246: Structure a good story and create engaging content | Andrea Sampson

If you want your content to connect with your audience you must consider the power of storytelling… 

I have been talking about storytelling for years now, but how? How do we tell good stories and how can we make our stories more impactful? 

Join me in this episode of The Content Queen Podcast as I speak with our expert guest, Andrea Sampson from Talk Boutique. 

You will leave with 3 powerful frameworks to help you tell better stories. 

If you LOVED this episode, make sure you share this on your Instagram stories and tag us @contentqueenmariah and @talk_boutique

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KEY EPISODE TAKEAWAYS 👇

  • Why storytelling has such a great impact 

  • 3 great frameworks on HOW to tell stories 

  • What makes a great story 

SHOW RESOURCES 👇

If you like this episode, don't forget to share it to your Instagram stories and tag me⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ @contentqueenmariah⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠!

Other than that, enjoy - chat next week 💕

ABOUT THE GUESTS

ANDREA SAMPSON, CEO and Founder of Talk Boutique, blends her astute listening skills and insight into human behavior to coach leaders and speakers in crafting impactful stories. With over two decades in marketing and advertising, Andrea's prowess in connecting with audiences has transitioned into her role as a TED-trained Speaker Coach, where she excels in making complex, technical subjects relatable and esteemed. Her work extends to training Singularity University faculty globally and contributing to the TEDx initiative, underlining her commitment to shaping a future marked by kindness, equity, and sustainability. Through regular interviews with visionaries, Andrea fosters a dialogue on creating a better world, starting now.

PODCAST TRANSCRIPTION

This is episode 246, and I'm talking to Andrea Sampson, who is the queen of storytelling and helps Ted talkers tell amazing stories. Welcome to the content queen podcast. I'm your host, Mariah, entrepreneur, storyteller, digital nomad, creator of content bootcamp and founder of content queen. I'm here to teach you how to share your unique story, create content and market your business with strategy through the channels that work for you.

Each week I'll deliver a story to help you connect to a powerful strategy around marketing, business, and content creation. I'll also be joined by amazing solos and entrepreneurs who are here to share their own journey along with actual steps to help you take your business to a whole new level through amazing storytelling, powerful line marketing, and content strategy.

Let's do it! All right, welcome. Storytelling. I haven't had a storytelling episode in a while.  It is something I've talked about for years and years, and I love getting guest experts to come on and share the power of storytelling, how they share stories, how they tell stories, and how they teach it to others.

So this is a perfect guest. We have Andrea Sampson, is CEO and founder of Talk Boutique, lends her astute listening skills and insight into human behavior to coach leaders and speakers. She's In crafting impactful stories with over two decades in marketing and advertising. Andrea's prowess in connecting with audiences has transitioned into a role as a TED trained speaker coach, where she excels in making complex technical subjects, relatable and esteemed.

Her work extends to training. Singularity University facility globally and contributing to TEDx initiative underlying her commitment to shape a future marked with kindness, equity, and sustainability through regular interviews with visionaries, Andrea fosters a dialogue on creating a better world starting now.

Very, very powerful conversation. Let's talk with Andrea. Welcome Andrew to the podcast. Thank you so much for coming on and joining us today. Can you please share a little bit more about who you are and what you do?  Thanks so much, Moriah. I am so excited to be here. Um, so I, um, have spent most of my career actually prior to doing what I'm doing now in marketing and advertising.

I spent about 25 years there and, um, made the switch, um, About 10 years ago now, um, by way of, of Ted, um, I had the very good fortune to be volun hired cause all TEDx's are volunteer based as a speaker's coach. And I didn't know what a speaker's coach was, but I figured given that I had spent most of my career presenting, um, that I could figure it out.

And what I learned pretty quickly was that, um, I, as much as I was and still am a good presenter, I had a lot to learn. And one of the most important things that I needed to learn was the art of storytelling. And that may sound a little strange coming from somebody who, like I said, spent most of my career in advertising, but the reality was, um, we were using story in a way that was effective.

But not always consistent because no one had taught any of us how to tell stories. And so it's something that I've learned. And now today I run a company called Talk Boutique. I have another company called, um, the Thought Leader Academy. The two brands work together. Um, and what we do is we help experts and change makers transform into, um, thought leaders.

Talk Boutique. by using storytelling as the way in which to convey their complex information so that they can create the changes that they want to make in the world.  Oh my gosh. I love it. And I love, you know, your journey of getting put into a situation. And then of course it turns into a business, right?

That's how the best businesses come to light when you. Throw it in the deep end and you've got to work it out. And then you think, Hey, actually, I'm pretty good at this. So let me, you know, turn this into something. So we were talking before I hit record about, um, you working in the advertising agency and we'll sort of talking, you know, marketing  and advertising is heavily based on storytelling, advertising a lot more.

So, you know, you just have to watch a TV ad to know there's a whole, my dad is obsessed with ads. Like he, and he remembers them, you know, Oh, have you seen this ad before? Like, okay, dad, uh, that's the point, right? They've hooked him in. And you were talking about, you know, lots of business owners that share stories, tell stories, you know, thought leaders, um, but we're kind of like, Oh, I don't know how to do that.

You're sort of mentioning the same thing happened to you, but you were mentioning that it wasn't super consistent. So, first of all, we're going to talk about, you know, some frameworks that you have and you have some amazing resources to share, but I want to talk about storytelling.  And you mentioned the science behind storytelling and, you know, people are like, Oh, well, I don't have any good stories to tell.

