One-on-One Storytelling: Making Personal Connections with Your Audience

Join Mary as she delves into the fascinating world of storytelling. Drawing from personal anecdotes and nostalgic memories, Mary emphasizes the power of conversation in storytelling. 

Learn practical tips for making your stories resonate with your audience, whether on stage, in a newsletter, or video.

 Rediscover the intimate art of connecting through words, and transform your storytelling approach to inspire and engage hearts and minds effectively.

00:00 Introduction to Storiespire Podcast
00:20 Join the Story Spire Newsletter
00:58 The Lost Art of Conversation
04:41 Storytelling Tips: Engaging Your Audience
06:50 Reflecting on Family Stories
08:31 Setting the Stage for Your Story
09:45 Final Thoughts and Inspiration

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Transcript

0:00

Welcome to the Storiespire podcast. I'm Mary R. Snyder. I am your host and storytelling strategist. I'm here with expert advice, actionable tips, and frameworks to create the stories that will inspire hearts and minds because stories change the world. Let's get into it. Hey, before we get started, I want to remind you of something. Have you said yes to my email, my newsletter, the Story Spire News? It is a weekly newsletter with a link to one of the episodes, the episode of the week, along with a storytelling tip, maybe something fun, a resource I found, or an inspirational story just to brighten up your email box. And you can do that simply by going to storyspire. com and clicking on Join Mary. I'd love for you to join me there. Let's get into it. Love conversations. I love talking with people. I even love talking on the telephone. I know that's a lost art. You see, I grew up before we had social media. A lot of us did. And our way of communicating was via telephone. Funny story. I worked in the paging industry, if you remember that, pagers, beepers, and we had some of the very first text pagers. You had to text us through the switchboard. So you had to go to the switchboard and our switchboard operator would text us like, Maybe our next sales call. This was when I was in sales or maybe I needed to go do something for a client and she would say, go to ABC hospital and talk to Joe. He needs to speak to you about XYZ. Well, we had this one receptionist and I just loved her and she would text us, call me. She completely missed the purpose of the text of our message beepers. But she was a conversationalist. She really wanted to tell you the nuance of this, like, Hey, Joe called from ABC Hospital and he is not happy. She wanted to give you more than we were allowed in these few little lines. And I think the art of conversation is lost. You see, I grew up around women who loved good conversation and storytelling. My mother and my Aunt Edna would sit at a table, my Aunt Edna lived in California, we were in Alabama, and she would come home once or twice a year. Make that long trek across the country driving and they would sit up to wee hours of the morning. My aunt Edna would be smoking her Virginia Slims. I can still see it they would have their hair wrapped because they had up do's and they would wrap their hair up in chiffon scarves they would sit and talk and Edna would be smoking those cigarettes, piling that ashtray full, smoke billowing around the table. My mother and her both would be drinking day old coffee. And telling stories. Now these women love stories almost as much as I love that day old coffee. My mom would pert coffee on the stove if you have ever been around somebody who pert coffee. So the coffee grounds, the water heats up, it boils, it goes up to the coffee grounds and back down. And then she would leave that sitting on the stove. All day, so perk it at six in the morning and drink it, and then she would come back, turn it back on, that water would perk again, go back through those coffee grounds, and I'm telling you, you could stand a spoon up in it, it was like syrup coffee, but they loved it, and they drank it black, these were women who loved a good cup of coffee, and they loved a great story. I sat at that table inhaling that secondhand smoke and learned so much about my family history in those conversations. Storytelling is conversations. When you stand on a stage to tell a story, you're in the midst of a conversation. I can hear your wheels turning going. I'm standing in front of 50 people, 100 people, 500, 5, 000 people. How is this a conversation? Simply it's your turn to talk now. So how do you stand up in front of people and act as if it is just the two of you? You have a conversation with one person in that audience. I'm going to give you a few tips and tricks to make this a little bit easier. I want you to talk to one person, just one, not a room, and use the word you. Now, we're not going to use that in an accusatory form like, you said this, or you better do that, or, you know what, if you don't, That's not the power of you. The power of you is I don't know about you, but this really moved my heart. Maybe you've felt the same way. When you saw people living in abject squalor, maybe you haven't walked this road, but I know you have overcome difficulties in this life. Do you see what I did? Now let me do it a little bit different. Hey, has anyone here ever overcome something? We can make a difference, or you can make a difference. Right now, today, you can do this thing, and it will change these lives. Right now, if we will all come together, we can make a difference. Do you see how you can dodge a we, but you can't dodge a you? You can't hide from a you statement. Your audience can't hide from a you statement and not that you're trying to call them out, but you're trying to bring them into the conversation. So simple questions like, have you ever felt like that? Has this ever been your reality? Maybe you haven't experienced this, but I know you've experienced that. They then become a part of the conversation. You can see the head nods in the crowd as people nod as you talk. And they lean forward in their seat because they are waiting for the next thing you will say. That's the power of conversation. I sat around that table for years and years. Starting when I was probably six or seven or even younger and I grew up sitting around that table. I can remember being 12, 13, a young teenager and sitting crisscross in a kitchen chair that was incredibly uncomfortable by the way, but let's just take a moment and say, wow, I could sit crisscross for hours and not be wounded. That has not happened today. But sit criss cross and listen to these women tell the stories of Ms. Adkins. Now, I never met Ms. Adkins, but here's what I know. Ms. Adkins outlived four husbands. And there is some rumor that Ms. Adkins may have had something to do with those four men not making it to senior adulthood. No proof, but I can tell you the stories. And as they would unpack those stories, my mother might talk for 10 or 15 minutes, tell my aunt all about what happened that day at work, or some incredible thing that she had experienced, in that season they had been a part of. She might talk for 10, 15, 20 minutes unpacking the story while my aunt sat there and went, oh yeah, mm hmm. And she nodded, and she grinned, and she, ooh, wow, and she cheered her on much like your audience does when you are standing on a stage unpacking your story. So I want you to think about that. I want you to consider that while you're standing on that stage unpacking that story. You're very much sitting at a table. Now, it may not be full of Virginia Slim cigarettes and an ashtray overflowing with butts or two cups of incredibly strong coffee, but it's a table that you've set. It's the table that is about your story. Now, if it's my table, there's probably a really good cup of coffee with a whole lot of great creamer in it. No cigarettes. There may or may not be something sweet on that table. That's my table. That's how I'm going to communicate with you. I'm going to talk for 10 or 15 minutes I'm going to lean forward so as you prepare your next story for a stage, For a newsletter, for a campaign, or for a video, I want you to think about this. You're at your table. What does it look like? What's sitting on it? Here's what I hope's not sitting on it. Your phone. Put that away. Let's just have a conversation like my mom and my Aunt Edna had back when there weren't cell phones. And they were uninterrupted. hours of sharing life back and forth. When you step on a stage, when you write a newsletter, when you create a video, you're talking directly to someone, you're sharing your story with someone. To connect with their hearts, tell it to just one. And I promise you, you will notice the difference. I hope you have an incredible week. I hope your stories inspire hearts and change lives in every way possible. Bye for now.