Welcome to the second article on How Not To Tell A Story… Check out the first part HERE or check out the Video Here
First, avoid talking in a monotone
While we may not realize we are doing it, you will be able to tell if your listeners eyes start to glaze over. I remember this guy that I watched several times tell his founder story. It could have been a very, very impactful story, but he told it with absolutely no emotion and in a monotone. He was telling a story of how he was diagnosed with stage four cancer and facing the real possibility of dying. It could have been very impactful, but the way he told it was like he had told the story a million times and therefore had no emotional impact.
I heard him tell the story four or five different times and it was always the same way. It really bothered me because it could have been so much better. He would just tell the story like, “Yeah. So I went to the doctor, and found out that I had cancer, stage four cancer is pretty awful. And what I learned from that was blah blah blah” Adding some vocal inflection and emotion would have made the impact so much greater.
If you’re telling a story, make sure that you are using your full vocal range, and you’re tapping into the emotion of your story. Because that’s what’s going to create a connection with your audience. When there’s emotion attached to the story it’s not going to be boring.
Purposeful Movement Makes an Impact
The second piece of advice that will make your story more impactful is making sure that you are purposeful with the movements you make.
Movements in terms of hand gestures, but also movements in terms of where your body is onstage. Whether that’s on camera or it’s in front of people, you still have body movement that needs to be purposeful and planned out. The worst thing that you can do, especially if you’re giving a presentation, is pacing back and forth.
I have a rule for my private clients when we go through this phase of my training: You can talk or you can walk… but you can’t do both!
Making sure that you have purposeful choreography or movement on stage will make a stronger impact. Imagine having to watch a speaker pace back and forth on a stage, it gets tiring and the audience loses the information.
Yet when you stand powerfully in the middle of the stage and deliver your talk, there is so much more impact. That is why TED stages have a small red circle for the speaker!
Silence Is Your Friend
Next you want to make sure that you use pauses effectively. Don’t be afraid of silence. Many people want to fill in the silence with something, with ums or ahhs or likes, or so.
Don’t be afraid of the pause. A lot of times a pause will allow the audience to take in what they just heard from you and process it. Then you can continue on with your story with the audience still with you. Oftentimes there is a delay between when you talk and when somebody processes that through in their brain.
You want to make sure that you use pauses effectively and purposefully as well. One thing I assist my private clients with writing out their stories… we work on where those pauses need to be to create the most impact.
This was part two of how not to tell a story, I hope those tips have helped you out.
Please, if you have a comment, write that below.
Download my free report on how to create your story at www.TomJackobs.com/storybook and start creating your story that sells.
