See a photo of Doug, his bio, Part 1 of this Q&A,Part 2, Part 3, and Part 4.

Q&A with Doug Rice, Question 5:

Q: How important is it to you and your work to function within the framework of a particular definition of “story?” (i.e., What is a story?) What definition do you espouse?

A: A story in general can be defined as an account of events in the lives of characters — real or imagined. I think it’s very important, though, to understand a particular definition of story in the context of business. Many people rightly have ethical reservations about the term when they equate it to lying or “making something up.” When I help my clients with their stories, I am not helping them create works of fiction. I am helping them frame who they really are and share it with the world. It’s more like a memoir. While some level of interpretation is necessarily involved, the point is to convey their true identities — not to create fairy tales.

Another distinction I would like to make is between discovering the story, crafting the story and telling the story. Whether the entity be an individual or an organization, the story itself is not only something that is created; it is also something that is revealed. I start the process with my clients by helping them understand their back stories — why they are in business, what they sell, who they serve, how they operate, and their industrial settings. What is in the past is something to discover and not something to construct. I would never ever encourage a client to manufacturer a history that isn’t there.

But the past isn’t the only part of framing the story. For a business, each and every decision shapes the future story. The story is an eternal work-in-progress. The present is the point at which you transition from discovering the story to creating it. The past is the past. It cannot be changed. But, going forward, the person or organization can always choose a better story. Crafting the story has to do with deciding what comes next.

The final component of a business’s story is actually telling the story. In business, this is called marketing. It’s the person or organization sharing what it has learned from its discoveries and what it intends from its creations. It is only lying if it is inconsistent with the business’s history or plans for the future. Otherwise, it is a wonderful thing to share a valuable story. That’s what I help my clients do.

Entry by Kathy Hansen. Learn more.

See a photo of Doug, his bio, Part 1 of this Q&A,Part 2, and Part 3.

Q&A with Doug Rice, Question 4:

Q: Watch the TED Talk by Tyler Cowen about the trouble with stories and react to what the speaker says are the problems with stories — especially as it relates to your mini eBook, An Introduction to Storytelling in the 21st Century: A Resource for Small Business Owners and Independent Professionals [Editor’s note: Visitors to the preceding link can get Doug’s ebook by subscribing to his newsletter.] The speaker would probably characterize the kind of storytelling you discuss in your ebook as manipulation. How would you counter that characterization?

A: I highly respect Tyler Cowen as an economist (my undergrad is in economics) and agree with much of what he has written. However, I find his arguments against storytelling to be perplexing. Storytelling is inescapable; it is hardwired into the way we think. Even if we think we are making rational decisions, those decisions are based stories we are telling ourselves. A judgment is merely a story about the facts that we’ve gathered.

To characterize storytelling as manipulative, though, would depend on the definition of manipulation. If any attempt at persuasion is considered manipulation, then I would have to agree that it is manipulative. But, given this definition, I also believe that it is impossible for human beings to communicate with one another at all without being manipulative. Everything we say to each other contains some element of “spin” in that we are expressing our judgments about what we are speaking. But there is nothing wrong with that. It’s just the way we are.

Literally, to manipulate is to alter an outcome. But I think that most of us understand it as lying or cheating in order to alter an outcome. Merely trying to persuade another is not something we typically view as manipulative. It’s tricking them that we frown upon. Tyler Cowen mentions companies that use slick advertising to trick us into buy things that aren’t what they’re cracked up to be. I do not condone this kind of storytelling.

At the same time, I don’t believe that this is the only kind of storytelling there is. I believe there are companies out there that take such pride in what they do that the advertising is merely descriptive of the value they have to offer. Do they want customers to buy the products? Absolutely! But, are they lying to get the sales? Absolutely not! Just as there is a distinction between fiction and non-fiction in the world of literature, storytelling for business can be either a lie or a truth. I think businesses can benefit greatly from a little more truth in their stories.

Entry by Kathy Hansen. Learn more.

