Telling Stories People Will Hear
Storytelling is an undervalued skill that can become a superpower.
Our main advantage as human beings over all other species is our ability to communicate complicated things in memorable and engaging ways through stories.
It’s how we warn of danger, persuade people to join our cause, and how we make lessons echo through time.
Other species can communicate specific threats, and trees can warn others if giraffes are coming, but there’s no evidence of animals using abstract stories and tales to get their message across.
When you’re telling the story of what you do, there are six things you have to make sure you’re covering.
I first learnt these lessons when researching what made a successful crowdfunding video, but more and more you can see how this relates to other opportunities in life that you have to story tell and share what you do.
This is a three part piece on storytelling that ends with a more specific focus on crowdfunding. I’d love to get your thoughts on each part.
The Six Cs of telling your story are:
Clarity
Competence
Calling
Credibility
Candour
Click
These six themes can work as a checklist or a guide.
Clarity
How likely is it that the person you’re explaining it to gets it?
I was talking to a sophisticated investor recently who said he had a rule that he wouldn’t invest in any company that you couldn’t explain to a ten-year-old.
It makes sense, but often you don’t have such a clear indicator that your audience truly understand what you’re up to.
The more you talk to folks and ask them to feed it back to you, the more you can better understand how clear it really is.
This is the most important rule. It doesn’t matter how competent you come across and how candid you are if people have no idea what you’re talking about. Don’t let the curse of knowledge or being too close to your project trick you into thinking you’re speaking clearly.
If people aren’t clear, you can end up getting irrelevant introductions or requests that can take you off course, so there are secondary benefits to getting this right.
Competence
You need to establish with the audience that you are capable and the kind of person who finishes what they start.
You need to establish confidence, how are you explaining to the viewer that you’re the kind of person who gets things done?
There are ways to do this efficiently, you can talk about things you’ve been involved with before, or ideally you can use other people’s feedback to establish your competence.
Some people have fortunate shortcuts like being able to say they’re a Cambridge graduate or they’ve worked for a company which is a household name.
Sometimes you can use things like “award-winning” but often that doesn’t cut it unless it’s a credible award. It certainly doesn’t work on its own.
If you don’t have that shortcut or advantage then you can do some small things to start to build evidence. I wrote more about that in this post on how you find your place in the world.
The best way to do this is to build a reputation, and let that speak for itself. Testimonials are good, but personal references from recognised people who are willing to put their reputation on the line to validate yours - that’s the really good stuff.
If you don’t have that already, build your network, and keep your promises. That’s the quickest route, but there are no shortcuts to accrue something that’s earned in drops and lost in buckets.
Calling
You need to share with others why this purpose is so important to you. Your calling is something stronger than just a job, or just being paid to do something or choosing something just because it is the best remunerated, though that doesn’t mean you can’t have a calling and be well rewarded.
You need to talk about that purpose with the people who share that sense of purpose. Those who are empathetic to your passion and seeking like-minds in the good fight.
This has to be authentic. People can smell insincerity.
If you have a calling, you have an advantage. It’s even better if it’s a calling that resonates with others.
There tend to be flashpoints that attract people to a calling, whether it’s a documentary, an event, or just consensus building.
Some callings are mainstream, some are niche. Just because it’s niche doesn’t mean it’s a limited opportunity. Niche can build loyalty, and it might mean you’re working in an underserved area.
If you have lived experience then this can be vital.
If you have a calling that can attract others who want to see someone do something about that, make sure it forms a big part of your storytelling.
Credibility
Following on from competence, what proves your credibility? What have you done before?
There’s a line in the Jason Calacanis book Angel in which he assesses his investments by attempting to judge what the chances are of this person “succeeding at life”.
You’ll probably know I’m a football fan and from Wrexham by now, so I really ought to use a Wrexham story here. When Rob McElhenney and Ryan Reynolds started working together, Ryan cited the fact that Rob commits as being something that convinced him they should work together.
Always Sunny, Rob’s TV show, is the longest-running live-action series in US TV history. It’s longevity served as proof that Rob wasn’t going to lose interest in the project anytime soon.
Credibility isn’t just what you do, but how you do it. Showing your character and your attitude through your work.
Candour
Don’t act like this is risk-free. It is so disingenuous when founders say there’s no risk, or no competition. It ranges from delusion to dishonesty.
There’s another upside to being candid about the risk - it can add in an element of jeopardy that attracts more people to it. They want to know what will happen, whether you will really do it. It's the drama that can keep people hooked and rooting for you.
The other side of candour is the vulnerability. If you show people you’re comfortable to be open and vulnerable then people will entrust you with their own vulnerability.
Finally, if you’re being truly candid you invite in new solutions. If you’re going to the crowd with an ask, you can find other ways to fix that problem.
This will come up again, but if you’re doing crowdfunding or just building your network it isn’t just about getting backers or customers. Having fixers in the mix can pay back so much more than a single sale.
Click
How are we alike? People buy from and bond with like minds. We want to know that you can empathise with our situation and not just assuming you know what I need and want.
Make your content relatable, share the parts of your story that will show how you’re like the people you’re trying to engage.
If your project is geographic talk about your relationship to the area. If you’re a parent targeting parents talk about why that matters.
How do you share these bits of who you are and what you stand for in a way that resonates with an audience of people you’ve never met before? Hopefully you’ve profiled who you think this will appeal to and have a good idea of what is going to make them listen.
There is a great bit in Do Start from Dan Keiran where he talks about how investors like to live vicariously through the entrepreneurs they invest in. I’ve seen this a lot, it isn’t always a rational and professional relationship, people fall in love with the idea of helping you to succeed.
Compromise
Not a seventh rule, but the big challenge in trying to cover off as many of those above in as little time as possible. How can you express your competence without compromising the click? How do you clearly communicate this is your calling by being candid?
Opportunity cost prevents you from squeezing everything in, but sometimes you can cover off multiple points in a single sentence. Work on being as efficient as you can with every word you choose to use.
You have to be frugal and effective to make sure your message hits home.
The more you practice and hone the message the more you can spot what resonates and what helps to get people to see things with the same level of excitement and enthusiasm as you have.
Next week is social selling, other frameworks, and having broader goals than just sales.
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We need to talk more about the true meaning of life.
Travel Together - part two
Community doesn’t mean being identical, just alike…
Finding Your People - part three
If it's easier than ever to find people, why the loneliness epidemic?