And what's the point? They're just fluff. I would love for you to enlighten our listeners with, you know, the science behind it, why we should really consider storytelling in our, you know, content, our marketing, um, our thought leadership, and of course our speaking.  Well, so let me tell you a story. Um, so, you know, when I, when I started in the TED world, I remember the very first year, um, and I came into that world, as I said, really not knowing anything about speaker coaching and  I was working with, um, scientists and academics, some of the smartest people I had ever met.

And if you know anything about TED talks, you know that they're short, they're concise and they hold an idea. And so here I was working with, I remember at the time I was working, um, with a group With this one individual, he had a PhD in, in medicine and a PhD in engineering,  and he was working on decoding the genome.

So he was working on a worldwide project of decoding the genome.  You know, I'm like, wow, okay. I don't know that I've ever been in a room with a person that smart, right? And I remember actually we walked into the boardroom. I was again, working in advertising at the time. And so he had come to our office, it was after hours and I was doing some coaching with him.

And so he walks into the boardroom and we both sit down and, you know, we both have our little notebooks cause going to take some notes. And I open mine to find a little bit about him and he opens his. And I glance over and I see that the whole thing is math. And my first thought is like, Oh my God, I don't know if I can work with this person.

I don't speak math, you know?  And as we started talking and I'm listening to him and  He's talking about, you know, what does it mean to decode the genome? This is what his topic is going to be about. And why is it important? And the more that we talk, what comes out is his own personal connection to this.

He's telling me a very, very tragic story about he and his wife, um, losing a child, um, and losing that child to a genetic disorder. And this was really the, you know, the impetus for him behind  wanting to actually understand at a genetic level, well, how did these things go wrong? What's, what's happening inside of our genome?

And. As we talked and, and as he started to explain to me about the genome, I could hear within it some elements that were really interesting because the way he was talking about it, it was almost like he was telling me a recipe  and that recipe, you know, and, and he was actually using that language and he said, you know, he said, it's like, imagine you're making, imagine the only ingredients that you have are milk, eggs, sugar, butter and flour.

Now, if you think about those ingredients, there's a lot of things you can make with them, right? You could, depending on how you put them together, you could make a cake, or you could make a pancake, or you could make a muffin, or you could make Uh, a biscuit, you know, but you have to have the right instructions.

And that's what's in our genome. We've got  the, the, there's only, you know, there's five key letters, which are that represent elements within our genome. And then there's all this other stuff that we don't understand. And all that other stuff is actually the instructions that tell those five letters, those five elements, what to do.

And I was like, Oh my God, that's amazing. Right? And so as we talked, the more we talked, we started, I started to understand the genome, but actually I started to understand him  and in understanding him, what we were able to do was establish a core for him because for him, it was about  solving these genetic issues that happen.

But also asking the question of  can we or should we  because you start to go down that road, right?  Well, I tell you this story because in reality, when we think about storytelling,  storytelling allows us to understand something at a much more, like a much deeper level. The story I've just told you about him, you'll probably think about that again.

You'll probably remember, right? And the question he asks of  not only can we, but should we? You know, because we can imagine a world where we have access to our genetic code.  There's a lot that could go wrong with that. And, and so here's a scientist asking that question. Well, what we just did was you now understand the basics of the genome.

We did that in less than three minutes. And in fact, his TED talk is six minutes long.  And that's what a good story does. It takes an idea An idea that's important that we all need to think about, understand, and, and connect to. And it hides it inside of a story.  And that story becomes the Trojan horse for the idea.

And so when we're purposeful in the stories that we're telling, It allows us to create not just a good story, but a story that holds an idea that needs to be shared, that needs to be understood, and it acts as the context, the backdrop for it. So it gives us more information.  So why? How does that all work?

Well, when we think about our brain, our brain is both predictive and associative. So what does that mean? Well, predictive Our brains love to think about what's coming next, right? We all know that feeling. We're watching a movie and it's a whodunit and we're like, I think it was this person and I think it was that person, right?

Our brains love that. They light up. An associative, in order to create memories, it needs an association. Well, not just any association. It needs an association that is sensory,  something that it can put a piece of data, a piece of information on and bring that back.  So when we use, when we talk in a new, if you think of corporate presentations, so let's go to like the boring side.

Of, of the, you know, the speaking and presenting world, corporate presentations tend to use data and fact as the basis for what they're doing. Well, all we're doing with our brain when we're giving it data and fact is we're exciting the frontal lobes of the brain, one part of the brain.  It's got no association and it's got no predictability.

So the brain kind of goes, well, this is boring and checks out. Okay. But when we're telling a story and you just did it, like I could see that as I'm telling you that you're like, Oh, here's the boring part, right? This is what our brain does. It automatically kind of checks out a little bit. Right. But when we start to tell a story, so what does a story do?

It brings us into sensory type language. We might be talking about walking in the woods on a Risk day with the smell of pine in the air and the sound of birds chirping overhead. Well, we're all there, right? I've given you something to think about. Now, if I was going to tell you an idea with that, I've given you a smell, a sight and a sound to associate to.

