Every single content creator should consistently learn and practice how to be a better storyteller. Today we are talking about how to build better stories with your content from the beginning, all the way to the end. And we will discuss how to set up and then deliver a good story to your audience.
This is both for interview type shows and for solo shows. For the content creators out there that like to be funny and for those that like to be more serious. We have something for everyone in this article today.
Design Your Storyteller Flow
How exactly do you become a better storyteller? Well, let’s start by talking about structure. I think of it as the flow for how you go about building stories within your show. Your content flow is one of the steps in my content marketing system.
Just like anything else, you need to design your content flow. It needs to be thought about and it has to be built purposefully. Let’s go through the things that constitute the flow.
These are the storytelling elements that are going to help you build better content:
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Storyteller Rhythms – Determine where the energy will be focused in your story
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Storyteller Formats – Frame the structure of your story and provide context
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Storyteller Formulas – Provide a roadmap for you to tell your story consistently
Storyteller Rhythms
Rhythm will be the first thing we dive into. From a musical standpoint, rhythm refers to a strong, regular, repeated pattern of movement or sound. That pattern in your content is the thing that keeps your audience interested and there is movement within it.
When you talk about storytelling, there are different types of rhythms. Many stories have their own patterns, movement, and energy. There are four rhythms that we’ll talk about for your content:
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Launch Rhythm – Peaks early and tapers off
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Build Rhythm – Starts slow and then peaks towards the end
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Steady Rhythm – Stays consistent the whole story
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Erratic Rhythm – Ebbs and flows naturally with the storyteller
Launch Rhythm
A launch rhythm starts out strong. In your content, you would launch with your most impactful and exciting material right at the beginning. So people are immediately brought in and engaged. Then you can follow that up with the things that support the exciting thing that you started with. After you peak, you will drop off to a more consistent movement after that.
Build Rhythm
The next type is going to be a build rhythm and a lot of music uses this format. This is where you have a consistent starting point. Then the excitement slowly starts to build towards the middle or back half of the show.
You can tease someone with an exciting hook. You can introduce your concept and let them know that there’s more to come. Many shows work like this because they want to keep you around for the majority of the show. They have to listen until the end if they want to hear the juicy, revealing secret.
Steady Rhythm
A steady rhythm is something that starts strong and then continues at the same energy the whole show. This is a popular format that I use as well. I like to let you know what you are going to learn upfront. I try to provide a consistent pattern of content and excitement throughout the show.
That works for a lot of formats, especially in education. We are trying to give you tips and education throughout the whole show.
Erratic Rhythm
The last type of rhythm is erratic. Everyone has their own personality. There are some energies that tend to go up and down and up and down and up and down.
That’s great if that’s your normal state. If you are very excitable and you go up and you go down and you don’t know when your emotions are going to take over within your show. People go with you on the ride. You don’t know which part of the thing you’re talking about is going to get you excited until you are creating it.
If you recognize that you have an erratic pace, lean into it. Many people are drawn to that type of energy because it’s very authentic. You have many choices, but it is great to identify your style and stick to it.
Also, erratic is different from being random. The goal is to be consistent within your style. If you are inconsistent, it is hard to read you. People will start to think that you had an off day because it’s just not your normal style.
Figuring out your rhythm is part of the storytelling process. So figure out what your rhythm is going to be in general, and then what your rhythm is going to be for a particular show. And then how do you structure your show to deliver against your rhythm. For example, if you have a build flow, you need to plan your big reveal ahead of time to make sure you deliver on your promise.
Storyteller Formats
The second piece of finding your flow as a storyteller is choosing your content format. Obviously, before you started your show, you decided what kind of show it was going to be. Your format includes things like:
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Is this a solo show?
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Will you have a cohost for your show?
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Do you want to bring guests on your show?
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Will your group be virtual or in person?
Your format matters.
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Once you decide how many people are going to be on the show, you have some choices that help you deliver your story. Here are a few:
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Educational Content
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Storytelling Content
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Demonstration Content
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Positioning Content
Educational Content
One type of show format is an education-based show. The format informs the content. With an education format, you want to make sure you explain the value of the show upfront. Let your audience know what they are going to learn right at the beginning of the show. This gives them a reason to stick around.
