3 Steps to Telling a Great Story

First, get your audience's attention with an unexpected event, question, or challenge. If you can shock their brain into thinking right out of the gate, you will be able to ignite their spark of attention.

Next, tell a quick story of struggle. Invoke an emotional response by describing a moment of hardship, difficulty, and pain. Your goal is to humanize yourself as much as possible. All people have suffered in this world. For that reason, you should build a bridge of commonality to show you are just like them.

Finally, end your story with an "ah-ha" moment. You want to provide an eye-opening resolution that you encountered and can relay to them. The resolution will give a call to action, which will give them a next-step in their own life. People only remember something if it touches their heart.

Think of some of your favorite tv shows, movies, books, and speeches. They all follow this pattern:

Rocky - Likeable guy falls on hard times. He struggles, claws, and fights his way to the top. Only to realize the most important thing - Winning isn't always the goal. Going all the way is.

Titanic - Rose has everything in life but isn't happy. Only after meeting someone who seems to have nothing, she realizes the way to live is to play freely, go against the norm, and take a "leap of faith" at what you want.

Breaking Bad - A likeable guy named Walt is diagnosed with Cancer. In order to make money to take care of his family, he dives deep into the drug business. He realizes he has been living far below his potential his whole life and has been hiding his true-self from the world. For the first time ever, he begins to win, succeed, and "feel alive". In the end, it's apparent to Walt that he would rather die being who he was than live as someone he is not.

Lord of the Rings - an unlikely protagonist, Frodo is a dwarf in a big and scary world. He is given a task of incredible magnitude and importance. Through pure courage and will power, he is able to do the unthinkable and save the world from evil. Thus, showing a person's impact has nothing to do with where he/she comes from. You can be born as the biggest underdog and end up being a giant to the world.