A small degree of planning goes a long way when you're telling a story. The main story planning technique I use with my clients is the 'timeline' technique, where you plan the sequence of events on a page, napkin, post-it note, back of an envelope, or whatever else you have to hand! (Maybe your arm?)

The timeline allows you to select events in the telling that lead to a clear, single 'bridge' idea to your content, plus it acts as a visual check to keep your story interesting.

I originally recorded this episode in 2021. I've top and tailed the original content with a 5-year reflection from 2026.

The final stage of the 'Hero's Journey' story structure is 'The Resolution,' in which the story is resolved. Of course, in real life, you're bang in the middle of your story. You don't know what the ending looks like! Which is why The Vision is such a powerful story prompt: it allows you to set an intention and communicate your mission to potential clients.

Unlike previous Core Story prompts, the vision looks both backwards and forwards. The three ideas I discuss on the episode are:

1. The Origin
2. The Future
3. The Gateway

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For help telling your story, head to https://storyrob.com/.

What would you say is the biggest U-Turn in understanding you've had about your market or audience? What's the biggest insight you've picked up that your ideal client needs to hear? And how did you discover that insight?

Answering those questions is the basis of Core Story prompt #4: The Key Insight. The three ideas I discuss in this episode are the surprise, the experience, and the U-turn. Getting all 3 right will produce a compelling key insight story that leads people towards your service.

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For help telling your story, head to https://storyrob.com/.

Every archetypal story is characterised by a turning point in the middle called the "central crisis". As story is simply a metaphor for life, your life likely contains a central crisis, too!

This central crisis serves as the basis for Core Story prompt #3: Self-Understanding. This is the story that in some respect broke you, but allowed you to understand yourself at the deepest possible level.

Deep stuff indeed - have a listen as I share mine. The three ideas discussed in this episode are:

1. The breakdown
2. Conflict
3. Internal knowing

Links:

My Sovereign Finance podcast (mentioned at the end) is at https://sovereignfinance.substack.com/

For help telling your story, head to https://storyrob.com/.

The second of our 'Core Story' prompts is the 'False Start'. For anyone pursuing meaningful work, finding your path is rarely straightforward. The 'False Start' prompt is designed to explore and share some of the journey you've been on.

Chapters:

00:00: A sample of my False Starts!

17:09: Idea 1: External Influences

25:48: Idea 2: The Ugly Duckling

30:44: Idea 3: Marathon Runner Energy

To get started telling your story, head to https://storyrob.com/.

Our first Core Story prompt mirrors 'the call' in the Hero's Journey story formula and asks: what really drives you? What questions do you try to solve in your work? And more importantly, WHY?

The 'Wounding Event' prompt is designed to get raw and real with people as they enter your world. By answering this prompt you are saying: this is who I am, and these are the problems I am here on Earth to solve.

Chapters

00:00: My Wounding Event Story

07:57: Understanding Wounding Events

09:29: Idea #1: The Five Second Moment

17:59: Idea #2: The Lie

21:08: Idea 3: The Resolution

To get started telling your story, head to https://storyrob.com/.

One of the best books on storytelling craft is Story, by Robert McKee. McKee describes how every great story has a clear, well-defined theme, or 'controlling idea'.

In reading Story, I realised that every purpose-led business is essentially a story, and therefore has a controlling idea too. Your controlling idea is a binary decision-making framework that dictates what work you will and won't do.

So, Core Story prompt #2 is to pinpoint a story that encapsulates and showcases your controlling idea, in a way that shows rather than tells.

Chapters:

00:00: A Lesson in Trust

04:33: Understanding the Controlling Idea

08:28: Exclusion: The Power of Focus

12:22: Size Matters: Make your Controlling Idea a Big Idea

16:34: Urgency: Why Does Your Controlling Idea Matter NOW

20:22: Recap and Reflection

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For regular, affordable ongoing support with your storytelling, read more here.

The art of storytelling is to show someone the problem you can solve for them, at the deepest possible level, without telling them in an overly salesy way that would likely scare them away. High-value prospects like to buy; they don't like to be sold.

The first of our core story prompts explores the more subtle ways the problem you solve shows up across your life, because how you deal with one thing is how you deal with everything! Finding the right story to demonstrate your grounding principles both lets people get to know the real you, and better understand the problem you can solve for them.

Takeaways:

• Grounding principles are a deep yet under-the-radar way to show people your commitment to solving the problem at hand
• Grounding principles likely drive your uniqueness
• Your grounding principles should be things you do regularly
• The ideal grounding principle has depth once you dig under the surface

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For regular, affordable ongoing support with your storytelling, read more here.

This episode continues the discussion about story selection. I introduce the concept of the 'storytelling boomerang', which illustrates how to transition from problem-focused messaging to personal storytelling as the audience becomes more familiar with you.

I also share my top five core story prompts to help you connect authentically with new prospects. These are: grounding principles, controlling ideas, self-understanding, key insights, and vision for the future.

Takeaways:

• There are four types of stories: product, customer, personal, and other.
• Personal stories build trust for personal brands.
• Engage audiences by addressing their problems first. The storytelling boomerang helps transition from problem to personal stories. Once engaged, share personal stories to deepen connections.
• My five top core story prompts are: grounding principles, the controlling idea, self-understanding, the key insight, and your vision. Listen to the episode for a top-level walkthrough

Chapters:

00:00: The Four Types of Stories in Marketing

03:37: The Storytelling Boomerang: Engaging Your Audience

07:26: Five Core Story Prompts for Connection

17:54: Overview of Storytelling Techniques and Future Directions

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For regular, affordable ongoing support with your storytelling, check out The Story Gym.

Full disclosure: this episode was originally meant to be about story selection. The point I wanted to make was that story selection doesn't matter as much as people think it does, and often you should tell the first story that comes to mind...

However, as this episode demonstrates, some stories can bully your content into unexpected corners! The story I share in this episode, about how I was recently convinced to spend £125 on a bottle of whisky, was actually the perfect story to head up a discussion of lead magnets.

So, this one has become a bit of a Frankenstein's monster, but you'll definitely learn a lot about BOTH story selection and lead magnets! In fact, you'll also learn about whisky and motorbikes, too.

Takeaways:

• A lead magnet should be a sample of your full product or service
• Storytelling comes before content (sometimes whether you like it or not!)
• Analogue lead magnets may now be more appealing than digital ones. Be imaginative!
• Storytelling is a muscle that requires regular practice - not a one-time hack

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For regular, affordable ongoing support with your storytelling, check out The Story Gym.