James Gregg, Staff Photographer, San Diego Union-Tribune [Fuji X-E2, XF 55-200mm, ISO 6400, ƒ/4.8, 1/10]

All photos from the Southwestern Photojournalism Conference

At every conference I attend today, I am passionate about “Storytelling” and “Giving a Voice to the Voiceless.”

I don’t think this is all that new, but what is new is the focus on moving from bullet lists on a PowerPoint presentation to telling a story instead.

We have always done this, but now we are more aware of the power of an authentic story.

However, with all this emphasis, I am still not feeling the stories that people are sharing. The reason I am not feeling it all that well is pretty simple. The storyteller forgot all about me.

I can tell they got lost in the story and the subject and forgot all about the audience.

I am sure there are many ways to connect with the audience, but let me talk about one that I believe is the most powerful way to connect your audience and subject in a truly engaging way.

Andrew Silk, lecturer at California Baptist University [Fuji X-E2, XF 18-55mm, ISO 6400, ƒ/3.2, 1/200]

Authenticity

Preaching to me turns me off, primarily lecturing about what I need to do.

Here are what I think are three elements you need in storytelling to engage an audience.

Tension—You need to have the audience asking the question about the outcome of the subject. The narrative of your story must incite the audience to want an answer. Many a screenwriter talks when an account is not moving you along that you need a “dead cat.” You are missing the tension, and then there is no need for the audience to need to read the story.

Unpredictable—I think of Disney’s latest movie, Frozen, and how the ending has a twist so different than all the other princess movies I have seen. This twist has people talking and loving this movie. As a visual storyteller, I sometimes use visuals to help create the unpredictable. The unpredictability should be full of suggestion, foreshadowing, and recall. Not gimmicky shots and tricks; instead, One should design the video to tell a story in a not predictably sequential way.

Personality—The salesperson sells himself before they can sell the product. The narrative must have a warm and inviting style, not boring and dull.

Mike Martin, pastor [Nikon D4, 14-24mm, ISO 2800, ƒ/10, 1/2000]

The last one on personality is often where the subject reveals their flaws. The best stories are where the main issue is flawed and not a perfect Barbie Doll or Ken Doll.

Too many people will go to a church revival, and the testimony of someone who had a terrible life moves them. They were on drugs, beaten, or even raped, and the power of their story about how awful their life was.

I often hear people say I wish I had a story like that. They even may jokingly say they wish they had a drug addiction. But, they feel like they don’t have an account because they don’t have a “dead cat” in their story.

I know of people who are the most attractive people you could imagine that appeared to have it all who attempted suicide. The key is not that they tried or thought of suicide, but the power of the story comes in the authenticity of why they thought their life was not worth living.

Giraffes at Fossil Rim Wildlife Center [Fuji X-E2, XF 55-200mm, ISO 200, ƒ/4.5, 1/200]

You see, they compared themselves to their siblings or someone else who had what they thought was a successful life. They maybe had older siblings that were star athletes or straight “A” students. In their eyes, they are a failure.

The key to this person telling their story is not in how bad they thought they had it; the power tells the story of how they are a broken vessel.

I think great leaders are the ones who do share a little of their humanity and do not try to appear that they have it all together.

Every person feels adequate. They all feel they are not as good as those around them at some level—even those who are the most successful in life struggle sometime during their day as missing the mark. Learn to connect to the audience on how this story you want to tell is similar to their account.

When we tap into the audience and where they are in life, we will have a better time engaging them in the story. Nonprofits can tell their story as long as they connect to the subject’s struggles and how the audience can make a difference. But to do this, they must establish how and why the subject cannot do it alone.

They must show how the audience can make a difference and connect the emotional part of the story to the message.

[Fuji X-E2, XF 18-55mm, ISO 6400, ƒ/7.1, 1/25]

Knowing more about the audience before you work on the story can help you find those emotional connections between the two. Appealing to an entrepreneur to help support microloans or even macro loans to help another entrepreneur achieve their dream changes the world. But, first, they must establish why they cannot get a traditional loan.

If your organization is struggling, I would guess that one of the primary reasons is they forgot about their audience.