How to Measure the Emotional Impact of Your Business Storytelling

You've been listening to The Business of Story - maybe even some of you for seven years - and you've grown as a confident and compelling communicator.

But how do you know your storytelling is actually working? Hitting the mark? Moving prospects, customers and your people emotionally. Exciting them to action?

You're getting a lot of thumbs-ups and likes and smiling emojis, but are they translating into sales? And by sales, I mean anything that you are trying to get your audience to *buy into*, including your product or service, your vision, your mission, and your way of doing things.

Today's guest believes he has the answer using a Fitbit, iPhone or any digital device that monitors your nervous system and therefore the emotional impact of your stories.

Dr. Paul Zak, author of the new book,Immersion: The Science of the Extraordinary and the Source of Happiness,is a Professor at Claremont Graduate University. Paul is in the top 0.3% of most cited scientists. A four-time tech entrepreneur, his most recent company Immersion Neuroscience is a software platform that allows anyone to measure what the brain loves in real-time to improve outcomes in entertainment, education and training, advertising and live events.

He is a regular TED speaker and has appeared on Good Morning America, Dr. Phil, Fox & Friends, ABC Evening News, with his work covered by The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, USA Today, Time, The Economist, Scientific American, Fast Company, Forbes, and many others.

Paul is the author ofThe Moral Molecule: The Source of Love and Prosperityand his new book,Immersion: The Science of the Extraordinary and the Source of Happiness.

Discussed in this episode:

• Paul's early work in defining oxytocin as the Moral Molecule and why you should tell stories to excite this bonding agent in your audience's brain.
• TV host John Oliver took a shot at Paul on Last Week Tonight with John Oliver
• How brands, movie producers and others use Paul's Immersion SaaS platform to accurately measure the emotional highs and lows of their messaging.
• Learnhis five step-approach to creating extraordinary experiences with your storytelling and how to measure your success.

Question:

1. Describe a synopsis of the episode that you chose that highlights all the main topic points.

2.Discuss at least 3 concepts we have talked about in class and how they relate to the content of the episode.

3.Describe how design thinking relates to the content of your chosen episode.

at least four hundred words.