The same holds true in telling stories. Especially in the nonprofit world. We’re all so bombarded with requests for our attention, we tend to zone out the long and involved. If you’re asking for my money or my time, please, get to the point.

That is exactly the point of the second annual Fast Pitch event produced by Social Venture Partners AZ. SVPAZ is now taking applications from local nonprofits that would like to compete for tens of thousands of dollars in funding. If your organization is fortunate to make the final eight, you will compete onstage at the Tempe Center for the Arts on March 6, 2012, to become the next SVPAZ investee.

All you have to do is tell your story in less then three minutes. That’s what P.O.P.S.I.C.L.E. Center did earlier this year to win the inaugural Fast Pitch. Here’s their story, as well as the other seven finalists.

Now, we’d like to hear yours. The deadline for registration is October 31, 2011. Register Now!

The Power of Story Part II: “Social Media and the Storyteller” from ParkHowell.com on Vimeo.

Do you feel cornered by social media? “Like” this. Tweet that. Friend me. Poke you. Give me some link love-in’. It seems the virtual online world is more frightening than the real one.

These were just some of the social media fears and myths we explored during the Power of Story training at Forever Living Product’s International Super Rally in Washington DC. The first part of the training focused on how to craft and tell a compelling story to increase the success of sales and marketing. You can view the video and Keynote presentation on how to structure your 9 beats of story here.

Once we outlined the structure of every great tale, we did a social media training on how to share your story with the world. We had to be very visual in our presentation, because I was in front of over 3,500 distributors from more than 140 countries.  Even though it was translated in 10 languages simultaneously, much of the meaning in one’s words can get lost in, well, translation.

Your social media command centter

Instead of a PowerPoint filled with typical social media icons and website captures, we commissioned illustrations from the remarkable French artist (He lives in Phoenix), Christophe Jeunot. He captured the character of each social media channel we covered in a single frame using the same hero character we featured in Part I of our Power of Story training.

We began by describing a social media command center that includes your website/blog. All other social media channels feed into and broadcast out of this command center. We then separated each channel by one of two functions: Utility or Promotion?

Utility Channels

Feature your story on YouTube.

Channels like YouTube, Flickr, and SlideShare are used to capture, archive, embed and share video, photos and PowerPoint presentations. They have online communities, but I really use them more for the utility of organizing and embedding different kinds of audio/visual content into my blog, as well as increasing the search engine optimization (SEO) of my site.

Promtional Channels

I view the likes of Twitter, FaceBook and LinkedIn as social media channels that publish and promote your blog and website and build conversation around your business, while helping others grow their businesses.

Twitter is the Pied Piper of social media to help you attract followers.

Twitter is the Pied Piper of these social media channels. Used properly, its 140-character “Tweets” can present an intriguing headline to beckon followers into your post. You can provide quick updates on promotions, events, new product launches and other quick hits of interest to your online community.

Twitter is also great for listening in on conversations to gain insight on what topics are of most interest and will resonate with your readers.

We talked about Facebook as your personal international media center, while LinkedIn is it’s professional cousin functioning as your online business portfolio and contacts list.

Facebook is your international media center

All of these social media channels can instantly share your blog content with a single click of a button, helping you become an international online publishing and broadcasting magnate for your personal content.

This was a fun training that made the most of storytelling. The cartoons resonated well with the international audience and were powerful visual aids to amplify the narrative of my training.

You can watch the entire training on the video at the top of this post.

How would you illustrate your favorite social media channel?

Over 3,500 entrepreneurs had flown from more than 140 countries, most arriving the night before. They gathered in the ballroom of the Gaylord National Resort in Washington DC for Forever Living Products’ annual International Super Rally. The three day event of awards, company announcements, new product launches, and distributor recognition was kicked off by my training. No pressure.

The Power of Story Part I: “How Stories Sell” from ParkHowell.com on Vimeo.

