How to Tell a Great Story: A 5-Step Formula

The Five-Step Storytelling Formula
📌 The formula is designed to help facilitators tell clear and compelling stories by structuring the narrative effectively.
📌 The process was demonstrated using the founder, Anne's, personal story regarding the transition to virtual presenting during the pandemic.

Step 1: Dive into the Action
📌 Start immediately with the main event, avoiding unnecessary context or hesitant setup details like specific dates or introductory phrases.
📌 Use a time marker (e.g., "March 2020" or "Two years ago") to immediately capture the audience's attention and ground the story in a specific period.

Step 2: Show, Not Tell
📌 Incorporate descriptive details that evoke the audience's senses (sights, sounds, smells, taste) to immerse them in the setting.
📌 The principle "specific is terrific" should guide the language used to paint a vivid picture for the audience.

Step 3: Build Tension
📌 Tension is critical for audience engagement and can be external (between characters/ideas) or internal (worries, uncertainty).
📌 Identify tension by asking what is at stake for the characters and sharing their internal monologue (e.g., Anne's rumination over negative feedback, losing sleep until 1-2 AM).

Step 4: Share the Shift
📌 Every great story requires transformation; detail the change that occurred as a result of navigating the experience or tension.
📌 Anne’s shift involved realizing she was focusing too much on what people thought of her and realigning her focus to the fundamental goal: helping the students with the content, which restored her confidence.

Step 5: Connect the Dots
📌 Clearly explain the relevance of the story to the audience using the connecting phrase: "I share this story because..."
📌 Do not assume the audience understands the connection; make the relevance crystal clear in one or two slow sentences.

Key Points & Insights
➡️ Always dive directly into the action when starting a story to maximize immediate audience engagement.
➡️ Use internal monologue as a powerful technique to vividly *show* the internal feelings and high stakes during the tension-building phase.
➡️ The ultimate goal of sharing a story should be clearly articulated: to illustrate your message and connect it directly to the audience's current situation (e.g., upcoming transition back to in-person facilitation).
➡️ For training inquiries, contact Lighthouse Communications at info@lhctraining.com.

📸 Video summarized with SummaryTube.com on Mar 09, 2026, 08:55 UTC