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The **Presentation Power Podcast** is designed to provide expert insights, practical tips, and valuable guidance for individuals who want to enhance their public speaking and presentation skills. With a focus on effective communication, the podcast delves into techniques for improving confidence, storytelling, audience engagement, and persuasive speaking. Each episode features actionable advice, real-life examples, and, occasionally, guest experts who share their experiences and strategies for impactful presentations.
Welcome to the Presentation Power podcast with your hosts, Jeffrey X Lane and Danielle Turner.
Geoffrey X Lane:So Presentation Power contains 2 very powerful points of view sharing knowledge and information. In front of the camera, Jeffrey Lane.
Danielle Tuner:Behind the camera, Danielle Turner. Hello, everybody. Welcome back. I'm Danielle. I'm here with Jeffrey Lane.
Danielle Tuner:And our next episode, we're gonna talk this time about the importance of telling stories in a presentation. And I have to say that at first, when somebody starts thinking about a presentation, they think about presenting and presenting their their data, presenting their topic, even when it's in front of a camera. And so I would suspect that the idea of telling a story, incorporating that with their presentation would be a new idea. What do you say to that?
Geoffrey X Lane:Well, it's both a new idea and the oldest idea of communication because storytelling was the way in which we, in fact, shared information in all sorts of ways. Most of the myths and fables that we have today stored in our language and about our races and our societies are told in story form. The more ancient ones are better storytellers than the modern ones because we've gotten so in, what I wanna say, enraptured with getting to the point.
Danielle Tuner:Yes.
Geoffrey X Lane:Right? And the thing is about getting to the point, while it is efficient, it isn't informative as a good story.
Danielle Tuner:It isn't engaging either.
Geoffrey X Lane:No. I mean, fairy tales are a really good example. You know, once upon a time, immediately you're transported to what time? Where?
Danielle Tuner:Yeah. Exactly. Curiosity begins right away with the first sentence.
Geoffrey X Lane:And in our modern world with email where we're so used to putting cryptic short messages together to get it done efficiently, we've lost the value of telling a good story.
Danielle Tuner:I agree. Even with videos, we want them so short now. We make them a minute. Make them 2 minutes long. Just get to the point.
Danielle Tuner:And I've always it's the biggest question I get asked is how long should my video be? Shouldn't it be super short? And I think the video should be as long as it needs to be. And that's always been my answer. It's don't worry about the time.
Danielle Tuner:Get your message and your story across.
Geoffrey X Lane:I agree. A 100%. I agree. There isn't a short formula for telling a good story. Now there is a formula for telling a story.
Geoffrey X Lane:You've gotta have a start, an action, some sort of occurrence, and a response to that occurrence, and then a a happy conclusion or sometimes a sad conclusion. Some of the best stories are not necessarily that happy, but they engage us in a way that, you know, facts and figures, they don't they don't they don't engage you. They just inform you, but they don't engage you.
Danielle Tuner:You need to have that emotional connection with your audience, and holy cow. That's one thing video does so very well, and yet it's one thing that I see with people making their own videos and their own presentations in their videos. It's the one thing they forget that video is a master of. You've got to tell a story using video. You absolutely have to.
Danielle Tuner:You can't avoid it, or else you've just got nothing. In my opinion, you have nothing.
Geoffrey X Lane:You see, if I can't engage you in that first 6 or 7 seconds, if I can't capture your attention and draw you into my story, I lose you right away.
Danielle Tuner:Yeah. Those are 6 magical sections. Seconds. Seconds. Seconds.
Danielle Tuner:Six magical seconds. And so you have to you can't give facts at the beginning unless you add some emotion to them, which then is adding a story. I I for me, the minute you make it emotional, you make it a story. I mean, do you am I right, or am I not right? Is am I missing something?
Geoffrey X Lane:No. I think you're right. And but don't think of emotion as just impact. Emotion is also intrigue, fascination, mystery. Oh, what's gonna happen here?
