Be The Director: Build your StoryBoard
Putting ideas into action with support from the LookUP team
Wouldn’t it be great if you just knew the best way to pitch yourself in 30 seconds, in any scenario? Better than that, to feel natural in doing so, without any of the ‘ick’ factor?
That’s the goal of this piece. We all feel uncomfortable in scenarios that require the dreaded ‘elevator pitch’, be it in person or virtual. We plan to give you the skills so that telling your own story becomes something that you do with ease.
Ready to tell your story? Try this first:
Write down a paragraph that you’d normally use to introduce yourself. Practice on someone if you like. Keep it (or record it). We’ll come back to it later.
In our last post (here if you’ve stumbled across this without reading it already) we talked through the 3 problems that we all encounter in telling our own story, and the three weapons to counter them:
Here’s what you’ll be building:
We’re going to help you understand these weapons, and if you’ve paid for this piece, you get access to our live session on the 21st March 10-11.30am GMT to run through it all with our help. To book your place, here’s the link to add it to your diary:
Add event to calendar
Why are stories so important?
Stories are literally everywhere. They’re the way we make sense of the world, the way we build relationships, the way we make the complex simple.
And yet, as we talked about last time, sometimes telling our own story can be the most difficult thing to do, particularly in times of pressure.
If we think about people who tell their story brilliantly, it’s because they are simple, consistent, and demonstrated as much by what they say as what they do.
These people use our 3 weapons ALL THE TIME. Jeopardy, character, story shape. They are all present.
One thing to note: our examples in this piece are all women. Off the back of IWD, it’s great to celebrate women who are excellent in this space. There are of course, many men who have inspiring stories and tell them brilliantly; and we celebrated some in our last piece.
Let look at a few examples before we get stuck into the detail:
Rihanna: The Queen of controlling her own story
Love her or hate her, Rihanna is the queen of controlling her own story in the public eye, no matter what stage of her career or what’s going on in the world around her (her takeover of the Super Bowl was a masterclass in owning the narrative).
She uses our 3 weapons of storytelling to great effect (we’ll delve into what each of the tools mean in this piece):
Jeopardy: she’s a girl from a background with little money and a lot of trauma. This clearly gives her drive to fight for her success
Character: she is single minded in doing things her way and opening up opportunities for others
Story Shape: her journey has transitioned from musician, to business woman driving to philanthropist. It’s a classic rags to riches story.
A quick note on your ‘why’ before we delve in
We talked last time on your reason why telling your story has suddenly become a focus for you. We cited 4 main reasons (there may be more).
It’s worth taking a bit of time to work through your focus or goals in learning to tell your story effectively. It helps you focus in on the following stages; and to decide what success looks like. We’ve given you some questions against each to help you decide where your focus is.
Your first weapon: Jeopardy
That we live in the distraction economy is a well trodden argument. However, it feels like this is more pertinent than ever. LinkedIn has never been so busy (premium subscriptions have increased 55% YOY - Hootsuite) and the market is flooded with talent. What does it take to get someone’s attention?
Jeopardy is the crucial element at the start of any story. It’s the element that makes you care about what happens next. That draws you into the storyline. Makes you care about the characters you see on screen or in a book.
We like to call this ‘Dessert, or a Punch in the Face’, as explained by our expert Dan Jones, Historian, Author and Broadcaster:
It’s no different with your own story. Whether doom scrolling on Linked In, or casually chatting at a networking event. The first 30 seconds needs to connect with the other persons’ interests, and compel them to understand more.
There are 3 ways that this can be done:
Lets look at an example:
Zoe Scaman has become well known, beyond her future facing strategy skills, for standing up against the patriarchy when it comes to Adland. Her piece ‘Mad Men, Furious Women’ exposing the industry in the Me Too era went viral, and ever since she has been adamant in supporting women in this space. In a crowded space leading up to International Women’s Day this year, she put this post live:
Zoe often takes the ‘scare’ tactic, as her personal storytelling approach is based on a full frontal exploration of the issues, and challenging the industry to think differently on every front.
Her audience?: She has an avid following of strategists and marketers looking to her for inspiration; but also a slew of C-suite members of brands who buy her ability to challenge them to think differently.
