When I started my storytelling journey, I faced a common problem: I didn’t know how to begin, where to end, or what belonged in the middle. After working with writers and entrepreneurs for many years, I developed a universal storytelling roadmap. The roadmap ensured that every storyteller could feel confident about where to start, where to end, and what to put in the middle. It also allowed them to identify who might need to hear that story just by focusing on who faced that problem.
Why Build a Storytelling Roadmap?
Building a storytelling roadmap helps you ensure you’re taking your audience on a journey to a destination they want to visit. It also allows you to speak, write, or create with confidence, knowing what to include to be sure you get your audience from where they are to where they want to be. Here are 9 points to hit when you’re building your roadmap:
1. Ask a Relevant Question
Ever felt the frustration of listening to someone ramble on and on with no idea where they’re trying to take you or how long the trip is going to be? Imagine those are your readers or your listeners in the audience. You don’t want that experience for them.
Asking a relevant question, though, perks them up. It hints at where the journey’s going to take them and gets them reacting to you right away. The question should be directly related to what you’re going to talk about or it’s just a tease – and nobody likes those. Your goal: to get them to raise their hand and say “yes” to whatever you just asked them.
2. Prepare Them for the Journey
Identify the problem that you’re going to help them solve by the time you reach the end of the talk. Choose one they want to solve.
3. Reveal Your H.E.A.R.T.
You want to earn their trust right off the bat and reassure them that you get them. You understand where they are and why they want so badly to be where it is you’re going to help them go.
To do that, you’re going to need to share your humanity, your empathy, your authenticity, your reliability, and your trustworthiness – in other words, your H.E.A.R.T.!
Don’t be afraid to share your mistakes and failures. Tell them what it felt like when you first faced up to this problem. What stopped you from getting the results you can now help them get? What biases did you have to overcome or false expectations did you have to reset?
The more vulnerable you can be in sharing this, the more you encourage your audience to be vulnerable with you about their mistakes, their biases, and the things that are holding them back from accepting your solution.
4. Wow Them with the Truth!
Give them an insight, a perspective, or a way of looking at things that they never would have if you hadn’t come along. This truth either allowed you to make progress in getting past your mistakes or it stopped you from failing. That allowed you to finally find the solution. As long as you’re being genuine, this moment of truth establishes your credibility and wins them over to the idea of working with you.
5. Explain the Solution
Sharing the solution you uncovered as a result of embracing that truth helps them take another step forward in their journey. You become, at this point, a trusted advisor and mentor guiding them through the many obstacles they face in implementing that solution.
6. Present Your Obstacles
Don’t think it’s necessary for you to have your life all together in order to gain credibility and authority. The truth is that nobody has their life altogether no matter what the appearances may be. Your audience needs you to prepare them for what’s to come. What pit traps and potholes did you fall into or false roads did you take? What potholes did you hit? Let them about those so they know what to expect ahead of time.
7. Give Them Your Answers
Now that you’ve been on that journey, you know how to get past the pit traps, the potholes, and how to spot the false roads. Share the secrets you discovered that help you do this.
8. Share the Results
What amazing changes came to your life because you went on this journey? What were you able to do or where were you able to go that you never thought possible?
Did the reality match the vision you’d had? If not, was it better or worse? Be honest with these things because your audience needs to trust you. If it didn’t meet your expectations but was worse, why are you recommending they go on that journey anyway? What are they going to gain by it?
Maybe the journey makes them tougher, stronger, or wiser. Those are worthwhile goals they may not have considered.
9. Paint a Picture of the Transformation
Your life changed once you learned to solve the problem and put that solution to work for you. It changed the person you were into the person you are today. You want to give your audience hope that their life can transform just like yours did. The more vivid a picture you paint, the easier it will be for people to imagine it and – more importantly – to want to go with you on that journey.
Storytelling Isn’t Just for Writers or Speakers
There are a million ways to tell stories: with art, music, dance, games, websites, graphic design, fabric and fashion design, architecture, product design…if you create it, you can use it to tell a story. Even your business tells a story. We help you make sure the story you’re telling shows your ideal audience why you’re the B.O.S.S. of your industry so you attract the right customers or clients for you.
Want Help Crafting Your Story Roadmap?
Just reach out to brandy@pathtoconnections.com and let’s book a free discovery call for you or join our next B.O.S.S. (Business of Strategic Storytelling) workshop.