In this workshop, Michael Margolis, founder of Get Storied, leads a live session for entrepreneurs on the power of personal narrative in startup pitching. He begins with an interactive exercise where participants identify three unique "identity frames"—distinct roles or characteristics that define them—to illustrate how self‑definition shapes storytelling. Margolis then explains why a founder’s personal story matters as much as the product story, especially for building credibility and relatability with investors and customers. He introduces the "Lean Story" framework, a concise three‑step (part of a larger six‑step) methodology for structuring pitches: (1) clarify who you are and what you do, (2) surface the core dilemma your audience faces, and (3) make the audience believe in you and your solution. Throughout, he warns against classic pitch formulas that can appear egotistical, emphasizing techniques to appear likable, authentic, and trustworthy. The session also discusses the strategic advantage of founders who embody their target customer versus those who must bridge a larger empathy gap. Overall, the talk blends practical exercises, storytelling theory, and pitch‑craft advice to help entrepreneurs communicate big ideas effectively.
Chapters
Good morning, everyone. Good morning. All right. Since you guys are all standing, let's actually jump right— no, no, stay standing. Let's jump right into a fun little thing. I want you in a moment to turn to a partner, and you're going to have 20 seconds to share in one sentence— hold on, hold on, hold on, hold on. I know, you guys are ready to hug it out. It's cool. It's cool. There's going to be a lot of love flowing in just a minute, I promise. I promise. All right. Here's what I want you to do, okay, is I want you to share with your partner 3 identity frames about yourself. Okay, what's an identity frame? Okay? Anybody have an idea? What do you think is an identity frame? Yeah? Characteristic or result. Characteristic or result, yeah. What else? An identity frame, yeah? Like 3 words that would describe you that don't Describe everyone. Yeah. Okay, I like that a lot. So it's something that's distinctive. Now, an identity frame is a specific role or character. So think about the characters you play in your life. Like, for instance, you might play the data geek. You might play the character of a former Olympic swimmer. A lot of different characters. You might play the character of, I'm the world's greatest Uncle. All right. A lot of different identity frames. Let's just think about 3 different characters in your life, professional or personal. Everybody get that? That you are or that you could— That you are. Oh, and not only are you it, but you're really freaking good. Like these are 3 different identity frames that you're like, yo, I own this. This is me. Everybody get that? All right. Find a partner. Quick. Look around. Look around. Just jump into a group if we've got an odd number. All right. Time is up. Go ahead, thank your partner and take your seats. So good morning, everybody. I'm Michael Margolis. Nice to meet you. I'm the founder of Get Storied. And as Andre mentioned, we're building one of the world's leading schools around business narrative. And we teach change agents and innovators how to communicate big ideas, how to pitch your message, how to tell your personal story. And our specialty is innovation. So when you're doing something that's new, that's different, that's disruptive, that's revolutionary, how do you get people to see what you see? And you guys are all entrepreneurs. So there's some idea that you have that you're here working on. And when you tell people about your work, does everybody get it immediately? No. No. Right? It's not that easy. And yet for you, it's pretty damn obvious, isn't it? It's so obvious. God, why don't they get it? All right. So we're going to explore that today. How to shorten the gap between what is obvious to you yet gets lost in translation with everybody else. Okay. And I know you guys are getting ready for the pitch coming up shortly. The pitch is simply telling the story. So we're going to talk about that. And this isn't going to be once upon a time fairy tales or how to tell a better anecdote or how to become a theatrical performer. We're going to talk about startup storytelling. This is going to be how do you communicate who you are, what you're doing, Who it's for, why it matters, and some of the narrative principles that bring that to life. Now, the exercise I just had you guys do, how you introduce yourself speaks volumes about how you see yourself. So you want to start thinking about what is the character that I inhabit? What are the roles that I take on? How do you define yourself? You know, I'm a teacher. I'm an anthropologist. I'm a global nomad. Ooh. So since July 1st of last year, I sold everything I pretty much own. I now live out of a small black bag. And every couple months, I live in a different creative hub around the world. Total dream deferred for 20 years. It's what I've wanted to do. But I'm able to do it because the internet. And we have courses online where a lot of our people come together, but then also I teach in a lot of the different cities. So I've been in Vancouver, I've been in Amsterdam, I've been in London, New York. I just got back from 2 months in India. And the Bay Area, San Francisco, is a place that I used to live in and I spent a lot of time here. So how you introduce yourself Speaks volumes about how you see yourself. Now, why does that matter as a startup? Why do you guys think? Because you say the same thing you'll do at the end of your salary. Ah, yeah. So part of this is how are you framing or defining your startup, right? The choice you're making around that. So that's great. What else? People are investing in you. They're investing in you. So your personal story matters as much as the product story, doesn't it? Anybody else? You want to bring the product easier to— near to the people that you are trying to try to speak to. So what— that's a really interesting point, wanting to bring your product nearer and closer to the people you want to introduce this to. So what does your personal story have to do with that? They see someone who is like them and has the same problem and he provides them with the solution. Ah, yes. So you're using your own story to make this product or idea more relatable. Now sometimes as a startup what we're working on We're not necessarily representative or an avatar of our ideal customer. Any of you guys working on something like that? Okay. Are most of you working on a product or an idea that you represent sort of the ideal avatar? No. Okay, so some of you. Okay, good. Whoa. So those of you who've picked or come up with an idea where you're ultimately finding or creating a solution for a customer that you kind of relate to and are similar to, in certain ways that's easier. So congratulations for making a smart choice. But those of you who are working on something where you're not the ideal customer, congratulations for taking on tougher nut to crack. It's more of a riddle. It's gonna be a little bit of a taller mountain to climb. So either way is okay, but your personal story really matters. So what we're gonna do today, we're gonna do a couple things, is I wanna share with you guys, one of the things that we teach is this methodology called Lean Story. And Lean Story is a narrative framework that's designed for the pitch, for how to communicate any big idea. And how do you frame the conversation? How do you even get people to know where the heck they're at when they're listening to you? And how do you then get to a core dilemma that your audience or your customer's facing that ultimately your product or solution serves? How do you get to that? And then lastly, how do you get people to believe you? Because that's the biggest obstacle we have as entrepreneurs and change agents. Disbelief. Who the heck are you? I don't know if I can believe that. And a lot of what we're taught in the pitch, I got to be honest with you guys, the classical pitch methodology is a recipe for sounding and looking like a douche. Ooh. I just said it. It's on the table. There's a way that we're taught to present this stuff that's really easy to come off as bluster and egotistical, which then invites our audience to beat the crap out of us. So part of what I'm gonna teach you and share with you today It's going to actually, it's to help you be able to talk about your work in a way that is going to make you more endearing, in a way where people are going to be more forgiving about what you're presenting, because it's a work in progress. You talk to any entrepreneur who's been, I mean, I've been doing this work for 15 years with storytelling, and I'm an entrepreneur, it's a work in progress. So how do you use storytelling elements to make yourself more likable? More likable, more relatable, right? To draw people in so that they're cheering for you. Alright, so we're gonna break this stuff down. I'm gonna teach you actually 3, 3 core steps or principles that you guys can use to organize as you're preparing for the pitch. It's part of a larger 6-step framework. You're gonna fall. Oh, well there goes that. Alright, let's try to get this back up. So what I'm gonna share with you guys is a 3-step Process that you can go through. It's part of a larger 6-step framework, but the good news is all you need to know is the 3 steps. Our 6-step version is just an advanced version. It's like a second round where we go deeper in. Okay.
