Remember your last big holiday picnic?
You helped yourself to seconds on the taters and then plopped a big, old extra generous dollop of whipped cream on top of the super-big scoop of ice cream. Your belly ached later that night.
Your son hung a spoon from his nose while you were eating. Your aunt got just a little tipsy and shared previously unknown family secrets. Your dog jumped the extra hot dogs and ran.
Ten years from now you’ll be remembering these stories and laughing.
And that’s the magic word: remembering.
We remember stories. We remember them like it was yesterday. We remember all the delightful, embarrassing details, even though right now we can’t remember our own credit score.
Stories are remembered long after the event folds up the tent.
When you share a good story rather than “the facts,” people remember.
Good story telling enables them to see themselves in the story, “Hey that happened to me… or it could!”
Stories are sticky. We see ourselves in them. They get and keep our attention.
I want you to kill all your testimonials, all you fact recitation. Facts don’t move many people, and they don’t remember it anyway.
Start telling stories.
Facts are just loaded with data. They are bland and unemotional even when they have something to say. Tell stories that are simple, unexpected, emotional, and, above all, true. Tell stories that enable us to not only relate and “see” it in our heads, but to simulate the experience into our lives.
There’s no such thing as a passive audience.
So why tell passive facts?
When they hear a story, your customers’ minds move. They put knowledge into a framework that’s life-like, more true to our day-to-day existence. Being the audience for a story means we’re getting ready to act.
Facts are interesting. Stories connect.
Go forth and do great things,
Martha Hanlon and Chris Williams
P.S. Have I ever told you about the time I…?