Geoffrey X Lane:That's also an opening of a good story. It's it's like I remember reading bedtime stories to my daughter who was fascinated with books. And I would open up the book and start reading a Grimm's fairy tale. Most of them quite short, but they are boy, are they impactful stories. They really capture you.
Danielle Tuner:Yeah. Not you you going back to your happy and not so happy endings, they were not always so happy endings in those Grim's fairy tales.
Geoffrey X Lane:No. Children got eaten, got put in the oven.
Danielle Tuner:Yes.
Geoffrey X Lane:Oh, they were quite scary Yeah. When I think about it. And, of course, modern psychologists might say, oh, dear. What are you doing? You're scaring the children.
Geoffrey X Lane:Right. Don't know if you noticed. Children love scary stories.
Danielle Tuner:Yeah. I think we all do. We all like that little that little gasp. Right? It and but but I don't wanna encourage our our our listeners to have to put a gasp or some kind of, kind of suspense in there.
Danielle Tuner:But, you know, if you can, it's a piece of gold. But I think sometimes the best stories to include in your presentation is something that you've experienced in your life. Because when you're giving a presentation in a video, it's because you're an expert in that field. And so you've experienced that subject or that field in one form or another, and you have a lot of stories to share that are part of your own past. And doing that, incorporating a story of some of your own personal experience, it brings people it connects your audience to you.
Danielle Tuner:I mean, you've got this glass. You're just an unmoving image on a screen, whether it's a phone screen or your computer screen or a TV screen, you've got to generate some level of connection between you and your audience. That's a big bonus way to be able to do it is by telling a story of your own experience on the subject matter.
Geoffrey X Lane:I remember when I went to Simon Fraser's summer, summer school, and I took actually, I took magazine and newspaper writing, article writing, and they said well, the instructor, he said, watch an advert and break it down into the components of a story. And I thought he's crazy. And but, oh no. I remember the ad that I had to analyze. It was a Nissan car ad.
Geoffrey X Lane:Now it starts off with the picture of a choked traffic jam and a lovely Nissan truck, at the time a Pathfinder. And there we are in the traffic, and it's urgent that they get going. And suddenly, the Nissan pulls off, goes up a hill, goes over the top, avoids all of the traffic, and gets to the destination. 30 seconds, they told a story.
Danielle Tuner:Yeah.
Geoffrey X Lane:A road vehicle saving lives. I mean, it was amazing.
Danielle Tuner:And you just told a story to make a point. Bravo. I have one myself, in fact. I remember being 15 years old, and and I was to go out and find some vendor that I would spend a week working at. It was about getting work experience through school.
Danielle Tuner:And while I wanted to be an actress, the theater wasn't exactly gonna let me work for a week as an actress, so I was to pick another choice. I ended up picking the local newspaper, and I I got to week work a week with the local newspaper, and they did a front page article on that very subject, on the subject of school kids going out and getting work experience. And they sent me out as a little street journalist to go out there and interview the kids. It was a joy of my dreams. I was having a blast, but I'd come back to the the newspaper with all these little quotes from all my friends on what they love and don't love about it.
Danielle Tuner:And I he said, okay. Now type it all out. The editor said, type it all out, and I typed out my little story, and it didn't work. It didn't work because I was just punching out a bunch of facts. This person said that, and that person said this.
Danielle Tuner:And what I learned very interestingly from the editor of that paper was sometimes just shuffling the order around of my little facts start telling a story. And I ended my little bit in the article with so and so. One kid just said, well, it's better than school. And it was a really nice way to put a punch at the end of that story, that particular article. And I learned a lot about the order in which stories get told as well.
Danielle Tuner:When there seems to be no order, there actually is.
Geoffrey X Lane:It's funny that you should say, what well, it is interesting and funny what you just talked about, but my experience was quite different. In the class, I got told, if it bleeds, it leads. So in other words, if it was emotional, that was the lead into the article. If it bleeds, it leads. So it wasn't about facts and figures.
Geoffrey X Lane:You didn't ever start with facts and figures. You started with an emotional statement. And if you look at local newspapers, it's always about the emotional impact. Now I get The Guardian online. It's always the if you just read the opening sections, Hamas blows up.
