How to become a better storyteller in 2025
Storytelling matters more than ever. Read to find out where to start
👋 Hey, it’s Andrés. Welcome to Astrolab’s weekly newsletter on how to become a better communicator at work. We write for knowledge workers and business owners.
Today: Why storytelling matters in the age of AI, and how to get better at it
Read time: 9 minutes
Here’s my outline:
Why storytelling still matters
What storytelling is (and isn’t)
How to find, use and tell small stories
This post is the first part of a guide on why and how to become a better storyteller in 2025.
Storytelling? In 2025?
Last Thursday I attended Scott Galloway’s Predictions 2025 event. There, the NYU marketing professor spoke about trends in technology, health and culture.
After his talk, he got asked this first question during Q&A:
As a current junior in college, what is the best thing I can do to boost my career, and to be more financially stable?
Prof G’s response?
In terms of one attribute, one skill you need to develop? Storytelling.
Take every opportunity to speak in front of other people. Take every opportunity to become a decent writer. Figure out what mediums you’re good at. At you good on TikTok? Are you good on the phone? Are you outside on texting?
If you want to be really successful, you have to be able to stand in front of a group of people, or send them a memo that outlines your argument, your position, and moves them to action.
Storytelling is the core competence.
You could be thinking: How is storytelling still relevant, in times of GenAI, where people seem to be using AI to solve their communication daily problems?
Look at bars two and three of this graph that represents a random sample of 1M conversations asked at Anthropic’s Claude:
The answer is to understand what storytelling is, how to differentiate it with ordinary communication, and how to use it.
What storytelling is (and isn’t)
Storytelling is many things.
Here are five different meanings of the word:
When Scott Galloway talks about storytelling though, he’s not referring to any of these.
He’s referring to the ability of a typical knowledge worker to—as he says—be able to outline an argument, a position, and move others to action. This sounds like communication, just better.
For the past thirteen years, I’ve been studying what does good oral and written storytelling looks like for the ordinary professional or entrepreneur. Here’s a quick answer to the question on what is storytelling.
Storytelling is
The use of stories and narratives to connect with others, communicate ideas effectively and inspire change
Quick definitions:
A story is the brief retelling of an experience that help make a point, introduce human connection, or inspire change
A narrative is the sequencing of ideas that help explain a movement, brand or trend
Storytelling is a specific way of communicating ideas that goes beyond facts or describing things. Storytelling requires narrative, the emotional retelling of stuff that happened or can happen, versus just sharing data, insights or opinions.
SOMEHOW, narrative works better for the human brain.
Nobody can say really why this is the case, but there’s a lot of evidence on why storytelling is better for engagement, understanding, attention, memory and influence than just listening to facts.
Here’s a brief glimpse into these recent findings:
Going back to that graph mentioned above, I do think that GenAI is great at helping you structure your ideas, and even your stories and narratives, but there’s a human part of it that won’t be substituted by AI, at least not soon.
Here’s why:
Nuance: GenAI fails to bring the nuance you need in relationship-based communication
Uniqueness: Humans are bounded by their bodies and their biological lives. There’s something unique about each communication interaction you have with others, because we are finite. This brings relevance that can’t be replicated by AI
Relationships: While GenAI can build acquaintances, it cannot build relationships. Relationships are important in the process of communication, persuasion and influence because they make us accountable to others
I'll probably won’t convince anyone with all of this, though. You already have a strong opinion about the future of communication, and I respect that.
So *Andrés throws his hands in the air*, let’s move into the super specific how’s I recommend you to follow in order to become a better storyteller.
Here’s my starting point: if you want to become a better storyteller, you have to learn how to use both stories and narratives in your messages, conversations and presentations.
The combination of these two will give you a huge advantage (more money, more power, better connections, more impact) over those who don’t take the time or effort to master them.
In the rest of this post I’ll talk about small stories, and leave narratives for another post. Or read this if you’re curious.
The power of including small stories when communicating
Imagine you’re trying to share an insight, something you learned at work.
It could be about a specific process, about how clients love X feature, or about how you feel ready to lead a team.
How would you share this insight?
The most intuitive way is just to share the insight.
Let’s say you’re an actor and you want to talk about how you’ve gotten really good at learn lines fast. You would say something like:
I’m now learn lines incredibly fast.
How would you rate that? Not great. The insight sounds generic and it’s difficult to believe it without evidence.
A second step would be to add evidence, or a justification. It could be something like:
I’m now learn lines incredibly fast, because I’ve been doing this since I was six.
Ok, this is much better. It still is not memorable enough, and therefore, it is forgettable.
Here’s how a small story that the actor Kieran Culkin told can take this insight into another level:
I’m now learn lines incredibly fast, because I’ve been doing this since I was six. It’s almost like a fun party trick.
