Speaking in story
joshpitzalis • 27 May 2022 •
The most meaningful thing I’ve learned lately is that stories are more effective than any other form of communication we have.
This is down to a quirk in the way memory works. We remember life in little episodes, how we feel lingers for longer than what was said, and we remember everything from the point of view of a single character, ourselves.
The result is that we are compelled by emotionally charged episodes that center around a person.
The keyhole of our minds is shaped like a human and the closer information resembles the rich, lived subjective experience of a person the better it fits through our mind’s eye and unlocks the meaning for which it was intended.
If you want to be heard, speak in story.
Comments
@joshpitzalis I like this. I know storytelling is pivotal to marketing. But I’m so bad at it. Perhaps because personality wise, I like being direct and getting straight to the point. So what would you say to folks who are like that?
@jasonleow If being direct and getting straight to the point is working for you, why change?
I’m only exploring how to infuse my communication with the narrative because being direct and giving people the facts has stopped being effective for me. The social media marketing environment I operate in is so saturated that straight facts aren’t cutting it anymore.
But if you find that direct works, then milk it for all it’s worth.
If and when you start to feel like you’re shouting into the wind then it’s useful to know that storytelling can offer a useful set of principles to cut through the noise and feel heard again.
@joshpitzalis I seeee. Good point. Yeah it’s somewhat still working, but am curious to experiment with storytelling, to see if it’ll help. Because personally I enjoy reading stories, just not writing them. So there’s some cognitive dissonance/curiosity there
I’m working on a more comprehensive piece where I’m flesh out my understanding of how to tell stories here https://www.joshpitzalis.com/story
My interest here is specific to storytelling in marketing and business, as opposed to fiction and entertainment.