Get anyone to pay attention by telling stories better than 90% of people

If you clicked on this video, then that probably means that you've realized that storytelling is a very useful skill to have. It doesn't matter what you do.

have. It doesn't matter what you do.

Whether you're currently working or you're a student or you're working in academia or maybe you are working a corporate job, being better at telling good stories is one of the highest value

skills that you can do, not just in your professional and academic life, but also in your personal life as well. And so

whether your goal is to get really good at speaking about your experience or telling stories in an interview when someone asks you to tell them about a time when you insert X or if you just

want to get better at telling captivating stories to your friends and your family, then this video is for you.

Hi, if you're new to the channel, my name is Matt. I'm currently working in strategy and ops at Google. Before that,

I was a management consultant and I make these videos because I enjoy it. Today I

want to tell you about some of the highest value tips and tricks that I've learned over the years about telling good stories. And this is through my

good stories. And this is through my observation of really great storytellers around me in my personal life and in my professional life. So if you're still

professional life. So if you're still here then make sure you lock in full screen the video turn off notifications and follow along. So the way I want to structure this talk today is the first

thing I want to talk about is the theory behind great storytelling. And then in the second half, we'll talk about some practical tips and tricks to actually improve your storytelling starting as

soon as you finish this video. And so

make sure you stick around to the end so you don't miss out on those actionable tips and tricks. But let's jump into the theory. So every story follows a basic

theory. So every story follows a basic three-step structure. Setup, conflict, and

structure. Setup, conflict, and resolution.

Now, if you just think about any story that you've recently heard someone in your life talk about, what you'll realize is it had some kind of a setup where they provided you with enough

context to follow along and then there was some sort of conflict or tension that was introduced which caused you to become interested and curious about what happened next and finally it ended with

the resolution. So, you finally found

the resolution. So, you finally found out what ended up happening, right? So,

say for example, your friend tells you about, "Okay, the other day I was walking around New York and someone came

behind me and grabbed my purse while I was walking down Fifth A." Now, I couldn't see this guy's face and I screamed and I tried to chase after him,

but I couldn't find him in the crowd because he disappeared so quickly. And

so my friends and I, we went to the police station and we ended up having to file a police report. And unfortunately,

the police told us that a lot of this petty crime happens a lot. So it's

unlikely that we would get my bag back.

But 3 days later, I got a phone call from someone and it turns out there was someone watching when my bag got snatched and afterwards they chased after that person and got my bag back.

Then they returned it to me and I was so grateful and I actually ended up paying them a little bit of money to compensate them for being such a good Samaritan.

Okay, so that was a really random story and I honestly just pulled that out of thin air to demonstrate to you how a basic story structure works. And so what you'll realize is in the beginning I

talked about how I was walking or my friend was walking down Fifth A and that was part of the setup and then the tension in the conflict was when somebody snatched their bag and then they had to go to the police station and the police told them that they weren't

going to be able to get their bag back.

But then ultimately someone else got their bag back and returned it to them which gives us the resolution. Now

whether or not this is realistic is besides the point. I'm just trying to demonstrate to you the basic structure.

There's actually a more detailed version of this three-step structure called Freay tags pyramid where essentially you start with the exposition. You have a rising action which introduces intrigue.

And then there's the climax which is like the peak event. So if you're watching a movie for example, the climax is usually like the final battle or something like that if it's Lord of the Rings. And then there's a falling action

Rings. And then there's a falling action which leads to the resolution. But it's

all still following the same structure of going up and building suspense and then finally resolving the story at the end and satisfying that curiosity loop.

So this leads to the question though, how do we create this kind of intrigue?

And the answer is in this twoword phrase, open loops. Now what are open loops? They're exactly what they sound

loops? They're exactly what they sound like. An open loop is when you only have

like. An open loop is when you only have half the loop and then there's a question mark and you're left wondering, so is the loop going to close? What's

going to happen? How are we going to close the loop? The open loop is probably the most important part of telling a story that captivates the audience because curiosity, intrigue,

and suspense all come from open loops.

And so examples of open loops are things like you might be wondering how I got here. Say the main character is in

here. Say the main character is in Antarctica or if you've seen the Deadpool movies, maybe it's in the middle of some crazy fight scene and the main character looks at you and says,

"You might be wondering, how on earth did I get here?" Right? And instantly

you're like, "What the heck? How did

they get there? I want to know. I got to keep watching." Another example is, "So,

keep watching." Another example is, "So, what happened next?" When you say that, instantly

next?" When you say that, instantly people start forming questions in their mind of, "Oh, yeah. What happened next?

