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A good storyteller can seemingly tell you about something mundane yet keep you engaged and entertained. How?
In the moment, they seem to be doing nothing special at all. They are just talking and describing how one thing became another thing.
The Internet will tell you all about good storytelling, so that's where I turned first. It was TED talks, YouTube videos, then I moved on to books from the library. I might have learned a little but I mainly got frustrated that these things were answering a consistently different version of my question. According to books, podcasts, and YouTube videos, storytelling only exists in business and your setting is always a big pitch meeting or some high stakes environment.
Then the list of good storytellers is full of people who write fiction. Well, fine. Those who made the list probably deserve it but making up details as a means to tell a good story is less interesting to me. Anyone can write a good story about fighting a bear on Mount Everest.
I wanted someone to tell me how good storytellers seem to be able to pop up anywhere like passing you in the street and organize their thoughts around any subject in a way that you will want to listen.
Finding myself on my own in this regard, I took it upon myself to just keep listening to the storytellers to understand their patterns. Three things that stuck out to me:
1. Be transparent.
2. Tell small stories.
3. Keep listeners in conflict.
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**Transparency** comes in many forms, especially vulnerability, but it comes down to getting your listener's trust. People notice when you are taking a risk. They notice when you are showing them your ugly side. They trust you because they feel you are trusting them with your vulnerability.
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Telling **small stories** doesn't mean you can't tell a long one, it's about making small, easy to understand stories lined up in your story itself. This can be as small as juxtaposition—literally just putting two ideas next to each other like, "I was late, but I couldn't pull myself away."
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**Conflict** can be about a villain of the story or some objective to be overcome, but juxtapositions can also be small stories of conflict. "I was late, but I couldn't pull myself away" describes a conflict between needing to leave but wanting to stay. It's easy to understand so it's easy to follow the conflict and the larger story that idea lives inside of.
Conflict invokes curiosity. When you keep your listeners in a state of conflict, listening to you is their path to relief.
# Filling The Box
Louis CK does this in a pattern where juxtapositions are used often. He tells small stories by labeling the story like labeling a box. Then he starts putting items in the box in front of you to help you understand why the box has that label.
The "filling the box" pattern is probably why it's more engaging to hear someone be interviewed than to listen to them ramble on. The interviewer is effectively labeling boxes in the form of questions and prompting the interviewee to fill the box.
Probably the best example of this storytelling pattern is CK's Conan interview.
## Everything is Amazing and Nobody is Happy
<div class="col-disconnected-left">
<p> ...Yeah, because <span class="highlight-blue">everything is amazing right now and nobody's happy</span> </p>
</div>
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<p><strong class="highlight-blue">Juxtaposition</strong></p>
</div>
<div class="break-column"></div>
<div class="col-disconnected-left">
<p> Like <span class="highlight-green">in my lifetime, the changes in the world have been incredible.</span> </p>
</div>
<div class="col-disconnected-right">
<p> <strong class="highlight-green">Labeling the box</strong> </p>
</div>
<div class="break-column"></div>
<div class="col-disconnected-left">
<p> When I was a kid, <span class="highlight-yellow">we had a rotary phone. We had a phone that you had to stand next to and you had to dial it</span>. Yes. You don't realize how primitive, you're <span class="highlight-yellow">making sparks in a phone</span> and you actually would hate people with zeros in their numbers because it was more, "Oh, this guy's got two zeros. Screw that guy. Why do I even..." And then if they called and you weren't home, <span class="highlight-yellow">the phone would just ring lonely by itself</span>.</p>
