TED Talks Storytelling: 23 Storytelling Techniques from the Best TED Talks

by Akash Karia

"Every speaker can put these ideas into practice immediately -- and they should!" ~ Dr. Richard C. Harris, Certified World Class Speaking Coach

"An insightful read" ~Dennis Waller, Top 500 Reviewer

"Superb communication advice" ~ Larry Nocella


MASTER THE ONE THING ALL GREAT TED TALKS HAVE IN COMMON

What is the secret to delivering a great TED talk?

What is the magic ingredient that makes a TED talk captivating?

And more importantly, how can you use those secrets to make your presentations more powerful, dynamic and engaging?

To try to answer these questions, I studied over 200 of the best TED talks. I broke each TED talk down in terms of structure, message and delivery.

Here’s what I discovered. After studying over 200 TED talks, the one commonality among all the great TED talks is that they contain stories.


UTILIZE ADVANCED STORYTELLING TECHNIQUES TO INJECT LIFE INTO YOUR PRESENTATIONS

Essentially, the best speakers on the TED stage were the ones who had mastered the art of storytelling. They had mastered how to craft and present their stories in a way that allowed them to share their message with the world without seeming like they were lecturing their audience.


DISCOVER THE 23 STORYTELLING SECRETS OF THE BEST TED TALKS

In this short but powerful guide, you’re going to learn how to use stories to make your presentations engaging and entertaining. Using case studies drawn from TED talks by Sir Ken Robinson, Dr. Jill Bolte Taylor, Susan Cain, Leslie Morgan Steiner, Mike Rowe and Malcom Gladwell , you’ll learn how to craft stories that keep your audience mesmerized.

By the time you’ve finished reading this storytelling manifesto, you will have picked up twenty-three principles on how to create stories that keep your audiences mesmerized.

Whether you are giving a TED talk or a corporate presentation, you will be able to apply the principles you pick up in this guide to make your next talk a roaring success!


RAVE REVIEWS FROM READERS

"No more boring speeches and presentations" ~ Douglas L. Coppock

"A crisp and no fluff book" ~ Kam Syed

"A great book on storytelling" ~ David Bishop

"Excellent book for any speaker" ~ Dean Krosecz

Genres: Nonfiction, Business, Self Help, Writing, Leadership, Communication, Reference

72 pages, Paperback

First published December 9, 2013

About the author

Akash Karia is a professional speaker who has trained thousands of people worldwide, from bankers in Hong Kong to yoga teachers in Thailand to senior executives in Dubai. He is an award-winner trainer who has been ranked as one of the Top 10 Speakers in Asia-Pacific.

He writes books on public speaking and success, sharing proven tools and techniques for the price of a cup of coffee. What separates him from other authors is that his books are based on hundreds of hours of intensive scientific research. All these tools are delivered in a simple, easy-to-read, step-by-step format that you can implement immediately.

Reviews

[Lori Tian Sailiata · Rating 1 out of 5]

Infomercial. A glorified blog post. The "meat" of the book is well covered in other books on public speaking.

[Book Shark · Rating 4 out of 5]

TED Talks Storytelling: 23 Storytelling Techniques from the Best TED Talks by Akash Karia

“TED Talks Storytelling" is a very helpful and succinct book on how to deliver a great TED (Technology, Entertainment, Design) talk. Professional speaker Akash Karia provides readers with a valuable tool that every professional should have. This useful 41-page book includes the following nine chapters: 1. The Magic Ingredient in Delivering a Great TED Talk, 2. The ‘Story Start’, 3. The Surprising Element That Makes a Story Irresistible, 4. Provide Sensory Details to Breathe Life Into Your Characters, 5. Create Mental Motion Pictures for Your Audience Using all Your Senses, 6. Provide Specific Details, 7. The Power of Positive Stories, 8. The Spark, The Change and the Takeaway, and 9. Wrap Up

Positives:
1. A well-written and well-researched book that gets to the point.
2. Addresses an important skill, how to deliver a great talk.
3. Excellent format. Each chapter covers a main idea and concludes with a summary.
4. Useful book that can serve as a guide for many types of oral presentations or speeches.
5. Based on research covering over 200 TED talks.
6. Useful tips. “The best way to thank your audience for the opportunity to speak to them is to deliver a speech that keeps them engaged, interested and involved.”
7. So what keeps audiences engaged? Find out.
8. The importance of providing specific details.
9. The importance of dialogue in storytelling.
10. Provides twenty-three principles to make your next presentation an outstanding success.

