How to Capture People's Attention

• 💡 Wisdom

• ✏️ Illustration

• 💬 Saying

• 🧭 Explanation

• 📝 Reflection

Estimated reading time: 4 minutes, 7 seconds

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If you want to grab people’s attention, just throwing data at them won’t work.

Craft a compelling narrative, and share your story.

Storytelling is a superpower that can be learned.

I love a good ol’ bar chart, and this one is no exception:

People pay attention to data, but they listen to stories much more.

Let’s unpack this further. 👇

Today’s quote comes from somebody that many consider to be one of the best storytellers in the world of business:

Many of the individuals that we look up to have the remarkable ability to tell a great story.

Jobs managed to build one of the most innovative brands in part because of his storytelling ability.

Consider someone that you look up to - would you describe them as a great storyteller?

Did you know that I have a day job completely different to Wisdom Made Easy?

In that employment, I work with data.

Lots and lots of data.

As such, I recognise how important data is in helping inform key decisions.

But something that I have come to learn is that people listen to stories more than data.

Facts and data may prop up those narratives, how you say something can be more important than what you say.

People feel invested in stories. It’s why we see programmes like X-Factor, The Voice, and The Great British Bake-off show behind the scenes footage of the adversity the contestants have had to overcome to get to the competition.

It doesn’t necessarily have anything to do with their singing or baking skills.

Instead, it’s to get you, as the viewer, more invested.

And this isn’t a new invention.

Storytelling has been used for millennia to capture the attention of people.

One of the greatest storytellers that I look up to is Jesus Christ.

Even if you don’t have a faith or relationship with Jesus, you can’t deny the manner in which Jesus captivated masses by sharing parables that spoke into the lives of those around him.

Storytelling is a superpower that can be learned.

Grow in your storytelling ability with today’s Reflection and Resource.

Now it’s your time to reflect on today’s wisdom.

Consider journaling your responses to the following questions:

• Would I describe myself as a good storyteller?

• Do I record my stories anywhere? If not, what could this look like if I were to start recording my stories?

Want to journal? Join Journal Wiser today!

If you want to grow in the ability of storytelling, you won’t want to miss today’s sponsor: Shortform.

It’s not just Matthew Dix’s Storyworthy that Shortform can offer to help you craft compelling narratives.

It also has a summary of Rob Biesenbach’s Unleash the Power of Storytelling and Shortform’s own The Master Guides: Storytelling for Fiction Writers.

All of these books and more have easy-to-digest summaries available on Shortform here:

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Catch you in the next issue!

Thanks,
Michael