Number 1 rule of Storytelling for business - learn from Christopher's story
Do you have time for me to tell you a short true story with a magnificent ending?
In February 1978, a happy American couple, Diane and Larry had twin baby boys.
Their first boy, Christopher, was a very healthy 9.5 pounds.
His twin brother, born five minutes later, wasn’t quite so well.
Michael only weighed 4 pounds, had a severely enlarged heart, a dangerous condition known as cardiomyopathy, and was also diagnosed with cerebral palsy.
But like all twins, they had a very special bond.
Throughout their childhood, Christopher always protected his younger brother, even once fighting a gang of youths who were calling Michael hurtful names.
In fact, the brotherly love was so powerful, that at age 13, when Michael desperately needed a heart transplant, Christopher even thought about committing suicide so that he could donate his healthy heart.
Thankfully though, a suitable donor was found in time.
In late teenage years, the extremely good looking Christopher was becoming very popular and getting asked to all the cool parties.
But Christopher would only go if Michael was invited too.
If there was no invite for Michael, it was a ‘No, not coming, thanks’ from Christopher.
Later, Christopher went to university, majoring in bio-chemical engineering, as he had always dreamed of studying the causes of cardiomyopathy, to find a cure for his baby brother and others like him.
But destiny had quite different plans.
Christopher was spotted by a modelling agency, became an actor and quickly went on to become a world-famous Hollywood star… and an extremely wealthy and successful venture capitalist.
And what about his twin brother, Michael?
He became a lawyer for people with cerebral palsy and a campaigner for #BeTheGift - an organisation dedicated to promoting organ donation.
You might be wondering who Christopher is.
You’ll know him better by part of his full name, Christoper Ashton Kutcher.
Together, Michael and Ashton Kutcher now actively work in charity.
And their brotherly bond is as strong as it has always been.
Number #1 rule of storytelling
If you’re trying to
convince a client
present to an audience
teach your kids
… use storytelling to be memorable and make an impact!
And the number one rule of storytelling is…
Make them care.
The story about Ashton and Michael Kutcher above, hopefully made you care enough to grab your attention.
You wanted to know what happened at each next step of the story.
You might be thinking that this particular story was just playing on your heart strings…
That it doesn’t have much practical use in the business world.
But if you cleverly use storytelling you will gain massive engagement from your audience.
Storytelling for business
A version of the Kutcher story is currently hammering LinkedIn engagement.
It has over 80,000 likes and thousands of comments.
By the time you read this, that post will probably be over 100K likes.
On Social Media, engagement is the new ‘followers count’.
Imagine what 50,000 or even 100,000 likes would do to your social media reporting :)
It’s good for business.
After all, we’re all human and great storytelling activates the emotions hardwired into all our DNA: Anger, Disgust, Fear, Happiness, Sadness and Surprise.
Gain attention by telling stories about (or related to) your company that new audiences will love to hear.