Geoffrey X Lane:I mean, really? That is the leading blows up. Or Israel Defense Force Flattens Apartment Building. I mean, the imagery in this is just amazing. It captures you right away.
Geoffrey X Lane:Now, you know, the good news stories also are puppies saves boys' life. Right? I mean, it's it's was a story of a puppy standing by a well, screaming and yelling, as a dog puppy will do, about the little boy who fell down the well, his best friend. And the noise that the puppy was making, the growling and the yelping, attracted the adults, and sure enough, down the hole was a kid, and they pulled him out. I mean, it got me right away.
Geoffrey X Lane:Puppy yelps to save child. Well, what's that all about?
Danielle Tuner:Yeah. I guess that's the point we wanna make too is that a presentation doesn't have to be this flat, dry bunch of information. It can be fun. You can, you know, boom. Grab that.
Danielle Tuner:There's you're putting the emphasis on that first 6 seconds again. Puppy saves boy. You know? Boom. There's your 6 seconds.
Danielle Tuner:And then and they get right into the the meat and the bleed and the everything and the fun and the joy and the emotion of your presentation. It doesn't have to be a a pie chart.
Geoffrey X Lane:No. In fact, emotion sells, facts tell.
Danielle Tuner:Yeah. Yes. Yes. Emotion
Geoffrey X Lane:tells, facts tell. So, if I'm going to be sort of selling you in a presentation, I need to talk about the benefits upfront. I need to talk about what is going to help you, what is going to help you, the client, not help you, the speaker. It's not about you. It's about capturing the ear and the mind and the heart of the listener.
Geoffrey X Lane:So it's not about, oh, so this episode, you know, it we could say, want to win in a presentation or want to have all great impact. I mean, anything that is emotional saying, if you follow these rules, you will do well. Right?
Danielle Tuner:Where's the off button?
Geoffrey X Lane:Where's the turn off button?
Danielle Tuner:And Yeah.
Geoffrey X Lane:And, you know, it's it's almost like, watching Bugs Bunny or the Roadrunner. You when you watch the Roadrunner, he's always running. He's escaping. That was the joy of watching Roadrunner. He'd always go beep beep beep and gone.
Danielle Tuner:Yes. Yes. It was also watching the coyote get it in the end. Yes.
Geoffrey X Lane:The anvil dropping on him or him walking into the door. I mean, it was it was a perfect example in a cartoon or a short movie of what makes the difference.
Danielle Tuner:You bring up a really good point there because bringing up something familiar, like a familiar story, like a Grimm's fairy tale or Bebeep the Roadrunner or, you know, you bring something up if it's related to what your subject matter is, that that can really draw an audience in. You gotta watch out for copyright. Make sure you share a little watermark that says copyright to whoever owns that copyright. Right? You know, as long as you make sure that you have the right permissions and stuff, I think it could be included as a really nice, wonderful, little story twist in your presentation.
Geoffrey X Lane:Absolutely. Now if you think about good friends meeting after a long time, when they sit down, they don't go and give you the facts. They go, oh oh oh oh, what happened? You know, I mean, Julie had a baby. Oh, Terry got a new job.
Geoffrey X Lane:Oh, Robert got fired. It's always starts with the grabber. The emotional content just grabs you right away.
Danielle Tuner:So headline of the story, that first 6 seconds. Yes.
Geoffrey X Lane:The grabber. Yeah. Can you know, it's if we were to invent a grabber for this section, what would it be? Well, stories make an impact. It's not so bad, but we can do better than that.
Geoffrey X Lane:What would you say?
Danielle Tuner:I'd say, wanna grab your audience? Grab a story.
Geoffrey X Lane:Grab a story. I don't
Danielle Tuner:know I don't know how good that is. I came right off the top of my head. I could do better.
Geoffrey X Lane:Usually what it is. It's it is about grab a story, grab a friend. I mean, we gotta be careful because that, terrible man grabs people all the time, so
Danielle Tuner:that's not
Geoffrey X Lane:so good.
