DAVE MARX: Carmine's a
highly-regarded author
in the business world, who
recently published his eighth
book, "The
Storyteller's Secret--
From TED Speakers
to Business Legends,
Why Some Ideas Stick
and Others Don't."
Carmine's currently an author,
columnist, and public speaker,
and has formally worked as a
journalist and news anchor.
But I think, above all,
Carmine is a storyteller.
His previous books
had been massive hits.
His book, "The Innovation
Secrets of Steve Jobs,"
also became an
international bestseller,
and has been awarded
the Axiom Award
for being one of the top three
best business books in 2011.
And just today, Amazon Editor
shows most recent book,
"The Storyteller's Secret,"
as one of the best new books
in business and leadership.
It's available everywhere now.
And we've been lucky enough
to have some subsidized copies
through Google Talks that
will be available for sale
in the back.
And I'm sure Carmine
would be happy to sign
your copy for you, if you're
willing to stick around
for a couple minutes
after the talk.
So with that, I'd like to
introduce the man himself,
Carmine Gallo.
[APPLAUSE]
CARMINE GALLO: All right.
All right, thank you.
Good morning.
I am really passionate
about this topic.
And I'm passionate about
it because I really
think that this is a topic that
will help you in your careers,
help you in your business, make
you more valuable than you've
ever imagined.
And it'll also help you sell
your ideas more effectively.
So since we're talking
about storytelling,
why don't we begin with a story?
Now, stop me if you've
heard this before.
Two Stanford graduate
students think
they've come up with an
idea to change the world.
So they had over to Sequoia
Capital, to ask for money.
Michael Moritz, one of the
investors, the main investor
at Sequoia Capital, has been
watching an endless stream
of really bad PowerPoints.
And Sergey and Larry
do something different.
First, they have a working
demo, which was really unusual
at that time.
It actually worked.
What a concept.
But they also did
something very interesting.
They were able to summarize
their entire vision
in one short sentence
of under 10 words.
And Michael Moritz
never forgot that.
And that sentence
is "We organize
the world's information
and make it accessible."
I spoke to Michael
Moritz last year.
And he said, Carmine,
tell your clients,
tell your groups that great
leaders can do two things.
One, they have a
vision for the future.
But they can communicate
it especially well.
And so now, even
today, if you walk
into Sequoia Capital's
offices, they're
asking you for the one line.
And one investor told me, if
you cannot summarize your idea
in one sentence,
we're not interested.
Go back to the drawing board.
Because there's
power in simplicity.
And there's power in
articulating your ideas simply
and concisely.
When it comes to
storytelling, especially, we
kind of know how this works.
Kevin Spacey said, "Story is
everything and good content
making--" whether that's in
business, marketing, or movies,
"--is not a crap shoot.
We know how this works."
There is a formula to this.
We know how persuasion works.
We know why you
remember certain things
and why you forget others.
There's a formula to this.
In the music industry, for
example, 90% of music revenues
come from 10% of the songs.
And this is a true statistic.
It's actually in a new book
called "The Song Machine."
What's amazing about
this is that the 10%
are written by a
handful of people.
One guy in particular,
is Max Martin,
who made it big with Britney
Spears, Backstreet Boys.
And today, he write songs for
pretty much all the other big
pop artists out there-- most
of the songs that you hear,
the songs that you like,
the ones that are memorable.
Because there's a formula to it.
He knows what works.
He uses something
called track and hook.
So how many of you
have had a Taylor Swift
song stuck in your head
over the last year?
It's got three words.
What would it be?
What is it?
What is the three-word song?
What is it?
AUDIENCE: "Shake it Off."
CARMINE GALLO: "Shake
it Off." "Shake it Off."
Thank you, Max Martin,
who wrote that.
He knows how these things work.
We know how this works
in communication too.
So in the 20th Century,
give me one or two
of the most famous speeches
of the 20th Century.
Name one.
AUDIENCE: I Had a Dream.
CARMINE GALLO: How did I know
you were going to say that?
How did I know?
I Have a Dream speech.
And what is the most
memorable part of the I
Have a Dream speech?
I have a dream.
That's called anaphora.
That's a rhetorical
device that makes
something pleasing to the ear.
We know how this works.
What's the most famous
line from John Kennedy's
inaugural speech?
AUDIENCE: Ask not what your--
CARMINE GALLO: --country
can do for you.
What's the rest of it?
AUDIENCE: But what you
can do for your country.
CARMINE GALLO: But what you
can do for your country.
We know how this works.
There is a reason why
you remember that.
It's the same reason why certain
songs are stuck in your head.
How many of you,
over the last year,
have had Omi's "Cheerleader"
song stuck in your head?
Dave, you said, "Cheerleader?"
What's the chorus
of "Cheerleader?"
"Oh, I think that I found
myself a cheerleader.
She is always right
there when I need her."
Max Martin would say, that
chorus has to be balanced,
the same number of words
and the same number
of syllables on each one,
on each side of the chorus.
In other words, we know
how this stuff works.
I won't give you any more songs.
I don't want them stuck
in your head all day
when you're at work.
You're going to find yourself
singing that cheerleader
song today.
And if you start
Autotuning yourself,
then you know you've
completely lost it.
But we know how this works.
We know how it works
in persuasion too.
Great songwriters
know how it works.
And we know how it works when
you're communicating ideas.
Adam Braun is the founder
of a wonderful startup,
but a great nonprofit
called Pencils of Promise.
