Let Me Tell You a Story:

Created by Susan Joy Schleef

Created by Susan Joy Schleef

What the Experts Say About Making Your Audience the Hero of the Story

“Human beings have always told their histories and truths through parable and fable. We are inveterate storytellers.”

~ Beeban Kidron, English film director

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“When we read dry, factual arguments, we read with our dukes up. We are critical and skeptical.

But when we are absorbed in a story we drop our intellectual guard.”

~ Jonathan Gottschall, The Storytelling Animal

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“Stories are the natural way people process information. … Stories aren’t just for fun. No matter

how dry you think your information is, using stories will make it understandable, interesting, and memorable.”

~ Susan M. Weinschenk, 100 Things Every Designer Needs to Know About People

“Even if you’re a middle manager delivering financials to your department in slides, you’re telling a story. A manager

is constantly trying to persuade, contrasting where their team is today vs. where they want them to be.”

~ Nancy Duarte, Resonate: Present Visual Stories That Transform Audiences

“There is a story locked in every chart.”

~ Bruce Gabrielle, Speaking PowerPoint: The New Language of Business

“Storytelling isn’t about opening your talk with a funny anecdote about your uncle’s prizewinning sturgeon. It’s about building

a message using a powerful story line with a conflict and a resolution.”

~ Jonah Sachs, co-founder, Free Range Studios author, Winning the Story Wars

“Funny as it may sound, storytelling should not

be confused with telling stories.”

~ Alexei Kapterev,

Presentation Secrets

“A story structure literally ties together scattered pieces of information. A story can also help you focus your ideas, clarify your words and images, and produce an engaging experience for both you and your audience.”

~ Cliff Atkinson, Beyond Bullet Points

“Storytelling is nothing but putting facts in

a sequence and making connections.”

~ Alexei Kapterev, Presentation Secrets

Photo by Bill Branson

“Storytelling is the creative documentation of truth. A story is the living

proof of an idea, the conversion of idea to

action. A story’s event structure is the means by which you first express, then prove your idea … without explanation.”

~ Robert McKee, Story: Substance, Structure, Style and the

Principles of Screenwriting

“ ‘What is the use of a book,’ thought Alice, ‘without pictures

or conversations?’ “

~ Alice in Wonderland by Lewis Carroll

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“Stories may contain analogies or metaphors, powerful tools for bringing people in and helping them to understand our thoughts clearly and concretely.”

~ Garr Reynolds, Presentation Zen

“You have to seize on those visuals your listener’s brain already understands from experience.”

~ Anne Miller, Metaphorically Selling

“Presentations are closer in form to movies or television than to speeches.”

~ Susan Joy Schleef, PresentationsWithResults.com

“At its core, effective presentation design is

about revealing the truth. It’s about utilizing visuals

as a backdrop to your story in order to further

engage the senses, turning your presentation

into an experience.”

~ Jon Thomas, @Story_Jon

“… a sequence of concise statements works dynamically to create the underpinnings for a

compelling visual story in PowerPoint.”

~ Cliff Atkinson, Beyond Bullet Points

“A story is a tale with a beginning, a middle, and an end. It’s a quest … Whether it’s returning to Kansas

(Dorothy in The Wizard of Oz) or killing the witch (Hansel and Gretel), this journey is the story, the plot,

the means by which your character’s strengths and weaknesses are unveiled, his or her lessons learned.”

~ Barbara Shapiro, novelist

“… the Hero Quest forms the backbone of plot. This is the universal adventure, the journey –

psychological, physical, or emotional – that we take in both literature and life when we set out

in search of knowledge and wisdom.”

~ Nancy Lamb, The Art and Craft of Storytelling

“If a story is not about the hearer, he will not listen.”

~ John Steinbeck, American novelist

Photo by Douglas Sladen Source: Wikimedia Commons

“You have to know what problem you’re solving for your audience because they don’t really care about your story.

You’re only telling them your story because it’s their story. … How is your story helping you give a

message that’s going to solve their problem?”

~ Devorah Spilman, storyteller & entrepreneur

“Stories are the creative conversion of life itself into a more powerful, clearer, more meaningful experience.

They are the currency of human contact.”

~ Robert McKee, Story: Substance, Structure, Style and the Principles of Screenwriting

Susan “Joy” Schleef http://PresentationsWithResults.com

Copyright 2013 Presentations With Results, Inc.

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