1. Telling YOUR story to make a difference
Wendy McCaleb
Referenced by "Living Proof"

2. Why Tell Your Story? *To be an advocate *To change *To Educate
*To mobilize
*To give a voice to under or misrepresented people
*To promote a product or service to raise money
*To believe you can help others make a difference
*To have others move from apathy to empathy to action

3. what it means to be human.
Why tell YOUR story?
* They allow others to feel and imagine with you.
* To see our lives as stories and share those with others is at the core of
what it means to be human.

4. My Six Word Reason *What keeps you going?
*What will keep your story or message going?
Exercise

5. 3 Types Of Stories
*A story alone or an advocate who is not prepared can miss the mark.
*Two kinds of stories fall short: Raw and Canned

6. Audience feels bad for the speaker
The Raw Story
Unprepared
Emotionally Fragile
Nervous
Impromptu
Unfocused
Audience feels bad for the speaker

7. Audience analyzes the speaker
The Canned Story
Over-rehearsed
Detached
Scripted
Distanced
Focused on effect
Insincere
Audience analyzes the speaker

8. Audience Connects with the speaker
The Effective Story
Practiced
Emotionally engaging
Crafted
Flexible
Authentic
Genuine
Audience Connects with the speaker

9. The 5 Qualities of Effective Advocacy Stories

10. Advocacy Stories Are Focused
*There is always an intent to your story
*Your story links to your goals and message

11. Advocacy Stories Are Positively Charged
*It is about change and that change happened to you
*Positive change in your story shows it is needed
and it is possible
*You are not a victim

12. Advocacy Stories Are Crafted
Arranging
Revising
Choosing and polishing language
Edited
Once you find a good story that makes people smile, keep it

13. Advocacy Stories Are Framed
*It cannot stand alone
*It contains a particular way you would like your audiences to view and understand it and its importance
*It is the difference between heartfelt and genuine and heartfelt or whining, self serving and preachy

14. Advocacy Stories Are Practiced
Seems natural
Is Genuine
Is confident

15. Mapping your experience
*When given 3-6 minutes to tell your story you must decide what would benefit others.
*Landscape can be vast and overwhelming
*Explore everything you have available as story material
*Be expansive to generate as much material as you can, more than you will use.
Exercise

16. Choosing What To Tell What makes the Cut??
*Storytelling is not just reciting events as they occurred.
*It is the selection of moments, arranged in creative ways.
*Decide which parts to select and arrange, taking a moment from here, an image from there.

17. Choosing What To Tell What makes the Cut??
**Goal: not to distance our self from emotions or to bare your soul.
*You are the author and you choose what to disclose and what is just yours.
Exercise

18. Linking Your Goals to Your Audience
*What are you trying to do with your story??
*General Goals: Long term results of your advocacy. Name the better world you imagine, the difference you want to
make.
*Specific Goals: What you hope to achieve at the time you speak.

19. Linking Your Goals to Your Audience
Effective advocacy stories are focused on audience, just as they are focused on Goals
*General audience: Broadly defined groups you can reach.
*Specific Audience: The actual living, breathing people you speak to. .
Exercise....

20. Composing Key Messages
*Say what you want your audience to act upon or learn.
*Determine how you structure your content
*Minimal requirements for what you want to communicate:
---Full sentences
---Statements
---Concise and specific
---Memorable
---Limited to 3-5 points

21. Composing Key Messages
*Keep them with you at all times
*Post them in your workspace
*Carry them in your wallet
Exercise......

22. Name Your Change "I was blind but now I see"
-Every successful advocacy story is about change and that change happens to YOU
-Your story is living proof that positive change is needed, possible, and perhaps even inevitable.

23. Name Your Change *From innocence to knowledge. *From illness to health
*From passivity to action
*From self-interest to self-sacrifice
*From grief to hope
The change is what turns your experience into your story.
If you cannot name the positive change your working toward, you may be setting yourself up to tell a Raw Story.
Exercise....

24. Right Size Your Story
*Being able to scale your story for sound bites, keynote addresses and everything in between is one of the most useful skills you can learn as an advocate.
*To vary rate and length of you story, you must practice the basics of storytelling: the scene, the description and the summary.
Exercise.....

25. Making Language Live
*Good stories transport listeners to other places and times.
*As an advocate, you bring something to your cause no one else can provide: your living experience and all its human messiness.

26. Making Language Live
*Your body experienced this story and audiences respond to this.
*Appeal to all the senses: look for sensory details that make the experience come to life ( see, feel, sound, smell, taste)

27. Making Language Live *Tell both inner and outer stories:
*Outer: what happened on the surface (getting into your car)
*Inner: what you thought and felt.

28. Making Language Live
*Populate your story-include dialogue with others.
*Make creative
"The feeling of a heart attack is like an elephant stepping on your chest"

29. Hook Your Audience
*Hook is a phrase that dangles before you and gets your attention
"Two years ago I died on the operating table"
*They are ear catching phrases
*Words that become headlines
Exercise... Also look at your six word reason, your goals and key messages

31. Frame It!
*Framing the theme assists one person define how to help a community.
*Frame your relationship to the audience
*Frame your role and identity
Exercise.....