329: The Simple Story Framework

Hey movers, it's Sally Z with Be Moved. Let's go create some talks that will move this world. We're gonna talk with amazing speakers, share tips, tricks, resources, and we are going to be moved so that our audience can be moved. This moved me. What is moving Hello, brilliant people. I'm coming in to share with you about this new resource I have for you called the Simple Story Framework. And I've been talking about this a little bit here and there. And this morning I was doing a live workshop. So fun to be live and in person. So delightful and awesome, and my voice is tired. So here we are, we're tapping in on the voice. I drank a lot of tea this morning, tea with honey. What are your tips for and tricks for when your voice is tired? I mean, I don't know what I would do without tea and honey. The mistake I made was one of my rituals before I go do something live. I just have to talk about this for a minute before we get to the framework. 'Cause I pick up a Starbucks because I love Starbucks. I have a Starbucks problem. Hi, Starbucks. Do you need somebody to be your spokesperson? I'll be that person for you. And on the way there, I was drinking the Starbucks and I was thinking, this is not actually what I should be drinking right now for my voice. No, no, caffeine is not great for your voice. So instead I picked up some tea. And drank all the tea with some honey. It felt so good. This is, this is why I'm telling you this, because whether or not you are showing up live and in person, whether you are going live on Instagram, whether you are over on TikTok, whether you're doing LinkedIn Lives, whether you have a Facebook group and you do live trainings, whether you do workshops, virtual or real and in person. Whether you are hoping to do keynotes or you are doing some keynotes, the one thing that you need in every one of those moments, the casual everyday thing to the intentional big moments, is you need a story framework. I have been sharing this framework with my speakers in lots of different iterations, but I have been sharing this kind of framework, this intentionality, this shift for 20+ years. And I first really discovered it when I was teaching and talking to teenagers, really not teaching. I would stand up in front of them for a day and there were 2 times throughout the day where I would go into a 20-minute talk. And I remember this moment standing in front of 150 7th graders and feeling like I was losing them. I was like, oh man, they are not with me. I was looking out into the audience and seeing people chatting with their friend or seeing their heads down as they're kind of like doodling in the dust on the floor, not engaged, not paying attention, not caring about these really big important ideas. And I thought, I cannot, I cannot fail at this. First of all, I'm a great speaker. Like, why is this not working? Secondly, I'm like, this is an awesome script. I, I know I've written a great script. It still wasn't working. It didn't matter how witty and clever and, and powerful my words were. I was missing an ingredient. I had the order wrong. I had the framework wrong. So in that moment, 'cause I panicked, 'cause I was like, they are not with me and I've got to pull them back in. I've got to reengage them. What I did was I skipped over all the blah, blah, blah talking that I was planning on doing, telling them all the things I wanted them to hear and to know, skipped right over all of that and just went into a story. The moment I started telling the story, It was like magic. All of a sudden, their little heads popped up. They stopped talking to their neighbor, kind of leaned in. And I was watching this happen and I thought, okay, now they're with me. Now I've got them back. Now I can maybe tell them what I want them to know, but I had to start with the story. So what I have done, and that, that was a, that was an aha moment for me. Even having, at that point, I already won awards for speaking, but I hadn't quite put it together like that because people don't typically do this. Typically, we like to tell people the point of what the story is, because we've learned along the way we're going to tell them what we're going to tell them, and then we tell them, and then we tell them what we told them. And when we approach it like that, we think we're offering more clarity. We think we're like softening the soil and getting people ready to hear the message. But what we're actually doing is instigating their defense mechanisms. We're actually turning on the part of their brain that says, oh, I know what this is. Oh yeah, I know. I already know what I think about that. And I'm gonna go ahead and file it in this part of my brain. They've already started to turn off their openness, turn off new ways of thinking because it's really, it's really easy for the brain to jump to conclusions. That's, that's what brains do. So instead, when you use what I call the Simple Story Framework, when you use it, what you're doing is really taking advantage of the brain friendliness of stories, how incredibly powerful and persuasive they are if we use them in the right way. When I was talking to teenagers, when we first started doing this, before I kind of figured out how to flip the switch, we were, we were not really taking advantage of the persuasive power of stories. We were using stories to illustrate the point we had just made. We'd tell them something, we would make a point, and then we'd say, kind of like this example, and then we would tell the story. Now, people appreciated the stories. They loved the stories, but we were working uphill in terms of trying to persuade people. So instead of working uphill, what I want you to do is actually flip that script. So in the Simple Story Framework, and there is a downloadable view of this that you can grab, and you can grab it if you're interested, it's at bemoved.com/ssf for Simple Story Framework, and it will walk you through this a little more in depth, but I just want to give you a preview of this because I want everybody doing this. I