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Friday Thought - Storytelling

Hi All, Once every month or so I knock together a “Friday Thought” on a subject that has taken my interest or has maybe come up in discussion with some of you during support sessions. These Friday thoughts can come from my experience, your experience, things I’ve read recently, seen on TV, cloud writing…. Or just about anywhere. I hope you find them interesting and food for thought. This Friday Thought will focus on “storytelling”. Once upon a time…. No, sorry. Not that. Let me try again. When I was at school, I wanted to be a vicar. A surprising career choice for an atheist but that didn’t deter me. As I went to a Church of England school we would routinely have the local vicar visit the school and tell us stories from the bible. This guy really put some welly into it and told them with complete conviction and fantasy. I was hooked. I remember thinking “wouldn’t it be great to go around telling these stories all the time”. I haven’t gone on to become a vicar. What some might say is the church’s loss is social enterprise’s gain. Okay, no one has said that, but I digress. But what I have ended up enjoying throughout my career is public speaking. Similarly, the first project (in my heart of hearts I can’t call it a social enterprise) I set up delivered creative writing workshops. I love reading, writing, drawing and comedy. It’s all there folks, it’s all obvious when you connect the dots backwards, I never wanted to be a vicar. I wanted to be a storyteller; that’s really what got me hooked all those years ago.
So how does this help you?
Well over the course of a year I read the best part of 200 applications, see 50 odd pitches and see shed loads of marketing campaigns from my entrepreneurs. Some of you are fantastic at telling stories. Some of you less so. However, we all know how it feels when we are moved by a story we hear.
There are many types of leaders out there but as founders of social enterprises I would suggest that you’ll be campaigning in prose and managing in policy. Both the prose and the policy are important to get right. The conversations we have often focus on the policy but let’s dive into the prose for now. There are a handful of places where stories can be helpful for you, namely: sales, pitching, public speaking, marketing, branding and leadership.
I’ve seen many great products, services, and ideas flounder not because they were wrong but because they weren’t shared in the right way. We are all guilty of running a boring meeting, underselling ourselves or our ideas, or not getting the audience embedded in our mission. So, my challenge to you is think about how storytelling can help your social enterprise. This could be changing how you behave as a leader, the content you create or how you share your mission. What I promise you is that you all have a great story and you are all creative. Sometimes it’s just about getting going. As such here are some helpful guides to play around with: WHERE’S THE HOOK MAKE MY STORY LINK EXPLAIN THE EXERCISE: “pick one of the following for the exercise to be about: customer journey, product feedback, impact journey, customer experience etc” Then explain where it should go. What they should do with it.

