JohnJacobsen

To hire John to speak at your event, please contact him at: johnjacobsendirect@gmail.com

 

Story is the currency of human life.  It's the single most powerful tool to put ideas into the world today.  It's how we relate to each other, how we empathize with each other, and how we persuade others to act.  Act to buy a product, act to love a film, act to find someone innocent.

There are two ways to persuade people. The first is the way most people do it. It’s an intellectual process, and sadly usually consists of a slide presentation of charts and data and information that lulls people into a coma. But data never convinces anyone, because there's always another set of data skewed to see things a different way, and people's beliefs rarely have to do with facts - they have to do with emotions. So while you’re listing data point after data point, they are arguing with you in their heads. Second, if you do succeed in persuading them, you’ve done so only on an intellectual basis. That’s not good enough, because people are not inspired to act by reason alone.

​​​​

The other way to persuade people—and ultimately a much more compelling way—is by proving your point by evoking emotion. The best way to do that is by telling a powerful story. In a story, you not only weave a lot of information into the telling but you also arouse your listener’s emotions and energy. You get them to care.  Some people believe that persuading through story is difficult, but in fact, you already know how to do it.  You just need to be reminded of the fundamental principles of good storytelling, that have existed since man first learned to speak. These building blocks of story aid you in presenting your ideas that pack so much emotional power to be unforgettable.  If you can harness the imagination and the principles of a well-told story, if you can talk from your heart and authentically appeal to the core values that all human beings share, then you get people rising to their feet amid thunderous applause and they'll follow you any where.​​

​​

​I believe you can get people to do almost anything if you tell them the right story.