Power of story telling

Earlier this week I was facilitating a training for an organization and 20 - 30 minutes into my talk some of the staff members started to doze... Whattt?

Before you begin to wonder, Zubi so you mean you're so boring that people sleep while you talk? For me not to run that risk, let me give you the backstory first before I showed you what I did when the dozing started...

The commencement time for the training was 7am. Let me restate that...

The training was to commence by 7am, we were not to get there by 7am... We were to get there way before 7am. The entire staff of the organization was there before 7am, some had left their houses before 6am...

In fact some Intel I got showed that some of the staff members left the office the previous day later than 9pm, got home late, and had to be up as early as 4am. That is to say, few or none of them has had any decent sleep.

So about 20 - 30 minutes into my talk, I was teaching pretty technical stuff - things that several people have invested years to master... I noticed a few people started to catch the spirit... And started to lose control to nature... And in my mind I went "Not on my watch"!

And Immediately, I Switched...

TO STORYTELLING!

It was a pretty heartfelt story about yours truly getting on the path that I am today, managing to tie it to Marketing, Copywriting, Storytelling, Info Products, Digital Marketing, all in one swoop...

When I was done (not to mention that I was pretty proud of myself 😎) every eyes were wide open, as if asking for more... They were soaking it up as though I was Oprah, and about to interview PMB (quite frankly I'd like to watch that interview)😀

Though I started with stories, said stories through out and ended with stories... In fact for my 2 hours training, I only had 10 slides - a beginning and end slide, and 8 pictures in between... No text!

But there was something about this particular story that shook the entire team out of its state:

It was an "Authentic Story of Overcoming Hardship with Diamonds at the End"... The audience always loves it!

Many times I could trace some of my biggest sales or closing of high end clients to when they heard me tell really good stories, especially stories that they could see themselves in - when they can identify themselves in the character, you have them!

Stories used to be a distant force of influence only handled by the talented, the elderly or the highly trained, today it is a critical tool for persuasion.

All the historical Figures and Influencers all communicated through stories, for one simple reason: Stories go straight to the heart, and forces the mind to cooperate!

Yeah you can bring in the facts and figures a bit, but don't go all facts and figures down at your audience, that stuff will choke them, and make them start to analyze what you're saying...

And prior to conventional belief (and get ready because I'm about to say what you might disagree with, but that's OK... I'm learning to be allergic to your disbeliefs... I'm learning from President Trump 😁)

Prior to popular belief, we don't want a rational audience - we don't want them to think (at least for the period we're trying to install our ideas and make our pitch). We actually want them to suspend their thinking, Just long enough for us to install the emotions and ideas that makes them buy or take whatever action we want them to take.

That's how everyone has done it, from Jesus to Jobs to Martin Luther, to Mother Theresa, Obama, Trump, GEJ, Hitler, Buddha, Churchill, Lincoln, Mohammed, John Maxwell, Confuscious... By now you get the point right?

They tell the right stories, not bug you with the facts and logic behind it, you buy into the stories, and then they use the logic to back it up, and you're a follower.

For Jesus, after the tons of parables, he performs miracles as proof, thereby providing factual evidence, and then goes into ancient scriptures to provide figures and logic, and before you know, you're a crusader telling your whole village.

For Steve Jobs he sells you a story of "A Thousand Songs in your Pocket" and shows the tiny device called an iPod as proof, then you're going crazy looking for your darn credit card to get in more debt.

It's how civilization has been sustained for thousands of years. These days it's more critical than ever.

Today, everyone claims to have the best product or service, the person who wins is the person who can make the market believe that by telling the most authentic, captivating story about it to the right audience

#PauseAndThink

Zubi O'Peters

PS. So I've been largely inactive the past few days, how has your week been?

©Zubi O'peters