The Back of a Napkin

so what i really want to share with you

this morning is this thing that we’re

going to call

visual storytelling why would telling a

story be interesting to all of you so

most of you are high school students i

imagine many of you are planning on

going into college and after you go to

college you’re probably going to go out

there into the working world

i can tell you this from my own

experience whether it’s filling out your

college applications whether it’s

looking for jobs uh as an intern whether

it’s beginning to think about what you

might want to do in your professional

career whether it’s pitching the newest

idea that you have

there is nothing that is going to be

more powerful you for you than being

able to tell a story of what matters to

you

in a way so that it matters to someone

else

and this is what i want to share with

you because there is a really really

great way to do it

visual storytelling

especially in an uncertain and complex

world is super clarifying it’s super

reassuring and it’s super human and so

you see these little characters down

here many of us as we look at the world

out there it’s a little bit overwhelming

but here’s why story is important

when someone comes to us and they say i

don’t know what’s going on can you help

me

we are the ones who have the ability to

tell the story who are going to be able

to say you know what

it’s okay

i got this and what we’ll be able to do

is straighten out all this craziness and

be able to tell a simple little story

that cuts through much of it and gives

us a great sense of reassurance what i’m

going to do with you this morning is

first i want us to practice just a tiny

bit about being visual so i’m going to

draw on my digital screen and while i do

i’m actually going to ask you to draw in

the air in front of you because i want

you to encode a simple visual image into

your mind by drawing it out and then

we’re going to show how that simple

drawing that we make

becomes the essence of the best story

that you’re ever going to tell i want

every one of you to take your finger i

mean it to take a finger and imagine

that this is a pen and i want you to

hold it up in front of you and i want

you to draw a big circle in the air in

front of you try not to bump too much

your neighbors

as you’re doing this i want you to

notice that you can still listen to me

even as you’re drawing in the air you

can stop now keep your finger there and

now go the other direction so think

about it as a nice little visual

exercise and i’m going to draw as well

you can stop now at any time you want

i’m going to show visually what you’ve

just captured you can put your fingers

down now we’ve drawn this circle

it wasn’t just a warm-up circle

you actually just in the air in front of

you drew

a highly sophisticated schematic diagram

of your brain i want you to imagine that

that circle represents the billion

neurons that you have in the in your

brain and the hundreds of billions of

connections and synaptic connections

that you have in those neurons and ask

yourself for a second why be visual well

here’s why do you want to guess

how much of that entire circle that you

just drew that represents all of your

brain how much of that is dedicated to

helping you process visual information

i’ll show it in my drawing

half

half that entire circle you just drew is

how much of your visual mind of your

brain is dedicated towards visual

processing

more of the human brain is dedicated to

processing vision than any other thing

that we do by orders of magnitude

so why do i love visuals in storytelling

because for 97 percent of us for the

vast majority of us we are profoundly

visual creatures and when you have

something to share

the more visual you can be the more

you’re going to tap into that so that’s

cool

but how does that become a story so what

i want you to do for a second is take

that circle that you just drew in the

air

the center was your visual mind but the

edge around it just bear with me is a

story line there’s a line and what i

want you to do is take that circle

and bend it outwards we’re going to take

that circle and we’re going to unpack it

and it’s not going to be smooth because

the story that we’re going to tell is

going to have some bumps

but in the end it’s still going to arc

up to a positive story now what am i

talking about here why does any of this

matter i just want to tell you another

story

and this might be a story that some of

you know but i’m pretty sure i’m going

to be able to add pieces into this story

that you might not have known before

we’re going to call this story

the non-heroes journey once upon a time

there was an american kid who grew up in

the farmlands far outside of town and

the world was very big and the kid was a

little bit confused but what he loved to

do is he loved to read comic books and

he loved to watch superman and he loved

to draw and in particular what he really

loved to draw were cars

and one day when he was old enough

he got a car

he got himself a fancy little fiat

convertible that was super sporty and he

raced that car around the farm fields

he loved it the sense of freedom that he

had in driving that car around the farms

gave him a sense of direction that he

found nowhere else in his life

and he loved it

and then one day he was driving and he

crashed the car wrapped it around a tree

and he died

his heart stopped and the kid died

but

bystanders were able to pull him out of

the wreckage they got him to the

hospital

and doctors were able to revive him

and it took months for him to recover

and as he was lying there in the

hospital bed and then as he was lying

there in his in his parents home in the

bed he felt like he had been given a

gift

of extra days

every single day

he died after all and come back from the

dead back to the living with this extra

day

and in those gift of extra days he

realized as he looked out into the world

