S6 Ep5: Storytelling Tips— How to Use Your Story to Craft Engaging Presentations with Frances Cole Jones
“If your story does not demonstrate how you’re going to make your listeners’ life better, then they’re going to stop listening. So one big thing is framing your story in such a way that it not only includes, but it is in service to the people that you’re speaking to.” — Frances Cole Jones
When it comes to presenting information, stories are often the most effective way to capture and hold the attention of our audience. By understanding the basics of storytelling, we can create memorable and engaging presentations that will leave our audience wanting more.
In this episode, Justine talks with author, speaker, and Presentation Coach, Frances Cole Jones. Frances is a prominent guest speaker, frequently traveling across the U.S. to share her expertise in sales and customer service.
Listen in as Justine and Frances share how to get started in media training, mistakes that founders should avoid, how to build your story effectively, how breathing can calm you, how to prepare for a presentation, the importance of strategizing, and what to do when someone starts yelling at you.
Connect with Frances:
Frances speaks frequently around the country on topics such as “10 Things You Can Do Today to Wow Tomorrow”, “Feels Like (Virtual) Team Spirit”, “Catch Your Customer’s Attention—Keep Their Trust”, and “The Art of Selling.”
In addition to writing and speaking, Frances is in the midst of a 3.5-year training with the Yoga Well Institute for certification as a yoga therapist. These skills enable her to work with clients to address physical impediments to presenting their best selves: anxiety, insomnia, back/neck/wrist pain, etc.
Frances began her career at St. Martin’s Press, Viking Penguin, and Doubleday as an editor of commercial nonfiction. The experience of helping authors translate their ideas into books that retain their unique voice is part of what makes her valuable to clients. “There’s no point in my writing a perfectly crafted sound bite that you have to strain to remember,” Frances says. “You need to sound like you. You on your best day.”
Episode Highlights:
00:50 Presentations Make a Difference
05:49 How to Build Your Story
09:54 The Importance of Breathing
12:04 The Importance of Strategizing
16:03 When Someone Yells at You
Resources:
Book
Tweets:
Wow your audience! Learn how to use our own narrative and experiences to craft an engaging presentation that will leave a lasting impact. Listen in as @jreichman and @FCJones share how. #podcast #entrepreneurship #socialgood #inspiration #impactmatters #NextGenChef #EssentialIngredients #presentationstips #speakingtips p#publicspeaking #customerservice #trustcoversations #HowtoWow
Inspirational Quotes:
01:37 "You can have a great product, but if you can't present it and show it in the right lights, you're going to lose them right at the go." —Justine Reichman
03:24 "It's impossible to present your best self if you're in pain." —Frances Cole Jones
04:19 "If your story does not demonstrate how you're going to make your listeners' life better, then they're going to stop listening. So one big thing is framing your story in such a way that it not only includes, but it is in service to the people that you're speaking to." —Frances Cole Jones
09:14 "They remember longer, take in more, and they're so much more relaxed if you can make them laugh a little bit. It just makes it seem less like work." —Frances Cole Jones
16:41 "You have to make the person that you're talking to feel like you've heard them. And if it's a trust conversation, it's about feeling heard." —Frances Cole Jones
18:35 "When someone's upset, you don't necessarily want to go straight to fixing the problem. You need to wallow with them." —Frances Cole Jones
Transcriptions:
Justine Reichman: Welcome to Essential Ingredients. I'm your host, Justine Reichman. Today with me is Frances Cole Jones.
Welcome, Francis.
Frances Cole Jones: Thank you.
Justine Reichman: So great to see you here today, Frances.
Frances Cole Jones: It's fun to be here.
Justine Reichman: It's great. It's been so long since I've seen you. And not only are you a guest, you're a friend, and it's fun to have friends on the show. I don't get to do that often enough. And I'm so honored to have a friend that is a great resource for my community. So thanks for joining. So for those that don't know you, Frances, would you share with them a little bit about who you are, what you do, and what Frances Cole Jones Inc is?
"You can have a great product, but if you can't present it and show it in the right lights, you're going to lose them right at the go." —Justine Reichman
Frances Cole Jones: As you said, a resource. For example, if you need media training, so you have a podcast as Justine does, or you are going on a local radio show to talk about your product or your service, or you're standing up in front of a roomful of investors and you're trying to raise money. This is what I do, I help people present themselves and their product or their service in the most compelling way possible.
Justine Reichman: That is so important, especially for our founders and people that are innovating and coming up with new products. Because you can have a great product, but if you can't present it and show it in the right lights, you're gonna lose them right at the go.
Frances Cole Jones: I can have a great idea and get people to understand why it's a great idea. They're not going to give you money. So really, it starts from the very seed, the germination of the project, all the way through to taking it out onto the market.
Justine Reichman: You get started with Frances Cole Jones Inc.
