The Magical word of storytelling

Everyone is obsessed about this buzzword. why and how you could do it yourself?

I love coffee, people, and talking. Not necessarily in that order, but a significant portion of my life has been devoted to spending time with people, usually over coffee while we talked. They talked, told stories, and moved on to the next one. I enjoyed upgrading the best stories, making changes and tweaks, making them shorter or having a longer opening.

In everything I do, I enjoy telling stories. When I’m writing novels, creating brands, or creating articles or microcopy for my clients. When I teach, I especially enjoy incorporating a brand’s story into a lesson. Making a boring 90-minute class into a compelling story that inspires students to remember.

However, we abused this magical ability, storytelling.

We can no longer prevent anyone from claiming to be a self-proclaimed storyteller. There is no diploma, no minimum requirements, just someone who decides they want to teach. There are no numbers or KPIs to track, but storytelling is an ability, a skill, like being funny or being a businessman. You can’t claim to be funny or to be an entrepreneur. That should be said by someone else. I believe the same is true for storytelling.

An author is a storyteller who succeeds when others read, buy, and share his work. Too many people nowadays are self-proclaimed without putting in the effort. Yes, I know that many types of consultants feel the same way, and there are plenty of consultants willing to help you grow on social even if they have never done it themselves.

We are all storytellers

I know you might argue that there are different types of storytelling, long, short, video, audio, snarky, emotional, and so on, and I would agree, but I would also argue that we are all storytellers, just at different levels and abilities.

You get together with your friends and family? Stories

You tell your coworkers about last night’s wild party? Storytelling

You’d like to sell something? Story.

I was recently asked to listen to a podcast about startup storytelling. The lady identified…