If you’re having trouble connecting with your audience or customers, one of the best ways to improve on this is by using universal themes, according to storytelling expert Matthew Luhn, author of The Best Story Wins.

Matthew Luhn is a writer, director, and story consultant with over 30 years of experience creating stories and characters at Pixar Animation Studios, The Simpsons, and beyond. 

He originally started in the film industry as an animator for The Simpsons but was soon recruited by Pixar to work on the original Toy Story movie. His story credits include Toy Story 2, Toy Story 3, Finding Nemo, Monsters University, Cars, UP, and Ratatouille.

Matthew is also a storytelling consultant for Fortune 500 companies and a keynote speaker. Currently, he is developing an animated TV series with Starburns Industries in LA  and a hybrid live-action/animation feature film with Mighty Engine Inc. in NY.

Matthew made some time in his busy schedule to talk with BigSpeak about the success of the Pixar film Inside Out 2 and how businesses can also use similar universal themes to connect with their audiences.

Matthew, you worked as a storyteller and animator for Pixar Animation Studios for over two decades, helping to create some of the most popular animated movies in the world, such as Toy Story, Ratatouille, and Finding Nemo. Why was Pixar so good at connecting with audiences?

We were always focused on creating stories that would appeal and connect to a four-quadrant audience: both male and female, and over and under 25 years of age. Everybody. 

The way to make these connections is by using universal themes in storytelling. Themes like the desire for love, the desire for safety and security, and the desire to choose your own fate. 

Themes like the desire for love are something that every single person on the planet can relate to. From the moment you’re born, through all the ups and downs of your life, till the very end, we all desire love. 

Take Wall-E, for example. Wall-E is a great sci-fi film, but not everybody loves a sci-fi film. But what made Wall-E a box office hit was the universal theme around love. The movie was really about the last robot on earth that wanted to fall in love.

Finding Nemo, on the other hand, was about safety and security, about wanting to keep a child safe.

Or Ratatouille. On the surface, it’s about a rat who wants to cook. But it’s really about a rat who wants to choose his own fate. He wants to have the freedom to do what he loves. It’s the same theme in the movie Brave. She doesn’t want to be the next queen. She wants to be adventurous like her dad. In the movie Turning Red, the young girl also wants to have the freedom to make her own choices.

So those three themes—the desire for love, the desire for safety and security, and the desire to choose your own fate—are the key universal themes that get used a lot in stories. 

And we know they’ll connect with every person on the planet. All ages, genders, and cultures.

Recently, Inside Out 2 became one of the most popular animated movies in box office history. What was the universal theme used in Inside Out 2 that made the movie so successful? 

So, Inside Out 2 did something different. It tapped into fears. On the other side of that coin of desires are our fears. The fear of not belonging, the fear of abandonment, and the fear of failure. 

When you watch Toy Story 1, 2, 3, 4, and 5—which is in development—the movies are all about Woody’s fear of abandonment. What if I’m not loved by my owner? What if I get replaced by a cooler toy? What if I get too old and thrown out or donated? What if my owner goes off to college? So, it’s all about the fear of abandonment. 

And when you think about fears—the fear of not belonging, the fear of abandonment, and the fear of failure—that was what Inside Out 2 was tapping into. 

When you watch the main character in Inside Out 2, Riley, she is transitioning to becoming a teenager. It’s all about her fear—her fear of not belonging and not fitting in and her fear of failure. All of that is relatable to audiences. 

But there is an extra bit of relatability with the audience because of all the anxiety that has been going on around the whole world since the pandemic. There are environmental anxieties, health anxieties, and financial anxieties. So, all of these things are relatable. 

And that is why Inside Out 2 is the highest-grossing movie of the year and is very close to being the highest-grossing animated film of all time. It all comes down to being relatable and using universal themes in storytelling.

Along with working in Hollywood, you also coach and consultant Fortune 500 companies, helping them become better storytellers. Tell me why storytelling is such an important skill for businesses.

Well, when you want to inspire people to connect with your company or brand, you need to make sure that you’re tapping into something that’s relatable to them. Something emotional.

Even though you may be selling a shoe or a computer or a car, it goes much deeper than just selling an object to people. People are way too savvy. They’ve watched plenty of episodes of Mad Men. They know how marketing works. 

What customers want is to be a part of a story. Look at Tiffany and Company. They’re not selling jewelry. They’re selling love. Amazon is selling convenience. Disney is selling memories. People want to buy a story, not services or stuff.

Therefore, companies need to go deeper than just what the function of the product is. They need to be thinking about the story and how it’s going to connect to the hearts and emotions of their audience.

Do you have any other examples of companies successfully using universal themes to sell their stories?

A good example is Uber and Lyft or Uber Eats and DoorDash. 

Uber and Lyft are about giving people the freedom to choose their own fate, which is very alluring for a lot of people. That universal theme of the freedom to choose how and when they want to work—or where they want to go. 

For the people who are using Uber Eats and getting food delivered, it’s about the freedom to make choices—about when and where you want to eat. 

Or take life insurance companies, which go back to the universal theme of love and—most importantly—the universal theme of safety and security for your loved ones. So, beyond the price points and the functions of what life insurance does, it all comes down to keeping the people you love safe. 

It’s always thinking about tapping into those emotional things that everybody on this planet can connect to. 

Do you have any advice for business people on how to become better storytellers?

To become a better storyteller, you really need to think about the emotions around your company, products, and services. What is the feeling there? Is it love? Security? Freedom? You first want to start off with the feeling or theme you want to give people and, from there, tell stories that share those same feelings and themes in the form of metaphors, testimonials, and experiences.

Last year, I worked with a cybersecurity company, and the emotional theme around cybersecurity turned out to be resilience. It took a while to really boil it down to what it really was. 

Then, I asked the CEO to name something in his life where he had experienced resilience. I asked, “What is your hobby? What is the thing you love to do outside of business?” 

And the CEO shared with me his love for riding his bike. Unfortunately, when he moved from Chicago to San Francisco for his new CEO  job, riding his bike up the steep hills of SF was a challenge because he couldn’t see what was over the next ridge. It’s called a false summit. You don’t know if there’s a car accident over the next ridge, or a detour, or an oil spill.

And that’s exactly what a cybersecurity company is about. A data security company is about knowing what’s over the next ridge and what’s going to happen in 2025 or beyond. It’s all about resilience. 

If you know what’s over that next peak, you’re going to be able to succeed better as a bicyclist or in your own business. 

So storytelling is about finding the emotion and universal themes that will inspire metaphors, testimonials, and examples that make a relatable, authentic connection with your audience. 

If you would like to learn more about storytelling, contact BigSpeak Speaker Bureau to book Matthew Luhn or another storytelling expert.

For more on storytelling, read

How to Create Inspiring Stories to Sell Your Business Ideas

The Five Traits You Need to Inspire Your Team Like a Hero

7 Steps to Giving Creative Feedback From Pixar Story Veteran Matthew Luhn

From Toy Stores to Toy Stories—How Jeffrey’s Toys in San Francisco Launched the Pixar Animation Career of Matthew Luhn