The Power of a Good Story

The Olympics hold our attention for two and a half weeks every two years. Hours and hours of media coverage are dedicated to the Games and the stories that elicit emotional responses and capture our hearts and our imaginations. Some people have difficulty remembering statistics, but few forget a good story. A well told story gives you the power to attract and hold the attention of your audience while establishing credibility and delivering your message.

Sportscasters at the Olympic Games weave athletes' stories into their sports commentating. Al Michaels was the broadcaster calling the 1980 Olympics ice hockey medal round match between the United States and the Soviet Union. The US team was comprised of mostly college players, yet they managed to defeat the Soviet team who had won nearly every world championship and Olympic game since 1954.

We didn't have internet back then, we didn't have cable television as we know it - we didn't even have a national newspaper (USA Today came years later), but we had Al Michaels giving his play-by-play. In the final moments, the crowd began to count down the seconds left in the game. Al Michaels picked up the countdown in his broadcast, "...eleven seconds, you've got ten seconds, the countdown going on right now! Morrow, up to Silk...five seconds left in the game..." as the crowed went wild.

Years later, Michaels would re-do his commentary for the movie "Miracle", but when it came time to say that final memorable line, the director decided to go with the original recording of Michaels screaming,"Do you believe in miracles? Yessss!" as time expired on the 4-3 U.S. victory. That line earned the game the media nickname of "The Miracle on Ice" and is one of the greatest Olympic stories of all time.

In 1994, the whole world tuned in to Lillehammer, Norway, to watch the drama unfold as Tonya Harding and Nancy Kerrigan competed in figure skating's ultimate Olympic showdown. The story actually began several weeks earlier when Nancy Kerrigan was attacked by a baton-wielding assailant as she left a practice session. The injury she sustained caused her to miss the 1994 U.S. Figure Staking Championships, and in her absence, Tonya Harding, captured the title and secured a spot on the U.S. Olympic team. It was later learned that Harding's ex-husband had hired the assailant to get Kerrigan out of Harding's way, but Kerrigan recovered in time for Lillehammer and the story took off.

Heading into the Olympic finals Kerrigan was in first place ahead of Ukrainian's Oksana Baiul and France's Surya Bonaly while Harding was a distant 10th. A controversial 5-4 split amongst the judges gave the gold to Baiul by the slimmest of margins. Nancy Kerrigan won the silver and Tonya Harding got to stay out of jail (unlike her ex-husband and his hooligan accomplices.)

When telling a story, be conscious of your gestures - you want to show the story as a well as tell it. Try incorporating different voices for different characters. Keep in mind that attention spans are short. Know your audience and know what they want. If the story doesn't mean anything to you, chances are it won't mean anything to your audience, either - and it certainly won't come across as genuine.

As with any speech format, storytelling takes preparation and practice. As you adapt your story, remember that good story tellers don't memorize their story word for word and they don't read their story from note cards. Instead, they think of their story in outline form. Learning a story episode by episode ensures that you will deliverer a spontaneous and authentic presentation every time you tell your story. The more you practice, the better you'll become at using stories to sell your product, service or idea. If you need help crafting your story, the coaches at Ty Boyd, Inc. can help.