The storytelling training was presented in two parts. We first explored the nine essential beats that make up the structure of every great story. Do you know them?

1. Who’s your hero?
2. What’s at stake?
3. The inciting incident.
4. Obstacles & antagonists.
5. The sidekick and/or love story.
6. All is lost.
7. Victory!
8. Anchor your audience.
9. To be continued… (Your sequel)

Storytelling workbooks were handed out to what’s essentially the United Nations of network marketing. Forever Living is the world’s largest grower, manufacturer and distributor of aloe vera-based health and beauty products; a $2.5 billion operation with millions of Horatio Alger stories. Our job was to help these distributors bring their unique experiences to life… in three minutes or LESS.

Using the workbooks, the audience outlined their stories as the training progressed.  Some of the Forever faithful even found the gumption to come on stage and share their journeys to demonstrate the power of well-told tales. You can view an abridged version of the presentation on SlideShare.

Where you tell your story is as important as how you tell it.

The second part of my Power of Story training explored ways to share your stories with the world using social media. We discussed how your blog becomes mission control for your social media universe, and how six primary online communities work as both utility and outreach channels. I’m using the utility channels of Vimeo (I prefer it over YouTube), SlideShare and Flickr to embed and share video, PowerPoint and photos respectively through this blog.

We then covered how to push or broadcast your blog content out through Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn. You can connect with me by clicking on any or all of these links and see how I’ve used them to promote this article. I’ll go into greater detail on the social media portion of storytelling in my next post.

After nearly two hours on stage in front of these engaged and delightful distributors (The presentation was simultaneously translated into 10 languages and was also webcasted), my character arched from a chrysalis of nerves to an unbridled enthusiast for The Power of Story. It was affirming to watch business men and women from every imaginable metroplex and distant outpost on our planet embrace the universal form of narrative that propels our individual stories forward.

I am extremely grateful for the opportunity to share my thoughts on storytelling with this world-class audience, and I hope you found it as rewarding as I did.

Thank you.

That’s how you talk with teens. It’s also how you help change behavior in their parents.

This haunting spot about teen driving from Allstate is one of the finest examples I’ve seen that communicates one clear thought and asks for one precise next step from the viewer. The surreal beauty of the setting, accompanied by the perfect song, creates a narrative that captivates and activates parents into action. No scare tactics. No barrages of mind-numbing stats. Just thoughtful, compelling storytelling.

Do you agree?

Ryan La Rosa of Hill & Knowlton, NY, with 50 of his newest fans from Camelback High School

I’ve been quiet on my blog the past several days due to chaperoning 50 DECA students from Camelback High School around Manhattan. A giant shout out to Linda Shaub, Ryan La Rosa and the incredible folks at Hill & Knowlton for sharing your afternoon with us.

Now that I’m back, the education continues with two speaking engagements next week for the American Advertising Federation – Phoenix, and the American Marketing Association.

Tuesday evening, the AAF invited me to share an encore storytelling workshop I ran for the national AD2 organization last fall called, “Storyteller or Marketer? It Pays to be Both.” It’s about using the power of story to develop their marketing careers. Here are event details, and a sneak peek at the presentation. Be sure to click on the presenter notes for the script.

On Wednesday, I will present at the American Marketing Association luncheon about how “Green” is NOT a sustainable differentiator.” It’ll be interesting because the panel discussion is on, “How Being Green Can Pay Big Dividends To Your Bottom Line.”

In two weeks, I will be working with AmeriCorp VISTA, a national service program designed specifically to fight poverty. We will review trends in social media for nonprofit development, and specifically how Social Venture Partner organizations world-wide can enhance the conversations around their causes.

If you’re a marketer in Phoenix, or care to visit from someplace like Bangladesh, I hope you come by and say hello. Feel free to bring your own tomatoes, too.

Q: The storytelling movement seems to be growing explosively. Why now? What is it about this moment in human history and culture that makes storytelling so resonant with so many people right now?