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Speech Writing 101

Speech Writing 101 Notes:
  • Create that once upon a time moment…
  • The grown-up way of doing this is context e.g. “the last time I saw this XX, I was with/in this environment/working with these people/in contact with this leader, and we noticed that”
  • Start with a fact or ultimatum that shocks
  • Contrasting and be memorable (this might be what you hang your speech off)
  • Write like you talk
  • Pick your main ideas
  • Put these in bold
  • Have points to connect them but don’t worry about hitting these connections word for word
  • Work backwords. Your key takeaways and closes could well be written first. Decide the destination and choose the path to get there.
  • Keep it simple
  • Silence gets attention and use transitions to help you get from one point to another
  • Remember you are speaking to a group of individuals, rather than an individual group. It’s about speaking to the individuals, rather than the crowd. Activities to go through:
  • Pitch in 3 mins, 1.5 mins, 30 seconds
  • Working backwards along a journey (use sticky notes to determine path and key points maybe colour code them? Blue: emotion and story, Yellow: context and facts, Green: audience engagement, Pink: aspirations, bigger post its: start, end and key points?)
  • How to code, reduce your speech content, bullet point and annotate Notable Public Speakers/Speeches
  • https://www.facebook.com/watch/?v=2274310019267142 Resources
  • https://www.forbes.com/sites/jeffschmitt/2013/07/16/10-keys-to-writing-a-speech/ “Audiences expect two things from a speaker: A path and a destination. They want to know where you’re going and why. So set the expectation near your opening on what you’ll be covering. As you write and revise, focus on structuring and simplifying. Remove anything that’s extraneous, contradictory, or confusing. Remember: If it doesn’t help you get your core message across, drop it.” “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.” “Fact is, your close is what your audience will remember. So recap your biggest takeaway. Tie everything together. Share a success story. Make a call to action. Don’t hold anything back. Your ending is what audience will ultimately talk about when they head out the door.”
  • https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OFPwDe22CoY
  • https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w82a1FT5o88
  • https://www.thedolectures.com/talks/bobette-buster-can-you-tell-your-story#.VOy3i7CsWON
Filo Speech** Full** “About 6 years ago, as I was studying for my PhD specialising in dementia, I was surrounded with the burning of ideals of how to help but unsure of what to do.
ADD IN A MORE HUMOUROUS OPENING ABOUT PHD STUDY Looking into it a bit it got me thinking if you get injured, sick or unwell, in your moment of need, who do you look to? Doctors? Nurses? Carers? Definitely all of those people. These are the people you look to when your case is significant enough.
But the definition of a doctor is: “a person who is qualified to treat people who are ill”. Now that to me sounds like a mother, your partner, your kids or a close friend. Someone you go to for support, someone that you care about and someone that cares for you. The relationship is equal and circular. The power dynamic may exist, but it exists through emotion, rather than decision. These are the people you go to when you have a cold, feeling anxious, wanting to moan or needing to connect. The majority of our lives go to real human connection.
But when we are living with a dementia, isolated and cut off our choices are different. Rather than being able to ask for help, like many of us can, we are left ask-less. And this isn’t because they have only have one or two questions, but they will only have one or two answers to every question.
The disease of dementia is treated and cared for, rather than the person. If you treat a disease you win or lose, if you treat the person you win every time. It’s not to say care on the scale it is now is wrong, 15-minute visits to get someone out of bed, dressed and fed isn’t necessarily a bad thing, but it’s a treatment of illness, rather than a treatment for the person. It is my hope, along with my co-founder Libby, that people living with dementia are provided with time and space. Where people can engage in valued and valuable social roles and connectedness.
….speak about the model… …speak about the impact, delivery and scale… …speak about the future plans… So, if now if I look at myself 6 years ago, knowing something should be done, but unsure of what it is. I have now learnt what it is through those that have cared alongside us. Those that have want to be valued Filo Speech For Public Speaking “About 6 years ago, as I was studying for my PhD specialising in dementia, I was surrounded with the burning of ideals of how to help but unsure of what to do.
Looking into it a bit it got me thinking if you get injured, sick or unwell, in your moment of need, who do you look to? Doctors? Nurses? Carers? Definitely all of those people. These are the people you look to when your case is significant enough.
But the definition of a doctor is: “a person who is qualified to treat people who are ill”****. Now that to me sounds like a mother, your partner, your kids or a close friend. Someone you go to for support, someone that you care about and someone that cares for you. The relationship is equal and circular. The power dynamic may exist, but it exists through emotion, rather than decision. These are the people you go to when you have a cold, feeling anxious, wanting to moan or needing to connect. And most of our lives go to real human connection.
But when we are living with a **dementia, isolated and cut off **our choices are different. Rather than being able to ask for help, like many of us can, we are left ask-less. This isn’t because dementia prompts only one or two questions, but it only has one or two answers.
The disease of dementia is treated and cared for, rather than the person. If you treat a disease you win or lose, if you treat the person you win every time. It’s not to say community care on the scale it is now is wrong, 15-minute visits to get someone out of bed, dressed and fed isn’t necessarily a bad thing, but it’s a treatment of illness, rather than a treatment for the person. It is my hope, along with my co-founder Libby, that people living with dementia are provided with time and space. Where people can engage in valued and valuable social roles and connectedness.
….speak about the model… …speak about the impact, delivery and scale… …speak about the future plans… So, if now if I look at myself 6 years ago, knowing something should be done, but unsure of what it is. I have now learnt what it is through those that have cared alongside us. Those that have want to be valued

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The missing slide on most pitch decks

**The missing slide on most pitch decks ** One of the easiest ways for an investor to pass on an opportunity is because the founder can’t articulate the startup concisely and clearly. Here’s a slide that founders can include in their pitch deck to improve clarity for investors:
  • Why this problem - Size the opportunity (not TAM, SAM, and SOM) and include a £ cost to those experiencing the pain
  • Why this solution - What have you built to tackle this problem and why is this your approach
  • Why now - What has changed in the market, technology, or human behaviour to make now the right time to launch this startup
  • Why you - What is so special about you and your team that will allow you to win How founders articulate critical details on their startup shows how they interact with customers, their team, and external market players.
Be clear, concise and confident.