</div>
<div class="col-disconnected-right">
<p> <strong class="highlight-yellow">Filling the box</strong>: <em>Repeated descriptions of the same idea with vivid visuals</em> </p>
</div>
<div class="break-column"></div>
<div class="col-disconnected-left">
<p>And then if you wanted money, <span class="highlight-yellow">you had to <em>go in</em> the bank</span> for, <span class="highlight-yellow">when it was open for like three hours</span>, you had to stand in line, <span class="highlight-yellow">write yourself a check like an idiot</span>. And then when you ran out of money, you just go, "Well, <span class="highlight-yellow">I can't do any more things now. I can't do any more things." That's it, yeah. That was it.</span> And even if you had a credit card, the guy would go, "Ugh," and <span class="highlight-yellow">he'd bring out this whole <em>shunk...shunk</em> and he'd have to call the president</span> to see if you had any money.</p>
</div>
<div class="col-disconnected-right">
<p> <strong class="highlight-yellow">Filling the box</strong>: <em>Repetitive language, showing examples to fulfill the label.</em> </p>
</div>
<div class="break-column"></div>
<div class="col-disconnected-left">
<p>...now <span class="highlight-green">we live in an amazing, </span><span class="highlight-blue">amazing world and it's wasted on the crappiest generation</span><span class="highlight-green"> of just spoiled idiots that don't care</span></p>
</div>
<div class="col-disconnected-right">
<p><strong class="highlight-green">Labeling the box</strong></p>
<p><strong class="highlight-blue">+ Juxtaposition</strong></p>
</div>
<div class="break-column"></div>
<div class="col-disconnected-left">
<p>...because this is what people are like now. They got their phone and they're like, "Ugh, it won't... <span class="highlight-yellow">Give it a second. It's going to space. Can you give it a second to get back from space?" Is the speed of light too slow?</span></p>
<p>And then it [newly announced internet available on the plane] breaks down and they apologize, "The internet's not working." The guy next to me goes, "This is bulls***" Like how quickly <span class="highlight-blue">the world owes him something he knew existed only 10 seconds ago</span>.</p>
</div>
<div class="col-disconnected-right">
<p> <strong class="highlight-yellow">Filling the box</strong>: <em>Repetitive language, showing examples to fulfill the label.</em> </p>
<p><strong class="highlight-blue">Juxtaposition</strong></p>
</div>
<div class="break-column"></div>
<div class="col-disconnected-left">
<p>Flying is the worst one because <span class="highlight-green">people come back from flights and they tell you their story and it's like a horror story</span>.</p>
</div>
<div class="col-disconnected-right">
<p><strong class="highlight-green">Labeling the box</strong></p>
</div>
<div class="break-column"></div>
<div class="col-disconnected-left">
<p>They act like their flight was like <span class="highlight-yellow">a cattle car in the '40s in Germany. That's how bad they make it sound</span>. They're like, "It was the <span class="highlight-yellow">worst day of my life</span>. First of all, we didn't board for 20 minutes. And then we get on the plane and they made us sit there on the runway for 40 minutes. We had to sit there. Oh, really? What happened next? <span class="highlight-yellow">Did you fly through the air incredibly like a bird? Did you partake in the miracle of human flight, you non-contributing zero? You're flying! It's amazing.</span></p>
<p>Everybody on every plane should just constantly be going, "Oh, my God! Wow! Yes!" You're flying.</p>
<p><span class="highlight-blue">You're sitting in a chair <em>in the sky.</em></span></p>
</div>
<div class="col-disconnected-right">
<p> <strong class="highlight-yellow">Filling the box</strong>: <em>Repetitive language, showing examples to fulfill the label.</em> </p>
<p><strong class="highlight-blue">Juxtaposition</strong></p>
</div>
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## Visiting Russia
Here's an example from CK telling a story not in the context of a stand up performance or comedy show.
The story begins with Louis explaining how he came to decide to see Russia while he was a writer on <em>Late Night with Conan O'Brien</em>.
