Your Creativity provides the pathway to transforming your business and your life. But… the NEW way of personal storytelling and sharing requires that you appeal to your listener’s heart.
People want to connect to your Story with their hearts. So what do you do? Here are a few tried but true tips on how to put pizzazz in your Story, supercharge your message and get clients to see and feel what you see and feel: 1. Use expression, words, gestures and voice 2. Feel your way into story 3. See the images in your mind's eye and then, show (not tell) your story 
Dig out a photograph you have. Could be old, new, of you or a friend, or a place you visited. Or it could have nothing to do with you. Follow the 5 steps listed in the article and you will have a beginning, middle, and end ... a story. 
The team at Story Worldwide has developed a very useful and scientific approach to categorizing and developing brand stories. It’s called the Storytelling Matrix and they describe it best in the video included in the article.
As you watch the video and listen to the examples, think about where your specific brand stories may fall — and begin to look for gaps. 
What's your story? Finding and telling an organization's most compelling stories is always my first step in the consulting process.
Storytelling is the foundation of every successful fundraising program. It’s not magic. What stories tug at your heartstrings? Don’t be afraid of emotion, seek it out.
Here are eight tips to get you started... 
7 ways to increase your company's exposure in the public eye by identifying newsworthy stories. The key is to identify a compelling story that sets you ahead of the pack. Following are some ideas of places to look; find and adapt the ones that apply to your organization or product. 1. Actual news 2. Community service/charity endeavors 3. Employees who volunteer 4. Expert commentary on issues in the news 5. Trend stories 6. Holiday or seasonal stories 7. “Celebrate National ____ Month” 
When you tell a story about a real person and their struggles and eventual success (or failure) and lessons learned, that story helps model behavior. For example, suppose you tell a true story in your annual report about how one of your donors gave $100 every year to your organization and then, upon her death, she left your organization as the sole beneficiary of her estate. You go on to tell HER story—bring her to life and tell about her experiences with a child who had developmental disabilities, and details about her love of your mission.
At the end of this moving story, you’ll tell your audience how they can support your organization with a bequest, and you’ll give them the language so that they can use that information to write it into their will.
Believe it or not, you WILL eventually have people who have read the true story make a bequest to your organization. You’ve paved the way for them. You’ve shown them how.
That is just one example. There are all kinds of stories to tell. Donors want to know these things about your organization: - where the money comes from - where the money goes - why people give
There are many ways to tell these stories: - audio - video - visual tools - annual report, brochures, “cool” Annual Fund letters 
Everything you need to know about how to host truly unique storytelling parties. With storytelling ideas, storytelling kits, seasonal party ideas.
Hey --it's Sunday and a perfect day to relax and plan for summer fun!
I ran across this article that has nothing to do with business storytelling but is a treat nontheless -- Plan a storytelling party! It sure will to build storytelling skills plus learn amazing things while having a good time with friends and family.
On this website there is everything you need to know to throw a successful party.
Now if you really wanted to apply this to your organization, use all the ideas and suggestions here, just shift the topics to fit your needs. Throw a storytelling party for employees! Throw a storytelling party for customers! Just remember to keep having fun :) Via Karen Dietz 
Sell me a story.
Jim Signorelli outlines the 6 Cs of StoryBranding: a breakthrough approach to identify and develop a compelling brand story. 1. Collect the back story 2. Characterize the brand 3. Characterize the prospect 4. Connect the characters 5. Confront the obstacles 6. Complete the story brief 
In my last post I wrote about the Story Map I used to analyze stories and search for ways to incorporate brands into well known narratives.
In this post I’ll demonstrate the principles of the story map using the well known comic strip story and Hollywood blockbuster Batman. 
One creative and immediately available way to develop your staff outside the training classroom and “outside the box” is to turn them into what I call “Digital Storytellers”: send them on roving reporter missions. Let them digitally capture (by audio or video recording) hot stories from the frontlines, from customers, or from star performers, about difficult challenges they’ve overcome, or about workarounds and new ideas, and share them with the rest of the organization.
Here are a few ideas for content to get you started: 1. Peer stories 2. “Local Rock Star” stories 3. VIP stories 4. how-to stories 5. happy customer stories 6. executive tips 7. company culture stories 
The creation of personal myths and the use of personal storytelling techniques can help us cut through the apparent tangle of plotlines and characterisations in our lives, and discover what is true and meaningful to us.
Included in the article: - a simplified outline of the different stages of Joseph Campbell's "The Hero's Journey" - a list of questions for your personal mythmaking quest 
1. Never say more than is necessary. 
A collection of videos offering good storytelling advice.
- Joss Whedon’s Dark Storytelling Place - The Perpetual Storytelling Apparatus: a drawing machine illustrating a never-ending story by the use of patent drawings. - Damon Lindelof of Lost: Relevant Storytellers Talk at Disney - NPR’s Scott Simon: How to Tell a Story - Stephen King on short stories - Salman Rushdie: On Storytelling - Doris Lessing on Traditional Storytelling |
[the strategies listed here could be used by any organization or individual]
A picture is worth a thousand words. The following are four strategies for how you can tell your story and market your private school through photos: - Photo of the day - Facebook updates - Blog photos - Photo tour 
Human beings are storytelling machines. In the world of branding and inbound marketing, the point is to help your prospective buyer become the hero in the story while you are the sage guide. Here are some ways to align your story with the buyer: 1. Explain the journey 2. Highlight heroism 3. Be the helper 4. Build the theme 
Do you want to tell digital stories that touch people? As a journalist, in marketing or education, or as a personal publishing project?
