How the Power of Story Influences Others

“If you broadcast your story, you have the power to influence”.    

In my talk “Developing a Mindset to Overcome Stress and Anxiety” at Jobs Expo last year in Dublin and Galway, I spoke about the fact that we have lots of stories going through our heads every day. While some of these stories come from our perception of our inner world, we are also likely to have stories bombarding us from our external world. 

These contain all sorts of messages and signals and are designed to make us feel a particular way or to make us feel we need something, basically whatever those messages are trying to sell us.    We are told in order to feel a particular way we need to buy a product or service.  This is known as the “psychology of sales”.

WHY does it work? 

Because - Good Stories Both Influence and Sell  

A good story appeals to our right brain, the emotive side which is the side of our brain that does the purchasing.   It’s almost as if we turn off the analytical, questioning left side and allow our passions and emotions to take over! This of course is our feeling side.

The power of our story was highlighted by John Koetsier, Senior Contributor with Forbes in his article “7 Predictions for Marketing Technology in 2022.” He rated the power of story at number 2 in his article.

He says,

“The second most popular prediction for marketing technologies in 2022 is the power of story content to build brand and sell products. The technology pieces to enable it include video, including live streaming and audio particularly podcasting”.

The article continued,

“Consumers now spent one third of their media time with audio” … “Audio is now the most accessible medium” says iHeartMedia CMO Gayle Troberman.    And marketers are waking up to the massive potential of audio to deliver highly engaged targetable audiences at scale.“

Of course, as individuals, we choose what audio we want to listen to based again, on how it makes us feel.

Further confirmation of the power of our story to influence others comes from Sue Painter, owner of the Confident Marketer.  She shared her unique approach to influencer marketing and admitted,

“I really never thought that what I did in my work influenced other people until I started getting stories back from them and I would get emails saying, you taught me this in a class five years ago, or you did a webinar three years ago and since that time I’ve changed this, this, this, and I’ve been really successful in my business and it was all because of that one thing you said. And I started thinking, wow, we have this power within us to influence others and we really never even recognize it until it comes full circle and comes back around to us”.

Sue’s second business, Travel Changes Life, offers retreat planning and travel advice to groups, families, and culture seekers anywhere in the world.   

Her passion is in showing people how to immerse themselves in the culture of their desintation.   And she has been very successful in this business by leveraging the power of story around culture.  

Sue says “If you really want to have the experience of a culture, you need to pay for being able to immerse yourself in that culture, not just kind of hit it lightly and go on a bus tour around the town and then you never really get to go to the city. So, I take my travel blogging, I really go deep”.

She also goes on to say “I always want to be of service, but I always want to do it in a way that keeps me happy and joyful about the work I do. I have always said, when the day comes that it becomes a slog, I need to either change what I’m doing or I need to quit”.

In her story strategy, she believes that;

“When people both hear and see something, it sticks with them longer”,

This goes to prove that the power of story really is king and how we share our story can be leveraged effectively as part of our strategy. So next time you are sharing your story whether it be your personal story or the story of your business remember it has the power to influence others.  

Choose your words mindfully and engage in a way that serves both you and the people you want to hear them.