I am binge watching/listening/reading this certain marketing guru. After a few listens I caught this interesting little tactic he uses. I am sure at first it was intentional but after his years of delivering his content in various ways it sounds almost unconscious. And it is so simple.
So, “let me give you an example.”
Did you catch it? He would make a point about his work – a suggestion or a principle or an observation and he would immediately follow it with the words: “Let me give you an example” or some variation. Then he would give an example.
So simple.
By the way, substitute the word “story” for the word “example” in the previous statement and you can see how cool this little technique is.
His phrase “let me give you an example” was a tiny segue into a story that would demonstrate and humanize his point.
When you think of quick stories in this way you can remove a lot of the angst that comes with creating that perfect story – just give an example.
You don’t need a hero or an antagonist or a story arch or a journey or a moral. Just tell us a quick story of someone or some situation you know that demonstrates the principle. We all know those right?
Here is another example. (too obvious?)
At a recent NSA Georgia meeting (that’s the Georgia chapter of the National Speakers Association) I heard a superstar A-list speaker use a similar technique in her presentation.
She was walking her audience through a step-by-step worksheet. Each component had a specific set of instructions for the audience to fill in as they went along.
As she listed each instruction, she would pause and immediately say “Let me give you an example”. She would then tell us how the fictitious person she was using to demonstrate her idea would fill out this form.
It turned a vague idea of how we should complete the task into a specific (and human) illustration we could easily follow.
Now, I could give you all the same blah, blah, blah you hear from me and everyone else about the power of stories.
You know all that stuff.
But if you are like most presenters, you struggle trying to find and polish those little nuggets. You can build fuller stories later when you become more adapt, but for now, this is a terrific starting strategy for including simple stories in your presentations.
Need fresh stories for your latest offering? I have shelves full of crisp, tasty stories over at Ready2Speak Street. https://ready2speak.com/coaching
Tom
P.S. Did you also notice that when you read the phrase “Let me give you an example” in my rant above you maybe leaned in a bit and started anticipating the story to come? Another great benefit of not only this technique but of using stories in general.
