Storytelling gets you out of trouble
Storytelling, when done even marginally well, can do many things.
It improves communication. Assists the storyteller in connecting with their audience. Helps the storyteller be more trustworthy and convincing.
It also makes the storyteller more memorable. More engaging. Far more entertaining.
Telling a story can actually alter the audience’s brain chemistry. Stories trigger the release of dopamine, cortisol, oxytocin, and endorphins, which can help the storyteller capture the audience’s attention, evoke empathy, and make them feel good.
Best of all, the listener’s brain then attributes these good feelings to the storyteller, making them more likable and attractive.
Steve Jobs said, “The most powerful person in the world is the storyteller.”
He wasn’t wrong.
It turns out that storytelling can also get you out of trouble. A friend once said, “Matt is a fundamentally unlikeable person who tells a good story.”
I’m not sure if this is true – but it might be – but what I know is true is this:
Telling a good story has helped me improve a problematic situation, calm nerves, mitigate bad feelings, teach important lessons, alter the course of a potentially negative outcome, and preserve a relationship that has gone afoul.
I’ve done all of these things – many, many times – with a story.
When someone once asked my wife, Elysha, when she first started falling in love with me, she surprisingly didn’t cite my exceptional good looks, impressive physique, or vast intellect. Instead, she cited a meal we once shared as friends, during which I told her stories about my life.
Over the course of that dinner, she began to think that I was a different kind of person, with a background and life experiences unlike anyone she had ever met before. She also noticed that I was willing to share just about anything from my life with her, and that if we ended up together, we’d never run out of things to say.
Storytelling helped me to marry the best person on the planet.
Pretty good. Huh? Seems crazy not to invest in learning to tell better stories.
Storytelling, it turns out, can also get you out of some sticky situations, as this amusing video can attest: