3 Storytelling Tips
The Amplified Impact Podcast
June 5th, 2023
Today’s episode is gonna be a quick one, but I gotta share something that really hit home for me.
I read this quote by Rick Rubin that got me thinking, “less is more, but you have to do more to get less.” And man, does that resonate with me.
I’m all about doing less but better, and it’s my motto for this year.
But here’s the kicker…to get to that sweet spot of doing less but better, we often gotta put in the work to do more upfront. It’s a funny balance, isn’t it?
When you’re starting out, quantity matters more than quality. You need to put in those reps…so practice, practice, practice. It’s the only way to improve.
Once you’ve built that foundation, then you can start honing in on quality. That’s when you can do less but better…and the ultimate goal?
To reach that magical spot where you can combine quantity with quality. That’s where the real magic happens, my friend. Doing more, but doing it better.
When I talk about doing less but better…I’m not just talking about reducing output. I’m talking about doing less of the stuff that doesn’t fulfill you or bring you closer to your goals.
Focus on the things that excite you, that make you come alive. That’s where the real value lies.
TWEETABLE QUOTE:
“Because I think quantity in the beginning is more important than quality, mainly because you don’t have the ability to produce quality yet. So you need to lean into the only variable that you can control, which is just putting out more, because quantity will eventually lead to quality.'”- Anthony Vicino
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Episode Transcript:
Anthony Vicino [00:00:00]:
Hey, what’s up all you beautiful people? Welcome back to the podcast. Now, if you’re watching on the YouTube channel, you can see we are in a new environment. We are up on the rooftop right now. It’s a beautiful, I don’t know, sunny 70-ish, almost 80 degree day here in Minneapolis, which is like a rare treat. So I thought we’d come up here on the rooftop and chat a little bit because Honestly this month has been it has been an insane month been traveling a lot At the beginning of the month We spent a little bit of time in Austin doing rally car racing and then Jamie and I we went to Ireland for a couple’s retreat, which was amazing. And then just last week, my buddy Hunter Thompson invited us out to Cabo to speak to his mastermind of about 30 super high-level elite real estate investors who combined in that group had raised something like 382 million dollars of equity. So that means they probably in that group they have purchased well over 2000000000 dollars of real estate I would have to have to imagine. So that was a rare treat getting to come out there and speak to like a group of true badasses who I view in a lot of cases as peers, but even, you know, some people on that on that journey who are like well ahead of where we are at Invictus Capital.
Anthony Vicino [00:01:11]:
So that was a real treat to be able to to go out there, share our journey, our experiences. And ostensibly that that trip, the reason Hunter wanted me to come out there was to talk about YouTube and the success that we’ve had on that channel over the last year which has been absolutely extraordinary. Like going from 220 subscribers in October to a little over 135, 000 just 9 months later, here we are in May. It’s been an incredible journey. And so he wanted us to come out and kind of share what was working for us and what maybe other investors could take away from that. But in the process of like talking to these guys and gals, very quickly I realized in the conversation that they don’t need to hear the tactics. Like that’s what they that’s what most people think that they they need. They need to hear about like how do I make a thumbnail? How do I get a good title? How do I do all that stuff? And those are the type of questions people like to ask is like the tech stack, what hardware do I need? What camera? All that stuff.
Anthony Vicino [00:02:08]:
But what really became clear very shortly into the conversation was, okay, you guys don’t need to hear that. You actually need to hear about storytelling. You need to hear why that’s so important and how you can develop as a storyteller. So we spent maybe like 30 minutes on the nuts and bolts of YouTube, how to build an audience, how to build a channel. And then the better part of an hour just talking about storytelling. And it was so fascinating to me to see how when the conversation shifted towards storytelling and really tapping into like what makes you unique in the space and like sharing your personal journey your stories and how to tie that into lessons or into unique value propositions for converting an investor into investing with you. How people just became glued to the conversation. Because I think we all realize that storytelling is important.
Anthony Vicino [00:03:02]:
And subconsciously, I think we all want to be better storytellers. And if you think about, it makes sense because that’s like the primary way we convey emotions. We connect with 1 another. And we’ve been doing it since we were young children, right? Like we are professional storytellers in a lot of ways. But when it comes to like telling those stories in an intentional way that drives a result, suddenly people become very, very silly and very stupid and they start saying dumb things or saying things in a weird way that just don’t really make sense. And so what I want to share with you guys here is some takeaways that, you know, in the conversation we had with those guys, that you might be able to apply in your day-to-day life to become a better storyteller. And I do believe storytelling is a skill that you can improve with intention. And just like any other skill, like the more you do it, the more reps, you’re gonna become better.