A: When was the last time you heard a really funny joke? When was the last time you took the time to practice and tell a terrific yarn at a party? The Internet is full of them, but like the world economy, our storytelling talents have been in recession.

When you see a cave painting created by the ancients of a person on horseback following a large beast with a spear in its side, what story are they telling? Why would they take the time to build the fire, burn the charcoal, and memorialize their victory on a dark and damp cave wall? Because story, no matter how it is told, is essential to bringing meaning and expression to life.

As the noise of advertising, media, and politics has increased over the past 50 years, our attention spans, and therefore our message delivery, has grown dramatically shorter. We have become experts at “low-resolution” communications: The sound bite, 30-second commercial, PowerPoint slides, Twitter’s 140-character character, thumbs-up liking, speed dating, and texts that replace whole words with single letters. The pendulum has swung so far in the direction of burping information like bullets out of a Thompson machine gun, that people are beginning to realize something is missing.

Storytelling is making a resurgence because the social animal in all humans craves context, depth and content in our interaction. A story that involves us as the protagonists, or at least presents a hero we can identify with, that has to overcome great odds to achieve their desires, absolutely parallels the quests in each of our lives. It is an elemental depiction of our most basic instincts and fight for survival.

We have all been in such a hurry to be heard that the dots and dashes in our high tech telegraph communication are losing resonance. We communicate in binary form like the computers we type on. I believe the pendulum is swinging back to what people are starting to long for again: Slowing down and being part of a greater story.

How did a prayer and this model plane change a life forever? View the SlideShare presentation below.

Then I challenged them to write their own personal story, and to focus on what truly great things they would like to accomplish. And when I say “Great,” I mean something out-of-this-world that is bigger than themselves. All compelling protagonists, “You!”, want to achieve something grand. But you’re going to have to go through hell to get it.

The essence of story is revaled in what tests your character, and those who help you along the way. I believe the sooner you begin crafting and telling your own story, the more powerful a storyteller you will become for your agency and your clients.

So I decided to do something different with my presentation. There is only one slide about our agency. There are NO slides showing our work. The bulk of the presentation was simply a tale;

The true story of a long-deceased fighter pilot who answers a prayer from his daughter following 9/11 in the most miraculous and tangible way.

What does this have to do with advertising? Read the story (be sure to click on the presenter notes for the script) and you’ll find out.

Following my presentation, I gave the crowd this StorytellingWorksheet to help them craft and tell their stories. Then I challenged them to post their stories below in the comments. Congratulations in advance to those of you with the industry and guts to share your story with the world. Believe me, it’s the only way you’re going to change it for the better.

If you got the strength, download the Storytelling Worksheet, (Here are the brief instructions) fill it out, and share YOUR story below. Then, see where it takes you.

I believe my story is somewhere in between: Not a classic yet, but not a snoozer either. This was made even more obvious to me after reading Donald Miller‘s book, “A Million Miles in a Thousand Years: What I Learned While Editing My Life.” My friend Margie Albert, knowing my compunction toward telling tales with both my ad agency and my life, thought this would be the perfect read. And she was right.

Miller’s premise is that we all have the capability of changing our life’s story. What role do we want to play, and how will our story be told when we’re dead? He’s living proof.

After becoming a successful writer, Miller found himself an eye-growing couch potato living a fairly ambitionless life in Portland, Oregon, until two screenwriters shook him out of his stupor by teaching him about the real power of “Story.” Miller learned he needed to begin a rewrite on his own life to bring more meaning to his time on Earth. He got his ass off the couch, got in shape, climbed the Inca Trail to Machu Picchu, rode a bike across America to raise money for wells in Africa, and started the The Mentoring Project to help fatherless boys. His story also finds him in Obama’s task force on Fatherhood and Healthy Families.

My favorite passage:

“Once you live a good story, you get a taste for a kind of meaning in life, and you can’t go back to being normal; you can’t go back to meaningless scenes stitched together by the forgettable thread of wasted time.”