And your brain is going, where are you going with this? What's going on next? You want to hear more. So, brain science tells us that our brain needs that in order to stay engaged. But when it does, when we give it that type of information, we are 60 to 70 percent more likely to remember the data and the information that's held within that story than we are in just telling the data and the facts.

And what also happens in our brain while we're doing that, and this is kind of a cool thing, so when I'm telling you my story. Our brains, because they're so smart, like to bring up  memories that we have of our own. And so now what's happening is you're populating my story with your memories. And in that, what's actually happening is our brains are actually mirroring each other.

Because the brains start to go into a pattern. And so I can actually say to you, I know what you're thinking about, and I'd be right, because I'm telling you a story. The other thing that's happening is it's creating cross hemispheric connections. So our brain is moving between right and left hemisphere, which actually creates a greater adhesion to the information.

One of the things that is most important is when we tell a story, our brain releases chemicals. Chemicals like dopamine and serotonin and cortisol. And  dopamine, of course we all know, it's the pleasure chemical. So you've got somebody who's like,  you know, sort of following along with you, whose brain is lit up, who's memorizing or remembering things and they feel good.

Why wouldn't we use a story?  Yeah, wow. Yeah, that's amazing. I mean, people listening are like, oh my god, yeah, it makes so much sense. But we, and you're so right, when you're sharing that story, I'm thinking about times I've shared stories with people and they're like, Oh my God, what happened? You know, and they're, and they're so engaged in what you're saying, as opposed to, I don't know, a conversation you're having back and forth about something across the dinner table.

And it's, it's happened so often. And you've got those core stories that you always pull from. And I literally. Had one the other yesterday that I shared on a podcast interview. And we both had this like light bulb moment when that story was being told, cause we were thinking about all the things that we could share,  you know, in relation to that.

So, you know, when your audience is listening to your story, you know, they're getting all these ideas and as, you know, business owners, thought leaders, that's what we want to do. We want to create these ideas in these, our audience, cause that we want them to do something off the back of what we've shared.

And that makes sense. Total sense if we're sort of working harmoniously with our brains, that is extremely cool. I love that. Um, thank you for sharing. Cause that is amazing.  So  one of the things that, um, comes up a lot with, um, business owners, thought leaders, you know, people creating content to share an idea.

Um, most of the time they, really face this obstacle with storytelling. There's so many, you know, pain points, whatever you call them, you know, things stopping them. Like, I don't have a story. I don't do this. You know, I don't, I can't tell a good story. And then they're talking to their friend the next day, you know, ripping out this like masterpiece, which always happens.

So how can we navigate these challenges of storytelling to, you know,  Convey our message and allow people to hear what we have to say in an entertaining, engaging way.  Well, I think the first thing is to, when you are preparing, like, so maybe you're giving a talk, maybe you're giving a presentation, maybe you're writing content.

Before you sit down to go, what story am I going to tell? You have to first go, what idea do I want to convey?  What's your core idea? Start there. Because your core idea is the, the information that you want your audience to take away. And without that, how can you find a story? Because it's like, well, look, we live really long lives and our whole life is A series of stories.

So which one do you choose? Do you choose the day you fell off the ladder and banged your head? Or do you choose the day that, you know, you won the Nobel prize? You know, like, you know, it really depends on what you're trying to convey. So the first thing is, what's your idea? And make that idea Really, really clear.

So you sit down before you do anything, sit down, pen and paper. And I know that's probably sounding a little old fashioned, but here's the thing. Um, using a computer, our brain works differently actually. So you know, I, I, you have a digital notepad, so I use a pen and digital paper. Um, but it's the, the act of actually writing that's important.

So write out three things.  You're what, you're how, and you're why. You're what is your topic. That's what you want to talk about. So today we're talking about storytelling. Um, so that's our topic, our how, the how is the unique thing that you as the speaker of the idea, as the thinker of the thought, um, that's what you uniquely bring to that conversation.

Um, topic. Cause topics are, you know, they're, they're undifferentiated and they should be undifferentiated. It's actually what your audience comes to you for. I want to learn about storytelling, but I want to learn about your way of storytelling. So in this case, so our, what would be storytelling or how for me is about using a story  as the context for your ideas so that you can create understanding.

Now that, and, and so. contextualizing ideas is probably something that  people, it's not that they've never heard that before, but they've never really thought about it in the, in this same way, that that's actually what you're doing. You know, stories are Trojan horses for ideas. They're carriers for ideas.

Um, so. That would be the how. Then the why. So what's the impact or outcome?  Why do we do that? We do that, in my case, so that we create connections with people that end up becoming actions and outcomes that you want, right? Because when we connect with people now, we can get them to do or act in the way that we want them to act because we've created a connection with them.

So that's a what, a how and a why. So we go, okay, great. Now we put it together and we say, today I'm going to talk to you about storytelling and I'll show you that when we use our stories as context for the complex ideas that we want to share with our audiences, what we do is we create an understanding that allows our audiences to take the action that we want them to take so that they can grow in ways that we know they can.

Now that's an idea. Right? And it's one sentence. And it's clear. So now, now that we have an idea,  now we go, okay, what is a story that could hold that idea? So in that case, we go, all right, well, what, what kind of conceptually, what is that idea about? That idea is about  putting something on paper. Uh, important inside of something that seems enjoyable.

When in your life did you ever experience a situation where you had a surprise that you were totally shocked by and it changed you?  Oh, well,  are you asking me? Cause it'd be good.  Well, cause it'd be good or bad. My bad one was when I was diagnosed with two tumors. That was a shock that changed my life.

