Using your story to elect Hillary in November #ImWithHer Using your story to elect Hillary in November

Objectives Develop your personal story Honing your delivery skills Develop good presentation habits

Workshop Overview Examples of a personal story What is your personal story? Messages and issues Delivering your story effectively Practice with the group

Personal Stories: What are they?

Your Personal Story A personal story has some or all of these parts: An issue you care about* Experience Person *We first connect to an issue, and tie it to a candidate later. All of us have a reason we do this work. Those are the stories we’re looking for. Anyone can get up in front of a room and list off some talking points, and that has a place, but for us to add value and have an impact on the folks we’re talking to we want to go deeper. People respond when we talk to them about what motivates us. Weather it’s organizing workers or telling someone why we’re with Hillary coming from a person to person level is the most effective way to motivate someone. What you saw in the video was a good start, but we were trying to get quick sound bites. We want a few levels deeper. For me it’s [Grabel tells his story]

Personal Stories Should Be: Unique to you True Something you care about deeply I’m sure this slide seems obvious. But so much of the time when people are talking about politics and trying to convince someone people just tell the person they’re talking to what they think they want to her. People can see through that a mile away. We won’t convince everyone all the time, but we have a lot better chance if they can tell we’re passionate about the issue. Have participants take 10 minutes to develop their story. Facilitators mill about to help and answer questions.

Small Group Practice 1 25 minutes Have participants go around their table sharing their stories and motivations with their group. Facilitators should stop by tables and listen in and provide feedback.

Connecting Our Stories to Our Candidate Identify the issue in your story Familiarize yourself with Hillary’s plans for change Tie the two to together This is the part when we meld our stories with our support for Hillary. Have participants familiarize themselves with the issue message guidance that matches their story. There should be a handout for this part.

Why Hillary? Group Discussion Examples to get conversation going: Working families need a champion in the White House who can deliver on her promises. AFSCME members are supporting the candidate who is best equipped to make real progress once in the White House, and break down every barrier holding Americans back. No candidate is better prepared for those fights than Hillary Clinton, because she has been fighting for our communities her whole life. Just as public service workers never quit making our communities safer, healthier and stronger, we will never quit working to elect a president who shares our passion for public service. Hillary believes that when unions are strong, America is strong. She will make it easier instead of harder for working people to join together in strong unions. And that’s why it’s so important for all of us to work together to get her elected. Just like we never quit on our union or on the job, we never quit working to elect a president who shares our passion for public service. It’s getting harder and harder for all of to sustain our families because CEOs and corporations have manipulated the rules for years to create today’s out of balance economy. That’s why AFSCME members are backing Hillary Clinton. She has the most detailed, progressive plans to raise incomes for hardworking people, and rein in the CEO’s and corporations that manipulate rules to their favor. We need a champion in the White House who can deliver on her promises.

Words That Connect “[Personal Story]. That’s why I’m for Hillary. Her plan for [Issue] makes her the best candidate for me.” “I’m for Hillary because [Personal Story]. She’ll be the best President to take on [Issue / Problem]”

Small Group Practice 2 25 minutes

Interview Stress Natural Expected Easy to overcome When giving an interview or speaking publicly it’s natural to get a little nervous. It happens to everyone. Even the pros. With some practice and a few little tricks you can give an interview or a speech like a veteran. Ask crowd what it feels like to get stressed before an interview, speech, or public presentation. Looking for: fast heartbeat, sweat, fast talking, trouble with full breaths, and shaking voice. Next slide shows how to overcome

Handling Interview Stress Prepare early and often Use your body effectively As we get closer to interviewing or presenting stress naturally builds up. Don’t feel bad about it. It’s natural and a few tips can help slow you down so you can sound clear and confident. Even if your heart is beating fast. The first and best thing you can do is spend time practicing what you want to say. There is no substitute for solid preparation and having a good grasp on your content will go a long way towards making you more comfortable. You can also use a few tricks with your body to help loosen you up so you can speak clearly and confidently. I like to clasp my hands together. This way if I get tight in my chest (that’s stress building up) I can squeeze them together to draw the stress away from my chest, lungs, and vocal cords. It helps me speak my clearly, slowly, and confidently. It has the added benefit of making sure my hands aren’t flying all over the place when I’m talking as happens commonly when people are nervous. That ends up waving in front of the camera and being unusable for TV. If you do that and still need a little help try gripping the floor with your toes.

Practice With the Class Use the remaining time to have participants come to the front and conduct a mock interview. Two minutes or so a person with a constructive and positive feedback period from the class. Facilitator should go first to set the tone and ease the class into the project. Everyone should get more positive than negative to keep people upbeat about their new skills.

Thank You! Use the remaining time to have participants come to the front and conduct a mock interview. Two minutes or so a person with a constructive and positive feedback period from the class. Facilitator should go first to set the tone and ease the class into the project. Everyone should get more positive than negative to keep people upbeat about their new skills.