July 10, 2026
Matt Damon has this one trick for telling unforgettable stories and once you see it, you want to use it every single time.
“The craziest thing I’ve ever seen without a doubt though is a soccer game in Argentina.
My wife’s from Argentina. We went to spend Christmas there about 11 12 years ago.
Her family’s team Boca Juniors, which is a very popular team in Buenos Aires, is in the this final.
And I say to my uncle, well to her uncle, you know, ‘Hey, can we go? Can we go to this game?’
And he gets this very serious look on his face and he’s like, ‘We can go. We can go.’
And he goes, ‘No women, no children.’
I was like, ‘What?’
Like I thought, you know, I was going to take the kids and we were going to go to the game.
Well, I saw why when we went because we had to get through, I think, three police barricades.
There was temporary fencing with barbed wire put up.
I mean, it was just absolute madness and police with riot gear outside.
And if this is the is the the field, people were sitting here and people were sitting here kind of like as if in the two end zones, what would be end zones of of our football.
And there was nobody sitting in the best seats, right?
Because that was the distance that people could throw things and hit each other.”
But did you catch it?
He didn’t just tell you that he went to a soccer game. He made you need to know what happened next.
Every single detail raised the question in your mind.
And that’s not an accident.
That’s a storytelling technique called open loop.
And once you understand how it works, you’ll never tell a flat story again.
Now, here’s the simplest way to understand it.
Your brain is like a completion machine.
When something is unfinished, it cannot let go of it.
You know that feeling when you have this song stuck in your head, but you can’t remember the title and it drives you absolutely crazy?
Well, that’s your brain refusing to close this open loop.
Great storytellers weaponize that instinct.
They deliberately put open questions in your mind that they know you need answered.
And as long as those questions stay open, you keep listening.
And there are actually five techniques to do exactly that.
Let’s start with the first technique, the trailer.
Every great movie starts with a trailer.
Like not the full story, just enough to make you think, “Oh, wow. I got to see this.”
The best storytellers do something similar.
Before they tell you the story, they sell the story in one sentence.
Now, listen to what Matt Damon says before he shares a single detail.
He says, “The craziest thing I’ve ever seen without a doubt was a soccer game in Argentina.”
One sentence, but now your brain is already thinking, “Whoa, what made this the craziest thing? What happened in Argentina?”
You’re hooked before the story has even started.
So try it before going into your next story.
And say something like, “Last week something happened that completely changed how I think about leadership.”
Or, “I once made a mistake in front of 200 people and it still gives me nightmares today.”
One sentence that makes your listeners lean in.
And once you’ve created that first open loop, it’s time to open a second and even more powerful loop.
Second technique, your mission.
Here’s a question most storytellers never answer.
What did you want?
Not what happened, but what were you hoping for?
What were you desperate to get?
Now, Matt Damon wanted to go to the game.
Simple, right?
But the moment that he states that goal, something happens in your brain and you start rooting for him.
You start to wonder, hey, does he reach his goal?
Is he going to get to the game?
And you can do the same.
“I really wanted to finish that marathon.”
“I wanted to show my kids that anything is possible.”
Or, “My goal was to make it through the first six months of that new job so that they actually can’t kick me out of the country.”
Now, we need to know if you’ve made it early on in your story.
Tell us what you wanted.
Make us root for you.
Make us wonder whether you reached that goal.
But then once you’ve shared that goal, well, you need to make sure that you sprinkle in the next technique.
Third technique, the curiosity gap.
In the 1920s, a psychologist named Bloomer Zigernik discovered something pretty strange.
Waiters could remember every single detail of an unpaid order.
But the moment the bill was paid, they forgot everything instantly.
Her conclusion was simple but mind-blowing.
Our brains don’t let go of unfinished things. We are literally wired to fixate on what’s incomplete.
And great storytellers weaponize that instinct.
They never give you everything at once. They just give you enough to open a question, but then they make you wait for the answer.
What does Matt Damon do to create those gaps?
Well, first his uncle’s serious face.
You’re wondering like, why is he so serious? What does he know?
Then the police barricade.
And you’re thinking, what are they trying to keep out of there?
Then the barbed wire at the soccer game.
And you’re thinking like, what kind of game is this? What is going to happen there?
Then the empty seats in the best section and you’re just thinking why would anyone leave the best seats empty.
Now every detail opens another question and that’s the chain of curiosity gaps.
And here’s the test for every detail in your story.
Now ask yourself before you include anything – “Does this make my listener wonder something?”
If yes, keep it.
If no, cut it.
Because details that don’t open question are just noise. And noise is what makes people check their phones.
But let’s now talk about the technique that I use the most to create open loops.
Fourth technique, foreshadow the future.
Now tell us what you thought was going to happen. Let us inside of your head.
Show us your expectations, your hopes, your fears.
Even if they’re completely wrong, actually especially if they’re completely wrong.
“I thought this is it.”
“This is going to be the best presentation of my life.”
“They’ll love it.”
“Someone is going to offer me 50,000 on the spot, right, for giving this presentation.”
Now we’re on the edge of our seats.
Did it go the way you imagined or did something fall apart?
That gap between expectation and reality is where the tension lives.
So before that pivotal moment in your story, tell us what you thought would happen.
All right, on to technique number five, the delayed payoff.
Now, most people rush to the point.
They feel that the listener is waiting for the punch line, so they panic and deliver way too fast.
Don’t.
The longer you delay that payoff while keeping your listeners engaged, well, the more satisfying the landing will be.
Think of it almost like a rubber band, right? The further you pull it away, the harder it snaps.
Your job as a storyteller is to keep pulling back and back.
One more detail, one more obstacle, one more layer of tension before you finally let go.
You can also think of it like this false summit on the mountain.
You know that feeling when you’re hiking and you think you see the top, so you push hard, but then you get there and you realize there’s another peak up there.
That’s what you want to do in your story.
Just when the listener thinks that you’re about to resolve it, introduce one more complication.
For example:
“And just when I thought it was over, this happened.”
Or:
“That’s when things got really interesting.”
Matt Damon does this masterfully.
Just when you understand how crazy the game is, he adds another detail.
The barbed wire, the riot gear, the empty seats, a bunch of false summits before the final reveal.
Pull it back again and then let it snap.
Now that you know the five techniques, let’s see them in action.
Take a look at this short story from Salma Hayek and see how many open loops you can spot.
“I called him up and I said, ‘We need to talk.’
And I I’m not that kind of girl.
I never do the we need to talk thing.
So he was scared when I said we need to talk.
So he called me and I said, ‘Listen, this breaks my heart to tell you this news because I know I’m going to disappoint you and it’s been really hard for me to come up with the courage to say this to you.
But I cannot take it any longer.
I have to tell you and you just have to understand that I’ve been here working so much.
I’m so tired.
I’m so overworked and I’m so lonely.
Oh, and the combination is lethal when you’re so lonely and so overworked and you don’t think straight.’
And in this moment of madness, he goes, ‘Oh, please don’t tell me you picked up another dog.'”
Did you catch them?
You weren’t just listening.
You were dying to know what she did.
Open loops are the secret to keeping listeners engaged from the first sentence to the very last.
But there’s one more layer to great storytelling that most people completely miss.
Now, check out this next article where I share my favorite storytelling techniques for making your stories impossible to forget.
See you there.
P.S. Want to become a stronger communicator?
Here are two ways I can support you:
👉 Want to tell more engaging stories? Join our next Storytelling Workshop.
👉 Want to speak with confidence and clarity? Check out our Communication Skills Training.
Both are fun, practical, and designed to help you grow fast.
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