I got to know. Or a more concrete example, you say something happened, but it's not because of the reason that you think. So, let's say in a work context,

think. So, let's say in a work context, the client walked away from the deal at the last minute. But the reason they did so isn't what you think. Now, when I say that, you're probably already thinking,

wait, so, okay, first of all, what is the reason that I would think? And then,

why isn't it the same reason that I'm thinking? So, these are three examples

thinking? So, these are three examples of really powerful open loops that you can introduce into your storytelling that'll make people so curious that they just won't be able to stop paying

attention. But with that being said,

attention. But with that being said, let's move now to some of the practical tips and tricks that you can do starting today to improve your storytelling and

to make your stories just that much more interesting for people to listen to. So

I'm going to break it into two subsections. The first is going to be

subsections. The first is going to be details and the second is going to be the actual delivery itself. Let's dive

in. So with details, one of the easiest mistakes that people can make with storytelling is not providing a sufficient level of detail. Let me give

you an example. If you go to work on Monday and you ask your coworker, "Hey, how was your weekend?" and your coworker says, "It was good." Obviously, you're

instantly going to be like, "Oh, okay, cool." But that doesn't mean anything to

cool." But that doesn't mean anything to you, and it's probably just more of a formality at that point. You're not even interested in what they're saying. Now,

if they say something like, "Oh, it was fine. I went to a restaurant and then I

fine. I went to a restaurant and then I went to the park and I played pickle ball." That's okay. It provides some

ball." That's okay. It provides some detail, but it's not interesting because it's just a sequential. I did this and then I did this and then I went home.

There's no rising action. There's no

conflict. There's no climax. And there's

just no open loop to that. And so that's boring. But now, let's say they

boring. But now, let's say they introduce some of these techniques. And

when you ask them, "Hey, how was your weekend?" They tell you, "Oh, it was

weekend?" They tell you, "Oh, it was awesome. It was my mom's 60th birthday,

awesome. It was my mom's 60th birthday, and so I actually took the train back up to Boston to celebrate with her." And I really wanted to surprise her. So, she

didn't know that I was coming. took the

train in on a Friday night and my dad picked me up around 10 p.m. So, it was pretty late. My mom had no idea I was

pretty late. My mom had no idea I was coming. I get home. I'm like sneaking

coming. I get home. I'm like sneaking through the door. We don't want to alert her, but she's awake and she knows that my dad's coming back, but she doesn't know that I'm with him. And so, I'm trying to be really quiet, but I'm a

little bit loud because I have a suitcase. And when my dad goes through

suitcase. And when my dad goes through first, my mom says to him, and I can hear her voice. She's like, "Is there someone behind you?" And at that moment, I knew that the secret was up. and I

just jumped through the door and I said, "Surprise, happy birthday, mom." And she was so happy to see me there and we had an amazing weekend celebrating her 60th

birthday. And so that example that I

birthday. And so that example that I just gave you introduces a few more details which makes it more believable, but also makes it more interesting. And

so there's a couple key categories, five key categories of details that you should be thinking about including whenever you tell a story. The first is

the location. Where is this thing

the location. Where is this thing happening? Be specific if you can. Don't

happening? Be specific if you can. Don't

just say, "Oh, I went home." Or, "Oh, I went to a restaurant." Like, talk about where is home? What restaurant did you go to? What kind of food is it? In what

go to? What kind of food is it? In what

neighborhood is it located? Things like

that. Living things, right? Sounds so

basic, but what people were there or animals were present. And then of course inanimate objects like was there a train nearby? Was there a car? Was there a a

nearby? Was there a car? Was there a a pole that you were about to walk into?

Talk about enough detail such that they can start forming a picture in their mind, but not so much detail that you bog people down in the details. You want

to give enough detail to sort of evoke their imagination, but you don't want to give so much detail that they just get bored and it's taking way too long for

you to deliver the story. But besides

physical things, you also want to talk about emotions and feelings. What was going on and how were

feelings. What was going on and how were you feeling at that point in time? And

so a great example of this is if for example you were telling a story about how you had to step onto stage and give

a presentation. Now, you could say

a presentation. Now, you could say something like, "And I was so nervous getting onto that stage." Which is fine and communicates the idea that yes, you were nervous getting on that stage, but

what if you introduced even more detail about your emotions and feelings and you talk about how I felt like I was going to pass out before I stepped on the

stage. Now, how much more descriptive is

stage. Now, how much more descriptive is that? And this reminds me tied to this

that? And this reminds me tied to this is you should talk about your physical feelings. If we're talking

physical feelings. If we're talking about you about to step on a stage and talk to say 500, 600, a thousand people, then you should be saying things like,

"Oh, my palms were so sweaty. My throat

was dry. I could feel the butterflies in my stomach." That is so much more

my stomach." That is so much more powerful of an image than just saying something like, "Dude, I was so nervous because I had to give that speech in

front of 500 people." And tied to all of that, the last thing is you want to be describing the thoughts in your head.