See a photo of Doug, his bio, Part 1 of this Q&A, and Part 2.

Q&A with Doug Rice, Question 3:

Q: Who has been most influential to you in your story work and why?

A: Two names come to mind. The first is Seth Godin [pictured at right]. Seth is the artist of the marketing world. He actively promotes concepts in business that thinkers before him would consider too abstract but are now considered vital to business success: dialogue with customers (Permission Marketing), storytelling (All Marketers Tell Stories), non-conformity (Purple Cow), employee empowerment (Linchpin), and risky innovation (Poke the Box). I’ve learned more from Seth about helping my clients tell their stories than I have from all other thinkers combined. If you haven’t read anything by Seth Godin, regardless of what industry you are in, read it now. It will revolutionize your perspective.

The second thinker that has influenced me in storytelling is Anthony Iannarino [pictured at left], sales superstar and author of The Sales Blog. The vast majority of my digital network can be attributed to referrals from Anthony, and he has taught me the power of the Internet as a platform for storytelling. He is a world-renowned speaker and sales trainer with all of his businesses coming to him as a result of his blog. He is a testament to the fact that, if you have a powerful story to tell, there are people out there that can benefit from it. I learn from Anthony daily and use him as an example for all of my clients of what can be accomplished through the power of the Web.

Entry by Kathy Hansen. Learn more.

A convergence of three recent articles tickles my fascination with differences in how we tell our stories in the virtual world vs. “in real life.”

In one of the posts (which is referenced in the second one), R.I.P. Personal Branding, Olivier Blanchard expresses a refreshing, iconoclastic view in a careers sector that has been dominated by the you-must-have-a-personal-brand edict for the past several years:

People are people. They aren’t brands. When people become “brands,” they stop being people and become one of three things: vessels for cultural archetypes, characters in a narrative, or products. … Can you realistically remain “authentic” and real once you have surrendered yourself to a process whose ultimate aim is to drive a business agenda?

I have long shared this cynicism about personal branding. “Is there really any value,” Blanchard continues, “to turning yourself into a character or a product instead of just being… well, who you are?” And finally, scathingly: “You know what we used to call people with ‘personal brands’ before the term was coined? Fakes.”

In Is Your Personal Brand Fake?, inspired in part by Blanchard’s post, my colleague Barbara Safani seems to take the view that personal branding is OK as long as it’s not fake. For example, the identity — or brand — she projects on Facebook, she contends, is authentically her:

People who friend me on Facebook see the gray. Sure, they get job search advice, links to great articles and resources, and motivating success stories about my clients and all of this helps build their confidence in me as a professional. But they also see what types of things I am interested in and they get a feel for who I am as a New Yorker, a mother, a daughter, a friend. And if they dig deeper they will figure out that I love dark chocolate, running in Central Park, and high-heeled shoes. They get the panoramic view of me rather than just the professional headline. People want to hire people that they relate to and connect with.

Barb contrasts the projection of one’s personal brand on Facebook with that on LinkedIn, which she implies may be “boring, one-dimensional and not believable … [j]ust like many of the LinkedIn profile headlines I read…Visionary CEO…Dynamic Marketing Executive, Results-Oriented Operations Manager…”

She’s saying, I believe, that it’s possible to express an authentic brand but easier (or perhaps, more expected) to do so in some online venues than in others.

According to the third post, we do authentically express our real selves in social media, especially on Facebook. In Study: Your Facebook Personality Is The Real You, Alicia Eler reports on an academic paper revealing results of two research studies that conclude “Facebook users are no different online than they are offline.”

It’s not hard to find flaws in the studies. One suggests that the number of one’s Facebook friends correlates with extroversion. I have a higher than average (130 friends, according to Facebook’s stats) number of friends, but I attribute that at least in part to the fact that I have been on Facebook longer than many people — since 2005, when only people with .edu email addresses could belong.

