will say; ‘I loved how you brought this story to life! I felt really moved by your pitch/presentation.’
Story is engagement, not slides.
The response that most great drama ask of us is neither ‘yes please,’ nor ‘no thanks’ but ‘you too?’
We’re launching our new Storytelling for Presentations & Pitches Workshop in the new year which we’re excited to share with you. Here are a few areas we’ll cover;
- Storytelling techniques to ensure the audience can relate and are led to an unforgettable outcome.
- ‘Hooks’ that keep our attention and ensure the audience care about what is being shared.
- Metaphor to enrich perspective and evoke feeling, triggering imagination and the senses.
- Story plotting board to clarify the arc of the narrative and why you are speaking in the moment.
- Develop individual/collective voice, using perspective, tone and style.
- Three act structure that builds tension and story flow.
- Slides that create visual meaning and clarify message.
We’re offering a 25% discount in January. Get in touch if you’d like to hear more!
emma@communicationcollective.co.uk