The storytelling trick that will super-charge your interviews, networking, and branding
Do you find yourself losing audience attention halfway into your stories? Or do you have cool stories to share but can’t quite figure out how to frame them? From intense interviews to meeting new people to brand marketing, weaving a compelling story can be challenging. Luckily there’s a long-standing interview trick you can use called the STAR method.
What is STAR?
Oftentimes in interviews, you’ll be asked you’ll often be asked specific, focused questions (e.g., “Describe a time when you had to handle…”) to elicit concrete examples of how you addressed situations in the past. One of the best ways to formulate your answer is using the STAR method.
S: Situation - Set the stage with high-level facts. What was the challenge you had to overcome or the situation you were faced with?
T: Task - What was the outcome you were trying to achieve? What was your role in the story?
A: Action - What did you do? Why did you do it? What other alternatives were there?
R: Results - Did you successfully achieve measurable results? Or did you fail and learn something valuable along the way?
This bright acronym is not only helpful in interviews! You can also leverage it every day in your writing, networking, and beyond. Here’s how you can play with the STAR method to improve all your stories.
Becoming the STAR of your stories
Amazing storytellers understand how to set the scene, show not tell, and tie the story together. Whether in an interview or out networking, you can leverage the STAR method to strengthen your story.
It may sound nerdy, but many of us experience social anxiety. “What do I say?” “What will people think?” I mean… raise your digital hand if you also hate small talk. Overcome this anxiety by preparing stories ahead of time — just like you would prepare for an interview.
Once you follow the STAR format, your storytelling will take on more structure, and telling stories will be more fun for you and your audience. The goal here isn’t to strip every story to its bare bones. It’s to help you learn how to flesh out a story with a hook, intriguing middle, and satisfying end.
Using STAR to frame your brand
When writing a campaign, email, script, commercial, etc., you need to be able to quickly grab the attention of your audience, explain the problem, and ideally how your product is the solution. Infomercials are a perfect, super obvious — too obvious — example of this. Today’s brands tend to be more real and genuine. You can achieve that by giving your brand the voice of a person.
In the voice-over commercial world, we often play the role of “guy/girl next door.” Think about your brand’s voice before writing a story in the voice. A fun example? Recall the Old Spice ads. “Look at me. Now, look at you.” Are you reading that in commercial character’s voice?
Give your brand a human voice and use it to shape your marketing content. Humans love stories and storytelling, but they also crave connection. Framing your brand messages with STAR provides a natural structure to build in layers of personality.
Let’s practice
For an interview:
Your prompt: “Tell me about a time you or your team failed.”
S: “Our leadership wanted us to build our brand and thought leadership in our space.”
T: “We set a goal to increase organic blog traffic by 14% YoY”
A: “We used SEO keywords and increased the volume of blog output from 3 per week to 5.”
R: “We achieved our goal of a 14% increase in traffic, but our conversion rates and engagement on social media dipped. We learned that we needed to adjust our content from a quantity mindset to quality and started to add more engaging, thought leadership content into the mix.”
For networking:
Your prompt: “What did you do this weekend?”
S: “I had some free time Saturday afternoon, and it was a beautiful day outside.”
T: “In the new year I’d committed to trying a new sport that would get me outside more.”
A: “So I decided to join some friends and try out disc golf.”
R: “I had a blast learning a new sport, felt really great after being outside with friends all day, and I’m going again this Saturday. You should join us!”
For your brand:
S: Stacy is always cutting her legs with that razor and soap! Cue infomercial shenanigans.
T: She needs to shave her legs safely so they feel soft and smooth and goddess-like.
A: Introducing this super-cool razor product that has a protective shield and moisturizing band.
R: Stacy has smooth legs, no cuts, AND her legs are that of Aphrodite herself.
More STAR resources
There are tons of excellent resources to learn more about STAR, here are some of my favorites:
Have other fun interviews or first impression tips and tricks? Please share in the comments below, I’d love to hear them.