PICK’N’MIX 1.0
Explore the 90min product “What’s your storytelling superpower?” here. It contains all listed elements below, combined to an entertaining and educational session to show all superpowers storytellers could have. Instead of having your employees searching for theirs, let their superpower find them.
Or, in case you would like to build your own content for the session, just have a look, find your ingredients, let us know and we create your keynote, storytainment, edutainment, learning journey or just inspirational speech… We call that “pick’n’mix”…
BASICS & STRUCTURES
Core principles and models
Why does storytelling work? How did we learn to communicate and how do we do it? Understanding HOW it works, helps to understand how it can be optimized to trigger human senses.
How to reach people by choosing the right communication format and where do they make a difference. Learn to understand how they work and how you can proactively trigger them to place your communication the right way.
No storytelling without Joseph Campbells 12 steps.
The Hero’s Journey is a communication framework, especially used in classical storytelling, where a hero leaves the ordinary world, faces challenges in an unknown realm, grows through trials, gains wisdom or a reward, and returns transformed. It’s a universal pattern of adventure, self-discovery, and triumph found in myths, books, and movies.
How to adapt the most modern storytelling technique to your needs?
Pixar’s “22 steps to storytelling” are guidelines for crafting engaging stories. They emphasize relatable characters, emotional depth, clear goals, and cause-and-effect progression. Key points include starting simply, focusing on character growth through challenges, keeping the narrative concise, and ensuring every element serves the story’s core theme for maximum impact.
For business purposes we have adapted this approach to a simpler, shorter and more effective process to fit best professional needs in communication and storytelling. The character a.k.a. Product, Solution or anything else you want to talk about, is undergoing similar stages with a clear focused and changed perspective reaching YOUR customers in the best way.
How to handle the different archetypes and what are they?
Archetypes are universal character types or symbols found in communication across cultures. Examples include the Hero, Mentor, Villain, and Trickster (just to name a few). They represent familiar roles or traits, like bravery, wisdom, or chaos, helping audiences connect to the story by reflecting common human experiences and emotions.
Our approach re-challenges these archetypes from your business perspective. Supporting persona creation or stakeholder management and taking it to the next level.
Stereotypes are instinctively applied by everyone of us. Based on own experiences and prejudices (not only the bad ones), it helps us to cluster reactions of individuals.
They oversimplify and generalize ideas about a group of people, often based on traits like race, gender, or culture. They ignore individual differences and can lead to unfair assumptions or biases. While sometimes based on a subjective truth, stereotypes are usually inaccurate and can perpetuate harmful misunderstandings.
We show you how stereotypes can support you in understanding how your audience may understand things and how you can be prepared for potential misinterpretations. And we will show you how to use them for your benefit by playing with them accordingly.
Adding all audience information together to a whole picture, profiling creates detailed, story-like profiles of target customers to understand their needs, goals, and behaviors. Similar to personas, it humanizes data by imagining customers’ lives, challenges, and motivations. This helps businesses craft messages, products, or services that resonate emotionally and solve real problems effectively.
Story development
We, story53, use this approach the most. It’s a general approach with an extrem wide range of questioning, analyzing, and answering the communication you want to use. This universal formula can be used by everyone and applies to every story accordingly to the individual knowledge, but build on a general logic.
Thought-experiment: Remember the last time you “partied hard”… Now talk about it. 😉
You will realize, that you already start to change the story according to the audience you are going to tell about it. What you did that night, will (strongly) differ to whom you are going to tell it. Right? That’s what this formula is all about, and we will show you how to use this for your communication wisely…
Similar to the “5 whys”, the “what if” Method helps to find the root of a topic or solution.
It uses hypothetical “what if” scenarios to explore potential risks, challenges, or opportunities. By brainstorming different possibilities, it helps identify problems, assess their likelihood and consequences, and develop solutions or preventive actions. This method enhances creativity, problem-solving, and decision-making in various contexts.
Which hat do you wear most?
By adapting the original “Thinking Hats” method created by DeBono to communication, it applies analyzing a story from six perspectives: facts (White Hat), emotions (Red Hat), risks (Black Hat), benefits (Yellow Hat), creativity (Green Hat), and overall structure (Blue Hat). This ensures a balanced, creative, and thorough approach to crafting or evaluating a narrative.