Danielle Tuner:Yes.
Geoffrey X Lane:And I don't think we'll get copyright work for that.
Danielle Tuner:No. I really I I I really think that the best storyteller or the best presenters are storytellers. I've seen a lot of presentations. You know, even when I look back at my college teachers, the ones that, that it was lecture that I enjoy were the ones where the professor included a story or even if it was just a small story.
Geoffrey X Lane:Well, I used to teach at UBC, and what I learned very quickly was is that if I want my audience or my students to actually pay attention, I always had to give them a relatable story as the opening before I got into the facts of how I presented. You know, I'd pick a high level emotional story. Canada wins the Winter Olympics. Right? So that's a pretty high level.
Geoffrey X Lane:We did win the Winter Olympics and I was the speech coach and I created a story and I had serious people tell a piece of the story. The same story told by 5 or 6 people. It had people going, oh, what's the real story here? You know, stories work. There's an opening, a grab or a grabber.
Geoffrey X Lane:What comes next? Well, an intrigue or a question or an imagination. How to win a Winter Olympics? Grabber. You need to start with what is it and make it a story itself.
Geoffrey X Lane:So each section becomes a mini story. I mean, putting up a list of facts and actual pieces, you know, a, b, c, d or 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6. Facts tell, stories sell, And everybody's afraid of selling. And yet, if a child comes to you and wants to have a popsicle, they will sell you.
Danielle Tuner:Yes. They will.
Geoffrey X Lane:They will sell you. They will not give you a list of facts. I'm thirsty and this will help with my thirst. I'm hungry. It will quell my hungry so I won't overeat before dinner.
Geoffrey X Lane:I mean, they'll give you stories, you know? Oh, yeah. They will. Any story.
Danielle Tuner:Any story they can.
Geoffrey X Lane:You know, they'll start talking about Beatles. Now I'd say that my son, when he was little, came to me and said, daddy, there's a red beetle in the kitchen. And I said, is it red beetle? And I went and I said, where's this red beetle? Look.
Geoffrey X Lane:And I said, oh, it's red because you stepped on it. And he said, oh, oh, oh. And I said, I said, what's the o about? Well, it's red like a popsicle.
Danielle Tuner:Oh, he's genius.
Geoffrey X Lane:Oh, yeah. He was. And he still is. We still is. He has all these people subscribe to his TV exercise channel, and he tells stories.
Geoffrey X Lane:Tell stories about people who've used the technique of exercise or the particular exercise to heal or repair damage or to build muscle in that particular area. It's quite clever. Yeah. Yeah. It's Where
Danielle Tuner:did they get it from? I have
Geoffrey X Lane:no idea. I have no idea. You know, it's, when dealing with children is really interesting. Because if you tell them to do something, they will never do it. They're just going to resistance.
Geoffrey X Lane:And it's an inbuilt skepticism of adults because they've been conned by adults. Do this and then this. Well, yeah. When? You see, if the reward is 5 years down the road, they're not interested.
Geoffrey X Lane:No. If the reward is more or less instant or in front of them, they're interested. And that's what storytellers or people who present forget. They go, well, you know, if you do this, you'll get this, and you'll get this, and you'll get this. Yeah.
Geoffrey X Lane:But it might take 5 years to get that. So people don't buy. They don't step into the story. So here's the thing.
Danielle Tuner:Yes.
Geoffrey X Lane:If you want to be truly successful, if you want to achieve your harsh desire, if you want to do really well, tell a story.
Danielle Tuner:Yeah. Tell a story. And especially with video, it certainly lends itself to a story because then you could add visuals to support that story. You know, you you don't have to be just the talking head in front of the camera. You tell your story and include some visuals, and that's that's, wow.
Danielle Tuner:Adds richness and depth and woo hoo.
Geoffrey X Lane:Well, we're doing that here. We're telling about stories. We're telling a story about stories. Yeah. Now listeners are going, I talk about ads because TV ads are so prolific.