<div class="col-disconnected-left">
<p> And <span class="highlight-green">the weirdest things happened to me there</span>. They just became normal after a while. </p>
</div>
<div class="col-disconnected-right">
<p><strong class="highlight-green">Labeling the box</strong>: <em>Inspires curiosity by introducing that weird things happened there.</em></p>
</div>
<div class="break-column"></div>
<div class="col-disconnected-left">
<p>Like, I was in a restaurant, and <span class="highlight-yellow">a waiter came up to me, not my waiter</span>, and he said, <span class="highligh-yellow">Coca-Cola?</span> And I said, uh-huh. He said, <span class="highlight-yellow">Coca-Cola</span>. And I said, sure. I don't drink Coca-Cola, but I had learned by that point, just don't, just go, just do what they're asking you to do. Sure. So he went to the kitchen, and <span class="highlight-yellow">he got a Coke in a can</span>, and he handed it to me, and he said, $5. Because only dollars were worth anything there. And I said, okay, on my bill. He said, <span class="highlight-yellow">no, $5, me, now.</span> So I gave him $5, and he put on his coat, and he left. <span class="highlight-blue">He just sold me a Coke on the side, and then quit his job.</span> So those are the kind of confusing moments I was having there. </p>
</div>
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<p><strong class="highlight-yellow">Filling the box</strong>: <em>The story is broken down into very tiny, repetitive pieces that give examples of weird things happening.</em></p>
<p><strong class="highlight-blue">Juxtaposition</strong></p>
</div>
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<div class="col-disconnected-left">
<p>And I couldn't talk to anybody, and <span class="highlight-green">I was so lonely.</span></p>
</div>
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<p><strong class="highlight-green">Labeling the box</strong>: Next, the box is filled up to explain the label of being lonely.</p>
</div>
<div class="break-column"></div>
<div class="col-disconnected-left">
<p>It's difficult. I mean, <span class="highlight-yellow">I was alone</span>. And <span class="highlight-yellow">I'd just sit in the room</span> and go, okay, <span class="highlight-yellow">that was a really f*****-up day. I hated that day</span>. And I tried to watch television, and the TV was American shows like Dynasty. And the way they translated, they didn't have, what they did was <span class="highlight-yellow">the sound is a little down, and there's just one man saying all of the dialogue</span>, inaudible, over the whole show. I was there for two weeks, and <span class="highlight-yellow">it just was crushingly, I had made no contact with anyone</span>. </p>
</div>
<div class="col-disconnected-right">
<p><strong class="highlight-yellow">Filling the box</strong>: <em>Repeating ideas slightly differently, uses sensory details to paint a simple but vivid picture.</em></p>
</div>
<div class="break-column"></div>
## Start with Why
How do you explain when things don't go as we assume?
Or better, how do you explain
when others are able to achieve things that seem to defy all of the assumptions?
For example:
Why is Apple so innovative?
Year after year, after year,
they're more innovative than all their competition.
And yet, they're just a computer company.
They're just like everyone else.
They have the same access to the same talent,
the same agencies,
the same consultants, the same media.
Then why is it that they seem to have something different?
Why is it that Martin Luther King led the Civil Rights Movement?
He wasn't the only man who suffered in pre-civil rights America,
and he certainly wasn't the only great orator of the day.
Why him?
And why is it that the Wright brothers
were able to figure out controlled, powered man flight
when there were certainly other teams
who were better qualified, better funded --
and they didn't achieve powered man flight,
and the Wright brothers beat them to it.
There's something else at play here.
About three and a half years ago, I made a discovery.
And this discovery profoundly changed my view on how I thought the world worked,
and it even profoundly changed the way in which I operate in it.
As it turns out, there's a pattern.
As it turns out, all the great inspiring leaders and organizations in the world,
whether it's Apple or Martin Luther King or the Wright brothers,
they all think, act and communicate the exact same way.
And it's the complete opposite to everyone else.
All I did was codify it,
and it's probably the world's simplest idea.
I call it the golden circle.
Why? How? What?
This little idea explains
why some organizations and some leaders are able to inspire where others aren't.
Let me define the terms really quickly.
Every single person, every single organization on the planet
knows what they do, 100 percent.
Some know how they do it,
whether you call it your differentiated value proposition
or your proprietary process or your USP.
But very, very few people or organizations know why they do what they do.
And by "why" I don't mean "to make a profit."
That's a result. It's always a result.
By "why," I mean: What's your purpose?
