December 16, 2024
By now, I’ve interviewed 140+ storytelling experts, invested $27k in storytelling courses, and devoured more than 40 books on the subject.
Let’s say, I’ve learned a thing or two (and made plenty of storytelling mistakes along the way 😉).
But as we approach the end of 2025, I’ve taken some time to reflect on the most impactful lessons on that journey.
The result?
25 storytelling principles will transform the way you tell stories.
Imagine a nature documentary that starts with a helicopter shot: You see the forests from above, oceans stretching to the horizon. It’s beautiful—but after a while, you’re thinking, “Dude, give me some action. I wanna see that lion stalking its prey.”
Your stories are no different. Yes, you can start with the overview, but then zoom in.
Lesson #1: Zoom into the moment.
Don’t just say, “I faced a difficult challenge.” Describe your manager pacing around the room, the intern spilling coffee on the report, and that handshake that turned everything around.
Next is a technique that requires a minimal change but delivers a huge payoff.
Instead of saying, “I wanted to run a marathon,” try saying, “The marathon was in seven days, and I had only run 10 kilometers in my life.”
Lesson #2: Add a Ticking Clock
Time pressure makes everything feel more intense. When you tell your audience that there’s way too little time to complete a huge task, they’ll feel the tension and will be much more engaged.
Don’t start your story like this:
“Let me tell you a story.”
Don’t do that.
Lesson #3: Don’t say the S-Word.
The S-Word is story.
Some people hear the word story, and it triggers negative expectations. They think, “Ah, here we go, a 15-minute fairy tale. I really needed to hear that.”
Instead of saying “story,” say “experience,” “event,” “example,” or “case.”
For example, “Two weeks ago, I had a very interesting experience…” and then launch into your story.
The best stories are emotional, and the easiest way to make your story more emotional is to share what you were thinking. You have thousands of thoughts every day—hopes, dreams, fears. Share the thoughts at crucial moments in the story.
Lesson #4: Think Out Loud
Instead of saying, “I was worried about the presentation,” let us hear the thoughts: “Faaack. How am I going to fix this? My manager already thinks I’m useless.”
Give the raw, unfiltered thoughts, not the polished, super-professional version.
When you share what was going through your mind, your story will instantly feel deeper and more relatable.
Imagine you walk across a room with an empty glass.
Nothing special, right?
But now imagine you walk across that same room, this time with a full glass, and someone tells you, “If you spill even one drop, your family will die.”
Now, we’ll watch every step you take, holding our breath.
Lesson #5: Raise the Stakes
Tell your audience what’s on the line—what happens if you win? And what happens if you fail? What will be the impact on your life or the lives of your loved ones?
Way too many storytellers share unnecessary details. “I was 16 years old. I had braces, messy hair, and wore band shirts.”—Cool. Who cares? That’s not memorable.
Instead, reveal something specific about who you were or how you go through life.
Lesson #6: Show Personality Quirks
For example, “I was the type of person who made a pros and cons list even for choosing what breakfast to have.”
Quirks bring your character to life and help your audience see you in a unique way.
Stories aren’t just about impressing people—they’re about connecting with your audience. The easiest way to build trust is to share something you struggled with.
Lesson #7: Vulnerability Builds Trust
Instead of pretending to have it all together, share the messy, imperfect parts of yourself.
Vulnerability shows you’re human, and that’s what makes people trust you.
I’ve seen it so many times: a mediocre story, average at best, suddenly turns into an incredible story because of one thing—a big surprise.
Something totally unexpected—a twist no one saw coming.
Lesson #8: Surprise Your Audience
That surprise can be an unexpected event, a weird reaction, or an unusual decision. Anything your listeners didn’t see coming.
This is the technique I use the most in my stories.
Imagine if I shared a story like this:
“Well, in that moment, my boss informed me he wasn’t impressed by my presentation and that I should prepare more.”
[Making sleeping sound]
The better way? Share the exact words of that moment to bring the story to life.
Lesson #9: Use Dialogue
For example: “In that moment, my boss walked up to me and said, ‘Philipp, what the hell was that? You were all over the place. Did you even look at the slides before?’”
Now we’re talking.
This is something that took me a while to learn, but it’s had a massive impact on my storytelling skills.
I used to think I always needed to tell a full story with a start, middle, and end. But when you’re starting off, a full story—say, a two-minute story—can feel incredibly awkward. I realized that you don’t need to tell the full story.
Lesson #10: Tell Micro Stories
Instead of sharing the full story, share a single pivotal moment. Maybe it’s that one moment of realization, that one moment of stress, or that one meaningful thing someone else said.
Example: “Right then, he looked me in the eye and said, ‘You have no idea what this means to me.’”
Micro stories feel more authentic and help you ease into storytelling
Stories often don’t land because they sound too rehearsed, too polished—not as if the story was really felt by the storyteller.
To fix this, visualize the scene unfolding in front of you as you speak.
Lesson #11: Relive the Moment
When you tell that story, imagine you’re back in the moment and describe it as if it was happening in the story: Where are you? What are you thinking? What are you hearing?
When you describe what you see and feel in real time, your story will feel more emotional, more vivid, and more engaging.
This is something that I still struggle with today. Often, when I tell a story, I move into performance mode.
My voice changes, and suddenly, I sound more like a motivational speaker or this fairy tale uncle.
Lesson #12: Drop the Storytelling Voice
Tell your story the same way you’d share it with a close friend, family member, or your therapist. Tell your story as conversational as possible.
You’ve probably heard thousands of stories. But you probably forgot 99% of them.
