Page 181 - Wake Up and do Your Thing

NICHOLAS BOOTHMAN
The YMCA just renamed its fundraisers "storytellers.".
On the Trade Show Floor...
Two weeks after the show, people will remember you and your stories before they remember the booth or the facts and figures.
As covered earlier in the book, stories are to the human heart what food and fresh air are to our bodies. There's not a person reading this whose life has not been greatly impacted in the last day, week, or month by a story. Strategically structured stories and word pictures can motivate people to cooperate with each other, and they have the power to affect our attitudes, beliefs, and behaviors.
That"s why advertisers polish them, social media massages them, politicians bend them, religions exalt them, and motivational speakers use them to transform the mindset of their audiences. We watch stories unfold on stage and screen, read them in books, follow them in the headlines, gossip about them in private, and when we can"t find one handy, we make one up.
When we capture other people"s imaginations we engage forces that exist beyond their conscious control. Just imagine sucking a cold lemon and feel your mouth pucker. Imagine a snake crawling up your pant leg and see what happens to your heartbeat. These are involuntary responses. That"s because the brain doesn"t know the difference between something that is real, and something is vividly
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