What does storytelling in presentations actually mean? 

The potential to relate with and motivate people or take a particular action by presenting an account that they can connect to and see themselves as the main focus in your story is the art of storytelling.

You might have realized already that convincing a group of people to accept your idea takes a lot more than just reading from your PowerPoint presentation slides. So that is why it has become so important to have some storytelling skills in yourself. The elements of an interactive story are usually the primary focus points of any presentation. So here we have discussed the elements to choose and apply in the context of a presentation.

Characters : The main character is the heart of any story. When it comes to presentations, the main character is your audience, not you. You have to play the role of the storyteller.

‍Traits : The personality attributes and qualities explain the kind of people your audience has. ‍

Goals : The success that your target audience wants to get to.

Purpose : The reasons they want to get to their goals.

Problems : The biggest hurdles standing in the way of their goals.

Struggles : The stumbling blocks making it hard to get over the problems.

Sensory Details : The elements that attack the five senses of people are sound, visuals, text, props, and anything that you plan to use.

You need to combine these elements and put together a captivating narrative that is a simple – structure. Now after this it’s time to create the story and if required, also support  it with beautiful visuals. Remember, the end goal is for them to accept your idea with open arms and leave the presentation changed.

How to know if you are a good storyteller?

Probably not many presentations you might have attended that actually made you change something. The reason is simple… not everyone is a good storyteller. Do you believe you have what it takes to capture people’s attention? Do you have the communication skills, personal traits, and business vision to channel people's interests into something valuable for your business?

Check if you have these qualities in yourself.

Are you a compassionate listener?

You should understand, and relate to the feelings, and most of all the needs of your audience. Compassion is a common and primary attribute that you can find in every successful storyteller.

Why is it so much important?

Because the purpose of stories is to involve people’s emotions. That’s is the reason they work as powerful tools in convincing people to change their minds on particular topics. This human trait lets you feel the irritation, pain points, or relief your audience feels around the topic of your presentation. This way you know how to craft and deliver your story that triggers the right emotions in your audience.

Do you know how to add emotions to a boring topic?

Many storytellers have presented even the most boring topics in an exciting way. In the same way, you also cannot afford to be boring while delivering. That’s why natural storytellers are the ones who know ways to add a bit of drama, comedy, or adventure. 

Why is this so important?

Because the thing that triggers people’s decisions, most importantly – the buying decisions are emotions. So if you manage to strike the correct emotions, you get a better chance of leaving a memorable mark in people’s minds.

You can try using, one of the most powerful emotions fear. Fear to miss out on anything, or the fear that a specific negative outcome will take place if a particular action is not taken.

Can you capture your brand authentically?

Learn to talk about the core values of your organization genuinely and in a trustworthy way. The story of your brand is not about telling people what they want to know, or the way you sell the products or services.

Why is this so important?

This builds respect and trust among your audience and successful storytellers are always aware of how to put the human side of a brand under the main spotlight. This can be achieved by finding the one unique feature of the brand story. So you should be great at finding what sets you apart from the rest if you aspire to be a great storyteller.

Do you use humor strategically?

All good storytellers are very well aware of how to entertain their audience without breaking their focus on the main message. With a touch of humor at the right time you don’t distract people but actually provide them with a refreshing moment so they can improve their focus on what is next.

Why is this so important?

Humor brings everyone closer and also closer to the primary message, you are trying 

to pass with your presentation. A natural storyteller always knows how to break a laugh regardless of how serious the topic is. The one with a good sense of humor always stands out the most.

Can you inspire people?

nspiring stories always have a deeper meaning to them. Something valuable which 

you can take away and apply to your way of life. Storytellers use this to encourage their audience into taking their final call to action.

Why is this so important?

A great story should be an experience to take the audience on a path that is similar to the day-to-day problems that stop them from reaching their goals. Ultimately, the final result inspires people to make a change using the main value proposition that you are presenting.

How to make your audience the primary story character?

Why should they care?

When you’re defining what role your audience is playing in the story that’s the question you need to answer. How your character handles all the difficulties as it tries to reach its goals will remind your audience of their own hurdles. Build the correct scenario which your audience can easily connect to and thus provide them with a reason to care about your presentation.

All stories move around the main character – the focus of attention. If you are giving a presentation, then your audience should be the main focus of attention. Instead of you, your brand, or anyone else they are the main hero.

