Give them something they'll be happy to remember

We crawl slowly towards the ledge, my fellow soldiers and I. 

(My cousin and my brother, really, but I’m in character.) 

Looking down into the distance, we see the enemy tank approaching our position. 

(The T3 bus turning the corner, two blocks from my grandparents’ house.) 

As it slows down, we scope our target and smile–they left the hatch open. 

(One of the windows right in the middle of the bus.) 

“Grenades ready?”, I whisper. 

They check their weapons and nod. 

(A water balloon each.) 

“Ok, just a little more… hold… hold… LAUNCH!!” 

We stand up, barely take aim and throw our grenades. 

Mine misses, but the other two score direct hits.

(I hit a window, my cousin and my brother get theirs all the way inside the bus.) 

To the sound of enemy screams, we make a quick escape, hoping not to give away our position and avoid return fire. 

(We move out of view, trying not to laugh too loud and tip our grandad we were up to no good.) 

Back at headquarters, we share a cold beer and relax.

(Orange juice and some crisps in the garden.) 

We congratulate ourselves on a successful mission, but we know we can’t rest for long.

We have won this battle–but the war continues. 

(Next Sunday we’re here again.)

***

A friend mentioned water balloons the other day and this memory, from over 30 years ago, immediately came back. 

At first it made me happy, and nostalgic: my grandparents are long gone, their house is now a fast-food restaurant, and I haven’t spoken to that cousin in years. 

But then I got to thinking about that bus, and the people in it. 

Back home, people only caught the bus if they couldn’t afford a car. I can only imagine the people on the bus were getting to work, or maybe done with their shifts after a very early start–on a Sunday.

And now they were completely soaked because some morons wanted to play soldier with water balloons…

Maybe I shouldn’t blame myself too much: when you’re that young, it’s difficult to put yourself in other people’s shoes. 

(When you’re young… or a psychopath 😬)

But I guess that some happy memories…

Are better left in the past. 

You don’t get that excuse

I expect you’re (probably) not a kid and (hopefully) not a psychopath, so you have no good reason not to put yourself in your audience’s shoes. Before you tell any story, give a talk, write a post, you need to be crystal clear on what they: 

• Believe

• Fear

• Want

You can’t start with what matters to you, and hope to drag them there eventually. Now, when we all have endless choices at the tip of our fingers, that just won’t fly (if it ever did). 

So put yourself “in the bus”: think about where you’re coming from, where you’re going, what your hopes and dreams are, what’s making you happy and what’s pissing you off. 

Then maybe instead of ruining their day with a “water ballon”… 

You can give them something that, someday… 

They’ll be happy to remember 🤘

-Francisco 

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.