4 Storytelling Myths That Hold You Back—And What You Need to Know Instead

[00:00:00] As a storytelling coach, I have worked with a number of working professionals, entrepreneurs, business owners and coaches.

[00:00:09] And from time to time, I come across a number of myths which are there when it comes to storytelling.

[00:00:15] So in this episode of Confident Storytelling Podcast, I am going to share with you 4 major myths related to storytelling that I hear all the time.

[00:00:26] So let's get started.

[00:00:27] If you are a coach, entrepreneur or mid-career or senior professional and has ever wondered what is all this buzz about storytelling and can it really do something for me?

[00:00:43] Then you my friend are at the right place.

[00:00:46] In this Confident Storytelling Podcast, we are going to deep dive into what is storytelling, how does it apply to you and how you can be the next confident storyteller.

[00:00:58] Let's get started.

[00:01:04] So one of the first myth and it is very common across is that the stories have to have a happy-co-lucky kind of ending.

[00:01:15] And I won't blame Bollywood and web series for that.

[00:01:20] But maybe it is the case that most of the stories have a hero and there is a villain.

[00:01:27] And at the end of it, it all turns out to be well.

[00:01:30] And that is what we have been programmed into.

[00:01:33] But we need to understand that as a business storyteller, as a storyteller, while it's great to have a happy-co-lucky ending and that has got its own place.

[00:01:47] But that is not the only type of stories.

[00:01:50] There are stories where you can have a tragic ending.

[00:01:54] There are stories where things may not go as planned.

[00:01:58] And sometimes I feel that those stories are even more impactful.

[00:02:03] For example, if you have to talk about the best practices or lessons learned, it doesn't have to have a very happy ending.

[00:02:12] But it could be where something went wrong.

[00:02:15] But you learn the lesson and that is why you have created this best practices and lesson learned so that those tragic things don't happen again.

[00:02:25] So one of the biggest myths that I hear all the time is that story should have a happy or good, feel good ending.

[00:02:35] It can have but it must not have.

[00:02:39] It can have a tragic ending but there could be lesson.

[00:02:42] As long as the lessons learned are relevant to the audience, it's completely alright.

[00:02:48] Now let's go to the second one.

[00:02:50] And this one is again a very big one because this myth is that you need to be a born or a natural storyteller.

[00:03:01] Now, yeah, I agree some of the people are natural storyteller and they've got this whole aura around them and people love to listen to them.

[00:03:15] But let's be practical.

[00:03:17] But let's be practical.

[00:03:18] 99% of us are not like that.

[00:03:21] And in general, I believe that storytelling is a skill which means that it's a learnable thing.

[00:03:27] So there are so many examples of, you know, you take politicians, you take sports person, you take business leaders who were not great in terms of speaking and storytelling when they started.

[00:03:43] But they worked on it.

[00:03:45] They focused on it.

[00:03:46] They practiced it.

[00:03:47] And that's how they became.

[00:03:49] In fact, when I started my corporate journey, I was pretty bad.

[00:03:54] And I talk about in one of my webinars where I literally had to give a presentation in front of 20-30 people.

[00:04:04] And it was a very high-stack presentation.

[00:04:08] And I totally messed it up.

[00:04:11] I finished one hour presentation in 15 minutes and it was a big disaster.

[00:04:17] Almost got fired.

[00:04:19] But the point is that I evolved from there.

[00:04:24] I started consciously working on that skill, getting into training and workshop and coaching.

[00:04:31] And that's how I have reached to a place where this has become my full-time profession.

[00:04:36] So if there is anything that you can learn from the story is that you don't need to be a born storyteller.

[00:04:46] You can learn and then you can become a great storyteller.

[00:04:52] So I hope that is point number two which you will note down.

[00:04:56] Now let's move to the third one which is again a big misconception of myth which is around.

[00:05:03] And again this is because some of the speakers they tend to take advantage of the stage time

[00:05:12] and tend to keep that story so long that there is a myth that the stories that we present have to be long and detailed.

[00:05:24] So I will not denying that there is a place and time for that.

[00:05:28] But in general if we are talking about business storytelling,

[00:05:31] if we are talking about presentation storytelling or data storytelling,

[00:05:34] it doesn't have to be unnecessarily big.

[00:05:38] It could be short.

[00:05:41] It could be to the point where you talk about the incident and let's learn and move on.

[00:05:47] It doesn't have to be 10 minutes, 15 minutes, 20 minutes long.

[00:05:53] So and this is one of the biggest myths I have seen with the corporate people who think that

[00:05:59] or go oh no I can't be a great storyteller because I have to speak for 15 minutes about a story.

[00:06:06] You don't necessarily have to.

[00:06:09] In fact as they say the shorter the story, the more impact it can have.

[00:06:15] So if you have to choose between a short story or long story,

[00:06:21] I would recommend you choose a short story to the point which passes the message

[00:06:27] and it's not losing the essence of the story.

[00:06:32] So that's the third myth.

[00:06:34] And let's move on to the fourth one which again is a very big myth when it comes to storytelling.

[00:06:43] And that myth is that stories are for big moments only.

