Sunday Night With John: The Answer Is In The Details.
/I built a working transformer costume and I wore it to my company dinner tonight; it got a lot of laughs. #stillachild
The above statement is a typical social media post and it’s all of 116 characters long. I would have 24 more characters on twitter and probably another sentence on Facebook before people just scrolled over my post. Why am I bringing this up? Because I was once asked why I’m willing to speak in so many different places. From schools, to non-profits, colleges, churches, rehabilitation centers, conferences, and many other.
The answer is complicated but to boil it down to one, I would say, I love telling stories with a meaning behind them. Those detailed stories connect us in multiple ways. I love to tell the story about wearing my transformer costume to the company dinner. You know that already but in my attempt to get my stories out quickly in the social media world, details are left out. I think story telling in person is a lost art. Most of us have technology at our fingertips and we text moments, post about what has happened to us on one of our many social media accounts, or post on instagram without thinking about how the fine points of the experiences shaped us.
Think back to the transformer costume. Many questions came up about my post and I got lots of likes and comments. How was my costume was received? Was there a dress code I broke? Did it hurt my career for one night of laughing and pictures? I can add in the detail that during the company dinner I was able to talk to two board members who asked if I would wear my costume to their grandsons b-day parties and they handed me their business cards to follow-up. I would also like to add that when I walked in with the transformer costume on, the whole place stopped and looked at me. I heard someone say, “Some guy in what I think is a giant car/transformer costume just walked in.” My boss looks over and waves at me, and says oh, that’s just John.” The point being, the comments and likes showed me that people were interested in connecting over the particulars of creating, crafting, and then wearing a costume that grand to a company dinner.
But because I could not relay the entire story of my transformer costume wearing shenanigans in 140 characters, I could not share the details, the looks on people’s faces and the different interesting conversations I created. I could not tell the whole story. I believe that stories connect us and sharing the details of a story help to set the scene, evoke emotions and allow us to connect. Now I would like you to think about your own stories. Think about the bosses you have had, the company dinners you have attended, and about what other social situations you been in where a moment stood out. Now you, the reader, have a story to share in relation to mine and now we have a conversation and a bond over moments and details.
As a lover of storytelling, I recently attended A “The Moth” Radio event in Iowa City. The Moth is a storytelling podcast series that is performed live and then broadcast. The stories must be real and told by the people who experienced them. One of the night’s storytellers had a great quote at the end of the show; “We die twice. Once in the physical sense and once the last time our name is uttered forever.” This statement moved me. It reminded me how we keep the spirit of others alive through storytelling. Through specific storytelling we can evoke moments in people lives and connect over shared experiences.
I approach every talk with an understanding that I’m telling a particular story to get people to think, ponder, and connect over their emotions. I believe the answer is to create a focused event everywhere and anywhere that changes perspectives and impacts lives through connecting through the details of our own lives.