How To Tell Better Stories: Matthew Dicks x Lenny's Podcast Notes
Recently listened to this podcast and I loved it — here are my notes.

by Kaila J. Lim

"The risk you take for not telling stories is that you will be forgotten."
Matthew Dicks, 2nd grade teacher and author of Storyworthy
5 Second Fundamental Moments of Change
  • Story is about a singular moment (1-5 seconds)
  • Transformation - I was this kind of person and now I’m a new kind
  • Realization - I used to think something and now I think a new thing
  • Accumulations of things and thoughts (may taken a long time) and then a singular moment when the flip happens
  • Purpose of a story is to bring that moment to the greatest clarity possible to the audience so the audience can experience that flip along with the storyteller
  • 98% of the story is the context to bring that single moment into fruition
  • Knowing the moment of change tells you how the story will end as the storyteller
  • Disagrees with the notion of “go do crazy things and you’ll have great stories” some of the best stories I tell are about tiny moments in our lives where nothing extraordinary happened except something in our head. Most things that happen to us happen in our heads not when we’re hanging from a cliff. It’s usually when we’re walking across the parking lot and then something hits us, it’s been building up for three weeks but suddenly just hits us.
  • Non-fiction storytellers starts at the end true stories about ourselves, products, companies, etc
Every Story Needs Stakes
  • Stakes = what your audience should be worried about , wanting for you, concerned about, wondering about
  • If they’re not wondering what you’re about to say they’re no longer listening to you
  • People in business think they have audiences attention
  • “I assume all the time 100% of the time that no one wants to hear anything I have to say so I am relentless in my attempt to be constantly wondering what the next sentence is.”
Different Types of Stakes in a Story
Elephant = upfront letting us know what to worry about (ie. Little spaceship in Star Wars)
Backpack = telling us what your plan is so we can hold your hopes and dreams too (ie Oceans Eleven)
Breadcrumbs = offer a bit of what’s going on but not everything, drop a hint (ie there’s a gun in the room)
Turning over an hourglass = where the more they want the next sentence that is when I prolong the arrival of the next sentence, you load your story with details as they’re on the edge of their seat
Crystal ball = predict the future and doesn’t need to be an accurate future (ie. If I pick on Eileen she might cry and 22 kids will be around her the next year, false future but worried nonetheless)
"You’ve never asked to see a PowerPoint presentation a second time."
  • Our minds are wired to enjoy story
  • Dinner test- a little bit elevated than what you would naturally share at dinner. Speaking in a natural way. Remove the “you knows,” and not staring with dialogue or a sound.
Tell your own story - if it’s not yours, then it’s fiction. It’s about someone else, you are unable to express any vulnerability
  • Key part of storytelling is being vulnerable.
  • Tell a story = I’m going to say stuff in a meaningful way, offering my heart and mind
The shortest version of every story is the best version of every story
Starting as close to the end of the story is the best place to begin. (Ex: if I have a moment of realization during dessert in a restaurant in Aruba, I may never tell them I’m in Aruba, I may start the story with ‘the desert hits the table and my wife said something that made me think.’)
Stories for Leadership Starts with Corporate Leaders Being more Personable
  • Look for ways in your narratives to insert yourself
  • Working clients into the story
  • “Personal interest inventory” list of things you should be saying about yourself that has an addressable market — how many people can this hit and the intensity of the connection
  • Married \ commitment relationships = big TAM (lots of people are married, but we don't connect on that experience of it)
  • Marathoners = high intensity low TAM (ie. few people in the population run marathon but when a marathoner meets another marathoner we connect instantly)
  • Don’t want to hear spokespeople share information
  • We want to hear human begins connect with you and offer you something perhaps has value
Stories for Business
Mindset = no one cares to listen to what you have to say 4 ways to keep attention:
  • Stakes - see above
  • Surprise - Steve Jobs in the master of this (watch his YouTube speeches)
  • Suspense - keeping audience suspended, leads to surprise
  • Humor - daring to be funny
Memorize Transitions
  • Don't memorize your story/speech.
  • Train yourself for the transitions: Most people don’t forget their talk they forget their transitions in their talk, forgetting where they are going to next.
Kaila's Final Thoughts
  • Really fun podcast, genuinely laughed out loud at the part where Matthew gives the example of starting a story with a sound at dinner table and how crazy he would look
  • He does not hold back on dropping nuggets and frameworks around storytelling and how to collect stories of your life
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