How Your Origin Story Helps the Audience Bond With You

One of the reasons why you want to tell your Origin Story–why you do what you do–is that it helps the audience connect with you human-to-human. It helps you create an emotional connection.

Here’s a great example of the power of an Origin Story to connect you with the audience. It’s from Amy Cuddy’s outstanding TEDTalk
Your Body Language Shapes Who You Are.

While I recommend watching the whole video because the content itself is powerful and very useful, notice how she shifts at 16:00 when she tells her Origin Story and why she believes in her message. She goes from being an interesting intellectual into being a fascinating, compelling human being you care about and want to know. I wonder about the timing of the story. While it does fit in with her addressing the “isn’t this faking?” objection and provides a powerful answer to that question, I think it might have both made her more bond-able in the beginning and helped her feel less nervous. Notice how she becomes much more passionate and powerful after she tells her story.