My daughter went to storytelling camp for a week this summer. Her teacher, Brandon Spars, is a master storyteller and I became curious. So I read his book and watched some of his sessions at The Moth (insanely good). Then I became obsessed with The Moth’s Podcastand started listening to story after story after story. All of the stories told at The Moth are true and are incredibly varied. One was about how a fire captain dealt with The Worcester Firethat took the lives of six firefighters. Another about how Adam Rossfound out not only that his father was not his father but the father his mother thought was his father was not actually his father either. There was a wedding planner, Kari Adams, talking about how her perfect wedding wasn’t and how her father’s choice to not attend was heartbreaking even though the wedding did not work out (yet, she is still driven to create beauty in the details for others). And on and on, each one more compelling than the next.
Of course, it got me to thinking about why I preach the power of story relentlessly. What is it that drives ME to want to implore you as artists and business owners to tell your story (as both an artist and creative business owner)? Why do I cling so fervently to the idea that the best storytellers win? I keep coming back again and again to this — humanity, relationship and connection. Yes, those telling the story feel an amazing catharsis in the telling. I have when I have shared the story of my brother’s passingand the demise of my businesson this blog. But I have not gone that extra step of telling it to a live audience or even to a single stranger in person. And that is what has dawned on me: the point of the story is for the audience’s catharsis as much as the storyteller’s. Even more than that though is the singular community that exists around the story in its very intimacy, the idea that there is a glimpse of the tapestry that makes you, well, you and all of us, us.
I think this is what is missing more and more today: the idea that we as human beings are meant to be together to share experiences and relate our own experiences with each other in an effort to bring compassion and empathy, courage and humor, and, I dare say, love into the equation. Modern technology should make that better, but it has done the opposite so far.
I am a huge fan of Bill Baker’s work to use story to drive your creative business forward. I am firmly in the mindset that if you do not understand what he is talking about, you are going to get run over and you will be left behind. Yes, it is that important and that powerful. Bill’s work is not what I am talking about here though.
I am talking about the story that lets us see you just as you are with no other purpose than to reveal yourself without an agenda, letting those think of you as they will. Of course, you are in a business relationship with your clients, employees, and colleagues alike. However, this is about your relationship with them as people, human beings, all, struggling to make sense of it all.
As I said when I talked about my brother, maybe these stories have no place in your creative business and that is okay by me. But if they do and you are willing to give a window to you through one of your stories, perhaps you and those who you share it with (and they their story — which, of course, is why they are with you in the first place) will find catharsis in the vulnerability of your found community.
My son came to me the other day (he is 12) and said, “Look Dad, now I can play my video games and have a chance to make three million dollars like the sixteen year old that just won the world-wide Fortnite competition.” I said that I would give him the three million (as if I had it to give) for him not to play. He stared at me and said, to paraphrase, “WTF!” To which, I said, “You are the truest artist I know. Every day you are drawing, acting, singing, playing your guitar, doing your origami, generally making something out of nothing. Your creativity oozes out of you (and it does). It is who you are and what you will always be. Why would I ever want you to spend your life playing a game someone else made up? You are here to create the game, not just play it.”
To which I say to all of you, please tell your story and refuse to play the game someone else created. Yes, learn the rules, understand everything about their game, then make up your own. Start with what is intoxicating to all of us – not your ability to create, but the notion that you are the embodiment of creativity. Let that be the window you share because it just is. From there, give yourself permission to bring your clients with you to wherever you vision will take both of you. Humanity, relationship and connection are the elements that define us all. Let them serve us as you, your art and your creative business help us understand what tomorrow will bring.
