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The Five Stars Workbook

by Carmine Gallo
Communication advisor for the world’s most admired brands and bestselling author of Talk Like TED & The Storyteller’s Secret

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 Dear Reader, You need to deliver “five stars” if you wish to succeed in your

industry and rise up in the age of ideas. In Five Stars, you learn
why great communicators are irreplaceable in Part I, and I feature
Welcome to the Five Stars Workbook! I’m excited about this scientists, entrepreneurs, professionals, leaders and TED stars
toolkit and I hope it helps you apply the content in Part III of my who have earned five stars in Part II. In Part III, I share techniques
new book, Five Stars: The Communication Secrets to Get from for how you can get from good to great. In the pages that follow,
Good to Great, and transform the way you communicate to your you will find short activities that can help you apply the ideas and
customers, clients and followers. tactics featured in Part III.


I advise executives and leaders for some of the world’s most Building your communication skills to a five-star level will be
admired brands—men and women who make products and worth it. It will be worth it when you make a mark in your career
services that touch our lives every day. It’s not enough for the and leave a mark on this world. It’ll be worth it when you start a
leaders of today’s best companies and brands to have access to company, build a product, sell a service, or manage a nonprofit
great techniques. Because they work exceptionally well, and that makes people’s lives better and more meaningful. Above all,
because we need a worldwide culture shift that stresses the it’ll be worth it when you inspire other people to dream bigger
importance of inspiring presentations in business, I want and seek out their own marvelous adventures. Please email me at
everyone to utilize the techniques revealed from the extensive carmine.gallo@gallocommunications.com to share your feedback
research and interviews I’ve conducted over the years. This and success stories.
workbook offers you those same techniques and ideas I share
with my clients. Thank you,


Mastering the ancient art of persuasion is no longer a soft skill. It
is the fundamental skill to get from good to great in any field.
One could argue that in previous decades, the ability to give
great presentations used to only be a priority for those Carmine Gallo
professionals who needed to teach, sell, pitch or lead teams. carmine.gallo@gallocommunications.com
Today, with advances in technology and artificial intelligence, all
jobs and industries are changing. No one is exempt. If giving great
presentations and communicating really well hasn’t been a P.S., This Five Stars workbook is only one resource you can apply.
priority for you before, it needs to be now. In the next decades, Make sure you sign up for my email list to receive videos, new
the last skill standing that a machine cannot replace, is our content, and articles that will offer more tips for crafting effective
human ability to communicate well and make an emotional communication and compelling presentations.
connection with our listeners. “Three stars” isn’t going to cut it.

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 The Communication Secrets to Get from Good Key #1: Master the Pathos Principle

to Great Persuasion cannot occur in the absence of Pathos, an appeal to the

audience’s emotion. Emotion is the brain’s ancient mechanism to
Most people are perfectly happy living an average life. Average help us remember key events and forget some of the rest, because,
is comfortable and complacent. But Part III of Five Stars is for the after all, not everything is equally important. If you remembered
movers and doers, the explorers and adventurers. It’s for those everything with equal intensity, you’d have a hard time functioning.
who want to move their careers—and the world—forward. Storytelling is the best linguistic tool we have to build emotion into
They’re not content to watch. They want to lead. If earning five presentations because it is in our DNA. We are wired for it. Your
stars is your goal, the techniques and ideas in this workbook will delivery also becomes more dynamic when you tell a story,
help you to achieve it. especially one that means something to you.

There are 7 Keys to Getting from Good to Great: There are 3 types of stories you can use in your next pitch or
presentation:


1. Stories about personal experiences: Stories about your past

experiences, lessons learned from loved ones or cherished
ü Master the Pathos Principle
memories. If you’re going to tell a personal story, make it

your experience and relevant to your topic. Personal stories
ü Adopt the Three-Act Storytelling Structure
about a successful outcome after an adverse event, or a

triumph over a tragedy are especially impactful.
ü Deliver the Big Picture
2. Stories about customers, clients or other people: Relevant
ü Use Smart Words stories you tell about other people you know personally, or
have heard of who have experiences or lessons you want to
ü Give Ideas “Verbal Beauty” reiterate by sharing “their” stories with your audience.

ü Spark Creativity and Originality 3. Signature stories about your brand or company: Specific
and unique stories about well-known brands or companies
ü Conquer the Fear That Holds You back that demonstrate the value of key points. They are powerful
because no two brands share the same story and they open
the gate to persuasion.

