Use stories in your speeches in order to make them more interesting for the audience. By the way, there is nothing that can be called revolutionary new in these recommendations; many good orators use these tricks while holding their speeches on various events.
-
1. Make Them Curious, Use Pattern Breaks
“What if I told you that you can work 4 hours per week remaining productive and doing everything in time?”
This trick existed long before Timothy Farris, and it still remains popular. Of course, the fact they use this method for various spam messages lowered its effectiveness slightly. But it is still being used by numerous famous speakers to create an intrigue at the beginning of their speech or to connect its components. This technique is about a little provocation, using tricky questions to “shock” the audience, to kick them off the way and to make them curious.
-
2. Activate Their Feelings
Psychologists use VAK: visual, audio, and kinesthetic methods to make a person dive into the wanted experience or state. If to make a person imagine the picture required for a certain background, they are going to live through the events as if they really happened.
Use different channels and create an atmosphere for your story in details: describe adrenalin that flows into the body while you fly on a hand-glider above the abyss, or that sad feeling of loss when someone close dies. Do everything you can in order to make your audience be not just listeners, but participants.
-
3. Remember About the Conflict and Its Solution
No matter what the goal of your presentation is, never forger about two traditional elements of every story: a conflict, and a solution. There always is a problem that has to be solved, and a certain solution that you need to show people. Tell about them as a consumer; speak about a story of your idea or a product as a satisfied client.
-
4. Appeal to Higher Goals and Values
Stories are very good to show how humans become better themselves after passing through certain circumstances. Yes, the care about the environment is one of the factors that allow selling “Tesla” by more expensive prices. Humanity values, important social goals, etc. are what you can use in your speech in addition to mentioning direct profits.
-
5. Shock Them
Why do people like stories, such as “Game of Thrones”, “Fight Club” or even “Romeo and Juliet”? Because they turn everything upside down in the end, the expected ending can’t be logically got from a plot. This trick you can use in storytelling. Change the direction of your story or make unexpected conclusions.
-
6. Use Personal Experience to Create Metaphors
Religions use parables to tell about something important shortly and to make it understandable. Any event that once happened to you can serve the same goal. But remember, metaphors should not be cliches, but they are to be in your story.
-
7. Hide
Never open all of your cards at once. Could the mentioned “Game of Thrones” ever be as interesting to the audience as it is, if they could think out the events that are going to happen next in advance?
When you create a story, always leave some elements hidden or untold. Lead your story towards them and give out your strongest arguments not at once. Look at “Apple” presentations: they never start from what everyone expects the most. The “tastiest” things are hidden till later, they don’t even mention about it until the time comes.