Yeah.  And, and was there a lesson inside of that for you? Yeah. Oh, yeah. 100 percent is slow down, listen to your body, you know, take life by the horns and try not to care what people think. Although it's, it's a battle. Um, but yes, so many silver linings, of course, don't always come when you're in the hospital bed, but they do come later.

Great. And so imagine that we would now purposely build that story. You may start that story off with,  you know, it was a Tuesday, like any other Tuesday. And I was sitting at home, um, I had gone for some tests, but you know, I wasn't really all that worried. I'm young. I'm healthy. What could really be wrong?

When the phone call came, I answered the phone  and I was,  my doctor was saying to me that he wanted me to come in because they had something they wanted to talk to me about.  And I was a little confused because I thought, you know what?  Again, I'm healthy. What, what is this all about? Why is the doctor being so crazy?

Well, the next day I got up and now I'm starting to get a little worried because, you know, I've had some time to think about it and I'm not really quite sure.  What the doctor wants to talk to me about. And so I convinced my partner to come with me. We go into the doctor's office and sit down and  as they start going through the tests they reveal to me that I actually have tumors.

And that these they're quite worried about them. And it's something that we're going to have to take care of. I was floored. Blown away. How could this happen to me? I took good care of myself. I ate the right food. I drank the right water. I did all the good things. But there I was. End. Young, healthy, in the prime of my life, suddenly faced with a diagnosis that I didn't know that I was going to have.

Now,  when I think about  the work that I do today, I can go back to that day and start to see some parallels because in re, in reality, storytelling is really a revealing of information. It's a way in which. We come, we come to understand something at a much deeper level. You see, when we tell a story that has a core idea inside of it, we're creating context for the people who are listening.

And in that, on that day with that doctor, I started to understand new things about my life. And in understanding those things about my life, I could make some changes, but I wasn't quite there yet because you see the reality was I was still a bit in denial and I had some work to do.  And so when we use story to help people understand, they can understand that it may not be a straight line to get from where they are to where they want to be,  but that they've got the work that they need to do to put to get there.

And so, There was a way of putting an idea inside of a story.  Oh my gosh. I love it. That, off the cuff, it was incredible.  I am so amazed. That is incredible. And perfect example of how we can use this. And it's, it's interesting cause it got me thinking again, what happens when people are telling stories.

Right. Um. Which is what we want to do. And this is the importance of having a plan intention with, you know, being a business owner. And, you know, you want to market your business. You've got to have the context and the strategy around what you want to share and what, because. If you're just going to do that for every single social media post, you're going to be like, Oh, what?

So that's the importance of having a key theme, whether it's across, you know, having a podcast like this, what I do is I have a core theme, which is my podcast. And then from there I can create content off the back of that. And I love that sort of key message. And then going down to, you know, the how and really building that out into a story because we can do that as business owners and go okay looking at my overall plan and strategy making sure you have one what what things am I looking for people to buy or how can I help them and what are the key messages from this and then building out a plan but what happens is a lot of us go like oh okay i've got to post on social media or i've got to do a blog or i've got to you know whatever do an email and you're like and  then everything becomes so Blurred and messy.

The stories become like, you know, and I think that's, I love that because that just really gives us a framework and something to start with when we are looking to create a story and power and pairing that with an intentional marketing plan is just genius. I love it. And you can see how something like that.

So, you know, This is what I love about creating ideas. And you know, this I will absolutely credit Ted with because, you know, my work with Ted it's about ideas we're sharing. And so, you know, in advertising, I used to have, I was a researcher, a planner is what I did in advertising. And so we would have to come up with a core consumer insight.

What is the key insight that we're going to build a campaign on, right? And so I would sort of do the research, come up with the insight, frame it for our creative teams, and then they would take it and turn it into, uh, into the creative we would see in market. And, um, that skill, that's, that's what I brought to The work that I do today, but it was interesting because when I started working with scientists and academics and technologists, right?

Like that concept of a core idea was really hard because, you know, and this is, I think for all of us, right? Cause it's our life work, like your business is what you do and you go, well, how do I distill that to one idea? Right. But you can, because that idea, as you even heard me just sort of describe what I do, to some degree, it's, it's very dense.

It's layered. Right. And so like storytelling, that's a pretty big topic. You can go in a lot of places with that. And so that's the point. What you want is an idea that's narrow enough that it defines you, but broad enough that it gives you the latitude to create a lot of content. Because content is actually what Our audiences want from us, they want to get to know who we are and why we do what we do and how we do what we do.

And by giving away content, we're not endangering our business. Like, Oh my God, why would they ever buy from me if I give it all away? Well, the reality is we give away. All kinds, but people then want you to help them do the work and that's how you build your business. So like, I never worry about giving stuff away.

I'm like, God, take it all, you know, like go for it. And if you want to work with us, that's fantastic. Look, we have Our Thought Leader Academy where you can come in and do some group coaching. You can work with us one on one if you're, if you're, uh, you know, a business, we've got all kinds of programs that we would work with you on.

But look, if you're just starting out or you're really down the track and you know how to do this, use some frameworks because do yourself a favor and do that. Because It's going to make it easier on you. It's going to make it easy on your customers. And I'm going to feel better about the work that I do because I can see it reflected in what you're doing.

