The Secret To Telling Your Story So People Listen!

Let's say it was really serious and your worst fears had come true. What's at stake if this is actually the end of you? That would be a tremendous cost on the family. It's Saturday morning. I wake up with an immense pain in my belly and I don't know what's going on, but I'm reaching down and I feel this lump in my abdomen and I immediately start to think about my children. Can you walk us through like what's the proper way of storytelling and how that's important in personal branding outside of just aesthetics and those

kind of things like how do you go about storytelling effectively correctly? Okay, if we go back to the origin of humankind before we develop writing oration is the most important skill and the people who told the best stories were very important in their villages and their tribe because they were the keepers of history. They're the ones who explain the world to everyone. And if there was a fruit or plant or something that you're not supposed to eat, there's probably a pretty good story about it or way of behaving so that we can pass down this knowledge from generation to generation. They might have been considered the shaman, the wise person, the medicine doctor or something like that. And they would tell stories and Eric me says this. He says stories of the operating system of the human mind. So we need that operating system. Okay? Okay, so we understand this is how we transfer experiences, culture, lessons, the way we understand the world, what our beliefs and values are. It's all through story. Kindra Hall in her book stories that stick, she writes about this and she distills it down to something really super simple. There's the normal, like the way things are. There's an explosion and now there's a new normal. Just focus on those three parts. How are things now? What was the explosion? And what happens afterwards?

Now, here's the interesting thing. If you're watching a popular film or a TV show, what do they always begin with? The explosion. They start with explosion. Mo, you answered that perfectly. It's I always think when I hear a question like that, James Bond opens with him skiing down a mountain, getting shot at, and I'm like, wait, what just happened? That's exactly what I feel when you say that. It's a chase. That's why you say cut to the car chase. Cut to the chase. Right. this is what's happening. Skis down the hill, shoots the bad guys, and barely escapes using a bunch of gadgets and athleticism and spy trickery things that he's able to do. Then you hear the ding ding ding ding and now you know like I'm in a James Bond film, right? Then he turns to the camera, whatever it is. And then that's the beginning of the movie after a beautiful title sequence, of course. So what happens? Okay, the explosion is because this hooks is like what? We're disoriented. Like what's going on? And then of course what did they do? Usually there's a flashback four months ago, three weeks ago, three hours ago. So they understand that they have a this precious first few minutes to hook you in or you're going to be gone. We need to know what's going on and we know that action works and action translates across language barriers. Okay. So, let's find something that's happened to you recently, Mo, and we'll workshop a story format together. You dirty dog. What are we doing here? Putting you on the spot, bro. Oh my god. Pick anything. Well, I recently The explosion. You want the explosion? No, no. I just want you to tell me the normal. I just tell me any story. Forget about the structure. Let's not try to like put it into a structure yet. Yeah. Just tell me any short story. Uh there was What happened last week that was kind of notable for you? What

happened last week that was notable for me? Okay. Uh, last week I had some severe abdominal pain and I was worried that I ended up getting a hernia and I went to urgent care and they gave me some acid reflux medicine and I was still in tremendous pain until yesterday when I went to the ER and I was like, "What the hell is going on with me? " And they gave me a CT scan. They confirmed that there was no hernia. They gave me better medicine. Now I feel better. But I was scared that week. Very scared. I didn't know what was going on. I didn't feel right. So what is the problem? that I guess it was just an intense sensation of acid reflux or geard or something that came up very intense intensely. Yeah. And um and they I needed some I don't know if I ate something. They didn't give me a cause. I did start taking an obscene amount of supplements over the past 10 days prior. So I think uh a little excess of biotin and fish oil may have bloated the hell out of me. Okay. So, uh, that's But I was You wanted something reset. There you go. Hey. Yeah, that works. Okay, let's break this. Does it work? This feels very weird, but okay. No, that works for the example of what we're talking about. Now, if you were to literally

