This is why I drank 15g of salt

I open the small pink container, and I’m surprised: 

The white powder looks different than I expected. 

Usually it’s this soft looking powder, but this stuff looks… grainy. A bit shiny. 

It looks nothing at all like it should. 

I check the pink container again, and I am certain that’s where I packed it, so what the hell happened?

Maybe the heat of the car trip changed it, I think. (Is that even a thing??)

But I need to have some today, so I pour it into a glass of water, down half of it - and it’s awful. 

It feels just like salt, but how can that be? 

Did anyone switch it? Did I accidentally put salt in there??

Feeling like I’m losing my mind, I put the pink container back with the kitchen stuff, and that’s when I see it: 

Another pink container. Exactly like the first one. 

I open it… and it’s full of creatine. 

Looking exactly as it should. 

I mix it, drink it, and go tell my wife we’ll be cooking without salt for the rest of our camping trip 😅

That’s how I learned that…

You’ll often hear a story like that, especially on social media, and it will followed by the cringiest “lesson” about business - and it will almost certainly end with a pitch of some kind: 

“Because I drank salt once, I’ve learned the importance of whatever, so buy my program.” 🤦‍♂️

Let’s be honest, have I really learned anything from what happened? 

• Perhaps the next time I have a gut feeling about something, I’ll trust it a little more

• Maybe it’s a good idea to talk to somebody about my suspicions

• I’m not 20 anymore, so if something looks suspicious maybe I shouldn’t drink a whole glass of it! 

Can I connect that to business, or to some other life challenge? Sure. It would work great as an analogy (“this is a little like that,” “this reminds me of”). 

What I can’t do is prove a point - the only point that story proves is that I’m a bit of an idiot with a talent for getting into weird situations 😂

So don’t do that. If nothing else, you’ll be giving storytelling a bad name. 

Use random stories like these as a fun and memorable way to introduce an idea, but you’ll need something stronger to actually sell it. 

And one more thing

You might have noticed I didn’t call the white powder “creatine” straightaway (that's an exercise supplement, by the way). Did you think it was something else? Most people would have - and then been slightly confused why I’m drinking it. 

That was intentional. I just wanted to add a tiny bit of misdirection to make the story more engaging. But here’s the thing: I’d only do that in writing, where you have time to go back and forth and take the story and its details slowly. In person, that could make it too confusing, and clarity beats fun every time. 

(And now to end with a terribly cringy callback)

Don’t force your stories to make points they don’t - or you’ll leave your audience with an awful taste in their mouths 🤘

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.