Long Story Short

What makes you an underdog? What have you struggled with in the past or even on a daily basis? What are you bad at? Sports? Dating? Keeping a job?

I am also a little sick of the cool kids calling themselves nerds.

If you present yourself as flawless, we won’t be on board with you

On the flip side, it’s very easy to get us on board with you from the start.

Simple adjustments can get us on board with you much quicker. So don’t start stories with details that may come off as bragging.

In order to really connect with your audience, you have to put your flaws out there and incorporate them into your piece.

The more vulnerable and flawed you are, the higher you will soar.

Tell their story from your perspective, inserting your inner monologue, reactions, theory of what happened, etc.

Great stories throw us for a loop and take us somewhere we never anticipated.

remember who your audience is. And play to that audience.

A truly stable system expects the unexpected, is prepared to be disrupted, waits to be transformed. —TOM ROBBINS,

Don’t be fake; we’ll see right through that.

The middle of your story should have a plot. It’s the part of the story where you dive into a specific event that happened and the audience really starts to root for you on your journey.

we root for you if you are flawed!

we root for you if you are flawed! We love emotional reactions to anything,

Don’t get angry when recalling the story. Instead, try laughing about yourself.

Keep it conversational, not presentational. Cut out anything you wouldn’t say to a group of your friends. You want your story to sound natural.

Remember, don’t tell us the moral of the story. Don’t spell out what you learned.

Don’t ask too many people for their insights, just one or two people whose opinions you trust. Otherwise, your head will be spinning with conflicting opinions and you will start to doubt your whole piece.

choose people who will give you honest feedback, not just inflate your ego and tell you how awesome you are