The Art of Storytelling: Why a good story develops a bit like a good date

It doesn’t matter whether you are currently in the mid of an ICO, already have an established brand or just want to do some blog posts: Storytelling is key. It’s the most important tool in your arsenal because it can make or break your brand.

It can make or break your brand. Worth 3 minutes of your valuable time? Let’s do it.

First things first: Why is storytelling key? Because it doesn’t matter what you want to sell or achieve, you will always have to fight for attention. There is Fire & Fury, this crazy book about President Trump out there right now and people want to read it. There Stranger Things, House of Cards, Game of Thrones, Call of Duty, PUBG - you name it. 

So treat your storytelling like a date: The last thing you want to do is bore the person on the other side of the table. You want to be interesting, entertaining, you want to set a certain number of punchlines. But you don’t want to give it all away in the first minutes. Am I right?

Storytelling is all about balance

Storytelling is all about balance: Start off with a punchline, built up momentum, make your words scream just a little bit for roughly 3 sentences. Slow down, give some more context - reverse the situation, let your reader wonder, create a conflict. 

Every story is a conversation: If you go full power over 10 minutes she or he won’t have the time to take a breath, get engaged, become part of this conversation. And that’s what you want. You want to engage your potential client, your new reader. This is not a street. Storytelling is not about building a wave that crashes your reader. It’s about giving him the ability to surf on it. 

Ask a question at the end of each paragraph, start off again with a punchline: Again dating. You can’t talk ages about your new job, new car, a new hobby or the latest tv show you are binge watching - it get’s old fast. Every paragraph needs to move forward your story, in a new way. With a fresh approach, maybe even an unforeseeable twist. But that’s another story, my 3 minutes are up right?

Cheers Benjamin

Special thanks go to Jarey Sluyter for this wonderful picture