In this solo podcast episode, Sally Koering Zimney addresses her audience of "Movers" and outlines three advanced storytelling techniques that can elevate a speaker’s impact. She first introduces the "cold open," urging speakers to begin a story immediately without preamble to capture attention, citing Scott Berkun’s insight on the power of the moment before speaking. The second technique is the strategic use of silence and pauses, illustrated with a story about a speaker who stretched a 15‑minute talk into a longer experience by allowing ideas to sit, thereby conveying confidence, leadership, and emotional maturity. The third technique focuses on creating genuine drama within a story—building tension, slowing down pivotal moments, and using cliffhangers—to manipulate audience attention and keep listeners on the edge of their seats. Throughout, Sally emphasizes that all three methods serve the same purpose: directing audience focus and crafting a compelling experience. She concludes by promoting a free "5‑Minute Story Makeover" resource (videos and workbook) available at speakingstorymakeover.com and teases an upcoming course in September.
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Hey Movers, it is Sally. Welcome to episode 203. Oh my gosh, crazy. Today we're going to be talking about 3 approaches that can make you a storytelling pro. Oh my gosh, I'm super jazzed to hang with you again today and talk about all things speaking, story persuasion, moving our audiences. And as you know, we are in the middle of a story focus month. Here on the podcast, over on the— I have trouble saying that— here on the podcast, over on the Facebook page, on Instagram, because I really believe that stories are the essential tool that we have as speakers, and finessing our skills and abilities with storytelling, it's needed. We need to do it because it can be really transformative for your business, your idea. So I wanted to share with you 3 approaches that I think of as sort of next-level storytelling skills, and these are the things I see really skilled, powerful, comfortable, confident speakers make in their storytelling. So I want to direct your attention to them so we can utilize these things more in our speaking. Okay, are you ready? Yes, we're ready. Great. Okay, so number 1, the first strategy I see storytelling pros use is that they use what I call a cold open to their stories. So a cold open is when you just start. You just start with the story. There's no preamble, there's no preface, there's no like all this filler language like, So I'm gonna tell you a quick story before you actually tell the story. They just own the space and the moment and they begin. And it reminds me of what the speaker Scott Berkan said in his book Confessions of a Public Speaker, which is great by the way. Scott is awesome. He talks about the most powerful moment we have as speakers is the moment right before we start. And it's the same idea we want to apply to our stories. Why would we want to waste that moment kind of easing our way in like that? Now, I mean, sometimes the context calls for a bit of easing in, right? But I think most often that is sort of a— it's filler rather than it being intentional. And I think we often underestimate and underutilize the power of the pause before we start and then just starting. We're underusing the cold open. I think it can be super intriguing, powerful, artistic. It gets people to kind of lean in versus it feeling so conversational that it's almost like we're giving them a chance to not pay attention. Um, so I think we should be doing everything we can to control our audience's focus, attention, and engagement, and a cold open can do that. It takes confidence to pull it off, but you can do it. Okay, so that's number 1, the cold open. Number 2, the second strategy that storytelling pros use is a lot of silence, the pause, sitting in those powerful moments and not running away from them. I used to work with this speaker who was like a pausing master. He was the best pauser I've ever worked with. He was amazing. A 15-minute talk of his would be 1.5 pages written out in Word. That is crazy. What? I'd be like, this is not a long talk. But then he would do it. I was like, that was 15 minutes. Oh my gosh. Because he really took his time. And it wasn't that he took too much time or that it was slow or uninteresting or at all. It's that he would let the ideas sit. And we as an audience, we need that. We need to let things sink in. We need to feel it for a moment. Now, of course, we have to know which moments require pausing and need pausing so we don't fall into patterns. In our delivery, because I can tell you, um, that happens. And then a lot of people are not comfortable using the pause. It can feel really vulnerable. It can kind of feel like we're, we're challenging the audience. And on the other hand, uh, it can sometimes feel like we don't trust them, uh, because if we don't If we just kind of, like, if we stop talking, they're going to stop listening. So we just keep flying through it. So as a speaker, can we own that moment? Can we find the powerful pauses and like sit with them for a beat? Because the speakers who can do that, they communicate not just this emotional maturity and this awareness that I think is really important and powerful. But a speaker who can sit in that pause, they communicate power, strength, leadership, self-confidence, because it is the opposite manifestation of, quote, "Who am I to be doing this?" And, quote, "I just wanna get this over with," right? The things that we might say to ourselves when we are not feeling confident or self-assured our content or in our connection with our audience. So silence, pause. You like how I just gave a really big pause there? It is a reminder for all of us that the crafting and writing of the story is half of it at most. How those words sit in our bodies, how the silence sits in the room, is so essential. Skillful and a sign of a total pro, pro move on silence. All right, now the third approach I want to share with you, the third strategy that really storytelling pros use, and that is creating drama in our stories. I mean, not like 12-year-old middle school drama, not like fake After School Special drama, but like real drama, life drama. It doesn't have to be bad things necessarily, it can be good things too. I think of, um, classic baseball movies as some of the best storytellers out there, right? That slowdown moment up at the plate, that is some good drama. Wait, what is going to happen? Leaving people on the edge of their seats, the cliffhanger, like Ooh, that is really good storytelling drama. We are essentially, when we use drama well, manipulating our audience's attention. We're drawing them towards the moment we want them to notice. And that's actually true for all three of these approaches today, about focusing our audience's attention, crafting the experience of the audience, pointing them towards what's most important and away from what's not needed. Cold open, silence, drama. So the next time you are sharing a story, I want you to think about these 3 things. How can I just start? I mean, this is hard and it feels weird, but I want you to try it. And where can I utilize the powerful pause? What needs a moment to sink in, and can you sink in with them on this? And where's the natural drama in the story? How can I slow that moment down, build it up, focus their attention, leave them wondering what's gonna happen? Yay. Okay. Now, if you are really into finessing your storytelling skills, and why wouldn't you be really? Because it's so important. I want you to check out this free resource I've created called the 5-Minute Story Makeover. It's 2 short videos and a workbook delivered to you by email with some essential expert advice to take your storytelling from good to great. I love it. You can access this free short training at speakingstorymakeover.com, and we'll see you over there. Speakingstorymakeover.com. Some great, uh, essential secrets to up your speaking story skills to the next level. Okay, my movers, that's That's it for me this week. We'll see you next week to help us get over one of the biggest hurdles I see with speakers as they are developing their stories. That's right, more story stuff, because we are in the story mode, my friends. Get ready for the course going live in September.
