Speaking with Adjacency
To explain something dull, tell a story about something else, then snap it into place.
- Difficulty
- Advanced
- Time to result
- ~days to results
- Steps
- 4
- Confidence
- 93%
When you need people to understand or care about a boring product or idea, don't match content to content. Instead find a story from your life that shares the same theme, meaning, or message, tell that story, then 'snap' it over to your actual subject. The moment the audience realizes 'you were telling me about apples, but really you were telling me about tubes' is disproportionately powerful and memorable.
Origin
Matthew Dicks's technique (his 'Band-Aid' method for clients who want a story to solve one problem); he calls it speaking with adjacency.
Core principles
- 01Match theme, meaning, or message — never content to content
- 02The 'snap' where the metaphor lands is where the power and memorability live
- 03Don't think about the thing you're selling; think about the feeling you want people to have about it
- 04Pulling yourself out of a personal story often leaves a ready-made metaphor
How to run it
- 1
Extract the theme, not the topic
Ignore the literal subject (the tubes, the feature). Identify the underlying theme, meaning, or message you want to convey — e.g. 'people deserve to get exactly what they need.'
Pro tip Usually just one of theme/meaning/message is enough — pick the strongest.
Watch out The instinct to 'find a way to talk about these tubes' directly is the trap; resist matching content to content.
- 2
Find a life story with the same theme
Brainstorm a personal story that carries that theme. Ask the client (or yourself): 'tell me about a time you had to give people something they need.'
Pro tip Personal stories also let you layer in relatability (father, husband) and humor at the same time.
- 3
Tell the story, withhold the subject
Tell the adjacent story fully; the audience shouldn't yet know why. Dicks tells a misbehaving student a story about his childhood dog with no stated connection.
Pro tip Withholding the point builds a small mystery that makes the eventual snap land harder.
- 4
Snap it into place
Explicitly connect the adjacent story to your real subject at the end — 'that's what my company does.' The audience feels the click and remembers it.
Pro tip The snap also builds ambient advertising: every time a listener sees the object (an apple in a store) they'll think of you positively.
Watch out This 'Band-Aid' use solves one problem but doesn't make you a storyteller; you'll need the technique again next time.
In the wild
A scientist at a tube company presented no data. He told a story about the nightmare of buying apples for a family who all want different varieties — Honeycrisp, Gala, McIntosh, Red Delicious — then snapped it: 'That's what my company does. We believe you should have access to all the apples,' i.e. the right-sized tube for every experiment.
→ He generated more leads at the conference than all four other scientists combined, and seeded a positive association every time attendees later saw apples in a store.
Common mistakes
Matching content to content
Trying to make tubes sound important by talking about tubes fails; the theme-level story ('everyone deserves what they need') is what connects.
Explaining the metaphor too early
Revealing the connection up front kills the snap; withhold the subject until the payoff.
Is it for you?
Best for
Marketers, founders, and technical experts who must make a boring feature, product, or lesson land emotionally.
Not ideal for
Situations that demand literal, data-first precision up front (though Dicks argues the data can follow once connection is made).
From the transcript
“the best way to sort of tell a story about something that you want people to understand is to do what I call speaking with…”
“Instead, we're going to match theme, meaning, or message.”
“That snap is so powerful.”
“we don't want to think about what we're talking about, we want to think about the feelings we want people to have about what we're…”
From the episode
How to tell better stories
Matthew Dicks (Storyworthy)