So, you know, making money, of course, we all want to make money. That's kind of what we do, but it's not the point of why we do content marketing. Content marketing is about creating a perception of who you are and what you do so that the right people will find you in the moment they need you.  Oh, thank you for that.

I'm going to have to credit you and use it because it's true, right? Like this, this happens. I remember,  you know, not so long ago, working with a client that's in a different world, doesn't really do social media. Has an email, um, list and you know, I want to repurpose some key themes from that because they were really good.

And, um, they're like, oh, I don't want to give this to social media. Like, what do you mean? It's, it's like, it's just about building that credibility and that relationship with the people online. Because what happens is as humans, yeah, we can download all the free things, listen to all the podcasts. But to take action, you've got to, you know, You have that accountability.

And usually that accountability is it's money. It's like my partner and I were talking the other day about gym. We could do some exercise from home. Sure. Like, you know, have a couple of weights or, you know, do some squats, but we pay for a gym membership. We're going to go. Cause that is our accountability.

You know what I mean? And it's, and That's what happens like when you're in business. Yeah, of course you could do it all yourself, but you get to a point where you get a bit lonely. So you want to connect with other people. You're so in it that you don't see all the things that someone like you would see or someone like I would see.

So that's what happens. So yeah, you can consume all the content online, but it's, it's also always generic. I can't tailor it to everyone's business. So you're totally right with that. And I think being able to share.  Your big ideas, your impact, it builds your legacy. And I think a lot of us are in it, but impact more than money.

Like if we didn't have to make money, it'd be great. You know, there'd be no stress about, you know, having to make a living, but. I totally resonate with what you're saying. And I absolutely love that. So you mentioned you have some frameworks. Um, I would love for you to share a little bit more about the frameworks that you teach and how people can get access to those, because I love a framework.

I'm a big fan. Yes. Yeah. Me too. And we have a lot, but the ones that we use, like, because of the type of business that. Or the work that we do, it's, it's really broad because we work, we do work on, on obviously presentations and public speaking, giving talks and, and whatnot. But we also through, because when we're building thought leaders, we also do personal branding and we also do community development, right?

So we look through those lenses at different points in the development of a thought leader. So we frameworks across all of those, but the ones that I think are probably the most relevant here when we look at content creation is. is the three that we use most often when we're working with somebody on a communications product.

Um, and so the first one we just talked about, which is the idea of framework. And it's really simple. You actually, like the, you heard me say it's a what, how, why, and then the framework is today I'm going to talk to you about what, and I'll show you how, because why. It's really simple. But the thing, the power in that is that it forces you to actually take it out of your head.

and put it on paper. And again, this is really important. This is something that I've learned over time. You know,  again, our brains are so smart. So we have this idea. I have a great idea. Okay. Now somebody says to you, well, what's your idea? And it takes you 15 minutes to explain your idea, right? And why?

Because when it's in your head, it sounds so cool and so easy and so simple, but your brain is actually filling in all the pieces that, that, that, Make you know it. So, so intuitively try and say it out loud and you realize there's a whole bunch of stuff missing or that wasn't quite right or no, I didn't mean it that way.

And, and so when you write it down into the framework that I just described, and this is kind of a, it's a fun little, it's almost a game that I do with people. It's like, okay, let's write it down. Okay. Now I'm going to say it to you. This is your idea. You tell me what your idea is. I'm going to write it down.

Now, I say it back to you, as if it's your idea, but I'm saying it to you. And I can tell you, 99. 9 percent of the time, the first thing that happens is a person goes, no, that's not it.  Why? Even though we just worked on it together, we got it down. It's like, because once it's out of your head, suddenly you realize that all those pieces that were being filled in, in your brain are not the same.

So you're not there anymore and you're hearing the stark idea and it's like, Oh God, no, that's not it. Or that's boring or, you know, and so, so that's an important piece of it. It's writing it down. So the idea framework is really key. The next thing is the story spine. Now the story spine, what I love about this, this is a tool that actually isn't, it's a framework that's been around for many, many years.

And I've, I've altered it to work with some of the things that I do. Um, but what I love about it is basically it's the five steps to telling a story. Okay. And it's just the five elements you have to have. So the first is the environment. So where is the story taking place? Um, and specificity matters. It's not, you know, I was walking down the street.

It was, you know, I was in, um, you know, Dartmouth, Nova Scotia, walking on main street in the middle of May, you know, cause now we know where you are. So the environment is important and it's the piece that many storytellers forget because there's so.  In a rush to get to the point of the story that they don't build up.

Um, any interest with the, the listener. And when we look at brain science and we're looking, what we're trying to do is engage the brain. So we need to have the, you know, the environment is the place where you can put a lot of sensory things, right? So you could say, you know, I walked into my mother's kitchen and.

And the smell of bread baking hit me in the face. Well, now we're all smelling that, right? Now you've given them a memory device to remember what's going to come in the next part of your story. So the environment is really important. Next it's the characters. Who's in the story? And they're not just me and my friend, it's me and my friend Mariah, who is a digital nomad traveling throughout the world, right?

Now we have a little bit of a backstory on you. It's, you know, so we need to have these little elements so we can connect to those people. Next, it's the issue, the opportunity, or the challenge. So this is the reason you're telling the story. What is it? And sometimes we're telling the story because there's an issue.