Known as “5W1H” method, in storytelling, it uses six questions “Who, What, When, Where, Why” to answer the “How”, to build a clear and engaging narrative. It helps define characters (Who), plot (What), setting (When/Where), motivations (Why), and actions (How), ensuring the story is complete, logical, and relatable for the audience. In enlarges our “what+whom=how” by the factor where and when, if it makes a difference to the story and the audience perception.
Psychological profiling helps to identify your audience-perception-gap and supports your audience-profiling.
This adapted method created by Myers-Briggs helps create realistic characters/personas/archetypes by assigning them one of 16 personality types. These types, based on traits like introversion/extroversion or thinking/feeling, define how characters think, act, and interact. This adds depth, consistency, and variety to your audience and helps you to find the proper way for each type. It supports to develop a complex communication, where big differentiation is requested.
This “roadmap” gives you a guideline how to approach the several stakeholder, keyplayers and topic owners to create a consistent story, step by step. It identifies who you have to convince, whom to impress and whom to express, to reach your desired call2action in a structured way.
Structural techniques
It’s not about the cruising ship. While it has been adapted in many ways, It’s about how to guide the audience through four stages: Attention (grab interest with a compelling hook), Interest (engage with relatable content or plot), Desire (evoke emotional connection or want), and Action (prompt a clear response, like a decision or action). This created by Elmo Lewis method can be perfectly adapted to give any communication a dedicated marketing touch and structure.
Learn how consultants structure their presentation and how it helps you to implement a logic with no hurdles. By adding the “Summary”, “Letter from the future” and “to-do list” method, it avoids the creation of communicative gaps.
…and how it gives structure to every communication.
Unfortunately, this non-sustainable approach, is the most highly efficient way to structure your ideas to a stage-ready speech by writting down what you want to tell, arranging it in front of you, trying it out, re-arranging it, etc. until you’re ready to transfer everything to the best format…
By making a summary, you create baseline for your slides and avoid forgetting crucial information. The most efficient add-on if it comes to communication structure.
Pitching = Storytelling? 👍 Yes!
Storytelling = Pitching? 👎 No!
Pitching is presenting an idea, product, or story in a clear and engaging way to persuade an audience in the best and fastest way possible. It involves crafting a compelling narrative, highlighting key benefits, and connecting emotionally to capture attention, build interest, and inspire action.
We teach you (or do the slides for you) how to pitch, re-pitch and successful master-pitch your product, service, etc. to every audience. Prepare yourself for a VC pitch but also for an elevator pitch and take your time to underline the real messages…
Piece of cake? Unfortunately not, but with our support close to it. Pitching is masterclass in storytelling. Always!
Learn how to use your new colleague named AI to help you to become even better… Let’s answer your questions by using AI in the right way. Not the non-sense approach of an app creating slides, but understanding what, how, why and for whom you put together in the most cognitive way. Get to understand the different application possibilities of AI for text2text, text2picture, picture2text, picture2picture and text2clip.
Understand how Prompting works by understanding how computers “think”… In a simple and fun way.
(DATA) VISUALIZATION
Visualization techniques
or rather
?
It’s both the same, but the one you know, the one you (most probably) don’t…
This underlines the importance of visualization and the use of the right one. We show you ways how to find the right one…
Let’s play with the fun parts of numbers. In most cases, people who are into numbers, challenge dealing or communicating with those not being into them. We show you ways out of this challenge, no matter to which side of the number you belong to… We show you how to use analogies to make complex topics simple and how to change perspectives to ensure understanding in your audience.
And to answer the question in the title: Would Jack have fit on the door when the Titanic sank?
Geometrically: yes! Physically: No! Let’s keep the suspense… 😉
How to identify the right information you need to show to your audience? How to visualize the right data in a pool of data? How to talk about that part of the data you want (and need) to talk about?
By understanding how to look at your data differently, you will understand how others (need to) see the data to be capable of following you and react as you want them to.
