Storytelling refers to a technique by which a problem is captured and narrated as a relatable experience. A “story” turns something that is abstract – a social/business problem – into something concrete; something that feels distant, to something closer.

As the first major part of the pitch, the story tries to connect with the audience on an emotional level. That is because stories do not deal with figures and statistics, reason and logic. Instead, it tries to get the audience to feel the impact of the problem; it attacks emotion. It tries to draw the audience’s sense of empathy (i.e. I can feel how you feel) and sympathy (i.e. I feel bad for you since you are suffering from a problem).

Furthermore, storytelling uses a concrete manner to affirm the audience’s sense of value. Value is what the audience believes in. A good story can illustrate and promote a particular kind of value, by which the audience unconsciously or consciously agrees with. If a story can resonate with people’s values, then the story will be all the more compelling.

A story, it is important to note here, does not have to be fictional; it also does not need to be real either. It needs to be told in a realistic and compelling way. There are many sources for your story:

• Personal experience
• Anecdote
• Case study
• Inspirational tales
• Flash of inspiration
• Interesting accidents Notice how these are all single, extraordinary events. A story must be an event that took place in the past. It should NOT be:

• Something that is happening right at the very moment (since people do not have time and distance to reflect on it)
• Something that will be happening (because it hasn’t happened, so it remains something hypothetical and therefore not persuasive)
• Something that is a long series of activity (because it’s not focused enough)
• Something that is simply a reflection but no action (because it is not concrete enough)