VISUAL IDENTITY
ARE YOU CONNECTING TO ENGAGE & INFLUENCE YOUR AUDIENCE ’ S BIOLOGY ?
Why We Need To Create Content With Less Data And More Emotional , Story-Based Passion .
BY STEPHANIE PAUL
It ’ s ironic that I am opening this article with a statistic . Humor me . Imagine you sat down to catch up on your reading and you came across an article in the Harvard Business Review describing almost two decades of research around self-awareness . Based on their findings in the article , they inferred that 95 % of people think they are self-aware but only 10 %– 15 % actually are .
When I discovered this article , it strengthened my belief in the way we onboard clients . We always start with five science-based assessments to see what stories are being told in the data . The assessments we use to find these stories are the following :
1 . DISC , which covers your observable behavior , i . e ., how you show up .
2 . The 12 Driving Forces , which covers internal psychological motivators with things like knowledge and others .
3 . An Emotional Intelligence ( also known as emotional quotient or EQ ) assessment .
4 . HD Acumen , which looks at your current state of mind with respect to self-view or internal view and world view outside oneself .
5 . DNA , which shows how well you are developed in 25 soft skills like negotiation , leadership , and customer service .
It is always interesting to see how many people are shocked when their EQ comes back with unfavorable scores . For a storyteller , EQ is an essential component to understanding self and others . The most engaging and influential storytellers are often very sincere , transparent , humorous , and empathetic with a remarkable understanding of the human condition .
At the core of all effective and influential storytelling is a strong understanding of self and others . Commanding presence is all about what you value and how you show up with your nonverbals . We have over 4,000 human behaviors , and the limbic system reads them very well instinctually . This is why we have “ gut reactions ” to people . The most powerful storytellers I know have a strong sense of self and others .
Have you ever been at a gathering like a funeral or a wedding and someone speaks extemporaneously and makes you laugh , cry , and feel deeply emotional ? Why are we so moved in these moments ? Because the storyteller in that moment is truly connected to self and the stories they are sharing . They are willing to be courageous and vulnerable . Here is where our biology buys in . Whether your messages are in a form of marketing , branding , or a simple job interview , we often forget the journey these messages must take to be successful . In my experience , we often forget — or maybe don ’ t even know — how much we can control biologically with our audiences if we truly want to .
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