Category: storyteller

Start with the Audience

by Stanley Learystoryline / storyteller
 
Fujifilm X-E2, FUJINON XF 18-55mm, 

Have you ever seen the acronym WIIFM? It stands for What’s In It For Me. It is the essential part of telling a story. But, first, you must understand who the audience is to craft a story that will appeal to their desires.

What’s In It For Me, are without a doubt, the most important five letters in your business writing, your Web site, and maybe even in your business success. Always tell people what’s in it for them when they do business with you.

You will likely appeal to no one if you try to reach everyone.
 
Nikon D5, Sigma 24-105mm f/4 DG OS HSM Art Lens, ISO 32000, ƒ/9, 1/100
Think of you talking one-on-one with someone in your audience. It would help to have the audience in mind before picking the story.
 
For there to be a story, we have these basic four things:
 
  1. Subject 
  2. They WANT something
  3. They overcome obstacles
  4. To get it
The audience wants something too. The audience wants to be part of the story. The audience in a call to action can be the helper for the subject to attain their wants.
 
When I am teaching Missions Multimedia Storytelling Workshop, the hardest part of the learning for the student, which is their obstacle, has less to do about learning to use the gear. Instead, the real struggle is understanding the storyline.
 
They must toss out so much because it isn’t engaging the audience. 
 
I get the deer in the headlights looking over and over from students when they show me their work, and I ask why I should care.
 
They are crafting a story they are interested in, not one for the audience.
 
In the hero’s journey storytelling model discovered by Joseph Campbell and modified by Chris Vogler, there is a meeting of the mentor usually in Act 1. The mentor can be the role of the audience when it comes to the call to action for helping the subject attain their goal.
 
 
A good storyteller understands that the Audience, Subject, and even you as a storyteller all have a storyline. The key to the success story is when the Audience, Subject, and even you as a storyteller are all able to get what they want.
 
If your story seems stuck, check and see which of the storylines [Audience, Subject, Storyteller] is having problems.
 
One of the key things to evaluate is constantly asking how this helps us achieve our WANTS/GOAL if it doesn’t look at cutting it out.

Honduran Dentist prefers education to pulling teeth

by Stanley LearyNikon D4 / storyteller
Nikon D4, 14-24mm, ISO 12800, ƒ/16, 1/125, -1.0 EV—Off Camera Neewer TT850 using the Neewer 433MHz Wireless 16 Channel to control the flash

Dr. Natalia Velásquez Alonzo is a dentist in the rural Agalta Valley of Honduras. She is at her main office at Rancho el Paraíso of Honduras Outreach.

Fuji X-E2, 18-55mm, ISO 800, ƒ/7.1, 1/500

I went with her and the rest of the mobile medical team to a small village El Pedrero two hours north of the ranch on these dirt roads. I felt like a bobblehead bouncing around for those two hours. About halfway there, the electricity to the area stopped.

Nikon D4, 14-24mm, ISO 100, ƒ/3.5, 1/1000

When HOI started going to this community, they stopped before they crossed the river and crossed over in canoes. Today they have a bridge to get to the village. When they first started going, this was what most of the village people lived in.

Nikon D4, 14-24mm, ISO 8000, ƒ/5.6, 1/250

The inside of their houses were dirt floors and walls. They let the wind and rain through.

Nikon D4, 14-24mm, ISO 500, ƒ/3.8, 1/100

Dr. Natalia Alonzo worked for the government as a dentist before coming to HOI five months ago. She went into the schools and taught as she is now for HOI. Here she is teaching the students about dental hygiene in El Pedrero. She prefers doing this to having to pull teeth.

Nikon D4, 14-24mm, ISO 1000, ƒ/8, 1/250

Many government dentists do not have enough supplies, and so many patients have many teeth pulled with just one shot or none. So Dr. Alonzo likes working with HOI, where she has enough supplies to use what would be standard procedures to those in the United States due to the giving that supports the medical team.

Nikon D4, 14-24mm, ISO 100, ƒ/5, 1/1250

Here is the medical clinic in the village of El Pedrero. The Toyota Land Cruiser is their mobile medical truck. North Point Ministries helped other groups to buy this vehicle through their “Be Rich” campaign. The idea started at North Point Ministries five years ago and caught on quickly. The message from the pulpit was straightforward–you have it, they don’t.

Teams are regularly going from the US to help transform Honduras through HOI. Their work over the past twenty-five years has gotten the government’s attention. As a result, next month, President Juan Orlando Hernández and First Lady Ana García Carías of Honduras are coming to Atlanta to present HOI with an award for outstanding service to their country.