5 Storytelling Techniques For Business From Former Actress Turned Entrepreneur

Should a business owner be able to tell a good story? In a world of profit, valuations, and fundraising, do storytelling techniques even matter for business?

Cooper Harris, an actress turned CEO, thinks so.

As a former Hollywood actress, the founder of Klickly certainly knows a thing or two about the importance storytelling. But acting wasn’t necessarily her passion. After appearing in a few soaps and movies, she decided that entrepreneurship was more her thing.

In February of 2015, she started a company named Klickly, an impulse buying platform for those of us with very short attention spans.

Why has she been so successful? Her ability to stand in front of a crowd and tell a compelling story about her products.

I had the opportunity to sit down with her for a full interview (you can listen to it here) and asked her to share 5 storytelling techniques for business.

Watch my interview with Cooper Harris:

#1 - Identify Things On An Emotional Level

As she says in my interview with her, “One of the most difficult things about tech is making it human and compelling.”

If a story doesn’t have emotion at it’s core, it’s not a story, it’s simply information. When telling the story of your product, you need to identify the emotional center. What’s the emotion behind what you’re selling? Is your product about safety? Peace? Joy? Justice?

What emotion compelled you to create your product? What emotion will compel your customers to purchase? Too many business owners simply do an information dump when talking about the features of their product, without considering the deep emotion behind it.

#2 - Remember That It’s Not About You

Too many founders make the mistake of focusing on themselves rather than their product. We see this all the time in bombastic CEOs who think everything is about them.

When telling the story of your product, remember that even though you’re important, it’s not ultimately about you. People aren’t buying you, they’re buying the outstanding product you’ve created.

As much as possible, make the story about your product. 

#3 - Tell Your Story In A Sequence

Every story should follow a clear path from beginning to middle to end. People aren’t going to listen to an endlessly wandering story that has no clear point. As you prepare to tell your story, ask yourself:

• What is the clear starting point? What was the beginning of my product? What event or series of events pushed me to take action?
• What milestones have happened along the way in my journey? Can I connect those milestones without wandering too much?
• What is the end? Assuming you haven’t sold your company, what end do you envision for yourself?

Wandering stories aren’t particularly compelling or interesting. Every great story has a clear beginning, middle, and end. You'll need all of those pieces in place if you're going to get this next part right. 

#4 - Manage Your Nerves and Your Pace

Storytelling is just as much about presentation as it is content. Few things interfere with the presentation more than jangly nerves and poor pacing. If you’re too nervous, you’ll make mistakes, skip key points, and breathe improperly. Before speaking, practice calming your nerves. Breathe deeply. Visualize success. Whatever it takes to calm yourself.

Pace is also crucial. When discussing more detailed aspects of your story, you need to speak more slowly so people can follow what you’re saying. When you are hitting emotional points, you should be accelerating your words and sentences.

If you don’t know how to manage your nerves or pace, consider signing up for a public speaking class.

#5 - Work Toward A Climax and Resolution

Every story should have an emotional peak followed by a clear resolution. The climax is the story’s emotional high point. It’s where the problem seems unsolvable, the difficulties too large, and no solution is in sight.

Or, the climax is when you build and build to an incredible revelation. Think of Steve Jobs presenting the iPhone. The big reveal was always the climax of the product stories he told.

After you hit the climax, your story must resolve. People should know when your product will release, or where they can get it, or how you see things working out in the future. It’s the natural end to your story.

Conclusion

You can have the greatest product in history, but if you can’t tell a great story about it, no one will care. When pitching your startup, you need to understand how to weave an amazing story. Learning to communicate in a compelling, clear, emotional way will ultimately drive more sales and increase interest.

There have been greater CEOs than Steve Jobs, but few could tell a story like him. Cooper Harris has taken a page from Jobs’. Have you?

Want more? You can check out the original article on Forbes Post and the entire Verge Vault at VergeHQ.com