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 √ What story can you incorporate in your next pitch or □ A key point or theme in your presentation should follow right
presentation? after you tell your story. The story gets your listeners’ attention so
Think about what type of story you don’t want to miss the opportunity to influence.
makes the most sense for your
content and your personality. You □ Test your story on others. During the presentation creation
don’t have to use all three types of process, ask others for feedback on your story.
stories. You should be using at ü Does it make the point succinctly?
least one. Here’s a checklist of ü Does it resonate?
points to remember when choosing a story that works for you: ü What expressions or reactions do you observe in your
audience? If the story works well, keep it and reuse it. If not,
□ Is there a key point or theme in your presentation that a story explore using a different story.
would work well with?
□ Your story (Use the space provided to draft a story you want to
use in your next presentation.):
□ Is it a personal story, a story about another person, or a brand
story?


□ What specific details, descriptions, or insights can you use
while telling your story? The more details you use, the more
dramatic and impactful your story will be.


□ Make sure your story can be told in 60 seconds to 1.5 minutes.
If a story goes too long, you take your listeners too far off track.

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 Key #2: Adopt the Three-Act Storytelling Follow the classic three-act storytelling formula in your next pitch
or presentation. Use the space here to start brainstorming:
Structure

□ What type of presentation are you planning
Screenwriting expert Syd Field popularized the three-act (e.g., pitch, keynote, interview, team meeting)?
structure in his 1979 book, Screenplay: The Foundations of
Screenwriting. He didn’t make up the model. He analyzed □ Who’s your audience?
hundreds of successful movies and noted that they all follow a
dramatic structure, one that our friend Aristotle first identified □ What challenge, obstacle or opportunity is your industry facing?
more than two thousand years ago. Most importantly, Field
confirmed that building a story is a craft that can be learned and □ How is your product, service, company or cause different from
applied to any storytelling platform, including business. your competitors?

The Three-Act Storytelling Structure In a Glance:
□ What problem does your product, service, company or cause
Act Hollywood Business Presentation solve?
Screenplay
Act I: The characters are The status quo is Apply your answers from the questions above:

Set-Up introduced and we described, the current
learn about the hero’s state of the company or Act I Act II Act III
world before the industry. The Set-Up The Confrontation The Resolution
adventure starts.
Act II: The hero’s world is Obstacles or challenges
Confrontation turned upside down are outlined and
and we learn about solutions to overcome
obstacles the hero them are discussed.
must overcome.
Act III: The problem is solved. The company’s product,
Resolution The hero’s world is service, or strategy

transformed and solves the problem and

everyone lives happily the company or
ever after. industry thrives.

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 Key #3: Deliver the Big Picture In as few words as possible, a winning logline conveys the main
character, the character’s goals, and a conflict:
Great presentations have one theme, much like the winning
loglines of Hollywood movies. Everything else supports that key “A police chief, with a phobia for open water, battles a gigantic
message. Loglines are effective because they deliver what the shark with an appetite for swimmers and boat captains, in spite of
brain craves—the big picture. According a greedy town council who demands that the beach stay open.”
to University of Washington biologist John –Jaws

Medina, the human brain doesn’t record
“Google organizes the world’s information and makes it accessible.”
every detail of an event. It’s better at

seeing patterns and gleaning the general
meaning of an experience. Medina likes to □ Make sure you include enough information in your logline so
use the analogy of our primitive ancestors that your listener gets the gist. Does your logline include:
running into a tiger. In that encounter our ancestors did not ask,
“How many teeth does the tiger have?” Instead, they asked, “Will ü A main character or problem?
it eat me? Should I run?” And they had less than a minute to make ü A goal?
their decision. Great persuaders use this knowledge about our ü A conflict that needs a resolution?
evolutionary heritage to create messages that grab our

attention. Make sure your next presentation has a “big picture”
theme to keep your listeners interested.

□ Do you reveal your logline in the very beginning of the

□ Create A Logline for Your Presentation. Think of your next presentation? If not, decide when you will introduce your logline
pitch or presentation as the logline to a Hollywood movie. If you within the first 60 seconds. You can repeat it and bring it up again
had one sentence and one sentence only to pitch your idea, what at the end, but you need to reveal it early on so your listeners get
would you say? the big picture right away.