I know that many people do, and that’s why I got quite excited about a beautiful digital book that I came across last week, Inside the Story. In it, 24 master digital storytellers share one piece of advice each, and the result is a thought-provoking and inspiring reference for all digital storytellers. Adam sent hundreds of emails over a period of months getting the best film-makers, journalists and designers to contribute. (That’s him above, interviewing a soldier in Iraq.) And he agreed to share some tips on producing great digital stories for this article. 
There are four key elements that all memorable brand stories that sell have in common: - White hot truth - Strong emotional charge - Irresistible hook - Clear call to action 
Nonprofit organizations are naturals for narrative marketing. Simply put, they have access to compelling human dramas every single day. Stories that make people cry. Stories that ignite hope and joy. If told well, there's no way someone cannot react strongly to an organization's key stories.
For the most part, though, this isn't happening. These are the must-have's in any story that's intended to create a positive result: 1. believability 2. personal connection 3. inherent drama 4. value-drive 5. call to action
However, there is one important don't that every nonprofit must also give attention: 
Find your own voice to add your personal stories to your storytelling repertoire. In addition, you may find that storytelling doesn’t completely convey your story. You can add props in the form of drawings, dance, puppets or more to add another layer to your oral presentation. Read the article for more details on the following...
Steps: 1. Why tell a story? 2. All in the famly 3. It's my life 4. Journals & scrapbooks 5. Explore other possibilities
Crafting your stories: 6. Are you a comedian? 7. Non-fiction? 8. Change your point of view 9. Single of series
Share your story: 10. Telling your story - orally 11. Telling your story - artistically 12. Telling your story- written 13. Archive 14. Ask for feedback 
This post shares 10 helpful and simple tips for making up stories. 1. Practice 2. Let go of perfection 3. Add their interests 4. Use their name 5. Use various voices 6. Make it interactive 7. Build a series 8. Relate thestory to your child's life 9. Act it out 10. Tweak a classic 
“If pictures can’t tell your story, you most likely won’t get the opportunity to tell your story through words. You have seconds to get people’s attention, not minutes.”
Did you know that imagery can help to build your organization’s capacity? When used strategically, imagery can help you to attract prospective donors, obtain local and national media exposure and most importantly, tell your story. Let’s say your organization doesn’t have the funds to hire a professional photographer, or you're seeking to enhance your images? Well, there’s a free resource just for you!
Leigh Vogel, a Washington, DC based photojournalist, has written a great resource on this very topic. ‘Communicating Via Imagery’ is an easy to read, 44-page guidebook geared toward nonprofits that has everything you need to get started. Need suggestions on the best type of camera to use? Things to consider when selecting a photographer? How to create a photo database? Best practices for taking event photos? Tips on working with celebrities and the media? This guide will answer these questions and more! Never before has such a resource existed for nonprofits that incorporate these best practices.
Read the article for highlights from "Communicating via Imagery": http://csic.georgetown.edu/involved/fellowships/197936.html 
What is a story made up from? Over the last few years of writing about storytelling in Pharmaceuticals and other major branding genres I have always struggled to answer the question in a simple way.
To help me I created the “Four Circle Story Map” as a way to breakdown the contents of a story into its building blocks. The Story Map can be used to either dissect story into its components or to build a compelling story from scratch.
The circles overlap in certain places like a Venn diagram. Where they intersect they cause interactions that define the hero’s opportunity; the story tension and the hero’s arc. Further overlaps define the protagonists motivation and the empathy that the protagonist employs in the story and of course the overlap of all these is the essence of the story. To make it easy to use as a tool the circles can be used as a list of 9 questions that create all you need to know to understand your story. I use this now to capture the elements of other people’s stories and the elements of great brand communications (stories) for Pharma and beyond. 
Enter, once again, Joseph Campbell's Hero's Journey. There are no shortage of tools and diagrams available for you to peruse, just fire up the Google. I married a few concepts together to create a storyboard template. I used the boxes above each stage to map a story I was working on that I knew lacked something, but I couldn't figure out what. Using this method made it painfully clear my story fell apart in the beginning of ACT III.
I used this template to help find and fix a structure problem. You can use it how ever you would like. Maybe to plan your next story, brainstorm alternatives or just print it out and doodle on the back. 
I attended a Guider training in January and it got me looking for resources for storytelling and drama.
- Drama Warmups and Circle Games - Icebreakers, Warmups, Energizers and Deinhibitizers - A Guide to Telling a Story (for adults). - How to teach a child to tell a story - Free Online Storystarters Collection - A collection of resources from a Beaver Pack - but check out page 14 for the Flea Chant 
Unless we learn to be still and reflect on life, we stifle our creativity and we miss precious lessons that the events of our life have taught us. So, what’s the lesson? Be still, reflect on the events of your life and find your stories in that silence.
So take a moment to think about your life and contemplate the questions this article puts forth. |
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