What's your cause? What's your belief?
Why does your organization exist?
Why do you get out of bed in the morning?
And why should anyone care?
As a result, the way we think, we act,
the way we communicate is from the outside in, it's obvious.
We go from the clearest thing to the fuzziest thing.
But the inspired leaders and the inspired organizations --
regardless of their size, regardless of their industry --
all think, act and communicate from the inside out.
Let me give you an example.
I use Apple because they're easy to understand and everybody gets it.
If Apple were like everyone else,
a marketing message from them might sound like this:
"We make great computers.
They're beautifully designed, simple to use and user friendly.
Want to buy one?"
"Meh."
That's how most of us communicate.
That's how most marketing and sales are done,
that's how we communicate interpersonally.
We say what we do,
we say how we're different or better
and we expect some sort of a behavior,
a purchase, a vote, something like that.
Here's our new law firm:
We have the best lawyers with the biggest clients,
we always perform for our clients.
Here's our new car:
It gets great gas mileage, it has leather seats.
Buy our car.
But it's uninspiring.
Here's how Apple actually communicates.
"Everything we do, we believe in challenging the status quo.
We believe in thinking differently.
The way we challenge the status quo
is by making our products beautifully designed,
simple to use and user friendly.
We just happen to make great computers.
Want to buy one?"
Totally different, right?
You're ready to buy a computer from me.
I just reversed the order of the information.
What it proves to us is that people don't buy what you do;
people buy why you do it.
This explains why every single person in this room
is perfectly comfortable buying a computer from Apple.
But we're also perfectly comfortable
buying an MP3 player from Apple, or a phone from Apple,
or a DVR from Apple.
As I said before, Apple's just a computer company.
Nothing distinguishes them structurally from any of their competitors.
Their competitors are equally qualified to make all of these products.
In fact, they tried.
A few years ago, Gateway came out with flat-screen TVs.
They're eminently qualified to make flat-screen TVs.
They've been making flat-screen monitors for years.
Nobody bought one.
Dell came out with MP3 players and PDAs,
and they make great quality products,
and they can make perfectly well-designed products --
and nobody bought one.
In fact, talking about it now, we can't even imagine
buying an MP3 player from Dell.
Why would you buy one from a computer company?
But we do it every day.
People don't buy what you do; they buy why you do it.
The goal is not to do business with everybody who needs what you have.
The goal is to do business with people who believe what you believe.
Here's the best part:
None of what I'm telling you is my opinion.
It's all grounded in the tenets of biology.
Not psychology, biology.
If you look at a cross-section of the human brain,
from the top down, the human brain is actually broken
into three major components
that correlate perfectly with the golden circle.
Our newest brain, our Homo sapien brain,
our neocortex,
corresponds with the "what" level.
The neocortex is responsible
for all of our rational and analytical thought and language.
The middle two sections make up our limbic brains,
and our limbic brains are responsible for all of our feelings,
like trust and loyalty.
It's also responsible for all human behavior,
all decision-making,
and it has no capacity for language.
In other words, when we communicate from the outside in,
yes, people can understand vast amounts of complicated information
like features and benefits and facts and figures.
It just doesn't drive behavior.
When we can communicate from the inside out,
we're talking directly to the part of the brain
that controls behavior,
and then we allow people to rationalize it with the tangible things we say and do.
This is where gut decisions come from.
Sometimes you can give somebody all the facts and figures,
and they say, "I know what all the facts and details say,
but it just doesn't feel right."
Why would we use that verb, it doesn't "feel" right?
Because the part of the brain that controls decision-making
doesn't control language.
The best we can muster up is,
"I don't know. It just doesn't feel right."
Or sometimes you say you're leading with your heart or soul.
I hate to break it to you, those aren't other body parts
controlling your behavior.
It's all happening here in your limbic brain,
the part of the brain that controls decision-making and not language.
But if you don't know why you do what you do,
and people respond to why you do what you do,
then how will you ever get people
to vote for you, or buy something from you,
or, more importantly, be loyal
and want to be a part of what it is that you do.
