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Published on:

19th Dec 2018

157: Vivid Storytelling

VIVID STORYTELLING…

…is not optional. If it ain’t vivid, it ain’t a story; it’s just an idea.

Warning! This episode may give you awesome communication power. Can you handle it?

Before we talk about vivid, let’s clarify what storytelling is for those of you who want to sell more products and services and/or influence people to act on your words. Think of storytelling as a journey for your audience that takes them from an undesired or painful before state, through an obstacle course, to strongly desired after state. You, the storyteller, are guiding and directing that journey. Your responsibility is to make it an authentic adventure of a lifetime. That’s where vivid comes in.

You make your story vivid by using sensory language. Remember this easy rule. Use your senses, all five of them. Make your audience see, hear, smell, taste, and touch (feel) your story. When you do that, you speak to the heart; when you don’t do it, you appeal only to logic, to the head. Not good. When your communication does not appeal to and arouse emotion, it has little to no impact. It’s barely heard and quickly forgotten.

Here is another import tip to remind you how to communicate vividly and strongly. Never ask your audience to figure out what you’re talking about on their own. There are two major problems with that. One, your message is open to too many different interpretations when it doesn’t vividly jump out at people. Two, imagining things requires energy that most people are not willing to give.

Let’s compare head language with heart language:

 

In this episode, you will also hear two powerful examples of vivid storytelling from two professionally written short stories, one of them based on a real life event.

You can easily transform your communication into a magnetic force that compels people to listen to you and act on what you tell them. This can earn you a lot  of money, and it will enrich the lives of the people you meet.

Listen to this podcast more once, take notes, then, practice, practic, practice. You will experience mastery.

BOOKS IN THIS PODCAST

Writing For Story by Jon Franklin

The Fly by Katherine Mansfield (in Stories Vintage Classics)

 

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About the Podcast

Change Your Story, Change Your Life
Influences: Tony Robbins, T. Harv Eker, Wayne Dyer, Jim Rohn, Napoleon Hill, Andrew Carnegie, Dale Carnegie, Oprah, Robert Kiyosaki, Robin Sharma, Facebook, Mark Zuckerberg, Bill Gates, LinkedIn, Twitter, method acting, Marlon Brando, Marcus Aurelius
Humans are storytelling machines. You and I are constantly creating, destroying, elevating, and diminishing ourselves with our inner narratives that appear and disappear in our minds 24/7. Most people are not aware of this process. As a result, they believe that life is happening to them. This feels random, chaotic, and scary. Why do people tolerate it? Because they tell themselves, "That's the way it is. That is reality." Those seven words could not be farther from the truth.

This podcast will explore the storytelling process that is responsible for every facet of your life. It will discuss and encourage ways to take control of your personal narrative so that you can begin directing your destiny with an empowering story.

About your host

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Louis Di Bianco

Louis Di Bianco is a storyteller. He fell in love with storytelling as a child. In his teens, his ability to tell entertaining stories saved his life on the streets of the Bronx, where he grew up. He discovered quickly how to make the neighborhood tough guys like, trust, and respect him by engaging them with stories.

Louis became a professional stage and screen actor to get paid for his love of storytelling. He has appeared in numerous feature films, TV movies, and television series, as well as performing on stage internationally.

He has taught acting for both stage and camera for as long as he has been an actor. We're talking more than four decades. Eventually, he created courses in compelling communication for business people who want to present their ideas, products, and services to the world with clarity, confidence, and persuasive power.

Louis takes the words, Change Your Story, Change Your Life, very seriously. His life experience has taught him that every word we utter, every belief we embrace, is a made up story. Even your past is a made up story that seems so vivid that you swear it's real. Accept that, and you remove all the barriers between you and your dreams. You will be able to enjoy the adventure of changing your story to change your life.