Tell Me a Story

You walk into a store, you tell yourself “I’m not going to buy anything”

You visit a website just because “you’re interested”

We know what happens next….

You buy something.

You’re not alone here. It happens to me to all the time.

I’ve been really interested in learning how you can convince someone who has zero trust in you to flip their position and fork over their hard earned money for a service you provided.

One way to do that: tell a good story.

When I was in Morocco, I walked into a co-op that hand made rugs. I told myself, and my driver, that I wasn’t going to buy anything. Just coming in to learn how the rugs were made. One hour and $500 later, I walked out of that co-op with 2 rugs I hauled around Morocco for 5 days and find a way to carry back to the United States.

How did this happen? They told me a good story.

All the rugs were made from local sheep and camel wool. Hand made by women who trained all their life to make rugs. Each of the colors in the rugs were made from natural dyes found within a 25 km radius of the co-op.

I caved.

That’s when I recognized the power of a story.

Matthew Dicks

Someone who is so good at this, that he gets paid by top companies around the world to teach them how to tell better stories is Matthew Dicks. I met Matthew at IP2 in Victoria, BC. Matthew started his career as an elementary school teacher for 25 years. He got recognized after winning multiple StorySLAMs (56), GrandSLAMs (9), and has been featured on Moth Radio Hour.

If you just read that bio and have no idea what any of that is. That’s ok, I didn’t either.

My point: this guy knows how to tell a story.

Matt kicked off IP2 with his talk. Most of it was a story about a “magic spoon.” Where, one autumn day, one of the kids in his class found a spoon in a pile of fall leaves. Matt jokingly convinced the kid this was a powerful magic spoon. The kid took the spoon home, had his dad drill a hole through the spoon and turn it into a necklace. From that day on, the student would put it around his classmates’ necks when they were nervous, having a hard day, or had an exam they needed to do well on.

The way Matt was able to tell a story about a kid and a spoon made that spoon last over 20 school years, and helped Matt get through on of the toughest school years of his life: 2021.

I got really into Matthew’s talk, frantically took down 5 pages of notes. For you, I am going to tell you everything I learned so you can walk away knowing how to tell a good story, and maybe sell something too.

Turn X in something other than X.

How do you turn lets say a spoon into something other than a spoon?

You tell a story about the spoon.

Know these 3 things and this will help you tell a better story:

• Almost all communication is flavorless and forgettable. Unless you chose to make it otherwise.

• Storytelling is storytelling is storytelling. Business, finance, marketing, its all the same thing.

• No one wants to listen to what you have to say. Unless you give them a reason to.

Here’s a couple ways to build a good story.

A good story consists of:

• suspense

• surprise

• stakes

OR build a story around

• An intention and obstacle

But & Therefore

The creators of south park came up with a simple way to tell if you constructed a good story: The But & Therefore Rule

If you have a set of story beats (or an outline in other words) and you can put the words “and then” in-between each one.

You’re fucked. That’s boring.

However, if in-between each story beat you can put the words “but” or “therefore” then you have a story in which the events taking place are reacting to each other. The story/plot builds momentum and tension based on everything else that has happened previously, not because of the arbitrary whims of the writer.

There are great stories all around you

I know what you’re thinking. “My life is boring, I don’t have anything special to share.” Good news, you’re fucking wrong. You become a great story by telling stories about every day things. By doing this, this becomes engrained in every day activities. Then when you tell a story about going to your local coffee shop every day, someone is now going to think of you every time they go to a coffee shop.

Find great stories in your life, and find a way to tell them.

How to do this?

Pay attention to your life. Follow this strategy:

• Acknowledge you need to tell as many personal stories as possible. Get your reps in. Share often. Do this on Linkedin, Twitter (X), or Instagram. Get good at it.

• A story is simply change over time. For example: I thought one thing about ___, something happened and now I have changed my mind.

• The beginning and ending have to be in opposition to each other

• Don’t start at the beginning, start at the end (aka don’t bury the lead). Work backwards with the destination in mind

• How do you want people to feel at the end? Work towards that

Frameworks to walk away with

You got the materials and equipment to make a good story. Now go tell some stories. I’ll leave you with is some frameworks that Matthew made sure we remembered.

The beginning of the story is THE most important. You have no more than 30 seconds to capture someone’s attention. Otherwise, you’re fucked.

You can capture someone’s attention with a story that starts with suspense, something funny, or a surprise

Start as close to the end as possible. The shorter version of a story, the better the story.

Probably the most important thing to remember is this:

Begin a story with a location & action.

• Location: this activates the imagination. Make sure to you leverage images that already exist in someone’s mind.

• Action: Something should be happening when you start your story

Hence how I started my last post

Matthew’s talk was a highlight of my trip. And I just distilled it into one email for you.

Fo free.

Let me know how it works for you.

Go tell someone a story.

You’re Awesome,

Jared

I Dig So You Don’t Have To

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