I’ve been coaching staff from social profit organizations for most of my career…even when I was working alongside them as the Executive Director or Development Director. One of my “soap box” topics has always been share MORE stories.
This week while helping a CEO and Founder of a wonderful health related organization I found myself struggling to keep engaged in the words she was using to describe their work. I asked Sara to share more stories to give real life examples so I could stay connected and continue to care throughout her 15 minute presentation.
Sharing client stories wasn’t new to Sara, but she struggled with how to use a story in short 3 – 4 sentences bites to paint a picture. The speech she gave was good, but it could have been even better had she used a few rules about stories:
- Stories should be about real people who need something. Hopefully something that YOUR organization provides.
- Allow the person in your story to have a real name, age and to speak for themselves.
- Minds wander, get real quickly. In about 4 – 10 seconds your listeners tune out if you haven’t grabbed them. Don’t tell me you are going to tell me a story about someone…just tell it. Starting with the person’s name. age and a few descriptive words
- Keep your story short. 6 words to 2 minutes is the length I recommend.
- Allow your story to cause me to feel something. Anger, sad, happy, proud–it doesn’t matter what the emotion is, I just have to feel something
- Your story should have a moment when people see themselves or someone in their own lives. Could be their aging parents, the daughter of the person who made their latte today or their own child.
- The best stories are told by the person themselves. Clients telling their own stories are the most moving way to share how your organization makes a difference.
A great story versus a good story can make the difference between keeping your donors and volunteers connected or losing them to the next good cause. Make sure to put a face on your work today.