Sometimes it's an opportunity. Something good's happened. Or sometimes it's a challenge. Something bad has happened. So that is the point of the story. Now right there, you've almost got a full story.  But the next piece is the interesting one, because a good storyteller knows that a story isn't a good story unless it has a tension point,  maybe more than one.

So we call this the raising of the stakes. This is like you do the, I like to call it the and then moment, right? So you tell, you know, this thing happened and then, you know, and that's a turning point in the story. So you've got the environment, the characters, the issue, conflict, or opportunity that you And then you go into the raising of the stakes.

And then the fifth piece is the outcome. So it's a pretty straightforward way to tell a story. And if you're using a story as an opening, or as a way in which to connect with people, you know, you don't want the hero's journey. As much as I love that as a fact, It's a framework. It's a beautiful one. It's 16 points to telling a story.

That's a lot. Right? Look, if you're writing a screenplay, the hero's journey is fantastic, but you know, if you're, if you want to tell a quick story, the story spine works really well. And what we've done is we took the story spine and we went, okay, so if we look at that and we go, okay, what we want to do is we want to insert an idea inside of that story.

Where do you do that? Well, you do that at the tension point, right? Just as I've got you sitting on the edge of your seat.  I transitioned into my idea. And there's a reason for this. What we want to do is get the audience at an emotional high, right? They're in this moment. They're waiting for you to tell them what's going to happen.

And instead of doing that, you deliver your idea. And suddenly, because if you're a good storyteller, what you've done, you've is you've left some little clues along the way. I like to call them breadcrumbs about where you're going, but they didn't know that. So suddenly when you reveal your idea, you're like, Oh, I didn't see, Oh my God, I saw it.

Didn't see that coming. Right. And that's what, and so the audience loves us. Suddenly they're distracted now by this great idea you've just delivered with this story.  And if you're doing this as at the beginning of a presentation or a talk that allows you to now transition into the body of your presentation, what you've done is you've left them hanging.

And you don't ever come back to that point until you're ready to close your presentation. And  what that does is you bring them back to that same emotional high point. You complete. The story, which sets you up to now restate your idea, which you want them to remember because it's the most important thing you're going to say in your whole presentation.

So it allows you to say it again in an emotionally charged way with a story so they'll remember it. So the story spine and the idea framework work together.  Now the third framework, and these all, these are nested. So we've gotten. The idea framework, the story spine. Now we have what's called the talk canvas.

And the talk canvas is basically a narrative outlining tool. So if you're doing a presentation or a talk, or even writing an email, quite frankly, you can use the talk canvas because what it does is it outlines all of the elements that you want to get across. So it starts with the, what we call the commanding opening.

That would be your story.  You then bridge to your idea. That's what we call the statement of purpose. Now, once you've done that, now you move into supporting message number one. Supporting message number one supports that core, that, that idea, but it's, it, it's comprised of an opening statement, a support piece,  And then a closing statement, because what we've done, and you probably know this as a communicator, we always say, tell them what you're going to tell them, now tell them, now tell them again.

Again. Right? So every message follows that. Tell them what you're going to tell them. Here's the supporting message that supports that core idea. Okay. Then now let me tell you all the stuff. About that. So that's where your data, your facts, your stories, your anecdotes, all of that lives in there in relation to that message.

And then because you've just told them a whole bunch of stuff, you got to remind them why you told them all that stuff. Here's what I was doing. And that, um, that key takeaway is what it's called becomes. Also, a segue into your next message. And with the Talk Canvas, you know, what we suggest is that you have three supporting messages to your statement of purpose.

Why? Well, because the brain loves threes. And it also gives you a really good way to break down an idea. You can go with your what, how, why. That is one way you can do it. But you could also do past, present, future. You might do, um, you know, sort of what I learned, um, what I know. And, and what I need to know, like you can break it down into different ways.

So take that idea and go, how are you going to break it into three buckets? Cause that's what you want. Right. Um, and then that, like I said, then, then you heard how we close it. So the talk canvas. The story spine and the idea framework nest together to give you a flexible tool that will give you a great presentation every time.

And, you know, like I said, I built that, um, that tool out of the work I did on Ted. So it's actually designed to do a Ted talk, but I've used it with people doing board presentations. We've turned it into a pitch canvas for people who are doing pitches, um, you know, and, and, Everything in between. So they're, they're fantastic tool frameworks that allow people to.

Use who they are, why they do what they do, and how they do it  in a way that other people will remember. And I think that's the most important thing about any framework, and especially these frameworks. Yes, I love this. And I think it's really relevant now with, you know, online. We do lots of online masterclasses, workshops, and sometimes we just put all our teachings together and throw it out there and, you know, it's great, you get people to sign up, but you want to have that.

lasting impact. And, you know, lots of us have  podcasts or things like that. And I can, you know, see how that can all work in, you know, the content that we create to share our messages. Cause as I said, a lot of, a lot of us, even if we're, you know, we have a service or we're a coach or we have a product, all of us have what I create impact and leave a legacy and have this sort of thought leadership, personal brand.

Like even I know product based businesses that have this huge, like purpose to.  Not just sell their product, but to change. And that's, they bring services into there, you know, all that. And I think this is, it works exactly for that. Cause we're all doing online workshops to connect with our audience. We're all in some degree, you know, recording podcasts or recording YouTube videos or, and even in the short form, you know, you can sort of condense it down.