Negatives:
1. This book is an appetizer for the main course I suggest you pick up, “How to Deliver a Great TED Talk” from the same author. It covers the same material in more details.
2. Karia is a salesman to a fault.
3. No formal bibliography.
4. A typo in the table of contents.

In summary, I enjoyed this appetizer. Mr. Karia provides the readers with a succinct guide on how to provide a great TED talk. It’s useful and to the point. It lacks details but it gives you enough to whet your appetite. Perfect quick read in the subway, I recommend it.

Further recommendations: Karia offers a long list of books covering this topic. “How to Deliver a TED Talk” by Jeremey Donovan, “Presentation Zen” by Garr Reynolds, “Lead with a Story” by Paul Smith, “Talk Like TED” by Carmine Gallo, “The Power of Visual Storytelling” by Ekaterina Walter, “Own the Room” by Peter Desberg, and “World Class Speaking in Action” by Craig Valentine.

[Arun Divakar · Rating 3 out of 5]

TED has had a tremendous impact on my life and thoughts both personally and professionally. I spent countless hours browsing through the talks and the whole idea of making a talk last only 18 minutes irrespective of the speaker appeals to me a great deal. The biggest benefit of this rule is that it automatically tunes out the irrelevant speakers and topics from this forum. The no-bullshit delivery of the speakers are sometimes so audacious that you cannot but help hang on to their words. It is through TED that I got to listen to such amazing speakers like Susan Cain (The Power Of Introverts), Simon Sinek (How Great Leaders Inspire Action/ Start With The Why), Ken Robinson (Do Schools Kill Creativity ?), Keith Barry (Brain Magic) and countless others. The stories move, inspire and make you want to be a better inhabitant of the earth. From a professional standpoint, I have also been able to take away from these talks some very effective cues on how to make presentations in a crisp, concise manner. All things considered, I love the site and the talks. This little book is a distillation of some of the best practices followed by the great speakers from the sessions.

The difference between a great speaker and a good speaker is that you think and mull over the ideas from the talks of a great speaker for a prolonged period of time. Their talks connect with your thought process (or your heart strings depending on the topic) and you can recollect the core of what they spoke about without difficulty. I can still recollect Susan Cain talking about her grandfather who was a kindly Rabbi living in a book filled apartment in Brooklyn. The funny part is that I listened to her talk almost a year and half ago. In an era where memory is as short lived as a mayfly, that is saying something about a speaker touching your mind ! Without exception, most of these great speakers are fantastic storytellers too. You can never resist a good story, can you ? Akash Karia captures around 23 points from some of the most popular talks and puts into a format that can be replicated in terms of corporate presentations or public speaking engagements. Like a TED talk, the book is short and to the point.

If you are observant enough, this book might appear to be an overkill to you for it speaks a lot of things which are plain obvious. But the intended audience of this book are people who find it a tad difficult structure a talk a presentation in a way that connects with the people in the room. A very quick and easy read but make it a point to watch a lot many of TED videos before you put these into practice in front of an audience. Trust me, it works !

[Flohallo · Rating 2 out of 5]

Very shallow principles for telling stories. Could be summed up as follows: Tell stories, use sensory details and dialogues, give conflict and make characters overcome conflict with the help of a principle that the listeners can take home and use themselves.

[Dan · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a masterclass in storytelling but it is more geared towards presenting your stories than telling them. So much more about Ted Talks than Moth Storytelling for instance. The emphasis here is on dramatic moments instead of on the honesty of the moment. It is a great book that references some amazing Ted talks in it examples and inspires the readers to look for excellence in their own lives.

I'd strongly recommend this if you are going to be doing a professional presentation in front of others.

[Sandy Morley · Rating 1 out of 5]

Better salesmen knock on your door

There's no 23, there's no storytelling, and there's no techniques. The only thing I learnt from this was how blatantly you can (try to) direct people to a sales funnel without straight up asking for your money.

If you follow some of these "tips" for your next corporate presentation, you're asking to be taken off presentation duty forever.

[Marco Tadini · Rating 4 out of 5]

Nice book with some useful public speaking and story telling tools. There is also a good application on links to TED talks videos to test the tools immediately.

