Updated Feb. 13: Michael Margolis has just introduced a new article, How to Brand Yourself as a Thought-Leader: Seven Must-Ask Questions, which is also the topic of a recorded telecall from Feb. 10 and a PDF of the article. Michael says of the topic: “Whether you’re an independent professional or part of a larger firm, the article will encourage you to think about your story and positioning in a fresh perspective.”

Entry by Kathy Hansen. Learn more.

Came across two good slideshows recently that illustrate two applications for storytelling.

Organizational storytelling: I don’t know how Tell Us Your Story: Cultivating an Organizational Storytelling Culture by Teresa Bailey ended up on my desktop, but there it was after I researched storytelling at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) for this entry. Although the presentation doesn’t quite stand on its own without narration, the viewer can glean solid information about how storytelling developed at JPL and how it works.

Online Storytelling in Nonprofits: I’ve written previously about Roger Burks and his campaign against what he calls “poverty porn” in favor of “humanitarian storytelling. Burks, senior writer at Mercy Corps, gives a nice presentation that illustrates how humanitarian storytelling is executed at Mercy Corps (which has more than 2,000 stories on its site), how it engages its audience, and how the approach developed after the late-2004 tsunami. It’s called Online Storytelling at Mercy Corps, and it’s embedded below. This show is easier to follow than the JPL one because it has an audio track. Burks talks about why storytelling is effective, how to choose stories, how Mercy Corps integrates storytelling into its Web site (and makes the action step — donating — more prominent), how the storytelling approach has resulted in much greater donations than similar organizations elicit, and how its latest strategy involves authentic but not necessarily polished entries on it blog, especially useful for real-time disaster coverage, as Mercy Corps is currently providing about Haiti.

Entry by Kathy Hansen. Learn more.

By way of an online discussion group, my friend Stephanie West Allen alerted me to an unusual press release written as a story.

It’s the story of an attorney who is taking down her shingle to become a life and executive coach. There’s more to it; as the press release notes, it’s “a story that involves fleeing from another country, working for the CIA, and being involved in a shooting, not to mention short appearances by the then President of the United States, several Foreign Consulates, and a stuffed animal named Batts Maroo.”

I once made quite a practice of analyzing press releases when I was an editor who reviewed dozens of these documents daily. I developed a nice set of guidelines for how not to write a press release based on the mistakes I typically saw. I put on my editor’s hat to determine whether this press release would intrigue me and inspire me to run the story the release represents (while some publications print releases verbatim, most publications would either edit the release or report their own story using the release as a springboard). Here are my thoughts:

• The story aspect of the release is definitely intriguing. The release uses the word “story” numerous times. Most press releases announcing a new business give a dry, resume-like recitation of the entrepreneur’s background and qualifications.
• The release is long — 4 pages (!) when printed as a PDF. Many editors would be daunted by its length and wouldn’t have time to read the whole thing. But they might be intrigued enough by the story aspect to at least put it aside for future consideration.
• The subject, whose name is Sonia Gallagher, makes some revelations that are unusually personal for a press release — that she grew up in a abusive household, that she experienced “demons” and depression, her engagement and wedding, and being sued by one of her law clients. Would an editor be turned off by these intimate details — or intrigued enough to want to learn more? Depends on the editor.

At the very least, this press release is attention-getting, which cannot be a bad thing when you seek publicity. Storied press releases may have great potential.

Entry by Kathy Hansen. Learn more.

Lou Hoffman, president and CEO of The Hoffman Agency, writes about storytelling as seen through a business prism in his blog Ishmael’s Corner.

He has identified his top 10 storytelling-related blog posts of 2009 in two parts:

• Part I
• Part II

Entry by Kathy Hansen. Learn more.

Michael Margolis submitted the following as a comment to yesterday’s entry, but since comments aren’t very prominent here, I’ve made his announcement its own entry:

As a holiday gift, starting today, I’m releasing a free digital download copy of my storytelling manifesto,Believe Me. Anybody on my lists will get the announcement.