If you don’t tell them why they should be listening, they won’t know what they are waiting for. You can give them one or two quick wins along the way, but let them see the big picture first. Not every show is for every person. This may be the episode they should skip. Give them that choice.
Storytelling Content
Another format is a storytelling type of show. For example, many people take you behind the scenes for some of their episodes. Or they do a freestyle show where they let you know what is happening in their world right now.
People love it when you give them a more personal view into your life. And you frame it by telling stories. Those stories can range from things that happened in your day to observations about things that you see in your environment. They can be deep dives into things that you have read. Or you can share what you have been thinking about and reflecting on.
All of that works within a storytelling type architecture.
Demonstration Content
The next format would be for someone who’s giving a demonstration. This format works for anyone trying to explain to people how to do something. This is very popular search content, especially on YouTube.
For demonstration content, you will adjust your storytelling approach to fit this style.
Often when teaching, you need a visual example. You need to figure out how to do that in the context of your show. It’s easy for a YouTube show to give a visual example. But if it’s a podcast and the thing you’re teaching is mostly visual, you have to figure out a different way to go about that.
You might have to remove the visual demonstrations and talk about more high-level concepts. Or you can give some simple tips and steps in an easy to remember way. When you don’t have the visual element, you have to add more structure to help your audience remember the lesson.
The people listening need to follow you along the way and remember your actionable advice.
Positioning Content
Another one that you could select is a positioning type format.
This is what you would consider an opinion story. People that give their perspective, their opinions, their personal beliefs, about a particular topic are creating positioning content.
There are plenty of shows that are very successful using that style. To set a show up like that, you need to state your arguments right in the beginning. Also, share your motivations for covering that topic.
The body of the show will be formatted around supporting those arguments. Giving opinions is great, but if you do not support them with facts or background, you lose the audience. To understand you, they need to have context for why you believe those things.
The audience will decide if your position is something that they agree with or disagree with. But they will not understand you if they don’t know the rationale behind your opinions. Even if they disagree, it’s nice for someone who disagrees with your position or opinion to know why you happen to feel that way.
At very least you want your audience to empathize with how you came to that conclusion or why you hold that belief.
This is why format is so important to become a better storyteller. The way you frame every conversation should directly derive from the type of format that you choose. That is something to think about when you are trying to come up with a strong flow for your show.
Storyteller Formulas
And the last piece of this storyteller architecture is what I like to call your content formula. Your content formula helps you keep your audience engaged and move them along through your content.
Every piece of content has a beginning, middle, and end. And our formulas align with those three parts of content. Here’s the setup:
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Content Hook – The start of your content that grabs attention
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Content Line – The body of your content that keeps attention and adds value
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Content Sinker – The conclusion of your content that drives action
The Content Hook
The hook is how you start your show in a way that sets up the rest of your content.
Your hook has to take into consideration your rhythm and your format. There are many different ways to set up your hook at the beginning of your story.
You could start with a story that demonstrates your idea in an interesting way. Tell a story about a strong belief or that dispels a popular myth. The goal is to catch people’s attention with an interesting statement.
Another type of hook that you can start your show with is, what I call, the transformation hook. You let people know that by the end of this show, they will accomplish something. They will know how to do something new. They can overcome something they were struggling with. And they will be transformed into a new person after listening.
The goal is the same for every single hook; capture their interest.
If you can capture their interest at the very beginning of your show, you will have their attention for the middle of the show which we’re calling the line.
The Content Line
The line is the body of your content. What are you going to do in the middle of your content that supports the hook? It needs to fit your format, stay on rhythm, and help your audience stay engaged. This is where the bulk of your content lies, so make it good.
You don’t want people to tune in and then drop off immediately. If you have a strong hook, but you don’t deliver in the body of your content, people will leave your content.
Here are some formats that are very standard for the body section of your content.
Essay Style Content
You can do a simple essay style body of your content. Similar to college writing classes, anytime you write an essay, you start with an introduction of your main argument.
Then you would have to support it with three main points. In those points, you would elaborate and give examples. You can dive deeper, but there are three simple arguments that support your main thesis.
