We talk about stories all the time on poseyblog. All the time. Why? Because stories are incredibly powerful communication tools. Do not communicate without including stories. Tell stories to your team in your all hands, on TV, in a keynote speech and especially when you’re trying to persuade a customer or an investor.
In Tim Ferriss’s Tools of Titans, Chris Sacca says, “Whether you are raising money, pitching your product to customers, selling the company, or recruiting employees, never forget that underneath all the math and the MBA bulls**t talk, we are all still emotionally driven human beings. We want to attach ourselves to narratives. We don’t act because of equations. We follow our beliefs. We get behind leaders who stir our feelings.”
Stories stir feelings. The feelings come from chemicals.
Our limbic brains love patterns. The story patterns stimulates chemicals in our brains. According to Jay Golden’s Retellable:
- When we hear the start of a good story we perk up. Dopamine triggers our curiosity.
- Then, when we’re not sure what’s coming next, cortisol focuses our attention.
- When we hear the happy ending we get a burst of oxytocin.
Your audience may have no idea that this is fiesta of chemicals is splashing around in their bodies when they listen to you, but that doesn’t matter. Whether they realize it or not, humans listen, learn and decide unconsciously with their limbic brains. When our limbic brains compel us toward something, our rational brains create a whole bunch of reasons to justify our choices.
Reach your audiences consciously and unconsciously at the same time. They may never understand why they loved your talk so much, but does it matter? They’ll follow you because you stirred their feelings!
Your business must scale, and you must scale with it. Great communicators create the change they want to see in the world. poseycorp helps innovators build powerful messages and the skill to deliver them so they can break through the noise and be heard! Click here to receive pragmatic communications advice in your inbox every month.
poseycorp’s next Ask Me Anything About Communications is Friday, May 4th at 9 am PDT. We’ll be talking about When/If You Should Hire a PR Agency, and How to Manage Them If You Do. Click here to register!
