Kymberlee: I will never forget my very first live improv performance.

Alan: Okay.

Kymberlee: I was so nervous. As a speaker, I'm used to the adrenaline rush, and I'm used to being nervous, but this was different. You were there. You remember. I mean, this was a whole new world where I was going onstage without a net, nothing rehearsed, in front of a live audience. I was nervous. So backstage, my hands were sweaty, and I remember my hands even started to tremble, and it was five minutes, three minutes, one minute, and then Alan came up next to me and said, "I've got your back." Then one at a time, everybody else in the troupe put their hand out on someone else's shoulder and said, "I've got your back. I've got your back."

Kymberlee: In improv, that changes everything, because you realize you're not alone out there, that you have a team behind you. Everyone else is rooting for you and is there to save you, protect you, work with you, make you look as good as possible onstage.

Alan: Now, I can say over and over again it's important to watch each other's back. Watch your back, watch your back. But what just happened there is with a story, we were able to get an emotional connection to that moment. You could feel how nervous she was, and so when the idea of watching each other's back came up, you felt it. It hit you in your gut.

Kymberlee: Over this next series of seven weeks we are going to be talking technique. We're going to take you into all kinds of insights and lessons and tips that you can use immediately to enhance your speaking.

Alan: Why don't you...

Kymberlee: Start with story?

That's where we're going to start in this episode today. Why don't you start with story? I know a lot of people are resistant to that. They think, "Well, story is for certain audiences and not for other audiences, and I don't want to get too kind of chummy chummy with people right off the bat."

It changes everything when you start with story.

Alan: Our brains are wired to respond to emotional content, to understanding and empathizing with somebody else in a particular situation. So the idea of a story is to get them connected to you, to get their attention, to have them listen to what you have to say and be better prepared for the lesson that you're trying to give to them.

Kymberlee: Look, stories are all around us. Right? A lot of people will think, "Oh, I don't have time to develop this whole, long story." It doesn't have to be long. My story was maybe a minute, if that. It can be the most important part of the situation that you want to share with your audience. It needs to have conflict of some sort so that you can bring their people along for the ride.

Alan: One of the techniques we use when working with a new speaker is let them tell their entire story. It usually takes a fair amount of time, but then we ask them to bring it down to five minutes, three minutes, and then one minute, and in that process, we're getting rid of all the extraneous components and really getting down to the essence, the emotional content that we're trying to get across.

Kymberlee: When you're able to condense your talk down into different variations of the same story, rather, not your talk, but your story, then you have the best of the best information to share.

Alan: So leading with the story is most important, because you get their attention right at the beginning.

Kymberlee: And their trust, because when you tell a story, you're being vulnerable. You're sharing a part of you, a part of your life, a part of your point of view, that they may not have access to, and so it builds that trust instantly in your audience.

Alan: If you're telling the story well, the audience is with you.

Kymberlee: Yes. Every time.

So why don't you...

Alan: Start with a story.

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Kymberlee: Who is this guy standing next to me? Alan {link Alan to: https://www.sbimprov.com} is my very first improv instructor and Alan has shown me a way into looking at my profession, at my career, at my surroundings, my life, in a way that I never learned how to do before. I mean improv has now become just a part of who I am, and how I move around the world, and it's because of this guy that I am even involved in this whole community and do what I love to do. I love my life and a lot of that is due to improv. So thank you, Alan.

Alan: You're welcome. Yes, big ad for improv. Go out there.

Kymberlee: Improv.

Alan: Improv. Change your life.

Kymberlee: Yes.

Alan: Be a better person.

Kymberlee: It's true. I've got your back.

Alan: Oh, thank you.

Kymberlee: I've got your back.

Alan: Oh, thank you.

Kymberlee: I've got each other's back.

Alan: Oh, our backs are gotten.

Kymberlee: I've got your back.

Alan: I've got your back.

Kymberlee: We've got your back, too.

Alan: We've got your back, too.