IN A MESSY WORLD, GOOD STORIES MATTER
MASTERCLASS
STORYTELLING FOR STORYTELLERS
Social Impact Storytelling for Storytellers (SISfS) is a unique opportunity to learn from long-time storytellers, Earl Bridges and Craig Martin. These hosts of the public television show The Good Road take you through a step-by-step process for generating stories that drive awareness and action. SISfS is especially suited for professional communicators, marketing leads and storytellers. Through our work with dozens of clients, researching our books, and teaching more than 10,000 people how to tell great stories, we have developed this class to give you the tools and training you need to succeed at storytelling.
5 live lessons | 2 hours each
MEET YOUR INSTRUCTORS
CRAIG
MARTIN
Award-winning communications director and marketing strategist with extensive hands-on experience in visual storytelling. Acclaimed digital media and web strategist with twenty-two years of experience traveling to work in more than 80 countries, handling assignments requiring, video, writing and creative vision.
EARL
BRIDGES
I coined the term "Philanthropologist" to describe my role. As a TV host, I get to travel the world and introduce audiences to the inspiring people who look at the world's most impossibly hard problems with an attitude, "I can help".
Fixing the world's most pressing problems requires talent, teamwork, time and a pretty optimistic mindset. So I've chosen to cast my lot with brave technologists, passionate philanthropists, compelling storytellers and other like-minded folks who stir me to dream bigger, work smarter, engage more deeply, and live more intentionally.
Modules
01
STORY SELECTION
02
STORY DESIGN
03
STORY BANK
04
STORY MARKETING
05
STORY SUCCESS
01: STORY SELECTION
Wednesday
April 8th
10:00 am EST
Life mantra
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Culture change happens only if people consume your story
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Number of consumers is your best indicator of whether you can affect culture change*
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Financial and strategic outcomes are the best indicator of how many people consumed your story
What makes a good story
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Traditional story foundations; character development, plot development, crisis and resolution
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Strong characters; batman versus superman*
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Strong visual storytelling even if there aren’t visuals
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Authenticity*
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Success of doc and reality TV is that people like real stories that are authentic
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02: STORY DESIGN
Wednesday
April 15th
10:00 am EST
Stories that effectively drive action on behalf of social impact issues--whether that action be to increase donations, activate partnerships, advocate for legislation, or motivate volunteers--must be designed with purpose and emotion. They cannot be haphazard. Students will gain practical hands-on knowledge as to how to strategically define the purpose of stories they wish to create that align with the overall objectives of their social impact organization or setting. They will also learn and evaluate the five essential building blocks of effective social impact stories--character, trajectory, authenticity, action-oriented emotions, and a hook--by analyzing practical examples from nonprofits, responsible businesses, and social movements.
03: STORY BANK
Wednesday
April 22nd
10:00 am EST
Utilizing knowledge gained in the previous two courses, students will create a custom story portfolio in this course. They will identify and develop four strategic types of social impact stories: personal, organizational, symbolic and issue specific. While creating their portfolio, students will receive one-on-one advising from the instructor and learn from the experiences of peers within the cohort by participating in review sessions.
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Identify types of stories
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Build a story from the organizational point of view
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Compose a story based on a physical object that represents a social impact topic
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Develop a personal story
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Design a story that frames a topic within the social impact sector in a new way
04: STORY DISTRIBUTION
Wednesday
April 29th
10:00 am EST
Audience
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Demographics: who is consuming what and how are they consuming it
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Length and pacing (a bored audience is an un-engaged audience)*
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Display of those stories (mobile, TV, theatrical, podcasts)
Platforms and devices
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Traditional devices; written word, audio, video, photography
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The value of each
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Overview of outlets for each; print, blogs, podcasts, YouTube, theatrical, social media, books
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New technologies; understanding VR and AR*
05: STORY SUCCESS
Wednesday
May 6th
10:00 am EST
Don’t make the market come to you, go to the market*
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Assimilating content into popular media versus your website
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Strategies of bringing them back to your domain (website, etc.)
Social media
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Did they read, watch or experience your story
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Tracking the data
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Analyzing the effectiveness
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True engagement vs passive consumption*
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Learning from your mistakes