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Human beings tell stories. It’s what makes us different. Perhaps the best place to experience and learn about storytelling can be found on the verge of spring each year in Austin, Texas: the SXSW Conference and Festivals. On the first day of the 2024 SXSW, communications creative Cheryl Miller Houser spoke about “The Science & Craft of Storytelling: How to Make People Care.”
Who is Cheryl Miller Houser?
Does Houser know how to make people care? She currently runs Creative Breed, an “empathy agency.” Her company helps organizations and brands connect with their audiences through documentaries, online content, speeches, and other media focused on telling stories about real people.
Prior to her current vocation, Houser produced award-winning documentaries, including the Academy Award-nominated Children of Darkness. She also produced hundreds of hours of TV for Discovery, NatGeo, History Channel, The Food Network and other broadcasters.
The System
Houser began her talk by remembering a moment when she was sitting on the beach with her daughter and her daughter’s best friend, Lulu. Houser noticed a tattoo on Lulu’s leg that said, “Feel It All.” She suggested that this was the key, the thing we should take with us from her talk. She said that stories that make us laugh, cry and connect with one another succeed in getting the desired message across.
Houser explained that her system consists of three guiding principles: Make it human, listen to your heart, and turn your brand into a character.
Make It Human
Houser explained that we care about people, even those who are very different from us, when they express emotions that we share. “This is the power of empathy,” she explained. “Neuroscientists have discovered how this works. When we’re moved by someone in a story, we get a spike of oxytocin in our brain. Oxytocin is the love hormone because it drives human connection, empathy, trust, and our desire to help and support others.”
She explained that as you identify with a person in a story, your brainwaves “sync with the people in the story.” This is called, she explained, narrative transportation. It’s why we can feel joy, or cry, during a film even though on one level we know we are just watching images of actors.
“If you want to change someone,” she said, “take them on a journey.”
Listen to Your Heart
As an example of this step, Houser shared a story about a director who wanted to apply for a job with dog food company The Farmer’s Dog. He had experience, but he had never directed animals. Instead of sending The Farmer’s Dog his standard resume, he sent them pictures of himself and his dog. He was invited to interview and brought more pictures and explained his now deceased dog’s battle with cancer. Houser said that the director brought the interviewers to tears twice. They hired him.
A Character
For the third example Houser chose the company Liquid Death, a producer of canned water and tea. Using the slogan “murder your thirst,” the company went after the death metal crowd originally. By providing water in cans, they also supported the banning of plastic bottles.
Liquid Death expanded to where one of their advertisements ran on Super Bowl LVI. The ad parodied alcohol commercials but with children drinking Liquid Death to Judas Priest’s song “Breaking the Law.” The commercial ended with the line, “Don’t be scared, it’s just water.”
Houser explained that the company develops its advertising like the writers’ room for a sitcom. They aren’t afraid, she said, of offending someone.
Effective? Houser said, “A shout-out to South By for this year banning plastics. That is great!”
Taylor Swift
Houser summed up by saying, “I would like to invoke the greatest storyteller of our day: Taylor Swift. How does Taylor Swift make us care? She feels it all, then she tells stories through her songs and how she lives her life, which is a story unto itself, unfolding every day, that makes us feel it all.”
Houser continued, “In fact, Taylor Swift personifies the three guiding principles we’ve seen today. She makes it human, she expresses emotion, and shares experiences millions of people around the world can relate to. She’s also incredibly authentic. She listens to her heart to find her stories and turns her character into a brand.
“But let’s not forget the tattoo on Lulu’s leg: ‘Feel It All.’ I hope everyone here has felt it all. My goal was to show how feeling it all is at the heart of telling stories that make people care. I encourage everyone here to tell stories that make people care and to listen, so you know what others are feeling as well.”
More Stories
Next year’s SXSW will take place March 7 through 15. You can find out more at their website or on Twitter (@sxsw), Facebook , Instagram, or LinkedIn .
