4 ways to tell a great story

Your first job as a speaker is to build a trusting human bond with your audience. One excellent way to connect to an audience is to tell a story. Stories helped make us who we are. Really — evidence left behind from our ancient ancestors suggests that the human mind developed alongside human storytelling. Fire created a new magnet for bonding.

Its warmth and flickering light drew people together after dark. This seems to have happened in every ancient culture over the last 300,000 years. And what did our ancestors do with this time together? In many cultures, one type of communal activity became very important: storytelling. Stories brought people from faraway places to the fireside.

Stories about people who were alive and people who were dead, nearby and in distant lands. Stories sparked laughter, tension, and amazement. Stories also played an important role in helping expand people’s ability to imagine and to dream, and to understand the minds of others. Storytellers became important people within a community, and their listeners took information from the stories

that changed how they behaved in the world. It's not just that we all love hearing stories. Stories probably helped shape how our minds share and receive information. So it's no surprise that many of the best talks are built around a story. The most basic way of breaking down a story is this: a character with a goal meets an unexpected obstacle.

She tries to overcome that obstacle, which builds to a peak in the action. Finally, there’s some kind of resolution to the conflict. When it comes to sharing a story from the stage, remember four key things: 1. Base the story around a character your audience can empathize with. 2. Build tension, either through curiosity, relationship with other characters, or actual danger.