Frances Cole Jones: I used to work in media training. I mean in publishing with authors, and we would hire media trainers to work with my authors, and I watched how they did that. And I thought, okay, I think I can do it. Maybe I can do it better. So I quit my job, and I got myself trained, and I went into business for myself in 1997.
"It's impossible to present your best self if you're in pain." —Frances Cole Jones
Justine Reichman: Wow. Okay, and so you've been doing this ever since? Wow. And so your business has also expanded? It's not just media training anymore. Can you talk to me a little bit about that, and what other resources you're offering your clients now.
Frances Cole Jones: So in addition to the television interview, so print interviews, the radio interviews, the investment, meetings that you might have. I'm also working as a yoga therapist. So what that does is it gives me tools to help clients who might be frightened about speaking in public for whatever reason, or who just find themselves a little short of breath when they have to do that. The other thing that it does, and again, it depends on your industry. Is it for clients who have terrible back pain from sitting at a desk all day, or if you have chefs among your cohort who have repetitive stress injuries from doing the same thing all day, then it gives me a way to work with them because it's impossible to present your best self if you're in pain. That's an additional set, the tools that I bring to this. So the management of anxiety. And then literally, the management of the physical pain as well.
"If your story does not demonstrate how you're going to make your listeners' life better, then they're going to stop listening. So one big thing is framing your story in such a way that it not only includes, but it is in service to the people that you're speaking to." —Frances Cole Jones
Justine Reichman: Yeah. I imagine that if we just go back to even presenting, when people are presenting their business, raising money, it creates anxiety for many people, and also not knowing how to do it properly. You have a lot to lose there, and you've got a lot to gain. So what are some of the things that you see people doing wrong? And what are some of the things that you recommend for some of those founders that are going out for the first time?
Frances Cole Jones: Many people make the mistake of telling their story in those situations. Let me tell you about myself in my story. People don't care about your story. They care about how you're going to make their life better. All right. So if your story does not demonstrate how you're going to make your listeners' life better, then they're going to stop listening because nobody cares. They simply don't. So that's one big thing is actually framing your story in such a way that it not only includes, but it is in service to the people that you're speaking to. The other thing that happens quite a bit is people fall back on what's known in my business as the useless modifier. Oh, it's great. It's amazing. It's incredible. It's awesome. That's so cool. I don't know what you're talking about. You could be talking about your sweater, you could be talking about your sandwich. Nothing happens in my brain when you say that. So you have to have very short, very short stories about every product and service that you're offering. And ideally, those stories demonstrate how you're going to make the person's life better.
Justine Reichman: I like that. So if I'm talking about a consumer product that I've just created, it's innovative, it's new. People haven't seen or heard of it before and I can't bring it to them because you're doing it over zoom. What's the best way to communicate the taste for them to imagine it?
Frances Cole Jones: Just a super broad example of what that might be. Are we gonna be talking about hot sauce? We talking--
Justine Reichman: Let's use hot sauce.
Frances Cole Jones: So first thing you want to do in that situation, I would do is you want to forestall their inevitable feeling, which is like there are a million odd cells out there, so why is yours different? So I would build that in as I begin talking to people and say, I'm sure the first thing you're thinking is you said there is like what's so great about this girl's hot sauce? Let me tell you. All right. So imagine their objection, see if you can forestall it, but do it in a humorous way. You don't want to put people on the spot and then say, ideally, you will have done a little research. So Justine, I know one of the things you love most in the world, we're making this up now is eggs in the morning, right? And now, you want your eggs to be a little bit zippy in the morning because you love them, and you want to get your day started. But you want to be so zippy that if you're drinking coffee too and you end up feeling wretched within the hour, right? So what I've done is I've created a hot sauce, like sparkles on your palate, but it doesn't burn in your stomach. So now, okay, do you see what I'm doing? I'm in about you, right? I've offset your concerns about too many, I've explained why mine's a little bit different. It's got zing, but it doesn't destroy you. And I've demonstrated that, I've done some research into you and your background. So again, those are the kinds of ways you want to start to build the stories for people.
Justine Reichman: I like that. I mean, I think it's personal, and it talks about the hot sauce, and I can relate to it. And I can envision it, and I want to try it.
Frances Cole Jones: My mythical sauce is now a win.
Justine Reichman: I think that's a great tool for people to be able to take away from this. And I know that we work with a lot of people in this day and age that are now doing things on Zoom, and it's become a challenge when you can't taste or send things ahead of time, or things break, or this and that. I don't know what you've been seeing, but it's been a challenge.
