21. Always Learning About Storytelling
Last week I had the opportunity to attend a webinar called, “How to Use Stories to Create Unforgettable speeches, Presentations and Sermons” taught by Wole Ososami and Andrew Osayemi. www.woleososami.com
Wole and Andrew covered topics such as How to structure stories for greater impact, how to turn personal stories into audience impacting stories and how to make audiences never forget your stories. It intrigued me to have a chance to hear how others, CEO’s of their own companies, world class speaking coach ( Wole) dealt with the subject that is very important to me and one I am writing about for these 31 days in October. Many things I already knew and practice but it I still learned a few things as take away messages for myself.
His top tips were:
1. Keep a story file – I will address this more in an upcoming blog post
2. Short is sweet – can you take a long story and shorten it without taking away the message in it? This is a challenge
3. Keep it simple
4. Use word pictures – when you paint pictures with your words you draw the audience into the setting. They can place themselves where your characters are. This takes careful crafting in order to also keep is short and sweet.
5. Humor comes through the dialogue of your characters – give them distinct voices and don’t have too many characters as this is confusing.
6. Avoid being the hero – always better to tell stories where someone else comes in as the hero – helping you out. This enables the audience to see themselves finding a solution in the same way you did and not dismiss the possibility of being able to accomplish all you succeeded in doing.
“So keep your stories simple, add unexpected twists, flesh out your characters and scenes to make them concrete, exaggerate but make it believable and credible, appeal to emotions and make your message an inspiring one.” Wole Ososami
At the end of the webinar Wole asked us, “What’s the next step?” followed by a challenge. I plan to accept the challenge. There are a few steps to consider in completing this challenge. The first one is to pick a theme – what I am passionate in talking about. Some possible themes to consider are Hope, Relationships, Inspiration, Dealing with Adversity, Motivation, Finance. Since there are several in this list I do speak about I will have to narrow it down to one.
Step 2 of the challenge is to think about the message and main point I want to emphasize in the theme I choose. 
Step 3 – write a 200 word story to deliver to bring your point across. In those 200 words ( well crafted and edited) make sure to include good characters, conflict, cure, change and message. Wow only 200 words to deliver a story that packs a punch. It means editing, not going down rabbit trails and most importantly reflecting the point I want to make. It will not be easy but I believe it will be worthwhile.
Are you ready for a challenge to tell a powerful story using only a few words? Maybe you already do this on a regular basis. If not, it is never too late to start. It will help tighten up writing, storytelling and presentations. Have some fun.
Posted: October 21st, 2016 under Storytelling.