April 20, 2026
I analyzed 78 of the most successful speakers on this planet to find out how they tell stories.
And after watching hundreds of their videos, I found out that it all comes down to one thing. One thing that most people don’t use.
Once you know that, well, you will tell stories like the top 1%.
What do you think is the single most important element in great storytelling?
Hook? Conflict? All right. Authenticity? Okay. Emotion? Great.
Let’s take a look at a short story from Anne Hathaway, and then see which one of those is actually the single most important storytelling technique or element that is out there.
“And I’m on this machine, whatever that does, right? And I see this guy who does actually look like Thor’s trainer, staring at me.
And I’m like, ‘Oh god, am I doing something wrong?’ And in the past, I just would have slunk off my machine, but I’m like, ‘No, I’m going to ask him.’
I’m like, ‘Hey, is everything cool? Did you want to work in?’ And he goes, ‘Oh god, no, I’m just in my own world. Like, no.’
And I was like, ‘Okay, cool, cuz you were like staring at me really hard.’
And he was just like, ‘No, no, no, don’t worry about it.’ So, I go back and I get off the machine, and then he comes up to me. He’s like, ‘So, uh you’ve been working out at this gym for a long time?’
And I was like, ‘Oh my god, he’s hitting on me.’ And I’m like, ‘Oh, um I mean, yeah, I’ve been coming here for a little bit.’
He’s like, ‘Cool, I’m a trainer here, and I just wanted to give you some pointers. ‘And I was like, ‘Oh no, he’s not hitting on you, he just wants a job.’
So, I say to this guy, ‘You know, I had a baby 7 weeks ago.’ And he goes, ‘Oh, trying to lose the baby weight.’
So, I just muster up my dignity, and I say, ‘No, Brandon, I’m just trying to regain my strength.’ And he said, ‘Great.’
And he walked away, and I cried a little bit.”
Which one did you notice right now in this story?
Emotion? Yeah, for sure. Authenticity. Felt very authentic, yes. Details? Yes, let’s add details.
They’re all true, but there is this underlying theme amongst all of them.
Now, imagine you’re watching this war movie, and it starts with this helicopter shot all the way from the top. You see the tanks advancing, you see the soldiers lining up.
It’s interesting for 2 seconds, and then you’re like, “Dude, take me down there. I want to see the soldiers, I want to see the mud in their face. I want to be part of the action.”
Now, how does that relate to storytelling? Oftentimes, when we tell stories, we stay stuck in this helicopter view, where we’re like, “Oh well, I had a difficult problem, it was tough, but I overcame it.”
That’s high-level, but the best storytellers, they zoom into the trenches, they zoom into the moment where something is happening.
Now, the good news is, it’s pretty easy, actually, to zoom into the moment.
There are four crucial steps that you can use to zoom into the moment.
I call them P.A.S.T, or PAST. Let’s start with the first one.
A very common mistake that I see when people start telling a story is that they try to be too descriptive.
They’re like, “Well, it was a warm Sunday afternoon. Birds were singing, and there was a smell of lavender in the air.”
If you start your story like that, you’ve already lost them before you’ve even started. And so, the much better approach there is actually to start it in a different way.
And that is, “2 weeks ago, I’m sitting in my apartment in Amsterdam, looking at my laptop.”
Now, you’re already in it, right? Now, you can already imagine something.
Or I say, “Hey, last July, I’m standing in front of the conference room, taking a deep breath.”
Now, you already start creating a visual in your mind.
That brings me to the first technique: P for place. So, what you want to share very early on is the location. Where does the story take place?
And I know some people are wondering, “Do I have to describe the place in all details?”
Do I have to say, ‘Well, the conference room had a wooden table, a flat screen, and a lot of chairs?”
Obviously, you don’t. It doesn’t matter whether they can visualize their conference room or your conference room. They should just see some sort of conference room.
And so, there, just state the place, and it will already start creating this image in people’s mind.
Place works incredibly well with the second technique. Let’s talk about this one.
The most common mistake that I see across all of the stories that I’ve listened to, and I’ve listened by now to thousands, is that people give too much context.
They’re like, “Well, I used to work at this company for about 3 years. Yeah, it was a good company. I liked my manager.”
And then they give more and more context around their role, and you’re like, “Dude, where is the story?”
The better way is to start right in the action. And that means you start with forward momentum.
So, you say something like, “Hey, 2 weeks ago, I’m in my apartment in Amsterdam, when this notification pops up.”
And then you’re already into it, right?
Or, “I’m at the security check at the airport, putting my bag in, when someone calls my name, ‘Philipp.'”
Then you’re already into the action.
Now, how can you make sure that you get the most out of that? It is really to use those action verbs.
So, anytime that you can say things like, “I walk, I shout, I bike, I open the door, I close.” All of those things create a movie in your listener’s mind.
And the more you can do that, the more visual it would be, the more people will be into the moment.
Let’s talk about the next technique. This is the storytelling technique that I use the most, and it makes any story so much more interesting.
Now, a lot of your stories will have more than one character, right? There’s Luca, maybe there’s a coworker, maybe a friend, anyone.
Now, if you want to make your story more interesting, share the exact words in that moment. What did that person say in that crucial moment of the story?
Let me give you an example. Some amateur storytellers, they would say something like, “Well, um in that moment, my manager was very upset with me.”
That’s not that interesting, right?
Much more interesting is, “In that moment, my manager called me and said, ‘Philipp, what the f**k was that? You were all over the place in that presentation.”
This is the technique that I use the most, because it’s so simple, but it makes any story much more interesting.
People usually wonder, “Hey, this sounds cool, but what if I don’t remember,” right? I don’t know about you, but my memory is pretty lousy. I forget something that someone told me like a week ago.
If it is a dialogue or a speech that you don’t remember, you can use the words that could have been used in that moment. So, there you have some sort of creative freedom.
Let’s now move to the last technique. This technique is actually the technique that makes any story much more emotional. This is what really helps you connect with your listeners.
Bad storytellers, they just give you a summary. They say things like, “Well, then I had a difficult situation with my manager.”
Amateur storytellers, they describe the emotion. They say something like, “My manager was very frustrated.” Which is a little bit better, but it’s still not great.
But great storytellers, they do something different. They share the exact thoughts of that moment. They share what that character was thinking in that crucial moment of the story.
So, for example, we could say, “In this moment, I thought, ‘Damn, he’s going to hate me for this.'”
I share whatever is going on in my mind. We as humans, we’ve thousands and thousands of thoughts every single day.
A lot of those thoughts are weird thoughts, anxious thoughts, hopes, dreams, plans. Share some of those thoughts to make it much more interesting.
When you share those thoughts, give us the raw, unfiltered thoughts. A huge mistake that a lot of people do is they give us the polished version.
They’re like, “Well, in this moment, I thought this represents a supreme opportunity for my career progression.”
Now, I don’t know about your thoughts, but my thoughts don’t sound like that.
My thoughts are more like, “I am dead here.”
Now, we’ve covered the four techniques that matter the most to zoom into the moment.
Place, Action, Speech, and Thoughts. You can turn any average moment into the most incredible story by zooming into the moment.
And how can you zoom in? By using the PAST framework. And that way, your stories will be unrecognizable.
But if you want to become an even more engaging communicator, you may want to check out this next article where I share some of my favorite speaking techniques.
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.
Are you ready to transform your storytelling skills?
Discover how your storytelling skills score and uncover useful insights to help you become a charismatic storyteller:
