#122: Becoming a storyteller
Back in November 2018, I had the worst day of my working life.
It also turned out to be the best day for the rest of my life.
As a middle manager, I was given the responsibility of building the knowledge management system for my organization. Having been shuttled from one role to another in an organization that had gone through several mergers, I was keen to do well and leave my mark.
Since knowledge management was a new field for me, and my organization, I did a lot of research and prepared a presentation. I was due to present it at Monday morning's directors’ meeting. Unfortunately, on the day, the other agenda items took more time and I was left with five minutes to present my case.
A preferred approach would have been that ask for a consensus. “You all have received the presentation slide with the meeting papers. I gather you took the time to go through them. Do you have any suggestions? If not, should I go ahead with the proposed solution?”
But no, I didn’t do that.
Instead, I embarked on giving them the full presentation. It was the worst presentation of my life. The more I wanted to make a good impression, the more terrible I sounded. My mind went blank. I started reading the slides. People would have left had they not been polite. They didn’t care solution I proposed as long as I did my job and put it in place.
After the presentation, the Executive Assistant to my boss, who was taking the minutes of the meeting came to me and said, “Oh! Neera I feel for you.”
At that moment a realization hit me.
I was done.
I was done with working for others.
I was done with the corporate world.
I was done with doing presentations that nobody cared for.
I had worked in various jobs for thirty-plus years and I had nothing to show for all those years. None of the systems I built, or the documentation I wrote, lasted more than a few years. Had I spent that time creating something that lasted, something that changes other people’s lives, something I cared about, I would have felt more fulfilled and happier.
I quit my job and became a full-time writer.
In the three years that followed, I wrote and published 4 books. I wrote 500+ articles that inspired several people. I taught new writers how to get started with online writing and build a career out of it.
I didn’t have to make any presentations for that. I didn’t need anyone’s approval. I didn’t have to write a business case for it.
I work much longer hours and don’t even feel it. I am doing something I love. And I am doing it even when I am not getting paid for it.
That day, when I blew my presentation, turned out to be the best day of the rest of my life because on that day a story was born.
Every disaster has a moment of realization.
That realization changes you.
And the stories are about change.
Phillip Berry Osborne said:
“Ultimately, the key to personal experience stories is change. Where our personal lives are concerned, in fact, change is probably the biggest single challenge we all face and share.
That’s why the best personal stories explore our transition in life — if only to encourage us to accept ourselves in some new context or as we’re becoming.
Such transition or change is vital to storytelling since it’s bound up with the overall message that underscores any good story — and yet, too often, writers fail in this one key area of change and, especially, the message that comes out of it.
As writers we are storytellers. We often tell stories from our lives to make a point and to inspire others. You can make any story better by getting really specific about the moment of change.
In the above story, I identify the specific moment when the realization hit me.
In all of your stories, make sure your audience knows this is THE moment they have been waiting for.
Your story will become much more effective because of that.
Recently I have been learning the art of personal storytelling. My goal is to convert anecdotes from daily life into powerful stories. I have seen master storytellers do it very effectively but I wasn’t able to nail it. That was until I came across, Dan Manning’s framework.
Dan teaches a very simple framework to tell effective stories.
According to Dan compelling stories have transformative moments, not slow incremental changes.
Why?
For two reasons:
Moments make meaning.
“I used to do that…until this happened…now I do this.”
It makes sense…the past explains the present.
The moments are easy to learn from.
Learning is why people are giving you their attention. It is easier to learn from an instant rather than a long slog.
Stories are built by answers to questions such as
Why does something matter to you?
Why was it that things changed?
How did that change you?
The story is not what happened but it is why what happened mattered to you.
Your experience, your transformation and your why make the stories.
When you stitch together those events, from the perspective of a character, who has a goal but faces obstacles, you convert “things that happened” into meaning.
I own many books on storytelling. Most books on storytelling suck. But recently Dan Manning recommended a book that I really useful.
In Six Second Stories, Rain Bennett teaches that you can tell stories in six seconds. He even demonstrates it. Bennett, tells the story of working for a company called CQC Homes. There they prepared a 15-second commercial that included the story of one employee that goes like this:
“I started off in the industry earning $12 an hour scraping paint off of staircases. As soon as CQC hired me, things started to change. I grew as a person. My work improved. As a result, this year I’ve had the opportunity to earn $100,000. And that makes me feel pretty good.”
That’s all from me this week.
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I, too, was done with the corporate world after two decades but did not leave until a family crisis that I could not have predicted needed me. Stepping down from a big sales job as VP to care for my mom with Alzheimer’s was terrifying at first but led me back to my roots: family and writing and opened the door to where I am now, 10 years later. Like you, Neera, doing what I love: writing.