Still, I agree, like Barb Safani, that what you see of me on Facebook is pretty much authentically me. One exception is politics. I hold strong political feelings, “feelings” being the operative word. I expend a lot of time and energy trying to avoid political punditry because it makes my blood boil. Similarly, I avoid engaging politically in social media because I’m too emotional about it to make rational arguments. This avoidance is admittedly difficult in an election year. But I digress …

To avoid fakery in the way we project ourselves — whether online or in real life — we need to think in terms not of personal branding but of personal storytelling. We have amazing tools to do that these days. Blanchard writes, for example:

If I have learned anything from Facebook’s new Timeline feature, it’s this: It’s fun to be yourself. It’s easy to forget that, especially when the “personal branding” industry would have you shift your focus away from the little flaws that make you… well, you.

Ask yourself if you are authentically telling your story in all your interactions and look at the differences in how you tell it from venue to venue.

Entry by Kathy Hansen. Learn more.

See a photo of Doug, his bio, and Part 1 of this Q&A.

Q&A with Doug Rice, Question 2:

Q: Your Website includes the acronym “T.R.U.E. Stories.” Can you elaborate on that concept?

A: The acronym is my philosophy for successful business storytelling. I chose the word, “true,” because I wanted to convey the idea of a compelling story being meaningful. I distinguish between truth and fact in that truth actually matters to us where as facts may or may not be relevant. The acronym lists the four components of stories that matter. A “true” story must be: trustworthy, relevant, unique, and enduring. If these qualities are present in the story that is told, it is infinitely more likely to be successful. I use this acronym as a measuring stick for success with my clients.

A trustworthy story is one that is credible and consistent. A business can have “holes” in its story just like a film can and it takes away from the audience’s ability to believe. A relevant story is one that is focused on the audience. The customer must be able to identify and empathize with the story the business is telling. A unique story is one that is different from the others. An organization or person that is not differentiated becomes a commodity, and no one likes clichés. Finally, an enduring story is one that creates a legacy. It is memorable enough to withstand the test of time and find a permanent spot in the audience’s mind.

Entry by Kathy Hansen. Learn more.

It’s a great treat to feature someone in this Q&A series who is just starting out in the story field. Doug Rice launched his blog and business, Small Business Storyteller, just a few months ago. This Q&A will run over the next five days.

Bio: Doug Rice is the founder of Small Business Storyteller, an Internet marketing company dedicated to helping independent professionals develop their personal and professional brands via the Web. Currently, he offers a variety of free content for the general public, including a blog, a monthly newsletter (free eBook for signing up), and a small-business article reading schedule. All of this information is available on his Small Business Storyteller website.

Q&A with Doug Rice, Question 1:

Q: How did you initially become involved with story/storytelling/ narrative? What attracted you to this field? What do you love about it?

A: I’ve been a storyteller for as long as I can remember. Growing up, I wrote poetry, short stories, and eventually a novel (unpublished). Narrative has simply always been the most poignant metaphor for describing life. Sure, life is like a river. Life is like a song. Life is like a box of chocolates. But life is a story. It has a beginning, has an end, and is filled with characters in between.

Professionally, I kind of fell into storytelling. I would love to create an intricately compelling narrative about how I came to use this concept but, truth be told, I just picked it. I had been doing Internet marketing for a couple of years and decided I wanted to go out on my own. I started to think about what exactly I was trying to accomplish and who I was trying to do it for, and I named my business after the conclusion to my question. I was trying to help small businesses. I would help them by assisting them in telling their stories. Thus, I created Small Business Storyteller.

Entry by Kathy Hansen. Learn more.

Your Film Festival is billed as a Global Search for the World’s Best Storytellers. The contest seeks short, story-driven videos.

Some details from the site:

15 minutes to tell a story. Millions of people to watch it. $500,000 to make a new one for the world to see.

This is Your Film Festival. You have until March 31st to submit a short, story-driven video. There’s no entry fee. It can be any format — short film, web-series episode, TV pilot — and any genre. In June, audiences around the world will vote, sending 10 deserving storytellers to open he 2012 Venice Film Festival where a Grand Prize Winner will be be rewarded with a $500,000 grant to create a new work, produced by Ridley Scott and his world class team.