I think, um, you know, there's a, with a story, it doesn't have to be this, like, you know, 20 minute thing, 10 minute thing, it's what I love about even the story that you shared of my own journey and, and putting that framework in, you told it in such a short amount of time. So I think it takes practice right though, like to get this all working.

And I think a lot of us are always like, Oh, well, you know, I, I don't really feel like I have it right. Or, you know, but that's why we have to test them and put them out there and see and get better at them. Like there's stories that I still tell. That I've just gotten better at telling them because you learn what sort of is important, what makes sense, things like that.

So I love that. And I, you, you mentioned you have the frameworks as resources, so we'll get the links from you so everyone can download those.  Absolutely. Absolutely. And you know, um, like I said, I, I, I, I'd love, I love it when people just take these and use it themselves and feel free to reach out to me if people, um, you know, have any comments on it.

Cause I think it's always good to hear and get feedback on that, you know, um, yeah. And so, but you know, I want to, I just want to actually, um, address what you were just talking about, which is you get better as you tell it more. And I think it's one of the things that we, um, I was talking to somebody the other day about it, you know, like we get sick of our own stories.

We're like, Oh my God, not that story again. Right. Oh my God. But the thing is like, The reality is we've heard it a million times,  but everybody else has only heard it once. And you know, it's like, it's like the, the musician, you know, you think about, um, you know, any famous musician and like how sick they must get of their own songs, right?

Like, Oh my God, do we really have to do that one again? But the, but we love them. Right. We, that's why we go to see them. We go to concerts because we love their music. We want to hear those songs and they're like, well, but we got new ones and we're like, yeah, yeah, whatever, but do the old ones.  And so we have to remember that's like our stories, those are our greatest hits.

And so, you know, don't be afraid to tell a story that you think you've told a million times because the reality is somebody in the audience probably hasn't heard it. And because you've told it a million times.  You've gotten really good at telling it, but here's one of the things that's really important.

When we tell a story, we have to feel it  because when we feel it, our audience feels it.  And so it's important that we don't just throw the information out there, that we connect to it in such a way that the audience is feeling what we're feeling. And that's how we create the memorability for our stories and the connections with our audiences.

Yeah, that's a great point because it's not just about like, oh, you know, I was doing this and you've got to really feel it if whether it's happy, you know, emotional and, and I love what you say, because it's interesting with this because I think in the world of thought leadership, business ownership, you know, we're all the same.

business owners, entrepreneurs in some aspect,  you have to really love what you do. Cause you've got to talk about it a lot and you've got to talk about it at the same times. And what I find really interesting is even if someone has heard a story, cause I tell the same stories a lot.  They connect with it at a deeper level.

It's like if you read a book for the second time, you watch a movie for the second time, third, fourth, fifth, that's what, like, I know friends that just watch the same TV show all the time, and I'm like, aren't you sick of it? Like, you get something from it every time, you know, you unpack something, you get a different lesson, um, and it's like the same when, oh, well, someone else has already shared that concept or story or whatever.

But it's how you tell it that someone, they probably maybe didn't resonate with how that person told it, but the way you're telling it is how they resonate with it. Or the way you told it again, you know, it's, it's like the same thing where people are like, Oh, but I already shared that piece of content on here, here and here.

And it's like,  You got to share it again. You got to share it again. Cause like whilst we might remember the story, we might forget elements of it. We might not have absorbed every idea in that moment. We might not have taken action. Maybe we need to hear it again. And the lesson and the teaching to go, Oh yeah, I do need to do that again.

Because that's what happens. We're just, you know, so we get so caught up in our day to day, you know, we, we don't often action the things that we think are amazing and great. And it's like, even with podcasts, you know, ones that really resonate like this Listen to it again, because you. Take on You'll get more.

You'll take on the You'll get more from it. Exactly. Yeah. You'll hear something. Because the thing is, we get, we get, I mean, we all do. Of course, we get distracted by things, right? Or like in the moment, we'll get really excited about one thing and be like, you're thinking about that while you're listening and you miss the, you know, and so the next time you listen to you're like, Oh my God, I didn't even hear that the last time.

Yes. And, and it, so it is like, that's the thing about listening or reading or accessing or in some way engaging with good content. Exactly. You know, the more we engage with it, the more we get from it. And so we have to give ourselves the grace, um, to go, Oh, that's me too. It's not just the stuff I engage with.

It's actually the content I put out. People want to engage with it that way too. And we have to remember that because it's easy to look at everybody else and go, yeah, but there's so much better. And it's, it's so much harder to look at yourself and go, my stuff is good too. Right. And it's worth hearing a second and a third and a fourth time.

And look, I can, we all fall into that. Like it's, it's just one of those challenges that, you know, I, I think especially as entrepreneurs, we're hard on ourselves and we just have to give ourselves more grace. Yes, that, that is a beautiful parting message because that is so true. I think we always just make exceptions like for everyone else, but ourselves, you know, like I even, I have a client that's, you know, doing stuff on experts, right.

And people define their definition of an impact expert. And they say, it's this and it's that, and it's that. And then it's, you know, they're not perfect. They don't know everything. They're always willing to learn. And then they say, okay, well then why are you not an expert? Oh, cause I don't know everything.