Every 90 hours now,
Pencils of Promise
builds a new classroom in
impoverished or underprivileged
communities around the world.
And he told me something
really interesting once.
Because he's always
out there fund raising.
And he said, Carmine,
it's interesting.
Because when I'm speaking to
a group of financial types,
I'm trying to raise
funds, they all
want to know about how
efficiently the nonprofit is
run.
They want to know the data.
They want to know the finances.
But that's not
what they remember.
They always seem to remember
a two-minute sequence
from my presentation,
where I show
a video of the first
Pencils of Promise students.
Little girls that
he met in Laos who
had never been in a
classroom, had never
had a classroom before.
He shot a video a 30-second
video on a smartphone, inserts
into his presentation.
He says, it's always a hit.
Here's the 30-second
video he shows.
[VIDEO PLAYBACK]
[SPEAKING THAI]
[END VIDEO PLAYBACK]
And that's it.
And then he shows
this slide, which
is the same girls in their
first Pencils of Promise school.
And he said, Carmine,
facts and figures and data
never get me a standing ovation.
But this always does.
And this is what's memorable.
Why?
We know why this works.
Because we are wired for story.
Ideas that catch on
are wrapped in story.
Stories inform.
They illuminate.
They inspire.
And it's not just me.
Because certainly, in business,
most executive leaders
and successful business
leaders believe the same thing.
That's the reason
why I wrote the book.
It's because they
kept telling me this.
Vinod Khosla, the
billionaire investor,
said, "It's not enough to
have facts on your side.
You have to do storytelling."
Ben Horowitz-- "Storytelling
is the most underrated skill."
Let's go to "Shark Tank."
Barbara Corcoran--
"Storytelling is everything.
Show me an MBA and your
sales numbers, that's fine.
But tell me a great
story and we'll talk."
So here's the best part.
Storytelling is
already in our DNA.
You already know how to do this.
We're all storytellers.
Storytelling around a campfire
has been around 400,000 years.
It was a major development when
people began to tell stories.
Firelight extended the day.
Anthropologists have
been studying this.
When firelight extended the day,
people started telling stories.
It ignited their imaginations.
It warned them of threats.
It was a major milestone
in human development.
We've been doing
this for centuries.
We know how to do it.
And people still do it today.
Richard Branson gathers
his team around a campfire
at his home on Necker Island for
the purpose of sharing stories.
Storytelling, he says, can
be used to drive change.
In fact, about two weeks
ago, Richard Branson
wrote a blog piece
where he said,
if you want to be a
successful entrepreneur,
you need to be able
to tell stories well.
He said, you can
have a great idea.
But if you can't communicate
it well, it doesn't matter.
So we know how this works.
Today, for the next
20 minutes or so,
I want to give you three
keys to winning the hearts
and minds of your audiences.
And that can be almost
anything, whether you're
pitching a new idea,
whether you're delivering
a presentation, what have you.
We're going to talk about
the storyteller-- yourself--
the story that you
deliver, and then
how you deliver that story.
So let's talk about
the storyteller.
It's really important
to see yourself
as the chief storytelling
officer for your brand.
Great storytellers are not born.
They're made.
People work at it.
You cannot inspire other people
until you're inspired yourself.
If you don't believe in your
story, nobody else will.
And it's important, if
you've faced adversity,
or if you've faced
struggle in your life.
Or if you've had to
overcome a business
challenge or a failure.
It's really important
to share that story.
Because we are hard wired
to find meaning in struggle.
And that's why we like
to hear stories of people
who have overcome struggle.
Howard Schultz, for
example, at Starbucks,
he often tells the
story of growing up
in a Brooklyn housing
project, watching
as his family struggled when his
father was injured on the job.
Some of you may have
heard that story before.
They had no health insurance.
They found it difficult
to make ends meet.
Howard Schultz said,
"The more uninspiring
your origins, the more likely
you are to use your imagination
and invent worlds where
everything seems possible."
And that's why he repeats
that story constantly,
and it reinforces
Starbucks' initiatives.
For example, it
explains the why.
Why does Starbucks offer
full-time health benefits
for part-time workers?
The story explains
and underpins the why.
Now, I live in wine country
in the Livermore Valley.
So anybody who's
really into wine
knows that the best grapes come
from very steep hillsides made
of limestone soil.
The grapes that are stressed
are said to have more character.
And that's why it's
important to share
those stories of adversity
or struggle, triumph
over adversity.
Because we are
hardwired, in nature,
to find meaning
in that struggle.
And of course, all of you are
very familiar with this here
at Google.
It's important to
dream in moonshots,
and to speak in
moonshot thinking.
That's another way of inspiring
people to dream bigger.
We love rags-to-riches stories.
We're actually wired to
love rags-to-riches stories.
Which is why almost
every commercial movie
needs to have a happy ending.
We actually need to
have a happy ending.
So the stories that
work best are often
those stories where you have
faced an intense struggle
in your life.
And then you've come
out the other end,
and you're better for it.
Or the world is transformed
and you've learned something.
In the book, I have a story
about a guy named Mark, who
left England in the early '80s.
And he landed in Los Angeles.
His first job was a nanny.
His first
entrepreneurial venture
was selling T-shirts
on Venice Beach.
He hung T-shirts on a fence
and sold them for $18.
He bought them for $2.
So he made a pretty good profit.
Today, Mark Burnett is one
of television's most popular
producers.
