The best spies smell like... banana?

When the receptionist is distracted, I walk into the government building and she doesn’t see me. 

It’s early, the only people around are sleepwalking to the lift, so I take the emergency stairs up. 

I get to the 3rd floor, check the corridor is empty and in one swift move I get the card from my pocket and put it in the machine. It makes the noise I’m expecting so I make my way back to the stairs. 

This time, I go all the way down to the basement, and walk into the bathroom. 

There’s no gap between the stall walls and the door, which will make what I need to do easier. 

I take off my shirt, and fold it carefully inside my backpack. 

Then I take off my trousers and put them away as well. 

I keep my shoes on so I don’t have to touch the floor with my bare feet. 

I grab the self-tanning lotion and apply it liberally. Once I’m done, I wipe my hands clean. I don’t want to leave golden prints anywhere. 

There’s a strong smell of banana coming off me, but that should fade soon. 

I put the lid down, sit on the toilet and stretch my legs. I try to get comfortable. 

My alarm is set for an hour, so I close my eyes.

Before I fall asleep, I plan my next steps. 

In one hour, I’ll wake up, get dressed, and walk in the office as if I’ve just arrived. 

I’ll sit at my desk pretending to do data entry, but really I’ll be reading episode recaps of Buffy the Vampire Slayer. I’m really enjoying season 3. 

At 5pm, I’ll clock out and leave. 

Because I got in an hour late, my colleagues will shake their heads thinking I’m not working a full day…

But that’s because they won’t know I clocked in when I first arrived and hid in the bathroom. 

To gain one hour. 

One hour to relax. 

One hour without pretending to care for this job. 

One hour I don’t have to think about all my friends, who don’t need to work yet, enjoying their summer holidays. 

It’s only one hour. 

But these days, an hour feels like a lot. 

Turning an anecdote into a story

This is what happened: 

My first ever job was incredibly boring, so some days I’d arrive before anyone else, clock in and try to sleep in the bathroom to kill one hour of work. It was summer, and I was stuck indoors, so I used some self-tanning lotion from Banana Boat (or was it Hawaiian Tropic?) to make up for all the sun I wasn’t getting. 

That’s an amusing enough anecdote on its own… but I can do more with it ;-) 

Here’s the trick: 

• I told you what I was doing without any context 

• I didn’t share almost any of my thoughts

If I did it well, it sounded like I was breaking in somewhere. Maybe to spy on someone or commit some crime. 

(I mean, a real crime, not the workplace infraction which that certainly was 😅)

And here’s the thing: everything I tell you is absolutely true. I didn’t make up anything at all–I just had to leave a lot of stuff out. 

I’ve previously talked about how you can lie when you tell a story, but those lies should always be of omission, not commission.

Leaving information out can make a story clearer and shorter, but it can also add suspense and surprise, which will improve any story. 

The next time you want to turn a short anecdote into something more, all you have to do is… 

Tell us less 🤘

-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.