Give me 9min, and I'll improve your storytelling skills by 176%

Summary

In "Give me 9min, and I'll improve your storytelling skills by 176%", Philipp Humm emphasizes the simplicity and power of storytelling when the right techniques are employed. Through the transcript, Humm guides the audience to understanding five key storytelling techniques: location, actions, thoughts, emotions, and dialogue. By mastering these elements, storytellers can transform mundane tales into engaging narratives. Humm illustrates these points with examples, including a demonstration of storytelling by Sarah Willingham, highlighting the impact of effective storytelling techniques in real-life scenarios.

Highlights

• Philipp Humm introduces the five essential storytelling techniques. 🎤
• Location helps your audience visualize the setting and context. 🏞️
• Using verbs and actions propels your story forward. ⏩
• Sharing authentic thoughts makes narratives relatable and memorable. 🧠
• Visualizing emotions through physical expressions adds depth. 😮
• Effective use of dialogue captures attention and conveys key moments. 🎭
• Beginner storytellers often make the mistake of over-detailing. ⚠️
• Sarah Willingham's story exemplifies these techniques in action. 👏
• Humm encourages exploring advanced storytelling strategies. 📚

Key Takeaways

• Effective storytelling hooks listeners by focusing on simplicity rather than complexity. 🎣
• Five vital techniques are location, action, thoughts, emotions, and dialogue. 🗺️
• Location: Start by stating your scene to help the audience visualize the story. 🏡
• Action: Describe your actions to momentum and keep listeners engaged. 🚴‍♂️
• Thoughts: Sharing raw, unfiltered thoughts makes stories more relatable. 💭
• Emotions: Show emotions through actions for a visual impact. 😢
• Dialogue: Utilize engaging dialogue to bring your story to life. 🗣️
• Avoid over-complicating details and aim for juicy, concise content. 🍑
• Advanced storytelling techniques extend beyond the foundational five. 🚀

Overview

Philipp Humm's 9-minute guide to storytelling is like a masterclass in narrative wizardry. He debunks the myth that storytelling is inherently complex, showing that it can be both simple and captivating if you know what ingredients to sprinkle in. Across the transcript, he dissects the art into five main techniques that have the power to transform dull recounts into gripping narratives.

By starting your story with a clear location, crafting actions with forward momentum, and expressing genuine thoughts and emotions, you're setting up a tale that’s more immersive for your audience. And then there's dialogue—a crucial component that breathes life and color into any story. Humm doesn't just talk the talk; he walks the walk by demonstrating these principles with excellent examples, encouraging his listeners to dive deeper into the storytelling craft.

Sarah Willingham's narrative serves as a live demonstration of Humm’s teachings, reinforcing the effectiveness of these techniques. She invites you into a personal story with vivid imagery and insightful dialogue, showing exactly how powerful these techniques can be. Humm's guide isn't just an intro; it’s a springboard into a more advanced storytelling journey, enticing viewers to further hone their narrative skills.

