This is important... but it's not worth killing for

My phone pings and it’s a text from my friend Roberto. 

“Man, check out how disgusting this was. We’re travelling around Spain and between Cádiz and Malaga we stopped at a hotel in the middle of nowhere, just to break up the trip. 

We checked-in, dropped our stuff in the room and went down to the pool. I stopped at the bar, which was fully equipped to make pretty much any cocktail, so I ordered a Negroni Contessa. 

The bartender said, ‘I don’t know how to make that, but I’ll call someone to help.’

‘It’s ok, I know how to make it, I can just point you to the ingredients and all you have to do is mix them.’

‘I think I still need to call my colleague.’

The guy arrived and said they could only make me what was on the menu, which was like an Aperol Spritz, a G&T, and a couple of other basic cocktails. 

‘Alright, so could you please just charge me for three shots of the ingredients and hand me a glass with ice?’

‘I’m sorry, I’m not authorised to do that.’

So I threw one of the bar stools over the counter, smashed all the bottles, grabbed a shard of glass and then stuck it into his jugular. It seemed like an adequate reaction to me.” 

Right after that message there was a GIF from Michael Douglas in Falling Down (which is about a guy who loses his job and starts lashing out at every little injustice in life.) 

And then a final text: 

“(I’m lying. I just smiled and asked for a bottle of water.)”

I don’t think violence is ever the best solution for anything–especially if your problem is not getting a Negroni Contessa (what exactly is that anyway??). 

But… 

If I’m completely honest… 

If I didn’t fear you’d think I’m a terrible human being…

I would admit that Roberto's final text…

Disappointed me a little bit 🫣

Make them yours 

This is an example of telling someone else’s story, and there’s nothing too complicated on how to do this right: 

• Make sure there’s a personal connection (a message from a friend, something you heard or read about at least) 

• Make it clear it didn’t happen to you

• Tell it in first person 

That last one will probably get me some pushback, but here’s the deal: you can get away with 3rd person if it’s a very short story, and if you use little or no dialogue, but that’s about it. 

Otherwise, you end up having to use “he said/she said/they said” over an over again and that gets really tiresome. 

Also, most stories will be much worse if you use little or no dialogue, so if you want the story to be as good as it can be, frame it as “this is what my friend told me” and repeat their words as if they were yours. 

But…

This is another technique that, just like telling stories in the present tense, is not for everyone (or at least it’s not to everyone’s liking). 

Try it and see if it works for you. If so, crack on with it. If not, drop it. It’s better to have a story told confidently without using every advanced technique available then try to do something “better” and not deliver it as well as you could. 

You should like the way you tell stories.

It should be fun. 

The last thing I would ever want is for you to feel as frustrated as those bartenders made my friend (and me). 

Advanced storytelling is important… 

But it’s not worth killing for 🤘

-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.