The 7th rule of Story Club is…

Lara, my fiancée’s best friend, grabs the mobile and points the camera at me.

I smile.

Then she turns on the music.

I feel a bit awkward, but I start dancing.

She looks at me, raises her eyebrows and I get the message.

I start taking off my clothes.

The shirt goes first.

Then the shoes.

The socks are a bit of a challenge, but I get them off without ruining the mood.

I drop my trousers, and I can see she’s really enjoying this.

I take a deep breath, get ready to take off my underwear…

And that’s when my flatmate comes home, sees what’s happening, and gets completely the wrong idea:

I’m a cheating pervert and Lara is the worst friend ever…

Soon after that, my flatmate moved out, and I don’t think she ever believed that I was just being a sport and making a striptease video for my fiancée’s hen night, and Lara was only helping me with the camera.

 Oh well. She never liked me anyway 😅

A story is not what happened 

I could’ve told you about 

• How one of my fiancée’s friends had to edit that video (that she asked me for!) and felt so embarrassed that she still blushes when I mention it

• How the hen night involved two actual strippers who had to be buzzed in by the doorman (“the Native American and the Fireman are here, Patricia, can they come up?”)

• The phallic-shaped “cup” filled with booze going around the party

• How Patrícia’s mom, grandma and mother-in-law (yes, my mom) were there too 

All of that happened, and it could be part of the same story - but it doesn’t have to be. In some cases, it shouldn’t be, if it breaks the 7th rule of Story Club: 

Stories will go on for as long as they have to (but not a second longer) 

Two minutes in heaven might be better than one minute in heaven - unless you only have one minute. In this case, I didn’t need all of the extra material - so I cut it. I didn’t have the time for it anyway. 

Keep only what your story needs to make its point, and nothing else. Give your audience enough to get the right idea but stop before it becomes too much. 

Have fun, but get the job done - it’s business time 🤘

-Francisco 

PS. The song from the story is called Business Time, from the Flight of the Conchords. You can (and should!) watch it played live here.

Whenever you're ready, there are 3 ways I can help you:

1. Getting clarity through your story to stand out from all the other coaches, speakers and entrepreneurs out there 

2. If you dream of speaking on the Red Dot, take this Scorecard and instantly discover how likely your idea is to be accepted by a TED-style organizing committee

3. If you (or your team) got any storytelling challenges, I’m sure there’s something we can do together ;-)

Thanks for reading! Reply any time.