But here's what he told
me, when I interviewed him.
"My best skills have always
been storytelling and pitching
ideas."
Now, this is what
applies to you today.
"All success begins with the
ability to sell something,
whether it's a
shirt or an idea."
So embrace the back story.
Believe in your story,
or nobody else will.
Now, when it comes time to
actually crafting and creating
that story, there are
some techniques that work.
I believe that storytelling,
especially in your career,
is your competitive advantage.
Whether you're pitching an
idea, building a company,
growing a career, trying
to motivate a team,
or just delivering a
mission-critical presentation,
storytelling is your advantage.
It's what's going
to set you apart.
The good news is that
in the last 10 years,
we've learned more about
why certain stories work,
than we've known since
humans began painting
pictures on cave walls.
A remarkable thing happens
to your brain on stories.
They're studying this
at Princeton University.
When somebody tells you
a story, the same regions
of your brain and your speaker's
brain literally light up.
It's called neuro coupling.
You are literally in sync.
Paul Zak, in Orange County,
is also studying this.
He's doing this in the lab.
He found that "A
compelling story
with an emotional
trigger--" that's the key.
What's the emotional trigger?
We'll talk about
that in a minute.
But a compelling story
with an emotional trigger
alters our brain chemistry,
making us more trusting,
understanding,
and open to ideas.
We know that when the
brain hears a story,
there is a rush of chemicals--
cortisol, dopamine, oxytocin,
which is the love chemical.
It's the chemical that creates
empathy between two people.
That's what happens
when you hear a story.
So now, how are we going
to incorporate story
in our presentations?
How do we do that?
Well, one good
training ground is TED.
So how many of you
watch TED Talks?
I'm sure a lot of
you enjoy TED Talks.
I wrote a book called
"Talk Like TED."
And it became a
very popular book
in the field of public
speaking and communication.
The one chapter that
people really seem to like
was on storytelling.
But it was only a
few pages, which
is why I expanded it
into a whole book that
looks at storytelling not
only in business, but also
in all types of different
presentations that you have.
I firmly believe that the ideas
that do catch on in any venue
are those that are wrapped
in a compelling story.
So I do like to
watch the TED Talks.
Because as Charlie
Rose once said,
the reason why TED is special
is because the presentations
are wrapped in story.
Very few people do it
better than Bryan Stevenson.
Bryan Stevenson is a
human rights attorney.
Some of you may have read
his book, "Just Mercy."
He believes that
there are many people
on death row, especially, who
are incarcerated unjustly.
That's a very compelling book.
And he's a great speaker.
He thinks about story.
I interviewed him
after his TED Talk.
He said, Carmine, narrative is
hugely important in persuasion.
So when he's trying
to get people
to his side, when he's
trying to win people over,
he tells a lot of stories.
They're very short stories that
reinforce his central theme.
And they're typically
personal stories.
You don't have to
always do the personal.
It could be a case study.
But for him, he
finds that when he
connects with people personally,
it makes a difference.
I want to show you a video clip
from a now-famous TED Talk.
He received the longest standing
ovation of any TED speaker
in TED history after this talk.
Bryan Stevenson was talking
about the loss of identity
for many people in
underprivileged communities.
And he talked about
his grandmother.
He told a story
about his grandmother
who, when he was 11 years
old, pulled him aside
and had him make a promise
to her that he would never
drink alcohol in his life.
He said, I was
only 11 years old.
What the heck?
I agreed.
Here's how he
picked up the story.
[VIDEO PLAYBACK]
-I grew up in the country,
in the rural south.
And I have a brother
a year older than me
and a sister a year younger.
When I was about 14 or 15,
one day, my brother came home.
And he had this
six pack of beer.
I don't know where he got it.
And he grabbed me and my sister
and we went out in the woods.
And we were just
out there, doing
the stuff we basically did.
And he had a sip of this beer
and he gave some to my sister.
And she had some.
And they offered it to me.
I said, no, no, no.
That's OK.
Y'all go ahead.
I'm not going to have any beer.
And my brother said, come
on, we're doing this today.
You always do what we do.
I had some.
Your sister had some.
Have some beer.
I said, no, I don't
feel right about that.
Y'all go ahead.
Y'all go ahead.
And then my brother
started staring at me.
He said, what's wrong with you?
Have some beer.
Then he looked at me real hard.
He said, oh, I hope
you're not still
hung up on that conversation
Mama had with you.
[LAUGHTER]
I said, well, what
are you talking about?
He says, well, Mama
tells all the grandkids
that they're special.
[LAUGHTER]
I was devastated.
And I'm going to admit
something to you.
I'm going to tell you
something I probably shouldn't.
I know this might be
broadcast broadly.
But I'm 52 years old.
And I'm going to admit
to you that I've never
had a drop of alcohol.
[APPLAUSE]
I don't say that because
I think that's virtuous.
I say that because there
is power in identity.
[END VIDEO PLAYBACK]
That's quite remarkable.
And did you see how comfortable
he was in telling that story?
And I asked him, do you tell
that story all the time?
He said, oh yeah, in
almost every presentation.
And I asked him why.
He said, because everybody
has a grandmother.
I have to get people to like me.
It's a very good way
of creating empathy.
Now watch this.
I created a data set here.
Doesn't this look
like the tables
that you use in your
own presentations?
No?
Not exactly?
OK.
If we use Aristotle's
Components of Persuasion,
and you take Bryan Stevenson's
text of his TED Talk,
65% falls under what
Aristotle would have called
Pathos, emotion, storytelling.
