Perfect Pitch: Tell Me A Story....

Imagine a retirement dinner in which two different guests are toasting the guest of honor. The first toast is given by the chief financial officer of the company. He says, “I always admired the acumen with which Joe managed his 401(k). He optimized his tax advantages to the greatest possible degree, and his account steadily increased in value every fiscal year.” 

There's polite applause, and the financial officer sits down.

Then another colleague of the retiree begins a toast. As soon becomes clear, this is someone who has known the guest of honor for many years. In his toast he describes the game in which his best buddy scored the only two points of his rather undistinguished basketball career. 

He says, "With seconds left in the game, he had the ball and an open path to the basket. But just then something really strange happened. He started to fall down, which was odd because there was nobody anywhere near him. It was as if he tripped over his own shoelace or something. In any case, he had to get rid of the ball before he hit the hardwood floor, so he just chucked it – and that was how he got his nickname -- which, as all of you know, is SWISH.”

Both these men discussed the same topic: their friend. But they approached the topic in completely different ways. The first toast deals with a topic that’s very difficult to visualize or dramatize. 

The second toast paints a picture of a specific incident, endows it with humor and drama, and then connects it to the present as the origin of the nickname. We learn something about the man who’s retiring, but we also hear a story that’s vivid in its own right. In other words, more than one thing is going on. 

In any high impact oral presentation – whether it’s a toast at a small retirement dinner, an address to a large meeting of corporate shareholders, or simply interacting with an important client -- there are certain elements that absolutely need to be present. 

First, you need to clearly communicate the information or message of your talk. You need to get your facts and figures across. You need to have a theme or a thesis, and it has to be presented clearly and convincingly. If you're speaking in public, this is why you are standing up there in the first place – yet in terms of the impact you will make, it's probably the least important part of your speech. Or, to put it another way, nobody will remember this aspect of your talk unless the other elements are at a home run level. Your information is very important, but information without impact disappears very quickly from people’s minds. 

People, not surprisingly, want to hear stories or anecdotes about people. That can mean stories about yourself, or about someone else. Listeners wants to hear stories, and even need to hear stories. So if all you’re doing is giving them information, you’re not fulfilling one of your basic tasks.

What kinds of stories should you tell? The answer to that depends on your levels of confidence and ability. Ideally, however, every presentation a complete emotional and intellectual experience. That means the audience both thinks and feels – and with regard to feeling, the audience both laughs and cries. 

Think about some of the best speakers you’ve ever heard. How did you feel at the end of their talks? I suspect you felt as if you’d traversed a full range of your emotions, all the way from laughter to tears. This is what a really good presenter is able to do, and effective use of stories is a key tool for creating a full range of experiences for the listener.