- Selling your startup will be a lot of storytelling.
What are you doing, why are you doing it?
What is your origin story?
Today, we're gonna talk about
how you should craft that story.
We're gonna do five tips on how
to build a great origin story.
This is Raw Startup.
I'm the founder of Vivino, the world's
largest wine app and wine community
with over 16 million users all over the world.
As a founder, I've done a lot of storytelling,
but I also have an expert joining us today.
Philip Humm, who just released his book,
"The Storytelling Method."
- I'm a business storytelling coach,
helping salespeople, entrepreneurs,
leaders around the world use storytelling in business.
- Literally, the first slide in your
pitch deck is probably the why.
And that requires some origin story to grab their attention.
- In the pitch deck, you wanna share
a story right at the beginning.
Something that explains why do you do what you do.
And it is this one moment where
something snapped in your head.
You're like, wow, I need to look into this.
- Today, we're gonna look at how you build that story.
To make it fun and interesting and obviously
sell your startup to anyone listening.
With that, let's get started.
Let's have a look at why the origin story is so important.
- Let's say startups.
When you go and pitch your idea
to customers or to investors,
you're competing with hundreds of other startups.
And usually what we do there is like,
hey, we say the time is massive,
or we are gonna disrupt this market,
or we're the greatest company on earth.
All of these things, which are great things to say.
But think about it.
Do you think that the investor or
the customer will remember that?
A day, a week, a month after?
Probably not.
That's because they hear that all the time.
So if you really wanna stand out,
you wanna appeal to the emotions.
You wanna share a story.
And that's where your origin story comes in.
- Okay, let's hear Philip's origin story
before we get on with the list.
This better be good.
- Well, next day, I'm in this call
with the CEO of this German company.
And the call is going really well.
I feel like we're connecting.
Halfway in, the CEO asks, "So, Philip, what sets you apart?"
And when I hear this, I'm like, bingo.
I'm gonna share a story now.
And I dive right into the story.
And at first, it goes well, like
I see him, he looks interested.
But then something odd happens.
He starts to look away a little bit.
It almost feels as if he's embarrassed.
When I finished my story, he says oh, well, thanks for that.
Well, we'll be in touch, okay?
And he hangs up.
What the fuck.
What just happened in there?
Immediately, I call my sister who
has been in sales for like 10 years.
I ask her, Shanti, what happened?
She says, Philip, it's obvious.
Use big storytelling, tech type of storytelling.
That is great for, yes, these big
keynotes, but not really useful for sales.
For sales, you need these shorter, more
pragmatic, much more relatable stories.
So the same day, I look through
the books that I've bought before,
the courses that are out there.
And what I notice is that 99% of the stories
that are out there they focus on big storytelling, not
really storytelling useful for sales.
And then I thought, you know what?
I'm gonna look into this.
Fast forward to today, we've worked with
hundreds and hundreds of top organizations
like Google, Visa, Oracle, Noom, and many,
many more on how to tell stories in business.
- Fantastic.
Let's get that list started.
Tip number one, focus on specific moments.
- On specific moments, your story should
be around this one pivotal moment
where the founder decided to go for it.
It's this one moment where the jaw
dropped and the founder stands in like,
man, the hell.
I gotta work on this more.
This is fucked up.
I need to change that.
How is there no one doing that.
This is this one moment of
realization where the founder decides,
I gotta do this.
I gotta start working with that.
That's the entire moment where your story should be around.
It shows the true why you do what you do.
The other person then listens to that and they're like,
now I get it why you care so
much about your business.
Now I care really why you're so invested in that.
- Most founders do have a story like
this with some kind of pivotal moment.
And even if it isn't one specific moment,
you might wanna simplify it to
turn it into a specific moment.
It just makes the story more engaging.
Tip number two, bring in elements of surprise.
Yeah, you gotta give a little bit of a shocker
to keep the attention on the story.
- On surprise, think when you share your story,
you're fighting for your listeners attention.
They'll be like, hmm, I'm wondering
what's up for dinner tonight.
Should I go to the supermarket before?
What about that beach holiday?
You're fighting for their attention.
And so you gotta make sure that you capture their attention.
The most effective way to get someone glued
to every word you say is by
bringing in elements of surprise.
Elements of surprise that's breaking
this typical pattern of what is expected.
What do your listeners expect?