Why “top 3” is sufficient in most cases…
You do not need to prove you know your topic by showing everything you know. We help you to match your data with the need. And how you can do that yourself in the future…
…and how fonts would commit suicide.
Sometimes, the chosen font makes the the difference. We will transfer the base understanding of its importance to you and show you some rules you can apply…
Sex sells!
Why does this apply? Are there any exceptions? How to use it in a diversity safe context?
How perspective change helps you to create unforgettable communication strategies and slides. For good or bad.
You can tell stories in a good or in a bad way. Do you which movie we describe here: “A grieving widower breaks the law, kidnaps a boy and puts both their lives in danger as he seeks out a senile and dangerous childhood hero”?
Solution: It’s the movie “Up” from Pixar.
Knowing that the way HOW you tell the story makes an huge difference on HOW the story is perceived is the beginning of designing the best stories.
Let’s talk, show, concept, work out different way of visualizing data or information need for communication, presentation or storytelling.
Let’s give or create your slides with the additional extra to make them outstanding. From good to great with some selective effects, transitions and animations at the right space and time…
Powerpoint can be used to create logos, graphics, and even clips. In a dedicated session we can teach you whats needed to do so.
Diversity and inclusion
Can you see it? Can you see everything? Lucky you! But what if we tell you that around 10% of the audience don’t?
Let’s screen your communication from an angle you haven’t done it yet. Let’s reach more people by adapting and optimizing it.
How to support colors by using other pointers? How to ensure your audience is paying attention to the right spot. Let’s bring color-coding to another level…
Let’s fight dyslexia and reach even more people. We show you why, what and how to do so and why it makes an inclusive difference!
In case you’re wondering why we use this comic-like font on our website, this is the reason. If you want to do so too, find everything you need here.
Do you want to hear what you’re interested in? So does your audience. Let’s do it structurally…
This method is puts your audience in fictional profiles. It includes details like their goals, challenges, and preferences. By understanding the persona, you can tailor messages or stories to resonate emotionally, address their needs, and connect with them in a relatable and meaningful way.
Let’ s design YOUR personas and create a proper visualization for everyday use.
Alan Paivic knew it first and called it “Dual coding”… But you instinctively do too! The right combination of “channels” and senses increase your memory capacity and makes knowledge/information consumption easier.
Design elements
Layout! It’s that simple, AND crucial. Let’s understand how it works. In communication, on slides, in fonts, on colors, for titles and headlines and all other visuals you might want to use. “One click to rule them all” makes an huge difference to your communication.
Ever wondered what you can draw with a crayon, pen or marker? Let’s have a look at sktetchnoting and how it helps to visualize in meeting, workshops or even on slides.
…and the challenge of minimalism for maximal effects: the visual pitch! How to do it and maximize your reach.
Safe enough to try or half way in jail? How to use or even re-use visualization and where to be careful… Plus: How AI can help you here too.
NOTE: This is NO legal consultation.
Illustrative + Imperative = Easy going. How the correct illustration helps your audience to follow your communication and how pictograms will become your best communication friends.
EMOTIONAL ENGAGEMENT
Attention & engagement
Understand what your audience focus on and why they’re all so different. But that’s fine, we can use that too.
…in 4 seconds. And what biochemically happens in these 4 short seconds and how to use it for your presentation to create an immersive difference in storytelling.
Identify WHAT you want to communicate? Because your goal isn’t awareness, but to trigger an call2action. You want your audience to do something, and therefore you’re forced to create a need. Let’s have a look what’s needed to do so and how it affects the communication and its concept and design.
Emotional triggers
Why do the messages “I want from you” and “I want to give to you” mostly have the same source and the same goal but a total different effect if used in a wrong way. On practical examples, we illustrate this live and give you the experience of how it changes your behavior to show it’s universal application and how you need to adapt some messages to make communication more efficient.
No need, no communication! It’s that simple… 😉
Let’s identify and create your audience need and design your communication accordingly.
…is good news! And how to create them…
Let’s have a look at famous examples and how the can/should be used for your communication.
Empathic perspectives
Are you? Are you? Yes, you are! In something! But that’s okay as long you’re aware of it.
