Spotlight Storytelling: A BEAM of Light on Your Most Important Message (Part 2)

A simple 4-step structure to spotlight one message so people feel it and know why it matters

Author

Michael Shehane
December 05, 2025

TL;DR: Most people use a “floodlight” approach to communication and overwhelm their listeners. Spotlight storytelling uses one short story to highlight a single clear message. When you want to influence, the 4-Step BEAM framework helps you structure a 2-minute story people can see, feel, and remember in high-stakes conversations, meetings, and presentations

If you’ve ever tried to influence someone, you’ve probably caught yourself trying to explain everything up front. It’s like you flip a switch and the floodlights come on so you can show the totality of what you see all at once.

“Look at it. Don’t you see it? That’s why we need change.”

Blank stares. Blinded by the light.

So you try a quick story. You tighten your aperture on one moment.

Suddenly, they nod, smile, and say, “Oh, I get it.”

That’s what I call spotlight storytelling.

In my first article on this topic, Spotlight Storytelling: Shine Light On Your Most Important Messages, I showed that stories that help people see your ideas are specific, sensory, and significant. Your audience remembers the story because you remember concrete sensory details, even when the pressure is on, and you name what those moments meant for you and now for them. That is why it is meaningful.

This article is the how: a 4-step structure I call BEAM, so your most important messages are easy to see and easier for your audience to act on.

See for yourself.

Two Ways to Explain the Same Idea

Skim through both versions of the same idea below. Ask yourself: Which one is easier to understand instantly?

Version A

“So basically what I do is help teams get aligned on AI measurement, because right now you’ve got all these different dashboards and scorecards and every group kind of has its own idea of what ‘good’ looks like, so progress ends up feeling really fuzzy. Engineering is staring at model metrics, product is thinking about user behavior, leadership is focused on quarterly targets, and everyone is technically right, but they’re not actually answering the same question, so the meetings drift around the numbers and people leave without a clear decision. What I’m trying to do is create one shared way of looking at performance so instead of arguing about the data we can spend that time agreeing on what to do next and move faster.”

Version B

“Last month, I sat with a product team staring at an AI dashboard where all the numbers were green, but nobody could say if we were truly successful. One person said, ‘This looks great,’ another said, ‘I don’t think it’s working,’ and a third pointed out that last quarter we used a totally different scoring system. So we spent the whole meeting debating the numbers instead of deciding what to do. That’s when I realized the real problem wasn’t the model at all… it was measurement. I’m telling you this because if a team can’t agree on how to measure progress, they’ll never agree on what to do next, and my work is helping teams get that alignment so their AI work actually drives action.”

Why Version B Works

  • You can see it. Version A is too abstract. Version B has a room, a dashboard, a team disagreeing.

  • There’s something at stake. In Version B, no decision gets made until the insight appears. You feel the stuckness.

  • The “aha” is isolated. One sentence names the realization: the problem isn’t the model, it’s measurement.

  • The takeaway is transferable. “If a team can’t agree how to measure progress, they’ll never agree what to do next.” That’s easy for the audience to apply to their own situations.

The BEAM Framework

Version B uses a storytelling framework I developed after years of coaching leaders at Netflix, Airbnb, Meta, and Stanford. At first, many of my clients were skeptical of storytelling because they assumed I was asking them to dumb things down.

Spotlight storytelling does not reduce an idea. It shines a beam of light on an idea to make it accessible.

BEAM breaks into two parts with two steps in each. The first part is perceptual. It grounds the audience in the tangible. This is where people quietly ask themselves, did this really happen? Use concrete details to convey authenticity.

  • Beginning (B) – Start in one single moment in time, something people can see, hear, or feel.

  • Escalation (E) – Reveal tension one detail at a time. Something changes, breaks, or does not align.

Then you transition to the conceptual. If you have set it up well, the audience experiences two dopamine hits. The first is your personal realization. The second is how that realization applies directly to them.

  • Awareness (A) – Name the lightbulb moment. What you or your team realized when the tension surfaced.

  • Meaning (M) – Connect it to right now. Why this matters for the person or team in front of you.

Business stories only need to take about 2 minutes. Each step is about 30 seconds long.

Overview of the BEAM framework.

That’s the whole point of BEAM: Start with what people can sense. Then give them what you learned for them to keep.

Final Thoughts

When you are trying to influence, rather than explaining every detail and overwhelming your audience, tell a clear, concise, audience-centric story that compels them to act. If you are interested in how to influence at work, check out my article, The Arc of Influence: Persistence after No.

Storytelling is not entertainment. Our brains are hardwired by evolution to take in new information through story. It helps people see what you see and see how what you know will help them. That requires you to shine a light on it.

IIf you’re a leader who wants your teams to see each other clearly, align on what matters, and tell sharper stories about their work, reach out at [email protected] to get started. You can also visit leadinstride.com to learn more.

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