So, if you do not have any idea on building a story that moves around your audience as the main character then begin by researching them and using whatever you know their way of thinking. Then, explain about the hurdles your solution provides to guide with and you will get a lot to craft the right setup to catch their notice and interest.

What do they care about the most?

You should create your story around the primary character to explain the driving force at the back of your narrative you want your audience to care about. This is where you should bring in the attitude, perspective, viewpoints, emotional state, and other character details that develop your audience. Since you are working with the people of your department every day you know them quite well. 

So what to take in mind while putting together the story of your talk?

Emotional state – Their feeling about their work and the troubles they face while being extra productive in achieving their goals. 

Attitude – The attitude they are having for changing their daily routine even if it will give improved results for them.

Perspective – To what extent they are interested in increasing their productivity 

in the way you are thinking to deliver your presentation, or do they have other perspectives to go after?

Viewpoints – Their views about the whole workflow of the department in general and their opinion on anything to change or make better.

So when deciding on how to craft your presentation these are all the major details you require to plan on. You will have to satisfy your colleagues that their day-to-day lives will improve if they accept your ideas and solutions.

What’s their common goal

Start digging into the personal interests, demographic data, and hobbies, daily routine, professional background, and even cultural aspects after you have figured out their final goal and how strong they are to achieve it. For example… You might be very well aware of the fact that everyone in your department has their own set of priorities and things they concentrate on and this is what is directly related to the common goal of the audiences.

Actions - Whatever the audience is doing currently that can be made better or changed? You should be well aware of the current workflow of the department to learn about optimizing it.

Targets – Their needs and the things they are trying to get to daily that you can help them relieve by applying that new solution in their workflow.

Goals – Goals are all about the larger picture. The final goals your audience wants to win. Is it to grow the department, get promoted, or reach success in any particular business metrics.

You need to put all of these together as the narrator when developing the character all through your story. This way you will be able to give a presentation that envisions people’s goals much easily after accepting the proposed solution because it’s based on their goals, routine, and priorities.

The emotional experience they are craving about

The usual goal of your audience will be directly linked to the primary outcome of your product, service, idea. You are just present there to help them through the journey to get over the hurdles lying ahead of them and reach the final destination.

The ultimate part of your character is its feeling and whatever it will become after it reaches its final goal. This is the place you have to get into the emotional value of what your solution will bring to your audience. That is the reason why you need to be aware of their intent to reach that goal.

Motive – The reason that goal is so crucial to your audience. You should describe why welcoming your idea is something they want to do. 

Likely, it’s a relaxation coming from finally unloading so much unnecessary work and acquiring the mindset to focus on reaching their main goals. All that saved time they will be able to spend with their loved ones instead.

Why you require all of that?

Your audience's common goal and the feeling they will have once they reach it are the two primary pillars of developing the character they will relate with. Once you learn about all of those factors – you will learn the actual persona your story should connect to.

How to persuade your audience with storytelling in presentations? 

You can understand difficult topics with the help of stories. Just as you convince someone of your opinion in any argument same way you have to persuade your audience to get on board with your idea.

Here is where the need for storytelling arises as just having the data and research is not enough to persuade your audience of what they require to do.

Storytelling is all about presenting that data and information in a way that changes the way people feel about your presentation topic.

Here we have discussed a few storytelling strategies to use that can increase the chances of persuading your audience.

Use your audience's needs

Your audience needs are all centered around your audience and the hurdles they are trying to conquer. All you need to do is go ahead of just mentioning the problems. Figure out ways to relate to those difficulties, as an individual, and also as a brand.

Make your audience believe in the fact that you understand all their struggles, as you have also dealt with them, but now you know a new way to win over those same problems.

This is the best way to hook your audience's attention to what you’re about to present as a solution in the form of your service or product. So, how you bring your audience closer and connect with them in a way that develops trust and engagement is the most important thing.

Get rid of the language barriers

When it comes to presentations this is a very sensitive topic because it’s easy to go into both extremes. Not using any related industry terms and jargon that people from your field will identify with is not good, or using way too much of them to an extent where people can no longer understand what you are actually talking about.

