Your mom was right—certainly mine was.
It’s not about YOU, or even your story. It’s about the other person(s)—your audience!
I’m sure that you’ve told one or more stories that have been a huge hit with your listeners. Yet the same story bombs when you tell it to a different audience or occasion. Why is that?
Storytelling is all about your audience.
On February 26th 2022, Ukranian President Zelensky released two sub 1-minute videos in very different settings. Both were about the same topic—Ukraine’s response to the invasion by Russia.
The message is the same
- We are here and we will not surrender
- We are fighting and will continue to do so
- we will defend our country, our cities, our citizens and our children
The first one is targeted to Ukrainian citizens—the setting is outside, with a distinctive building behind him, he looks into the camera and uses the first person plural “We” repeatedly. And it is short at 33 seconds.
The second one is addressed to the Russian army—in a formal setting with the speaker behind a pedestal, seemingly reading from a written document at a fairly snappy pace.
It adds a final thought in this 51-second video , now targeted at the Russian army, urging them to calling on their government to cease hostilities to save themselves.
How well did you find the alignment of the message to the target audiences? Did you see the the settings and props being influenced by the audience?
What will you do to align your story, settings and props to your audience?
