The Power of Storytelling in Impactful Speeches

Why Do Great Talks Do Six Things?

How do you connect with an audience who has no idea who you are? And more importantly, how can you inspire an audience to do something which they didn't expect to do - especially if that concerns giving you a lot of money?

This episode is a fast but thoughtful deep-dive into the art and science of persuasive storytelling according to civil rights lawyer Bryan Stevenson. His TED Talk received the longest standing ovation in TED history, but not only that - he received $1.3M in donations to his organization from the audience without even askibng for it! How did Bryan's 21 minute talk do that? Especially when, on paper, it looks like this talk shoud not have worked. 

In this episode, Jeremy takes a few minutes longer than usual to unpack this talk, and using AI, Jeremy goes behind the scenes to look at what you can learn from Bryan in order to become a better mission critical storyteller yourself. 

EPISODE LINKS

• Bryan's TED Talk
• Equal Justice Initiative
• Just Mercy by Bryan Stevenson [BOOK]
• Just Mercy [TRAILER]

EPISODE TRANSCRIPT

Why Do Great Talks Do 6 Things?

When I worked at Adobe several years ago I conducted some research which tried to understand what made a great piece of content. Basically – what was the value of a story? It was based on research I did with Facebook a few years earlier when I was working on measuring the value of an audience.

The conclusion that me and my team came to, after simplifying the findings of our research, was that great stories do 6 things really well.

They INFORM, INSPIRE, EDUCATE, ENTERTAIN, CHALLENGE and SOLVE PROBLEMS.

I started to spend a lot of time with neuroscientists and psychologists, and soon started to realise why these 6 elements were present in great stories.

It was a simple left brain – right brain story.

Our emotions are triggered by our right brain (within our lymbic system) – and we then justify those emotions with rational and logical thought based upon our left brain (our neo-cortex).

• Right Brain = INSPIRE, ENTERTAIN, CHALLENGE
• Left Brain =  INFORM, EDUCATE, SOLVE PROBLEMS

I was working on this research 13 years ago but it came to life again for me this week after I watched the Jamie Foxx & Michael B. Jordan film “JUST MERCY” based on the book by civil rights lawyer Bryan Stevenson.

If you don’t know who Bryan Stevenson is – you should – and you soon will!

Bryan is one of the most compelling voices in the global pursuit of justice. As a civil rights lawyer, Bryan has dedicated his life to confronting some of the deepest injustices in society. He is the founder of the Equal Justice Initiative, an organization that defends the wrongfully convicted, advocates for the poor, and represents inmates on death row. His work is not just about individual cases but about exposing the systems of inequality that have shaped the modern legal landscape.

Through his advocacy, he has fundamentally reshaped conversations about race, incarceration, and human dignity. His TED Talk has been viewed over 10M times, and his memoir, Just Mercy, (also, film) is a powerful testament to the possibility of hope even in the darkest corners of society.

Bryan’s impact is rooted in his extraordinary ability to communicate truth, inspire empathy, and persuade others to see the humanity in every individual.

So let’s have a look at how he uses the power of words and ideas to create change — and how storytelling, truth, and hope can move people, challenge systems, and influence history. For Bryan, this is about more than the law. It’s about the art and science of persuasion and the role communication plays in building a more just world.

OK...

So I said great stories do 6 things.

After watching the movie Just Mercy I watched Bryan’s TED talk again.

It’s a famous TED talk even among the inner circles of TED because it’s famous for having the longest standing ovation of any TED talk.

And not just that – when Bryan spoke at TED in Long Beach California in 2012, his organisation was in urgent need of $1M to continue fighting a key case in the US Supreme Court. Bryan didn’t mention this once in his talk, but his stories had such an impact on the audience that he left California with $1.3M of contributions from members of the audience.

That’s mission critical storytelling for you.

So - just for fun (!) I fed the transcript of Bryan’s talk into the AI Storytelling Assistants I used at work to analyse talks – to see if I could understand WHY this talk had such a profound impact on the audience - and I made some pretty astonishing discoveries.

Bryan’s talk contained – you guessed it – 6 parts.

His 21 minute, 3,981 word talk meant that he spoke at 190 WPM – which pretty much means it should NOT have worked.

But it had a VERY low readability score of 8.94 (meaning he used short sentences and lots of two-syllable words) which made it easy for the audience to follow, despite the fast pace at which he spoke.

He used the word “BUT” 18X. To add drama or contrast - about once every 70 seconds which is within 5 seconds of the average attention span of an elite-business audience.

Clever.

But let me show you the real discovery.

Stories contain 6 elements right?

Inform. Inspire. Educate. Entertain. Challenge. Solve Problems.

Let’s have a listen.

After Bryan’s short introduction he shares a funny story about his grandmother. He spends almost one-quarter of his time (21%) on this story, but it’s important because it helps to build a strong emotional connection with an audience who didn’t know who he was before.

This story ENTERTAINS.

[GRANDMOTHER]

Next he INFORMS his audience with information about his identity and his relationship with alcohol

[IDENTITY]

For the next few minutes, he talks his mission and how the Equal Justice Initiative which he founded seeks to try and SOLVE some of the PROBLEMS within the criminal justice system

[DESERVE TO DIE?]

By talking about the students who he teaches about race he spends a few minutes EDUCATING the audience with some powerful statistics about the death penalty.

[DEATH PENALTY STATS]

He then CHALLENGES the audience for the next 2 minutes about why our identity is at risk – after previously setting up why identity is so important

[IDENTITY]

And in closing,  he spends the final thirds of his time (35% of it – 1,421 words) sharing a powerful story about Rosa Parks which doesn’t just INSPIRE the audience – it inspires them to act.

As evidenced by the $1.3M in donations he received shortly after his talk.

[ROSA]

Great stories don’t just make an audience FEEL something – they inspire an audience to DO something.

Powerful stuff.

Go and watch the full talk for yourself right now.

It’s the best 20-minutes you’ll probably spend doing anything today.

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The Truth in Ten is a cross between a podcast series and a storytelling masterclass. Each short episode shines a light on a different inspirational leader; someone who shared a short story which changed the world in some way. This is a show for anyone who wants to make a difference by sharing their story.

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