Storytelling
What's the five-second moment that changed everything?
People don't remember data. They remember stories. A good metaphor implies an intuitive perception of the similarity in the dissimilar. AI generates stories at scale. Humans live them. The storyteller's edge is lived experience — the felt truth that makes a story land.
| Without Storytelling | With Storytelling |
|---|---|
| Present facts | Transfer feeling |
| Inform the mind | Move the heart |
| Explain what happened | Make them live it |
| "Here are the numbers" | "Here's what it means" |
Story Structure
Every story is a transformation:
| Element | What It Does | Example |
|---|---|---|
| Status quo | Where they are now — the ordinary world | "We were losing 40% of customers at onboarding" |
| Disruption | The event that changes everything | "Then we watched 50 users try to sign up" |
| Struggle | The tension, the obstacle, the stakes | "Every single one got stuck at the same step" |
| Transformation | The insight, the change, the resolution | "One field. We removed one field." |
| New reality | What's different now — the return | "Retention doubled in two weeks" |
The hero's journey in miniature: Cave (status quo) → Light (disruption + insight) → Return (transformation).
The Five-Second Moment
Every great story hangs on one moment — the instant that altered the trajectory:
| Rule | Why |
|---|---|
| Find the moment, not the topic | "My startup failed" is a topic. "Standing in front of my team, unable to speak" is a moment. |
| Specificity creates universality | The more specific the detail, the more people connect to it |
| Start just before the moment | Build tension by placing the audience right before the change |
| The moment IS the story | Everything else is setup and resolution |
Practice: for any story you want to tell, identify the single five-second moment. Start there.
Emotional Arc
Flat stories don't land. Map the emotional trajectory:
| Phase | Emotion | Technique |
|---|---|---|
| Opening | Curiosity | Promise, question, or surprising statement |
| Rising | Tension | Stakes get higher, obstacles appear |
| Climax | Peak emotion | The five-second moment — surprise, revelation, or turn |
| Resolution | Satisfaction or provocation | New understanding, call to action, open question |
Vary the pace. Speed up in action. Slow down in emotion. The pause before the key line is what gives it weight.
Story Toolkit
| Tool | What It Does | When to Use |
|---|---|---|
| Metaphor | Makes the abstract concrete | Complex ideas that need grounding |
| Contrast | Sharpens difference through juxtaposition | Before/after, old way/new way |
| Specificity | Creates vivid mental images | "Red Toyota Corolla" beats "car" |
| Dialogue | Makes characters real | When you want the audience in the room |
| Rule of three | Creates rhythm and completeness | Lists, arguments, examples |
| Callback | Connects end to beginning | Creates satisfaction, closure |
The Audience Rule
Make your audience the hero — not yourself:
| Self-centred | Audience-centred |
|---|---|
| "I built this amazing product" | "Here's what changes for you" |
| "Let me tell you about my journey" | "You've probably felt this too" |
| "We're the best at X" | "Imagine if X was no longer a problem" |
People have a primal need to play a part in a great story. Help them find the role they were born to play.
The Shadow
Manipulation. Fiction disguised as truth. Performing instead of connecting. Stories that serve the teller, not the listener. Style without substance is entertainment, not storytelling.
By Archetype
| Archetype | Storytelling Style |
|---|---|
| Dreamer | Imagines the narrative — vision from nothing |
| Coach | Makes others the hero of their own story |
| Realist | Stories grounded in evidence — "this actually happened" |
Context
- Persuasion — Storytelling as influence
- Writing — The craft beneath the story
- Presenting — Delivering the story live
- Cultural Memes — Stories that scale into identity