Story Telling Power in the Art of Speaking "Erwin Parengkuan"

At the beginning of 2017, I and the entire office team went on an outing to Bali, again about Bali which never makes us bored.Long story short, we went to Nusa Lembongan, in the morning, our team of 14 people was ready before 8 am in Sanur to wait for the ship that would take us to Nusa Lembongan.The journey wasn't long, only 40 minutes and we arrived there just in time.That day we will spend the whole day, playing on the beach, snorkeling and of course eating delicious food.When we landed at our pier I saw several Balinese craft souvenir shops, walking quickly I started to observe what items were suitable to buy, including souvenirs and decorations suitable for our new office which will be moving in soon.

Memasuki sebuah art shop adalah salah satu kenikmatan tersendiri buat saya. Mengamati cara pembuatan, finishing maupun materialnya. Beberapa barang sudah ada yang saya taksir, dan saya mengatakan kepada ibu penjual untuk menyimpannya. Hari itu, udara sangat bersahabat, tidak hujan seperti yang diramalkan, membuat trip hari itu terasa lengkap.

After a day exploring Nusa Lembongan, we returned to the pier to wait for the boat to arrive, there was one hour, of course this was enough time to pick up the items I had reserved, the sales lady with a smile welcomed me in front of her shop.I looked again, maybe there were other good things for me to buy, until my eyes fell on 3 shells the size of the palm of my hand.The color is silver and I rarely see the shape."It was my grandfather who took these shells, dived without tools, and collected these shells, that was the case in the 1970s...now these shells are no longer there."The mother snapped as soon as she saw me looking at the item.“Oh yeah, ma'am?”I said."Yes, these shells were from our collection, just because I needed money, in the end we were forced to sell them, previously my grandfather had 60 of them, now there are only 6 left, and there are no more for sale on this island, I actually really want to sell them too!"

Nah, disinilah saya semakin tertarik dengan cerita si ibu, membuat saya “melihat” kerang tersebut dengan nilai yang sudah berbeda dibanding pertama kali saya melihatnya. “ini cuma tiga, mana yang 3 lagi bu?” kemudian si ibu masuk kedalam dan membawa 3 kerang lainnya yang bermotif, kali ini saya justru belum pernah melihat motif kerang seperti ini. Saya semakin tertarik, Setelah negosiasi, singkat cerita sayapun memborong ke enam kerang tersebut , sambil membungkus kerang-kerang tersebut si ibu melanjutkan ceritanya kepada saya: “kalau masih mau lagi saya masih punya 6 lagi kok”. “loh, ibu masih ada lagi, katanya itu kolesi terakhir???” jawab saya dengan nada kaget :). “Iya, memang masih ada 6 pesanan orang, kalau mas mau, saya jual saja sekarang…” Dan sayapun terdiam.

Nah, bisa anda bayangkan, bagaimana kekuatan story telling dapat mempengaruhi kita dalam mendengarkan sebuah cerita. Coba bayangkan cerita saya diatas, bila tanpa sebuah “story telling” tentu tidak akan membuat saya memborong ke 6 kerang tersebut. Saya membeli karena terpengaruh dengan cerita si ibu.

If we pay attention, story telling is one of the main attractions in the art of speaking, especially for public speaking.It will be easy for the audience to digest if your story is connected to the material being presented.Not only that, the story you tell must contain emotion, so that those of you who listen to it become enthusiastic and want to hear the continuation of each sequence you convey.The audience will carefully follow your flow.Make your story telling relevant and have a good ending.Make sure there is "value" that you offer through your story.

When is it best to do story telling, it's best at the beginning when you have finished the greetings and introduction.You can start with positive words like these;"I had an interesting experience regarding today's topic, at that time I…….." Enjoy creating an interesting story!