Why is that? Because they were missing a crucial element.
They sounded like, “I was that person before, did some things, and I stayed the same after.”
They don’t have any element of change.
Lesson #13: Show the Change
Show who you were before, what you did, and how it changed you.
If you were out of shape, now you’re running a marathon.
If you were terrified of public speaking, now you love being on stage.
Show the transformation.
Have you ever watched a movie where everything went perfectly?
Of course not—it would be a terrible movie!
Yet, this is how we often tell stories. We’re like: “We launched the product, and everything went perfectly.”
Lesson #14: Conflict Is King
Bring in some sort of conflict. A difficult decision, an emotional challenge, a physical challenge. Any type of conflict. Even if your conflict is opening a stubborn bottle of ketchup.
Without conflict, it’s not a story.
Every great story has a single moment where everything shifts—a decision, realization, or breakthrough. A five-second moment that changes everything.
Lesson #15: Find the Turning Point
For example, this can be the second you decided to leave a toxic job or the moment your partner said, “Let’s do this. I’m ready.”
Every great story should have a five-second moment that changes everything. That’s the heartbeat of your story. Everything else builds up to that moment.
People are so rigid with their stories.
They’re like, “I timed it. It takes 2 minutes and 35 seconds, and I need that to tell the full story.”
But hey, this is not how life works. Sometimes you have 30 seconds; other times, you have 5 minutes to tell a story. The best storytellers know how to adjust.
Lesson #16: Scale Your Stories
Practice telling a 3-minute version, 90-second version, and 30-second version.
This helps you know what is essential, what to eliminate, and, most importantly, how to adapt your story to any setting and audience.
One of the biggest mistakes people make when telling stories is giving too much context.
They’re like, “It was a sunny Tuesday afternoon, and the air smelled like lavender.”
Dude, seriously?
Unless those details are crucial later, skip them.
Lesson #17: Jump into Action
Make your character do something—biking, shouting, talking, any sort of action.
Example: “October 2024, I’m standing in front of the conference room, taking a deep breath.”
When you share the action, your audience can imagine the scene unfolding in front of their eyes.
When I started storytelling, I thought great stories had to be huge—like near-death experiences or spiritual awakenings.
But here’s the problem: those stories aren’t relatable.
Lesson #18: Focus on Small, Relatable Moments
Instead of sharing those life-changing moments, share stories about missing the bus, a funny conversation, or learning something unexpected.
These moments are what really build connection because your audience can relate to those moments.
The best storytellers aren’t the ones with the best stories.
They’re the ones who have the most stories.
If you only have three stories, you won’t have many options.
But if you have 30, 50, or even 100, you’ll always have the right one for the right moment.
Lesson #19: Start a Story Bank
A Story Bank is a simple document where you organize your stories by title, lesson, summary, and theme.
By saving your stories, you’ll never run out of stories again.
There’s one exercise that has helped me the most on my storytelling and public speaking journey.
Lesson #20: Improvise Stories
Here’s what I do:
Go online and get a random topic.
Create a story around that topic.
Speak for 1 or 2 minutes, using a structure I know and trying to make it as visual as possible.
Don’t overthink it. Improvisation trains your mind to think quickly and helps you become a more confident storyteller.
Before jumping into your story, share a sentence that gets your listeners excited about the story.
Lesson #21: Sell Your Story
For example:
“Last week, I had an experience that completely changed how I think about failure.”
A simple sentence like this grabs attention because it makes people wonder, “What changed your thinking?” They’ll keep listening until they know the answer.
If you say, “I was nervous,” your audience hears the words, but they cannot see it or feel the emotion behind it.
Lesson #22: Show, Don’t Tell
Instead, describe what the emotion looks like. For example:
“My hands were shaking, my throat felt dry, and my heart was pounding like a drum.”
The more your audience can see the story, the more they’ll connect with it.
By now, you have hundreds of untold stories—you just haven’t noticed them yet.
Lesson #23: Look for Highs & Lows
The easiest way to find them is to look for the highs and lows from a specific period in your life. Pick a time, like your first year at a new job or the last year of a relationship.
Ask yourself: “What were the high points and low points during that time? When was I particularly happy, excited, sad, or stressed?”
Then ask, “What did I learn during that moment?” If the lesson feels meaningful, craft a story around it.
You’ve probably told a few stories, but you might have no clue how they actually come across—or how you look while telling them.
Lesson #24: Record Yourself
When I started sharing stories, I often looked like a grumpy teenager—but I didn’t know until I saw a video of myself speaking.
Recording yourself can feel awkward at first, but it helps you understand how you come across. Once you’ve watched yourself, you’ll know what you can improve.
After watching yourself speak, it’s tempting to fix everything—your gestures, pauses, and tone. But when you focus on too much, you won’t make any progress.
Lesson #25: Fix One Thing at a Time
Focus on the one thing that distracts people the most from your story.
For example, if you use filler words every five seconds, that’s worth fixing. But if it’s occasional, don’t worry about it. Prioritize what has the biggest impact.
That’s it for today’s storytelling training. These 30 principles have shaped the way I connect, influence, and inspire—and I hope they’ll do the same for you.
Which principle resonated most with you? Hit reply and let me know—I’d love to hear your thoughts!
Today, we went deep into storytelling.
But when you speak in front of friends, give a presentation, or speak on stage there are also a few other public speaking techniques that you need to master.
For that you may wanna check out this next article in which I’ll share How to become a Better Speaker than 99% of People.
Enjoy!
Are you ready to transform your storytelling skills?
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