25% data to support
the stories, and 10%
establishing credibility
for who Bryan Stevenson is.
I love this template.
If you have a
presentation-- story, data.
Story, data.
Story, data.
He told three stories
and three data points.
Beautiful, very simple.
Only 25% data, whereas in
most business presentations
isn't it completely
the other way around?
It's 90% data.
Sheryl Sandberg is learning this
too, over at Facebook, the COO.
How many of you are
familiar with the movement
that she started?
"Lean In," right?
I argue that you never would
have heard of "Lean In"
if it had not been for a story.
She gave a TED Talk on
women in the workplace.
That TED Talk went viral,
launched a bestselling book,
triggered a movement.
Never would have gone viral if
it had not been for a story.
And she acknowledged it later.
She said, that she was
prepared to give a presentation
chock full of data and no
emotion, no personal stories.
A friend of hers pulled
her aside and said, Sheryl,
you seem a little
out of sorts today.
What's going on?
And she complained about having
to fly there with her daughter
still in California,
and her own issues
with being a working mother.
And her friend was patent,
said, you really got
to start sharing those stories.
That's how you
connect with people.
Sheryl Sandberg acknowledged
that she was very uncomfortable
with this.
But here is how she began
her now famous TED Talk.
[BEGIN VIDEO PLAYBACK]
-Now, at the outset, I want to
be very clear that this speech
comes with no judgments.
I don't have the right answer.
I don't even have it for myself.
I left San Francisco,
where I live, on Monday.
And I was getting on the
plane for this conference.
And my daughter, who's
three, when I dropped her off
at preschool, did that whole,
hugging the leg crying mommy
don't get on the plane thing.
This is hard.
I feel guilty sometimes.
I know no women,
whether they're at home
or whether they're in
the workforce, that
don't feel that sometimes.
So I'm not saying that
staying in the workforce
is the right thing for everyone.
My talk today is about what
the messages are if you do
want to stay in the workforce.
And I think there are three.
One-- sit at the table.
Two--
[END VIDEO PLAYBACK]
She's became a real storyteller.
In her book too, if
you've read "Lean In,"
it's full of stories.
But she acknowledged she
wasn't going to do originally.
So look, if you want to learn
how to tell a better story,
there is a formula.
Let's go back to the formula.
Let's go to Hollywood.
Hollywood knows how to tell
transformative stories.
All commercially successful
Hollywood movies--
every single one-- has a
three-part storytelling
structure.
And I'm sure you've seen this.
A lot of great books
certainly have this too.
So the three-part
structure of all hit movies
begins with the setup.
Oh, let's pick an
Academy Award nominee.
I haven't seen "The Revenant."
so I can't speak to that.
How about "The Martian?"
How many of you have
seen "The Martian?"
OK, a few of you.
We're go with it.
Dave, you saw "The Martian?"
We'll go with it.
So the setup is
the hero's world.
So here we have Matt
Damon, as a botanist.
He just happens to be on Mars.
But you have to you
get to know the team.
And the team's working with him.
And the team, they
really love each other,
and they get along
with each other.
But then something has
to happen-- the conflict.
On Mars, it's the sandstorm.
If you ever watched
"Titanic," it's
the Titanic hitting the iceberg.
I mean, these are very
clear delineations
between Act One and Act Two.
So now the hero's
world, literally,
is turned upside down.
And then, of course,
the resolution.
How are we going
to save Matt Damon?
And Matt Damon actually
transforms too.
He becomes a better person
by the end of the movie.
Great presentations
follow the same structure.
Because this is the
way people are sort of
wired to think in story.
So in 1984, Steve
Jobs introduced
Macintosh, one of the great
dramatic presentations
in corporate history.
It follows the exact
same structure--
the setup, where he talks
about the status quo, the world
as it is.
And he introduces a villain.
All great presentations
have to have a villain.
The villain, in the Steve Jobs
narrative, of course, was IBM.
IBM, he said, was bent
on world domination.
He even used the
language of movies.
He said, there's only one
force to stand in its way,
and that's the resolution.
The hero unveiled
the first Macintosh.
But we don't get
to the resolution
until we go through
the other three steps.
I've overlaid this structure on
so many things-- presentations,
also, famous speeches.
Malala Yousafzai's
beautifully-written Nobel Peace
Prize acceptance speech follows
exactly the same structure.
She doesn't start with
talking about the fact
that she was shot
in that school bus.
She starts with
Act One, the setup.
"In my paradise
home--" she said.
She even starts with
"In my paradise home--"
"Everything is great.
We-- loved learning." "We
had a thirst for education."
Then something happened.
And she has a very
clear distinction. .
"But things did not
remain the same."
So now you know Act
Two is going to start.
And now the conflict begins.
"I was in Swat, which was a
place of-- beauty, suddenly
changed into a
place of terrorism.
400 schools destroyed, people
killed, beautiful dreams
turned into nightmares."
Conflict, and finally,
the resolution.
Hero conquerors villain.
"The terrorists tried
to stop us and attacked
me and my friends-- but
we're still here today
because neither their ideas
nor their bullets can win."
And now she is a voice for
the 60 million young girls who
are deprived of an education.
This is a structure.
There is a formula.
So tell transformative
stories, you
can do this easily in your
very next business pitch.
You have an idea.
Start with Act One,
the status quo.
Here's the status quo.
Here's the problem.
