THE MOMENTS THAT MATTER

Google anything to do with storytelling and public speaking and the information appears to be limitless. Actually, as of Sunday October 21 2018:

Google Storytelling and marketing – the Google Monsters will find 26,700,000 results in less than a second.

Switch it up to How important is storytelling in public speaking and the Google bots will find you more than 292,000,000 bits of information in less than a second.

Ramp it up to How can I get better at public speaking, and the Google machine retrieves more than 554,000,000 possible resources for you to explore and improve your skills.

And yet with endless resources, we still get stuck in how we do things; we know the magic is in the stories and get carried away with them, with our view of the world. We will still take to the stage and take those in the room on a meandering path to nowhere – no matter how beautiful the pathway is.

Forgetting that it is not everything in the stories we hold that matters; it is not necessarily in the data and the logic; nor is it the monologue, the timeline, the chronological unfolding of story and explanations.

It is in the moments.

The ability to take our audience in to moments they can hold onto. That logically tie together. Which shift our audience in a way which speaks directly to the core message of what we are there to convey.

It is in the moments that matter.

• The mic-drop moments
• The opening moments
• The moments that take our breath away
• That make an impact
• That create the pivot
• That create the breakthroughs
• That recreate an image of what we are speaking to in the minds of our audience

It is when we shift from storytelling to story shaping; when we understand how to shape the parts of the story that matter, to gently yet relentlessly shift our audience to where we need them to be. To eliminate overwhelm through only sharing the parts of the story that make sense, that speak to what it is we know to be true. To give the audience permission to step in beside us and see the world through a different lens – even if only for a moment in time.

Ignite the characters, the senses, the sense of time and place. Then strip your stories back to make them powerful. Shape them to provide clear moments the audience can follow.

And then watch your audience grasp your message. Follow you. Fall in love with you.

All because you invested in unlocking just the moments that matter.

If you want to find out more about story shaping, join us in next week’s live training by registering here!