Are You Telling a Story—or Merely Reporting Information?

What turns an experience into a useful business story?

According to business storytelling expert Dave Bricker, it begins with people.

“Stories are always about people,” he explains. “If you’re not talking about people, you’re not telling stories.”

That distinction matters when leaders rely on figures, processes, and crowded slides to communicate. Data can support a story, but the numbers alone are not the story. The leader must show what those numbers mean to employees, customers, or other people affected by them.

Must the story come from your own experience?

No. Dave draws heavily from thousands of miles spent sailing, but he also uses historical events, familiar fables, and fictional scenarios.

A story can come from your family, travels, workplace, or observations. You might tell a story about a customer, an explorer, a sports team, or even an ant and a centipede.

Fiction presents no ethical problem when the storyteller does not attempt to deceive the audience. A fable can reveal a genuine lesson even though its events never happened.

The better question is: Did the audience learn something useful?

How do you make a personal story relevant?

“Make your story a metaphor for your listener’s story,” Dave advises.

Not everyone has sailed through a violent storm. Many people, however, understand what it feels like to confront uncertainty, struggle for visibility, or feel threatened by forces much larger than themselves.

Dave illustrates this with his story of sailing alone between the Bahamas and Miami. Facing waves larger than his 26-foot boat, he discovered that his navigation lights were failing just as his course converged with two freighters and a cruise ship.

He could see the cruise passengers dancing under flashing lights while he fought to survive in the darkness below. They occupied the same place at the same time, yet lived through entirely different experiences.

For a business audience, that sailing story becomes a story about invisibility. Many professionals feel surrounded by enormous opportunities and powerful competitors that do not notice them.

Why does a story need conflict?

Without conflict, little happens.

“I went out for a walk and nothing happened” gives the listener no reason to care. Add an unexpected person, an abandoned kitten, a threat, or a discovery, and the listener immediately wonders, “What happened next?”

Conflict creates curiosity. It also reveals what stands between the audience and the desired transformation.

How should a speaker deliver the story?

Do more than recite the words.

Use specific images, sounds, physical sensations, vocal variety, and changes of pace. Then leave room for silence.

When you ask a question, allow listeners time to answer it mentally. When you deliver an important line, resist the urge to rush forward.

As Dave puts it, “Sometimes it’s what you don’t say.”

What if you feel nervous?

Shift your attention from yourself to the audience.

Dave calls this approach “turn nervous into service.” Fear may remain, but your purpose changes. Instead of wondering how you will survive the presentation, think about what your listeners need and how you can help them.

That may be the central lesson of effective storytelling: your experience supplies the story, but the audience supplies its purpose.

Listen to the interview with Dave Bricker https://yourintendedmessage.podbean.com/e/business-storytelling-how-to-connect-with-your-audience-dave-bricker/