Chapters

• 00:00 - 00:30: Introduction to Storytelling The chapter introduces storytelling as a powerful tool to engage listeners, suggesting that much of the existing advice overcomplicates the process. It claims that storytelling is simple when focusing on the key elements that matter most. The speaker promises to reveal five essential storytelling techniques in just nine minutes, aimed at helping tell compelling narratives. An example from John Kinski, known from 'The Office', is mentioned as an illustration of a 20-second story.
• 00:30 - 01:00: Example by John Kinski This chapter focuses on storytelling and how to effectively engage an audience with a story. The speaker shares a personal anecdote about a conversation that highlights key elements of storytelling. The conversation revolves around the speaker revealing their spouse as the famous actress Emily Blunt, sparking surprise and admiration from the listener. This interaction is used to demonstrate the skill of narrating a story in a relatable and intriguing manner.
• 01:30 - 02:30: Technique 1: Location The chapter discusses the storytelling technique of zooming into a moment rather than summarizing events. It highlights how effective stories take the audience into the trenches, allowing them to be part of the physical moment. The chapter promises to introduce five specific storytelling techniques that can accomplish this effect.
• 02:30 - 03:30: Technique 2: Actions In Chapter titled 'Technique 2: Actions', the focus is on the importance of setting the location in a story. The chapter explains that stating where you are when telling a story helps your audience to visualize the scene, making the story more engaging. It gives examples such as mentioning sitting on a couch in the living room or standing outside a conference room, which allows listeners to picture the setting in their minds.
• 03:30 - 04:30: Technique 3: Thoughts The chapter emphasizes the importance of guiding an audience's imagination without overwhelming them with excessive details. Beginner storytellers often make the mistake of being too descriptive, such as providing intricate details of a conference room. Instead, the advice is to simply state the location, allowing the audience to create their own version of it in their minds. This approach helps maintain engagement and keeps the focus on the story itself.
• 04:30 - 05:30: Technique 4: Emotions The chapter emphasizes the importance of focusing on specific actions in a story, rather than providing excessive and unnecessary context. It suggests stating clear and concise actions or verbs to describe what one is doing at a particular moment, such as 'walking,' 'biking,' 'shouting,' 'reading,' or 'waiting.' Examples provided include being in an office opening a laptop to read a manager's message or waiting in line at airport security.
• 05:30 - 06:30: Technique 5: Dialogue This chapter focuses on the technique of 'Dialogue' as a pivotal method in storytelling. The emphasis is on the importance of using direct actions to create engagement and momentum, making the listener feel like they're instantly part of the story. It is suggested that stating actions directly helps to prevent wasting time and captures the audience's attention by diving straight into the essential aspects of the narrative. Moreover, this technique anchors the audience in the present moment of the story.
• 07:00 - 09:00: Storytelling Example by Sarah Willingham The chapter focuses on enhancing storytelling techniques by highlighting the importance of expressing emotions and thoughts vividly. Instead of using generic expressions such as being 'excited' or 'disappointed,' the author, Sarah Willingham, suggests illustrating specific thoughts and reactions to make stories more engaging. She provides examples, like personal narratives of meeting a crush or responding to a disappointing presentation, demonstrating how these detailed inner dialogues create a richer, more interesting story. The chapter emphasizes that even small tweaks in storytelling can significantly enhance the audience's engagement. Additionally, the author warns against a common storytelling mistake where people tend to stick to mundane expressions, urging a more vivid and emotional approach.
• 09:00 - 10:00: Conclusion and Next Steps In the conclusion chapter, the author emphasizes the importance of sharing genuine, raw, and unfiltered thoughts instead of overly professional and intellectual-sounding ones. The recommendation is to include thoughts that are relatable, even if they are 'ranchy,' juicy, or a little neurotic. This approach is believed to make storytelling more relatable and engaging. Additionally, the chapter hints at the next steps involving the use of emotions, although it is not further elaborated in the transcript.

