Story Structures that Stick

Video + comments on LinkedIn

Story models and common mistakes I’ve learned in 13 years of consultancy—condensed into 7 minutes.

Timestamps:

0:00 Classic story structures
0:44 Rick Rubin on sticking a point

The 3 Sins of Storytelling

1:33 Sin 1: Thou shalt not bore
2:07 Tip: Memorable words are monogamous
2:52 Sin 2: Thou shalt court conflict
3:23 Sin 3: Ask and thou shalt answer

Story Structures

4:00 How much time/words do you need?
4:56 Three Act Structure
5:40 Five Slide Structure—for PowerPoint

Below is a one-page PDF on Dropbox that you can share/print if you have a meeting and need to discuss story structures. No PDF is perfect but these models have been road tested for many years and have won over all kinds of corporates.

Applicable to your pitch decks, videos, or website.

Resources

First off, all my storytelling ideas are remixes of what I've found (and forgotten) over the years. For example, I think the 5 slide structure is a blend of ideas mostly from Google Ventures, Carmine Gallo, Andy Raskin, and Blair Enns—and endless variations with clients.

• Kendra Hall on The Futur: How To Tell A Great Story 👈 wonderful hour-long breakdown from 2022
• Kurt Vonnegut on the Shapes of Stories 👈 five funny minutes from an absolute legend
• HBR's Telling Stories with Data 👈 Scott Berinato showing you in 5 mins how to use setup → conflict → resolution with charts
• If you are going to *really* nerd out, study Campbell's The Hero's Journey (1988 PBS 6-part The Power of Myth is hugely popular), and Freytag's Pyramid if you haven't done these classics.

Previously:

• Simplicity sells
• Positioning

Next up:

• Logo
• Style (by summer 2023)