Thank you Akash

[محمد · Rating 3 out of 5]

دائماً ما تتبوأ موهبة السرد القصصي منزلة رفيعة في الكتابة الروائية, وقد تصبح جزءاً عظيما من الهيكل العالم للقصة, ولا أهمش بذلك أهمية عنصر التعديل والبناء على القصة, وما لحقها من طرائق تنظيمية لهندستها والارتقاء بجودتها “فالعظمة ليست في الكتابة نفسها, إنما هي في إعادتها” أو هكذا قال همنغواي. وفي هذا الكتاب يتطرق أكاش -وهو أحد معلمي فن الإلقاء- بعد تحليله ل٢٠٠ مقطع فيديو من مقاطع TED TALK بمتوسط 18 دقيقة لكل مقطع, لأكثر المتحدثيين نجاحاً , ليتوصل إلى ٢٣ قاعدة في فن السرد القصصي, وأشبهها أكثر بالنقاط, لأن منها ما يتخذ كقاعدة في الكتابة, ومنها ما يذهب على أنه رأي أو حقيقة توصل إليها الكاتب, وهذه النقاط جاء بها دعما للحكاية الإلقائية, وكثير منها يشابه ما يستخدم في قواعد الكتابة الورقية, وأحصر النقاط في الآتي:


١- تحليل السرد القصصي عند من أتقنو فنونه من خلال المشاهدات لهذه المقاطع.
٢- قاعدة جذب الجمهور في أقل من ٣٠ ثانية للحكاية, لئلا يفقد الجمهور الاهتمام.
٣- الدخول في القصة مباشرة, وعدم تضجير الجمهور بالمقدمات.
٤- للقصة قوة عظيمة, ويعود ذلك للفطرة الآدمية التي تنجذب دوما إليها.
٥- القصة تأخذ الجمهور لرحلة تخيلية لا يستطيعون معها صبرا.
٦- مشاركة القصص/التجارب الشخصية.
٧- يعد الصراع العنصر الأهم في القصة, وكلما تفاقم, كلما زاد تعلق المستمع/القارئ بها.
٨- أن يسأل الكاتب نفسه “هل الصراع في قصتي قوي؟ وهل سيجذب الجمهور؟”
٩- قاعدة “لا صراع = لا فضول = لا اهتمام”
١٠- إحياء الشخصيات بإبراز التفاصيل المتصورة عن مظاهرهم
١١- توفير التفاصيل الكافية لبناء تصور ذهني لدى المستمع/القارئ
١٢- قاعدة Show don’t tell
١٣- اقحام الحواس الخمسة في القصة, لتفعيل أعلى قدر من التعايش بينها وبين المستمع/القارئ
١٤- اقحام أكبر قدر من الحواس, وجعل الوصف مختصراً
١٥- التفاصيل تجعل القارئ يتخيل القصة
١٦- الدقة في السرد
١٧- القصص الإيجابية تخول القاص إلى إيصال رسالته بطريقة غير مباشرة
١٨- ترك المستمع/القارئ بأحاسيس إيجابية عند الانتهاء من القصة
١٩- استخدام ال Dialogue أشد تأثيراً من السرد المباشر
٢٠- وضع العنصر المؤثر الذي جعل الشخصية تتفوق على صراعها
٢١- إبراز التغير في الشخصيات وفقاً للصراع
٢٢- إغلاق القصة بفائدة يستفيد منها المستمع/القارئ
٢٣- جعل الرسالة من وراء القصة مختصرة حتى يتسنى المستمع/القارئ تذكرها


أعتقد أن الكاتب لم يكن مختصاً بالشكل الكافي ليتطرق إلى أعماق وتفاصيل هذا الفن المعقد, واكتفى بالمرور فوق البديهيات فيه, وليس بالشكل الكاف حتى, ففي بعض المواطن يناقض نفسه, من ناحية وضع الكثير من التفاصيل ليتصور المستمع/القارئ الحكاية, ومن اختصارها حتى لا يفقد التركيز. بصفة عامة لا يستحق كل هذه القراءة, ولا يستحق هذه المراجعة أيضاً (^ـ^)

[Vertrees · Rating 4 out of 5]

Great suggesting for improving a story. Most things I have heard before, and it was a nice review.

[Anis Mohamed · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is such a small book, not very well written, could have been made just an article, but I gave it 3 stars because it introduced me to a few TED talks that have opened the horizons to much much more learning, the techniques mentioned in the book are O.K. I think I will take with me 3 out of the 23.

But Sir Ken Robinson was super inspiring as a TED talker, I ended up watching all his talks, and I put one of his books on my reading list. Thus I thank this small book for this introduction.

Read it and watch the talks mentioned, and you might be inspired too.

