The Toggle Framework: Shifting In and Out of the Story

What goes into making a GREAT presentation? Telling a story.  

The greatest public speakers share stories to get their points across and accomplish the intended effect—to ignite action, to get customers to buy your products, to captivate investors, etc. Whenever you start to share a story, your audience pays attention and listens intently.

But does that mean we must devote a large, uninterrupted block of our entire presentation or pitch to sharing a story? No. What we need to do is to shift in and out of the story, a pattern called the Toggle Framework (see Figure). This works on a three-part system:

Story. The story has to be unique to you, your product or your service. At the same time, it must be compelling and offer your audience something they need.

What’s In It For Me? (WIIFM). Your audience doesn’t care about you first and foremost. The primary reason why they attend your talk, read your book, buy your product or donate to your charity is because they care about.

WIIFM (What’s In It For Me). They want to get something out of it for themselves — it could be value, information, an experience, an emotion or a change. The storyshower has to provide content that offers the audience something of value, is relevant to them and addresses their needs.

Content. This is where you share your intellectual property, your expertise and your teachable framework.

So how do you toggle using the three-part system of the Toggle Framework?

• Start with the story: ‘There was this one time when …’
• Bring in a one-liner under WIIFM: ‘Have you ever felt like this too?’ or ‘Has this ever happened to you?’ or ‘Have you ever experienced this?’
• Follow with content, which could be: ‘Today I want to show you how to …’

It is empowering to have your structure in place. Toggle between these three, going from one to another in any order that lets you build your story effectively.