Your story is boring: 5 🔥 tips to keep your audience engaged

So the feedback was a grunt, mild snore, droopy eyelids and a disinterested ‘yeah right, it’s good’.

Yeah, I’ve been on the end of that passive-aggressive feedback loop too many times to remember.

To fight back I decided to arm myself with an unfair advantage. Matthew Dick’s book — Storyworthy, he outlines his process to become incredible at on-stage storytelling. He tells some personal stories to educate us on his method.

These are a handful of takeaways.

Journal:

Matthew’s “homework for life” is a concept where at the end of each day he records the most story-worthy moment.

I’ve done this sporadically and not only does it force some introspection I’ve realised how fortunate I am for the people around me. Human moments connection in stories.

Story-telling leads to more opportunities:

When your mind is geared to think about your “homework for life” then you see the day through a different lens.

Rather than think “do I want to do that or not”, Matthew talks about doing things based on what story could eventuate. During my time journaling, I actively sought out random opportunities.

Better storytelling makes you a better friend, sibling, spouse:

By sharing the story later, you start thinking about things outside of yourself.

Eckhart Tolle makes a similar point in ‘the power of now’. By observing ourselves rather than being inside the mess of our minds we’re more connected to reality. True when considering tweeting to the digital town square.

Vacation stories

Matt’s rule about vacation stories is — that no one wants to hear about your vacation.

Stories are about tiny moments

A story is about a 5 second moment in your life

That 5 second moment is about your transformation — it’s the end of your story. But it’s not the whole story, find the opposite of that transformation and it’s the start of your story. Everything else is the middle; its role is to create clarity.

🎁 BONUS POINT:

an F- is almost always better than an A+ story

Everyone wants to hear about your disasters,

You can tell your success stories but put yourself down in the process and play down your success, keep the success small rather than extravagant if you don’t want to come across as a wanker, but also want to keep the reader engaged.

Now you don’t have to torture your family and friends anymore.

Level up and keep them entertained

Read this post and more on my Typeshare Social Blog