Take a deep dive into the neuroscience of storytelling, why our emotional brain is our main decision-maker, and how you can leverage this to raise more money! This session was delivered at the Nonprofit Storytelling Conference 2016 in Chicago by Good Works' Leah Eustace.

1. The Science of Story
Leah Eustace, ACFRE
Chief Idea Goddess
Good Works
@LeahEustace
www.goodworksco.ca

3. Our brains are helpless
against the gravitational
pull of a good story.
Why?

7. The average
daydream is 14
seconds long and
we have 2000 of
them every day

8. We remember all the
feels, not the words

9. “I've learned that people
will forget what you said,
people will forget what you
did, but people will never
forget how you made them
feel.”
~Maya Angelou

10. Your NSN is the part of
your brain that holds
the task of initially
making sense out of
this stream of
incoming visual and
auditory information.
~ K. Haven, Story Proof
Neural Story Net (NSN)

11. • The NSN lies between your sensory organs (eyes and ears)
and your conscious mind.
• Nothing reaches your conscious mind before being massaged
into story shape by your NSN
• What reaches your conscious mind is always your own story-
based interpretation of what your sensory organs actually
recorded.
• When you talk, the story donors see and hear in their
conscious minds is not the story you said! Their conscious
minds hear the story their NSN created based on the story
you actually provided.
(adapted from K. Haven)
Neural Story Net (NSN)

12. The best stories are the ones in which we can insert ourselves

13. “The initial job of an effective
story is to anesthetize the part of
your brain that knows it is a
story.”
~ Lisa Cron, Wired for Story

14. Betty’s story
becomes the
donor’s story

15. “A story does what facts and
statistics never can: it inspires and
motivates. The audience tunes in
because they see themselves
woven into the story.”
~ D. Taylor, The Healing Power of Stories

16. The Story of One

20. Instinct rules.
Emotions come second.
Thinking comes third.

21. Person #1: Hi John.
Person #2: Shhhhh! I’m not here!
You never saw me. I’m not here!
Person #1: It’s okay. Carol’s gone
home.

22. J FKFB INAT OUP SNA SAI RS

23. How did you do?

24. JFK FBI NATO UPS NASA IRS

25. A thirsty ant went to the river. He was carried
away by the rush of the stream and was about to
drown. A dove, sitting in a tree overhanging the
water, plucked a leaf. The leaf fell into the stream
close to the ant, and the ant climbed onto it. The
ant floated safely to the bank. Shortly afterward,
a bird catcher came and laid a trap in the tree.
The ant bit and stung him on the foot. In pain, the
bird catcher threw down his trap. The noise made
the dove fly away.

26. Pete argued that data gathered from a NASA
voyage to Venus called into question current
theories about the formation of our solar system.
Part of his talk emphasized the importance of
mass spectrometers. He then discussed the
isotopes of argon 36 and argon 38 and noted that
they were of higher density than expected. He
also cited the high values of neon found in the
atmosphere. He has a paper that is already
written, but he is aware of the need for further
investigation as well.

28. Characters Traits Goal Motives
Conflicts Risk/Danger Struggles Details

29. The BARE BONES Version of the 8 Essential
Elements
_____________________________ (an interesting character)
Needed ______________________ (a goal)
Because ______________________ (motives)
But __________________________ (problems/conflicts)
So, __________________________ (struggles)
Finally _______________________ (climax/resolution)
Source: K. Haven

30. There’s a direct
correlation between
the strength of the
ending emotional
state of the audience
and the magnitude
of the influence that
story can carry.

31. “I woke up. I ate breakfast.
I left for work.”

32. Leah Eustace, ACFRE
Chief Idea Goddess
Good Works
@LeahEustace
www.goodworksco.ca