Why Try To Get Out Of Your Box, When You Can Use What's In It?
159 people died from a rockslide yesterday.
159 stories ended after a rockslide demolished a small town yesterday.
Which gets to you more? People aren’t just people. People are living, growing, working stories. They’re emotional with their highs and lows. Are you careful how you communicate with them? Are you adding to their story? There stories could end at anytime.
Stay Positive & Every Day We Have A Chance To Be A High In Someone’s Story
When you create more connections, you’re bound to be more open. That’s something I love about the current state of society and the people in it.
Part of me feels that I have Facebook and Twitter to thank for making people more open. Another part realizes that it is just a beneficial byproduct of the connection economy.
Yet, I see businesses and freelancers running with their arms held close to their chest so they don’t hit anyone, so they don’t make themselves open, so they don’t seem vulnerable. This is trite and counterintuitive.
I can barely begin to tell you how many people have told me things about themselves and their lives that they would never have mentioned eight years ago. Respectively, I owe it to them to be just as open (which is in our advantage).
It’s not a matter of mutual generosity, it’s more a risk at creating a symbol of trust.
This calls for you to reciprocate that risk. When you see that others are doing or acting as you do, you feel comfortable, you feel in place, you feel more willing to trust and invest in what that person is offering.
Just the same. If you want the business of those who are very open about themselves and their lives, you need to be open too.
This is why storytelling has become the largest importance of businesses, why brand matters, why sales are made on trust, not shininess.
Stay Positive & Open Sesame
Garth E. Beyer
Photo credit
As it goes nowadays, don’t ask where I saw what I’m going to tell you I saw because I don’t remember. All I remember is that I watched a video wherein there was a large glass phone booth placed in the city (likely NYC) and it had a cord running from it to a headset that was on a pedestal about 15 feet away.
There was a backdrop behind the pedestal and instructions that someone was supposed to enter the phone booth and speak into the phone and another person was supposed to listen 15 feet away. The point was to tell the other person how you really feel about them or thank them for something. What I heard people say to each other was touching and gave me goose bumps.
The group Improv Everywhere did something similar to this by placing a megaphone on a lectern that had a sign on it “SAY SOMETHING NICE.”
Then there is StoryCorps which combines the two, adds even more emotion to it by having the people right next to each other, and takes out the visual element of it. One particular story I listened to gave me even more goosebumps than when I watched the phone booth video.
The story of a kid, Brian Lindsay, who was struck by a van while riding his bike talked years later with the paramedic, Rowan Allen who was there at the scene.
The story was real, you can hear the voice, you can hear them say what was on their minds. Most stories that you read, they don’t tell you what they were thinking and if they do the emotion behind it is very narrow. With audio, it is more emotionally evocative and powerful because hearing the voices makes the story personal, human, and allows you to feel all the emotions – you can hear the laughter, you can hear the sarcasm, you can hear the passion in what they say.
Now think of reading a story or reading a text – you can’t register more than one emotion. “Is this person being sarcastic?” “Are they serious?” It leaves so much of the emotion to interpretation and if there’s one thing that’s difficult to put into words, it’s how people feel.
The main point on that is this: if you read a story wherein a person writes “I can’t put into words how I feel.” Then it’s a contradiction because they just did. But if you hear a story wherein a person says “I can’t put into words how I feel.” They really can’t, you get the emotion from it, you get the sincerity.
There’s a reason why it’s suggested that you write like you would speak. So people can hear you.
What would you do if you ran your own news organization?
I’ve thought this over many times. I would take Seth Godin’s advice and create a local newspaper. I would want it to be community oriented and focus more on making people feel important by listening to their stories. I’ve come to find that everyone (and I mean everyone) has a remarkable story to tell. It would be our job to tell it.
Remarkable stories get read. Remarkable often comes from that which is close to theheart. Simple as that.
Stay Positive & Home Is Where The Heart Is
It’s a common question with a difficult answer.
I have met those that tell their story in under a minute and I have met those that tell their story in 10 minutes.
The former is never enough. The former is a copout – “I grew up in Rockford, went to UW Madison, got cheated on, and travelled around America. Now, here I am working for the State.”
People will tell me something similar and they honestly believe that is their story.
The 10 minute stories are the passionate ones, the ones you learn about the person’s character rather than where they were or where they are at now. Their story consists of multiple short stories. Most importantly, their story encompasses you the moment they start sharing it.
The good stories are the ones that connect you with the person you’re telling it to.
Stay Positive & Work On Your Story*
Garth E. Beyer
*Really, if there is one thing you want to be able to conjure without moments notice, to completely tell, it’s your story. Forget the one minute elevator speech and forget about analyzing your major decisions that changed the course of your life. Your story that you share with people is invaluable. So valuable that I will be posting mine within the next few days, opening it up to criticism. I encourage you to share yours in the comments section. I will choose one person to debut in a new interview series I will be doing. The beauty about a story is that there is always more to tell.
