Sometimes all it takes is an eye patch
“The man in the Hathaway shirt,” AKA Baron George Wrangell, a dapper aristocrat with 20/20 binocular vision.
“The more story-appeal there is in the picture or in the photograph, the more people would look at your ad.”
In 1951, advertising legend David Ogilvy was on his way to a photo shoot when he realized he was in trouble. He had come up with seventeen ideas for his new client, the shirt-maker Hathaway, but none of them was working. On a whim, he came up with an eighteenth: he ducked into a drugstore, bought an eye patch for $1.50, and tossed it to the photographer on set. The first time “Hathaway Man” appeared in The New Yorker magazine, Hathaway shirts sold out within a week.
By including this one meaningful detail, Ogilvy turned a simple photo shoot into a campaign with what he called “story-appeal.” Did the Hathaway Man lose his eye in a bar fight, a lover’s quarrel, a hunting accident? Or is there a perfectly good eye behind that patch, and he’s just trying to spice up his life? (The model, in fact, was Baron George Wrangell, a Russian aristocrat with perfect vision.)
Sometimes you need a story to drive sales. Sometimes you need a story to drive organizational change, to persuade people to work with you, or to make your customers understand what you’re doing and why you’re doing it. Sometimes all it takes is an eye patch. But sometimes it takes a lot more. And if it does, then the right storytelling workshop can help you get where you need to go.
Stories matter—for you and for your organization
People remember stories up to 22 times better than facts alone. That statistic sounds ridiculous, of course. It’s hard to imagine quantifying something as slippery as memorability, or even to make sense of what it would be like to remember one thing 22 times better than another. What’s true—obviously and powerfully true, and requires no science to prove—is that you either remember or you do not.
Think of what you remember best. Think of the things that move you, the things that stick with you no matter what, the things you bring up time and again in conversation, the things that always bubble up in your mind. Whatever those things are, they’re attached to a story. There are compelling biological reasons for this reality. But the upshot is that stories—when well-told, at the right time, and to the right people—can be incredibly useful in your professional life. Leaders who tell good stories are seen as more trustworthy, better communicators, more charismatic. Their companies are, on average, more profitable, and their employees are happier and healthier.
Workshops are a better way to learn storytelling
There are many great YouTube videos and TED Talks about storytelling. There are many lecture-based or self-study courses available. But if you want to get better at telling stories, on an individual and an organizational level, you want to learn in a way that is tailored to your needs, with a stimulating mix of interactive exercises. You want real-time feedback that improves your stories as they develop, so you can learn what works—and why and how. And you want personalized follow-up for lasting improvement, with clearly defined learning outcomes for long-term results. Whether you have someone to influence, something to sell, or simply wish to express your own experiences with maximum impact, you want versatile workshops that can be customized to fit any group, in flexible virtual and in-person formats.
Better workshops make a bigger difference
StoryCorp’s workshops are delivered by an expert facilitator who has worked with professionals from many organizations. You can choose from a more general approach that covers the basics, or one that is tailored for specialized teams that need to focus on specific aspects of storytelling. Whether you’re a salesperson, communications manager, data analyst, engineer, journalist, grant writer, digital strategist, documentary filmmaker, museum curator, entrepreneur, or senior executive, you’ll come out of a workshop telling better stories than when you went in. Click here to get in touch and see how a storytelling workshop can help you and your organization.