Any format, style and genre is welcome, so long as it’s story-driven. It can be a short film, the first episode of a web series, or whatever else qualifies as a story-driven video. Fiction narratives and non-fiction documentaries are welcome.

Entry by Kathy Hansen. Learn more.

See a photo of Jim, his bio, Part 1 of this Q&A, Part 2, Part 3, and Part 4.

Q&A with Jim Signorelli, Question 6:

Q: If you could share just one piece of advice or wisdom about story/storytelling/ narrative with readers, what would it be?

A: My one piece of advice, whether it relates to story, storytelling, or narrative is to be true.

I love the answer that Stephen King gave when he was asked to critique someone’s story. “No, it’s not a good story,” he said. “Its author was too busy listening to other voices as closely as he should have to the one coming from the inside.”

For brands this means to avoid manufacturing an image. Rather it means to find and amplify values and beliefs that already exist. For storywriters, being true means writing from one’s own voice as opposed to all those voices that direct us to be something we think audiences want. To some this may sound self-centered. But to me there is nothing stronger than one’s true convictions. Easier said than done. It not only takes courage, but it takes constant introspection and relentless honesty. And it always puts the appreciation for meaning over money.

Over and out.

Entry by Kathy Hansen. Learn more.

See a photo of Jim, his bio, Part 1 of this Q&A, Part 2, and Part 3.

Q&A with Jim Signorelli, Questions 4 and 5:

Q: What has surprised you most in your work with story?

A: Of all your questions, this one can be answered most simply: Everything and nothing.

First the everything part: Writers like Kendall Haven, Annette Simmons, Doug Lipman, Stephen Denning, and last but not least, Robert McKee, helped me to understand and fully appreciate the power of a communication tool that I’m regularly exposed to while awake and yes, even while dreaming. Their works have given me a whole new perspective on human communication in general and persuasion in particular. Theirs has been a gift that continues to excite me about the value of authenticity in human exchange and how I can better contribute to it.

The nothing part stems from the lack of awareness and appreciation for story’s power in my chosen profession. However, I can’t allow myself to get too frustrated when I’m barraged with brag and boast, meaningless advertising. After all, it took a few epiphanies for me to give up my old ways. And furthermore, I’m optimistic. Soon I think advertising, as we know it, will change. Bob Garfield and Doug Levy wrote a groundbreaking article that appeared in AdAge titled The Dawn of the Relationship Era in Marketing. This article put a new stake in the ground for the advertising profession. It suggests that the old days of telling and directing consumers to think one way about their brands is giving way to the need for building relationships with consumers that are founded in shared values and earned trust. I am in heated agreement with these guys.

Telling must eventually give way to showing. And we the persuaders as well as those we set out to persuade will all be better for it.

Q: Watch the TED Talk by Tyler Cowen about the trouble with stories and react to what Cowen says are the problems with stories.

A: Yes, many who know about my interest in stories have sent me this video. I’ve had plenty of time to watch and study it.

Tyler Cowen’s TED speech has been the subject of a great deal of criticism. The most vociferous of the naysayers are wondering why Cowen uses stories to talk about why we should be suspicious of stories. Others are complaining that in his warnings about the ill effects of stories, he offers no remedy. And still others state that until Tyler Cowen can define what he means by stories, he’s hardly worth all the attention we’re giving him.

I subscribe to all three points of view.

Entry by Kathy Hansen. Learn more.

When I was teaching, I was so appalled at the prices of college textbooks that I used an assortment of popular-press books instead of texts.

I knew from Walter Isaacson’s bio of Steve Jobs that Jobs, too, was appalled, and one of the next things on his agenda was to revolutionize textbook publishing the way he revolutionized the recording industry.

With the announcement today of the (free!) iBooks Author app, the fulfillment of that part of Jobs’s legacy has begun. And as soon as I heard it, I knew I wanted to organize a crowdsourced (and probably peer-reviewed) textbook on applied storytelling, focusing especially on organizational/business narrative and brand storytelling.

