The Simple Story Trick That Makes You Instantly More Credible

The Simple Story Trick That Makes You Instantly More Credible

My daughter was telling me the other day about a conversation she’d had with a gentleman admirer. (You can tell through that phrase, how in-touch I am with the ‘yoooths’). 

Anyway, she said that when she attends lectures at university (she’s studying medicine) she often brings a large bag of sweets and shares them with the people sitting around her. Nothing disruptive, so she claims. Just a little morale boost during a long lecture.

But here’s the detail that made her gentleman admirer (friend) pause.

She makes sure the sweets are halal-friendly. Loads of sweets contain pork gelatine, so she goes out of her way to choose ones that everyone can eat.

Her friend said, “That’s the sweetest (no pun intended) thing I’ve ever heard.”

And it is.

It also says something about her. She’s kind, generous, and tends to put other people first. Probably the right person to be doing a medical degree.

What struck me, though, is that the story reveals her character, not just her characteristics.

That difference matters in presenting.

Most businesses, when they want to show credibility, produce a slide full of facts, features and achievements. Years of experience. Awards. Client logos. Office locations. Lists of values.

These are characteristics. Useful, but not especially revealing.

Years ago, when I was writing film scripts, I worked with a Hollywood script doctor called Bart Gavigan. He told me one of the biggest mistakes writers make is describing characters through a list of traits:

“She’s 5 foot 2. Brown hair. Smiles a lot. Likes giving out sweets.”

None of that tells us who she really is. It tells us what she’s like on the surface, but not what she believes, or how she behaves when it matters.

Character is revealed through action. Through the choices they make, especially under pressure. Through small moments that show what someone values.

It’s the same with businesses and presenters.

Very often, when I look at a company website, I learn almost nothing about the character of the brand. It’s only when I read a case study, that I start to understand what they actually stand for.

Even lists of “values” are usually just characteristics in disguise.

Character really shows up when something big is at stake.

I remember working with a big insurance company years ago, back when everything was still on paper. One of the team told a story about a night when their offices flooded during a storm. Water was ankle-deep and rising.

They could have gone home and let the damage happen.

Instead, they worked through the night rescuing client files.

No reward, other than helping their business and their clients. They just did it.

That’s true character.

And it’s exactly the sort of thing audiences remember.

So if you want your presentations to feel more human, more credible, and more memorable, focus less on characteristics… and more on character.

Here are three simple ways to do that:

1. Share a short story
Tell a brief, specific example about you, your team, or a client. A real moment always reveals more than a list of achievements (we want the story under pressure behind the achievement).

2. Include an obstacle and emotion
Character shows up when something isn’t easy. Add the tension, the difficulty, or the constraint that made the moment matter.

3. Show the choice
At some point, someone had to decide what to do. The decision, especially when it wasn’t the obvious or easiest one, is where character is revealed. For instance, with the insurance company, that moment when they went, “Damn we’re not going to get much sleep tonight but we have to do this thing.”

If you’ve got a presentation coming up and want it to feel more human, more credible and more memorable, this is exactly the sort of thing we work on in our sessions.

And if you’d like a bit of help sharpening your story, you know where to find me.