he noticed something

that people who worked together

were happier and more successful

than people who worked in conflict with

each other

and he thought that’s a story i’d like

to tell

he went to college

and as he was at college he read an

anthropology textbook

and the author of that textbook said

in the introduction in the book

that if you want to be satisfied in life

if you want to feel like you’re living a

good life

follow your bliss

and the kid said that sounds like a good

idea i’ve always liked photography so he

went out and he bought himself a camera

and he started taking photos and before

long

his bliss found him

it turned out he was really talented at

photography and he got his first job as

a professional photographer so that kid

decided i’m going to make my career

so he went to film school

and he fell in love

he fell in love not just with taking

photos but with making films and he

decided this

is the kind of photography i want to do

this is the kind of storytelling that i

want to do i want to make films but

there was a problem

because you see this kid wanted to make

really optimistic movies

but at that time in the united states

the country was in kind of a bad place

and

studio directors

were saying no adults don’t want to

watch happy syrupy optimistic movies

everybody just wants to watch fairly

cynical fairly dark fairly complicated

movies so we’re not interested in making

your movie thank you but no but the kid

decided not to give up so he made a

decision

he made a choice and what he decided is

okay screw that

i’m going to make my movie for kids

and in particular i’m going to make my

movie

for the kid that i remember being when i

was 12 years old and i was living out on

the farm and the world was way too big

for me to know where i would fit in it i

wanted to make a story and a movie for

that kid

and so he did

and then he remembered that textbook

remember the one where the author said

follow your bliss he remembered that in

that textbook the author had talked

about myths

and in particular the author had talked

about a very consistent storyline that

you find throughout human history

thousands of years no matter where you

go on the planet the author had realized

that whenever you look at a really great

myth from any great culture

the story in many ways is identical

they’re all following a very similar

path

and the kid said well wait a minute if i

want to tell my story in such a way that

i know the story is going to be good

what would happen if i just wrote my

story according to that story line from

the book and he did it and the kid used

that template

to tell the story and we’re going to see

that it’s a bumpy but up kind of a story

just like that circle you bent out a

moment ago from your circle bumpy but it

goes up

that’s the story line and he decided to

use that as the basis for talking about

a group of misfits who along that

storyline end up saving the universe

pretty aspirational idea and he did

you may know this story the kid was

george lucas

the movie we’re referring to was star

wars

the author of that anthropology textbook

was joseph campbell the book was called

the hero with a thousand faces

in that book this storyline that joseph

campbell didn’t invent but uncovered

illuminated was called the monomyth you

may have heard of this is otherwise

known as the hero’s journey

and that combination changed history

there’s lucas with his little fiat

there’s the fiat after the accident

there’s joseph campbell and there’s

what’s the outcome of it and when i say

they changed history this is really

important to go back i know this was

before your time but how many of you

have seen a star wars movie at some

point in your life

it comes from this moment and what

changed history was the realization that

wait a minute audiences actually do want

to watch an optimistic uplifting movie

they really do it changed completely

that film changed how we think about

movies how we think about entertainment

how we think about storytelling all the

way through into business and now

you

are going to do the same thing

as you think about where you’re going to

go next in your lives as you think about

which job you might want to have what

your life looks like who you might want

to make your partner there’s a lot of

stories there and when it comes time to

telling the story of what matters to you

so that it matters to someone else

you’re literally going to use exactly

the same template

that has been used in every one of these

movies and by the way it’s not just

george lucas it’s suzanne collins in the

hunger games it’s the same story it’s jk

rowling and harry potter it’s the same

story it’s j.r.r tolkien and the lord of

the rings it’s the same story it’s the

entire marvel comic universe it’s the

same story it’s iron man it’s all of

them over and over again it’s it’s

captain america it’s all of the same

story and you’re gonna tell it

here’s why because it’s myths that we’re

interested in instead of having a set of

laws our rules for living come down to

us as a story

which is so much easier to absorb and

this was lucas just a couple of years

ago now here’s joseph campbell and

there’s a really important part in the

story you all know this if you watch

star wars it was obi-wan kenobi there’s

gandalf you know it there’s always the

wizard the true wizard in this story for

george lucas was this guy joseph

campbell who had spent his career going

around the world and studying myths and

here’s what the actual hero’s journey

looks like as it was drawn

by joseph campbell it’s a circle

the same as the one you were drawing in

your in the air a moment ago and the

circle goes like this this is the true

classic hero’s journey as it was defined

in that book

we start here and we move this direction

and there’s two worlds there’s a world

up here and a world down here a hero

ventures forth from the common world

