In this instructional talk, Ron Ploof leads an interactive discussion to define what a story is and why it matters for communication and learning. He synthesizes audience input—situation, action, result; pattern recognition; characters, emotions, interaction—into his concise definition: a story is the result of people pursuing what they want. Ploof then breaks a story into three core components: roles (the people involved), events (what happens), and influences (motivations behind actions). He emphasizes using these elements when crafting pitches, identifying the storyteller, the audience (e.g., entrepreneur and investor), their desires, obstacles, and decisions. Ploof introduces Ken Adams' "story spine" from improv, a universal narrative template: "Once upon a time… every day… then one day… because of that… because of that… until finally… ever since then." He demonstrates the spine with simple tales (Kokopelli, the origin of Apple) and connects it to learning theory, citing Kendall Haven’s claim that we learn through story structure. An extended example shows a baby learning to understand patterns, illustrating how breaking and restoring patterns drives learning. Throughout, Ploof stresses that stories are strategic tools for making complex ideas digestible, guiding listeners to apply the three components and the spine to structure their own narratives and pitches.
Chapters
So the question is, what is a story? We all know what a story is. We come from all over the world, doesn't matter what culture, we all have our cultural stories, our family stories, so we know what a story is. So does anybody want to give me a shot on what a story is?
Yeah? A situation, an action, and then a result.
Situation, action, result. Good, good.
Yeah?
Pattern recognition. Okay, okay. Yes?
Someone telling you a series of events that occurred and then you piece things together.
Excellent, very good. So just like what we saw, we saw a series of events and then we piece them together. Maybe if the storyteller pieces them together for us, then we don't have to do that much work.
Good?
Okay. Yeah? Yes?
Pretty much to show the characters in the story. There's a few characters in the story that interact with each other to show their personality, emotions, and yeah.
Definitely. Characters, emotions, interaction. Yes, great words.
A method of basically having like little tiny blocks and assembling them for people's minds so they can understand a greater idea.
Like a story is a strategy. I love that, a story is a strategy. So putting together pieces that actually build something, I love that.
Because you can't just give someone the whole thing.
Right. You have to eat the elephant one bite at a time. Yes. Timeline. Okay.
Yes.
Did you have something?
Yeah, narration of events.
A narration of events. Okay. Yeah, I think we pretty much have a lot of it, a lot of it. I've worked really, really hard to come up with just the shortest definition of story that I can, and this is what I've come up with. A story is the result of people pursuing what they want. And I think we had elements of that in all of the descriptions.
Right?
We are interested in what people want. So I've actually broken this down, that there are 3 components in a story. There are roles, the people. There are events, the things that happen. And that there are the influences, the motivations. Right? Why did someone decide to do something? What's their motivation? Why are they doing something? As you're putting together your pitches, I want you to think about these 3 elements. Who are the roles in your story? I can think of 2 immediately, right? There's you and investor, right? There are 2 immediately. What do you each want? What's standing between the 2 of you? And what decisions do you make? These are elements of your story. So if that is the foundation of a story, now we have to find a story structure, something to build onto that foundation, a story structure. And the best definition that I ever heard of this came from a guy by the name of Ken Adams.
Ken Adams.
Ken Adams comes out of the improv world. And this is his definition. He calls it the story spine. And it describes every story you've ever heard. You ready for this? Once upon a time, every day, then one day, and because of that, and because of that, until finally, and ever since then. Doesn't that describe every story that you've ever heard?
Yeah.
There's always— there's always these once upon a time stories, always. How about this? Once upon a time, there was a guy by the name of Kokopelli. Every day he played his music. Then one day he had a scary visitor, and because of that, he ran away. And because of that, He almost fell off the cliff. And so because of that, he fought. And because of that, he almost fell off the cliff again. And then he had an idea. And he tamed the beast with his music. And now he takes his music on the road. Simple stories.
Simple stories.
Once upon a time, there was a guy named Steve. Every day, Steve used to play with electronics. And one day, he met another Steve. And together, they built one of the world's first personal computers. And ever since then, more than half the people in this room own an Apple product. Probably more than that. That's the origin story of Apple. We all have an origin story. We can, if we can frame what we're trying to say into this structure, people are going to be naturally interested. Naturally interested. So now what we have is a foundation, roles, events, and influences, and then a structure, the story spine. And that's what we're going to work with today. But before I get to that, I actually do want to go to one thing. Remember how Kendall Haven said that the only way we learn is through story structure?
Mm-hmm.
I want to give you an example on how that works, because I remember I really struggled with this. Like, how does it work? Have you ever noticed that when babies are born, that their little brains are like operating systems with no apps?
Yes.
And somehow, Somehow they bootstrap this little operating system. And what is the operating system? Things must make sense. That's what the little operating system is. And somehow they learn to walk and talk and breathe and become entrepreneurs. Right?
Yeah.
How does that happen? Well, I think it comes down to story structure. Once upon a time, there was a baby girl. Every day she noticed that when she cried, someone would come and pick her up and comfort her. And then one day she cried and they didn't pick her up. And she found that sometimes when she cried, they picked her up, and sometimes she didn't. And if you think about it, from this meaning mandate, she's trying to figure out Why? Why was the pattern broken? And then one day she realizes that when it's dark outside they don't pick her up, and when it's light outside they pick her up, and she learns to sleep through the night. That's how we learn. We recognize patterns. When the patterns are broken, we're trying to figure out Why? How did this happen? And then we learn something else. Does that make sense on how story structure is how we learn? And can you see how maybe you could use that to help express yourself and the business that you're trying to teach other people about?