And this is where you should be really honest and almost raw because our thoughts are often unfiltered, right?

what we say to other people tends to be a little bit more filtered, but whatever we're thinking usually can't be faked and is a great way to show how you were

feeling in that moment. So, for example, let's say you were going skydiving and you're telling a story about how the

parachute wasn't opening at first and you thought you were going to die. And

so, you say, "And my parachute wasn't opening and I was trying to open it and I could see the ground rushing up towards me." And in that moment, I

towards me." And in that moment, I honestly thought to myself, well, this is it, Matt. This is the end. And so you see, introducing those kinds of thoughts into the story makes it that much more

real. But now let's talk about besides

real. But now let's talk about besides the details, how do we make sure that the delivery is as effective as it can be? What I want you to remember here is

be? What I want you to remember here is the five Ps. Pitch, pace, pause, posture, and power. And let's talk about

each of these. So pitch is quite self-explanatory.

When you tell a story, you don't want to talk in the same tone. You don't want to talk like this. This is really boring, right? You don't want to do something

right? You don't want to do something like that. So, always remember, be

like that. So, always remember, be tactical about your pitch. If something

intense is happening, then you might want to drive your pitch up. But if it's something that is calm or you're trying to talk about something that's not

intense, then you might want to lower your pitch and you might want to bring things down a little bit. Secondly, the pace at which you

bit. Secondly, the pace at which you speak. You want to vary this in addition

speak. You want to vary this in addition to your pitch. Now, again, you have to be careful about how you use this because you don't just want to vary your pitch randomly. you need to do so in a

pitch randomly. you need to do so in a way that is strategic and makes the storytelling more effective. And so if say for example we're approaching the

climax of the story, then maybe we need to be increasing the pace of our speech because maybe there's some really intense scene going on and maybe we're running away, we're getting chased, and

this is where you should really increase the speed of your pace versus slowing the pace down when things are more chill.

Thirdly, and one of my favorites, is using pauses.

A lot of people are really terrified of silence. But once you realize that

silence. But once you realize that silence is actually an incredibly powerful tool because when you take a pause, not only do you come across as more

thoughtful, but also you're inviting the audience to think a little bit and to fill that silence with their own thoughts and to think about what you've

just said, to really reflect and ponder the words you've just given them.

And so if you can use pauses strategically in your storytelling, that's also a really great way to capture their

attention. Next is your posture. Now,

attention. Next is your posture. Now,

one of the most important things that you can understand is that the audience feels your energy and they feel the overall vibe that you project. And your

posture is a really big part of that.

Because if you're on stage, for example, or you're presenting to some people and you're like this and you're talking really quietly and you're not really looking up and you just seem kind of

nervous and shy and you don't really seem like you're confident in what you're saying, then how can you expect people to believe you and how can you expect them to continue paying

attention? How conversely, if you open

attention? How conversely, if you open up your chest and you straighten your posture and you speak from the stomach and you have a

powerful voice in the way that you deliver the story, then they're also going to feel more at ease and they're also going to feel more confident in the

words that you are saying because again, people mirror the people that they're watching. Last but not least is power or

watching. Last but not least is power or in this case emphasis on different words. And so this is where again you

words. And so this is where again you want to emphasize certain words but maybe not others. You want to choose

your words carefully and deliberately to make the most meaning out of them. So,

if you can remember to use the five Ps, vary your pitch, vary your pace, remember to use pauses strategically, have good posture, and use power and

emphasis on specific words to make your stories the most effective. Then you tie that all in with the details and you have an incredibly captivating story.

The last thing I want to say is above all else, if you are thinking to yourself, okay, you've just given me a bunch of really helpful tips, Matt, but

how do I actually implement them into my daily life? Whether it be improving for

daily life? Whether it be improving for an interview or just general conversations at work in meetings with your manager or in my personal life where I want to be able to tell better

stories to my family and friends. Well,

the number one tactic that I'm always telling people is just record yourself because recording yourself is the number

one way to get feedback. you are your worst critic. And you will instantly

worst critic. And you will instantly notice when you watch and hear your own voice play back that, oh, maybe I can actually improve the way that my vocal

tonality sounds. Or, oh, maybe, you

tonality sounds. Or, oh, maybe, you know, I thought that I looked confident on camera, but actually I should probably fix my posture next time because I can actually see that I'm

slouching. or oh, I can actually improve

slouching. or oh, I can actually improve the number of details that I include in my story because I just practiced delivering my story and I realized it's not actually as interesting as I

thought. So, if you can just remember

thought. So, if you can just remember whenever you have some kind of big presentation or some kind of situation, maybe it's like a wedding where you need

to tell a story about the bride or the groom and you really want to nail it, always, always record yourself. And then

you can also practice with other people.

But 100% make sure that you're recording yourself so that you can get the best feedback possible. But anyways, if you

feedback possible. But anyways, if you follow all of these tips, then I guarantee the next time you have to tell a captivating story, you will be able to

do so with poise, with confidence, and most importantly, capture the audience's attention.