The key to effective leadership or marketing is built on being able to communicate through storytelling to help your audience understand the idea you are trying to project. This podcast episode tells you how to do it well.

1.Storytelling is one of the main tools of influence.
Like it or not humans think in emotional terms and charts and graphs don’t make you feel warm and fuzzy. Effective promoters like to use storytelling because it is powerful and rapidly works to energize your audience. It is not by accident that one of the most often used phrases of the past few years has been “the optics” of a situation. Companies use psychology now more than ever to understand how mental pictures influence what we think and feel. When done well it can yield huge returns because it can cause people to do things they previously did not want to do.

2. Storytelling allows a leader to be the change they hope to project.
A good example of this is the creator of Spanx, Sara Blakely. She wanted form fitting pantyhoses that did not ride up when she cut off the legs to deal with the Florida heat and also didn’t want it to show through her clothes. Her story of the underdog solving a problem that a lot of women face created a compelling reason for others to both cheer her on and buy her product. The reality is that she crafted a great story to sell women on the idea of the modern day girdle that they now see as a “body shaper”. Good storytelling leaders establish credibility through telling the stories that they are living.

3. Storytelling can transform the boring into something compelling.
We hear a lot about branding and storytelling is one of the best methods of establishing an idea in the minds of your listeners. You can show charts all day long about what someone can get from your product but bring in real life scenarios that they might live themselves and you immediately establish a connection. Jered Fogle instantly established Subway Sandwiches as a healthy means of losing weight.

So what is the best method for you to develop a compelling story?

4. Know your audience
You have to understand what drives your target audience and how that can relate to your story. This requires some research on your part to help you include aspects that create a mental image that problem solves for them.

5. Know the values or views of your target audience.
This is where your research is critical because it is a different story to think you know how someone responds to an idea versus how they do in real life day to day situations. If you understand how they view the world, then you are able to step into their shoes and pull in items that have greater meaning to them. Nnot everyone is going to love what you have to say but you are not attempting to influence everyone but a particular target group and if they “get” what you are saying then you have done your job.

6. Build a hook for your story
If you have every watched an Alfred Hitchcock movie there is always a hook that drives what will or is about to happen and then the story builds based on that hook. A perfect example is the “not sold in store” items you see on TV. First they present the problem, proceed to tell you how their product solves it along with the price, and then use the phrase “but we’re not stopping there” and proceed to tell you how they are giving you additional value for an even lower price if you order more. A lot of us may think these ads are cheesy but you see them all the time for a reason.

Work to reduce your story until you come up with simple language that quickly creates an image that highlights where you visually and mentally were attempting to go. It takes practice but is worth the effort as you become a much better storyteller regarding your business and your product.

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