don't care what context you're in. I don't care if you're hopping on Instagram or you are prepping for a big presentation, or you've got a workshop coming up. It really doesn't matter in which context you are speaking. I want you to use this simple story framework because it will ease the pathway. Because what happens when we start with the story is it keeps the mind open. It keeps the brain from doing what I was talking about before. It keeps the brain from deciding things up front. It keeps it from pre-categorizing, pre-deciding. Instead of jumping to conclusions, we are drawn in because we don't know what the conclusion is quite yet. Great stories will pull us in and draw us in and keep us open to what is possible. Oh. We start with the story. Now in the framework, I call it a moment, okay? Because sometimes when people hear the word story, they think it's a summary of an event or an experience, or they might call it a story, but really it's a generic overview. Okay? There's lots of things people think are stories that aren't. A story is very simply a moment in time. So I like to use the word moment. That is your first part of the framework. You're going to, before you do anything else, you're going to drop people into a moment. That is step 1. The second thing that you're gonna do after you've dropped people into a moment, and this is a really important part of your job, you are going to make meaning from that moment for your audience. So that's the second M, it's called meaning. And in the meaning part is where you as the speaker really earn your bucks. Okay? Even if you're not getting paid in that moment. Okay? This is where you bring your insight and your point of view. This is where you are going to translate this moment that you just told to your audience. So what is part and parcel of this is really understanding who your audience is, but you're doing that, right? Because speaking is contextual and that is part of your job is to translate moments into meaning for your audience. So this is the thing that can be distinctive in terms of how you do it versus someone else. So two people might tell the same story, but they might pull different meaning from that story to their audience because they're in a different context and they're talking to different people, and they might be making different meaning and want to underline different meaning for that audience. So moment, meaning. And last but not least, and this one is really important, and it's the one that we often forget. And that is move. Moment meaning move. And this third one is really your opportunity to just tell people what's next. Once you have translated the moment and created some meaning for them from that moment, now your job is to lead them to whatever that next step is. Now, this is the part that can make people kind of uncomfortable. We think of this as, a call to action sometimes, or the point where you're selling something. Instead of thinking it like that, I want you to just know that there's a handful of people who are like, okay, that was really helpful or interesting, or I hadn't thought of it that way before. And they are curious. They're wondering, what do I do from here? Well, this is where you tell them whatever is the next step. Step, and you do want to direct people towards that next step. I was just on a training with my coach, Harris, and we were talking about really all the times where we don't direct people to what's next. And those, it's a missed opportunity because we can highly influence people and that's our job. We are leading and speakers are leaders. So it is your job at the end to tell them how to move. What move is next for them? It doesn't have to be a hard sell, people. We do not have to like show up and be like, you, you know, for just $9.99, you can like, that's not what I'm talking about here. I'm simply talking about. Directing them to the next step in their journey. And if they're ready, they'll take it. And if they're not, they won't. But for those people who are ready and waiting, it's your job to point them to that next step. So in this simple story framework, you are leveraging the power, the persuasive power of stories. I spent 2 years studying persuasion. And stories was the thing. I experienced it firsthand when I was out talking to teenagers. It translates even more importantly to— and teenagers can be a tough crowd, but so can adults. I've talked to some really tough crowds. Kind of like a tough crowd, I'm not gonna lie. I like to win 'em over. I like to shift everybody just a little bit. And stories are the way to do it. It's magic. It's magic, but only if you are using story at the right time and in the right way. So story first, moment, meaning, move. When you can follow this really simple framework, it's going to help you engage and pull in people before they even know what's happening. Before they've had a chance to tell you, "I think you're full of crap," and "I disagree," and all the cynics in the room are gonna show up and shut it down if you don't use this framework. So, moment, meaning, move. And you can grab it at bemoved.com/ssf for Simple Story Framework. Yay! All right. Quest if you want the link directly, let me know. I'll send it to you. You can go grab it at bemoove.com/ssf. This is it, you guys. This is a game changer. Okay. Jen Whitmer and I were talking last week and she has done lots of in-depth training with me and she said, I feel like, you know, you've been talking with me about all of this for a long time and you have distilled it down to the essentials and made it really clear for people. So I was very happy to hear that. Because it is quite simple. Doesn't mean that it's always easy, but it can be quite simple. And now the next time you show up to go live or you're building a new keynote, or you've been asked to speak at a summit or be on a podcast, and you're like, I am not quite sure how to approach my content. You can use this as the answer. Here's the answer to your questions. All right, friends, have an awesome rest of the day. Talk to you soon.