If you want to tell a story, ask yourself: Does it contain a five-second moment? A moment of true transformation? The five-second moment may be difficult to find. You may have to dig for it. I was more than three years into my storytelling career before I finally told “This Is Going to Suck.”

on our life never produces this reaction.

Michael Harris, the author of Insight Selling: Sell Value & Differentiate Your Product with Insight Scenarios, says it this way: “Our subconscious/intuitive decision to buy is then communicated to the conscious mind via an emotion. The conscious mind then searches for rational reasons, and that’s how we complete the circle: We justify our emotional

Remember: First identify a good story, and only then see what problems it might help solve.

My life hasn’t exactly been typical. But even in those stories, the most important moments took place between my ears. The action only served to bring me to the moment where I got to tell my audience what I felt or thought. Every single story that I tell ultimately ends in a moment

Yes, every story is defined by change, by transformation and/or realization, but there is a further secret that distinguishes truly great stories and makes them successful: All great stories — regardless of their length or depth or tone or context — embody a five-second moment of transformation or realization.

because we learn and practice and improve upon the strategies with the stories we tell the most often: The ones about ourselves. Then we transfer those skills to whatever story we need to tell,

an important person in this world. She’d always felt like she was just like everyone else — simply another face in the crowd — and assumed that one day she’d die and “go out quietly, unnoticed.” After doing Homework for Life for six months, her life had changed. She said that searching for stories and recording them every day had made her feel like

stories?