One powerful tip to unlock the magic of storytelling

‘A dog ate my lunch,’ my client Jen once tweeted, to no great response.

She deleted it, retweeting ‘A Dalmatian ate my burrito,’ and Twitter exploded!

Why? What separated those tweets transforming ‘ho-hum’ into ‘ta-dah’?

The magic happened when she got specific. A Dalmatian (not just any dog) and a burrito (not just a generic lunch).

Being specific is the key to good business storytelling. Why?

Because being specific does the two most powerful things in storytelling: it creates emotion (makes your audience feel something) and it paints a picture (sensory data).

This sounds easy but trips up many businesspeople.

For example what would you substitute for shop, food and once? My suggestions: Bunnings, toasted cheese sandwich, and three years ago. When you go specific, it is easier to imagine, in fact your brain can’t help but pop up an image for toasted cheese sandwich. The word ‘Bunnings’ for Australian audiences conjures up the vivid green and red and the smell of sausages!

Being specific means sharing something people can visualise in their mind’s eye.

You may worry that if you go too specific the story won’t resonate. Nothing is further from the truth. Whether it is a Hollywood script or your next business story, the universal must be packaged in the specific to be successful.

What happens to one specific person in a specific moment, in a specific place is where we unlock the magic of storytelling.

What is one specific thing you are going to do in the next 60 minutes? Hint: Work, exercise, eat …all not specific enough!