write that story or tell that story through Instagram reels or YouTube shorts or something like that, you it would probably not get a lot of views. No, not the way I just explained. Right. You did it perfectly for me because you kind of told us the facts. I didn't get any kind of sensory detail. dialogue. You didn't pull me into your world cuz a story is supposed to allow me to see the world through your eyes. And so those are some of the things we need to look out for. So you kind of almost did it as a biographer might write your story from the outside just describing Mo went through this, he had pain, he went here, did X-rays, turned out to be nothing, and it could be this. Yeah. Okay. So, one of the things that we learn is when you tell a story, you need to put me into your shoes, allow me to see the world through your eyes, and you need to include sensory details and to hopefully make it rich with dialogue. And dialogue allows us to experience it without you telling me about it. You're showing me and you're not really describing some of your emotions. Like, a hernia is a big deal, especially for a guy who's not that old. And people might not even know what a hernia is. And you could describe the sensation. So take me back there and

describe the sensation that you had with this hernia. I felt like a balloon that had been blown up just to the edge of popping. And inside of that balloon there was a stone side a stone weight grape and it was pushing against the rubber of the balloon. That's exactly how my Can you see it bulge? Um I couldn't see a bulge but I could feel it bulge. Okay. And feeling that sensation of bloating and also that stone lump in the middle of my abdomen uh was very painful. It felt like I was every time I would cough or breathe or like laugh, I felt like I was literally going to break open. Okay. And it also when I called my brother, I was like, I'm scared if I don't go get checked up that this could be something really serious and not just acid reflux. And the more time I wait, the like who knows, this could be some like I don't know, god forbid, like lump that turns into, you know. So that's where I was. That's okay. What day was this? And where were you when you had that first realization this pain is unbearable or could be serious? Um, what day was this? It was on the weekend. So, Saturday. Yeah, Saturday. What time? Uh, 8 a. m. Okay, perfect. And let's say it was really serious and your worst fears had come true. What would what was going on in your mind? Like, what's at stake if this is actually the end of you? I mean, I'm the provider for my three children. Yeah. You know, they uh they're all young and impressionable and starting school and so that would be a tremendous cost on the family. Okay, this is perfect. So, we have everything we need for your story now. Well, this is why I like dancing with you. Cuz they go there with you and talk. No, cuz you do what you're supposed to do. You don't try to outsmart me. like go all get all weird and edit things and you don't try to like here's all the answers ready to go and well I got nothing to work with, man. Yeah. Yeah. Okay. So, your story would probably start off something like this. I'm going to make up a lot of junk in

between here. Okay. Sure. We're going to workshop this. So, you're going to say, "It's Saturday morning. I wake up with an immense pain in my belly and I don't know what's going on, but I'm reaching down and I feel this lump in my abdomen. " And it feels like from the inside out a somebody's been blowing in this balloon and is about to burst. And I immediately start to think about my children. Cuz some of you don't know this, but I'm the provider for my family. I got three little ones who depend on me. And if you know anything about Egyptian culture, especially for men, we don't go see the doctor. Facts. In fact, when I was younger, when I was 17 or 14 or 12, my dad had ex and he never did this. And then something like that happened. So I didn't want to be my dad. I call my brother, you know, and then you do the dialogue between you and your brother. Yeah. And then I was sitting there thinking, could it have something to do with all these supplements I've been eating? And I go to the doctor to the ER room and I'm waiting for the bad news. like there's just perspiration on my face. I feel like I need to explode, but I can't. They run a battery of tests and I'm waiting. And finally, the nurse walks in and she looks like X, Y, and Z. And she says, "Hey, you don't have a hernia, right? " And there's like this calming feeling that washes over my body that whatever it is, I'll get through this and it's okay. That'd be your story. Something like that. probably land the nail the landing a little bit better. Stick the landing. No, for sure. I definitely I felt the difference and I it it's weird. Even though I'm the one who went through it, I could as a listener, as a viewer, I could feel myself as if I was there with you. Almost like a shadow, you know, like I was in the ER room. I was I was laying next to you in the bed. I was listening like beside the phone as I was talking to my uh brother. So you put me as a viewer in it which then whatever lesson comes from it or whatever teaching or whatever personal brand extension about it that you that you add I almost feel like I'm empathetic to it and it means more for me. So it makes a lot of sense. You talk about the stakes and you bring in you know when I was telling we were talking earlier about your culture you were able to weave that in right so people need to understand that and you know what the stakes are and you have an opportunity to do dialogue and to do some sensory detail so I've

