4 Steps to Discover Your Story
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- Created on Tuesday, 06 September 2011 15:22
- Last Updated on Tuesday, 06 September 2011 15:31
- Written by Melanie Wilt
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One of our team members this morning said, “At Wilt PR, I feel like I’m on a constant field trip.” She expanded with a list of crazy things she’s done in her job here since March: attended meetings in a hard hat, sat in an airport radio control tower, designed a fire truck, and visited a museum to look for inspiration and artwork.
I love that our team is discovering the environment around them and learning new things every day. I hope the same is true for our clients.
It is by observing, conducting research and listening to feedback from our clients that we learn and adapt to the ever-changing marketplace.
A common frustration I hear among even very sophisticated organizations is that “Nobody understands what we do.” Let me paraphrase: “We don’t know how to explain what we do or why it’s of value to someone.” This organization has not fully discovered its story.
Here are four things you can do today to begin to Discover Your Story:
1. Take a Field Trip. Get away from the office. Your desk and your conference room are not made for unleashing your creativity. Hold a meeting at the zoo, sit in on a news broadcast from “behind the scenes,” or visit a Native American reservation to listen to their stories being told. There are storytelling events regularly across the U.S., and you can find one through the National Storytellers Network at http://www.storynet.org/events/calendar.php.
2. Conduct a survey. Give your customers or your key customers a chance to vent, provide suggestions and feedback. More likely than not, they are invested in your success and want to continue doing work with you. Giving your customers a chance to speak up will give you a fresh perspective and make them feel valued by your business. When you open this door, your customers may tell you things you never would have guessed.
3. Edit Yourself. What are the three most important things your target audience needs to know about your business, product or issue? If there are five, make some tough choices and cut two. If the leaders of your organization cannot agree on this or narrow it down, it is high time for a strategic planning session. You will only be successful in telling a consistent story that resonates with your audience if you can all agree on what that story is.
4. Illustrate Your Story. How would you show your story if it were a comic strip or billboard? Take 30 minutes with your leadership team and using no words at all, illustrate your story. You might be surprised how these images will force you away from your traditional approach and more eloquently and quickly tell your story. Another take on this game is to use only props or the contents of a (very messy) “junk drawer.”
