Want Your Audience’s Attention? Tell Them a Good Story.

I was listening to a podcast the other day featuring John C. McGinley, or, as he’s more popularly recognized as, Dr. Cox from the hit series Scrubs. It turns out that John is an avid golfer, which is what landed him on the Erik Anders Lang Show to begin with. While talking about his career as an actor, he noted a very simple idea: he was just a storyteller, trying to tell stories well.

Photo by Nong Vang on Unsplash

This idea stuck with me as I thought about how it obviously describes actors, their job being acting out roles and reading lines to tell a story. But extending this, McGinley says: “we’re all storytellers.” Applying this description across different professions becomes a fun exercise. In the world of sports, it’s quite easy: announcers are immortalized for legendary calls, athletes act out roles in little dramas of their own, and historic teams are the main characters in harrowing adventures — overcoming challenges to win the ultimate prize. Away from sports, story is just as readily evident: Marketing departments play with narrative to paint a picture of your life with a new product, History teachers educate on bygone heroes, and even in the software industry new features are driven by “User Stories.” Then there are examples that reach beyond any office: Fathers reading bedtime stories to their children, friends catching up over drinks, and responses given to the timeless inquiry, “how was your day?” It doesn’t require much reflection to see that storytelling is deeply ingrained in the human experience.

If we are all storytellers, what’s to be said about the stories that you are telling? Do they make sense? Veer off track? Come full-circle? Impart any lessons or morals? I think any story worth telling is worth telling well. So, if we tell stories anyways, why not strive to tell them excellently?

The next time you begin telling a story, pause. Think. Make an effort to tell it well. You will be rewarded with one of the greatest gifts, opportunities, and responsibilities: your audience’s attention.