That’s My Story, And I’m Sticking To It!

By Molly Lopez, CAE, President/Owner

I attended a MAGICAL session at the AMC Institute on “Building a Business Through Storytelling,” by Disney Institute Facilitator Sharon Pleggenkuhle.

I would highly recommend looking into this speaker for a convention or event. You can visit www.disneyinstitute.com/PublicPrograms for more information.

Below are a few take-aways from that session that will help EVERYONE in business today to tell their story:

1. Storytell your culture (history, traditions, organizational identity).

2. Storytell your business practices (year in review, continuous improvement, quality service).

3. Stories should have a clear beginning, middle and end.

4. Stories should move listeners through: set up, action, outcome and lesson/point of story.

5. Dynamic tension (energy) makes storytelling engaging. Develop this through conflict, suspense, expectancy, competition, and marketplace.

6. Use of characters projects values, builds trust, incites passion and belief, shows knowledge, creates fairness.

7. Tone impacts and influences. Tones are sincere, candid/transparent, pleasant, not condescending.

8. Mood sets the desired outcome of the story. Inspirational (hope), motivational (act), and transformational (change).

9. Techniques:
- Make sure pace of speech is comfortable and facial expressions are inviting.
- Make eye contact with listeners.
- Listeners have no frame of reference, make them comfortable with important details of the story.

10. Dos & Don’ts:
- Ordinary down-to-earth language speaks to people.
- Choose length wisely.
- Be careful not to claim someone else’s story as your own.
- Do use inclusive language.
- D0 practice.
- Don’t begin a story with “I want to tell you a story.”
- Don’t say “this is a really funny story.”
- Don’t muddle a story with statistics.
- D0 focus on actions.