But let’s change the perception of it, to make your communicative life easier.
…but goldies and how every age makes a divers difference in communication.
…the witches shoes. Put yourself into the shoes of your audience to challenge your own communication. How does the message sound from the perspective of different customers, personas, audience profiles, etc…
CREATIVITY & CHANGE
Inspirations on the how
Sparkles in life = cool
Sparkles in drinks = not cool
…and what to pay attention to, when it comes to stage actions, panel discussion or pitches.
How to use the design thinking technique “Letter from the future” in communication and storytelling. It’s a creative method where you imagine writing from a future perspective. It describes achieved goals, changes, or outcomes as if they’ve already happened. This technique inspires vision, motivates action, and emotionally connects audiences to a desired future scenario or message.
Adapted, this is also a perfect baseline for other structural methods.
How to twist your numbers and let them sound more attractive? How to re-imagine your numbers, based on truth, to catch audiences attentions and tell your story?
Change it or leave it. Really?
And how to use communication in times of changes accordingly. It involves using stories to guide people through transitions by explaining the need for change, addressing emotions and sharing a clear vision, making stories relatable and inspiring. This approach builds understanding, trust, and motivation, helping people embrace new ideas or adapt to transformations. But it also reveals their fear and issues. The most pro-active care you take about that, the easier it is to come throught.
We focus on the communication side of the organizational reshape and future goal alignments driven by external pressures like market shifts or competitive product launches. Let’s help you guiding your staff through major, long-term changes by using reliable and understandable stories to communicate and share a clear vision, inspire innovation, and address challenges. We help emphasizing growth and future possibilities throught right use of communication techniques, to build trust, align teams, and motivate everyone to embrace the transformation journey on the best communication structure possible to reduce unnecessary friction.
It does mean to tell everything. It means to communicate what’s needed to understand actions, needs and changes. Differentiate on how and what you tell to address your audience in the best possible way.
Psychology and behavior
You can try it (let us know how you did it, if it works). With some simple examples we demonstrate that it doesn’t work as reading, but more in understanding or at least accepting everyone is different. We identify this challenge and find a way out of it, to optimize your communication concept from the very first beginning…
In the Rhine-area in Germany the sentence “Jede Jeck is anders!” underlines that perfectly. Alaaf!
Same same but different…
Your voice is more powerful that you might expect. We create this special topic together with you and teach you how you can use your voice to underline the right content to the right time. Not only on stage…
Have you ever wondered why German or Russin sound so harsh and French or Italian so romantic?
Languages make a huge difference on how we perceive the messages. Not only the use of our monther tongue makes a difference in confidence and messaging, but also the languages and the frequency it uses. Let’s challenge your setup…
Propaganda, black rhetoric, manipulation and other bad way of using communication skills are good to know. Not to use them, but to defend yourself from them…
TOOLS, METHODS & RESULTS
Communication methods
Why you do not have to create everything yourself to be smart in communication.
Google and AI can help you in almost all cases. But we also share the helpers we use ourselves,, with every participant.
The tools you most probably already have and use, can be optimized in most cases. Therefore we show you how to optimize your tools to gain speed, efficiency and quality in your communication.
Timing with paperwork and how to haptically plan your time wisely. A perfect companion of the Post-It methods described before.
How to digitze your post-its to a communication and presentation structure.
…if you want.
Let’s check together where and how it makes sense, in your case.
Results, targets & goals
How to communicate results with awareness… Gamble and twist your numbers without lying to your audience. We show you how this works and how you can use it for your own purpose.
Why adding slides can shorten communication or presentation. Templates are fix in most of the cases, but adding a slide is allowed in most cases too. And sometimes, more work can make your business life easier. We will show you where it makes sense to take this extra mile.
Short text to create a structure… Line by line, phrase by phrase. Let’s do it like the pro’s!
How to add structure to a story by telling the short version of it (summary) and by using it as structure giver.
Why gaming is bigger than you think and which implication this has on communication and storytelling. But even more interesting: How it can be used by communication, without the need of coding experience!
How to measure your communication and story success. Which KPIs to use? Where to focus on and which gap to close first?