[Sandrene · Rating 5 out of 5]

As quick, informative and captivating as a TED Talk

This book provides great insight and tips for both the novice and experienced storyteller. It is a quick read with great bullet points and a summary outline at the end. Whether you’re doing public speaking, pitching an idea or just writing a novel or screenplay, these points are good to come back to over and over again. As someone who does all of the above, I plan to revisit these techniques anytime I’m working on something new.

[Robert Hausladen · Rating 5 out of 5]

A great study of some great talks.

Akash Maria really takes apart one of the essential elements of the best TED talks -- storytelling. Having watched a great many of these over the years I was delighted with his selections of talks to illustrate his points. I usually have reservations about books of a certain number of tips, but Akash does it quite well and really fits the analysis to the talk.

[Pathma Liyanage · Rating 5 out of 5]

This information is 100x more effective than the public speaking class i took in college!

This book is the perfect size for everyone, especially science and engineering students I usually have to listen to on regular basis. If more scientists adopt some of the friendlier aspects described in this book when they speak to the public, I’m sure science will be better received by our society.

[Tamás Sisák · Rating 3 out of 5]

While I've loved the contents and couldn't put the book down, I can't help but agree with my fellow readers that the format, having it sold as a book, seems a bit forced – it could've been presented as an article, a blog post or even a short talk. It's a great introduction and a concise point of reference, but in the end it is still too short.

[Margaret Spence · Rating 5 out of 5]

Excellent book

Short, on point, gets right to the point - excellent. Even for seasoned speakers this book is packed with specific information that you can use immediately to improve any speech.

[Martim Neto Mariano · Rating 5 out of 5]

I’ve got absolutely astounded by the authors clarity and way of explaining techniques and resources to the readers!! Akash Karia nailed it completely. This will help me a lot in my professional practice. Bravo

[Jason Mays · Rating 4 out of 5]

Thanks for the insights!

Great presentation on how to effectively communicate to an audience. I love TED talks when I can watch them. Here is to a better speaking ability!

[Stephanie Sherie · Rating 4 out of 5]

The book/guide solidly delivered as promised but is proof that exact execution doesn't always entice the WOW factor. You will get to lightly dissect some of the best TED talks to see how it is that they delivered such knockout content. To keep your expectations in check, think of this as more of a how to guide than a book. What you will get from reading this guide is succinct, high level and formulaic storytelling technique. At the end of each chapter, the author repeats his points in a set of bullet points. Honestly, to make this an even shorter read, you can just skip to the back of each chapter, read the bullet points and feel just as informed.
What you won't get from this book is very new content, unless you are brand new to storytelling. Even then if you have seen good TV, than none of this is surprising to you. You also will not get very much instruction on how to incorporate these 23 techniques.
I gave this 4 stars because indeed we did get 23 storytelling techniques, as promised and he got straight to the point. Akash focuses on reiterating what specific speakers did right and that is valuable. In conjunction, it would have been nice to see some more practical application of these techniques. Perhaps, introduce one story at the beginning of the guide, then as we go through and learn the 23 techniques, we apply them to the story introduced at the beginning. That way, when the book ends we see how a story was perfected. Most of us are great at formulating a story, it's correcting our errors and making it better that we struggle.
In a nutshell, you can easily find this information doing a quick web search but if you have your heart set on this guide, it delivers, quickly.

[Keith Quackenbush · Rating 2 out of 5]

I’ll follow the advice in the book and open with a story, with personal connections, conflict, and characters.

Sitting at home, I quickly finished this book. Unsatisfied, I turned to my wife and said “Cheese”. She looked up from her book, interested to hear my thoughts. I then said “you could have written that”. Before I could catch myself, my brilliant quick witted babe responded ...”I could have written cheese?”

Oh no, a faux pas! I may have actually uttered the sound that Homer Simpson utters in circumstances like these.

Scrambling, I added “I could have written that. We totally could write something better. In fact, let’s write a book together tomorrow”.

I’m now searching for books on relationships and emotional intelligence on Good Reads...

I hope that you enjoy and appreciate my review. You likely won’t receive any enjoyment from this book.

[Amanda · Rating 4 out of 5]

The reason I originally picked this book up was for a college assignment in a storytelling class rather than a genuine desire to be a better speaker. That being said, I have to admit that this book provides awesome tips for public speaking! Anyone that will ever be asked to give a speech or presentation should read this short book. I really appreciated that the author didn't needlessly drag out his point but was instead succinct, and yet, descriptive. Karia describes what he means with each technique and usually gives an example to further illustrate his point which makes it easier to understand. Even though I read this book for an assignment, I will definitely be taking the tips presented in this book with me into my future career!

[Padraic O Maille · Rating 3 out of 5]

Once Upon a Time I’d Have Ignored This Book.