How awesome would it be if some of the luminaries of storytelling each contributed a chapter to such a textbook?

Stay tuned for more on this idea as it burbles through my brain. You might just be receiving a Request for Proposal soon.

Entry by Kathy Hansen. Learn more.

See a photo of Jim, his bio, Part 1 of this Q&A, and Part 2.

Q&A with Jim Signorelli, Question 3:

Q: You use a slightly modified version of Kendall Haven’s story definition (the one that also opened my eyes). How did you arrive at that one, and how important do you think it is to define story?

A: Let me say up front that I will be forever thankful for Kendall Haven and his work. Storytellers, writers, teachers, leaders and now branding specialists owe him a huge debt of gratitude.

Anyone familiar with Kendall Haven knows that he is a NASA scientist turned story theorist. In his seminal work Story Proof, he details his 10-year quest to prove the power of story as a learning tool. He amasses some 300+ studies that had been conducted prior to his writing. For me, the biggest take away was his insightful working definition of what a story is. tory is a word that we use very casually. But try to define it in a way that withstands debate? Hard to do.

Kendall pokes holes in many of the definitions that are often given for story, i.e., the very popular “something that has a beginning, middle and an end.” As he points out, this also defines a peanut butter and jelly sandwich. After taking a few stabs at a workable definition, Haven arrives at a brilliantly simple definition for story that stands up to the hard questions: “A story consists of a character overcoming an obstacle to achieve some goal.”

“Of course,” I thought.

But as I began to work with that definition, I was faced with a slight problem. It was with the words “overcoming an obstacle “that are part of Kendall’s definition. As I later discussed with him, the word “overcoming” suggests a positive outcome. Sometimes what makes a story meaningful is the fact that the character does not overcome his or her obstacle. Shakespeare called these tragedies. So, and with limitless respect for Haven, I took the liberty of tweaking his definition. I replaced the word overcoming with the words “dealing with.” This just seems to fit better for me.

To an outsider my quibble may seem like dancing on the head of a pin. But if I was going to construct a planning model based on story structure, I had to have a definition that worked in the absolute. With this slight change in wording, it did. And regardless of the tweak, Kendall has graciously offered up a wonderful forward to my book.

Entry by Kathy Hansen. Learn more.

See a photo of Jim, his bio, and Part 1 of this Q&A.

Q&A with Jim Signorelli, Question 2:

Q: What inspired you to write your book, Storybranding: Creating Standout Brands Through the Power of Story, especially at a time when books about storytelling in business and branding are proliferating? What makes your message unique?

A: As I began to read about stories, my fascination with them snowballed into an avalanche. My questions found answers that raised more questions. Intuitively I knew that brands could benefit from story, but articulating how became a major challenge. It took three years of starting and stopping, backing and forthing, and a lot of paper. How I finally got to something I was satisfied with will also address the other part of your question, as your observation is astute. With so much buzz about storytelling in business and branding, any insights I might be able to offer risked a welcome similar to one given the newest passenger on a crowded bus.

Try as I did, using storytelling as an advertising technique was often a force-fit. Everything was starting to look and sound like a clichéd testimonial, i.e., one day John had a problem (dramatize problem) and found the solution (big smile goes here) with brand XYZ. Logo/Tag line. Music up and out. The End.

After much trial, and mostly error, I came very close to giving up. Reluctantly, I had to admit to the fact that storytelling, albeit a powerful technique for speakers, salespeople, leaders or anyone engaged in persuasion, was not workable in the various constraining forms of the media we typically employ. On the other hand, there could be no denying that story’s purpose was something worth emulating. It was the lightning I needed to bottle.

Then, I was introduced to Kendall Haven’s book Story Proof, the outcome of some 10 years of research on what stories are and how they are structured. Borrowing from Haven’s model of story, I crafted something similar for brands while casting them as heroes trying to overcome obstacles in its quest to establish a relationship with prospects.

