"We understand everything in human life through stories." —Jean Paul Sartre, French author and philosopher
Doug Stevenson discovered a valuable secret quite by accident.
Doug, a professional speaker, trainer and actor, was in the middle of a customer service training session when his entire audience put down their pens, leaned back in their chairs and looked up at him with smiles.
"It was as if a switch had been flipped in the room," Doug says, "and all of a sudden the room was warmer. You know how you can hear the furnace turn on in the winter? It was like that, like the furnace turned on."
Until that moment, 80 people listening to Doug in a chilly hotel room had been busy taking notes in their notebooks, listening but not really "with" him. He noted that when he would ask his audience a question, it would take a minute for someone to respond.
It was like their minds were on screen saver. Some may have been daydreaming.
But when Doug said those magic words, "Let me tell you a story about a customer I had..." and began to tell them a personal story, everyone began to pay attention.
"The minute I started telling my story," Doug recalls, "it was as if we were all one. All of a sudden and without warning, we were connected."
The power of your own story
I connected with Doug Stevenson's story when I first picked up his book, "Never Be Boring Again: Make Your Business Presentations Capture Attention, Inspire Action and Produce Results". I realized I had had similar experiences.
In teaching writing, marketing, advertising and entrepreneurship to night college classes, my students had similar reactions. If we were going over what they had learned in their textbook reading assignments, or they were making notes from my lecture, some were busy writing and a few others looked like they might be on another planet.
But when I began to tell them a story about our own experiences in dealing with difficult customers, solving some truly challenging business problem, or interviewing some famous person, everyone would look up in eager anticipation. We were connecting.
I tell you this because I am convinced that one of the greatest marketing and public relations strategies in the world is ignored by far too many newspaper publishers. Sharing your skills and life experience, whether in a classroom or at a Rotary club meeting, is one of the greatest gifts you can give your community. It is also one of the most effective marketing and public relations strategies you can adopt to promote your newspaper and its role in your community.
I started teaching part-time—don't give up your day job—because it was a way to supplement my income for a growing family. The more I did it, the more I enjoyed it. And I found it proved to be of great benefit to our business—our newspaper publishing company.
Without realizing it at first, I was positioning myself as an expert on marketing, advertising and business in front of people who could become customers of our company.
I joined Toastmasters International—no, it's not a drinking club—to hone my skills as a speaker and story teller. Now I speak more than 50 times a year to civic clubs and community groups, telling them the story of our newspaper. Drawing on our own experience, I can share the lessons we've learned and the improbable things that have happened to us with people who are eager to hear. I have no idea how many subscriptions, or how much advertising, those appearances have generated. But it has to be a lot.
Crafting your own story
Doug Stevenson's book is at the top of a list of more than a dozen books I recommend to newspaper publishers and other top executives who want to become effective speakers.
In it, Doug explains first and foremost what's in it for you—how storytelling can become your passport to professional success, whether you are an editor, an advertising sales person or a newspaper executive with your eye on one day sitting in the publisher's chair.
In his book, Doug helps you choose the right stories from your own experience and craft them into compelling stories. He shows you, step by step, the stagecraft he learned as an actor, to help you make your stories come alive for your audiences.
In his book, Doug shows you how to develop an ancient teaching technique, "show and tell", in your presentations, how to make your audience "see" and "feel" what you're saying, using emotional language to help your listeners connect with you and your story.
He shows you how to rehearse your material and act out conversations between the characters in your stories.
He shows you examples of the seven types of stories you can tailor for different audiences. With Doug's guidance, for example, I now have seven basic speeches I present. When I am invited to speak, and that's almost weekly, I can discuss with my host who the audience will be, what their interests will be, and how I can "connect" effectively and dramatically with them.
Using one of the seven basic speeches, I then customize the opening and closing for that particular audience. This thoughtful and dynamic approach has not failed me yet.
I could go on another half hour but I must get ready for a speech this evening for a community group that wants to sell subscriptions to our newspaper as a fund raiser.
To learn more about Doug Stevenson and his book, go to his site, http://www.dougstevenson.com.
P.S. After a business friendship of many months by e-mail, Doug and I finally met at a National Speakers Association meeting in Charlotte, NC, last month. We had never even heard each other's voices. But we had become friends on the Internet. Meeting Doug was like meeting an old friend. Don't think e-mail is a one-way street. Use it to develop relationships and make new friends.
Tell a Story; Market your Newspaper
©2004, The Bellune Company, Inc.