The goal is not just to sell to people who need what you have;
the goal is to sell to people who believe what you believe.
The goal is not just to hire people who need a job;
it's to hire people who believe what you believe.
I always say that, you know,
if you hire people just because they can do a job, they'll work for your money,
but if they believe what you believe,
they'll work for you with blood and sweat and tears.
Nowhere else is there a better example than with the Wright brothers.
Most people don't know about Samuel Pierpont Langley.
And back in the early 20th century,
the pursuit of powered man flight was like the dot com of the day.
Everybody was trying it.
And Samuel Pierpont Langley had, what we assume,
to be the recipe for success.
Even now, you ask people,
"Why did your product or why did your company fail?"
and people always give you the same permutation
of the same three things:
under-capitalized, the wrong people, bad market conditions.
It's always the same three things, so let's explore that.
Samuel Pierpont Langley
was given 50,000 dollars by the War Department
to figure out this flying machine.
Money was no problem.
He held a seat at Harvard
and worked at the Smithsonian and was extremely well-connected;
he knew all the big minds of the day.
He hired the best minds money could find
and the market conditions were fantastic.
The New York Times followed him around everywhere,
and everyone was rooting for Langley.
Then how come we've never heard of Samuel Pierpont Langley?
A few hundred miles away in Dayton, Ohio,
Orville and Wilbur Wright,
they had none of what we consider to be the recipe for success.
They had no money;
they paid for their dream with the proceeds from their bicycle shop.
Not a single person on the Wright brothers' team
had a college education,
not even Orville or Wilbur.
And The New York Times followed them around nowhere.
The difference was,
Orville and Wilbur were driven by a cause, by a purpose, by a belief.
They believed that if they could figure out this flying machine,
it'll change the course of the world.
Samuel Pierpont Langley was different.
He wanted to be rich, and he wanted to be famous.
He was in pursuit of the result.
He was in pursuit of the riches.
And lo and behold, look what happened.
The people who believed in the Wright brothers' dream
worked with them with blood and sweat and tears.
The others just worked for the paycheck.
They tell stories of how every time the Wright brothers went out,
they would have to take five sets of parts,
because that's how many times they would crash before supper.
And, eventually, on December 17th, 1903,
the Wright brothers took flight,
and no one was there to even experience it.
We found out about it a few days later.
And further proof that Langley was motivated by the wrong thing:
the day the Wright brothers took flight,
he quit.
He could have said,
"That's an amazing discovery, guys,
and I will improve upon your technology," but he didn't.
He wasn't first, he didn't get rich, he didn't get famous, so he quit.
People don't buy what you do; they buy why you do it.
If you talk about what you believe,
you will attract those who believe what you believe.
But why is it important to attract those who believe what you believe?
Something called the law of diffusion of innovation,
if you don't know the law, you know the terminology.
The first 2.5% of our population are our innovators.
The next 13.5% of our population are our early adopters.
The next 34% are your early majority,
your late majority and your laggards.
The only reason these people buy touch-tone phones
is because you can't buy rotary phones anymore.
(Laughter)
We all sit at various places at various times on this scale,
but what the law of diffusion of innovation tells us
is that if you want mass-market success or mass-market acceptance of an idea,
you cannot have it until you achieve this tipping point
between 15 and 18 percent market penetration,
and then the system tips.
I love asking businesses, "What's your conversion on new business?"
They love to tell you, "It's about 10 percent," proudly.
Well, you can trip over 10% of the customers.
We all have about 10% who just "get it."
That's how we describe them, right?
That's like that gut feeling, "Oh, they just get it."
The problem is: How do you find the ones that get it
before doing business versus the ones who don't get it?
So it's this here, this little gap that you have to close,
as Jeffrey Moore calls it, "Crossing the Chasm" --
because, you see, the early majority will not try something
until someone else has tried it first.
And these guys, the innovators and the early adopters,
they're comfortable making those gut decisions.
