Hi, Matt here. What can a one -panel cartoonist, a magician, and a lawyer teach us about storytelling?
The answer? Quite a lot.
With our five -year anniversary coming up in January, we have begun experimenting with new ways to bring you practical and tactical communication and career advice and guidance.
This week we're debuting a two -part miniseries on storytelling from non -traditional storytellers.
Not only does this miniseries provide super useful information, but we try out a new format too.
As an added bonus, our ThinkFast TalkSmart Premium supporters get access to full interviews from some of our miniseries' guests.
Stay tuned for more exciting content in the coming weeks and months.
Writing a story without thinking about your audience first is like writing a love letter and addressing it to whom it may concern.
Ken Hamer, who originated that quote, is right on.
If we don't know our audiences, we can't connect our story to them.
We can't make it engaging.
A story will fall flat if it doesn't have a targeted audience.
My name is Matt Abrahams, and I teach strategic communication at Stanford Graduate School of Business.
Welcome to ThinkFast TalkSmart, the podcast.
I am so excited to be back for our second episode in our unconventional non -traditional storyteller series.
In our first episode, we talked about how we need to structure and frame our content to really make it clear and concise for our audience.
We talked to a trial lawyer and a cartoonist.
Today we're going to look at how to make our stories engaging and compelling.
Before we get started, I'd like to invite you to join our growing community from around the globe by subscribing to ThinkFast TalkSmart Premium.
As a subscriber, you'll get early access to events, exclusive content, and opportunities to participate in AMA sessions, Ask Matt Anything.
Visit fastersmarter .io slash premium to sign up today.
Our first conversation in today's episode is with Alex Moffitt.
He's a magician from the UK who's currently living in Sydney, and he's been performing magic since he was seven years old.
Let's listen in to hear what tricks he pulls out of his hat to help us all be better storytellers.
Interesting. How did you do that?
It's not necessarily entertaining.
There isn't a story to it.
Alternatively, the nonlinear route, which involves the misdirection, attention focus, et cetera, and emotion is where I might go, hey, Matt, what's your favorite card?
And you name it. Hey, would you take that out and draw a picture on it?
Sign your name on it.
It's yours now. There's one in the world that exists like this, and then five or six different effects happen.
But then, rather than just go tada, it then multiplies into three of them, which is impossible because you only created one.
Then they all instantly disappear.
And then I throw and spring the cards at the window in the restaurant or hotel, wherever they are, person's house, the cards cascade to the floor, and one card was left stuck to the window with the back facing everyone.
I ask the person to go up and get it.
They go up and get it, but they can't take it off the window because they realize it's on the other side of the glass outside the building.
They have to run out, go and get it.
As they peel it off the window, they wave at all their friends, and then they come running back in to a round of applause.
Of course, that's their signed card.
And that has meaning.
It's a journey. The card went on a journey, but there's connection to it with the person, their favorite.
They created a piece of art on it, theirs.
And then magical things happen, and of course, an impossible ending that's memorable.
It just goes straight to the point where there's no story, or you can go off on these tangents and journeys and make it meaningful connected to them.
One that I've recently performed for the very first time in recent keynotes is the rubber hand illusion.
So it's an example on neuroplasticity and how easy it is to rewire the brain very quickly.
So I get a volunteer on stage, I've got this rubber hand, and I have this little box that they put their real hand under, the rubber hand on top, and I simultaneously, with a paintbrush, just stroke their real hand underneath the box that they can't see, and the same finger of the rubber hand that they
can see. And almost instantly, the brain starts to cause that rubber hand to be associated as their own.
My problem was that there was only one person on stage experiencing it and feeling it.
So how can I get the audience to not sit at their board going, oh, they're enjoying this and we're just sat watching, they've got to be able to feel it too.
So I've moved into things where I asked them if they feel that they could raise their finger, would it raise on a rubber hand?
And they go, it does feel like I could move this hand.
And then I asked them to just move their left index finger and then the rubber hand index finger moves up by itself as they are doing it.
