
Most people suck at storytelling. Hereās an easy trick for telling better stories:
When Iām telling a story, sometimes I get nervous. I canāt tell what my audience is thinking. Are they silently enthralledāor asleep? š Ideally, you want the confidence to know: āļø Does my audience care? āļø How do I know what to say? āļø Am I giving too much detail?
Hereās a simple trick: Aim to make your audienceās *eyes light up*. I call it ELU for short. The ELU moment happens when your audience is viscerally excited about your story.
When your audienceās eyes light up: ⢠Their energy level shifts ⢠They perk up and look alive ⢠They are actively here with you These are the clues youāre on the right track.
The key: Stack as many Eyes Light Up moments as possible. The best stories are one ELU moment after another. Thatās why they feel fast-paced, with rhythm and momentum.
Have you noticed youāre best at telling stories youāve told 100 times? Itās because you know exactly what all the ELU moments are! You know when people will gasp, frown, or hold their breath. Translation: You know the eyes light up moments. And youāre stacking them hard.
ELU will tell you everything you need to know about how your audience feels. People are not great at acting. They canāt hide their emotions. They might say āThatās interestingā¦ā But their face shows theyāre almost asleep. Theyāre trying to be polite.
If your audience looks dead, change what youāre talking about. Boring parts? Trim it. Backstory no one cares about? Trim it. Going down a rabbit hole and your audience looks confused? Trim it. Get back on track. Get back to making their eyes light up.
We all know what makes a good story: ⢠Conflict ⢠Narrative arc ⢠Stakes that make the audience care ⢠Show, not tell ⢠Etc etc etc Itās hard. But one thing is for sure: You donāt tell a great story simply because you memorized a bunch of tactics about storytelling.
When youāre too focused on tactics, you miss out on the most important thing: Getting data about what is resonating with your audience. When I say ādata,ā I donāt mean numbers. I mean qualitative data⦠Like how their face looks. People lie, but faces donāt.
āThe problem with market research is that people don't think how they feel, they don't say what they think and they don't do what they say." Ogilvy said it best. You canāt trust what people say. So donāt just listen to what they say. Watch for how they behave.
How to apply this in your daily work: Practice different versions of your story. Meet 15 people at a party? Test 15 different ways to tell your story. Notice when their eyes light up (& when their eyes glaze over). Refine accordingly.
For personal stories: Youāll see which parts get your audience on the edge of their seats. For product and company stories: Youāll understand what your customer is most excited to hear about.
Cut out all the boring parts your customer or audience doesnāt care about. Yep, kill those darlings. You want to save room for the good parts.
Most people assume backstory is necessary for high-impact communication.
— Wes Kao š (@wes_kao) December 4, 2021
This is wrong and wastes everyoneās time.
A framework for higher ROI communication:
The Eyes Light Up framework will help you answer: āļø What parts do prospective customers actually care about? āļø What should you spend more time talking about? āļø What keywords get them to perk up?
You should definitely still learn storytelling strategies and tactics. There are plenty and thereās no limit to how good of a storyteller you can be. But when youāre in the moment telling your story? Stay present. Watch for what gets your audienceās eyes to light up.
Thatās it for today. If you found this thread valuable: 1. Follow me for more threads on entrepreneurship, education, and marketing ā @wes_kao 2. Maven is hiring. Come join a fast-paced, high-performing team that's building the future of education
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