listened to lots of stories and great storytellers and I don't profess to be one but I do understand how this works often times like nine out of 10en times they start with like very specific setting so it orients us. It's called an establishing shot in movies, and you need to do your establishing shot in your story form. So, telling us some very specific things lets us know, Saturday morning, I'm I wake up at 9:00 a. m. and I've got this terrible pain in my belly. It doesn't need to be more than that. Or you can say, I'm 18. It's summer and it's hot and sticky in New York City. Like hot like hotter than hot like 103 degrees, but with humidity it's like 155 degrees. So they always do that setting. Not always. Nine out of 10 times they just do that setting. That's our explosion actually because we don't have any context before the story just begins right there. I can then I reveal essential details that help to build up tension and to paint in some of the gaps. we're filling in gaps right now because it's like why is a stomach pain a big deal and then you bring in a little levity like maybe I shouldn't have taken all those supplements and then hopefully the audience are like yeah I've done something stupid like that so they see themselves in your story or when you talk about your father in this case like I have a parent who does the exact same thing and what's happening here is Slowly they're getting you're getting the audience to raise their hand to say like, "Yeah, yeah, that's me. Come on. " Me too. That's right. Me too. In a good me too, not the bad me too. Right. They're like, "Yeah, yeah, that's my story. " And you become super relatable. And you become really vulnerable like, "Oh man, I am the primary bread winner for my three children and I'm thinking about them. " So you make the story not about you. You make it about like why this matters to you. But not all stories have to have this big revelation, this life lesson. It could just be a tender moment that we can all say like this is part of the human experience. Now, I'm glad you did what you did

because you can probably compare the first story that you just told kind of unprepared, unscripted, just impromptu versus me having an ability to structure her story a little bit. and the difference between how they might hit. Now, some people are going to listen to this like, "No, I prefer Mo's first story better. " They always do that to me. They always do it. So, let me have it in the comments. That's fine. Mo does not prefer his first story compared to the one that was made afterwards, by the way. So, yeah. So, the other part to being a good storyteller is selective editing. And there's an expression that I love so much. It's like don't let facts get in the way of a good story because I'll tell stories from the stage and my kids like that's not exactly how it happened. Like yeah, but that story is boring and no one cares about that story. And you know what, boy? I got the mic. I'm on stage. I'm going to tell a story the way I want to tell it.

So here's one last little tip for storytelling. I want you to pretend you you're a teenager with raging hormones. They tend to be hyperbolic about everything. It's the worst day of my life. It's the best Everything is set. I'm a total disaster. She loves me. She hates me. Yeah. You know, he's going to kill me. I'm dead. That's how they speak. And the reason why they do that is because they're in a heightened emotional state. So everything to them rides on that emotional like tight rope. And if you look at some of the best animated films or TV shows or films, they understand how to exaggerate certain parts. So, it's the most of whatever it is we're going to think and feel. It's much more interesting versus like, yeah, it was a day. That food was all right. It was an interesting experience. Those are like very meh descriptions versus like this is the best taco you're ever going to eat in your life. And if I had one taco to eat before I get buried, this is the one. See the difference between that and the Yeah, it was interesting. I definitely Is it literally the best taco? Probably not. Would you want to eat this before you die? Probably not. But if you tell the story that way, then all of a sudden it was like, "Wow, this is pretty dead, right? " And I hear stories like this all the time. My dad's a big, strong man. He doesn't speak a lot, but he does certain things. And when he held me in his arms, I felt like a forklift had lifted me up. I felt safe, like this was an bulletproof armor and nothing could stop us. Is that real? No. But it's a much better story.