The power and importance of storytelling can be found in our everyday lives when we want to persuade, influence, and inspire others.
Why tell stories? What is the importance of storytelling?
As children, we are raised with stories to help provide us with moral guidelines. We are taught from Little Red Riding Hood to listen to instructions, to not lie from The Boy Who Cried Wolf, to not judge people on their appearances from Beauty and the Beast and to work for what we want from the Hare and the Tortoise.
The stories are designed to orientate our moral compass when we are lost. They are memorable so become ingrained in our thought process.
As adults too, this concept of learning through storytelling is still incredibly important in helping us shape the way we see the world.
Stories want to be told, but they deserve the right amount of dramatic flair, passion, and attention.
We can break down the importance of storytelling into 3 parts.
Jump Ahead …
1. Making Cultural Connections
The use of stories to enhance communication has been proved to be essential.
How we interact with strangers and present our ideas can help us bond and enhance our imagination.
Entertainment, politics and large corporations have all realized the value and importance of good storytelling and appreciate it as a key skill to possess.
This is why we find ourselves bombarded with stories in our social media, films, tv-shows, youtube and videos.
So why not use this to our advantage when communicating with others and working in client-based industries.
2. Bringing History to Life
Stories have been used to pass down anecdotes for hundreds of years by a variety of different cultures.
Before writing, history shows that the telling of stories was the only way to be able to share historical anecdotes.
By theatricalizing stories, we create moments of intimacy while using whilst recounting events. We can bring history to life in a thrilling, educational, and interesting way.
Stories can heighten emotions and increase compassion and the use of storytelling in everyday life is a key skill in this day and age.
3. Choosing Relevant Personal Anecdotes
Being able to relate to people and have people relate to you is an essential part of good storytelling.
Why not use this to our advantage when communicating with others?
Let’s use our own stories to allow people to see through our perspective.
Describing events by bringing characters and our memories to life will allow creating stronger connections with the people you interact with.
Each story should be catered and adapted for different audiences and can become unique when it is told correctly.
This is done through unexpected nuances and details which can touch people in ways they find unexpected and the trick is to find the moments in your story to highlight.
Let’s Work On Your Storytelling
Join my storytelling workshops to learn how to use stories to persuade, influence, and inspire others.
Public Workshops in Madrid | Custom Workshops for Companies
Daniela Parkes
Once an actress and now a tour guide, I use stories to persuade, influence, and inspire others. Through my workshops, I’ll teach you how to do the same.