That's the villain.
Here's the problem that
you may not even know
is around the corner.
And here's the resolution.
Here's how my idea is
going to fix that problem.
It's sort of a natural way
that we like to hear stories.
And finally, just in the
last five minutes or so,
let me talk to you
about the three steps
to making a presentation great.
Number one-- always sharpen
your presentation skills.
Practice makes good
storytellers great.
Very few people practice
public speaking.
They don't practice,
even their presentations,
before they're actually
going to launch one.
Martin Luther King
gave 2,500 speeches
before his Dream speech.
That's what I mean by when
you see a great communicator--
whether it's a
historical figure or just
somebody you know
here at Google--
they weren't born that way.
They probably worked at it.
There was a very famous TED
Talk-- Jill Bolte-Taylor,
she was the woman
who had a stroke.
And she lived to tell about it.
I don't know if some of
you remember that one.
She told me she
practiced 200 times.
200 times.
So practice your
presentation skills.
Always try to get better.
Second, illustrate your
story as much as you can.
People like pictures more than
words, especially on slides.
So you can have a few words.
But also try to balance
the words and the pictures.
This is a balance.
Some of you may
remember Chris Hadfield.
He was the singing astronaut.
He was the guy who sang
"Space Oddity," floating
in space, the David Bowie song.
He's a great presenter.
He delivers 35-slide
presentations
with no words, just pictures.
And when I asked him why
he does that, he goes,
Carmine, I'm telling stories.
I'm telling a narrative.
Why do I want words to
interfere with that?
I want people to
listen to my words.
The slides just
complement the story.
Let's take a look at Elon Musk.
Elon Musk is doing a
lot of this lately.
His presentations are beautiful,
but very minimalistic.
This slide only has
three words on it.
The next slide has
no words on it.
So this is definitely a trend
in presentations, a little bit
more visual.
I'm not asking you
to completely blow up
the way you do presentations.
But try to balance
words and visuals.
I like this.
After this presentation,
a blogger said,
"Dude's selling a battery and he
still managed to be inspiring."
Of course, because it's
more about storytelling.
And finally, unleash
your best storytellers.
Let's say, you're a manager,
where you have a team,
and you have to deliver
an idea or a pitch.
It's not all about you.
Give everybody else a voice too.
In fact, if you go to a Broadway
play, or if you go to a movie,
there's different characters.
Introduce different characters.
It's not just about
you as the storyteller.
Make sure that
everybody on that team
has a part of the narrative,
has a part of that pitch.
This is what they're
doing at SAP.
At SAP, the big
software company,
they hired not a
VP of marketing.
They hired a chief storyteller.
She's in the
marketing department,
but she's a Chief
Storytelling Officer.
And her role now, her mission
is to unleash the stories
of 65,000 salespeople at SAP.
So she's giving them tools
to be able to capture
customer stories so other sales
people can share them too.
So when it comes
to storytelling,
make sure that you unleash the
best storytellers on your team.
And finally, let me
just end with this.
I love this quote
from Walt Disney.
"Storytellers instill hope
again, and again, and again."
And that's why we need people to
be more inspiring storytellers.
You're story can
change the world.
It can change a career.
It can change an industry.
I believe that storytelling is
not something that we just do.
Storytelling is who we are.
And all of you have
stories inside of you.
So please, share those stories.
And inspire the people around
you to live a better life.
Thank you very much for
coming out this afternoon.
I appreciate it.
[APPLAUSE]
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DAVE MARX: To
start, I'd actually
like to kind of bring it
to us, and how we might be
able to tell our own stories.
And one of my favorite
lines in the conclusion
is a quote you put
in from Robert Stone.
It says that "Storytelling is
almost as necessary as bread.
We cannot imagine
ourselves without it,
because the very sense
of self is a story."
I really like that.
CARMINE GALLO: I wish
that was my quote.
That was nice.
DAVE MARX: Right?
It is a great one.
And what I wonder is
I know some people,
sometimes, have trouble
telling their own narrative.
So what advice do
you have to us,
to help identify
our own narrative
and tell it in a better story?
CARMINE GALLO: Definitely
what we're seeing,
especially in
leadership today, we
are seeing more transparency,
more authenticity,
where people do seem to be a
little bit more comfortable
sharing those back
stories, the back stories
of struggle and triumph.
And there's a reason why people
like to hear those stories.
So it doesn't always have to
be the skeletons in the closet,
OK?
It can be something
as simple as having
a very big, major business
challenge, or a failure.
I mean, this is a culture
here, in Silicon Valley,
where we celebrate failures.
So if you've had a failure,
if you've had a challenge
and you overcome it and
you learn something,
that's one of the most
powerful stories you can tell.
But you don't have to tell
the personal stories either.
Remember, a case
study is a story.
Very few people are using
case studies anymore.
But they don't
have to be boring.
If you're going to
use a case study,
still put it into the
context of narrative
with conflict and resolution
and struggle and triumph
over struggle.
DAVE MARX: That
makes a lot of sense.
Look to our own struggle, and
then look to outside stories.
Our narrative doesn't always
need to be stories about us,
right?
CARMINE GALLO: Yeah.
You know, I brought up that
slide of the Vinod Khosla.
He actually delivered that
quote at a Khosla Summit,
where he gathers the CEOs from
all of his portfolio companies.
Sergey Brin and Larry Page
were both there as well.
And that was the
conference where
Vinod Khosla walked on stage.
