Hey Reader,

New Bluey mini-episodes came out this week.

If you don’t have little kids, it’s a show on Disney+ about a family of Heelers who basically spend every episode doing high-level yes-and improv with their children.

If you do have dogs, fun fact: all the colors are apparently dog-friendly. Meaning dogs can actually see what’s happening on screen.

We were huddled on the couch smiling at the TV but something felt off.

… I admit I’m an actor who overanalyzes any form of entertainment—including children’s cartoons.

Then Joaquin nailed it:

“There’s no story.”

He was right!

Things were happening.
Bluey and Bingo were talking.
But nothing was building.

No setup/payoff.
No emotional turn.
No point where one thing caused the next thing to matter.

Just a bunch of events and nothing to grasp on to.

As a lawyer, you’re constantly told:
“Tell a story.”

Cool. Helpful. Thanks.

But nobody really explains what that means or how to do it.

A story is not:

• a chronology
• a stack of facts
• a giant outline with every possible topic in it

A story is cause and effect.
​It’s the structure that makes the facts matter:

This happened.
Which led to this.
Which revealed this.
And made the next thing unavoidable.

Good depositions and cross-examinations don’t just extract information.
They build sequences that make the next answer matter more than the last one.

A clean “yes” matters because of the contradiction coming later.
A rule matters because eventually someone breaks it.
An “I don’t know” matters because of everything the witness already admitted 10 minutes earlier.

That’s how facts stop feeling random and start feeling inevitable.

And once you understand that shift, you stop reacting to testimony and start controlling what the testimony means.

That’s the work we do with attorneys every day.

→ [Schedule a FREE strategy session]​

Bring a transcript, an upcoming depo, or a case that feels fact-heavy but emotionally flat.

We’ll help you find the story.

P.S. Joaquin may be a harsher critic than me now. Ugh, so proud!