Their problem?: The female contingent within both audiences recognise that gender parity still has a long way to go, and this was particularly pertinent in the lead up to IWD.
Where does she fit in?: She bridges these audiences and has credibility with both, so her role as a challenger is one that few can own, but she does so effectively.
Exercise 1: Find your Jeopardy
What makes this difficult in your own story, is that there could be multiple different types of audience you want to communicate with; and there’s a reality with a platform like Linked In that they could all see your content, and you’re not there to tailor it for their needs.
But actually, this is the same with any book, film, or speech you encounter. The creator has an idea of their audience, but not real control of it. You can do the same.
This is the reason for us getting you to define your ‘Why’ at the start of this exercise, as it helps you be a little more single minded in who you are trying to reach.
Changing direction? You potentially need to convince a new boss or organisation.
Want to be seen as an expert? You need to compel your peers and industry to see you that way.
You get the picture.
So, lets start by mapping out the relevant audiences for your chosen goal in telling your story.
For each one, work out: what keeps them up at night? And what can you do about it? That’s your jeopardy.
When you have multiple audiences, devise this for each audience in turn, and then see where most overlap, or if there is a common thread that sits above your reasons that connects them. That should be your focus.
Your second weapon: Character
Before we delve into developing your character, we need to remind you of one thing:
That’s right. This isn’t all about you.
Shocking, we know. It’s the number 1 reason why content flops on Linked In, or introductions fail to gel. If you don’t know what’s important to your audience, your story has no resonance. So always revisiting that jeopardy point for your audience as you develop your story is key.
A great example of this is the evolving story of Victoria Beckham.
The Beckham’s documentary was a seminal moment in the perception of Victoria. Previously known as stand-offish, the world saw a different side to her (and their relationship). The most effective job she did in building her character came after the initial release however.
For those who have watched the documentary, there’s a scene where Victoria is talking to the interviewer about the fact that both her and David came from down to earth backgrounds. David pokes his head round the door mid interview and asks Victoria what car she drove to school in. The answer, ‘A Rolls Royce’ resulted in memes across the Internet, to which the above tongue-in-cheek t-shirt and accompanying TikTok content swiftly answered.
Your story will evolve as you do, but you need to be clear on your role
The exact content of your story will, and should, be fluid. Your over-arching role is likely to stay consistent and needs to be one that your audience sees value in.
There are numerous roles that you might play, but some examples with well known figures sit below to give you some inspiration:
What made people feel differently about Victoria in the documentary was that she was shown as a ‘Reliable Supporter’ to both David and her family. She is ambitious and successful, but she uprooted her family numerous times to help him pursue his football career. This transformed the perception of her character, not through words alone, but also her behaviours and her backstory.
Exercise 2: Let’s build your character
If you had to think about your role in terms of your audiences problems, what role from the above list feels ownable for you? What examples from your own backstory bring this to life? What behaviours do you demonstrate that support this role?
Let me give you an example:
Our expert Stefanie Sword-Williams, founder of F**k Being Humble, fell into the ‘Shake Things Up’ category. On a personal note, she wanted to be known for being a brilliant speaker and dreamt of doing a Ted Talk. It set her off on a journey to work out her ‘Why’ behind that goal, and landed on the insight that people were scared of promoting their successes and limited their opportunities as a result. And the careers industry wasn’t inspiring them to do anything differently.
Her audience: people climbing the ladder (quite often women, but not exclusively)
Their problem: feeling uncomfortable promoting themselves
Where did she fit in?: shake up the industry and give them an inspiring drive to self-promote
Role: challenger
Her message and role was clear from the very name of her organisation, to the way she promotes it, to the problems she solves. She always had her personal goals at the heart of her approach, beginning by creating her own events and booking herself as a speaker, resulting in the elusive Ted X goal being achieved 3 years later. But ultimately, she was solving the problems of her audience, and that’s where her messaging is focused.
Interestingly, as the business becomes more established, it feels like Stef’s role is evolving that of ‘unifier’ for women in business. It will be interesting to see how her storytelling changes over time.
Your third weapon: Story Shape
Why do we need a story shape? As we talked about in our introduction & our last SubStack piece, a problem that most of us encounter is that we don’t want to leave anything out. We tend to try everyone everything, all of the time, for fear of missing opportunities.
