Know Your Story
Overview
Every great speech tells a story and every great speaker uses their own story to connect with the audience on an emotional level. Many people believe their messages are not about them, which can be true, but you are the person delivering a message. Authenticity is crucial. In this module, we’ll look at how to share enough about yourself to invite trust and empathy, so people will be open to hearing a message that may challenge their thinking or move them to action.
But first, to review
What makes a great speaker?
Your Humanity is Your Credibility
When it comes to public speaking, we most easily trust and place our faith in a speaker with whom we connect with on a personal level. It’s not about professional titles or credentials— though those things are wonderful.
Your credibility is your humanity. It’s your lived experience, the struggles you’ve made it through, and the lessons you’ve learned. When you think of the speakers that have really made an impression on you, it’s likely not their title or degree that really sticks with you, is it? It’s their ability to relate on a genuine and emotional level that impresses our hearts. So lean into your authentic self and your vulnerability. It’s this human connection that will make you memorable as a public speaker.
Unconventional Credentials
By virtue of your lived experience, you have expertise. You may have unique skills or information, or play a unique role in your family or community, hold cultural knowledge, or have unique personal or professional identities. This expertise might come from hobbies, life lessons, parenting skills, moments of personal pride or challenge, volunteer accomplishments, and more.
Where do you consider yourself knowledgeable or skilled? What experiences and interests are you passionate about? What challenges have you overcome?
Your task today is to identify and embrace this personal list of unconventional credentials.
Test your knowledge
Of the list below, which is an unconventional credential?
Identifying unconventional credentials underscores the idea that all knowledge has value and can be a source of expertise. And you can draw confidence as a speaker from recognizing your lived experience and the unique perspective it allows you to bring to the table.
Role of Story in Public Speaking
Identifying those unconventional credentials and thinking about the depth and breadth of your life experiences are important in public speaking; because personal stories make for compelling speakers.
Connecting authentically with audiences demands vulnerability, and demands that we show up as our whole, flawed human selves. Stories are the way that humans have connected since the dawn of time.
“Story, as it turns out, was crucial to our evolution—more so than opposable thumbs.
Opposable thumbs let us hang on; story told us what to hang on to.
~ Lisa Cron, Wired for Story
A story helps people make meaning of what you have to say and gives them a larger lesson to draw on.
Your story works hand in hand with your message as it:
- Helps people remember your message: our brains are hardwired to receive and retain stories.
- Helps motivate people to respond to your call to action: stories engage the emotions toward action.
Test your knowledge
True or false: The audience remembers your stories more than the facts you present.
Your Story as a Speaker
A great speaker includes a story in their speech. So, in order to get you more comfortable with the idea of telling stories in public, we’re going to invite you to explore some additional resources and tools.
The Story of Self is a part of the Public Narrative Framework, developed by veteran community organizer Marshall Gantz, and supported by his team at Leading Change Network. We strongly recommend that, if you haven’t already, you explore their Learning Center module on Storytelling.
The Story of Self is a tool that many speakers use to establish trust with their audiences and connect at a level of shared humanity.
One of the reasons that the Story of Self is so powerful and effective is that it demands vulnerability. We understand that vulnerability is hard. But it’s one of the most important things to offer as a speaker, as it invites others to be in relationship with you directly. See below how Weaver Rev. Lisa Fitzpatrick shares her Story of Self.
- What did you notice about her story?
- What meaning did you take from the experience she shared?
Activity
Think about an experience that happened in your life, something that was meaningful to you, or an event that changed your perspective in some way. Perhaps it was a transition point in your life or a story that relates to some of things you are an expert on.
Optional Activity
Record yourself speaking your story and listen back to it. If possible, share this story with a family member or friend, or:
Then reflect: What is it like to hear your own story? What feelings come up when you’re telling your own story to someone you trust?
As we continue through the lesson, consider the power of sharing your life with another person. How does a willingness to be open with your audience connect you to them? And them to you?
How might sharing our lives lead more people towards understanding, compassion, and action?
When you vulnerably share stories of challenges, you begin to reveal your personal values. And when you offer this part of yourself, your audience is more able—and willing!—to connect with you over these shared values.
The Story Arc
The Story of Self focuses on sharing your unique story arc:
- What challenge have you faced?
- What choice have you made based on that challenge?
- What outcome or personal transformation came out of that experience?
All good stories have an arc—a beginning, a middle, and a conclusion. And the story arc structure can help shape the arc of a great presentation. The arc of a powerful story follows a flow of challenges and choices. The challenges we face in our lived experiences have led us towards the choices we made about how to surmount those challenges. Through this continued challenge-choice dynamic, we are transformed.
And your personal transformation is the moral of your story—the wider lesson you have to offer as a speaker.
Test your knowledge
What makes a good story of self?
Explanation
While challenges and successes could be important to your story of self, without an “aha” that made you think differently, the story has less impact. What you learned that changed your thinking is key to a strong story of self.
3 Key Stories Every Presenter Must Tell: Self/Us/Now
In addition to the Story of Self, a great speaker begins to widen the lens with the Story of Us and the Story of Now. You can learn more about how to link your Story of Self as a speaker with these additional stories to build collective understanding and a sense of urgency toward action. You can learn more on the art of linking these three stories here.