Anthony Vicino [00:03:51]:
But there also has to be a certain level of intentionality because just doing this thing more clearly isn’t gonna make you better unless you are, you know, you’re taking time to reflect and taking time to iterate and then ideally get some feedback on it. And so if we don’t have that feedback loop, then we’re really just going through mindless repetitions and that’s not necessarily going to make us better. So I want to give us 3 things to think about next time that you’re you’re working on telling stories. And 1 of the best ways I think to become a good storyteller, this is this is you know 1 of the things that I did. You know a little backstory here is I have been writing science fiction and fantasy novels for the better part of a decade. And so I was immersed in the world of story structure, but, and that’s very helpful. But when it comes to telling your stories to other people and communicating it, whether that’s through the written word in emails or in a blog post or through a video like this or audio format like this, those structures aren’t as important, I think, as just understanding some certain principles. And so the first way, I think, to become a good storyteller is to take these principles in mind and then practice telling stories with them.
Anthony Vicino [00:05:05]:
And if you’re kind of shy or feeling like I’m not ready to put these stories out there in the world because they’re just not very good yet, like truthfully, like it takes a while to get good at telling your stories. What I did back in 2020 was I set the goal of just creating 1 video every single day and posting it to Instagram. Now I did that on a live channel, but what you could do if that feels very uncomfortable, like the idea of getting in front of a camera and starting the talk is very uncomfortable, then just go to Instagram, start a private channel so nobody can see it, and then start posting your videos. And what this is gonna do is this is gonna lead into the first takeaway that I have for you with becoming a better storyteller is to understand your stories. Like, And the best way to do that is through repetition and telling them and exploring them in an environment where you’re not feeling like you’re worried about people judging you and what they’re gonna think. So Instagram, private channel can be a great way. You just put the videos out there, you get the repetitions in, and you start to develop a better understanding for what your stories are. Which leads into the idea of keeping a story Bible.
Anthony Vicino [00:06:07]:
So a story Bible is just a notebook, a journal, it could even just be a spreadsheet on a computer, really it doesn’t matter how you track it. But it’s a way of taking all of your life stories and putting them into a place so that you can see them. And then you can start to flush them out with intention and say, how can I take this story about the time my dad took me out for ice cream when I was 7 years old and it fell on the ground and I cried and he said, Hey, you know what? Don’t cry over spilt ice cream or whatever. How can I turn that into a story that delivers a lesson a message within say a business context or whatever the the product or services that you’re selling to your consumer or trying to connect with a loved 1? How can you take these stories and then turn them into something that’s not just about the story but is an analogy or a metaphor for something larger? And so Step 1 is just start writing these things out. Like, take an hour every day for a week and just start brain dumping every story that you can remember. And I’m not, at this point, asking you to write out like paragraphs. Like, this should just be bullet points. Like, ice cream with dad, 7 years old.
Anthony Vicino [00:07:15]:
Or chess tournament, 13 years old. Or heartbroken, first love, high school, whatever. Like, just bullet point them. And you should come up with, ideally, 100 stories. But truly, like, this is an ever-evolving document. So you could easily get a thousand stories in there. Just think of like how many stories are taking place over the course of your life. And they don’t even have to be big stories.
Anthony Vicino [00:07:39]:
They can be small stories. And you might not even be able to see what’s the value of this. This is such a small, stupid story. Nobody’s ever gonna get any value. And maybe you never do tell that story in public, but having it out there gives you the raw resources to start building from. And I think that’s the valuable thing at this point. Now, once you’ve kind of mined your own personal memory of your stories as much as you can, now you’re gonna go to your friends, your loved ones, your family members, and start asking them, like, hey dad, can you tell me 5 embarrassing stories or 5 impactful stories that you remember from when I was a kid? And chances are you’ll know most of the stories that they’re gonna tell you, but I’m guaranteeing that there’s gonna be like 1 or 2 stories that they tell you that you go, oh, I completely forgot about that. Like it was so embarrassing, I forgot about that entirely.
Anthony Vicino [00:08:28]:
I just blocked it out of my memory because it was so damn embarrassing or whatever. And so that’s how we’re going to flush out our story Bible. And then you’re going to get your repetitions by telling those stories every single day and then trying to figure out ways to tie those into larger lessons. But the second tip that I have for you in becoming a better storyteller is this idea that it’s when you’re telling stories, the goal is to express, not to impress. And this is something that I really struggled with for a long time. Like I would tell stories that would position me as the hero and make me look good, make me look like a badass. But the problem with telling stories in that way is that people don’t connect with you. They might be impressed and they might respect you, but we don’t connect with James Bond, the perfect hero that’s always out there doing these amazing, cool things.
Anthony Vicino [00:09:14]:
Like, we don’t connect with him in a way that makes us want to be his best friend or you know open up our bank account and invest with him or whatever the situation is and so we want to be relatable and the way that you be relatable is by sharing the Harry stories and kind of like taking yourself down a notch and not just telling stories with the idea that you’re going to try to prop yourself up in a cool way and make yourself look like the hero, but just saying, listen, this was the story. Like self-deprecation and taking yourself down is a great way of humanizing and bringing people into the story because ultimately the point of telling the story is not about you or positioning yourself. The goal of the story is for the listener to see a piece of themselves in it, to relate with it, and then connect with you. And so your story is really an avenue for connection with that person. It’s not about you. It’s just the vehicle to get them to come to you. And so when we are telling our stories, it’s more important to express than it is to impress. That means we don’t need to use big flourishing language.
