Please relieve yourself from the pressure of trying to come across as an amazing storyteller

because people are not interested in fact if you get told that you're an amazing storyteller

then that's the wrong outcome of your communication.

What you have to be able to hear from people is, you made a very relevant point.

I'm going to do what you said. I think that makes a lot of sense.

If you get complimented on your being an amazing storyteller, that means the focus was you and your flamboyancy, not the point you made.

Resonance only happens with things that happen all the time, because those are our daily experiences.

That's Anjali Sharma. She's the founder of Narrative, The Business stories, and spent the last decade helping clients like Google, Microsoft, and Facebook tell more engaging and transformative stories. She's also the author of strategic storytelling. Why some stories drive your success at work, but others don't. So you'll learn one, why amazing storytelling isn't the end goal. Two, the critical question that generates more effective stories.

And three, why to think like a journalist and not a novelist.

And if you want a quick summary write-up of these takeaways,

I recommend you sign up for the free gold nugget email newsletter at awesome at your job.com.

I'm Pete McItis.

This is How to Be Awesome at Your Job.

And now here's Anjali.

Anjali, welcome.

Thank you.

Thank you for having me.

Well, I'm so excited to chat storytelling.

And I'd love it if you could kick us off by telling us a particularly surprising or counterintuitive

discovery you've made about us humans and story

over the course of your research and working with clients?

I think, you know, the most wonderful thing about storytelling is that no matter where you go,

...