Stakes are the reason that audiences
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become invested in your story.
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Stakes are the things that make an
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audience worry or wonder, makes them
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curious, makes them root for you,
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makes them hope for your demise.
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Stakes are essential to a story.
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They are the things that make people
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want to hear the end of the story.
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They're the things that drive
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people to the end of the story.
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There are several types of stakes
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that you can deploy in a story,
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and all can be very powerful.
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The most important stake of all
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is what I call the elephant.
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I call it the elephant
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because it's enormous.
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It's enormously important to a story.
The Elephant: Defining the Need, Want, or Mystery
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The elephant is essentially the initial
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signpost to the audience that says,
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"This is what my story is about, at
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least for now." In a movie, we don't
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really need an elephant because what
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we have today is movie trailers.
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When we go into a movie, we
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kinda know what we're gonna see.
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If we're going into a Mission Impossible
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movie, we know what the stakes are.
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The world is in danger and
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Tom Cruise must save the day.
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When we walk into a romantic
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comedy, we know what the stakes
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are, what the elephant is.
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It is two people are not in love.
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Will they be in love by
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the end of the movie?
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Those are the stakes.
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But when we're speaking, telling
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a story, delivering a sales pitch,
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speaking at a conference, delivering a
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keynote, nobody knows really what we're
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going to say as we open our mouths.
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We need to give them a reason
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right away to be invested in that
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story with what I call an elephant.
Case Study 1: The Spoon of Power (Establishing the Goal)
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Standing in the playground behind
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my school beside this enormous pile
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of leaves, and this tiny little hand
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comes out of the leaves with a silver
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metallic object in it, and the boy
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attached to the hand, he says, "Look,
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Mr. Dix, a spoon." And it, it's a spoon.
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It's a ordinary kitchen spoon,
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probably fell out of a lunchbox
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earlier that day or 10 years ago.
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But I say, "No, Jamie, that's the spoon
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of power." And now that I've declared
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it to be the spoon of power, I must
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have it because that is who I am.
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And Jamie knows this.
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I can see it on the look in his face,
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and he knows that I know it, and I
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know that he knows that I know it,
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and all of this is true 'cause he's
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running before he says anything else.
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And the 74 kids that I'm supposed
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to be monitoring closely are lost
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to me, and the only thing I focus
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on is a little redheaded boy with
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a spoon that I must now have.
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And we run across the field, and we
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climb up the slide and through the
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tubes, and 17 minutes later, the bell
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rings, and that little boy still has
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the spoon, and I can't believe it.
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The spoon of power.
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It's a very similar
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elephant to the beginning.
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A spoon has made an appearance
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in a little boy's hand, and
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Matt must now have that spoon.
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Will he get the spoon?
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That is the elephant that I present
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at the beginning of the story.
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It's actually the elephant or the
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stake that carries us through much
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of the story until he eventually
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puts it on a chain around his neck,
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and then the elephant changes.
Case Study 2: The New Hampshire Breakdown (Establishing the Problem)
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It's it's 1991, and I'm 20 years old,
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and I'm driving home from the very
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first booty call of my entire life.
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And I am excited because I don't know
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that this is going to also be the very
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last booty call of my entire life.
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And then it's in that moment of excitement
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that the right front tire of my 1976 Chevy
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Malibu blows out, but it doesn't deflate.
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It disintegrates.
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It throws rober- rubber on the road in
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a way that I didn't think was possible,
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and it takes everything I can to get the
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car over to the shoulder and to a stop.
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And it's 1991.
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I don't have a cell phone,
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so I do the only thing I can.
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I start hiking up the
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road to look for help.
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Seven hours later, after giving all
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of my money to a half-naked mountain
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man named Winston, I have a bald
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tire on my car, and I'm heading
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home when I look at the instrument
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panel, and I see that I have no gas.
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And all of the money that I
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have is in Winston's hand.
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And it's 1991.
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I don't have a credit card.
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I don't have an ATM card.
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I don't even have a checking account.
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And so I take the next exit, and I
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roll my car into a Getty station.
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And as I park the car,
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I'm angry, and I'm sad.
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I'm 20 years old.
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I'm a McDonald's manager.
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I make $7.25 an hour, and I'm
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the richest person I know.
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My mother is living on
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welfare with my sister.
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My father's left 10 years ago, and the
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only friend that I have who even has
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a credit card or a car that can make
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this 100-mile trip to New Hampshire
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is off on some college weekend,
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and I can't get in touch with him.
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And this was not the plan for my life.
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I was not supposed to be this alone.
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And so I go into the Getty
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station to beg for gas.
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$8 worth of gas is all I need 'cause
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it's 1991 and gas is 85 cents a gallon.
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And the kid behind the counter
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will not give it to me.
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He doesn't wanna lose his job, and
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I offer everything, and he says no.
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So I go back to my car.
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My plan is to wait for
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the next shift change.
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Maybe someone more
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sympathetic will take over.
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But as I climb into my car, I see
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my McDonald's uniform crumpled
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in the back, and I have an idea.