You stick to three because it’s easy to remember things in threes. Beyond three, most of us tend to lose track of your points.
Skeleton Key Content
The second approach is what I like to call the skeleton key. This is how I build a lot of my content. I do a lot of planning, in the beginning, using a very specific formula that allows me to keep adding new episodes every week.
I start with one main question that I’m trying to answer. Or one main lesson that I’m trying to teach. Then I start with an essay type format and build three supporting points. And then I elaborate on each of those points with three more supporting points. And I can keep doing this over and over again.
As I’m building my content, it starts to take on the structure of a book. There are many chapters that contribute to my main story. I think about what the titles of my chapters would be and what the subtitles would be as if they were written in a book
I call it the skeleton key because it unlocks every door. In other words, any piece of content you can think of usually has a main subject and then elaborates. Every supporting topic leads to new topics.
Every door you open leads to three more doors. You keep walking into new rooms with new doors. And the key to all of that is the structure.
The Hero’s Journey
And then the third is this hero’s journey. One of the popular ways to structure the body of your content is to build it as a hero’s journey.
The people listening are the hero and you’re the guide that helps them get there. You will either be giving them quick wins along the way that help them get there or revealing certain things that they didn’t know about themselves to get to where they need to go.
But you need to set up the hero’s journey within your story. And there might be some struggle along the way, and you can call that out.
You could say, “Hey, this step in the process, isn’t going to be easy. This is the hard part. And once you solve this, you’ll be one step closer to getting to your goal. And here are the things that are going to be battling you. But if you do these couple of steps, there’s light at the end of the tunnel and you can get here. And then when you get to the end of the road, here’s what the prize is. Here’s what the victory will be.”
You are the guide along the way, telling them how to break through the things that you know are going to be challenging for them.
That’s the hero’s journey.
That’s the last example for the body of your content, which is the “line” from our hook, line, and sinker formula.
The Content Sinker
And then the third part of the formula is the content sinker. How you end your content is just as important as how you begin it and how you continue it. Because at the end of your content is a huge opportunity for you to move your listeners to action.
You can conclude your content with something that’s important and impactful. Choose something that helps the people listening.
“Grab The Line” Storyteller Method
A sinker can be simple and direct. Just be very specific about what you want people to do. I call this a “grab the line” storyteller method because it puts you in control. You are raising the audience up and putting them into the next place they need to be. You give them the exact tool they need to succeed. Or you point them to the next thing they need to learn.
And that is the key. You need to take them somewhere else because you don’t want your relationship at the end of your content to end. You want it to be taking them either into another piece of content in your world. Or into another service or way that you can help them in your world.
“Pull Down” Storyteller Method
Another more subtle way, to entice people to take action is what I call the “pull down” storyteller method. The audience is in charge and gets to decide where the road leads. It is your job to make them curious about what’s next.
You might have to use a little bit of mystery, or a little bit of intrigue. You can say something like, “Hey guys. I know we talked a lot about this thing today and you know what? There are some secrets you can learn today by going here.”
Or you can show them results and mention, “There is a great story about someone I worked with that managed to do this exact thing and make a million dollars and you can too. If you want to hear that story of how this is actually happening, you might wanna check this other thing out.”
You build a little bit of intrigue. Don’t tell them exactly what they’re going to learn, but you hint at it. Hint at the rewards. And sometimes you can be playful in that.
What I like about this approach, is that it’s not as aggressive or direct as the “grab the line” storyteller method. You can take an indirect approach, enticing people, teasing people, making them curious about the other things that you’re talking about. That’s a great way to end your content.
Bonus Idea for Evergreen Content
So instead of just finishing abruptly, think about what you can do to pull people along into the next thing that you might be talking about. And I’ll even give you one extra bonus idea here.
This is especially for my podcasters out there, or anyone that has a show that is evergreen or sequential in order.
Don’t make your subscribers wait until next week for the next episode. Ask them to immediately dive into your next piece of content. Invite them to specific related episodes from your archive.
If they have to wait a week or a few days or a month for your next piece of content, you lose them. You have their attention right now, grab it!
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