Rather than a messaging technique, I had arrived at a strategic-planning technique, one that requires looking beyond what we call their “outer layers” or their functional advantages and benefits — and one that includes a clear understanding for what the brand stands for and how it can better align its unique worldview with targeted prospects. Besides requiring a high degree of empathy for the prospect, staging the brand as a story character helps identify the brand’s underlying beliefs and values, or the brand’s “cause” beyond its profit motive. Applying what we know about our interactions with people, shared beliefs and values contribute greatly to reasons we form and maintain certain relationships.

So you see, StoryBranding is not just another trumpet on the storytelling bandwagon. In fact, StoryBranding is very different from storytelling. Rather it defines both an approach and a process for giving brands the kind of meaning that resonates with prospects. And by doing so, it displaces advertising’s natural inclination to hit the prospect over the head with the brand’s puffed up image of itself.

Why it became a book finds reason in the fact that anything less would have given the subject short shrift. Plus, after three years, I had to do something useful with all that paper.

[Editor’s note: You can download an excerpt from StoryBranding here.]

Entry by Kathy Hansen. Learn more.

I first encountered Jim Signorelli through my Scoop.it organizational storytelling curation and having been following him in several, social-media venues. I’m excited about his new book, StoryBranding. This Q&A will run over the next six days.

Bio: [in his own words, from his LinkedIn profile]: I’ve always had a passion for advertising. My favorite class in grade school was “show and tell.” As a paperboy, I would add subscribers by copy testing leaflets (“If you buy from me, I promise not to throw your paper in the bushes,” out pulled “You need the news, I need the money.”)

After receiving both a B.A. and M.A. in advertising from Michigan State University, I started my adult career in advertising in nearby Chicago. I later worked in New York, Los Angeles, and Baltimore, amassing experience on a wide variety of major accounts like Citibank, Kraft Foods, Burger King, General Electric, Toshiba, Arby’s, and many others.

In 1999 I started my own agency back in Chicago that today goes by the name esw StoryLab. Our agency has been named to the Inc. 5000 list of fastest growing independent companies in the U.S., three years straight. In that time I became a story buff, as I set out to understand why stories are so powerful and how advertising can benefit from the way they are structured. My book, StoryBranding: Creating Stand Out Brands Through the Power of Story, is the culmination of three years of research on the subject.

When I’m not working or telling a story, I am an avid golfer, tennis player, drummer. And my weirdness finds its expression in a prized Pez collection. I live with my lovely wife Joan in Evanston, Illinois.

Q&A with Jim Signorelli, Question 1:

Q: How did you initially become involved with story/storytelling/ narrative? What attracted you to this field? What do you love about it?

A: I’m asked this question a lot. I’ve often thought it would be wonderful if I could offer up an awe-inspiring story about that big moment when I realized how branding can benefit from the power of story. There were actually many Aha! moments along the route to completing this book, and their effects were cumulative. I talk about some of those in the book, but I can tell you about one of them here.

A few years back, I was observing my two young grandchildren as they were watching a TV cartoon show. I was interested in seeing what they were going to do when the commercials came on. Would they remain attentive? Start talking to each other? Yell out that they wanted what was being advertised?

They both remained engaged through the first commercial shown. Upon hearing the commercial’s tag line, “we love to make you smile,” the youngest turned to her older brother and asked, “why do they say that they’ll make me smile? They don’t make me smile.”

Her brother responded with his now typical boy-I-got one- dumb-sister look and said, “that’s ‘cause it’s advertising stupid.”

This experience raised two questions. First, if little kids disregard advertising promises, how must adults? And second, having spent my entire academic and professional career studying advertising, why haven’t I asked this question sooner?

I’m not good company when it comes to watching TV. While my wife will want to fast forward through the commercials, I’ll want to hit replay. The experience with my grandkids made things worse as it gave me something else to critique. I now started to see that many ads were like the ad they commented on, puffed up, self-adulating statements about what one should expect from the brand being advertised. It’s what we’ve become used to and expect from a lot of advertising, regardless of how little proof there often is for its claims.

