In the last post, I shared stories from Peter Guber, who has long relied on purposeful storytelling to motivate, win over, shape, engage and sell. His executive and entrepreneurial accomplishments have made him a success in multiple industries. Today’s post extends Peter’s lessons!As an entertainment rainmaker, he did want to reinforce the idea that, “Hits are not born in the mind. Hits are born in the heart. If you are aiming for the wallet, you will fail. This is nothing new. It’s how we are wired. We have 40,000 years of oral tradition. Facebook didn’t create social cohesion — we did! Storytelling is part of who we are. State of the art technology does not develop the state of the heart. Face-to-face story telling is needed when you want invite people to join a business opportunity, church or political view.”
“We are all story tellers and story listeners” he went on and asked the audience if we wanted to live to be 100 years old. Everyone raised their hands. Then reminded everyone “you will all have some form of Alzheimer’s and what is the fear of this disease? It’s the fear of losing our stories, losing who we are.”
Throughout the evening he cited stories from many great leaders including: YouTube founder Chad Hurley, rock legend Gene Simmons and physician and author Deepak Chopra. This extraordinary mix of purposeful storytellers reminded me that a story that is truly compelling is capable of turning others into viral advocates for your goal.
As he began to further explore the concepts in his book, he introduced us to the MAGIC of telling purposeful stories. This is where he deciphers his failures and successes into a set of techniques.
Motivating your Audience to a Goal:
The best example he could give on this principle is the Apple brand. Steve Jobs cannot himself tell everyone stories of how Apple products improve lives and entertain. He needs all of us to tell these stories and he has motivated us to pay it forward and tell these stories for him. Peter asked the audience how many of us had heard someone rave about an Apple product. All hands were raised. Steve has motivated his audience to a goal.
Does Apple do it with data, facts and information? No, it’s done with stories. Put another way, he asked us how many would make a hiring decision from a resume alone, never talking to the candidate. No hands went up. The resume gives the data, facts and information, but we need the stories to make a decision.
He did warn in that “if you are trying to be interesting, you have lost. You have to be interested to motivate your audience to a goal.”
Stay tuned for more lessons about storytelling!
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