Our dumb caveman brains can’t remember everything. There is too much information passing through our heads each day. The only thing that sticks are stories. Either ones we tell ourselves or ones we hear from others. Don’t believe me? Let’s play a game. Tell me what you had for lunch last week on Tuesday. Now tell me the plot to the first Star War’s movie. Ha gotcha. Stories stick. More than anything else in this world. Whoever can tell the best stories has the power to do great things in our world.
Shaan Puri is an entrepreneur and content creator. Known for his work in the tech industry and his popular podcast “My First Million.” A few months ago he was on the popular “How I Write” podcast. While on the show he blew my mind with tons of great ideas around storytelling. I learned a lot and wanted to share the best ideas here.
Aaron Sorkin’s 30 Second Masterclass
“I worship at the alter of intention and obstacle.”
— Aaron Sorkin
Aaron Sorkin is a famous screenwriter. Creating hits like the TV show “The West Wing” or movies like “The Social Network”. His says that every story needs to have a clear intention and obstacle.
In any story, the main character has a have a clear intention. What do they want? Why do they want it? After that you need an obstacle. Who or what is trying to stop them from getting their intention? It’s fundamental to every story, but doesn’t have to be life and death. Every movie you have ever seen has this. If it didn’t have a strong intention or obstacle in the first 10 minutes, you probably hated the movie. For example, all Harry Potter wants is to live a normal life with a loving family and close friends. Since the day he was a born a dark wizard is trying to kill him. Intention (living), and obstacle (trying to kill him).
Hooks vs Frames
Everyone has seen Twitter/X threads that start with “The unbelievable story of XYZ person doing XYZ thing”. It’s clickbait and makes me cringe every time I see it. These are tactics that try to hook a reader into continuing to engage in the content. Instead of creating hooks, Shaan recommends creating the right frame for a story. Hooks are about the words you’re going to write. Frames are about the idea. And how you’re going to connect many ideas together to make it relevant to an audience.
Check out the following tweets about the popular audio app Clubhouse.
This first tweet is by someone who founded a similar audio app before Clubhouse. He should be very knowledgeable on the subject. The tweet gained little traction because he told no story. It was dry and full of technical industry facts and jargon.
Now take a similar tweet by Shaan. In his tweet he told a story. He put in the frame of “every one thinks X, but I think Y, and here’s how I think it’s going to go down”. It had millions of views. The thread is a mini screenplay and masterclass on how the right frame can make an idea turn into a powerful story.
Another powerful example is Dave Chappelle trying to get the rights back to his famous sketch show. He didn’t complain to Viacom (owners of Comedy Central which initially hosted the show). Instead he told a story with a powerful framing. It wasn’t a funny story. But one that made his fans start boycotting the show on streaming platforms. Hoping to get paid for his original hard work. This was all due to a powerful story with the right framing. Check out this video to hear the full story.
Tell 100 Stories
If you don’t know who Mr. Beast is than you live under a rock with no internet connection. People always ask how they can be like him. His advice is simple. Make 100 videos. Each time do one thing better than the last video. He says it’s the perfect advice. Because either no one actually goes through with making 100 videos. Or the people that do never reach out to him again because once they make 100 videos they figured out how to make them successful.
To tell great stories you need to tell hundreds of stories, maybe thousands. You need to get intelligent reps in. With each rep you get a little better. These gains can compound a powerful skill over time.
Storyworthy Book
Matthew Dicks wrote the book on storytelling. No he actually did. He wrote a book called “Storyworthy”. I’m currently reading it and love the book, future post coming soon. Shaan calls out a few kew ideas from the book in the podcast.
First is every story needs stakes. You need to make clear what’s at stake if the main character doesn’t get what they want (their intention). These stakes don’t have to be life or death though. Stakes come from the emotion. Something closer to regular life has the biggest impact because other people can see themselves in the story. Telling a heartwarming story about learning life lessions from your kids at the dinner table can be more powerful than a shark attack story.
No one cares about your vacation or crazy party story. If you have something that’s generally interesting about your vacation, then only keep the parts that are relevant to the story. If you got pickpocketed at the Vatican, but were able to chase down the bad guy and get your wallet back, then just tell that part of the story. It may not matter that you were on the Amolfi coast the previous day or you were even at the Vatican. No one cares. Just keep your story as long as it is interesting. Not a second longer.
At its core, a story is a five second moment of change. Everything comes up to one moment where a thing or person is transformed. If the story doesn’t have change, then it’s just an anecdote. A sequence of events. Not a real story. Stories start with the world one way, and end with it another way. Shaan says a good example is every romantic comedy you’ve ever seen. Whatever the main character is, they are 100% going to be the opposite at the end of the movie. Is the woman a fast paced lawyer who never made time for love? By the end of the movie she will have a romantic partner and will take more time away from work. Is the guy a ladies man who will never settle down? By the end of the movie he will fall for someone who will make him rethink everything and start hearing wedding bells. It’s always about change.
Adding Humor in Storytelling
Humor is the sauce but not the meal in most stories. All humor is just surprise. If you see the punch line coming it’s not very funny. Try to add humor into your storytelling. Just don’t make it the whole story. Leave that up to the comedians.
Binge Bank
If someone wanted to learn more about you, what would they do? Maybe they’re a recruiter trying to offer you the perfect job. Maybe they’re an entrepreneur trying to find their next co-founder. Or maybe they’re a cute girl you’re about to have dinner with. Chances are the only things they can find on you is your social media presence, and hopefully not any mugshots.
Shaan recommends creating a binge bank for yourself. Think of it as a bank of content that someone can go down the rabbit hole on you. Blogs, videos, newsclippings. Hopefully a collection of stories. Whatever content that gives someone all access pass to how your brain works and who you are as a person. By the end a person’s opinion of you should drastically change. This binge bank can become more powerful than a resume, because it shows your true self. While also showcasing how you communicate.
After hearing this I started to curate my own binge bank. I added a Start Here section to my personal site. On this page I have links to posts that best describe me and my capabilities. Right now it’s small but one day I plan to grow it to the binge banks of people like Ryan Holiday, Tim Ferriss, or Mark Manson.
Growing An Audience
Shaan has a friend with a cool rule about being interesting. If you tell someone something interesting, they will say “wow that’s interesting”. If you tell someone two interesting things, the will say “those are interesting”. If you tell someone three interesting things, they will say “ok, now you are interesting”. To build a following on the internet or at your job, you need to demonstrate your insight constantly. Instead of doing this three times you may have to do this 100 times to get people to come back and pay attention.
Another powerful point that Shaan learned from a branding expert is people will follow you to the ends of the earth if you can give them a feeling more consistently than anyone else. Why do people listen to podcasts from comedians? It’s not because they have groundbreaking insight about current events or they perform their standup routine. It’s because when people listen they feel like “one of the guys” who like to hang out with their friends and crack jokes at one another. How people feel after consuming your story is the end goal.
Closing Thoughts
Storytelling is more art than science. It takes reps to get it right. If you can tell good stories, you can do almost anything in this world. Get out there and start telling better stories today. Just not ones about your vacation.