April 12, 2025
Tony Robbins has built an 8 billion business, coached 100 millions of people, and published seven bestsellers. But how is he able to inspire so many people? What does he do that others don’t?
To find out, I analyzed his communication in his last 3-day event. What I found blew my mind. Tony Robbins is a master storyteller. But he doesn’t tell any random stories. Instead, he uses a five-step formula to tell his stories.
In this article, you’ll learn what the steps are so that you can tell stories just like Tony.
Just watch how he opens his story:
“Here I was, 11 years old. We had no money and no food. I had four different fathers, they all lost their jobs at different stages, and we were broke. We weren’t going to starve on Thanksgiving because we had, you know, crackers and peanut butter. But it’s pretty depressing when everyone’s having a big feast and you’re going home and going to have saltine crackers with peanut butter. It feels overwhelming.”
He starts the story by giving some background information about himself and his family. But hey—he doesn’t give any boring context. He spends the first half minute of the story telling us what bad situation he was in, how poor they were, and that they didn’t have any food for Thanksgiving.
Now why does he do that? To make us care. The moment we see someone struggle, we sympathize with them. We feel sorry for them. But Tony knows that he can do that for a little bit, but at one point, something needs to happen. That’s when he moves into the next step.
Here, Tony shares the trigger moment that changed that ordinary day. Just listen to this:
“A knock was on the door, and I go to the door, and this is what changed my life. There was a man there, tall guy standing there with two bags filled with groceries. And on the ground beside him was this pot of an unfrozen turkey in this pot, ready to be cooked. And he said, ‘Is your father here?’ And I was like, ‘Just one moment.’”
Out of nowhere, this man appears in front of their door with bags in his hand and a turkey on the floor. Now this immediately makes us, the listener, wonder: Hey, wait—who’s that guy that just showed up in front of that door? How is Tony’s dad going to react? And will they now have this beautiful dinner all together?
The best stories have this moment that changes everything—the one moment that breaks the pattern of what is expected. Maybe an unusual activity, an unusual event, or an unusual reaction.
But once he shared that moment, then the story really gets going.
Here, Tony builds the suspense and the tension of the story. Check this out:
“I said, ‘Dad, there’s somebody at the door for you.’ And he said, ‘You answered?’ I said, ‘I did, but they have to talk to you.’ ‘Who is it?’ ‘I don’t know.’”
He builds up the tension by sharing the dialogue of that moment. He shares the exact words that his dad—and also he—used in that crucial moment of the story. For example, instead of saying “I told my dad that there was someone at the door,” he says,
“Dad, there is someone at the door.”
Do you see? He shares the exact words of that moment. He builds up the tension and brings us into the moment by sharing the exact dialogue.
But hey—not only that. He also uses another technique to really hook us in. Check this out:
“I waited there, so excited to see his face, to see how he’s going to be transformed by this.”
He foreshadows the future. He tells us what he was thinking in that moment and how he expected the situation to turn out. Now, by letting us know what he was thinking, he makes us wonder:
Hey, are his dreams going to come true? Will this really be so special as he thinks? Will maybe his dad be transformed?
Once he raises these questions, he tells us how the event actually unfolds:
“I waited there, so excited to see his face, to see how he’s going to be transformed by this. And when he opened the door, he did not smile. He did not transform. He got angry. He goes, ‘We don’t accept charity!’ And he just went to slam the door in the guy’s face. And the guy’s shoulder was there, and he had leaned in a little bit, so it hit his shoulder and bounced off. And I’m sitting and watching all this.”
With each moment, it’s getting more and more intense—until we reach the climax of the story.
This is the most intense, exciting, and emotionally charged point of the entire story. Everything comes together in this final moment. Just listen to this:
“He opened the door. He did not smile. He did not transform. He got angry. He goes, ‘We don’t accept charity!’ And he just went to slam the door in the guy’s face. And the guy’s shoulder was there, and he had leaned in a little bit, so it hit his shoulder and bounced off. And I’m sitting here watching all this. And the guy said, ‘Sir, sir, I’m just the delivery guy. Someone knows you’re having a tough time—everybody has tough times at times. They want you to have a beautiful Thanksgiving. I’m just the delivery guy.’ And my dad said, ‘We don’t take charity!’ Started to close the door again. But this time, the guy’s foot was there, so it hit his foot ‘cause he leaned in. And this time—now my dad’s got veins in the side of his neck. They’re getting big. He’s getting red in the face.”
At this point, he shares the final confrontation between his dad and that stranger. To make this final confrontation really interesting, he again uses tons of dialogue, where he tells the exact words between that stranger and his dad.
But not only that—he also uses another technique to bring us into the moment of the story. He shows the emotion. He shows how the body—how the face of his dad—changes in this crucial moment of the story:
“The guy said something I’ll never forget. I thought my dad was going to punch him in the face. He saw me and he said, ‘Sir, please don’t let your ego get in the way of taking care of your family.’
And my father’s veins looked like they were going to burst. He was this big. And he didn’t say a word. He just took the groceries, slammed them on the table, and then shut the door without ever saying thank you.”
Boom. This is the part of the story where tension is at its absolute peak.
After that moment, Tony goes into the last step to wrap up his story.
In the last step, he ties up the story to make it relevant for his listeners:
“It was a brutal experience because I couldn’t understand what had gone on. Why wasn’t he happy? But you know—lots of people have things going on in their life, good or bad, and they rarely stay happy.”
Here, Tony shares the impact it had on his character—and also how it changed him.
But so far, this has been a story pretty much just about himself, not really taking into account his listeners. That’s when he makes it relevant for them:
“And I began to realize that our life is controlled by three questions. And I’d like to have you jot them down if you would, because these three questions are controlling your life every moment of your life.
The first question to ask is: What are we going to focus on?”
And here, he goes out of his story and into full teaching mode.
This is the five-step formula that Tony Robbins uses to tell his captivating stories.
Now, Tony—he’s a master at building up tension. If you want to tell stories like Tony, you may want to check out this next article, in which my favorite storytelling techniques.
Enjoy.
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:
