They’ll start talking about evolution, alpha males, how girls will always cheat on their boyfriends, how they know girls like intimacy more than guys etc.

From now on, I will refer to this nonsense as “The Talk of Death”.

Let me explain why, and also give you a very counter-intuitive idea of what to do instead.

The kinds of things we learn in pick-up generally make very poor conversation topics with women. Especially hot ones.

It might work with the social anthropologist grad student, but to the girl that any man in his right mind would be attracted to, there are a few major things wrong with this strategy:

(BTW - if you do happen to run into a girl that loves this kind of stuff, by all means talk about it, I’m just saying it should not be used as an ATTRACTION strategy for most of the female population)

1. It puts her on the defensive. It’s exactly like one country revealing it’s battle plans to another country that it is at war with.

It shows that you are “thinking too much” about the dynamic, which not only is a huge turn off, but also makes her think you’re going to be a mind-trip. Not good.

2. Chances are, her awareness level is about 10% of yours.

Especially if you’re keeping up on my newsletters.

This is a concept called “Stepped Awareness”.

Have you ever tried played a song you LOVED for a friend and they just didn’t get it? 

It’s because their awareness didn’t go through the same process that yours had - and resulted in you really liking the song…

To a girl who spends the majority of her time thinking about new shoes, celebrities and her problems with her boss, your talk about “the unique mating patters of the bonobo apes and how it relates to girls in the club” is just too alien and weird for her.

This is the same reason why you’ll sometimes see the biggest AFC ever with a smoking hot girl. He’s normal, and she can easily introduce him to her friends without embarrassment!

3. To a girl that DOES understand it; you talking about it make it seem like a big deal, when it should be plainly obvious.

5-10% of women actually DO get this stuff. It’s obvious, intuitive and accepted for them.

These women tend to also like women, capable of open relationships, and generally a lot of fun.

But here’s the thing - the guys they end up dating ALSO get this stuff intuitively.

And when you get something intuitively, you’ll never go out of your way to convince another person of it, or explain it like it’s some huge revelation!

So the minute you do, the girls who are most eligible for the lifestyle you’re looking for, will automatically disqualify you.

So… What to do instead?

Well - one of the most powerful techniques I use is this:

**Understand society’s programming, understand her specific programming, and appear to be under the exact same programming.**

Keep your knowledge of REALITY to yourself (and of course, if you figure out anything amazing, I would appreciate it if you share it on my forum as well)

You’re going to see a big difference in your game.

And I want to be part of it.

What I liked:

1. Mystery’s Ridiculous Outifits. No one can peacock like mystery, hands down. And the shows budget really allows for some fancy stuff. I dig it. Peacocking that hard is actually quite a challenge. Don’t believe me? Go to your local lair and look at all the guys who try it and get it wrong. It’s a  trainwreck.

The Students. I love pick up students in general, they’re always so eager to learn, share a common interest with me, and so grateful for the even the smallest amounts of improvement they make. Students are hands down the #1 reason why I do what I do. The Challenges. Creative, fun and entertaining. Winner of one contest gets to walk around with a cute puppy in the next. Hillarious.

What I didn’t like:

Mystery not knowing why some of his students fail… He’s so attached to his structured method, he literally has blind spots as to why his students get blown out… “Yeah he should have used a false time constraint”. How about his lame body language, complete lack of masculine vibe and messed up compliance ratios?

Using 4 year old, tired-out material, like “flossing before you brush etc..” Come on, we stopped using that stuff 3 years ago for GOOD reason! LAME, non-sensual conversation that goes NOWHERE! Sure you’ll get the girl to answer your question, but that’s not always what I call PROGRESS. If you’re going to have the guys memorizing routines, why not make them powerful, masculine and effective?

J-Dog’s hair. I don’t think I need to go into this. Looks like the poor dude passed out on a park bench in the middle of a graffiti contest. While there were certainly things about this show that bug the working pick up artist in me, I have to hand it to Mystery and VH1 for presenting the community in a good light to a mainstream audience.

Out of the four dudes left, here’s some predictions:

Joe: I think this guy has got serious potential on the show. He’s got the attitude down, but he’s the type that will get a certain level of success and become complacent. He’ll get a girlfriend and develop his social circle and work off that. Not TRUE master pua material. I just don’t see the kind of passion/drive that would carry him to Master PUAdom. He may do well on the show, however, just due to the lack of competition.

Alvaro: This guy COULD become a master pua, but not in a few weeks, and not under Mystery’s tuleage. He’s got that “inner flame” that drives him to excel at different things, but he’s going to need to really work to get consistent, and kill his approach anxiety and fear. He’s still got the brakes on. The minute he gets past that, his game will explode.

Brady: Tall, good looking, fast learner. He’s chill, makes steady progress. His use of corny material, and constant second guessing of himself is what’s holding himself back. If he just chills out and acts NORMAL he’ll be on fire. Again though, like joe, will probably become complacent at a certain level.

Pradeep: Could become a master pua, but he’s gotta seriously increase his sexuality. He’s in the friend zone still. Doesn’t matter if he got that chick’s number on the show because that was FRIENDLY number close. He’s interesting but… too interesting. It’s giving the woman something to be attracted to, but those things are too exterior to get that deep physical attraction that a pua needs to do fast pulls, sensual selection switching, multiple relationship stuff, etc…

Overall, the show is super entertaining and I’ll definitely be trying to catch another episode if I can.

“What?!”

You might think I’ve lost my mind, but it’s true.

A lot of guys just won’t get it.

And it’s not because they’re not smart enough or somehow defective…

In fact, it’s a subconscious choice, that they have made unknowingly.

I know what you’re thinking.

“How can I make sure I’m not one of those guys?”

Am I right?

Well I’m here to tell you how. You will probably never hear what I’m about to say from other gurus because it’s such a very subtle but very powerful fix that most leave it out of the equation.

Meet Matt.  Matt’s a good guy, likes to be social and has taken a bootcamp with another one of the pickup companies. But Matt still doesn’t get the success he really wants; in fact he’s not successful at all.

“Vin, why don’t you help him!?”

There are a couple reasons why I don’t help Matt out. One being he’s too set in his ways and is stubborn.

BUT, that’s not the real reason. If Matt was only stubborn I’d have an easy time changing his mind about things.

The real reason why I can’t help him is the same reason why he isn’t successful with women.

I’ve already said Matt’s a good guy, but every time I talk to him I get the feeling like he wants something from me. In fact a lot of our mutual friends have said the same thing to me about him.

We don’t like hanging out with Matt and neither do women.

Matt always give this vibe of having an ulterior motive. He talks to you like a friend, which is great, but he naturally gives off a vibe that says to me that he’s trying to take knowledge, power and fun from me.

The same thing happens to Matt when he’s talking to women. He treats them in a friendly manner and is funny but always gives off this vibe that on another level he has an underlying intention.

Having intentions with women isn’t a bad thing. If you express your sexual    intentions openly they’ll acceptable it, especially if you have tight game. It may even turn them on. IN FACT it will skyrocket your conversion rate if you do it the right way.

But if you hide your intentions you come off as creepy and weird. Women won’t trust you or feel safe being around you alone. You could be the best actor in the world but… THEY WILL KNOW.

Being creepy is the “Death” card in the Tarot deck of your love life. It will kill any chance of success you might have.

So now you know what might be going wrong. How do you fix it?

Well to start off you need to begin being fun and unattached to the outcome whenever you can. It’s not about giving back money. It could be anything from telling a great story to a group or being a great host to a bunch of your friends.  It could also be a compliment (in the right way of course) or a tease that will spike emotions in way that is fun to a woman.

Be out there talking to women not only because you want to pickup, but because women are amazing and fun and interesting and wonderful.

Next you need to start doing is being clear about your intentions. This doesn’t mean directly telling a girl “The whole purpose of me talking to you is so that I can get into your pants.”  That’s going to kill your pickup about as fast as being creepy.

There are small subtle changes you can make in your behavior that will affect how your intentions are perceived and if you’re congruent with what you’re saying.  There are so many small fixes that I could write a novel on them.

Do you want to read a novel about fixing your creepy vibe and then taking the months to implement it that it will require? I didn’t think so. I wouldn’t want to spend the months writing that novel either.

This subject is none other than Storytelling and when used correctly, can make your desirability with women sky rocket.

Before I jump into the tips and secrets behind successful story telling and how to construct a powerful story (which will be covered more in depth in Part II) I want to clear up a few myths when it comes to the matter of story telling.

Myth one: My stories have to be true and about me.

Now this is ultimately up for you to decide but as long as you keep the conversation fun, apply the right story telling techniques, and can keep the conversation moving, then your story does not have to be true.

Even if the women does not believe the story, if you kept it fun, she will be entertained and most likely run with new conversation topics developed from your stories.

I am not encouraging you to lie though, the most powerful stories are ones that are true and come from a place of emotion.

You can be so over the top with stories where the unbelievably becomes so fun that she gets involved and becomes part of a newly painted reality that you and the girl get to share and more importantly create together. (This becomes a key factor in “Role Playing” and by mastering storytelling, your creativity in “Role Play Conversations” raises but sadly, the subject of role playing will have to be saved for a later issue.)

However I think the biggest misconception is not whether the stories have to be true, but is more about whether or not they have to be about the story teller.

One of the main goals of story telling is to communicate to the listener about you. Surprisingly, it is easier to convey things about yourself by HOW you tell a story, not the actual content of it.

Through the power of expressions, energy, and vivid language, you can convey to your listeners such things as, dominance, humor, interests, and over all personality.

When applying the proper techniques of a story, you should be able to repeat what you heard on the news but in such a fashion that directly makes you more interesting and displays your personality.

Myth Two: As you get better with women you become less dependent on story telling.

Now there is some truth to this myth in the sense that you do not go into interactions with prescripted stories as much as you may starting out. However, it is through the skills that storytelling develops that make you less dependent.

Instead of going into in interaction with a story you have made up or written down and rehearsed, you are able to share any subject in an interesting fashion that makes people listen.

This skill is enhanced by applying the arts of storytelling and is one of the key reasons learning and mastering storytelling is a great way to improve not only your skills with women, but your overall social skills.

What is storytelling and why is it important?

Storytelling is the direct means of communication when highlighting important parts of your life to the listener. Not only through context, but through delivery.

Storytelling plays a very important part in getting to know someone and the great thing about telling a story, is that it creates so many other subject matters to talk about and that a story is almost always followed by another story.

If you are familiar with “The Canterbury Tales” by Geoffrey Chaucer, you will see how each story is molded by the one told before it and by who told the story. (Don’t worry; your stories don’t have to have a rhyme scheme during the interaction like many of Chaucer’s do)

There are many reasons storytelling is important and if you are not currently utilizing storytelling then consider these following facts:

*Storytelling is a great way to save dying conversations

This is one of the most common problems that I see with many guys. An interaction will be going great, then conversation starts to die and there is that awkward silence. This is a great time to bust out a story from your arsenal and revive the interaction.

Knowing you are armed with a story creates more approach confidence when entering an interaction.

People are afraid to enter interactions because of the fear of running out of things to say. By developing a great story or two and keeping them in your back pocket for when you need them creates a great since of confidence during the initial approach and can really help limit the anxiety that one gets when approaching a beautiful women. You are guaranteed that the interaction will last at least the length of your story.

*Storytelling is a great way to display dominance

When you are telling a story the right way, all eyes are on you, you are the center of attention, and everyone lingers off your next word. Holding the attention of the group through storytelling puts you in a dominant frame of you being the leader of the interaction and everyone else being the listener, waiting to see where you take the group next.

What you convey through your stories is how you will be remembered.

Unlike most things you say during an interaction, a good story is unforgettable. How many times have you had someone tell you about some crazy story that one of their friends told them? Stories have been passed down for ages; it is an old custom and still exists till this day. The girl should be able to look back on the interaction and be like “Oh yeah, that was the guy who (did whatever interesting activity that relates to you).”

*Storytelling develops stronger social skills

This is one of the biggest reasons that I like to make sure everyone masters storytelling. Through storytelling you learn to capture the entire attention of the group. Also you directly convey your personality and it gets you accustomed to doing so. The skills that are developed from strong storytelling directly carry over into your social personality that make all conversation with you more exciting and vivid. The expressiveness you show in stories ties into your future interactions and directly improves your social personality.

*You can convey things through storytelling that you normally could not say.

There may be some interesting details of your life that said outside the context of a story may come off as bragging. But in a story, these little details are never the subject of the story thus they remain subtle but are powerful when displaying aspects of your identity.

Now that you have an idea of why storytelling is so effective and what you should be aiming for when telling a story we are going to work on creating your very own powerful stories that cannot be ignored. All this will be covered in Part II of this newsletter, but there is an exercise I want you to do right now so you can directly apply all the tips and tactics to create an amazing story.

Exercise 1: Write down anywhere from seven to ten moments in your life that you feel changed or defined who you are.

If you have a funny story then that is just a humorous time then you can feel free to include that. But even if the story does not seem major, just entertaining, the fact that you can remember it means it has a bigger effect than you realize.

This can be happy, fun, or even sad (not depressing) but we do learn through negative experiences. We will eventually cut these down to just a couple stories in Part II but for now I just want you to get into the habit of taking note of interesting experiences in your life.

Ideas: Vacations, Life/Death Experiences, an unforgettable concert or sporting event, a moment you succeeded, something funny that happened to you or a friend.

Now I know that there are going to be people that say they have no interesting stories. This is just not the truth; everyone has something interesting that has shaped who they are. Do not be modest; even if it’s a silly story write it down. You can’t be afraid to share a story, sometimes they are hard to think of and if you really can’t think of a past story, starting paying more attention to your every day life. And if you still can’t think of one then go take a vacation, you will return with hundreds of them.

So many things happen in one day that people don’t even think would be a story. But every past event being told is a story. There is no excuse not to have one.

Exercise Two: Write down at least 5 things that you would like people to know about you.

This is going to tie into personality conveying. Think of the things that you would like any friend or new acquaintance to know about you. These are the things that directly relate to your identity and make you who you are. Do not be surprised if these things are directly related in some way to the stories you wrote down in exercise one.

Ideas: Hobbies, Sports you play, instruments you play, your job, your goals, your skills and achievements.

Now save this list, we are going to use it a lot in Part II of this newsletter to create some super powerful stories that you can always rely on. Also I will further go into the skills of storytelling and how to use them to make every story and conversation more interesting.

I am going to do this very exercise along with you guys so you will get to see my story end product as well.

Till then keep an eye out for the next letter and great ready to really take storytelling to the next level

What I liked:

1. Mystery’s Ridiculous Outifits. No one can
peacock like mystery, hands down. And the shows
budget really allows for some fancy stuff. I dig
it. Peacocking that hard is actually quite a
challenge. Don’t believe me? Go to your local
lair and look at all the guys who try it and get
it wrong. It’s a trainwreck.

The Students. I love pick up students in general,
they’re always so eager to learn, share a common
interest with me, and so grateful for the even
the smallest amounts of improvement they make.
Students are hands down the #1 reason why I do
what I do. The Challenges. Creative, fun and
entertaining. Winner of one contest gets to walk
around with a cute puppy in the next. Hillarious.

What I didn’t like:

Mystery not knowing why some of his students fail.
.. He’s so attached to his structured method, he
literally has blind spots as to why his students
get blown out… “Yeah he should have used a
false time constraint”. How about his lame body
language, complete lack of masculine vibe and
messed up compliance ratios?

Using 4 year old, tired-out material, like “
flossing before you brush etc..” Come on, we
stopped using that stuff 3 years ago for GOOD
reason! LAME, non-sensual conversation that goes
NOWHERE! Sure you’ll get the girl to answer your
question, but that’s not always what I call
PROGRESS. If you’re going to have the guys
memorizing routines, why not make them powerful,
masculine and effective?

J-Dog’s hair. I don’t think I need to go into
this. Looks like the poor dude passed out on a
park bench in the middle of a graffiti contest.
While there were certainly things about this show
that bug the working pick up artist in me, I have
to hand it to Mystery and VH1 for presenting the
community in a good light to a mainstream
audience.

Out of the four dudes left, here’s some
predictions:

Joe: I think this guy has got serious potential
on the show. He’s got the attitude down, but he’s
the type that will get a certain level of success
and become complacent. He’ll get a girlfriend and
develop his social circle and work off that. Not
TRUE master pua material. I just don’t see the
kind of passion/drive that would carry him to
Master PUAdom. He may do well on the show,
however, just due to the lack of competition.

Alvaro: This guy COULD become a master pua, but
not in a few weeks, and not under Mystery’s
tuleage. He’s got that “inner flame” that drives
him to excel at different things, but he’s going
to need to really work to get consistent, and
kill his approach anxiety and fear. He’s still
got the brakes on. The minute he gets past that,
his game will explode.

Brady: Tall, good looking, fast learner. He’s
chill, makes steady progress. His use of corny
material, and constant second guessing of himself
is what’s holding himself back. If he just chills
out and acts NORMAL he’ll be on fire. Again
though, like joe, will probably become complacent
at a certain level.

Pradeep: Could become a master pua, but he’s
gotta seriously increase his sexuality. He’s in
the friend zone still. Doesn’t matter if he got
that chick’s number on the show because that was
FRIENDLY number close. He’s interesting but…
too interesting. It’s giving the woman something
to be attracted to, but those things are too
exterior to get that deep physical attraction
that a pua needs to do fast pulls, sensual
selection switching, multiple relationship stuff,
etc…

Overall, the show is super entertaining and I’ll
definitely be trying to catch another episode if
I can.