And he said, all of
you are brilliant.
He wasn't talking
to Sergey and Larry.
He was talking to his CEOs.
But they were there on stage.
And he said, all of
you are brilliant.
But none of you are
good storytellers.
So that's where
I got that quote.
You have to learn to
tell better stories.
We can't invest in you unless
we understand the story.
That's actually why
I wrote that book.
If he had not said
that, I'm not sure
if I would have had
the topic in mind.
Hey, how are you?
AUDIENCE: Hi, thanks for coming.
I had a question
about actual stories.
CARMINE GALLO: Yeah.
AUDIENCE: You mentioned
some Hollywood movies.
But can you mention some
stories from literature
that are your favorites?
And why are those
stories your favorites?
CARMINE GALLO: Like Oedipus,
and some of the Greek stories.
I'll tell you, I don't
read a lot of fiction.
But I love biographies.
So I am immersed in those kind.
Because biographies,
what I have found--
and this actually reinforced
some of the literature
that I've found-- it's important
to tell family stories.
And it's important to
tell tales of heroes.
Because they inspire
us to be better people,
which is why the whole
Horatio Alger type of stories
are actually very important
for people to hear.
And I never realized why I
loved certain historical books.
Right?
Anything on George
Washington, is in my library.
I read everything on George
Washington or Thomas Jefferson.
I love hearing
all those stories.
And what happened
during my research,
I found out that
people like Elon Musk
said that they became more
courageous because their youth
was spent reading stories
of mythical heroes
and true heroes.
John Kennedy was laid up in
bed for many, many months--
a lot of people don't
know that history-- when
he was very young, in college.
He was laid up in bed.
He had terrible back problems.
He had a lot of illnesses.
During that time, he read books.
And he read mythical
stories of King Arthur.
And when it came time
for him, in World War II,
to play the hero
in his own journey,
it all came back to him.
And so I was really
curious as to why.
You know, why are all of these
great leaders inspired by books
and inspired by stories?
There's a reason for it.
There's actually
science that says
you are braver when you hear
stories of people who conquer
seemingly-insurmountable odds.
Malala said, that her
father was a storyteller,
and always told her
stories of folk heroes,
of young women who
could lead armies.
So eventually, the reason why
those books are important--
and I tend to lean
toward history books--
is because it actually inspires
you to be a better person.
DAVE MARX: And I just
wanted to read another quote
from the book that
related to that.
CARMINE GALLO: Yeah.
DAVE MARX: From Greek
philosopher, Plato, "Come then,
and let us pass a leisure
hour in storytelling.
And our story shall be the
education of our heroes.
Plato meant that the
stories themselves
would aid and inspire
and guide others
to play the hero in their
own life narrative."
It's been around forever.
CARMINE GALLO: They knew that
back in ancient Greece, right?
But I don't think
a lot of people
put those two and two together.
So if there's any questions?
Think about your next pitch.
Think about a presentation
that you've delivered.
If you want to ask a question
about that, because it
should be in narrative form.
And we could do that.
Yes?
AUDIENCE: So I can
completely appreciate
the need for storytelling.
Now, when it comes to
the business world,
you gave us a great
example about Apple.
CARMINE GALLO: Yes.
AUDIENCE: And yes, that was in
the kind of three-point format
that you described.
But is that very common?
Because when I was thinking
about some examples,
it seems like the conflict
just won't have the same punch.
Because there's
not a lot of cases
where you can set up an enemy
or a tremendous pain of some
sort, in that kind of
three-point framework
that you were discussing.
CARMINE GALLO: Yes.
I should add the caveat
that what I'm showing
you are pretty extreme examples.
When it comes to just a
basic pitch, basic idea,
just sharing your
idea with the team,
the reason why I bring up
the three-part narrative
is because anybody can
start with the status quo.
So you can tell
your team, or you
can tell the person, your
client, your customer,
who you're trying to convince.
All this comes back
to, we have to convince
people of something.
We have to convince
people of our idea.
So if you can get people to
start nodding in agreement
and saying, yeah, yeah, OK.
So that's the way things
are happening now.
But there's a problem here.
And how are we going
to resolve the problem?
In a basic business
presentation,
the villain-- there has
to be a villain in order
for a good story to
take hold-- doesn't
have to be a competitor.
It doesn't have to
be this big villain
bent on world domination.
It could be a problem.
Problem, solution.
You know who's doing
this really well?
Is Elon Musk.
That presentation that I
showed you was brilliant.
And he was
introducing a battery.
So now we're talking about
something that isn't that sexy.
It's a home battery that
takes sunlight, converts it
to energy.
But the way he structured
it, it was a narrative form.
And he started with a problem.
And he showed pollution
being spewed in the air
by those smokestacks.
And he used very
simple language.
He said, this is real.
This is happening.
It's not good.
And then the next slide was the
sun, just a picture of the sun.
And he said, this
is also a real.
It works.
It happens to be on every day.
Why aren't we harnessing this?
Let's take a look
at today's batteries
to see what the problems
are with today's batteries.
So now he's
introducing a problem.
Now, how are we
going to take the sun
and convert it to energy?
How do you do that?
Well, there's a problem
with today's batteries.
But rest assured,
I have a solution.
That's part three.
And here's my solution.
So within that
three-part structure,
you could have a lot of fun.
Some screenwriters
in Hollywood--
and I've talked to a lot
of screenwriters, which
is why I have fun
with this stuff-- they
don't like the formula.
