Speaker A
Stakes are essentially sort of what your audience should be worried about, what they should be wanting for you, what they should be concerned about, what they should be wondering about.
Explore how stakes create suspense and engagement in storytelling, making audiences eager to hear what happens next.
Key Takeaways
- Stakes are crucial to keep audiences engaged and curious.
- Assuming the audience is uninterested drives the need to create suspense.
- Incorporating stakes in stories makes ordinary events compelling.
- Without stakes, audience attention quickly diminishes.
- Storytelling techniques from film can be applied to everyday communication.
Summary
- Stakes define what the audience should care about and wonder regarding the story.
- Many people mistakenly believe audiences want to hear their message without engagement.
- The speaker assumes no one wants to listen and focuses on creating curiosity.
- Stakes keep the audience wondering about the next sentence or event.
- Alfred Hitchcock's storytelling exemplifies the use of stakes to create suspense.
- A scene with a police chase creates uncertainty about who to root for, increasing engagement.
- Everyday true-life stories should incorporate stakes to maintain audience interest.
- Without stakes, audiences lose interest and stop listening.
- Relentless effort is needed to maintain audience curiosity throughout the story.
- Stakes are essential for effective communication in business and storytelling.
Full Transcript — Download SRT & Markdown
Speaker A
When I work with people in business, they are constantly under this misconception that people want to hear what they have to say.
Speaker A
I assume 100% of the time that no one wants to hear anything I have to say, and so I am relentless in my attempt to get the audience to be constantly wondering what the next sentence is.
Speaker A
And stakes are a big part of that. Alfred Hitchcock has a movie where it opens with a police officer is chasing a man across a roof.
Speaker A
We don't know who to root for, but something is at stake here, and now we're wondering what's going to happen next.
Speaker A
We have to do the same thing with our ordinary true life everyday stories, we have to put stakes into stories.
Speaker A
If your audience isn't wondering what you're about to say, they're no longer listening to you.
Topics:stakesstorytellingaudience engagementsuspenseAlfred Hitchcockbusiness communicationcuriositynarrative techniquespublic speakingLenny's Podcast