[00:06:50] Now I'm not as I said for all those myths I'm not saying that it's not.

[00:06:55] Like if you had a big achievement of course you have a story to tell.

[00:06:58] If you went to Mount Everest, you got no big standing ovation,

[00:07:04] you got a big raise or you got a new job.

[00:07:07] These are big moments and you can definitely use storytelling for that to share that.

[00:07:14] But having said that,

[00:07:16] there is also beauty in everyday situations.

[00:07:22] Like you're having a small conversation

[00:07:24] and you really have a aha moment.

[00:07:29] I'll tell you last week we had one person who come to fix our water supply

[00:07:38] and he said something which was so profound.

[00:07:42] He said that,

[00:07:43] Sir, we don't get paid on a monthly or weekly basis.

[00:07:49] We have to dig our well everyday and then drink from there.

[00:07:57] Now he said in a jokingly way but it was indeed very touching for me

[00:08:02] because yeah, we sometimes feel that okay,

[00:08:05] I've got things and we take things for granted.

[00:08:07] But not everybody is like that.

[00:08:11] There are people and millions and millions of people

[00:08:14] who have to earn their bread every single day.

[00:08:21] And the point is,

[00:08:22] are we grateful for what we have?

[00:08:24] If you're listening to the podcast,

[00:08:26] I'm assuming that you are having the basic necessities met for your life

[00:08:34] and I hope you are being grateful for that.

[00:08:37] So see,

[00:08:39] what I did here was,

[00:08:40] it was a very small moment

[00:08:43] between a technician and me,

[00:08:45] a one minute conversation

[00:08:46] but that I put a story around it

[00:08:49] and I also added a lesson to it.

[00:08:52] So it was not a big moment.

[00:08:53] It was not a big revelation

[00:08:55] but I had an aha moment I shared with you.

[00:08:58] So of course there are places for doing the big stories,

[00:09:01] big moments

[00:09:02] but also if you start observing,

[00:09:06] if you start recording these everyday conversation,

[00:09:08] we have so many interesting things happening on every day,

[00:09:13] every single day

[00:09:14] that we can get lot of stories

[00:09:17] which can be very, very impactful.

[00:09:21] So just to give a quick recap

[00:09:23] of all the four myths that we discussed.

[00:09:27] The first myth was that

[00:09:28] all the stories need to have a happy ending

[00:09:32] and the answer is no.

[00:09:34] It doesn't have to be.

[00:09:35] It can be tragic

[00:09:36] as long as it is relevant

[00:09:39] and there is a lesson for the audience.

[00:09:41] Number two was that

[00:09:42] you need to be a born natural storyteller

[00:09:46] and again,

[00:09:47] storytelling is a skill

[00:09:49] that you can learn over time

[00:09:51] and get better over time.

[00:09:52] So you don't have to be a born storyteller.

[00:09:55] Your story is one good example of that.

[00:09:58] Then third one was that

[00:09:59] your stories have to be long and detailed.

[00:10:03] Again,

[00:10:03] not required

[00:10:05] the shorter the story,

[00:10:08] the more the impact.

[00:10:10] So it doesn't have to be long and detailed.

[00:10:12] It can be very short to the point

[00:10:14] and not losing the essence.

[00:10:17] And the fourth one is that

[00:10:19] it is not stories

[00:10:21] are not only for big moments.

[00:10:23] It can be part of

[00:10:25] everyday conversation,

[00:10:27] meeting,

[00:10:28] social media posts

[00:10:29] or anything like that

[00:10:30] where you are getting

[00:10:32] certain revelation,

[00:10:34] you are learning something,

[00:10:35] you are sharing something.

[00:10:36] So I hope these

[00:10:39] myths have helped you

[00:10:40] and learn a little bit more

[00:10:42] about storytelling.

[00:10:43] And if you are somebody

[00:10:44] who is interested

[00:10:45] to learn more

[00:10:46] about the secrets of storytelling,

[00:10:48] I conduct

[00:10:50] on a regular basic

[00:10:51] something called

[00:10:52] secrets of storytelling masterclass.

[00:10:54] I'm going to put a link

[00:10:55] in the show notes.

[00:10:56] So please do register

[00:10:58] for the next

[00:11:00] masterclass

[00:11:01] and I'll

[00:11:02] I hope to see you there.

[00:11:04] And as I say every time

[00:11:06] until next time,

[00:11:07] keep learning,

[00:11:09] keep growing

[00:11:09] and keep going

[00:11:10] out of your comfort zone.

[00:11:13] I'll see you

[00:11:13] in the next episode

[00:11:15] of

[00:11:16] Confident Storytelling Podcast.

[00:11:21] Thank you so much

[00:11:23] for listening

[00:11:23] to this episode

[00:11:24] of Spotcast.

[00:11:25] Hope you found

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[00:11:46] I hope you have

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[00:11:49] Until next time,

[00:11:50] as I say

[00:11:50] every time,

[00:11:52] keep learning,

[00:11:53] keep growing

[00:11:54] and keep going

[00:11:55] out of your comfort zone.

[00:11:57] This is Harito Srivastava.

[00:11:58] See you next week.