How does it feel when the time you thought you had to present gets cut in half?

The importance of crafting a narrative that guides a flowing story extends beyond how we receive, process, and store information and even beyond how it helps us present and the audience stay connected. These are amazing benefits on their own, but stories also help us compress and expand when circumstances change. And change they will.

When 90 minutes became 15.

The faces in the room wore different reactions.

On the Channel Nine side, delight at the idea of a shorter meeting and time back. The meeting will soon be over, they thought. On our side, shock and despair were evident in ashen faces, all of this work and just 15 minutes to land our idea.

We were presenting to a group of senior executives from Channel Nine, from the head of news programming to their head of audience research and the CEO of the broadcaster, at the time David Gyngell.

We had a rare opportunity to flex our strategic muscle and show what we could do in a very significant partnership between two broadcasting powerhouses; there was a lot at stake for us all.

The boardroom at Nine was full, and we were all seated when David arrived; his breakfast meeting had run over (I believe it was the Prime Minister, he was late, and I was annoyed), and after the pleasantries, he announced he only had 15 minutes before his next meeting. Could we please summarise the main points for him, and then we could continue with his team if there was interest?

You could feel the tension.

There may have been an audible gasp on our side, or I may have imagined that for dramatic effect, but in any event it was a very dramatic change of events.

All eyes turned to me. I was the strategic lead. Come on, Fishy, land the story, was written across the faces of our team, which also included some very senior figures from our business. I took a moment to compose myself, as the team bought me some time.

One set-up slide, drop the other ten straight to the story navigation on a page, and a couple of supporting slides that brought the ideas to life, and then to the summary of why this would work for both parties.

It was a new 10-minute deck built in less than one minute, and it was delivered with five minutes to spare for questions.

As David stood up to leave precisely at the 15-minute mark, he said, ‘This is good. I like it – let’s get a team together and work through what this can look like.’ That was all we needed; we had the green light to move forward, and that was most certainly a win.

When you know your story, you have control over how to tell it.

At the heart of a strategic storyteller's toolkit is a clear narrative that moves the audience through the three core sections of the story, from establishing what this is about to navigating through the core content to arrive at a conclusive resolution. They know the critical messages within the narrative, and they can see the slides that bring these points to life through their descriptive headlines. They know the highlights and the fluff.

This can make the difference between a terrifying and disastrous change in circumstance to being able to adapt the story and get the win you need to carry on. ?

Becoming a Strategic Storyteller will prepare you for this and many other situations when you need to land a winning presentation without presenting every slide.

If you are ready to learn more, let’s discuss my sales meeting energiser sessions, masterclasses, and group training programs.

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