Stories are an important element to master and include in every speech. Stories act as invisible selling and they suspend time. You’ll be the talk of the event when you deliver great stories. Stories open the hearts of your listeners which is a direct line to their wallet. When you open their hearts, they open their wallets.
There are four stories you must have in every speech that is 30 minutes or more. The four stories are:
- professional stories
- success stories
- stories with a lesson
- emotional stories
When To Tell Stories On Stage
For short presentations, the most important stories to include are your professional story and a success story.
Professional Stories
Some people call professional stories, personal stories. However, this story is not about your personal life. There can be some personal elements that can come in, but it is not your life story. Professional stories on the other hand, are about what business you are in and how you got there. They earn you the right to speak about what you are speaking about and that creates credibility. Also, they show your listeners that you are an expert in your field.
When those personal elements come into your professional story it’s very important that you have healed emotionally off stage before you bring it on stage. When you reveal your professional story, you want to come out with confidence and stand in your own power. You don’t want to cry. That makes the audience feel uncomfortable. If you do start to cry, you want to hold back the tears which makes you brave and makes the audience cry and emotionally connect to you.
Success Stories
The next story you need in your speech is the success story. Nothing sells like success. It’s important to have a success story about someone who worked with you and the results they got after working with you. This is also called a testimonial.
Stories with a Lesson
A story with a lesson is the story where you don’t tell the lesson. Instead, you let the audience get their own lesson from the story. You’ll hear about my camel story in my post which is a perfect example of a story with a lesson.
Emotional Stories
Emotional stories don’t have to be cry baby stories and they don’t have to make your audience cry. In fact, funny stories get audiences laughing. Humor is a powerful emotion for buying. If your audience laughs, they feel comfortable with you and they are more apt to buy from you. Some of us are naturally funny but all of us have funny things that happen in our lives that you can bring to the stage. If you can’t think of anything funny, use a joke (like a story about someone else). Remember, funny equals money.
Why Create and Use Stories on Stage
When you use these stories effectively in your talks, you generate more leads, attract more clients, and sell more.
To learn how to create stories and deliver them powerfully, watch the video below and read the next four blog posts. I will dive deeply into how to masterfully craft your stories.