Frances Cole Jones: The other thing you need to do with Zoom is if people can, if you have a product that requires feeling, you don't want to say like, wow, just the interview. If you're telling me your sweater, you could say like, oh, my sweater is so soft. It's the softest sweater I've ever worn. Nothing's happening in my brain. This sweater is as soft as a thousand baby kittens. Okay, that's interesting. If you're selling eyeglasses on Zoom and you want to say, you know what? These eyeglasses are lighter than probably most of the blue light glasses that people are wearing. And let me give you an example. Do you have paper clips in your office? This pair of eyeglass frames only weighs as much as 20 paper clips. Okay, now, that's interesting. Now I know. So it's giving people a frame of reference that is unusual enough that it makes them laugh and they remember it like a thousand baby kittens. Or like literally picking up something in your office, and that's how much it weighs. So you want to begin to think through all of those things.
"They remember longer, take in more, and they're so much more relaxed if you can make them laugh a little bit. It just makes it seem less like work." —Frances Cole Jones
Justine Reichman: Well, the common thread that I enjoy throughout all this is a sense of humor.
Frances Cole Jones: They remember longer, and they take in more, and they're so much more relaxed if you can make them laugh a little bit. It just makes it seem less like work.
Justine Reichman: So the other thing I just wanted to bring up because I know it's relevant for me, and I know it's relevant for a lot of people saying that anxiety. When you're pitching and when you're talking to people, it can be very anxiety writing and debilitating. And I know you said that you had a lot of tools, whether it was yoga, breathing, or all sorts of things. I'd love for you to just share a couple tips that you might have for our listeners and viewers.
Frances Cole Jones: One of the first things to think about is that you want to close your mouth and breathe through your nose. All right, breathing through your mouth tells your body you are in distress, that's going to calm everything down. Slow everything down, then really, it's honestly, it's about taking a big inhale and allowing your stomach to expand because people do these big inhales and their chest expands. But it's when your abdomen expands, the whole rib cage has the opportunity to get involved. You're getting a little bit more air. So I would imagine that that's always a good thing. And then I think that it's important, and it sounds so irritating to practice out loud. Because you can think that you know how you're going to answer a question or start your presentation, but it's only when it's coming out of your mouth that you might notice a huge plot hole. I want you to practice out loud. But what I don't like to do, because one of the things that makes me really sad is when people say like, stand in front of your bathroom, their practice, nobody wants to do that, that's horrible. So what I want you to do is go for a walk and practice out loud. Or go for a run if you like running. I don't care, it doesn't interest me at all what exercise you do while you do this, but do it out loud while your body is in motion. It makes it less anxiety provoking for you. But the other thing that it does is it embeds the information in your body completely differently which helps you to pull it up later when you are stressed. So just doing that practice out loud, noticing where you get stuck. The other thing I want people to do before any kind of a big meeting or presentation is think of the worst three questions that you're going to get asked, and come up with those answers. So what you don't want to do is say, these are the worst, what are the worst? Three questions? Well, let's hope that one doesn't come on up. Hope is not a strategy.
Justine Reichman: I will remember that forever. I use that word everyone.
Frances Cole Jones: You really do. You have to come up with the worst three questions you're gonna get, and you want to have the answers to those. And then just as your failsafe answer. So say somebody asks you something and your mind goes completely blank. Nothing is happening. The way you want to respond is, I'd like to think about that for a moment because I want to be sure to give you the best answer possible. Nobody's like, oh, what's up with that? Justine, you want to give me the best answer possible. Just ask for the time that you need at that moment, but be sure to tell them why you need the time. Because I want to give you the best answer possible. Never had anybody who's mad about that.
Justine Reichman: No, it sounds thoughtful. It sounds sincere. You can't argue with that.
Frances Cole Jones: And if you don't have the answer to say, you know it, because I do want to give you the best answer. I don't want to just spit ball this, what I'm going to do is I'm going to get back to you within X amount of time. Always give them the by when you will get back to them. And then do get back to them. A lot of times, we will say I'm going to be getting back to you, but they don't tell me when, and then they don't do it. And now, trust has been broken. I'm never working with you again.
Justine Reichman: I like those tools. Thank you. Those are great. I know that you also have a lot of resources on your websites that you are putting together for the last, I don't know, 15, 17 years, how many years?
Frances Cole Jones: Writing? Every week for something like 17 years. My first book was called How To Wow. You can purchase that if you wish to. But what I also do is I write the WOW of The Week, and it comes out every week. Or now, these days every other week, because I am back in school full time. And what you can do is if you have a question about anxiety management, or presenting your best self, or storytelling, or customer service, or dealing with a hideous boss, or dealing with a hideous employee, I don't care. You can go on the website, which is francescolejones.com, and type in your keyword. We'll offer you many, many articles that are only about one page long because I don't have a lot of time. I don't have a lot of time. I'm not writing away for pages and pages, so let's get in and get out. You need your answer. You want to move on with your day. So type it in, you get your answer. Move on with your day. If you want to sign up, the WOW of The Week comes out every other week, and you can sign up there. I also, just for fun, I started recently something called Wow, that's a thought. You can sign up. You just get the daily quote in your inbox just for whatever reason, something that I ran across that I thought was really a thought provoking. It's usually about two sentences just to give you a springboard or an inspiration for your next great thought.