Eventually, and in search of a solution, I came around to see how the power of story could help solve this problem. Stories are one of the most persuasive tools in our communications arsenal. I’m sure this needs no explanation to readers of your blog. There are many reasons for this, but for me, the biggest, most important one is that, unlike outward efforts to sell something, stories persuade without getting in their own way. They resort to pulling influence rather than pushing it. They welcome us to decide for ourselves what’s being said without trying to force feed us opinions. Unlike advertising, with all their hype that we have grown to resist, stories can powerfully resonate with what we already believe is true. And it was this realization that influenced my desire to deconstruct stories; one that ultimately revealed a way in which brands could benefit from story’s influential power.

Entry by Kathy Hansen. Learn more.

Recently, in a LinkedIn group to which I belong, a member cited his “favorite LinkedIn profile of all time.” The profile belongs to Orrin “Checkmate” Hudson, who uses chess to turn around troubled kids, and it does the best job I’ve ever seen of using a LinkedIn profile as a platform to tell a story. And not just a story, but a compelling, inspiring story. Here is most of it:

I grew up in a tough housing project in Birmingham, AL, in the 1980s, never far from gangs, drugs, and criminal activity. Fortunately for me, I met an exceptional teacher who put me on the right path.

After 6 years as an Alabama State Trooper, I thought I’d seen some worst possible examples of human behavior. Then one night in May, 2004, the TV showed how 2 teenagers murdered 5 teenaged employees of a Wendy’s in far-away Queens, NY. Kids killing kids for money — cold blooded, execution style, no value for life — all for a lousy $2400.

Evil prevails when good people do nothing. The TV images were so awful I couldn’t sleep that night. I thought back to my own youth — growing up in a family of 13 kids — and how close I came to landing in jail for stealing inner tubes off truck tires. But an English teacher got me interested in the game of chess. He turned me around.

Watching the aftermath of a mass murder in Queens was my personal wake-up call. I decided to follow the example of my own teacher and use chess to turn around troubled kids. Nine months later I sold my business — auto sales and repairs — and launched BeSomeone.org. As of 2012, we’ve helped build the character of about 25,000 young people — our goal is one million — to inspire them through the game of chess.

The last time I wrote about LinkedIn profiles, I noted that one of the difficulties of deploying stories in profiles is that, like resumes, the profiles are usually constructed in reverse-chronological order. Granted, it appears that Hudson doesn’t seek a job; his objective seems to be to raise awareness for his organization and drive visitors to its Web site. As such, he perhaps has more latitude with the chronology of his profile.

LinkedIn profiles are usually presented in reverse-chronological order because the user wants the audience to see the most recent — and usually most relevant — career activity first. In promoting his organization, Hudson has less of a need to list the most recent first. In fact, his story does not follow a linear course. His profile is far more engaging for drawing the reader in with the challenge of his growing-up years. He then skips way ahead to a more recent career incarnation and how a classic inciting incident became the turning point that led to launching his organization.

In between the incident and describing founding the organization, he flashes back to the teacher that turned him around as a youth by sparking his interest in chess.

Skipped in the tale is how he went from being an Alabama State Trooper to owning an auto sales and repair business — but it hardly matters because the reader is so immersed in his tale.

Would a chronological — but not necessarily linear — story work in a job-seeker’s LinkedIn profile? Maybe. It helps to have a dramatic, turning-point inciting incident around which to spin the story. It also helps to write as well as Hudson does. At the very least, Hudson’s profile has opened my eyes to the story possibilities in LinkedIn profiles.

Entry by Kathy Hansen. Learn more.

Here’s a little widget with the tweets of all the story folks I follow on Twitter on my @AStoriedCareer account. Sometimes you won’t see it because it reaches a “Twitter API connection limit” and has to reset.

To see tweets from this list of storytelling practitioners in another format, check out the “daily newspaper” version, created on paper.li.

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Entry by Kathy Hansen. Learn more.