Grow Your Own Storytellers is an intense and hands-on workshop designed as a training for coordinating Main Street programs to help local directors implement community storytelling.
All participants leave the one-day workshop knowing the philosophy of community storytelling in place-focused marketing and will learn and practice the skills necessary for the three-step Storyville Story creation process. By the end of the day, they will have created a story from start to finish, and will leave equipped with the skills to continue creating stories independently, an editorial calendar for their first round of stories, and will have sent interview requests to three story leads.
Training Schedule
Below is an example schedule for the training day. For information on how to host this training in your state, contact me at [email protected].
Pre-workshop Assignment:
Attendees create and post their first story before attending the workshop to build context and experience. A 10-minute pre-workshop assignment video will:
- Explain the assignment (it’s quick, easy…and critical!)
- Demonstrate downloading and using the Otter app
- Explain the assignment: a 5-minute or less interview with a business owner or other member of the community, a single photo, and posting the story to the Main Street Facebook page.
Training Day Schedule
9 AM: Opening
- “Why Storytelling?”
- Anatomy of a 1/1/1 Story
10 AM: Review of Pre-workshop assignments
10:15 AM: The Map: Creating an Editorial Calendar
- Hands-on: Create a 20-story calendar
11 AM: The Art of the Interview: Interview Tips and Tricks
- Demo interview with a local business owner
- Interview Tips
- Sample Questions
- Hands-on: 10-minute interview
12 PM – 12:45: Lunch
12:45 AM: From Speaking to Writing
- What is Creative Editing? Live edit of Main Street Director Interview
- Hands-on: Edit your 10-minute interviews. Email me a completed post, we review a few posts as a group.
1:45 PM: A Thousand Words: Taking more Human Photos
- What pictures should you take?
- Light, Composition, Emotion
- Hands-on: Speed Dating Photoshoot
2:45 PM: Moving Pictures: Creating Better Videos
- Prepping a video & keeping it simple
- Video Template demos: Environmental, Food/Product, Event, Selfie, Interview, New Business, text-overlay
- Hands-on: Create a video for each template
3:45 AM: Putting the Story Together: Social Media and Beyond
- Stacking the deck: how and when to post, cultivating engagement
- Workflow tips
- More story Templates: one picture/one post, story series, Q&As, “Quick Quotes”
- How to Mess This Up: Do These Things to Ruin Everything
4:15 – 4:30 PM: Open-floor Q&A
After the workshops, all participants will receive the Storytelling Toolkit as a reference guide. Click here to view.