But when they veer
from that formula,
they got a flop on their hands.
So producers now, they
actually go to a certain page
to find the
beginning of Act Two.
Within the structure though,
you can have a lot of fun.
You do a lot of crazy
things within the structure.
But it seems as though
people like a structure.
It's just something that
we're kind of wired to do.
We like a logical structure.
What do most of us do what
we create a PowerPoint?
Or when we create any
type of presentation,
regardless of the tools you use?
We just put a lot of
facts and data on there.
We don't even think
about a structure.
We just load it up.
That's the biggest
problem I've seen.
AUDIENCE: I'll admit
the neuroscience
of this really fascinates me.
Think of it this way.
You described how it's
all kind of this formulaic
conflict-resolution thing.
If you think about
it, most of us,
we deal with conflict in our
own work lives, personal lives.
It stresses us out.
We're frustrated.
And then we go home, we
turn on TV, we read a book,
and we love seeing that
conflict resolution play out.
We immerse ourselves in other
people's conflict resolution.
CARMINE GALLO: That's true.
AUDIENCE: So a
buddy of mine, he's
come from a
neuroscience background.
We were at a party recently.
And we were trying
to theorize what
about our brains enjoys that.
He started talking
to me about dopamine,
which I understand, as
we think of it often,
is sort of a
pleasure-reward thing.
We're hungry, we eat something.
Dopamine gets released.
He told me something I didn't
realize, which is dopamine's
also part of seeking.
And so it's sort of like, when
the outcome isn't predictable,
dopamine gets
released a lot more.
So I'm wondering if
that's kind of what's
going on with stories.
Like, when we don't know what
the outcome is going to be.
We're kind of on edge.
When the resolution
happens, we get, like,
a hit of dopamine or something.
Is that kind of what's going on?
CARMINE GALLO: Yeah, yes.
That's part of it.
Dopamine plays a lot
of different roles.
But dopamine's also
the feel-good chemical.
Right?
So if you can
empathize with someone
to feel really good
about that person,
then it releases dopamine too.
So it's all part of it.
But dopamine also forces
you to pay attention.
And again, I'm not
a neuroscientist.
But what I'm very good
at-- because I'm a trained
journalist-- I enjoy
speaking to neuroscience,
and studying it, and then
trying to articulate it
in plain English.
So I've talked to John Medina
at the University of Washington.
Great book called "Brain
Rules-- How Persuasion Works."
And he introduced a lot
of these concepts, where
he talks about how dopamine
is like a stamp on your brain
that makes you pay attention.
So when you have this
rush of chemicals,
cortisol, mostly though,
dopamine put and oxytocin--
and Paul Zak is studying
oxytocin-- it forces your brain
to pay attention.
This is important.
There is a reason
why you remember
where you were during certain
big events, like a 9/11
or someplace like that.
You remember things because
there's that rush of chemicals.
And so it's easier
for you to remember.
So how do we take that kind and
hijack the brain's processing
system so that they
remember our ideas?
You can take this
in almost any area.
People remember ideas
for a specific reason.
There is a formula to this.
Just like Max Martin knows
how to write a song that
gets stuck in your head, we
know why ideas are memorable
and others are forgotten.
Of course, you got
to have a good idea.
Right?
That's what Richard
Branson said.
It's got to be a good idea.
So that is number one.
But if you can't communicate
it, then it becomes a problem.
Sergey and Larry
had a good idea.
AUDIENCE: I really
liked when you
touched upon the modes
of persuasion stuff.
CARMINE GALLO: The what?
AUDIENCE: The modes of
persuasion, Aristotle, ethos,
pathos, and logos stuff.
I was wondering whether
you could elaborate on it.
You said that the goal
is to do more [INAUDIBLE]
and less of the other stuff.
But I was just wondering
whether you could elaborate.
Because I found that
was really interesting.
CARMINE GALLO: Well, apparently,
years ago, up until 20
or 30 years ago,
most people assumed
that we're rational beings.
So it was more about
the data and the logic.
Whereas in the last 20 years
or so, they're finding--
and Jonathan Haidt is
doing a lot of research
into this-- that we
think we're rational.
But our emotional side of the
brain is much more powerful.
Which is why, when you have to
persuade somebody of something,
you want to convince
them of something,
you need to have both.
That's why I think Bryan
Stevenson, go watch his TED
Talk.
It's phenomenal.
Because what it does,
is he's very persuasive.
By the end of 15 minutes, you're
ready to buy into his idea,
even if you're pretty
defensive about it.
It's amazing.
He's very persuasive.
And he wins cases before
the US Supreme Court.
He knows how to persuade.
But 65% % of his public
presentations are more heavy
on emotion, 25% data.
So you got to have a balance.
And I think we're seeing that
in our political campaigns too.
There's some people
who are really
good at getting your attention
and triggering emotions.
Right?
So I think it applies
in everything,
from political
campaigns to business.
AUDIENCE: Could you talk a
bit more about what emotions
you appeal to, and how
you set up a story so it
flips that switch, if you will?
CARMINE GALLO: Apparently,
in storytelling, tension
is everything--
tension and conflict.
There has to be some
kind of conflict.
Titanic has to hit an iceberg.
Right?
So you need to have the
conflict in Act Two.
If there isn't a conflict,
then the audience
doesn't have anyone
to rally around.
We want Jack and
Rose to be saved.
And we want them to
be saved in "Titanic,"
only after we get to know them.
