Trump Made Her Do It

For decades, Lisa Cron has been the person authors and filmmakers turn to when they need their story to captivate an audience. Her books, Wired for Story and Story Genius, outline the framework that makes a story suck you in and smack you in the heart.

If you want an audience to react to you, tell them a story. It’s neuroscience. Our brains are wired to react to stories with emotion, compassion, and empathy. It’s why we love Mare of Easttown, it’s why the Always #likeagirl campaign was a viral sensation, and why that Motrin ad that tried to appeal to moms as it insulted them utterly failed.

The thing about this framework is that it works outside of the entertainment industry. Stories drive sales, marketing, venture funding, friendships, and politics.

Story is so powerful you could use it to convince nearly anyone of anything if you knew how.

In 2012, Lisa wrote a proposal for a book that would outline exactly that. She had a publisher lined up and was riding the wave of the success of her first book, but she didn’t take the deal. The power of story made Lisa terrified.

She feared that if she spelled out the broad application and power of the story framework, the wrong kinds of people might leverage it. In the wrong hands, story is so powerful it can bring our communities, nation, and even the world to the brink, unleashing the evils of mankind in the name of exploiting power.

But like all powerful truths, it’s hard to keep the power of story a secret. And in 2016, Lisa (and much of the world) watched in horror as story was used to demonize and assail the most vulnerable people in society.

Story convinced people they needed to build walls, it made them see enemies where they should see friends, to ignore deadly racial injustice, turn their heads when children were put in cages, not wear masks, to storm the capital, and believe the election was stolen.

Story tore us apart. It ripped apart families, communities, the nation, and the world. But it’s also the only thing that can repair us.

In the end, Lisa did write the book that she knew could change the world. It’s called Story or Die and it was published earlier this year. In the months since publication, Lisa has worked exclusively with Chairman Mom to turn the book into a career-changing, life-changing and world-changing online course.

The course starts June 14 and it’ll teach you how to get your customers, investors, friends, donors, or employees to “aha!” using brain science.

There’s always a debate about how “dirty” we should fight against bigotry and hatred. Do we fight misinformation with misinformation? Fire with fire? Hate with hate?

How about we just use the same tools of neuroscience to create a better world? Learn More.