Give me 9min, and I'll improve your storytelling skills by 176% Transcription

• 00:00 - 00:30 hey there storytelling is one of the most powerful tools to hook your listeners and keep them glued to every word you say but hey a lot of the advice that is out there make it sound way too complicated but the truth is storytelling is actually pretty simple if you know what really matters if you just give me 9 Minutes you'll discover the five storytelling techniques to tell insanely good stories but before we do that let me show you a quick example by John Kinski whom you might know from the office it's a 20 second story so really
• 00:30 - 01:00 short but it's so powerful by the end of today you'll know exactly how to tell stories just like him and then I said yeah and he said says uh who are you visiting here I said my wife and he says is she an actress I said yeah he said would I know her I I don't know man her name's Emily Blunt he goes he goes you and I went yeah and he goes you you married Emily Blunt now I go yeah and he goes this okay go did you notice what he did there he didn't just
• 01:00 - 01:30 summarize the events he didn't say oh yeah back then I was at customs and the agent asked me what I was doing and I responded I was an actor and he was very surprised he doesn't do that he doesn't summarize the events instead he zoomed into the moment of the story the best stories don't just summarize events they don't stay at that helicopter level they zoom into the moment they take us into the trenches they let us be part of that physical moment the good thing is it's not that difficult I'm now going to show you five techniques that you you can use
• 01:30 - 02:00 in all of your stories first technique location say where you are the best stories start by stating the location where are you physically examples 2 weeks ago I'm sitting on my couch in my living room taking a deep breath or September 2019 I'm standing in front of the conference room ready to walk inside now why does it matter to State the location because the moment you say conference room or living room your audience will start to visualize it they're like o yes I I know a conference
• 02:00 - 02:30 room and they start to visualize their version of that conference room now beginner storytellers they often do the mistake that they give too many details they're like oh in that conference room there was a big table a television and a wooden floor don't do that don't do that it doesn't matter just stay the location as long as they can visualize it it doesn't matter all the details they have their own version of that location second technique actions what are you
• 02:30 - 03:00 doing in that specific moment of the story instead of giving way too much context about all the random stuff that doesn't matter just say what are you doing in that specific moment that can be walking biking shouting reading waiting whatever it is just State the actions State the verbs examples I'm in my office I open my laptop and start reading a message by my manager or 2 weeks ago I'm at the airport waiting and lineing at security now why does it
• 03:00 - 03:30 matter to State the actions because it brings in forward momentum it takes the listener right into the moment when you do that your audience will immediately know that you won't waste their time you're straight away taking them into the most important part of the story third technique thoughts what are you thinking we as humans have thousands and thousands of thoughts every single day a lot of those thoughts are hopes dreams plans fears worries crazy thoughts now share some of those thoughts of that
• 03:30 - 04:00 crucial moment of the story example instead of saying I was excited to meet my crush say I thought ah this will be so cool right finally I can see her after all that time or instead of saying I was very disappointed about that presentation say I thought oh man this is bad right everyone will think now I'm stupid I can never go back there do you see the difference it's a tiny tweak but it makes any story more interesting but hey a common mistake is that people
• 04:00 - 04:30 share thoughts that sound too professional too intellectual they say something like I thought this represents a supreme opportunity now would your thoughts actually sound like that probably not right and so what you want to do is when you share your thoughts give us the raw unfiltered thoughts give us those a little bit like ranchy juicy a little bit neurotic thoughts now that will make your story much more relatable fourth technique emotions what are you
• 04:30 - 05:00 feeling the best stories they're emotional they take the listeners on this emotional journey and now with the thoughts with the previous technique you know now one technique to make it more emotional but there's another one the simplest way is to just stay an emotion so you say something like I was disappointed I was relieved I was happy now that is pretty standard right that is what most people do but it's not ideal because it is not really visual right when you hear someone saying I was
• 05:00 - 05:30 disappointed well you cannot visualize it and so the better way is to show the emotion show how it looks on the body on the face when you experience that emotion let me give you some examples instead of saying I was relieved say in that moment I lean backward and let out this big or instead of saying he was anxious say he kept tapping his pen on the on this table and he kept glancing up to the clock every few seconds
• 05:30 - 06:00 do you see the difference showing the emotion makes it much more visual it takes us into the specific moment of the story technique number five dialogue what are you hearing many of your stories will have more than one character maybe a manager your friend a coworker your dog whoever it is now what did the character say in that crucial moment of the story what were the exact words examples instead of saying my friend was very disappointed say in that
• 06:00 - 06:30 moment my friend looked at me and said Phillip what on Earth was that or instead of saying my manager was very happy with my work say in that moment my manager looked at me and said wow that was really the best presentation you've ever given now do you see the difference dialogue is such a simple tool to make any story much more interesting it is actually the tool that I use the most but I guess there's just one thing to
• 06:30 - 07:00 keep in mind similar as with the thoughts share the dialogue that is a little bit more interesting a little bit more juicy if you say something like in this moment my manager said well I'm very dissatisfied with the inadequate execution of that project well that would sound super boring right instead pick much more juicy much more concise and catchy doll all right now that you know the five most important elements in storytelling let's watch a quick one minute video to see those elements in
• 07:00 - 07:30 action that story is by Sarah Willingham who's a British entrepreneur investor and CEO of nightcap now when you watch the story see how she zooms into the moment can you spot when she shares the location the actions the thoughts the dialogue and the feelings so in my mid-20s I was running Acquisitions for pizzza Express and walked into a meeting room I was 2 minutes late for the meeting and the person on the opposite side of the table the lawyer
• 07:30 - 08:00 looked up and said oh thank goodness for that mine's uh white with one sugar please so I thought okay this is a moment walked around to the coffee made him his coffee but the coffee in front of him and said would anybody else like a coffee and um nobody said anything nobody wanted one I made myself a coffee and then sat back down again opposite him and as he looked up I watched the C drain from his face as he realized this
• 08:00 - 08:30 enormous assumption that he' made and it was such a beautiful moment in my career really empowering when I sat there and realized that actually this moment where I'd had impostor syndrome anyway running a meeting like this but I'd been completely misjudged by the people on the opposite side of the table was actually this incredible superpower cuz guess who walked out with the
• 08:30 - 09:00 Dale what an incredible Storyteller right today you learned the foundations you learned how to tell insanely good stories but hey there are also a few more advanced storytelling techniques out there in case you want to go deeper on this journey I would suggest to check out this next video in which you learn how to be a better Storyteller than 99% of the people see you there [Music]