Brad runs Yelram Media, a company built to help your company tell your stories better.
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We will never run out of stories to tell.
To think otherwise is ludicrous.
We've been telling stories since cavemen painted epic tableaus on the inside of cave walls, and we will continue to tell stories until artificial intelligence takes over and humans are relegated to the dustbin of history.
Plus, we live in a golden age of storytelling.
Thanks to more streaming services than we can shake a stick at, we are treated to new series and movies on a regular basis.
If HBO MAX and Disney+ were not a thing, we wouldn't have so much good stuff on our screens. We'd have to rely on cable and movies to satiate our appetite for stories.
While those once seemed perfectly capable of giving us what we wanted, more options means we are hungrier than ever.
A few weeks ago, I saw a tweet from someone who complained Hollywood has lost its originality because of all of the spinoffs it's producing, namely Book of Boba Fett and the upcoming Obi-Wan show.
It's puzzling there would be complaints about more stories of our favorite characters.
Imagine telling a Star Wars fan in 1983 after watching Return of the Jedi that the mysterious, yet popular, bounty hunter swallowed by the Sarlacc Pit would get his own dedicated television series nearly 40 years later?
Their head would've exploded.
I'm of the opinion -- and I share this often -- you should always dig for those stories you can tell to your audience. And the Book of Boba Fett and Obi-Wan shows are perfect examples of taking what was given and going deeper to find more compelling narratives.
If you're developing a content marketing plan, you don't stop telling a story after one pass. You can often find another story to tell that builds upon one that has already been shared.
A press release might be the start of a larger storytelling campaign that begets blog posts and social media content.
If you stop too soon, you are missing out on a plethora of other opportunities to get your brand out in front of your audience.
If anything, Hollywood is forced to become more creative when given an opportunity to tell more stories about characters that haven't been fleshed out before.
It's a storyteller's dream.
If you fancy yourself a storyteller, dig in and get to work.
As always, thanks for reading.
Brad
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with Lisa Lark, Lisa Lark Communications
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You bill yourself as a freelance writer and story consultant. Tell us about the work you do.
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My work is a pretty even split between writing and storytelling, and I work with both companies and individuals.
My primary focus is helping clients understand their story and working with them to build it out and bring it to life. Sometimes, that means working with an established company to tell their story in a very specific way, such as in an award submission or sustainability report. Other times, that could mean developing a personal brand strategy or creating a book outline for an individual.
In terms of writing, I’m primarily working in the corporate communications space: speeches, annual reports, blog posts, press releases. I’ve also been able to do more narrative storytelling and feature writing, which has been a blast.
My approach is going to be a bit different than what people have seen before, and that’s by design.
Regardless of the project or client, my process and strategy are heavily focused on language, usage and audience. A lot of what I do has been influenced by my time as a high school English teacher. I pay a lot of attention to how clients or SMEs present information and focus on the words and phrases they use naturally. We also really dig into the audience for each piece of content to make sure we’re meeting the listener or reader where they are rather than forcing a message.
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The first decade of your career was spent both in-house and at an agency, helping companies tell their stories to their audiences. Why did you decide to go out on your own?
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In 2020 and early 2021, I probably did everything a PR/Comms professional could do: crisis, internal comms, media relations, social media, new business pitches…you name it and I probably did it during that first year of the pandemic.
2020 was a challenging year for me in a few ways. I love being around people, so working from home and losing that daily in-person interaction was tough. I also live with major depression and ADHD, and after a year of the pandemic my mental health wasn’t in a great place.
At the beginning of 2021, I started paying more attention to my mood during the day and really looking at the tasks that brought me joy. I found that I was happiest when I doing three things: writing, editing and brainstorming with clients and colleagues.
When I looked at the types of roles I’d had in the past, my experience had primarily been in client and account management. I knew that if I went to another company I would probably end up in that type of role. I realized that the job I was looking for didn’t really exist, so after a long conversation with my wife I decided to take the leap and go off on my own.
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Why have you decided to embrace storytelling as a means to an end when it comes to doing the work you do on behalf of clients?
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I honestly don’t see storytelling as a means to an end. To me, storytelling is perhaps the most underrated – and underutilized – skill in communications. When it’s told well, a good story can accomplish almost anything. It sounds cliché, but I really believe that. At the end of the day, nearly everything a company does is going to involve storytelling: recruitment, new business development, R&D, employee engagement, brand reputation, etc.
I think a lot of companies and individuals struggle because storytelling can be really overwhelming. A company with 20,000+ employees building hundreds of different products in 10 global locations is going to have a lot of story possibilities to choose from. That can be intimidating, especially when you factor in limited time and budget. It’s really easy to just “get something out;” we’ve all been there.
What I’ve found, however, is most of my clients are in far better shape than they realized. Many of their stories are already formed, they’re just spread across sales presentations, leadership speeches, corporate reports and recruitment materials. From there, it’s just a matter of identifying the narrative thread and getting it in front of the people who need to see it.
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You've worked for clients, both large and small. What are the advantages of telling stories on behalf of companies of both sizes?
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There’s a lot to love about both sizes of companies.
With small companies, you’ll often get more access to senior leadership, either with strategy and planning at the front end or feedback at the back end. I find that to be a huge benefit because it allows me to get a clearer picture of what the company’s goals (and expectations) are for the project or content. Smaller companies tend to have a more streamlined approval process as well.
Bigger companies will typically have far more source materials to work with: more SMEs, more presentations, more owned content, more data. For a research nerd like me, bigger companies just have a bigger pool for me to dive into. There’s also usually a larger budget which gives everyone a bit more breathing room.
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The COVID-19 pandemic has impacted everyone in different ways. How has your view on work changed over the past two years?
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My view has changed tremendously. I’ve learned a lot about myself, both in terms of the type of work I want to do and what I need to be successful.
I’ve really tried to slow down and be thoughtful about each task, rather than running from one to the next without giving myself time to prepare and reset. I try to debrief after every meeting so that the knowledge doesn’t get lost, and I make time to decompress during the day.
The most important way my view has changed has been in the way I speak to myself during the day. I give myself permission to leave things unfinished at the end of the day, and I try to be kinder to myself when things don’t go perfectly on the first try.
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Finally, the question I ask everyone - what is the best book, fiction or non-fiction, you have read recently?
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I’ve just started reading more frequently after a lapse during the pandemic. I’ve read some good fiction lately: I really enjoyed Elizabeth Gilbert’s City of Girls and Cul-de-sac by Joy Fielding. I also just reread Maus I & II, for probably the 3rd or 4th time. They’re just profoundly moving books.
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Lisa is the head of Lisa Lark Communications. Connect with her on LinkedIn or follow her on Twitter.
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