Anthony Vicino [00:10:15]:
We don’t need to have everything dialed in and perfect, we need to speak from the heart without hubris and without too much pretense, which is hard, I still struggle with this, but the goal is just to express as though you were talking to a loved 1 and trying to really communicate them your deep, heartfelt emotions towards them or things that you’re struggling with. And you’re not trying to impress them, you’re just trying to be understood and connect with them on an emotional level. And if you can do that, I think you will find that people will start coming to you and saying, wow, I really connected with that story that you told. Even if the substance of it is very different than any story that they personally have in their narrative, right? Like, most people won’t have the same experience playing chess when they were middle school as I did, but there are stories about how my dad left me at the tournament hall, didn’t come in with me, and I felt very disappointed. I felt alone and abandoned, and how that structured the relationship that I had with him for many years and It kind of tainted how I thought about him and his love for me. But it was many, many, many years later that I started to realize in my own life that that was a way of showing love that I couldn’t quite articulate at the time. Okay, so that story, like the nuts and bolts of it, the chest and whatnot, and being abandoned, like that might not resonate, but the feeling of like struggling with what’s it mean to give and receive love from people that you care about, and how we all have different love languages, and that can be a struggle. And you know, you probably relate to that in the sense of like your relationships now.
Anthony Vicino [00:11:49]:
Like everybody has that like friction of like, I give love in this way and I receive it in that way. And if that’s at odds with, you know, your significant other or your mom, your dad, your brother, your sister, your coworker, whatever, then it can lead to these feelings of isolation and abandonment and like feeling unloved. So anyways, that’s a long ramble. Okay, so we have number 1, get a story Bible, keep your story Bible. Number 2 is express, don’t impress. And then number 3 is every story needs to have 2 things, ideally. There’s a couple other things that it needs to have, but ideally it has these 2 things. It has a hook and it has a tie down.
Anthony Vicino [00:12:23]:
The hook is the most important part of your story because it’s what gets people listening. It’s the reason for them to invest more of their mental bandwidth in listening to you. So the hook has to be really, really good. If you don’t know how to get people hooked into the beginning of your story, then they’re gonna string along and they’re gonna listen, but they’re not gonna be very invested in the outcome. And you know the difference when somebody’s just listening to be polite and their eyes are kind of wandering, and when somebody’s listening because they’re enraptured. And so that a lot of times comes down to the hook. So I would spend a disproportionate amount of time really figuring out how do you segue into your stories? Like How do I get them hooked right from the start? Now, once you have them hooked, you can’t just ramble from event to event to event and then expect it to have a gratifying ending. And this is where the tie-down comes in.
Anthony Vicino [00:13:13]:
You have to tie it down or wrap it up for them, right? And say, here’s why I tell you this story. You know so many stories where it just kind of like peters out at the end and it’s kind of like, oh, and I guess you just kind of had to be there, right? Now, you don’t tell stories just to peter off at the end. You tell stories to connect and convey something. And so there’s this old copywriting adage. I can’t remember who said this, but it was something like you need to tell people what you’re going to tell them, tell them what you intend to tell them, and then tell them what you just told them, right? And so it’s the same with storytelling. The tie down is at the end when you say something to the effect of, now the reason I tell you this is because, right? And so that story about my dad Abandoning me is, you know, like the reason that I tell you this is because moving forward in life, I realized how important it was to understand how other people give and receive love. Otherwise, I could love somebody with all my heart, but if they’re not receiving it or not aware of it, of how I express it, then it’s all gonna fall on deaf ears. Right? And so you are wrapping it up.
Anthony Vicino [00:14:23]:
It’s like the summary. Like, what’s the takeaway that you want somebody to walk away from the story with? So those are 3 things that I think if you implement into your storytelling with intention, you will start telling way better stories for sure. Story Bible, express, don’t impress, and then make sure that every story has a good hook and a good tie down. Now, this is such a deep important topic, the idea of storytelling, that I’m going to create a little mini training because I’ve never actually sat down to try and teach people how to tell stories I’ve never tried to like take the ideas from my head and say like what what am I thinking when I tell these things So I’m gonna do that over this next month. And my goal is by the end of June to have a training available for anybody that wants to become a better storyteller. It’s gonna be geared more towards entrepreneurs and investors, people that want to sell a product or sell their business, but it’ll still be very useful, I think, pragmatically for people that just, in day-to-day life with their friends and loved ones want to be like more what’s the word more engrossing that’s not the word I don’t know like more rapturing you want people to pay attention and be like damn that’s that’s a good story so if you’re interested in that make sure that you you know subscribe to this channel let you guys know when it drops or just shoot me an email at anthony at anthonyviceno.com just saying, Hey, I would like to be part of that storytelling training when it comes out and I’ll put you on the list to make sure that you get notified when that drops. But as always, guys and gals, I appreciate the hell out of you for being here. Thank you so much.
Anthony Vicino [00:15:49]:
I’m looking forward to seeing you here back bright and early tomorrow, but until then, stay hyper-focused, my friend.
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