How to Make Any Story Work For Any Situation
Get posts directly delivered to your inbox HERE
Read time: 2.5 min
At a glance:
Quote: Stories don’t give answers
Lesson: Link any story to any topic
IG Reel: A master storyteller shares how experts communicate
Quote
"The purpose of a storyteller is not to tell you how to think, but to give you questions to think upon."
Brandon Sanderson
Lesson
We’ve all heard that stories are the best way to help people remember your message and if you are not using storytelling techniques in your communication, you are losing out.
(If you haven’t heard… where the hell have you been? Ok, maybe you’ve literally been trapped under a rock and for that I’m sorry. Just Google storytelling and neuroscience and there will be a bunch of articles that talk about why it’s important)
Moving on…
While stories are important, I’ve always find it hard to apply them.
What stories do I tell?
Where do I find them?
What happens if the story has nothing to do with what I’m trying to say?
All valid questions, and we shall address them all.
In this newsletter issue I will share an immediately applicable method to make any story work for any situation. It will work 100% of the time 99% of the time. There are always some caveats right? 😅
Because this method will solve the third question, you can tell any story and you can find them from anywhere, because all it matters is that the story is a good one, we will make it topical no matter what, guaranteed. Ok, almost guaranteed.
Link your story to your message so you can tell more stories and be more memorable
This method is called LINKING. I didn’t invent it, I learned it from Vinh Giang, a master in storytelling and communication (see his video in the BONUS section).
Essentially, you are trying to link a STORY and a TOPIC so it becomes: STORY X is like TOPIC Y.
Three steps of the LINKING method
Step 1: Write down every word that comes to mind for STORY X
Step 2: Highlight the best word or words that is relevant for TOPIC Y
Step 3: You then tell the story, at the end you say these words “I’m telling you this story because…” and use those key words from step 2 to link that story to your topic.
👉🏽 See how I linked a story “my kids fighting for a blue cup” to a topic “branding” in a video on LinkedIn.
And below is how I went through Steps 1 & 2 for this story.
Conclusion
The Linking method is such a simple but powerful tool to connect any story to any situation and topic you want to communicate. So try it out in your next presentation, I would love to hear about how it went!
Instagram Reel
Vinh Giang is a master storyteller and communicator who trains people from all over the world on how to master their voice. He has over 1.3M followers on Instagram (even Dwayne Johnson, The Rock follows him!)
Check out this short video about how experts explain complex topics
Ways I can help you:
Subscribe to Healthy Brand Mondays: Leverage brand thinking to accelerate your growth
Download free guides and tools: Learn from my years of experience as a brand strategist
Work with me: Be a podcast guest or hire my services for your brand