Why You Need To Be A Story Teller

“The most powerful person in the world is the story teller. The storyteller sets the vision, values and agenda of an entire generation that is to come.” — Steve Jobs

Have you ever keenly observed advertisements on your TV box or the ads on your social media handles on your phone? Well, if you haven’t then please do and when I say keenly I mean notice not on what they are telling you but instead focus on how they are telling. Because everyone in today’s world is selling you a story. Be it any local vendor in your area or any other big corporate giant. You will see there is a pattern that everyone is using in order to put across their message even if you are watching to anybody- especially any thought leader, speaker or any businessperson.

Storytelling has been the art that has always been used in marketing, PR or any kind of information industry where someone has to share a message to the world. Now that message can be from one person to another person or one person to masses at scale. The question is why storytelling is so successful in evoking the emotions in people. From motivating people to take part in various historic movements to selling any product or service, storytelling has always been a go to weapon.

I am sure you can also recall a moment when you were moved by a cause by watching any kind of speech/infomercial or any song that you must have listened to in the past and then try co-relate that song to your life. Why that happened? Let me share the psychology behind that. We humans being emotional animals try to connect ourselves in a story. Our mind is wired in such a way, we always look what is negative or what is not working for us and then try to connect with the same vulnerability of the protagonist in a song/movie or any kind of information that we consume. While doing that we get hooked to that story and at that time we are in a state of mind that if someone show us the solution to get out of the problem/to get rid of that vulnerability, we get sold right away because our mind see that as the only solution to that problem in our life. And this is how the whole storytelling process works.

Also, the same technique is used in uniting masses for a common cause by politicians, social activists and other leaders in order to fight for a cause. The one example that comes to my mind is of Luther King Jr. fight against the slavery where he paints the picture of Great America in front of thousands of Americans. Similarly the same was done by Mahatma Gandhi in order to unite people for the non-violence movement during the India freedom fight against Britishers. Another reason why people get connected with the stories is because it has the power to evoke emotions, people can relate to it and it pretty much simplifies the message, hence the effectiveness of communication gets enhanced and it touches the heart of the people.

Similarly storytelling has been all time favorite tool in the business world. And who can forget the famous example of Steve Jobs taking out that small mini gadget called ipod from his mini-pocket to show the world why the world needs the ipod. So, if you are into any kind of business or where you have to get the work done by people as a leader, it’s very important that you should use this technique to put across your message. Because in a story people try to find themselves and once you evoke an emotion, the battle is already won.