An important element to the introduction of your Speak-to-Sell talk is a story that builds your credibility and shows your vulnerability, so that people can relate and connect to you.

Your story can be the exciting thing that’s going on in your business right now, or it may be a lesson that you learned along the way that got you to where you are.

It’s common to have a great story that serves you for years. In fact, you may have heard me quote my father, the world-famous ventriloquist Eddie Garson, who said, “Don’t change your act, change your audience.”

But there comes a time when even you start getting bored with your story. Or when people make comments about how often they’ve heard it.

If that starts happening, your story has probably reached its expiration date — and it’s time for a change.

You don’t have to throw out that story — just move it somewhere else in your talk, where you can use it to illustrate a point.

There is one caveat to this advice.

If that story makes up your whole platform, you may want to keep it where it is. For example, someone who’s survived a deadly disease and helps people survive it, too—that story of survival needs to stay put.