The Story Factor summary

Let’s say you now know what story you want to tell. So how do you tell it properly?

You have to realize that you have many channels of communication available. Imagine you’re not merely telling a story, but enacting a play for your listener: your voice, face, hands and body are the actors, stage costumes, music and props that can add a whole new level to your story.

If you really want to be able to influence your audience, you have to tell them not one, but six different stories.

First, tell them who you are, and second, tell them why you’re there. This is because people won’t trust you until they know the answer to these questions, and if you tell them using stories it will be far more convincing, making you seem more trustworthy.

Now that you know you can influence people with stories, you probably want to know why that's the case.

First, they help you overcome suspicions: people are often distrustful when someone is trying to influence them, but stories allow you to bypass their suspicion because you can frame the audience on your side: your interests and theirs overlap. This will make them more likely to trust you.

Of course, not all audiences are eager to listen to what you have to say. Often you’ll find you have to speak to people that you might find unwilling, disinterested or unmotivated.

So how can you influence them?

You’ve seen how important the art of storytelling is, but there’s another side to the coin. If you truly want to be able to influence someone, you also need to be adept at storylistening. In a dialog you need to genuinely listen to your partner.

This way you’ll come to understand not only his opinions and arguments but also his uncertainties and true feelings, because he’ll see how closely you're listening and feel comfortable opening up.

Though there are many ways to tell a story well, there are also a few surefire ways to make a mess of it. To avoid the latter, keep these three simple don’ts in mind.

Firstly, don’t act superior to your audience.

In the previous blinks, we’ve discussed how becoming a great storyteller will make you more influential and persuasive in the eyes of others. But that’s not all: you’ll also notice changes in your own life.

This is because a storyteller sees the world differently. You’ll begin to see your life as a story, and you are the person who chooses how the plot unfolds. For example, if you’re currently living in a story where you’re constantly stressed and frustrated, it’s time to rewrite that plot into something more positive.

These days, it seems the most valued thinking skills in the world are rational and critical. They are taught at school, and they help you get jobs. But in fact there’s another kind of thinking that can be very beneficial for a storyteller, namely story thinking: framing problems and situations as stories.

When approaching a problem or situation with purely rational thought, the goal is to remove all ambiguity, anecdotes and emotions from the equation. It’s like using a ready-made recipe or formula: you know what you’ll end up with, but it definitely won’t be anything new or innovative.