I loved this book. It offers hope and inspiration by placing the pen squarely in our hands to rethink and rewrite our role as the protagonist. Epic stories are created from great scenes. Each of us walks onto a stage everyday, and we make the decision whether that scene is going to be compelling or not. The more inventive, adventurous, and brave we can be with our own scenes, the more remarkably our story will unfold.

11 of My Favorite Scenes in My Story (Not including the more private family stuff or the really scary chapters that are the seeds of my epic)

1. I came into this world a storyteller as the fifth of seven kids
2. My improbable story of  survival during the 1980 eruption of Mt. St. Helens
3. Moved to Phoenix after graduating with degrees in music and communications from WAZZU; studies that later got me featured in this business book
4. Act II, the love story with Michele, my wife of 22 years, and the mother of our three kids
5. Opened Park&Co in 1995 to focus on sustainable marketing and storytelling
6. Created the world’s largest water conservation campaign, which lead Michele and I to the island of Cyprus where we taught the Turks about activating conservation outreach through a U.S. AID program
7. Worked with the Swedes in Skelleftea at BROKK to promote a safer and greener demolition technique
8. Our idea of sustainable marketing was featured in Stanford University’s “Social Innovation Review” magazine, and in Philip Kotler’s college textbook, “Corporate Social Responsibility, Doing the most Good for Your Company and Your Cause”
9. The greatest lesson I learned from hiking the Grand Canyon; still the single most spectacular trip our family has ever endeavored
10. Being recognized as the 2010 “Ad Person of the Year” by my peers, which is really a nod to the brilliant, caring people that I am fortunate to be surrounded by in our pursuit of making the world a little bit better place
11. Working with our creative team at Park&Co to launch HerHear.org, an online community that amplifies the voices and stories of the beaten, abused, hushed and hidden survivors of domestic violence.

I have so many more scenes ahead of me, and now, with Miler’s inspiration, I am living with greater intent to make my life’s story meaningful…warts and all.

What’s your story?

The power is in the story: Social Venture Partners Arizona's Annual Report

Sustainability is not just about being “Green.” It’s purely about survival.

Survival for a nonprofit in this tumultuous economic environment is directly related to their ability to innovate. Adapt or die.

Here’s a story about one such nonprofit, and one way they are seeking to remain relevant that just might help you and your cause.

Last night we hosted the annual Spring Partner meeting for Social Venture Partners of Arizona. More than 100 people attended to celebrate the impact SVPAZ’s powerful venture capital approach to philanthropy is having on Arizona charities. An example of the terrific work they do is captured in this year’s “Philanthropist of the Year” award. It honored Debbie and Steve Moak, founders of Not My Kid, an organization dedicated to helping young adults overcome addiction and destructive behaviors.

Even with this great success, partner numbers in SVPAZ have taken a hit. As you can imagine, it’s difficult to attract prospects in this market. Therefore, SVPAZ has to do more with less.

That became our job when creating this year’s annual report and marketing strategy. We relied on this truism: “Survival of the fittest depends on who tells the best stories and how they tell them.”

Our Seven-Point Strategy for an Effective Annual Report and Sustainable Organization

