Stories. Hmmm. Why are they so powerful? Why are they such a perfect tool for speakers, trainers, and presenters?
We learn about the importance of the use of stories in presentations from great speaking coaches like Bill Gove, Craig Valentine, and Patricia Fripp. Have you ever asked yourself, “Why?”
As children, we loved to hear stories! In fact, I’ll bet you know one or two kids who quietly demand “Tell me a story!” at bed time, right?
Early in our development, we became accustomed to learning though stories. It was our preferred method of digesting knowledge. As we’ve grown older, that never really changed. While we may enjoy learning the abstract via statistics and a good graph, those methods remain a distant second to a poignant story well-told.
In my article earlier this week, I told you about an “Ah-ha moment” I had while working with my Life Coach, Dawn Nocera. Actually, I had two Ah-ha moments during that conversation. The second one was about the power of stories. Dawn reminded me that:
“Stories open your subconscious mind,
so the lesson can sink in and you
can easily absorb the information.”
Do you know a great teacher? He or she is probably a great storyteller!
I have been reading a lot about the subconscious mind lately, and it’s just making more and more sense. The conscious mind is what we know, or have heard. The subconscious mind is much more powerful. It’s what controls our actions. That being the case, if we speakers are to make lasting change in audience members, we must get our message into their subconscious minds.
Let’s face it, we can all be “thick headed.” We’d all like to think we can hear words of wisdom once, and “get it,” right? I can’t even tell you how many times I’ve had to hear certain messages before it really “sunk in.” Dan Kennedy says that “we are egoistical to think that audience members can hear us once and walk away with permanent change.”
That’s why we need repetitive refrains to get our messages deeper into the subconscious minds of the audience. That’s why infomercials have the same message three times in a half hour, even if it is said a little differently. When Craig Valentine and I created the Own The Stage program, we designed it to contain the same education on DVDs and Audio CDs. First, on DVDs, because advanced speaking techniques must be learned though a visual medium. Second, on Audio CDs, for the convenience of listening in your car so that you can reinforce the message until is sinks in and creates a permanent change. That is why I’m creating my new program Get More Laughs By Next Week® the same way… to help students of humor get a new perspective into their subconscious minds.
Dawn also said:
“Stories create change, without pain!”
Stories occupy our conscious mind, while the real message slips unknowingly into the subconscious mind. That’s also why dialogue is more powerful than narration. Dialogue brings us deeper into the scene, watching it happen. This opens up the subconscious even more. Narration, on the other hand, is “telling us what happened” back then. It’s not nearly as powerful as putting the audience right into the scene.
“Stories open the subconscious mind
of your audience, so your content can easily
be absorbed and real change can occur
within the lives of your audience.”
Do you want to create more lasting change? Do you have a message that matters? What perspective-changing stories do you have that you can use?
Great advice. I’m giving a speech tonight from the storytelling manual. I’m going to tell the story of how I met my wife.
Darren,
Thanks for continuing the emails.
I wish I could afford to have Dawn be part of my life as far as keeping my attitude & mindset where it’s meant to be.
Someday…
Thank you for this article. I need to learn to tell better, meaningful and purposeful stories that will resonate well with the audience.
I see and hear speakers do that this well and always try to emulate them…I have lots my work cut out for me to become better, then good at it!
Patricia
Darren,
Interesting thoughts and ideas. I was disappointed though that you offer no evidence or research to back up your assertions around stories being our preferred way to learn and that stories tap into our subconscious mind. I am confused when you say that “Stories occupy our conscious mind, while the real message slips unknowingly into the subconscious mind”, does this mean that the audience is unaware of the message, and only at some undetermined point in the future it manifests itself unknowingly in their actions? Do you really mean to say that the audience does not consciously understand the “real” message of our stories when we tell them? What you say also seems to contradict the later statment that, “stories occupy our conscious minds”. Which is it, do they occupy our conscious minds or open up our subconscious minds. I would also be interested in reading the research that shows dialogue opens up the subconscious mind even more.
As speakers, and in essence teachers, it is our content that is of value and in this regard I find the content of this particular article lacking. Sorry for the negative comments. I like what you do, but found this article did not live up to your previous level of value delivered to your readers.
I should clarify one piece of my earlier evaluative piece. I find a contradiction between the phrases, “Stories open your subconscious mind,
so the lesson can sink in” and “Stories occupy our conscious mind”. Perhaps you could clarify this apparent contradiction.
Just a comment on why stories work in getting across a message. Stories keep us interested so we can “get” the bigger message. As an anology: When my son was 10 years old, he saw a a fascinating demonstration of how early native Americans utilized materials at hand (rock and bone) to shape arrow-heads. The next day I found my son making an arrow by scraping glass on the cement sidewalk. “I am using the materials I have to hand,” he said. I was amazed that he had gotten the bigger lesson. He never will need to make an arrow-head; but he has certainly had to use whatever was to hand to solve problems. We all have stories to hand. The beauty and worth of stories lie in subtleties that are impossible to measure.
As a new toast master and a recent CC, I look forward to your useful guidelines. I getting more comfortable with telling stories and making a point, this realy makes a defference in how you connect with your audence
How does one “own” a speech?