No one cares about your marathon

“That was a really well told story, but there's a problem… with your problem.”

I'm in a room full of MBA students, and they're having their first go at storytelling.

Agatha, who just told the story, looks confused, so I continue:

“Your story is essentially about this marathon you couldn't finish, right?”

“Yes, that's it.”

“And why do you care about that?”

“Because… it sucks? Nobody likes to fail at stuff.”

“Ok, I get that, but why does that matter to you?”

“Well… I trained a lot, I wanted to do well or at least finish, and I couldn't.”

“Is that it?”

“Ahm… yes?”

“Ok, so here's the thing: no one cares about your marathon. To be honest, no one cares about anything you do.”

She looks at me like I just killed Bambi.

“No one cares - unless you care about it. Actually care about it. Not like ‘I wanted to finish the marathon, and I couldn't, sucks to be me!', but like this actually means something to you.

“Let's say you used to be really into sports, or you ran all the time. Then you got sick, you got long Covid or something, and you couldn't run for months and months. You couldn't do the things you loved, you felt depressed, helpless, you didn't even know who you were anymore.

“But then you started getting better. Slowly, you started training again. Now, you have this marathon to run, and you really want to finish it, because if you do… then you'll know you're not broken.

“If that's the story you tell, then your audience will care about your marathon - because now they can see that you do. Does that make sense?”

“Sure, I get what you mean now, thanks,” she says.

“Great! But seriously, outside of a story really well told… no one really cares about your marathon.”

“I hate you.”

You're not a vampire slayer - but you still need stakes

Every story needs a problem, a conflict, but more than that, it needs stakes: what the character stands to gain or lose needs to be clear.

If you don't tell the audience what the stakes are, you're hoping they'll guess it, and that's a recipe for disaster: they'll be confused with the story and annoyed with you for wasting their time.

And the stakes can't just be external, they also need to be internal. They can't just be a thing the characters wins or loses, they also have to be what that means, how that makes the character feel.

That's because external things (like finishing a marathon) are not something many people will relate to and, even if they do, it might mean something completely different to them. And then the story won't work.

 It only takes a line or two  

Average storytellers need a paragraph to explain things. Good storytellers can do it in a line or two.

There's a story I often tell in my keynotes about losing my patience with my daughter and shouting at her. Most parents would agree that's a bad thing: no one likes to lose control like that, especially with their kids. But that's not enough. I actually have a deeper reason for regretting that, so what I say next is this:

“I'm horrified, because I remember being shouted at when I was a little kid, and I never wanted to be one of those parents.”

It's not a lot, but it gives you more insight on why I care about my relationship with my kids, and it helps justify the lengths I go through to be better. Without either of those things, the story is nowhere near as effective.

And sometimes, all it takes to do that is one word:

• “I can't believe I've messed things up again!”

• “I am never going to be enough for her.”

• “Like always, I fell short.”

If you want your audience to care about your story, tell them why you care about it first, and they will - even if it's about a marathon 🤘

-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 at a TED-style conference, we can find your idea, book the talk of your dreams and deliver it with impact

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.