Using stories to create curiosity

This vlog is about using stories in your presentation, rather than using bullet pointed information.

Using stories throughout your presentation

Here’s the summary if you don’t have the opportunity to watch the video.

Engage and encourage your audience using stories

I’ve been thinking about the theme of curiosity recently and how we can generate that both in ourselves, and our approach to delivering a presentation.

But also generating curiosity in how we deliver and what we deliver, so that we have an audience that is engaged and fully participating in what we’ve got to say.

A key way of doing that, is by telling stories. And there are a host of other reasons why stories are just fantastic in speaking, and we should really be doing it a lot in what we do.

One of those is because we are hardwired for stories and we’re hardwired to be interested in, and intrigued by stories.

Building a sense of curiosity

So we ask things like:

• How is this going to work out?
• What is the story narrative?
• What where’s this going to end up?
• What on earth happened to them?

And think ‘Oh, my word!’ And so on.

So stories are brilliant, at really quickly building up a sense of curiosity.

Bad example

To give you a very simple example, I could stand up and I could give you five facts about myself and my business. And my experience. But, if I gave those to you in a list or on a bullet pointed list on a slide, it’d be okay. But hardly engaging, eminently forgettable, and probably a bit boring.

Good example

Whereas, if I tell you a story, about how I got to where I am now, not only can I give you loads of stuff about my values, my experiences, my approach to life. But by crafting that story with things that have happened to me, things I have made, things I decided, things that I’ve reflected on, suddenly, you get more drawn into that story. And you become more curious about where it’s gone, where it’s going, and what is happening.

Craft a story

So the next time you’re putting a presentation together, when you find yourself thinking, ‘this is a load of facts’, or ‘this is a list of information’, can you turn that round and create a craft a short story? Or a short example? One that might illustrate what you’re saying in a way where the audience is sitting on the edge of their seats wondering what’s happened, and what’s going to happen.

Give it a go and let me know how you get on.

Find out more about creating curiosity as you prepare your presentation in this vlog.

And of course, if you’ve got any questions about stories, then please get in touch.