James Frey duped the world.
In 2005, Oprah Winfrey selected his book, A Million Little Pieces, as part of her book club. And everyone knows that when Oprah chooses a book, it becomes a bestseller.
Imagine everyone’s surprise when just a few months later, James sat on Oprah’s couch admitting to the world that most of the stories in his book had been fabricated.
Stories are powerful.
And using them to connect with prospects helps you stand out. However, making them up and passing them off as your own will ruin your reputation.
For example, while travelling recently, I met a man. We struck up a conversation. He was a nice guy and I enjoyed passing the time with him.
When he then asked if we could hang sometime when he’s back in Toronto, I immediately said “Yes,” then regretted it. I knew that due to my schedule, I wouldn’t be able to engage in a long distance relationship. So, instead of saying “No,” I now had to create an excuse to back out of my “Yes.”
I was reminded of Carol Roth’s blog post called Just Say No and Nothing Else. In it, Carol says that we need to resist the urge to explain why we don’t want to do something and instead, just say no and nothing more. I know that whenever I try to explain why I don’t want to do something, it leads to an invented story and eventually, a lie.
When your audience senses a lie, it ruins your believability.
As Ty Bennett states in his video training series called Influence Through Stories…
“If the audience doesn’t view your story as credible or relatable, they won’t care or take action.”
So, instead of inventing a story, here are 6 sources you can use to share credible stories. These all come from Peter Guber’s book called Tell to Win.
- First hand experiences – This would be the stories you lived through
- Witnessed experience – These are stories you’ve observed because you were there
- Metaphors or analogies – Similar to parables that Jesus shared during His ministry
- Information scenarios – This would be case studies or testimonials
- Books or movies – This is where I get some of my best stories and Peter shares countless situations where he used movie plots to drive home points during business meetings
- History – What has happened in the past are lessons we can pull from today.
As Peter points out, #1 and #2 are the best materials you can use to develop your stories. Number three and four fires up the imagination while #5 and #6 emotionalize a call to action.
So, the next time you feel tempted to invent a story to help drive home a point, I’d encourage you to instead use one of the 6 sources above. It’s more credible.
What are other sources we can pull from to develop our stories? Do share in the comments are below.
