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About this lesson
How does your story end? Is it sad, happy, or something else?
Quick reference
Why the Ending of Your Story Matters
The way you end a story can shape how your audience feels, what they remember, and how strongly they connect with your message.
Use Negative Stories Sparingly
- Negative stories are powerful — but they bring down the mood and can be hard to recover from.
- Use them with intention, and avoid ending your presentation on a low note.
- Balance your talk with more positive than negative stories to keep energy high and your audience engaged.
Positive Stories Leave a Stronger Impression
- Heartwarming, hopeful stories help people feel good and leave them with a memorable takeaway.
- The challenge is to avoid clichés — find a new twist or fresh angle.
- When done right, positive stories are both persuasive and sticky.
Understand When a Heavier Tone Is Appropriate
- Some contexts call for heavier or darker stories — such as public policy, activism, or crisis communication.
- In business settings, though, aim to focus on outcomes, solutions, and forward momentum.
Be Careful with Fables and Familiar Stories
- Fables, parables, and overused metaphors (e.g., the tortoise and the hare) may seem clever, but they often fall flat.
- If your audience has heard the story before, they may tune out or judge you as unoriginal.
- Exceptions exist (e.g. speaking to children), but in most professional settings, avoid these types of stories.
Why Personal Stories Work Better
- Sharing real, lived experiences feels more authentic and less “performed.”
- Audiences lower their guard and listen more closely to something that feels genuine.
- You're more likely to connect, be remembered, and have your message land.
The Bottom Line
- End your stories on a strong, intentional note that supports your message.
- Avoid tired metaphors and focus on real experiences your audience hasn’t heard before.
- The right ending boosts retention and reinforces impact.
- 00:04 There are many types of stories.
- 00:06 There are negative stories, positive stories.
- 00:08 Let's focus on negative ones.
- 00:10 Sometimes bad things happen to you, to others, to people, and maybe there is no positive happy ending.
- 00:18 It's OK to tell stories like this, but typically you don't want to end on that.
- 00:23 You want more positive stories than negative stories because you don't want people ending deflated and defeated.
- 00:32 So use negative stories, but use them sparingly because once you bring the mood of the audience down, it can be hard to bring them back up.
- 00:41 Positive stories.
- 00:42 Everyone loves a heartwarming story, so when you can talk about something good that can happen, a challenge that was overcome and everybody was better off or you did in fact live happily ever after, that's great.
- 00:55 The real challenge though, is can you do it in a way that doesn't sound trite, cliche, boring, same old, same old.
- 01:06 When you can deliver a positive story with a slightly different twist, that's when it's powerful.
- 01:13 That's when it's going to be most effective.
- 01:16 So the power of positive is very strong, but put a little creativity in it, a little difference, and it's going to be even stronger.
- 01:26 Positive stories should be most of what makes up most presentations most of the time.
- 01:32 Not always.
- 01:34 If you're just giving presentations to alarm people about why they need to take a a certain political action or they'll be catastrophe, whether it's environmental or politically, you may have more negative stories.
- 01:48 But in many cases business, professional life, you do need to learn more heavily towards positive stories for maximum impact.
- 01:57 Another type of story fables stories involving animals to make a point.
- 02:04 Every child has heard about the story of the tortoise and the hare, the moral principle involved.
- 02:09 You can also use parables that have strong moral lessons.
- 02:14 Here's the thing, though.
- 02:16 If you're going to be a successful communicator, you've got to be extraordinarily careful about using a story someone else has said.
- 02:24 If someone's heard it before, there's an immediate discount in the ears of your audience.
- 02:32 I would highly recommend that you stay away from fables, parables, other people's stories, the starfish story, ones that people have heard millions of times, because you're frankly not going to get a lot of credit for telling a story other people have heard.
- 02:49 And at some level they're judging you negatively for not being creative.
- 02:55 Of course, there are exceptions if you're talking to school children, but if you're talking in the business world, the professional world
- 03:05 My advice, with rare exceptions, and there's always exceptions, the fewer parables, the fewer - the frog was boiling in the pot - but didn't jump out.
- 03:14 The fewer fables, the better.
- 03:16 And the more you stick to something real.
- 03:19 It doesn't seem like you're trying as hard when you just share your own experience.
- 03:24 It's not as showy about.
- 03:26 Now let me tell you a story.
- 03:28 And because it's less showy, expectations don't go up, and it's easier to score points with your audience, to resonate with them and have them like you, like the presentation, and remember your message.
- 03:41 Because it doesn't sound like something they heard exactly the same a year or two ago.
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