Tell Useful Stories About What You Do
Narrative + Storytelling
For founders, leaders, spokespeople, scientists + changemakers.
Every leader is expected to have — and tell — a compelling personal story.
Finding the right story for you — that works — can be stressful and anxiety-inducing. Whether you are leading a company, startup, nonprofit or a team, your story needs to be:
Authentic — but also strategic
Effective — but also enjoyable
Personal — but also about your work
Unique — but also relatable
You don’t need a degree in literature to be able to tell a compelling and useful story. You’ve been telling stories since you were a kid — it’s a natural human ability — you just need to find the right version of your story that works.
Story-Modeling™ is a step-by-step method to identify the story you are trying to tell — the authentic Story About What You Do. The method is built on narrative theory, neuroscience, modeling + simulation and 20 years’ communications experience, and has been tested on CEOs, founders, organization members and spokespeople.
What are Stories About What We Do™?
Stories About What We Do™ serve an important function. Teams don’t just want a mission, they want a leader; investors don’t invest in ideas, they invest in founders; the press doesn’t just want an interview, they want a story; donors don’t want to just fund impact, they want to fund change; the public doesn’t just want to know what you do, they want to know why.
Stories About What We Do™ inspire action, generate trust and build alignment — and that’s a lot to accomplish with just one story.
There’s a reason they’re so difficult — you’re telling a story that is unfinished, you are both the protagonist and author, and the stakes are high. But when they are successful, they can be the difference between your organization’s success or failure. Learn more.
Story-Modeling™ is a proprietary method for telling Useful Stories, combining 20 years’ experience in communications with narratology, scientific modeling and neuroscience. More.
How does Story-Modeling™ work?
Story-Modeling™ is a method that takes a scientific approach to storytelling to tell stories that are useful. Every story is literature, but literature isn’t always useful. Story-Modeling™ approaches useful stories as models first, literature second — because your story doesn’t need to be literary to be effective.
The Story-Modeling™ process is 1:1, online, over a 3 week period:
Current story assessment
Narrative analysis
Story-Modeling™ to improve coherence and effectiveness
Testing
Request an introductory conversation here.