They're more comfortable making those intuitive decisions
that are driven by what they believe about the world
and not just what product is available.
These are the people who stood in line for six hours
to buy an iPhone when they first came out,
when you could have bought one off the shelf the next week.
These are the people who spent 40,000 dollars
on flat-screen TVs when they first came out,
even though the technology was substandard.
And, by the way, they didn't do it because the technology was so great;
they did it for themselves.
It's because they wanted to be first.
People don't buy what you do; they buy why you do it
and what you do simply proves what you believe.
In fact, people will do the things that prove what they believe.
The reason that person bought the iPhone in the first six hours,
stood in line for six hours,
was because of what they believed about the world,
and how they wanted everybody to see them:
they were first.
People don't buy what you do; they buy why you do it.
So let me give you a famous example,
a famous failure and a famous success of the law of diffusion of innovation.
First, the famous failure.
It's a commercial example.
As we said before, the recipe for success
is money and the right people and the right market conditions.
You should have success then.
Look at TiVo.
From the time TiVo came out about eight or nine years ago
to this current day,
they are the single highest-quality product on the market,
hands down, there is no dispute.
They were extremely well-funded.
Market conditions were fantastic.
I mean, we use TiVo as verb.
I TiVo stuff on my piece-of-junk Time Warner DVR all the time.
(Laughter)
But TiVo's a commercial failure.
They've never made money.
And when they went IPO,
their stock was at about 30 or 40 dollars
and then plummeted, and it's never traded above 10.
In fact, I don't think it's even traded above six,
except for a couple of little spikes.
Because you see, when TiVo launched their product,
they told us all what they had.
They said, "We have a product that pauses live TV,
skips commercials, rewinds live TV and memorizes your viewing habits
without you even asking."
And the cynical majority said,
"We don't believe you.
We don't need it. We don't like it.
You're scaring us."
What if they had said,
"If you're the kind of person who likes to have total control
over every aspect of your life,
boy, do we have a product for you.
It pauses live TV, skips commercials,
memorizes your viewing habits, etc., etc."
People don't buy what you do; they buy why you do it,
and what you do simply serves as the proof of what you believe.
Now let me give you a successful example of the law of diffusion of innovation.
In the summer of 1963,
250,000 people showed up on the mall in Washington
to hear Dr. King speak.
They sent out no invitations,
and there was no website to check the date.
How do you do that?
Well, Dr. King wasn't the only man in America
who was a great orator.
He wasn't the only man in America who suffered
in a pre-civil rights America.
In fact, some of his ideas were bad.
But he had a gift.
He didn't go around telling people what needed to change in America.
He went around and told people what he believed.
"I believe, I believe, I believe," he told people.
And people who believed what he believed
took his cause, and they made it their own, and they told people.
And some of those people created structures
to get the word out to even more people.
And lo and behold, 250,000 people showed up
on the right day at the right time to hear him speak.
How many of them showed up for him?
Zero.
They showed up for themselves.
It's what they believed about America
that got them to travel in a bus for eight hours
to stand in the sun in Washington in the middle of August.
It's what they believed, and it wasn't about black versus white:
25% of the audience was white.
Dr. King believed that there are two types of laws in this world:
those that are made by a higher authority and those that are made by men.
And not until all the laws that are made by men
are consistent with the laws made by the higher authority
will we live in a just world.
It just so happened that the Civil Rights Movement
was the perfect thing to help him bring his cause to life.
We followed, not for him, but for ourselves.
By the way, he gave the "I have a dream" speech,
not the "I have a plan" speech.
(Laughter)
Listen to politicians now, with their comprehensive 12-point plans.
They're not inspiring anybody.
Because there are leaders and there are those who lead.
Leaders hold a position of power or authority,
but those who lead inspire us.
Whether they're individuals or organizations,
we follow those who lead, not because we have to,
but because we want to.
We follow those who lead, not for them, but for ourselves.
And it's those who start with "why"
that have the ability to inspire those around them
or find others who inspire them.
Thank you very much.
(Applause)
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