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About this lesson
Storytelling skills are essential for basic communication as well as inspiring others.
Quick reference
Yes, There Was Communication Invented Before Texting
Storytelling is the oldest and most powerful form of human communication — and it still matters more than ever today.
Storytelling Is How Humans Have Always Connected
- Long before texting, social media, PowerPoint, or even books — people shared knowledge through spoken stories.
- For over 10,000 years, storytelling around fires and in caves was how people passed on lessons, culture, and memory.
- Despite all our high-tech tools, the human brain still responds best to stories.
Storytelling Is Wired Into Us
- Storytelling isn’t just a technique — it’s part of our DNA.
- We’re hardwired to engage with stories more than facts or slides.
- Don’t stifle this instinct. Tap into it — and your communication will instantly improve.
The Best Storytellers Become the Leaders
- In prehistoric times, the best storyteller often became the leader of the tribe.
- That’s still true today — think of Steve Jobs and how he built a global tribe through powerful storytelling.
- Your audience is your modern tribe. If you want to lead, master the art of storytelling.
Stories Keep Audiences Engaged
- Most presentations are full of boring sections and forgettable moments.
- Great storytellers create presentations that are engaging from start to finish.
- That’s why people remember stories — they feel like they're watching a movie in their mind.
- 00:05 How do people communicate before texting?
- 00:09 How do people communicate before social media?
- 00:12 How do they communicate before typing?
- 00:15 How about before PowerPoint?
- 00:17 What about before books or TV or radio?
- 00:20 Let's keep rewinding back further, further, further - more than 10,000 years.
- 00:25 People communicated by telling stories by the fire in the cave.
- 00:33 Storytelling is primitive and yet it's wildly effective.
- 00:39 It's still resonates.
- 00:42 These days, it doesn't matter how many special effects you have, how many hundreds of millions of dollars you have for special effects on movies.
- 00:50 It's still about telling a story, which is something cave people did more than 10,000 years ago.
- 00:59 So it's great to be high tech.
- 01:01 I use technology.
- 01:03 We've connected through the Internet right here.
- 01:07 But the basic primitive urge to communicate by telling a story is hard wired into us as human beings.
- 01:17 Let's not stifle it.
- 01:19 Let's try not bottle it up.
- 01:22 Let's put a spotlight on it and that way we can continue to communicate for another 10,000 years and beyond.
- 01:32 In prehistoric times, the leader of a tribe was typically the best storyteller.
- 01:38 This was before the days of movies and TV shows and YouTube.
- 01:43 So in order to captivate the whole tribe, you had to be good at telling stories.
- 01:50 Well, guess what?
- 01:51 Are times really any different these days?
- 01:54 Wasn't Steve Jobs the leader of a tribe of people who cared passionately about the finest personal electronic gadgets to help them with their life?
- 02:04 Whether it's an iPad, iPhone, iPod, if you want to be a leader of a tribe, it's not necessarily 30 people who live within 50 feet of you.
- 02:16 It is your community.
- 02:17 The best way to be ahead of that community worldwide is by being the best storyteller.
- 02:27 One reason storytellers are so compelling is they essentially force the audience to run little movie reels along as you speak.
- 02:37 Storytellers are engaging throughout most people.
- 02:41 When they give presentations, they get a boring beginning, maybe a boring ending, sometimes something interesting throughout a little bit, but the interesting parts are far outweighed by the boring parts.
- 02:54 Compelling storytellers are interesting throughout.
- 02:58 That's why you should strive to be the best storyteller in your tribe.
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