into a world of supernatural wonder

down in that world of supernatural

wonder fabulous forces are encountered

and the hero wins a decisive victory and

then the hero comes back into the

regular world with the power to bestow

gifts upon our fellow humanity because

of what we have learned in what we had

to experience

we had to fight a dragon

and we had a wizard who helped us do it

what i’ve done

over the last many years as i realized

because i am a professional business

storyteller that’s what my career has

ended up being that if i could help my

clients tell their story more

effectively the best way to do it is to

take this classic story unbend it as

we’ve already done and then over the

years what i’ve done is i’ve just

polished it up and improved it and

simplified it a little bit and if any of

you are interested here’s the way the

story works

this is a map from left to right we

start here we move through the middle

and we go to the end and you’ll notice

that the story is bumpy it starts with

clarity then we establish trust but then

we introduce fear

oh my gosh there’s someone awful on the

horizon but then we have hope

and oh everything’s going to be lovely

except

then we have sobering reality we’re not

going to achieve that hope doing what

we’ve done before we need to make a bold

change we need to redecide we need to

recommit to whatever this thing is that

we’re going to do and it’s that

recommitment moment right here at the

center where we shift from it will never

be able to be better to it can be and i

want to tell you here by the way when i

told you the george lucas story

i mythologized his own story because i

took the george lucas story and i

applied the hero’s journey to the story

and i don’t know if you were noticing

but as i was going through the george

lucas story each page was numbered

there are 10 steps in the hero’s journey

i told you the whole george lucas story

according to those 10 steps here they

are mapped one to one

and here’s what matters as you become

the storyteller there is a critical

critical moment in this story and it

will be critical in yours

and i’m going to share one more reason

why in a moment

the most important part of you sharing

your idea

your college application your job

interview your internship pitch

the critical moment is when you say

i know how to get us out of this awful

place

and here’s what really matters the most

critical thing is the realization that

you are not alone

there is always with us a wizard

it may be the voice of a grandparent

it may be something that we’ve learned

in the spiritual world but more often

than not the wizard is simply someone we

find in ourselves who says today is not

the day that you’re going to lose it

today is the day you’re going to win it

and it’s the act of making that decision

that brings us back out so i want to ask

yourself with one more quick story where

is your wizard and i’ll give you the

answer

the wizard who will tell you you’re not

alone

you can make the change you need to

is in here

the wizard is in you

i have one more quick story that i want

to share my friend and my co-writer is a

woman named dushka zapata she’s here in

the audience with us and dushka is a

heck of a writer

dushka has written over 8 000 posts

online that have been read by more than

250 million people

andushka came to me as i’ve been working

on this 10-page pitch format and said

dan

i know that your story works for

business pitches but could it work

for a simple story

about

life

and i said douche a good challenge let’s

try it

so in 15 minutes we use the template

that i just showed you

and we told this story and here’s the

way it goes andushka called the story

our rock and i’m just going to read it

to you

once a teacher helped me paint a rock

a long time ago a teacher helped me

paint a rock the plan was to give my

painted rock to my dad as a special gift

but i couldn’t write

i wanted to write a message on the rock

but i didn’t know how to write i was

only three

and i wanted him to remember i wished i

could write because i wanted my dad to

know how i felt

my hope was when the rock would remind

him even on days we didn’t spend

together would remind him of me

but

little kids can’t write what was a

three-year-old to do before knowing how

to write

instead i focused on the colors so

instead of writing i focused on picking

the best rock i could find then on

picking his favorite colors

when the paint had dried i told my

teacher what i wanted the rock to say

and asked her to write it down in pencil

so i could paint over her words and i

had to whisper i had to share with her

something old i wanted only my dad to

see i whispered the words very slowly

she nodded and i picked the final color

to use to paint the words yellow

and she used a sharp pencil she wrote

out my message slowly with a sharp

pencil and told me to take all the time

i needed to paint over those words

after i did i took the pencil and i

wrote my name by myself

and the rock was perfect

i gently placed it inside a cardboard

box i gave it to my dad the next day

when my dad saw the rock he said i love

this rock so much it will always be on

my desk and he kept that rock on his

desk for 43 years

43 years later when my dad died my

sister took the rock from his desk and

placed it in my hands

the rock is now on my coffee table

it reminds me even on days we don’t

spend together

how he once felt about me

so here’s the last thing i’d like to

share with you as you begin to go

through the closing part of your high

school career and move on to college and

what comes next

nothing will be more important to you

nothing

than your ability to tell the story that

matters to you

who are you

who is your wizard

in a way that matters to the person

you’re sharing it with

and you now know how to do that

i want to thank you so much i hope this

was useful good storyteller thank you

thank you