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the secrets of the great communicators
4. Is it emotional? Does it connect with the emotions of
your audience?
5. Does it both show and tell? Besides conveying a time-
line of events, does your story describe how things look,
sound, feel, smell, and taste? For best effect, it should
convey at least some sensory information.
6. Is it short and simple?
7. Could a ten-year-old understand it?
8. Is it entertaining?
9. Does it ring true?
10. Have you avoided overly detailed descriptions of
people, places, and things? Have you left out the parts
that don’t directly affect the story?
Great communicators tell stories to make things more
interesting and to connect with and motivate their audi-
ences. The human imagination is nothing more than the
uniquely human ability to distort information that comes
in through our senses. Great orators and communicators
rely on their ability to feed the imagination with what it
likes best: images, sounds, feelings, smells, and tastes.
Storytelling is especially useful in gaining rapport with
groups because stories appeal simultaneously to visuals,
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