Any stories you encounter are built on common shapes. If you want to become a true expert in this space, the well established thinking sits in novels like ‘The Hero with a Thousand Faces’, albeit there are numerous narrative designers like Christopher Morrison who are challenging models due to new storytelling spaces in the Metaverse opening up opportunity to break all the rules.
We believe that for telling your own story, you should keep it simple where possible. And rather than talk through all of the potential types (Tragedy for example, doesn’t tend to have a lot of success), there are four story types that are useful to think about your story structure:
Let’s quickly talk about each in turn:
Rags to Riches: the classic ‘cinderella’ story. From someone who had nothing, to achieving great success. Ideally told humbly, with relatable content. Victoria Beckham has always been positioned as ‘local girl, done good’ and actually this continued as she changed her story to one focused on the fashion industry.
The quest: seeking a clear outcome, with everything that you do focused on achieving this goal. Davina has become the voice of women everywhere behind menopause and more recently periods, always with a clear outcome she is seeking.
Rebirth: ‘she was this, and now she’s this’. Pamela Anderson is a classic example of someone who had a well worn narrative of being a poster child for the 90’s bikini era; but more recently has been the face of a more natural picture of ageing. Turning up to the fashion shows without makeup resulted in acres of coverage behind this message.
Defeat the monster: Greta’s fight against environmental apathy has resulted in both words and behaviour in the extreme, because that’s exactly what success in the fight against this apathy needs.
Once you have your story shape decided, in any environment you are communicating it’s worth thinking about the ‘rule of 3’. People struggle to remember more than this, and structuring your story into 3 compelling chapters helps you simplify and streamline it, no matter where you’re executing it.
The 3’s could be cumulative (“where I started, where I am now, where I’m going”); emphatic (“I deliver innovation in three ways”); or contrasting (“I have 3 core skills: strategy, creative and production)
Exercise 3: Story Shape and chapters
First, work out which story type you believe yours falls into. There may not be an answer that is 100% correct here, but it’s better to focus on one, rather than be between two types. It will make your story feel more concrete.
Make sure you’re thinking about the elements that we’ve already built when you do this exercise, e.g. who your audience is, what they care about, and your role.
What are the 3 big points in your journey that you would want to convey to this audience? (you can repeat this for different audiences to see how they answers would shift, and again look for common themes).
A final word of wisdom
What isn’t necessary? Stay focused on what your audience needs to know. Deleting is a skill, it’s part of the creative process of writing your story, and one that we all need to master a little more!
Time to put it all together!
Work to put all of the parts we’ve worked on together. At this point you may want to refine your earlier answers. The point of jeopardy really does lead everything, and should be the way you tweak your story for different audiences.
Let’s revisit the exercise we had at the beginning, but with your new skills:
Write down your new paragraph that you’d normally use to introduce yourself. Practice on someone. Record it. Now play both, see the difference?
We’ll start some threads on this topic in notes. If you’re game for submitting your pre and post stories, we’d love to see them!
Things to try:
Rewrite your linked in intro. How does the above exercise change what you say?
Write a paragraph to use for your next networking event. How do you make it compelling from the start?
Write the opening paragraph for your CV in line with your dream job or an opening paragraph for an email to a dream client. What differs from how you describe your work now?
Try it live!:
We are hosting a LookUP Live Be The Director (online) discussion on Thursday 21st March 10-11.30am GMT. We’ll take you through some of the materials & work live on some of your responses. You’ll get access to our expertise, as well as learn from your peers in the session.
If you want to join, use the relevant link below to add the session to your diary.
Add event to calendar
Go further:
Look out for our LookUP list for recommendations on reading and people to follow in this area. If you want to have more one on one guidance on Be The Director, or are interested in booking sessions for people in your organisation, get in touch at caroline@wearelookup.com
Next month:
Next months theme is ‘The Big Reset’.
What will make next year different from this one? Annual planning is coming, and for many the process isn’t working. It’s too slow, too incremental, too uninspiring. We’ll dig into how we can plan for a future (both for business and as an individual), manifest the details of that goal, engage the key players we need to make it happen, and strip away what doesn’t work (the most difficult bit) to bring it to life.