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 Key #4: Use Smart Words As you edit, here are some questions you should ask yourself:


□ Are ideas repeated more than once? Do I say the same thing
Smart words aren’t lengthy in syllables, complicated or hard to twice, but in two different ways? Are both versions needed?

understand. They are concise and they impart meaning and
importance with efficiency, reaching and inspiring the most □ Are there shorter words I can use to replace longer words?
listeners possible to take action. “Simplicity is one of the most
deceptive concepts on earth,” according to Ken Segall, who led
some of Apple’s iconic marketing campaigns and put the lower □ Can I use one sentence to convey the same meaning instead of
case “I” in the iMac. using two or three sentences?

Simple words and
phrases, argues Segall, Ask a friend to read your draft for feedback:
are “the most potent

weapon in business— □ Are there parts of your content that are hard for your friend to
attracting customers, understand?

motivating employees,
outthinking competitors, □ Are there word changes your friend suggests?
and creating new
efficiencies. Yet rarely is
it as simple as it looks. □ What parts of your content does your friend really enjoy? What
parts seem cumbersome to get through?
Simplicity takes work.”

Taking time to edit your
content is one of the
most important things Download text readability software like the Hemingway app.
you can do to prepare These are mobile or desktop tools that use reliable algorithms to
effective presentations. Edit your work, edit again, and edit some judge the grade level of your text. They’ll show you the lowest
more. JFK had one of the world’s greatest speechwriters by his education level required to read and understand whatever piece of
side and yet still improved his work by editing and then reediting. writing you tell the software to analyze. If you have too much
Great communicators make their work look effortless because jargon, it will result in a higher grade level. Simpler words and
they put a lot of effort into making it work. phrases—which we’re aiming for---will return lower grade levels.
Remember, in this case lower means better.

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 Key #5: Give Ideas “Verbal Beauty” Here are some exercises you can do to help you use analogies and
metaphors in your own content:
Analogies and metaphors give your language its “verbal beauty.”

In The Rhetoric, Aristotle observes that the most persuasive □ Keep an eye out for analogies and metaphors in materials you
individuals pepper their speech with metaphors and analogies. read or see. Are there familiar trends you find?

He says these rhetorical devices energize listeners and move ü Are analogies or metaphors used often to explain complex
them to action. They make language sweet and bring about topics?
clarity. Analogy is the broad umbrella term for a comparison of ü Which ones work really well?
two different things to show how they’re similar. It forces the ü Can you find some that would work in your industry also?
listener to think differently about an idea. There are several

forms of analogies and metaphor is one them. It’s a device □ For specific examples of what you can read, check out:
through which we describe one thing in terms of another, ü Warren Buffett’s annual newsletter
ü John Pollack’s book, Shortcut: How Analogies Reveal
replacing the meaning of one word with another. For example,
Connections, Spark Innovation, and Sell Our Greatest Ideas
Shakespeare’s “Juliet is the sun”
line is a metaphor. She isn’t really □ Create an analogy or metaphor for a complex idea or concept
the sun, but by calling her the sun often communicated in your own presentation content:
we understand that she is a bright
light in Romeo’s world and the Analogy: A is like B.

center of his universe. Most of the
_________________________________________________ is like
world’s greatest communicators My idea or concept (A)
use analogy and metaphor to
make their points. Warren _____________________________________________________ .
Buffett, who stresses the A concrete thing that most people recognize (B)

importance of building strong
communication skills, is well Metaphor: A is B.
known for his use of analogies to make complex concepts simple.

For example, when discussing the acquisition, he explains that he ____________________________________________________ is

My idea or concept (A)
looks for companies that are like an “economic castle”, with a
strong moat around it to prevent competitors from taking the _____________________________________________________ .
castle. Using anolgies and metaphors in your presentations can A concrete thing that most people recognize (B)
help you make a stronger connection with your listeners.

Key #6: Spark Creativity and Originality 4. Take a trip to the unfamiliar. According to Emory University
neuroscientist Gregory Berns, “To see things differently than
Ideas communicated in unique and unusual ways grab attention other people, the most effective solution is to bombard the
and inspire us to look at the world differently. But before you can brain with things it has never encountered before.” Epiphanies
pitch an original idea, you need to have an original idea. Thanks rarely occur in familiar places. A simple change in environment
to neuroscience, we know more than ever about history’s most is usually effective.
prolific idea creators. There are four lessons learned to help us
unleash our best ideas:

1. Connect ideas from everywhere. According to Dr. Mallen,
Director of the online Picasso Project at Sam Houston State
University, “to copy” is to do something exactly like
somebody else. A good painter can copy another work or
style, but it doesn’t qualify as an innovation. Picasso and
Steve Jobs were innovators because they didn’t copy; they
searched for the best ideas from outside their fields or
experiences to create great innovations.

