Blog
Stories Can be Small
- July 11, 2024
When you think of a memorable story, what comes to mind?
🎥 Star Wars?
đź“š The Green Mile?
🎠Les Misérables?
It’s easy to identify epic storylines that wow on screen or in print.
It’s much harder to identify this caliber of personal story to include in your speech or presentation.
👉 Here’s the good news: You don’t have to.
While there’s no denying the power of a well-told story to grab attention, evoke emotion and cement a lesson in someone’s head, not all stories you tell an audience have to be an epic tale.
If fact, simple anecdotes work best when presenting to convey a theme or message:
❇️ The story of how you and your spouse almost never met because you each construed “let’s meet for a walk at 7” differently (you showed up 7 AM, she showed up 7 PM).
❇️ The story of your “annoying” dog who would not stop scratching your mom’s left side, only to find out mom had a tumor in her spleen.
❇️ The story of missing out on your dream job offer, then watching the company fold months later.
These are all bite-sized anecdotes from my life or the lives of people I know well. They would not make good novels, movies or plays. They don’t follow the complete hero’s journey.
But … When incorporated strategically, they leverage human emotion to reinforce my overall message clearly and authentically.
Take the pressure off yourself. You don’t need to incorporate some version of Yoda, Luke and Darth Vadar in your next talk (although if you do, I’d love to hear it)!
👉 Stories that are small, simple and personal will serve you and your audience just as well.