So that's the structure.
You need to be able to get
to know the characters so you
feel empathy for the
characters involved.
Then you have to
introduce a conflict.
And that conflict better have
a happy ending and a resolution
afterwards.
So it's a pretty
basic structure.
But those are the two
things that you absolutely
need in every good story.
You need a back story.
We need to get to
know the characters
a little bit so that we feel
empathy for the characters.
And then there has to be
a pretty significant--
what Paul Zak
calls the-- trigger
event, which is that conflict.
And so if you can get your
audience nodding in agreement,
going yeah, yeah, that's
the problem I have.
I have that problem.
Then you're going to hook them.
That's what we call the hook.
Just like the chorus
in "Cheerleader."
That's what we call the hook.
It works remarkably
well, remarkably well.
I cannot tell you
over the years,
of how many business
presentations I've either seen
or I've worked with at a lot
of major companies-- LinkedIn,
Microsoft, SanDisk,
Intel, many--
where when we create something
like this and then we go back
and we see what was the
most memorable part of that
presentation, what
resonated with people.
People come back,
like, two years later
at the same conference
and tell the executive,
I liked that part
in that presentation
you gave two years ago.
It's always the story.
Always the story.
Nobody ever remembers oh
yeah, I loved that slide 32.
Excellent.
That was great.
Yeah, and the chart on slide 32?
Unbelievable.
But they always remember
the story, always.
That's why I'm getting
into this idea, where
I am very emphatic about it.
I'm saying, this is the hook.
A songwriter knows what works.
That's why he can keep
turning out hit after hit.
We know what works too.
We know what works when you're
delivering a presentation.
AUDIENCE: I have a
question about telling
personal stories--
CARMINE GALLO: Yes.
Now, your father is a
data scientist, right?
AUDIENCE: Computer
science professor.
CARMINE GALLO: Computer science.
And he tells stories?
AUDIENCE: He does.
CARMINE GALLO: I love it.
I love that.
AUDIENCE: Telling
stories in the classroom
is very important to him.
CARMINE GALLO: Great.
AUDIENCE: I've noticed that when
people tell personal stories,
they generally fall
into one of two frames.
There's the
this-is-how-I'm-special angle.
And then there's the
this-is-how-we're-alike angle.
Can you comment on which
of those-- is one of them
superior to the other?
Do they both have a place?
CARMINE GALLO: Well,
let's not get too
hung up on the personal stories.
AUDIENCE: I guess any stories?
CARMINE GALLO: Yeah.
Because for TED, the personal
stories work pretty well.
Because it is a more
intimate environment.
In business, I like
the case studies.
You know, real stories of
real people who are helped
or whose world is made better
by your idea, by your service.
Those are the stories
that resonate in business.
And very few business
presentations-- at least
that I see- are
heavy in narrative.
They don't tell those stories.
It's all fact without being
supported by the stories.
You know who's really
good at this now,
is Bill and Melinda Gates.
They're fantastic
storytellers now.
Like, every time they have the
new Gates newsletter, which
comes out every year and
talks about their philanthropy
efforts, Melinda is a better
storyteller than Bill.
Bill's still a little factual.
He's very simple though.
He does a good job.
But Melinda likes
going into the stories.
So she uses the data.
But she always starts with
very personal stories.
And sometimes they're personal.
But they're more
about other people.
It's more of a personal
experience she had.
But let me tell you about a
woman in this part of Africa
who I spent a few days with,
and her and her family.
So it's kind of about
Melinda, but not really.
She kind of shifts it off and
talks about the other person.
So I think the case studies, but
inserting yourself into a case
study is very powerful.
AUDIENCE: Do you have any advice
on how to use storytelling
in job interviews when
you have very little time,
and you have to kind
of sell yourself?
CARMINE GALLO: Yes.
You have to do it
in job interviews.
I have so many
interesting stories
of people who have emailed me.
One young man emailed me
not too long ago, just
a few months ago, working at
a startup in San Francisco.
I'm sure you're all familiar.
They do the coding
classes now, right?
Those coding programs.
DAVE MARX: The boot camps.
CARMINE GALLO: Yeah,
the boot camps.
So that was his first
coding boot camp.
And so he didn't have a lot
of technical experience.
But he was a really
good communicator.
He studied the science of story.
And how to tell better stories.
So he walked into an interview.
And he told stories
about his previous job,
of where they had a
particular problem.
And he told those stories of
how he overcame those problems.
And then he applied what he
had learned to that company,
and what he had learned
about this new company.
So that doesn't take long.
Even in a 15-minute
job interview,
that took about two minutes.
But here's the
end of that story.
Here's the conclusion.
The reason why the young
man emailed me, he said,
Carmine, you
wouldn't believe it.
I doubled my salary.
They hired me two days later.
He interviewed on a Friday.
They hired him on a Monday.
Doubled my salary.
And they told them
specifically, you
don't have the
technical experience.
Because you just took
this one coding class.
There are plenty
of job candidates
who have more technical
experience than you do.
But nobody could
communicate our story,
our company story,
as well as you can.
So to me, what we just
talked about, that's big.
This is really important
for career advancement.
Yeah, really important.
Thanks for asking.
Well, look, I'll be around.
And I'd love to sign some books
and meet you, if you'd like.
Great, thank you.
DAVE MARX: One more round
of applause for Carmine.
CARMINE GALLO: Thank you.
Yeah, thank you.
[APPLAUSE]
