Spokesperson Coaching Tip #14: Tell me a story!

Once upon a time, in a very big and powerful kingdom, there was a king who didn’t know any stories.  Almost every day, the royal newspapers and television channels asked for a story, because that’s what all the people in the kingdom wanted.  But the king only made royal proclamations, full of key messages written by the royal scribes.  The people of the kingdom didn’t understand the proclamations, which were full of big words that didn’t mean anything real, so they stopped listening, and soon, the newspapers and television channels stopped asking, too. 

The ability to tell a story is one of the key skills every media spokesperson needs.   But we’re not talking about elaborate theatrical techniques learned in a trendy corporate storytelling seminar.   Our goal is to organize our thoughts in a compelling way to help draw the listener in to our narrative, to interest, entertain, inspire or educate.   Our stories may be factual or fictional, long or short.  We may have one big story, or use little stories to make up the whole.  But how can we help our spokesperson develop their storytelling skills?  The most effective way I’ve found is to devote a coaching session to the topic, utilizing a series of 3-minute exercises (timed with a kitchen timer)  to get them comfortable telling stories from their own experiences.  Here are a few that generally work well:

• Tell me about your most memorable family holiday.
• Tell me the story of the worst storm you’ve ever been in.
• Tell me the funniest thing that ever happened to you.
• What one person in your life do you most admire?
• How did you and your spouse/partner first meet?
• What’s the hardest thing you’ve ever done?
• What was your first job?
• What about this company reminds you of your family when you were growing up?
• Can you draw any lessons for business from what you learned in your first year of school?
• What’s the best customer service you’ve ever received?
• What was the worst travel experience you’ve ever had?

After five or six stories, you can examine together what makes each one work or not work — from both the teller’s and listener’s point of view (i.e., choice of examples, personal experience, humour, exageration, suspense, drama, etc.), and finally, you can brainstorm possible ways to use stories to deliver your media messages, and have them try one or two (again using the timer).