And it's like you just defined it as something and now you're defining yourself as something different. Like, why are you, and I catch myself on this daily. I'm like, hang on, why is this different to me? But you're right. It's, it's, it's sort of that bias that we have. Um, and we, you know, people probably sick of seeing my face on social media.

They're probably sick of listening to it, but like. They don't hear your voice or see you as much as you do.  Well, that's it. And that's the other thing. Like, you know, we, we think that people like, first of all, listen far more often and, um, understand far more than, than, than they actually do. You know, look, there's, I don't know how many billion people in the world.

I think we're up to 8 billion people right now. How many of those do you think have actually listened to your podcast? Do you think there's room for more people to listen to it? You know, like I think so, right? Like that's the thing. So it's like, give yourself that, that credit. That's like, look, there's a, it's a big world out there.

There's a lot of people that are going to listen to that message. So if you say it 12 times, um, you know what, there'll be some people who are going to listen to all 12, but most people are only going to listen to one of those 12 times. So let's make sure that they hear one of them, you know? Yes. Yes. And that's so true.

And that's what happens with the repurposing and stuff. Like the chances someone's going to see it on Instagram, LinkedIn, Facebook, your podcast is pretty minimal. And they're super fans and they're probably someone, you know, and they love what you do anyway. So, you know, we have to sort of like, obviously we're ambitious, right?

We think, Oh, they're going to see it all. And, but unfortunately no. And they're like marketing touch points now up to like 18, probably more since the last time I checked. So we have to keep repeating those stories. We have to keep repeating our messages. Over and over. And it's like, you know, public speakers, um, people that do TED talks, like they have probably done that presentation so many times.

Like you said, with music, they're like, Oh, okay, get in the zone. You're just going to find a way to be passionate. And that's what happens with business. You know, we're doing the same thing all the time. There's moments where we're like, okay, this again, Groundhog day talking about the same thing, but it goes around in cycles.

You just got to find different ways to love it. And that's the same with your stories.  You know, I'll go back to my days in advertising, you know, we would do an ad and they, you know, spend millions of dollars on producing these ads. And, you know,  We'd get to a point, you know, we air them and they'd be successful.

And then, you know, six months later, it's like time for a new ad. And we're like, no, like actually that ad. And if we think about it, like  our favorite ads, we could watch them again and again and again. Yeah. Yeah. I don't know if you guys have, it's one that always comes to mind for me and they just actually started rerunning it again.

Um, do you, do you have a Kia in, in Australia? Yeah. So it's an ad. It was a Canadian ad. Um, And I know that it's gone global, but it's, it's the, the, the tagline on it is start the car. I don't, have you ever seen, do you know the one I'm talking about? I don't know. I'd have to, I'm more of a visual. So yeah. So the basic, the premise behind it is the woman is paying for her, her stuff at the checkout.

And, um, you know, she, she gets the, the, the, the tally and is like, realizes like it's way less than she thinks it's going to be. And she's like, got this like, look of excitement on her, you know, and she doesn't say anything. And she kind of sneaks out of the store. And as soon as she gets out of the store, she's yelling to her husband, start the car, start the car.

And it's genius, right?  That ad is probably, oh my God,  I think that that, I was still in advertising, which is, that's at least 15 years ago now. And so like, and it's still running and we still love it. And I could tell you why, because it was a basic human, uh, Response, right? We all when we think we're getting away with something, there's like a giddiness that comes with it.

Right. And so we can all associate to that. Yeah. And so, you know, if the ad world can do it and has been doing it since the 30s, maybe they're onto something.  Very true. That is very true. Well, thank you so much for coming on and sharing. This has got me so inspired. Um, and I know all the listeners will be like, all right, I'm ready.

So how can people connect with you and find you and consume more of your content? We'll have the links in the show notes, but where are you mostly hanging out?  So, um, check out my YouTube channel, the thought leader Academy. I post twice a week there. Um, I'm on LinkedIn almost every day. I'm sharing content there and I do a couple of times a week.

I do a thought of the day. So it's a live content. I do a live stream. And, uh, every second week I do a conversation with. Thought leaders, both on LinkedIn and on YouTube. Um, so check me out there and sign up for our newsletter at talkboutique. com. Um, we've always got things happening and we'd love to, uh, to send you even more free content.

Amazing. Well, thank you so much for coming on. I've loved having our chat today and, um, I can't wait to consume more of your stories and get on sharing more. I know I try to do it as much as I can, but I love the concepts you shared. So thank you so much. Well, thank you for the opportunity, Mariah. This has been such a pleasure and such a joy.

I hope you have a wonderful rest of your day. All right. What do we think? So many actions on storytelling.  Storytelling is one of those things where of course it is a skillset that you have to learn. And the only way you can learn is by listening to podcasts like this and taking action. So make sure you took some notes.

We have the transcript of this episode at contentqueenmariah.  com. Forward slash podcast forward slash two, four, six for this episode. So you can get the transcript and get some of this juicy information, but thank you for joining me today. Please don't forget to share this with all your business and entrepreneurial friends could do this by adding it to your Insta stories and tagging me at content queen Raya, or just tell them about it.

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You can leave five stars and a little review at the bottom. Follow me on Instagram, connect with me on TikTok and let me know if there's any topics you want me to talk about in the future. I'm all yours. I'll talk to you soon. Bye

PodcastMariah MacInnesmarketing, marketing advice, how to be authentic online, business ownerComment