Today I want to talk about telling personal stories.

We are on the cusp of creating a new podcast to share the knowledge and opportunities we have access to with the students we serve.

My hope is that we can read through this blog  during the marketing meeting then take 5 minutes for discussion. I’ll make this post as short as possible so we have time to discuss when we meet.

We learn everything from stories. My daughter is obsessed with Jack and the Beanstalk. It’s all about those magic beans! Stories teach us how to feel, how to process our emotions. Stories teach us how to think. We passed on our knowledge through stories before the written word. Even our written word takes the form of stories. Something would be very off if Goldilocks and the Three Bears looked and read like a grocery list.

Stories allow us to embody the experience.  Our mirror neurons fire up. We react to the defeat of misfortune. We cheer while the hero beats the demon. We cry through stories. We bond through stories. We learn through stories.

“Telling a good story is like giving a mini-documentary of what you have seen so others can see it too.” – Simmons

Before we get started we need to agree on what kind of stories we want to tell. Which of the following story types do you think we should stick with?

“There are six types of stories that will serve you well in your efforts to influence others:

Who I am stories
Why I am here stories
The Vision story
Teaching Stories
Values in Action stories
I know what you are thinking stories” – Simmons

The Humans of Manoa stories were “who am I” / “why am I here” stories. The student success videos were “vision” / “values in action” stories. That leaves “teaching stories” and “I know what you’re thinking” stories. How could we tell those stories?

I believe we should triple down on personal stories.

“Personal stories let others see who we are better than any other form of communication. Ultimately, people trust your judgement and your words based on subjective evidence. Objective data doesn’t go deep enough to engender trust.” – Simmons

I took a quick poll and asked staff to share their podcast recommendations. These podcasts featured interviews with authors who write books on career, employment, and management topics.

Interviews with authors might make for good listening as long as the interviewer has read their book, has good questions, and can keep the conversation from getting dull.

I also got some informal feedback from the staff about what they believe students would be interested in learning about now.

• Changing economy
• How markets are changing
• Developments being made at UH
• Direction global markets and economies are going

I believe our podcasts should showcase helpful information, upcoming events, showcase new ways of accessing our programs and services. But I believe the majority of each episode should continue to focus on telling personal stories.

“People don’t want more information. They are up to their eyeballs in information. They want faith – faith in you, your goals, your success, in the story you tell.” – Simmons

What kind of stories do you want to tell? Ok marketing team, let’s do this! I’ll set a timer for 5 minutes. Go! Contact me if you have any questions!