Stories that Move Mountains: Storytelling and Visual Design for Persuasive Presentations

Examples of Using CAST

When we decided to write about CAST we looked at many other books to help us decide on a style. Most books use examples to illustrate each point, but we found the examples are either all independent of each other, theoretical, over-simplified, or just show the end result. We decided to be different and create two examples that build up, piece by piece, in each chapter to show what you really have to do to create a good visual story. These examples are built on real situations, with just a few names and details changed to allow us to demonstrate as much as possible from the different techniques. By the end of the book, we will have completed each of the examples, and you will have seen how to use the CAST process.

The first story is about Marina, who wants to start a business to support personal trainers. The challenges and approach in Marina's story could be applied to anyone wanting to influence a small group of people with similar backgrounds or issues. Marina's story also represents a situation where the CAST process is used to help develop the ideas and content used in the story.

The second story is about Tom, the leader of an IT group in a major hospital who wants to gain the support for a significant transformation project. Tom's situation will feel very familiar to many people who have to deal with complex business projects, with many different stakeholders and a range of business objectives. This situation also demonstrates how to build a story ...