In “Part I” we covered why storytelling is important and how it can improve your game dramatically.

Now that you are all excited to start using storytelling and understand why it is so powerful we are going to work on constructing your very own epics!

In “Part I” there were two things I asked of you

One was to create a list of 7-10 moments in your life worth sharing, and the other was to write down 5 things about your identity that you want people to know about you.

We are going to start out working with these things.

First lets take out the 7-10 story ideas and cut them down to 5 solid ideas, cross off ones that you think may not seem to interesting to other people or ones that were “you kind of had to be there” stories.

Now that you got 5 solid ideas down we are going to just focus on constructing 3 solid stories so you can go out and start using them immediately.

To narrow it down, reflect on these 5 stories, which ones do you have the most emotional connection too, which ones do you feel the most interested in sharing with other people and which ones do you think could captivate and relate to your audience.

For now, your main demographic with these stories is women, so focus on which ones you think a woman is more interested in hearing. (Any women can become interested in any story if delivered properly, but if you have a good story about you watching dirty videos and eating pizza, it may be better left for the guys)

Also feel free to ask your friends about which story subjects they would be more interested in hearing to help narrow it down to 3 solid concepts.

And of course I’m sure there were still some of you out there that were to modest to come up with 10 ideas and only got around three, so I guess that makes your job easier.

I said I would do this exercise along with you, however, critiquing all 3 of my stories will take too long so we are just going to use one of my story concepts and build it from the ground up through the techniques I show you.

Now I am going to try to discard all the information on storytelling that I know and jot this story down from scratch (This actually happened to me the other day, so I figure this is a prime example)

“So the other day I am at club voodoo with my friends and I am going around making some new friends and having a good time. Well this one guy somehow works his way into my group but then ends up not leaving us alone all night, and he was a really annoying person that you just don’t want to talk to. He kept making every interaction in the club awkward and would not leave until he actually gets a hint and goes home.”

Okay, pretty annoying story…I know, but we can turn this into something awesome.

First we need to understand the 3 components of a good story.

The first component, is “The Hook Question”

The object of the hook question is to make sure everyone in the group you are telling the story gets involved.

You use the hook question to captivate the group and the hook question is the line you deliver to introduce your story.

When using the hook question make sure you have the attention of EVERYONE in the group before you start going into the story, if one person is not paying attention and they tune in halfway through your story, they are going to have no idea what is going and potentially pull the entire group away.

Make eye contact and get a response or at least a nod from every member of the group before beginning your story.

There are two different types of hook questions.

An open ended hook question and a yes or no hook question.

I feel open ended hook question are better because it gets your audience more involved with the story you are about to tell, but a yes or no one is good cause it gets you right into the story.

So a possible open ended hook question for my story would be “How do you deal with people who you just want to leave you alone?”

A possible yes or no hook question would be “Have you ever been to club voodoo?”

So let’s add this to the story… (Find a hook question for your example stories as well)

I like open ended hook questions more so to start my story in the interaction I would say

Me: “Hey guys…how do you deal with people when you just can’t get them to leave you alone?!”

Group: “blah blah”

Me: “Yeah that’s interesting so check this out…the other day I am at club voodoo…(rest of story)
Now that you have the hook question down, we are going to rewrite our stories to demonstrate aspects of identity because the next step is to demonstrate personality.

There are a number of ways of doing this but for now lets go to our list of 5 things that you want to convey in your identity. Try to fit as many into the story as you can.

My 5 things were:

I am a musician
I am a very social person
I have a high and fun energy
I have a good sense of humor
I am interested in video and photography

Now you want to try to at least fit 3 of your 5 things into the story, but if its awkward and seems out of place then just get at least 1 or 2 in. You need one though, but the very manner you deliver the story may convey a lot about yourself.

Other ways to convey personality is to act out your characters. Bring them to life in your stories.

Another important aspect to expressing personality in your stories is by speeding up your voice during moments of excitement and slowing it down during more intense moments to create tension.

You should always have tension build up to excitement or your audience will have a feeling of lack of resolution but that is the last component of a story that I will get into shortly.

Speeding up, pauses, and slowing your voice down is hard for me to sow you through a newsletter, but when you recite your stories out loud you will gain a natural since of where each belongs and will improve through reactions with your audience.

So now I am going to rewrite my story as it stands to convey my personality…

Me: “Hey guys…how do you deal with people when you just caaaaannt (exaggerated can’t to show frustration with the situation and convey more personality) get them to leave you alone?!”