In Ireland, where I come from, we’re brought up on stories. At school; in the pub; with our families - we rejoice in telling stories.

The only thing is we seem to forget about storytelling when it comes to business. We become boring, banal and obsessd with powerpoint. That’s because we haven’t been taught how to structure and deliver our message in a story format.

This book will change that instantly. It’s powerful, punchy and immediately usable. I have read many of the Amazon Best Selling books on storytelling for business and this book absolutely stands out as the best in terms of content, relevance and brevity.

Well done Akash.

[Marilyn · Rating 1 out of 5]

I read the Kindle edition. This little book shows that you can take what is essentially a three-page article and turn it into a 42-page book. As a storyteller, TEDx speaker, and speaker coach, I'm always interested in using storytelling in speaking and presentations. But there are other -- and better -- ways to access this information. The author's points are valid, but not particularly insightful or useful . And every single obvious point is stated at least twice in the body of the text and highlighted yet again in the summarizing bullet points. And the points are padded with promotion for the author's other "books" and programs.

[Sonet Adhikary · Rating 3 out of 5]

Not a bad one.I this book,author talks about a very significant & important part of public speaking-Story Telling.If you have already read Talk Like TED,the masterwork of public speaking,you can also check this book for a bit more advice of mastering public speaking.Here author describes the basic to advanced structure of a story.In a good story,you have to have a charecter,a conflict,a spark,a change of the charecter & most important,a clear tkeway.In addition of reading this book,you also get access of som of the paid course,ebook etc from the author totlly free.I suggst you,just check it out once..you won't regrate for that..

[Isabelle | Nine Tale Vixen · Rating 2 out of 5]

As a public-speaking reference, this is fairly solid: a quick read that gets right to the point, no fluff or wasted words (plus chapter summaries and a tips reference list at the end). However, this also means concepts are simplified and expressed in absolutes, and there's some repetition where some of the 23 tips could be easily combined or are just the same idea framed differently.

Worse, there's a lack of human empathy which leads to a TED Talk about domestic abuse being distilled to "Look at this powerful example of [narrative] conflict" and to an in-depth discussion of the graphic details of sheep castration.

[Quinn · Rating 4 out of 5]

A short (60 pages) books with tips on how to give a TED Talk--which I took to mean, "telling a good story." The book is great for beginners. There are chapters on how to
--start a talk
--bring characters to life
--create mental motion pictures
--adding credibility to your stories
--the power of positive stories
--the spark, the change, the takeaway
Each chapter has an explanation and an example. Many give links to existing TED talks to show how it's done.
Each chapter has a tip list at the end.
Can't ask for much more!

[Abish · Rating 4 out of 5]

3.5/5 🌟

This isn't the book that tells multiple stories though it gives you examples which are very relatable as most of them are very popular Ted talks of all times

Facts highlighted in this books are undeniable and almost true in all regards there are few things that I wouldn't be using as there is a professional code which partially apply to the people whose example is given ...

You have to see the videos too which is referred in the book they are very excellent and my all time favorite.

[George Nash · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was a free book from audible. At just under an hour long I gave it a try. The book is a short primer on adding stories to presentations. It references around 10 talks and tells what makes them good at story telling and what you as a speaker can do to emulate those talks. It pushes the idea that a good story is what makes a good presentation.

Its a good book but in some ways if feels more like an advertisement for author Akash Karia. Still I found it interesting.

[Māḷagi · Rating 3 out of 5]

The book has straight forward points on good presentations with some key ideas on how to execute them. If you don't have a lot of time and you prefer a book to know more about the presentation give it a go. It's a small book with 72 pages. However, I found myself reading the same stories, again and again, also a lot of unstructured explanations of the process author trying to explain. I feel like it could all put into 17 min video instead of 70 pages.

[Khanh Linh · Rating 3 out of 5]

The simple book that can cover most of the common mistakes of amateur slide designers. But it is only suitable for the newbies, the beginners. I wonder if the writer had not mention the situation that we can not transit the word to the picture and some abstracting information. If anybody read my comment, can you please show me some books discussing about the slideshow design like this one? Thanks alot!

[Aaron Bolin · Rating 1 out of 5]

Karia provides reasonable tips on how to improve presenations. My problem with this author is that the original content is almost completely lacking. He gives a buzzword list of public speaking principles, cites TED talks examples of people who do these things, and then ends a ridiculously short book with a dozen pages of plugs for his other products.

I am super disappointed and feel like this was a complete waste of money.