And then you break that pattern.
Simple example, if you tell a story about how,
let's say your boss fires you.
Well, then that could be two hours later,
my boss woke up to me and said,
"You, honey, you can pack your bags right now."
That's big, actually don't know whether that happened,
but that's a big element of surprise.
You wanna break this pattern of what is expected.
- If you lose people's attention, it's hard to get it again.
So a little surprise here and there keeps them engaged.
I also like to do something a little bit crazy
to begin with a little bit of a shocker
to get their attention in the beginning.
- To do something shocking, something unexpected,
right at the beginning.
I recently watched a video, I think it was Toastmasters,
and that guy went on stage,
he started pretending to light a cigarette.
And that's everyone is like,
what the hell is going on here?
So yes, you can bring in something like that.
Obviously, you've seen the setting,
keynote setting, perfect, smaller setting,
it's a little bit awkward.
- [Heini] Tip number three, make it emotional.
- Emotions is really the most important
element of any story.
Your primary objective is really
to touch someone's heart with that.
95% of the purchasing decisions
are being taken by the subconsciousness.
Now, what is the biggest driver for the subconsciousness?
Emotions.
And so if you wanna really change someone's opinion,
you gotta appeal to the emotions.
You gotta share something that they care about.
Where they're like, man, this is affecting them.
- You need those emotions to make people care.
Good, let's look at a specific technique here.
- Let me share one simple technique
that you can use to add emotions.
My favorite technique is adding the inner dialogue.
Inner dialogue, this is the thoughts
that are going on in your head.
We all have thousands of thoughts every day.
A lot of them are anxious thoughts
where we worry about da-da-da,
all these million things.
Bring out some of these thoughts to your story.
So for example, that I actually wanna show my excitement,
I can say, ah, this will be so cool.
Everyone will love it.
They will look at that presentation after that,
give me that promotion.
You see, some of these thoughts I just bring out there.
They make it immediately more emotional.
- And try to be very direct, not abstract.
- So instead of saying words like,
ah, I thought really stupid in that moment,
which is not bad.
But you can say, man, I am so stupid.
How did I even think, blah, blah, blah.
And then you go, use the direct thoughts,
the unfiltered thoughts.
Your thoughts, they're not this poetic version,
this filtered version,
but the raw thoughts that are going on in your mind.
- Tip number four, focus on a relatable challenge.
We always think that you'd have to
done something huge to tell a great story.
That really isn't true.
Smaller stories that people can really relate to
often work better.
We just relate more to these smaller stories.
- When I started on my storytelling journey,
I always thought like,
hey, I need to tell these crazy events.
How I almost died climbing Mount Everest.
How I almost died in this car accident
or how I built this multi-billion dollar company.
To be clear, I didn't do anything of that.
But I thought that this is the great storytelling.
This is what it is about.
What I realized is the best stories,
they focus actually on a challenge that is relatable.
Now, how many people do you know
that almost died in extreme sport?
Probably not that many.
Out of a hundred, maybe you know of a couple,
but not that many.
It's not relatable.
So you wanna pick a challenge that is relatable,
that your listeners can connect to
and they can see themselves in your shoes.
- [Heini] Tip number five, cut the fluff.
- This is the one thing that I see every single time
that I coach someone,
where I'd say in 90% of the cases,
maybe more, people take too long to tell their stories.
They go into all the great details of what happened
and all the specific details that no one needs to care.
Well, you have one, two, three minutes
to tell your story.
If it's an incredible story
and you had the keynote, maybe five minutes.
But usually you have one, two, three minutes,
which is not that much.
So focus on really what matters.
- This is something I really try to do.
Keep it short and simple.
I do not like stories that take forever.
So cut off the fluff.
Okay, let's have a look at how you do that.
- How do you do that?
By asking yourself three questions.
Question number one, do I need to give that much context?
If not, cut some context.
Question number two, can I maybe eliminate
one of these side characters?
Am I talking about this?
I don't know, boss, wife, whatever it is.
Do I need that character.
Eliminate any side characters.
And then third, eliminate any non-crucial moments.
So think, what are the crucial moments of the stories?
And if it's not really crucial moments, get rid of it.
- Here are the five tips to build a great origin story.
There's more from Philip and his storytelling method
in the book that's out now, link in the description.
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Now stop watching and go build something.
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