9 amazing storytelling techniques you must use to nail your next presentation

It’s challenging to keep your audience engaged while trying to communicate your key messages effectively. Telling stories that take your audience on a journey and appeal to their emotions is a good way to do this.

Storytelling transforms data into a narrative, and narratives motivate people to take action. This underestimated power of narratives has the potential to impact how we make decisions and persuade others to embrace our ideas.

The power of storytelling

A crucial aspect of storytelling is giving your audience an emotional experience. Stories that reach the listener’s hearts and minds inspire people to take action. They are the most efficient technique of organizing information in presentations. They are a powerful way of communicating ideas and motivating others to take action.

9 different ways of storytelling that you can use in your presentations to hook your audience

1. Hero’s Journey

This technique follows a protagonist who embarks on a journey. They can only come home with newfound knowledge after overcoming challenges along the way.

It explains the process to them from your point of view, and it brings the message to life via human experiences that include hardships and triumphs. It’s a humanizing method that establishes trust and builds a sense of relatability.

2. Future Stories

This story technique focuses on a point in time when the issue has been addressed and the benefits have been attained. It motivates the audience by getting them to think about future possibilities.

As the tale of the future becomes realistic, the greater the chance that the audience will feel the tangible results.

3. Sparklines

This style of presentation recognizes current day issues and lets your audience imagine a world where that challenge is resolved by alternating between hope and reality.

Rhythm is very important in this situation. It’s worth noting that there’s a constant up-and-down flow. This is done to avoid overwhelming the audience with too much of a future outlook, which would make it feel out of touch with reality.

This presenting technique’s final step is to conclude on a high note to give the impression that the future is close at hand and that it can be achieved.

4. Petal Structure

This approach focuses on one particular central theme that is backed by a variety of ideas or speakers. It’s useful in instances where an audience needs the influence to believe or act on what’s being presented.

The audience can sense the relevance or weight of a message by seeing various perspectives that support it.

5. Converging Ideas

Converging ideas are used in a presentation to show how different people’s ideas came together to produce a single product or idea. It illustrates the origin of the concept as well as the steps taken to develop it.

The story begins with the first concept, which is followed by the second, third, and so on. It then binds all of the loose ends together.

6. In medias res

In this style of narrative, you get right into the action, giving a snippet/teaser of what’s going on before going into detail about the events that lead up to it.

This is intriguing because you’re starting your narrative at the most exciting point, which will pique the audience’s interest and make them curious about how you got there.

When you start the story, don’t give away too much of the action; you’ll want to describe it in more depth when you get to it chronologically. Consider implying that something surprising or odd is about to happen; just give the viewers enough information to pique their attention.

7. False start

When giving a false start, you begin by narrating a seemingly predictable storyline, then reveal something surprising before resuming the tale from a different perspective. This may be used to surprise the audience and pique their interest by contradicting their expectations.

It’s great for addressing times when you failed and had to start over, as well as what you learned from the event, such as an unique approach to fixing the problem.

8. The mountain

This is similar to the hero’s journey. The mountain begins with setting the scene, then includes a series of small difficulties and a build-up of action, ending in a dramatic conclusion. To overcome the last hurdle, the story will usually present something fresh.

9. Nested loops

In nested loops, three or more narratives are layered within each other. A character in your first narrative, for example, tells another story, and another character in that story tells another story, and so on.

The heart of your message is at the center, and the stories that surround it clarify or expand on it. Each nested table should be completed in the sequence in which it was introduced, for example, the first story you start should be the final story you complete, and so on.

Storytelling is the route to the heart of your audience

While analysis might thrill the mind, it rarely leads to the heart. To reach your listeners’ minds, you must first enter their hearts through information storytelling. This is especially true when disruptive change is necessary.

In a presentation, effective stories will help your material stick, and they will be appreciated and remembered long after the presentation is finished. The rarity of stories adds to their power. And you, as the speaker, will be pleased and will almost certainly achieve your goal!