It’s also available to anyone else who’s interested. You just need to visit the book’s Web site to get your free copy.

Anyone can also tweet about it; just mention @getstoried and/or #bigstory.

Entry by Kathy Hansen. Learn more.

I have evangelized about personal branding for a number of years, including here on A Storied Career.

Deep in my core, I believe in the concept of personal branding.

But I admit to some doubt and cynicism.

Finally someone else has expressed similar cynicism. Carlos Miceli wrote recently on the Brazen Careerist blog that he no longer cares about personal branding for these reasons:

1. It makes you afraid. …
2. It has made us so calculated, that I wonder how many people are able to live up to their online personas. …

I understand these concerns. Every time I post a status update, I have to think about all my various social-media contacts and whether any would be offended or whether my words are consistent with my “brand” or whether my various audiences will think I’m a moron.

But I have other concerns. Personal branding often seems like a Flavor of the Month kind of concept — a fad or trend that careerists are urged to devote time and energy to. I often have the sense that in a few years, no one will be talking about personal branding; they’ll be talking about the next thing we’re supposed to put time and energy into.

I’m also flummoxed by the fact that there’s no one consistent rubric for developing and communicating one’s brand. Everyone who touts personal branding has his or her own formula, approach, or process for determining one’s brand.

Your personal brand is supposed to be about your authenticity, but like Miceli, I often think that worrying about staying “on-brand” and saying the wrong thing makes us inauthentic. Miceli writes: “Once I started not worrying about the repercussion of every word I said online, I truly connected at an emotional level with others. Once I embraced my personality, I strengthened the connections that mattered and cut ties with those that didn’t.”

And what does all this have to do with storytelling? Personal brands are synonymous with — or at least spring from — our stories. In my book, Tell Me About Yourself, I write about developing a personal-branding statement backed by a story.

I have a feeling that personal storytelling that expresses our authentic selves may pass the test of time more than “personal branding” will.

Entry by Kathy Hansen. Learn more.

Today, I conclude my series of three questions I asked of Michael Margolis, author of the new book, Believe Me: Why Your Vision, Brand, and Leadership Need a Bigger Story (see yesterday’s entry and Friday’s.) Michael writes that the Believe Me manifesto is just the beginning. “Follow-up books will be more practical, with frameworks, case studies, and a how-to driven approach,” he writes toward the end of Believe Me. “I am eager to explore more deeply the topics of 1) brand storytelling, 2) social innovation stories, and 3) the stories every entrepreneur must tell.”

I asked him to elaborate on his planned books:

Here’s my confession, I’ve always clearly envisioned writing at least 7 or 10 books in my lifetime (humble ambitions, right?). Yet, every time I’d sit down to write a book, all 7 to 10 books would show up at once, like competing voices arguing in my head. So writing was a pretty frustrating experience — with plenty of false starts over the years. In the case of Believe Me, I wrote the book in just 90-days (!) from the first word on paper to the “publisher’s proof” in hand. Clearly, technology (and a little elbow grease) is a game-changer, profoundly changing how we produce and consume stories today. I skipped working on my tan this summer, and instead produced a book. Joking aside, I’m in the midst of developing the material for the next four books. I’ve launched a series of free/paid tele-classes, new workshop offerings, and putting the finishing touches on a 6-month executive-education program called High Stakes Storytelling. I share all of this, because these current activities will form the basis of my next books — and will take a more practical, hands-on approach — guiding readers through a variety of real-world scenarios and business applications. I haven’t yet decided which of the four books comes out first, but the topics I’ll be covering in more depth include brand storytelling, entrepreneurial narratives, social media storytelling, and storytelling for social change. In essence, helping to map out the new paradigm of business especially for society’s change-makers, innovators, and pioneers.

Entry by Kathy Hansen. Learn more.