Try to mix your vocabulary with the kind of terminology of your audience you are presenting to and the industry that they are a part of. This develops credibility and trust as you position yourself as someone who knows what they’re talking about.

Use your data to support your points

The most engaging story will also fail without having some numbers and hard facts that put everything into a realistic outlook. When data is used in your favor then it helps to eliminate any place for doubt in what you are talking about.

Data should be used as proof for backing up your statements and the answers you provide when your audience begins to question your arguments. It becomes really difficult to argue with the numbers, but the main game is in the way you present them to your audience.

Challenge your audience with a plot twist

An unexpected turn of events caused by the hurdles and problems that you are trying to resolve with the main idea of your presentation is the plot twist. It should be something that your audience was not at all expecting or a list of hurdles that make the whole situation seem too hard to get out.

Make your audience be more involved with what you’re offering as a solution.

You can do this by developing tension and curiosity because the outcome of your presentation turns into something unexpected. Find out hurdles you can set in such a way where only one problem could have the capability to destroy the whole journey to the promised land.

Utilize metaphors and relevant analogies

Metaphors and analogies are authentic comparisons you use to paint a picture in the audience’s mind. Your audience can instantly understand an adequate analogy as it is an ideal way to guide them to make a connection to your story.

You should use analogy once you reach a point in your presentation where you require to explain some particular thing simply for your audience to understand. When you use the correct analogy at the correct time it can be something shocking, it can be humorous, but most of all – it should be realistic and as relevant as possible to the topic.

Use pauses from time to time

Pause is one of the most powerful tools for the storyteller. The time when everything 

stops for a few brief moments that moment of silence while your audience’s interest and engagement are at their peak.

This usually happens when your audience either leaps forward in suspense waiting curiously to know what will happen next or takes a few seconds to acknowledge and process what you just said. Pauses should be used wisely and meaningfully, not at any random moment of your speech where they begin backfiring in a way that you start losing your audience’s attention.

There are only key moments where the power of the pause works that are usually while explaining a complicated topic or situation to give your audience enough room for processing it. Or right before you present the ultimate solution for the tension you’ve been developing by listing the struggles and hurdles that your audience is dealing with.

Classic storytelling techniques for engaging presentations

An excellent public speaker leaves the audience feeling inspired and encouraged by taking them on a journey. But the most challenging thing to face is structuring your speech to get your ideas across and keep your audience occupied all the way through. Check out these below explained storytelling techniques for a presentation that will wow your audience.

Monomyth

This story structure is found in many folk tales, myths, and religious writings globally. It is also called the hero's journey.

In this, the hero is told to leave their home and set out on a really hard journey. Usually, the hero moves from a known place into a threatening unknown place.

The hero returns back home with a reward or newfound wisdom after overcoming a great trial. This reward is usually something that will help their community. Many modern stories follow this structure, till now. 

Thus, using the monomyth structure to shape your presentation will help you to elucidate whatever has brought you to the wisdom you want to deliver. It can bring your message to life.

Benefits

• The audience journey.
• Showing the risk-taking benefits.
• Showcasing the way you learned some newfound wisdom

The Mountain

This structure maps the tension and drama in a story. It is the same as monomyth as it helps us to arrange when particular events happen in a story.

It doesn’t necessarily have a happy ending that is why it’s different. The scene is set in the first part of the story and is followed by just a series of small problems and rising action before a climactic end.

Each episode has its ups and downs so it’s a bit like a TV series, all developing to a huge finale at the end of the season.

Benefits

• Demonstrating the way you conquered a series of challenges
• Developing tension slowly
• Presenting a satisfying conclusion

LOOPS Nested Loops

Here three or more narratives are layered within each other.

The most important story is placed as the core of your message – in the center, and stories are used around it to elucidate that central principle. The story you begin at first is the story you finish in the last, then the second story you begin comes second to last, and so on. Nested loops structure is somewhat like a friend telling you about a wise person in their life, like about any person who taught them an essential lesson. In the first loops are your friend's story and the second is the wise person's story. In the mid is where the important lesson lies.

Benefits

• Describing the process of the way you were inspired or came to the conclusion
• Explaining a central concept using analogies
• Demonstrating the way a piece of wisdom was passed along to you

Sparklines

It is a way of mapping presentation structures. Some argue that the best speeches win because they contrast our ordinary world with a better, ideal world. This brings attention to the challenges we have in our society, our personal lives, our businesses. The storyteller builds and fuels a desire for change in the audience.