1. Focus on the Organisms, not the Organization: Most annual reports simply glorify the company or cause publishing the report. Instead of self gratification, we focused on the unique stories about the kids and young adults that are benefiting from the nonprofits that SVPAZ supports.
2. Empower Your Evangelists: Just like telling a great story, interesting and unusual things command attention and get shared. Instead of a typical 16-page annual report, we created a 24″ x 20″ poster that folds down to a 5.5″ x 5.5″ square that just begs to be opened. It brings a smile to the face of the SVPAZ partner, and is every bit a reflection of their personal uniqueness and gifts, as it is a reflection of SVPAZ’s innovative approach to philanthropy.
3. Left Brain vs Right Brain: We all know that people buy with emotion and justify their purchase with logic. As the reader unfolds the poster/report, the stories literally unfold before them to accentuate the impact SVPAZ is having on these young lives. On the back of the poster is the logical left brain stuff including financials and a partner list.
4. Be True to the Story: Although short and sweet, our stories for each kid sticks to the time-tested architecture of a great tale: A protagonist who has a dream, and the obstacles they must overcome to achieve success. This is done with four colorful panels on the right brain emotional side of the poster. The reader is then invited into a landing page of stories on the SVPAZ website.
5. Develop a Web Strategy for Your Annual Report: A PDF of your annual report on your website is NOT a web strategy. Our plan for the SVPAZ annual report was to drive traffic to a new site we launched for them last fall. The short stories on the printed piece intrigue the reader into visiting the “Stories” landing page where they are treated to the entire story. Each of the stories for Kevin, Selena, Adrion and Regina are featured on the site’s blog, which also fertilizes the SEO for the entire site.
6. Don’t Forget Those Closest to You: Let’s face it, most annual reports are about impressing shareholders and attracting new stakeholders. They often overlook your most important audiences: Your employees and customers, or in SVPAZ’s case, its partnership. The stories featured both in print and online are as much about educating the current partners about the variety of nonprofits (investees) they invest in, as well as kids they actually help. This effort was expanded into a SVPAZ YouTube Film Festival, where each of the investees created a one minute film of their work.Each was celebrated during a fun Academy Award segment at the event that recognized films for “Most Online Visits” – which drives traffic to the overall site – as well as “Best Picture,” “Best Actor,” “Best Use of Music,” etc. Everyone’s a winner!
7. Concept is King and Saves Money: By reducing the production and printing to a fraction of what the annual report used to be, and wrapping the concept in a powerful web and social media strategy, SVPAZ will experience exponential  benefit by reaching more people and prospects at a dramatically reduced cost.

If you would like to learn more from Shawn Hardy, our art director that designed the report, click here.

What can you add to the list to create an even more powerful strategy for a sustainable annual report and nonprofit organization?

For their whole stories, click on the image.

You can download a PDF of the Social Venture Partners Arizona annual report here: SVPAZ-09-Annual Rpt

Please slow down, take five minutes, and let me know how this story touches you.

“Art Without a Frame”

I have what I think will be a new word for you today. It’s “Koyaanisqatsi.” (koy – yawn – ee – skot – see) The Hopi Indians of Arizona use this term to describe a “Life out of balance.”

The Hopi’s philosophy of life balance was also the theme for a Francis Ford Coppola film in 1982 about the frenetic speed of modern life. There was no script in this movie. No actors. Just the beautiful music of Philip Glass playing to film clips of modern day life sped up to represent our hurried existence.

And what have we done in the past 28 years since the debut of Koyaanisqatsi? We’ve sped up to a pace that is so great today, that I ask myself how many roses are going un-smelled? How many smiles are going un-given? How many moments are going un-appreciated, un-shared?

More recently, this drama unfolded at a subway station in Washington DC. Have you ever heard of the acclaimed violinist, Joshua Bell? He was a one-time child prodigy, and now, in his early forties, Joshua Bell is filling concert halls with his magnificent violin virtuosity accompanied by his striking good looks.

The Washington Post Magazine decided to do a social experiment. They wanted to see if beauty would transcend a cold setting of a Metro station at an inconvenient time for people on the go.

They asked Mr. Bell if he would pose as a street musician and play his magnificent music. The Post wanted to see what would happen to commuters when they bumped into a virtuoso like Bell during the course of their busy lives. Joshua gladly agreed, dressed down to fit the part of street musician, including a baseball cap that partly shaded his celebrity. Juxtaposing his common man demeanor was his $3.5 million Stradivari. And, for the next 43 minutes, the remarkable pieces by Bach, Schubert, Ponce and Massenet poured from his violin.