Justine Reichman: Is that on your Instagram or on your social media anywhere that I've seen?
Frances Cole Jones: I put my thoughts up on Instagram and also on Facebook. They're up there too, as well. But you can sign up and get them right in your inbox. However, you must like to get your information.
Justine Reichman: To circle back as you were going through all the different Wow things that you had. You mentioned customer service. So for entrepreneurs, customer services, and for startups and small businesses, in particular, customer service is really important. Because when I see these yelp reviews, and somebody was having a bad day, or you get one bad review, and you read those, people take them to heart. I think it's a really important topic to cover, so I'd love to hear your thoughts on that.
Frances Cole Jones: The hardest thing when someone is shrieking at you is not to become defensive. It's been my experience. So for example, just complain to me about something or say something, some reason why you don't think that my product or service is right for you.
"You have to make the person that you're talking to feel like you've heard them. And if it's a trust conversation, it's about feeling heard." —Frances Cole Jones
Justine Reichman: Why your product is not right for me because you do not call back. I can't trust it. You never returned my calls.
Frances Cole Jones: So at the moment, it is very very compelling to say. Well, I mean, I returned your call yesterday. The person that you're talking to feels like you've heard that. And if it's a trust conversation, it's about feeling heard. So in a moment to be able to say to somebody, I want to be sure that I understand why you're upset. When I hear you saying that when you call me, I don't get back to you as quickly, or by when I said that I would. Is that correct?
Justine Reichman: I like that. Yes, that is correct.
Frances Cole Jones: Okay, so what works about that response is, there's a lot that just went into that. One is you reframe what they've said. But what you want to do is you want at the end to say, is that right? What that does is it loops the other person back in, and then they said, yes, that's exactly right. Or no, I'm also bad about that. So it's reframing what they've said. A lot of people know about active listening, blah, blah, blah. This is one step beyond. It's listening, making sure that you're reflective listening, you've heard what they said, and then saying, is that right? It's a technique called looping. They actually teach it in divorce mediation.
Justine Reichman: Divorce mediation too?
"When someone's upset, you don't necessarily want to go straight to fixing the problem. You need to wallow with them." —Frances Cole Jones
Frances Cole Jones: I have never been through being divorced, but have to go to school. I went to school because I have a friend that is a divorce mediator. And whenever I talked to her, I could hear that she was doing something. I knew that something was going on, but I couldn't put my finger on what it was. And she said to me, she's like, oh, that's looping. They teach it in divorce mediation. I was like, I am signing up to become a divorce mediator, which I did. People might have figured it out by now, I really like going to school. Score makes me happy. I went to school, and I learned how to become a divorce mediator because this is the kind of thing that's useful. But the biggest takeaway truly for customer service is when someone's upset, you don't necessarily want to go straight to fixing the problem. You need to wallow with them. You need to be like, I told you, I absolutely hearing how upset you are. I really want to make sure I understand all the details of why you are so upset, and then make sure that I'm correct in my understanding. And then you can get to problem solving. And then the thing is when you get to problem solving, my other recommendation would be to always give people two options. I don't know if any of you, anyone listening that has kids. You know with children, you don't give them a yes or no question. You don't say, do you want apple juice? You say, do you want apple juice or water? You want to sit in this chair? Do you want to sit in that chair? Same thing with irate customers. Give them two choices. Do you want this one, or this one? Well, sounds like you want this one. Let's move you right over here to option B. They want to say no to you about something they want to be bad. Give them a chance to say no to you. So we wallow, we loop, and then we give two choices. There's a little mini course in customer service.
Justine Reichman: Oh, my god, I love this. I'm having fun. I have everyone else watching and listening is having fun. This has been so great. You've given so many tools, so many resources. And it's just been great. So if anybody wants to learn more about how to wow, the wow factor, the wow of the day, wow all the time, what's the website to go to?
Frances Cole Jones: It is my name, which is francescolejones.com. And if you just have a question, I have an ask a question section on the website. And if you don't have that on your website, I highly recommend it. It's a great way to build trust with people. I mean, you have to answer the questions. So don't build it, and don't answer the questions. Because again, trust is broken. But every question that I'm asked rolls directly to my phone. If people write and ask me questions, I will write to you back. So if anything's come up for anybody today, they have more questions about it, then just send me a note and I'll write you back.
Justine Reichman: We'll make sure to include your website in the show notes as well. Thank you so much for joining us today. I really appreciate it, and I'll see you guys all next week on Essential Ingredients.