2. Find your theme song. Since a presentation tells a story with Here are exercises you can do to kick start your own brain:

heroes and villains, why not listen to a style of music that
complements heroic stories on the big screen? Ronald □ Work offsite. You need to get out of the office once in a while.
Reagan’s speechwriter Peggy Noonan is a fan of listening to Can you plan to work offsite one day this week? Pick a date.
film scores as background music. Perhaps listening to scores
will infuse your next presentation with a little movie magic. □ Bombard your brain with new experiences. Listen to film scores,

read more books, take a walk in the middle of the day. Go on a trip
3. Read more books to become a better speaker. Reading to a totally new location.
books will keep your communication skills sharp in 3 ways:
ü There are very few problems that are new and reading □ Plan one new thing:
can expose you to how others resolved similar ü What book are you going to read this month?
challenges. ü What outing can you plan this month that takes you away
ü Reading enhances a leader’s ability to create powerful, from work, or that is not related to work?
emotional rhetoric to galvanize a team. ü Try an activity that you have never done before.
ü Reading well-written prose makes you a better writer.
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 Key #7: Conquer the Fear That Holds You Back □ [Other negative statement you find yourself saying or thinking
often]: _______________________________________________
We are all human and by that very nature, _____________________________________________________
we are subject to insecurity and negative

Reframe:
thoughts, some of us more than others.
The best tactics to use to overcome
uncertainty and to build your confidence as
an effective communicator are reappraisal Rehearsal: Training Under Pressure
and rehearsal. Remember, you have stage fright because you’re supposed to. We
are hardwired to crave social acceptance. If our primitive ancestors
Reappraisal: Changing the Channel were banished from the tribe, they wouldn’t have survived on their
Neuroscientist Gregory Berns claims, “reappraisal” inhibits the own. Today, the worst that can happen is that your pitch will fall
amygdala, the source of the fight-or-flight response in our brains flat, but our physiology still reacts as it did thousands of years ago.
(which elevates our heart rate when speaking in public). Reframe Practicing your presentation under mild stress is more effective at
your internal thoughts and you’ll tame the amygdala. helping you for the real deal. An example of mild stress would be
gathering a few friends or peers to watch you practice your
Practice reappraisal by changing these sample statements into upcoming presentation in a “dress rehearsal” setting like your office
positive ones: or a conference room.


Example: “I’m terrible at giving presentations.”

Reframe: My content is valuable and I look forward to Dedicate practice time before your big presentation. Here are
sharing it with my audience. some tips to follow:


□ “I am really nervous about public speaking.”
□ Practice with your slides as you would in the actual presentation;
Reframe: don’t sit while speaking and invite friends to watch.

□ “I don’t have all the answers. I shouldn’t be the speaker.” □ Solicit feedback; adapt suggestions for future practice rounds.

Reframe: □ Time yourself and trim content if you repeatedly go over, or add
another example if needed to pad your time.

□ “I’m good one-on-one or in a small group. I’m not great at
□ Repeat several times. You should practice delivering your
speaking in front of a large group.”
presentation at least 10 times if possible.
Reframe:
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To recap, there are 7 keys to earning five stars Ideas don’t sell themselves. As the forces of globalizaiton,
automation, and artificial intelligence combine to disrupt every
as a communicator: field, having a good idea isn’t good enough. For anyone. Now more
than ever you need to master the ancient art of persuasian in order
to stand out, get ahead, and achieve greatness in the modern world.
1. Master the Pathos Principle If you do, you will become irreplacable and irresistible. Great
communicators are not born. They’re made. Now it’s your turn to
2. Adopt the Three-Act Storytelling Structure earn five stars so you can thrive, grow and boldy lead others into
the future.
3. Deliver the Big Picture
Wishing you success,
4. Use Smart Words

5. Give Ideas “Verbal Beauty”

6. Spark Creativity and Originality

7. Conquer the Fear That Holds You back

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