How to tell better stories | Matthew Dicks (Storyworthy)

Everyone loves the word storytelling in business. It's a huge buzzword. They love to think of themselves as storytellers. But when they come to me, they don't really want to be storytellers, because to be a storyteller means you have to separate yourself from the herd. And in their mind, that risks them getting picked off, right? Getting picked off by some predator. But the- the alternative is, you're in the herd, which means you're forgettable. I mean, how many times have you gone to a conference, listened to someone speak, and by the time you're pulling into the driveway, you really can't remember anything that they said? Because that's what happens if we don't speak in story. Our minds are not designed to remember a pie chart or facts or- or statistics or, you know, platitudes, or ideas that are not attached to imagery. So, the risk you take if you're not telling stories is that you will be forgotten. 100%, you will be forgotten.

(Instrumental music) Today, my guest is Matthew Dicks. Matthew is the author of my all-time favorite book on storytelling, Storyworthy, which a previous guest of the podcast recommended to me and I couldn't put it down, so I reached out to Matthew and got him on the podcast. Matthew is a 59-time Moth StorySLAM winner and nine-time Grand SLAM champ. He's also the author of nine other books, including fictions, rock operas, even a comic book. In his day job, he is an elementary school teacher, and on the side, teaches both individuals and teams at companies like Slack, Amazon, Lego, and Salesforce the skill of storytelling and public speaking through his company, Speak Up. In our conversation, we get very tactical about how to tell better stories, both in life and in work, how to feel more comfortable speaking on stage, how to come up with story ideas that you can deploy when the need arises, why every good story is centered around one five-second moment of transformation, and so much more. Matt is an incredible human being, and I am excited to spread his message more widely. If you're interested in this topic, definitely pick up his book, Storyworthy. It'll change your life. With that, I bring you Matthew Dicks after a short word from our sponsors. Today's episode is brought to you by OneSchema, the embeddable CSV importer for SaaS. Customers always seem to want to give you their data in the messiest possible CSV file, and building a spreadsheet importer becomes a never-ending sink for your engineering and support resources. You keep adding features to your spreadsheet importer, but customers keep running into issues. Six months later, you're fixing yet another date conversion edge case bug. Most tools aren't built for handling messy data, but OneSchema is. Companies like Scale AI and Pave are using OneSchema to make it fast and easy to launch delightful spreadsheet import experiences, from embeddable CSV import to importing CSVs from an SFTP folder on a recurring basis. Spreadsheet import is such an awful experience in so many products. Customers get frustrated by useless messages like error on line 53 and never end up getting started with your product. OneSchema intelligently corrects messy data so that your customers don't have to spend hours in Excel just to get started with your product. For listeners of this podcast, OneSchema's offering a $1,000 discount. Learn more at oneschema.co/lenny. This episode is brought to you by Maui Nui Venison, a mission-based food company bringing the healthiest red meat on the planet directly to your door. I actually joined Maui Nui Venison earlier this year after hearing their ad on The Tim Ferriss Podcast, and I'm excited to be spreading the message further. Not only does this company provide the most nutrient-dense and protein-dense red meat available, their operation produces the only stress-free 100% wild-harvested red meat on the market, that is the only one of its kind in the world, actively managing Maui's invasive axis deer populations, helping to restore balance to vulnerable ecosystems, food systems, and communities in Hawaii. Also, it is seriously delicious, not at all gamey, and easy to cook. My wife and I made stew and steaks and all kinds of grilled goodies with the meat. We also feel great about it as a protein from an ethical standpoint. I highly recommend trying their all-natural venison jerky sticks for an optimal protein snack, as well as a wide variety of fresh cuts, all available in their online butcher shop. There are limited memberships available, but you can sign up and get 20% off your first order at mauinuivenison.com/lenny. That's mauinuivenison.com/lenny. Matt, thank you so much for being here. Welcome to the podcast.