Want to tell a good story? Do these things first…

You might not be the next Stephen King, but everyone who owns a business or works in a creative role can learn a thing or two about storytelling to catapult your work to the next level.

Side note: I was ill last week (like the rest of London) and missed a post. So welcome to my last TIM (The Ideas Machine) of the year, thank you to everyone for your support and for reading this. I am super proud that I have managed to keep this consistent and this will be my 35th post (its not quite 52, one per week, but I had quite a turbulent year, so I think I can be let off). If you want to read the nooh Studio x Helena 2024 round-up, here was my Merry Christmas noohs’letter.

On with this weeks post…

Storytelling is your secret weapon to skyrocket your sales, engagement and support for your idea, business or brand. Today, I share step by step what you need to consider before you ever put pen to paper (or hand to keyboard!).

Ideate

If you’ve been here a while (thank you by the way!), then you know that I think “design”, “branding” and “marketing” without storytelling isn’t any of those things at all. It’s a hollow attempt to hard sell instead of creating community. I get asked how I tell good stories in my art, business and work for clients, and today I share the pre-work that goes into telling a good story. Strap in!

Iterate

Okay, the juicy bit! Here is what you need to analyse about in order to tell a brilliant story that will work for your business and career. With some ever so helpful links to other blogs, articles and generally helpful things to support you on your way.

• What is your story? (No, really, what is it?)

  You might say “but Helena, it’s about how we started up? Nothing else?!”. Then I would ask you why your audience should care? Your story isn’t just how you got to be a "proper" business, maybe your story is about the struggles that led you to finding your calling and how you're supporting others with similar struggles? Or maybe your story is about how the audience can do more by working together with you? It’s never “just” an origins story, it’s an origins story with meaning -what is the meaning in your business? If that’s a big question, we did chat about this in a previous blog post which might help!

• How do you want to tell your story?

  We love the different ways you can tell a story. The traditional way of oral storytelling however, isn’t always easy to do in 2024 and beyond. Have you considered the different mediums that you could use?

  • Video (here and here, are a few helpful links and writing on how to use video in 2024).

  • Powerful imagery that sparks emotion and tells a story with no words

  • Blogs (kinda like this one! Maybe you should subscribe? Worth a shot right?)

  • Podcasts (Another helpful link is here)

  • Talks - Could you be the next TED Talk speaker? Or maybe it’s more realistic to host a free event at your local co-working space? Could you host something online?

  • Books - You don’t need to be Stephen King to write a book either! I did, you can see it here!

  • Social media - Which sites? What channels? What medium on these sites would you use? Are hashtags still in? Do some research before you answer this question!

  • Branding (one final helpful link here!)

• Who are you trying to tell your story to?

  The honest answer is that not everyone is interested in you, your business or your story. Ouch… was that harsh to read? Sorry, but it is true! For example, even the best storytelling, (probably), won’t persuade me to watch the football the next time it’s on… but that’s ok, because 20-something year old women are not the usual demographic of choice for football products and services. Just like your business needs to aim at who your usual, or who you would like your usual clients to be. Take time to learn about your customers or clients, what age range do they fall in? Is there a significant gender divide? What social media channels does this type of person engage with? Learn about your audience in order to target them more effectively.

• What should someone do with this information?

  Okay so maybe you’ve done all of the above. You’ve got real meaning and value in your story that you can share, you know your target audience and you know how you want to tell your story. Let’s suppose you find your audience, they watch / listen or read your story and they love it (huzzah!). What do you want them to do next? Is it to click on something? Sign up for something? Purchase your services or product? Build this in as a Call to Action at the end of your story, give your audience something to do with the brilliant story you just told them.

Implement

🧠 Do you tell stories in your branding or marketing?

🧠 Do you put these pre-storytelling steps into action when telling your story?

🧠 Did I miss anything? How do you ensure you tell a good story?