Story templates provide a structure for your story. You answer a series of questions or provide a series of phrases. Now you have a story! For instance, you might have questions about the hero’s goal, obstacles, first steps, key insight, and final outcome, victory and/or success.
You’ll see lots of offers for story templates, especially this time of year. I’ve been asked if I’ve considered creating story templates. So far, the closest you’ll find from me is my popular course – From StoryTelling to StorySelling. In this course, you get a recipe – not a template – for a story you can use for selling.
Here are 3 points to consider whether you want to work with templates or develop your own story from scratch.
(1) There’s no one-size-fits-all structure for all your stories.
You might share a story to get more clients (a selling story). You might be promoting your expertise with a case study or success story.
If you’re a Role Model archetype, you might share a story to build rapport with your audience. We discussed this on my podcasts with Cindy Bidar and Ellen Finkelstein. (Good for listening if you’ve got a long drive coming up! They were both great guests.)
If you’re an Educator you might explain an idea with a concept story – an analogy. (Another podcast for your list.)
If you’re a Celebrity…you’re probably not reading this message.
(2) When you start a story, with or without a template, begin with the question, “What is the purpose of this story? What do I want the story to do?”
Business writing begins with purpose. If you’re not sure why you’re telling the story, why bother? And if you understand your purpose, you’ll have no trouble sharing the story.
(3) After you’ve written the story, ask the question, “Will this story resonate with my audience? Does it serve my purpose?”
Often it’s a good idea to spell out the lesson or add a call to action at the end of your email message, blog post, or article. For instance, if you’re telling a story about something you learned, you can say, “As a result of what I learned, I now offer this service.”
You may decide the final statement is so obvious you don’t need to include it…but more than once, I’ve written a conclusion and realized the story had moved in an unexpected direction. I had to go back and change the story…or decide to use the story in a new way.
For instance, I tell a story about the time an audience just didn’t “get” my story. The lesson could be selecting a story to match the audience. On re-reading the story, it made more sense to focus on having a backup story ready. Some mismatches are inevitable.
Bottom Line:
The best business storytellers start with the purpose. They’re strategists first and storytellers second. With templates, it’s tempting to focus on the story for its own sake. As a strategist, you might decide you don’t even need a story.
I explain in depth, with examples, in the Strategic Storytelling Podcast Episode #126: The best storytellers don’t begin with the story. They do these 3 things instead. Listen here.
Questions? Reply to this message and you’ll get answers fast!