Geoffrey X Lane:Yeah. We are connected to them. We get to see them. We get to experience them. But the worst the worst ones are political ads.
Geoffrey X Lane:They so rarely tell a story. They shout at you Yeah. And they shout at you at the negatives of if you vote for this person, this will happen or it's it's so
Danielle Tuner:ick. You know, when you bring up commercials, I remember there's this one commercial from my childhood that really sticks with me, and it's ultimate storytelling. It was a Coca Cola ad. I I wonder if you remember it too. They were singing a song, bunch of young adults up on a hill.
Danielle Tuner:I'd like Not
Geoffrey X Lane:the world.
Danielle Tuner:Thrilled to to sing a perfect in perfect harmony or something along that line. Yeah. And but and that is a perfect example of there are many ways to tell a story. Right? I'm not saying I'm expecting, you know, our audience to go out and sing a song, but that was a song of a group of people getting together in a moment of nature, sharing joy and love of the world and of each other.
Danielle Tuner:And it was a beautiful
Geoffrey X Lane:drinking Coca Cola.
Danielle Tuner:While drinking Coca Cola. And and it turned them into the biggest bottling company ever.
Geoffrey X Lane:Oh, yes. Now I I my favorite in teaching is what do McDonald's sell to children? Oh, characters. Sell hamburgers when
Danielle Tuner:they They don't.
Geoffrey X Lane:They sell Happy Meals. Yes.
Danielle Tuner:Happy Meals with a special little prize that's related to a story, which is a movie.
Geoffrey X Lane:Yes.
Danielle Tuner:So it's connected to a movie, which is a story.
Geoffrey X Lane:Yes. You know, you can get, Terminator ones and you well, I mean
Danielle Tuner:Or Frozen. You could get they had frozen little things that you from the movie Frozen
Geoffrey X Lane:Yes.
Danielle Tuner:In their little Happy Meals. Yes.
Geoffrey X Lane:Well, see, I don't buy a Happy Meal for Frozen now.
Danielle Tuner:But it's But the Terminator. Yes.
Geoffrey X Lane:Terminator. I remember that one. My my son wanted a Terminator meal. Oh, well.
Danielle Tuner:And he's telling that story over and over again. Like, Dylan wouldn't get me a Terminator meal in this
Geoffrey X Lane:Oh, no. I got him a Terminator meal.
Danielle Tuner:Kid. Oh. I did.
Geoffrey X Lane:Because it was a good excuse for him getting French fries.
Danielle Tuner:Ah.
Geoffrey X Lane:My weakness, French fries, and he knew it. He knew it. He would say, well, I'm gonna and then you can and I'll so hook he hooked together my desire for French fries with his getting a happy meal.
Danielle Tuner:They are good little manipulators.
Geoffrey X Lane:Oh, no. No. No. No. No.
Geoffrey X Lane:They're good storytellers.
Danielle Tuner:Yes. Yes.
Geoffrey X Lane:Every story does manipulate you in some way or another, but I wouldn't use the term manipulators because it always sounds sort of slimy and complicated and con.
Danielle Tuner:Yeah.
Geoffrey X Lane:Every story manipulates your emotions. It manages you in a way, but I would say that, you know, a story captures you. It needs to capture you and, oh, there it is. The first 6 seconds again. And it needs to do it that quickly.
Geoffrey X Lane:People don't realize how short 6 seconds is.
Danielle Tuner:Yes. Yes. YouTube reminds you every time you've got that little skip button 5 4 32 Bang Yes. Yes Well, and so I gotta say bang. That's the end of this episode, too.
Danielle Tuner:Oh, no. Well, we'll have many, many stories to share as we go further on with many episodes. And speaking of, our next episode is going to be about not being so afraid of that black box. Don't be afraid of the box.
Geoffrey X Lane:Don't be afraid of the box. Fear has no enemy. Uh-oh.
Danielle Tuner:Oh. Yeah. Wow. Alright, guys. See you all or hear you all or you'll hear us later.
Geoffrey X Lane:Later.
Danielle Tuner:Bye, everybody.