It’s 5am…

I go from restful sleep to my eyes suddenly shooting open like Squidward.

I’ve been waiting for this for a whole year.

Today was the big day…

Still groggy, I scramble out of the warm bed calling my name.

“Not now, baby. I got shit to do.” I tell her (my bed).

I blindly reach for the preworkout I set on my table the night before and gulp it down.

Aderrall? Yes please.

I pop one in my mouth like it’s one of Willy Wonka’s Everlasting Gobstoppers.

But wait…

There’s something missing:

Nicotine spray (aka The Nectar of The Gods).

I place 3 squirts under my tongue and feel the life force re-enter my body.

I needed all the help I could get.

I procrastinated for months, but there was no getting around it now. Today was the day. I HAD to get it done in the next 5 hours or I was screwed.

You see, last Saturday was my brother’s wedding.

And he named me the best man.

Buuuuuuut, I hadn’t written my speech. So I got my ass into high gear that morning and got to work.

One of the most important people in my life and I procrastinated until the last minute.

Classic.

So, in today’s email, I’m gonna walk you through one of the ways I tell emotionally engaging stories (in a way that’s quick and easy to follow).

I’ll also share the actual speech I wrote and reveal how it went.

Structuring Your Story (the AI cheat code)

If you’re like me, when you go to write a story, you don’t know where to start. Even when you start, you don’t know where you’re going.

That’s why I always create an outline before I write.

Otherwise, it’s like trying to get to a destination without a GPS.

“But I don’t know how to create an outline!”

Fear not, my friend.

We’re going to use our good ol’ friend, Chat GPT to help.

What if you could have any best-selling author as your personal consultant?

Well, you can (sorta).

My favourite way to use Chat GPT is as a tool to aid my thinking, not outsource it.

When I need help with a specific domain, I think of who the experts are in that area who have a body of work on the internet.

Then I’ll use Chat GPT to give me a framework to follow and fill it in with my thinking.

So instead of trying to create my own storytelling framework, I turned to the best-selling author of the book Storyworthy, Matthew Dicks.

I entered this prompt into Chat GPT:

The result?

Boom. Within 20 seconds, I had a clear actionable roadmap to follow. This made the entire storytelling process 10x faster.

My Best Man’s Speech:

1. Introduction

(I made something up on the fly at the wedding)

2. Set the stage:

You know, if you woulda asked me when I was young if I’d be the best man at my brother’s wedding, I might’ve been surprised.

Because from the age of 5 til around the age of 11, we didn’t have the best relationship.

He grew up with our grandparents and I grew up with my mom.

And he was such a demonic little shit growing up.

I remember one time he came to visit, he chased me around the house with my tap dancing shoes while nobody else was in the house.

Clapping them together telling me he was going to hurt me.

That lead to me to running on top of the dinner table scared shitless.

He just stood there waiting for me clapping them together with possessed eyes.

I pissed myself on that table.

I was the one who got in shit for that.

His nickname for me when we were growing up was “Dickholesun”.

I have no idea how he came up with that…

He always was a creative one.

He was an asshole and he always stunk up the house cause he was shitting 24/7.

I don’t get it, he was a walking shit factory.

At least today he’s not an asshole.

3. Conflict or challenge:

But I remember the night our relationship really began to shift.

It was one summer Saturday night when Clayton was in grade 10.

He went out to a high school party up in the bush with his buddies.

13 year old me though?

I had discovered call of duty online (and PornHub) and I was doing an all-night marathon rotation of both.

But, late into that night around 1am, Clayton drunkenly stumbled up the stairs.

And normally he’d go to his bedroom to sleep, but not tonight.

This time he came to my room.

He walked over to the bed next to me and sat down.

I could still smell the blue ribbon beer on his breath that he was drinking a couple hours earlier.

I took one glance at him and could see his eyes were still a bit red from the fresh tears.

I was used to seeing my brother as the tough, happy, and outgoing guy, but that night was the first time I seen him truly vulnerable.

His voice was still a little shaky when he started talking to me.

It was about Deanna.

Now, ever since Clayton met Deanna in grade 7 he had a huge secret crush on her.

Hell when Deanna changed schools, he changed too.

That’s how much he loved this woman. But he never made it known to her.

And that night, it came to bite him in the ass.

At the party, he told me he saw her kiss another guy.

He was hurt and feeling all the emotions.

Anger.

Jealousy.

Sadness.

4. Rising action:

But, Clayton being the optimistic guy he is, decided to turn it into a life lesson for me.

He told me his regret and made me understand the importance of not being timid in life.

To go after what I wanted, despite fear of rejection.

That night was the night I felt like we truly became brothers.

And honestly, I think it was one of the best things to ever happen to him.

Because that was the night he made a shift in his life.

He started working out.

He joined the football team.

He wasn’t such an asshole.

5. Climax/emotional turning point:

But it wasn’t just a shift for him, but me as well.

Because he started showing up more in my life.

He is the reason I went from the shy chubby kid to the jacked meathead.

He was the one who would drive me up to the YMCA in his shitty Chevy S10 and lift weights with me.

He was the one who introduced me to my football coach and got me to join the team.

He got me my first job as an electrician.

He was the one who caught me with 5 grams of magic mushrooms when I was 13 and made me eat half the bag to teach me a lesson.

6. Resolution/lessons learned:

Clayton has not only been a brother to me, but a leader.

And there’s no better example of the transformation Clayton has gone through than him running into Deanna 3 years after that drunken summer night and finally having the balls to ask her out.

I’ve seen him go from a boy and turn into a man.

And I’m damn proud to call him my brother.

7. Tie it back to the wedding:

And even though Deanna has been family for years now, I’m now proud to officially call Deanna my sister.

The amount of shit she puts up with from Clayton deserves a whole ‘nother speech.

But I will say, throughout all the challenges thrown at us over the years, these two have been the glue for our family.

And I will forever be grateful to Deanna for stepping up and acting as a 2nd mother to my little sisters ever since our mother died.

I know she would be proud of you and the beautiful example you set for them.

8. Closing remarks:

So, Deanna and Clayton, congratulations. I love you guys and wish you many happy years together.

How It Went…

At the start of the speech, I had everyone laughing.

By the end, many were crying.

It was a deeply meaningful moment in my life.

It meant a ton to my brother. Seeing his reaction will be a moment I’ll always look back on with a smile.

Storytelling is one of the most impactful skills you can learn. Whether it’s personal or professional, it has the power to persuade, move, and change others for the better.

So, my friend, I hope this email was useful for you.

Go out there and tell some stories.

Your Canadian friend,

Dakota “Storytelling” Robertson

P.S.

Do you enjoy my emails and think others would get value from it?

I set up a reward program for when you get others to sign up using the link below.

For each milestone of people you get to subscribe, I give you video masterclasses from the top creators and entrepreneurs in the space.

These are part of my paid Growth Ghost program, but you’ll get it for free.