This technique is highly emotional that will surely motivate your audience to help you.

Benefits

• Motivating the audience for taking action
• Developing hope and excitement
• Making a following

In Medias Res

In this form of storytelling you start your narrative in the heat of the moment, before explaining the way you got there.

As in this, you drop your audience straight into the most exciting part of your story they will be latched on to from the start and will stay involved to know what happens.

But you need to stay cautious – do not give away too much of the action directly. Try to hint at something unusual or unexpected – that needs more explaining. Give that much information to your audience that keeps them hooked, as you go back and place the scene of your story.

One of the disadvantages of this that it only works for shorter presentations though if you stretch it out too long your audience will get frustrated and start to lose interest.

Benefits

• Catching and holding attention from the start
• Maintain an audience craving resolution
• Concentrating on a pivotal moment in your story

Converging Ideas

It is a speech structure that demonstrates to the audience the way different strands of thinking came together to make a single product or idea.

It can show the birth of any movement. Or also describe the way a single idea was the climax of many great minds working towards a common goal.

This structure is somewhat similar to the nested loop structure, but instead of framing one story with complementary stories, it can show the way many equally crucial stories came to one solid end.

Benefits

• Demonstrating the way great minds came together
• Showing the way a development occurred at a particular point in history
• Demonstrating the way symbiotic relationships have formed

False Start

In this, you entice your audience into a false sense of security and then surprise them by turning the tables.

This works well for explaining a time when you failed in something and were forcefully sent back to the beginning to reevaluate. It works the best for discussing the things that you learned from that experience. Or the unique way you used to solve your problem.

It will ruin your audience’s expectations and surprise them into paying more close attention to your message. 

Benefits

• Ruining audience expectations
• Demonstrating the advantages of a flexible approach
• Keeping the audience involved

Petal Structure

In this multiple speakers or stories are arranged around one central concept. It helps in case you have many unconnected stories you want to deliver or the things you want to show – that all relate back to a particular message. Before going back to the center you tell your stories one after the other. As one story introduces the next, the petals can overlap but each should be a complete narrative in itself.

While doing so, you can weave strong emotional impressions around your idea. 

You leave your audience feeling the true importance of your message by showing them the way these main stories are related to one another

Benefits

• Showing the way strands of a story are interconnected
• Demonstrating the way many scenarios relate back to one idea
• Allowing different speakers to talk around a central them

Structure Your Presentation Like a Story 

Usually, the most impactful presenters use the same techniques as great storytellers: They reveal the path to a better way after reminding people of the status quo. They set up a conflict that requires to be resolved.

That stress helps them convince the audience to accept a new mentality or act differently — to proceed from what is to what it could be. And when presenters follow Aristotle’s three-part story structure having the beginning, middle, end, they craft a message that’s easy to accept, recollect, and retell.

Here is the way to incorporate it in your own presentations.

Create the Starting

Begin by explaining about life as the audience is aware of it. The main purpose is to make people nod their heads in recognition because you are expressing things they already know. This helps to build a bond between you and them and opens them up to listen to your ideas for change.

Build the Middle

Now your audience knows their world is bizarre, so keep playing up the contradiction between what is and what could be.

Create a Powerful Ending

Not any presenter wants to end with a troublesome list of to-dos. Surely, incorporate an inspiring call to action so people become interested to act. Explain how much better their world will become if they adopt your ideas.

Coming to the end

Entrepreneurs leverage storytelling to encourage and involve teams, captivate customers, and obtain attention from potential investors. In this E-book, you have discovered classic storytelling techniques for engaging the audience to get results.

What You Have Learned With It

In addition, this E-book also has made you learn the basic structure to develop trust, gain attention, and call others to action. Now you know how to develop an engaging story that encourages buy-in and belief. 

What Is The Need Of It

Stories help to relate with people, both emotionally and intellectually. Most inspirational leaders take the help of storytelling to convey a vision and encourage action.

What You Can Do With It Now

This E-Book will help you to master the art of storytelling to make meaningful connections and thus provide you with business outcomes. Apply them to impactful storytelling to optimize discussions and reduce emotional confrontations. Become the light in the room, to which everyone wants to get close!