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The initial elephant, the question, the
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curiosity, the reason you wanna be driven
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home to the end of the story is Matt
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has a flat tire, and he has no money.
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How will he get home?
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That is the stake.
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That is the elephant at the beginning
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of the story that will grab your
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attention and cause you to wonder,
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how will this problem be solved?
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If you're a problem solver, the
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kind of person that likes to puzzle
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things out, you might have actually
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started to think about solutions
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for me, solutions on my behalf.
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Something that happened 30 years ago
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you're worried about now and wondering
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how I was gonna get out of it.
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The goal of an elephant is to
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give an audience a reason to be
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immediately invested in the story.
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How will Matt get out of New Hampshire?
Giving the Audience a Reason to Wonder
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An hour later, I'm in a
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residential neighborhood about
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a mile from the Getty station.
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I'm on the porch of a red brick
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house, and I'm knocking on the door.
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I'm wearing my McDonald's uniform, the
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blue shirt, the blue pants, the blue tie.
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The door opens, and there's a man
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standing in front of me, and I know at
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that moment that this is a bad idea.
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But it's 3:00 on a Sunday
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afternoon, and I'm on his porch in
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a McDonald's uniform, and the only
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way to get off is to go forward.
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So I say to him, "My name is Matt.
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I'm collecting money for the Ronald
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McDonald Children's Charities. Can
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you please make a donation?" And this
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man stares at me like Stonehenge.
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He does not move.
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He's 50, but he might as well be 500.
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He is all of the wisdom and knowledge
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of the world wrapped into one man,
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and I know he knows I'm lying.
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And the next words that come
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out of my mouth I don't expect.
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I say, "My mom died of cancer when I was
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young- … and my sister has cancer now,
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and I'm just trying to do what I can to
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help." And he looks at me and points and
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says, "You stay right there." And he goes
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back into the house and closes the door.
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And I know that he's calling the police,
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and I'm going to get arrested for stealing
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money from McDonald's, which ironically
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two years later will actually happen.
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But not on this day.
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Because he comes back to the door and he
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has $20 in his hand, which is like $20,000
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to me on this day, and he presses it into
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my palm and I say, "No, that's too much."
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And he says to me, "My wife died of cancer
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five years ago, and I think this is a
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really bad idea I had." And before I know
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it, I am sitting on the porch with this
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man, and he asks me about what my mother
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died of, and I say breast cancer 'cause
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it's the first one that pops to my mind.
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And he says, "What does your sister have?"
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And I say leukemia, which I don't actually
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know is a cancer, but I know kids get it.
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And he tells me that his wife
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Lisa died of lung cancer and that
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his kids live on the West Coast.
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And he tells me how she struggled
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for two years and how he wanted to
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tell her it was okay to go, but he
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couldn't, and how badly he felt that
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he watched her struggle for so long.
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And I sat on that porch and I listened
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to him and I prayed he wouldn't ask me
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anything, and I just wanted to get off.
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And so finally we were hugging and
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I was walking down the walk with $20
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in my hand and it felt like poison.
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I got to my car and I sat in there
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and I remembered how lonely I felt,
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and then I felt so stupid and small,
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'cause I knew at that moment I
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didn't understand real loneliness.
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I was a 20-year-old kid with friends
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and I was stuck in New Hampshire.
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But I had walked away from a man
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who was in a tiny house with a wife
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that was gone and the kids that were
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gone, and he had a loneliness in
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him that I would never understand.
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And so I put the gas in
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my car and I drove home.
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But he has always been with me.
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I have never left that man on that porch
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that day, and I'm hopeful that I'll
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never be as lonely as he was that day.
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Thank you.
Advanced Technique: Changing the Color of the Elephant
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I say that elephants can change their
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color, meaning the primary stake of a
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story, the primary reason we're invested
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in a character, that can change over time,
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as it did in the story you just heard.
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The initial elephant is will
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Matt find a way to get out of New
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Hampshire with no gas and no money?
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Eventually, that elephant changes colors.
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When I end up on the porch in front of
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a blue door with a man who's talking
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to me about the death of his wife,
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it's no longer a concern how I'm
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going to get out of New Hampshire.
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That stake is now gone.
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There's a new stake.
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How is Matt going to
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deal with this situation?
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But there has to be that
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elephant in a story all the time.
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There has to be a reason that the
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audience is invested in what is
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happening to the character, the
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product, the company, the CEO.
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Whoever is speaking, there
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has to be an elephant.
How Legendary Communicators Use This Structural Framework
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When Steve Jobs takes the stage and says-
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This is a day I've been looking
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forward to for two and a half years.
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"I have been waiting two and a half years
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to tell you this." That's the elephant.
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It is, "I have news that's going
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to blow you away. I have been
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waiting a long time to share this
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with you." That is the elephant.
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We must open our stories with an elephant.
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The other stakes I'm gonna
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discuss, they're all optional,
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but this one is essential.
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We have to have something to invest
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our audience in, to make them feel
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like they are with us and that they
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wanna get to the end to find out
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how things are going to turn out.
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We open with an elephant,
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the first and most important
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stake in every story we tell.