It pissed Brian Cox one day [who plays Logan Roy] cause he’s being acting for a very long time, and he has a process, and it takes him very long time to learn lines.
We showed up in set one time and U said: We’re doing this scene? I don’t know it! I didn’t know we were shooting the scene today.
I looked it over and did like a quick rehearsal. And then I had to get dressed, get ready, and got called to set.
Brian goes: Do you know it?
And I said: I don’t know, we’ll see.
We shot, and I just knew it. It just came out, I just did it.
And then he goes: When did you learn that, just now?
And I said:Yes, just now.
And he said: DAMMIT! I stayed up all night learning this!
Yes, there’s a difference in word number and in time spent. Now, I’m not including what Kieran could have done to expand on his idea instead of sharing his story. Something like:
I’m now learn lines incredibly fast, because I’ve been doing this since I was six. It’s almost like a fun party trick. I’ve noticed that this surprises other people. They can’t believe how quickly I do this. I can literally take some lines and learn them right now, if you want. Because, I have to say, most actors struggle to learn lines in little time. I’ve heard about people who stay up all night, and then find out that I just learned them with a glance and a couple of rehearses just before we shoot a scene…
Do you see and feel the difference?
Small stories—this one took Kieran Culkin less than a minute to share— can help bring an idea to life. It can help your audience see and feel what you’re saying in a much easy, fun, and also deeper way.
Here’s another example, courtesy of
—follow him to read someone on the road to becoming an amazing professor and economist with a strong tendency to start from empathy—. Again, think about how Jay’s story is told in less than sixty seconds:Now, don’t wait for big presentations or an interview with Stephen Colbert: find ways to reinforce your ideas, insights or pieces of data with small stories, anecdotes or examples in your daily communication interactions such as
Q&As
Keynotes
Small talk
Presentations
Team meetings
Slack messages
Networking event
1-on-1 conversations
I want to share with you three things you need to learn how to do in order to leverage their power at work.
Think of these three things as a guide to get better with time. Bookmark this post so that you can revisit it every once in a while.
Because I’m certain of this: becoming great at this takes time, effort and experimentation.
Three-step process to master
Step #1: Be constantly on the look
Step one is about becoming self-conscious about where or when could you include small stories.
Open your calendar, and look at your different meetings, appointments and conversations.
What is expected of you in those interactions?
In most —or at least in some— of them, you’re expected to say stuff: talk about you, propose an improvement, share an insight.
Here’s your opportunity to share a small story that can help you be clear, human, and even engaging.
If you feel that you’re still not ready, pay attention and take notes: How do you actually communicate in these moments? Do others appear to listen, or do they automatically tune out? Which meetings could be a safe space to start practicing?
If you’re ready, go to the next step.
Step #2: Find, craft and archive stories
Here’s the thinking part of using small stories: you need to find them and edit them so they are ready to be shared. The challenge is to not overthink.
The first question is to start looking for stories you could share on some of the moments we discussed above.
This can be tricky, especially if you haven’t built the habit of including stories in your messages, conversations or presentations.
There are many ways to look for stories.
If you want to look for good examples, go to TED.com. Here’s the transcript for a TED talk I found about a family of farmers. I highlighted in yellow where the speakers share a small story:
I would suggest you to look for your own stories.
At our storytelling workshop we ask the participants to fill in a tool inspired on timelines, named The Milestones of your Life. It looks like this when you fill it with your stories:
Once you have a number of work appropriate stories, give them a facelift. Here’s a guide that can help you, also taken from our storytelling workshop:
Make sure you archive the different stories you work on. Nothing sucks more that working on a story, and then forget about it, or losing it.
I personally use Notes to save my stories.
More organized people like me—any Tiago Forte fans?— use better tools. But do find a way that works for you.
Finally, only one thing is missing:
Step #3: Dare to share them (but pay attention to what works and what doesn’t)
None of the previous matters if you don’t actually share your stories.
There are many reasons why not to share them, but here’s the thing:
Happiness is only real when shared,
said(ish) Christopher McCandless.
With storytelling happens exactly the same:
Storytelling is only real when shared.
You’ll leverage the power of storytelling only if you start using them, and making them better with your audience’s feedback.
I’ll leave you with some cautionary words on why to actually dare to use stories:
You have a choice. You can do what most people do: fail to tell stories, fail to tell the right stories, fail to tell the stories well. Or, most commonly, use the word storytelling as a buzzword without actually engaging in the craft in any meaningful way.
–Matthew Dicks, Stories Sell
That’s all for today. I’ll see you next Thursday!
Andrés
Briefs
I succumbed: This is the first post that does not start with the word You. Do you think I should go back?
Poll on a break:
Most watched TED Talk in 2024: Is Scott’s! Any highlights?