Storytelling Secrets: Grabbing Attention in Seven Seconds

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Mastering the Art of Storytelling: The Power of the Opening

 In this episode, Mary emphasizes the critical importance of a captivating story opening. 

She introduces the 'stand and start' technique, urging storytellers to dive directly into the story to immediately hook the audience. Avoid generic thank yous and small talk that can lead to disengagement. Instead, start with compelling, descriptive scenes or thought-provoking questions. 

Mary also touches on the ethics of storytelling, aiming to inspire rather than manipulate, and teases future episodes covering voice techniques, pausing, and more to enhance your storytelling prowess.

00:00 Introduction to Storiespire Podcast
00:20 Newsletter Announcement
00:56 Starting Your Story Effectively
02:48 Engaging Your Audience
05:34 Using Questions to Captivate
07:08 Conclusion and Upcoming Topics

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Episode Transcript

(00:00):
Welcome to the Storiespirepodcast.
I'm Mary R.
Snyder.
I am your host and storytellingstrategist.
I'm here with expert advice,actionable tips, and frameworks
to create the stories that willinspire hearts and minds because
stories change the world.
Let's get into it.
Hey there, before we dive intoour story telling tip today, let

(00:28):
me share with you something Ihave for you.
It's a newsletter.
It's short.
It's sweet.
It comes once a week.
It will not clog up your emailbox.
It is the Story Spire News, andit's a tip from me, a link to
the podcast, and then aninspiring story.
I love to find a fun story toshare.

(00:48):
Now you can find that atstoriespire.
com.
Just click join Mary.
Let's start at the beginning.
How do you open a story?
How do you start talking whenyou step on a stage?
Now, many of you know, I'm a fanof what is known as stand and

(01:14):
start.
Now that is not easy foreveryone, but that is walking
onto the stage, taking a deepbreath and diving right into the
middle of your story.
And what does that look like?
What does that mean?
What does that feel?
It can feel awkward.
I'm going to be completelytransparent and honest with you.

(01:36):
It can feel a little bit jarringto you, but it also is the most
effective tool you have.
To connect and to captivate youraudience.
And that's your job.
Now you're walking out there.
You've got this incrediblemessage you want to share.
You have this great story of thefabulous work that you are doing

(01:59):
in your nonprofit.
You're sharing a story of hopeand resilience and you walk out
there and you start talkingabout all kind of Thanks.
You're thanking people forinviting you.
Oh, thank you so much for havingme here.
We're so appreciative that youwould allow us to come and thank
you so much.
And isn't the weather great?

(02:20):
And the traffic in Dallas isawful.
I mean, it always is.
I don't live in Dallas and ifyou do, God bless you.
But you are talking about allthe things and people are doing
this.
They're picking up those phonesand they're going.
Oh, well, they're not sayinganything of interest yet.

(02:42):
And so you've lost them beforeyou've even have a chance to
catch them.
When you walk onto a stage totell a story, or you click open
a video to tell a story, youstart in the middle of the
story.
It was a house.
It looked like something youprobably wouldn't even have in

(03:05):
your yard.
The ceiling was falling in.
There were only three corrugatedmetal ish type walls.
They were rusted, water leakedin.
But this was Ronaldo's house.
This is where he lived.
And it was unsafe.
And it was unsanitary.

(03:28):
And it was not okay.
With me.
Immediately, I have dropped youinto the middle of a story.
I'm somewhere, we don't knowyet, but this is where Rinaldo
lives and I have told you thatit is unsafe, unsanitary, and
not okay.
Do you want to know the rest ofthe story?
I hope you do.

(03:48):
And if you're telling a personalstory, it could be something as
simple as that was it.
This is the last straw.
I'm not going to do thisanymore.
I packed up, I walked out, and Inever looked back.
First of all, I want to knowwhere you went.
Who was, what'd you leave for?
And there's one that one of myspeakers does that I love, and

(04:09):
she says, I ran away from homeat 50, and it took my husband
three days to realize I wasgone.
Don't tell me you don't want tohear the rest of that story.
Captivating people with anopening is what brings them in.
Now, you've captured theirattention, you've got them.
Now you've got to take themthrough the journey you are

(04:32):
going to take them on.
But if you don't get them in thefirst seven seconds, is what all
the experts say, we have sevenseconds to capture their
attention.
And if we don't capture it inthe first seven seconds, we
don't have it.
How will you captivate youraudience in seven seconds?
What will you share?

(04:52):
You could do a startlingstatistic.
It could be something like over5, 000 children died in the last
six months due to unclean water.
You saw that startlingstatistic.
Maybe it's something as simpleas imagine you have the power to

(05:15):
create peace, or you can createlove, or you can create
discernment among the people.
Which one will you choose?
That's a question, isn't it?
But do you see what thosestartling questions do?
Questions are a great way.
If you are not comfortable withdropping somebody in the story,

(05:38):
Then is there a question you canask?
When I worked in the nonprofitsector I did appeals for people
and I helped script them andsome people just weren't
comfortable with starting.
And so I would tell them, whynot start with a question?
What if you had the power tochange one person's life?
Would you do it?

(05:59):
Everyone's like, yes.
Let me tell you about one personwho changed the life of Susan, I
unpack the story of a sponsorthat sponsored Susan and changed
her life, and then at the end ofthat, I would flip that to now,

(06:19):
are you willing to raise yourhand and be the one person to
change a life for another child?
I'm very careful not tomanipulate.
I always want to inspire, asspeakers, as communicators, we
have the ability to manipulateand we don't ever want to do
that.
So we want to captivate.

(06:43):
We want to capture attention.
We want to inspire people toaction, but none of that
happens.
If we don't open well, soopening well, creating the
opening that is going to lean.
Everyone will lean in.
Now we're going to talk moreabout other parts of helping

(07:06):
people lean in.
We're going to do work on thepower of the pause.
We're going to talk about allmanner of how you use your
voice, the speed of your voicethe timbre of your voice,
whether it's really high orreally, really low, whether it
is incredibly loud and upbeat,or it is soft and quiet.

(07:30):
We're going to talk about allthat over this next few episodes
as we really lean into what itmeans to be a powerful
storyteller.
All right, you have a great restof your day.
Bye for now.