The hook

- For many people, the most confounding … and anxiety-producing steps in telling a story … is how to start it. … They'll awkwardly dance around the topic of the story … for several sentences, … hinting at what the lesson was, … or the overall message might be, … until finally, three minutes later, … they get around to actually telling the story. … That's obviously not the best way to kick off a story. … A better way is with a simple phrase I call the hook. … That's a single phrase or sentence … that indicates why you're sharing a story. … For the audience, it answers the question, … why should I listen to this story? … But before I tell you how to craft a good hook, … let me share some of the wrong ways to do it … that I see people use all the time. … You'll definitely want to avoid these methods. … First, never apologize or ask permission … for telling a story. … And you've seen this happen before. … In the middle of a meeting, … someone says something like, … "I'm sorry, can I just tell a quick story? …