What stories are you going to tell this week? What stories are you going to encounter? Are you listening to your clients, your constituency bases? Are listening as the stories that need to be told are unfolding right in front of you? How can we be aware enough to look deep into the organizations and find rich stories that attract those listening ears?

1. Look within the “funding” sources and marketing goals for real people.
2. Define the mission of the organization and let the mission provide a frame work  for the stories.
3. Understand the target audiences and allow them to guide you to the palatable stories.
4. Look past subject matter as a story position, find people with stories that can be told through their eyes and not with a “narrator.”
5. Use the 180 degree rule…when you find a good story that is in the midst of happening, turn 180 degrees and look at who is watching the story unfold, tell it through their lens.
6. Find stories that are in the midst of the action, let the action and reaction paint the picture…stay away from stories that have to be re-told after the fact.
7. Go into the story idea with a loose outline but be willing to let the storytelling process create the final outline and story-line!
8. Do not let technology restrict your ability to tell a good story! Use it as a means to capture and distribute the story to the appropriate audiences. I have captured and told Emmy Award winning stories using a $300.00 video camera. No matter if you have an $80K video camera, a $200 laptop, or even a $50.00 recording device…let it enable you not detract you.

Be passionate! Find those stories…find rich content that your audiences are craving to connect with on a daily basis.

Here is a funny little story I found one day in Arizona when all I was asked to do is get a few shots of the Renaissance Festival….this guy cracks me up. Proof, if we open our ears, the stories can pop out of nowhere and it can replace the pointless copy that could be written about the festival.

Meet my friend Ron Gattis. I am not sure where Ron is now, but I know one thing…he is passionate. His passion is infectious, so much I decided to follow him for three months to tell the real story of Ron Gattis. There is a story within this story…one of passion, heart-ache, and hope. This one has many layers connected, one with a single red-string…he wants to sing again on the “Big Stage.”

These are the stories I want to tell, to find, and bring to audiences. Imagine finding stories like this within organizations, ones with layers, ones with something that provide a connection with so many audiences. Thanks Ron for sharing your passion. This story was produced in 2005.

I received an email today that challenged a remark I made during a meeting. The question asked about the importance of listening and asked for tips/thoughts/advice. This made me think, what makes us good listeners and how can we become better listeners in-order to engage with our audiences.

Here are some thoughts that I used in response to my friend!

1. To know your audience, to effectively communicate…we must listen so that we may adjust/address our discourse.
2. To listen, we must ask. We must be willing to empower our audience and engage their conversation. So we ask questions to learn about our audience.
3. We are observant, we look at our surroundings where we communicate so that the visual cues provide context to the conversation.
4. We find a connection point. People exchange in conversation because of some common ground. We look for these commonalities and use them to form reflective conversation.
5. We bite our tongues. When we listen, we do not try to complete others’ sentences but provide simple gestures so that the audience feels us engaged.
6. We provide emotional reinforcement. It is okay to laugh, cry, and even get mad during a conversation. Emotion is the result of a successful conversation.
7. We make our audience feel important, we make them feel like they are the thought leader. This requires us to do a little homework and understand who will engage in conversation; so that we can be prepared with questions about that person so we can make them feel important.
8. We create a silence so that the audience feels the need to fill the void. Sometimes we ask questions or even prompt discussions, but we are not willing to let the person answer. Create a silence in the discussion that provides a rigid opportunity for the audience to feel the need to remove the silence.
9. Most importantly, be genuine and honest with the ones you are communicating. Honesty provides connection and builds credibility.
10. Lastly, tell stories, good stories. People connect with stories, rich stories with layers. When you tell a story, people want to share their stories. Then just sit back, listen and enjoy the moment.

Listening is one of the toughest things to do. It is a skill that can be refined during an interview process. When I worked as a journalist, I learned the hard way. I would have to go into households of families who had lost a loved one with cameras and equipment to get an interview.  I learned to make them feel comfortable enough to share their deepest moment of lose with the camera recording. I learned to find something in common so that the conversation was not empty and provided context, plus I wanted to earn their trust. I would look around the room and find a picture, book, something that I could identify so we could establish some common ground. Then, I was honest in my intentions, and allowed them to make the decisions how the interview/conversation would continue. I made them feel like the gatekeeper, empowering them as the dominant in the conversation.

Listening can be fun, learning from listening is powerful. If we looked at engaging in conversation as an opportunity to learn from those whom we converse with daily, we could create a bigger knowledge economy.