The best storytellers can make dogs talk

“So who's willing to share an embarrassing story?”, I asked at a corporate workshop I was giving yesterday.  

One of the guys got his hand up, came to the front of the room and this is what he told us. 

“This was many years ago, when I was getting back from an electronic music party a couple of towns away. I had a few drinks but I was still ok to drive. 

When I was crossing through one of the main streets, I saw a group of guys horsing around on the sidewalk, walking as if they owned the street. 

As I drove past them, one of the guys jumped in front of me, and before I had time to react I hit him. 

He flew over the car, and I heard him fall behind me. 

I looked back, terrified, but he was already getting up, dusting himself off and didn’t seem hurt at all. 

He walked off, swearing at me as he went, so I thought it was ok to drive away.

The morning after, my dad asked why there was a huge dent in the hood of his car, and I said, 

‘Well, I… I hit a dog.’ 

Later that night, I got back home from uni, and my dad was sitting in the kitchen, waiting for me. 

‘Last night you hit a dog, right?’, he asked. 

‘Yeah, that’s what happened.’

‘Well, it must have been a talking dog, because he called the police, they found where you live and now they want you to come in.’ 

The whole thing blew over a few weeks later, and I never went to jail, but I did learn that old saying is right: honesty really is the best policy.”

That’s not how it really happened… 

That’s not really how he told the story–it’s how he should have told it. 

The way he started was more or less like “Ok, so am going to tell you a story about something embarrassing that happened to me, and I’d ask to listen without prejudice, because there are a bunch of things that might not make me look amazing.”

Then he told us in detail about type of parties he often went to, the car he was driving, where exactly the party was, and which streets he was driving through. It took about a minute and a half to get to the accident itself. 

And he talked about honesty being the best policy (the Brazilian version of it, which is roughly “lies have short legs”) before the final conversation with his dad, so instead of being the point of the story, it became a spoiler. 

…But that’s easy to fix 

These are incredibly common mistakes, but they’re pretty straightforward to correct. 

• Figure out the point of your story, and make sure you only say it at the very end

Say it earlier and you’re giving the end away, don’t say at all and you risk the audience getting a completely different meaning to the story. In this one, for example, you could’ve been about drink-driving, or not offering help to someone you (potentially) hurt. 

• Start as close to the end as possible

Tell us when it happened, where you were and what you were doing. No need for context right at the start (and maybe never). We need to know a lot less about you than you think we do (in most cases, at least). 

And definitely never start by saying “I am going to tell you a story about…”–just tell it. 

Most people make these mistakes. I see it in almost every coaching session and workshop I give. They can be the difference between a great story and something so boring most people will struggle to pay attention all the way. 

But learning to fix them is so easy… 

Even a talking dog could do it 🤘

-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.