Group: “blah blah”

Me: “Yeah that’s interesting so check this out…the other day I am at club voodoo and I walk in with a group of my friends and random people we met on the way (social) and there is a decent amount of people in the club, we are all having a great time (fun) and meeting lots of cool new people (social).

Well this one guy somehow works his into my “group” (putting finger quotes around it) and he just has this vibe. Like he is so out of place, he was walking around with a Harley Davison Motorcycle hat on and like this tainted banana colored polo (Painting this scene gets them laughing and displays humor and some understand of social norms and fashion.)

So my friends and I keep trying to away from him but he just won’t back down, he would just follow us everywhere we went, buzzing around like a mosquito..(pause)..with a really bad taste in clothing (humor)…you would think he could get the hint when we were practically jogging away (act out slight jogging motion).

Eventually he finally goes away and we start to have a fun night again.

As you can see, the story starts to build up but it has no resolution, it just kind of ends.

The last component of story is the punch line. A punch line is often used for humor and ties up the story. Its biggest importance is to let the audience know it’s over. It can be one line or much more…

To successfully deliver the punch line to your story, you need to create a dramatic build up by slowing down your words and then once the comic relief or resolution comes, you speed the conversation back up.

The punch line can be a small extension of the story to bring further resolution to the issue. This is where you can get creative and give some lamer stories a much cooler ending.

The actual ending to my story involves the creepy guy going into the bathroom, some guy that was annoyed by him jokingly bumping into him while the creepy was using the urinal, and the creepy guy pissed on the front of his pants, got embarrassed and left.

Now, first off, it was kind of rude on that one guy’s part and I don’t want to associate myself with friends like that. Also…a guy pissing on himself is an odd thing to share during the initial interaction.

So I am going to do a little story morphing by combining a similar, less gross incident that happened that night.

Nothing wrong with changing up some incidents if it makes things more entertaining…after all…it’s a “STORY”

So the updated story with the new punch line now goes:

Me: “Hey guys…how do you deal with people when you just caaaaannt get them to leave you alone?!”

Group: “blah blah”

Me: “Yeah that’s interesting so check this out…the other day I am at Club Voodoo and I walk in with a group of my friends and random people we met on the way and there is a decent amount of people in the club, we are all having a great time and meeting lots of cool new people. Well this one guy somehow works his into my “group” and he just has this vibe. Like he is so out of place, he was walking around with a Harley Davison Motorcycle hat on and like this tainted banana colored polo. So my friends and I keep trying to avoid him but he just won’t back down, he would just follow us everywhere we went, buzzing around like a mosquito…with a really bad taste in clothing…you would think he could get the hint when we were practically jogging away. Anyway…my friends and I get away from him and are on the top floor and we make a super tall pyramid out of energy drink cans. (Illustrate structure with arms). Then all of a sudden, the creepy guy weasels his way onto the floor and sits down at our table…and like a jackass he tries to add a can to the structure. (Start slowing things down for the punch line) Little did he know…that although the Red Bull on the top of the structure was opened…it was full…so this guy tries to add his can to the top then BAM!……………….the whole structure falls right into his lap and the filled soda can pours all over his crotch! It looked like he wet his pants! His face turns beat red and he just runs downstairs and we assume he left the club cause we didn’t see him again…I don’t know what the big deal is…I thought it was hilarious! (Final punch line, they know the story is over)

Now if you have done these three steps to your stories, you got some great stuff on your hands.

HOWEVER….there is still a few more sprinkles you are going to want to add to your story sunday.

These things are the secret little tips of successful storytelling.

The first and most important is creating check in points.

Check in points are mini questions you throw into your story throughout to make sure you have the audiences full attention. It gets them more involved.

Examples are “That ever happen to you?” “Don’t you hate when that happens?” “You know what I mean?”

Just make sure they are not obvious and sounding like you are taking time out for them to go into detail about your check in point question.

Another good way to check in is to compare aspects of your story to the current situation you are in. ex. “Kind of like that over there” “Reminds me of her (point to person).”

You should at least have two check in points near the start and in the middle. If you are doing everything right, your audience will be captivated and waiting for the build up of the punch line so you won’t need one near the end.

If you start to see someone looking away, throw one out to regain focus.

An example in a passage of my story would be:

“Like he is so out of place, he was walking around with a Harley Davison Motorcycle hat on and like this tainted banana colored polo. You know when someone is clearly just lost and not sure what he or she is doing….kind of like that guy over there (point to someone similar).”

You don’t always need a full response with your check in points. A nod is perfectly okay when regaining focus of the audience.