Want to get better at storytelling? Learn from my parents

“It’s all yellow!”

That’s what my dad tells me when I call him to say I'm running late for lunch. 

“What do you mean, ’It’s all yellow?’”

“Lunch! Everything I made is yellow!”

When I arrive at his house, I see that he’s not lying.  There’s chicken breast with a sweetcorn sauce, saffron rice, roasted potatoes and, to wash it all down, a jug of passion fruit juice. 

“It really is all yellow,” I say. 

“Told you!”

The yellow lunch was a hit, but not everything my dad cooked was. I remember when he prepared something he called “pepper steaks”: 

A thick fillet mignon completely covered in black peppercorns. Whole peppercorns. 

As my brother and I started eating it, our eyes watering from the heat, I asked, 

“Dad, are you sure we’re meant to be eating this much pepper? It’s… a bit spicy.”

“That’s what the recipe said!”

Over the years, my dad’s cooking improved significantly (and we had no more “pepper steak incidents”), but it always followed the same pattern: a special meal, often from a recipe, but always something planned in advance for a particular occasion. 

My mom’s cooking was pretty much the opposite: perhaps because she cooked for us regularly, she couldn’t be bothered with much planning, so she would often check the fridge, grab some leftovers or whatever was there, and whip up something completely new. 

It wasn't usually that memorable… but we never went hungry.

You can probably guess where I’m going with this 😜

The reason most people struggle with storytelling is because they tell stories like my dad cooks: 

• It’s only for special occasions (big presentations, keynotes, TED talks) 

• You need the right ingredients (very specific events or moments) 

• You follow a recipe (Hero’s Journey, Pixar Pitch, some structure you learned somewhere) 

• You plan it in advance 

That definitely works for cooking, but it’s a really poor fit for storytelling, because the less you do it, the harder it is to do — and I don’t even mean “do it well,” but at all. 

If every time you need to tell a story it becomes a big production, you just won’t do it. It will feel too hard, it will take too long, and after a while you won’t even bother trying. 

What you need to do instead is regular and unfussy practice: tell stories often (everyday if you can!), from whatever happens to you, and make it work with what you’ve got. 

In other words, be like my mom, not my dad ;-)

(It’s probably worth clarifying I’m only taking about their cooking styles; they both read this newsletter, so if I expand that analogy any further… I’m going to get myself in trouble 😅)

Serving amazing meals is great but, when it comes to storytelling…

Being a home cook beats being a fancy chef 🤘

-Francisco 

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