The greatest concern of the Post was crowd control. They were certain a “cultured” city like Washington DC would stop to listen to such great music, even as they stumble upon it in a Metro. Yet, few did stop. For 43 awkward minutes, Joshua Bell, one of the finest classical musicians of our time, a man who fills $100-dollar-a-ticket concert halls to capacity, played his heart out to a seemingly uncaring – or perhaps unaware – crowd busily getting on with their lives.

During his “Subway” performance, 1,070 people hurried by. Twenty-seven people gave money ­– most of them on the run – totalling $32 and change. Only seven people stopped to listen. And one of those actually recognized him. She commented later that she was astonished, and “blessed,” to have happened upon Joshua Bell and his brilliance just sawing away in the subway. She had seen him in concert three weeks earlier.

Can you imagine what Joshua Bell felt like performing in that Metro that day? The indifference he experienced toward his God given abilities: Gifts he was freely sharing.

Do you ever feel like Joshua Bell? After all, you ARE a virtuoso in your own right. You bring to this world remarkable talents that are uniquely your own. But do you sometimes feel they go unnoticed?

Now ask yourself what you would have done if you were one of those commuters? Would you have stopped and heard the music? Or would you have just blown on by, like 99 percent of them did?

Every time you turn away from a person, or choose to pass by without a care, you miss a work of art – Art that is literally unframed and out of context to you. You see, the real lesson learned in the Washington Metro is not that these people didn’t necessarily care about Joshua Bell and his performance. Sociologists and art critics that have studied this phenomenon agree that people didn’t engage with Joshua Bell because he was playing out of context. Had those commuters known that they were passing up a free front row seat to one of the world’s premiere classical performers, the crowd would have been decidedly larger, and probably poured out into the streets of DC.

We happen upon Joshua Bells every day in our hectic lives, and we typically don’t slow down long enough to recognize them.

• They come in the form of strangers who desperately need our products for better health, but just don’t know it.
• They are the ones too frustrated about un-reconciled dreams, or distracted by mounting debt, and they are blinded to the promise of Forever.
• They are the potential new Diamond Manager in your group that looks, for now, like the harried housewife.
• They are the neighbor that lost his job.
• The janitor that knows there is something more in him and this world.
• They are the misunderstood. The loud. The shy.
• They are every new face you happen upon every day.

Say hello. Smile. And share yourself… As you know now, you have many gifts to offer.

With Forever, we often focus on health and wealth. But like a great composition by Bach, these are but our initial themes.

You, as an instrumental part of the Forever family, offer more…

You offer belonging in this unsettling world. You can bring community and caring to those who feel alone.

You offer a sense of personal worth. Most people feel devalued these days: just another number in a tumbling economy. Forever provides a new beginning, a celebration of the individual, and with it, greater self-esteem.

You offer a brighter future through structure, guidance and productivity.

You offer personal growth; the unbinding of the corporate shackles that sets free the inner entrepreneur. And with it comes the gift of discipline.

You offer grand adventure by encouraging your peers to step out of their comfort zones and daring them to lead the lives they dream of.

You offer truth.

Every person, every stranger, every passerby you come across from this moment forward, is an unframed work of art. Take the time to peer into their eyes, and ultimately their souls, and learn how you can bring beautiful music to their lives. Then play like Joshua.

One final thought. Did You know the first piece Joshua Bell played that cold January day in the Washington DC Metro was Bach’s “Chaconne,” Partita No. 2 in D Minor for solo violin?  Bell called it,

“Not just one of the greatest pieces of music ever written, but one of the greatest achievements of any man in history. It’s a spiritually powerful piece, emotionally powerful, structurally perfect.”

This remarkably difficult, 14-minute piece was written in 1720, on the eve of the European Enlightenment. Music scholars agree that it is a celebration of the breadth of human possibility.

So take a moment, close your eyes, and listen to a portion of this marvelous work, while picturing your “Life in balance.”

“Koyaanisqatsi.” (koy – yawn – ee – skot – see)