And so that freaks them out, but freaks the audience out of course, because it's this loose rubber hand that I've shown.
Alex is a true master of engagement.
To me, engagement is all about sustaining people's attention.
Attention is the most precious commodity we have in the world today.
And if you can keep that attention, you have somebody engaged.
And as a magician, it's all about managing attention.
And you can hear the level of detail and thought that Alex puts into it.
And he leverages story to help his audience focus their attention and be engaged.
There are many ways to engage an audience.
You can engage an audience through description, vivid description.
You can engage an audience by playing with their curiosity and surprise.
And certainly Alex does both.
You can also leverage physicality.
If you see a magician on stage, there's movement.
He's moving around.
He's asking you to watch things so that physicality gets you engaged.
There's the language you use.
Is it inclusive? Using the word you, us, or we?
Getting people to envision things in their mind as Alex often does through asking questions.
These are powerful tools to help your audience get engaged.
Now we don't have to be a performer on a stage.
We can leverage these tools in a meeting.
We can leverage the storytelling best practices in our everyday conversation.
Bringing your audience into that moment, helping them see it, feel it, that's what gets engagement.
It's also critical when engaging our audience to make sure that we are efficient with people's time and we have to be clear and concise.
And that's where our conversation with Kudzi Chukumbo, who's the head of creator marketing at TikTok and an influencer who goes by the name Sir Candleman, where he focuses on fragrance and beauty.
In a world of short -form video, which you know where TikTok started, you can actually upload longer videos on TikTok as well over a minute and more.
But I still find what keeps people engaged in the story, whether it's 15 seconds, 30 seconds, one minute, five minute, 10 minute plus is the same thing.
You need to make every second count, which used to be the old TikTok lingo and motto.
Now it's inspire creativity and bring joy.
But in 15 seconds, that same hero's journey applies to 10 minutes, meaning in 15 seconds, what people want to know is what is this video about?
What is the problem?
Why are you the person to tell me?
And how can you help me find the perfect fragrance for when you are out on the town and trying to find a boyfriend?
And I'm Sir Candleman, your fragrance curator.
They know I'm the expert.
I'm going to tell them this thing.
These are three fragrances by this one because XYZ, I can do that in 30 seconds, but I can also give you a deep dive of fragrance for an hour.
Same applies to marketers.
You can do the 15 second, 30 second, cut 60 second ad spot, which should effectively help people understand like what your product or service is and why they should engage with it.
Or you can do the big brand story documentary creative exercise, which should still do the same thing.
So in all of those things back to make every second count, no part of that video, whether 15 seconds or 15 minutes should be wasted time.
I'm wondering if you can just summarize for us, what are the key ingredients from your perspective of a good story?
I would say a good story has a strong hook or reason to be listened to or heard.
I think it has a strong entry point for the listener, the viewer, the reader to find themselves in the story.
It has enough conflict or challenge that they're trying to solve, so a problem for this person.
And then it has a clear arc and revolution where you help them achieve the thing you promised in the beginning or refer them on to someone else.
So especially in short form video land, to make this example concrete, or social media, wherever people are posting, when people come across your posted video, why must I stop?
What is there that's making me stop?
Two, who are you and how do I relate to you, meaning then I want to watch and learn more?
And three, how are you helping me solve whatever it is that I came to you for or entertain me, inspire me, inform me?
And then three, do I actually get to that resolution?
So those are the key parts.
You can do them fast, you can do them slow.
And I would say for people looking for a bonus tip, especially in a world where there's so much content online and you want to shine through, you need to have personality.
And people would be like, what does that mean?
It means you just need to be your authentic self.
By that, I mean truly be passionate and truly speak in the way you speak, in the way that other people don't speak.
It's okay to show yourself in a way that other people don't see because that's how you cut through so much of the same content.
Otherwise, you're just another video in a deluge of videos.
The other thing that Kudzi does, and I have a little insight as a former student of mine, he is amazingly authentic.
He is who he is regardless of if he's in his role as the head of creator marketing at TikTok or if he's in the role of Sir Candleman.
He is who...
