The Book Autograph Session That Didn’t Happen

I had gone to Literary Fest on Chicago’s Printer’s Row before, but this time I was actually going to sign autographs for Today’s Inspired Leader! And my boys were coming. And I even chose an author-y style hat to wear, plus my Italian wedges and an Army green, Eddie Bauer skirt I hadn’t worn in 20 years (a nod to my optimism about what’s in my closet).

One of a dozen authors, my chapter is called “Share One Beautifully Tragic Story Every Day.” The words you are reading are proof I take my own advice. Because this story is both beautiful and tragic.

The Kelly tribe hopped in the car and off we went a few Saturdays ago to a crowd of people who loved books as much as we did. Our traditional Dunkin’ stop for hash browns and donuts. Check. We were feelin’ the love. I had my autograph line down. (That’s what authors do — they come up with a cute line and then sign their name — not that I would know after what happened when we got there.)

Here, the story throws a zinger at the storyteller. There’s this thing we all do every day. It’s called filling in the story gap. You probably did it already today. Maybe dozens of times. You see something, you hear something and you don’t know the entire story so your mind fills in the missing pieces.

Like I filled in the story gap for my autograph session. I assumed the publisher would bring the books. Not so. I was supposed to bring my box (God bless Fig Factor Media - they had sent an email I didn’t fully read fully explaining this).

I even found the tent I was supposed to be at which, if you know me, was a major feat. (I once drove to Elmhurst and ended up in Englewood. Ooops.)

I was a writer with an autograph line and no books to scrawl it on. My son Patrick rode side saddle to my dumbfoundedness (you know you’ve reached this state when you are repeating the words someone else is saying with a glazed look of disbelief on your face and excitement comes tumbling down inside you like a carefully stacked tower of laundry on the ironing board and the satiny PJs on the bottom makes everything jump ship). Yeah, that was me.

No cute autograph line? Wait. I had a book in the car! I hurriedly dug out my cell phone in my Coach purse (lucky me, I have a sister-in-law who was downsizing in the purse department; authors must have Coach), and I called my husband and business partner and said, “Grab the book from the car. I can sign at least one book today.”

Crickets.

Then I knew what was coming and my five-year-old self said, “You’ve got to be flippin’ kidding me.”

More crickets.

“You took the book out of the car yesterday? How could you do that?”

Even the crickets left the conversation.

“We’ve had gym shoes in there since 2007. There’s a Borders gift card in the glove compartment.”

It was over.

I pressed my finger through the phone and thought for a moment, which is something Italians don’t often do in the face of unforeseen circumstances.

They say things happen for a reason. I’m a card-carrying believer.

Me to Self: I have my sons. My husband. My hat. I’m going to take a fake autograph shot because this may never happen again and then I’m going to enjoy Lit Fest with the men in my life.

And that’s exactly what happened.

And it was awesome! You learn a lot about a person by the books they choose. Patrick is hungry to understand why our country was divided in the Civil War so he bought several on the subject. Maybe it will help him, a natural peacemaker, understand the division we see today and how to close the gap. Stephen King novels captivated Peter who vowed to get a few from the library. A jazz pianist who plays hours at a time by ear, I loved seeing this young man be delighted by creative fiction.

As for the autograph session that didn’t happen, I’m good with it. The notes and texts I write to my children are good enough for me.

For the record, though, next year, I’m putting the books next to my Italian heels by the door. And my Audrey Hepburn sunglasses. Because, of course, that’s what authors wear.

At least that’s the story gap I’ve filled in.

 Michele Kelly is founder and CEO of K+L Storytellers.

Bringing Storytelling to the Classroom

How do you get people to tell their stories? That was the first question a student asked as I showed the importance of #storytelling to two communications classes at Aurora University.

I pulled out our K+L Storytellers signature multi-colored beach ball, had the students stand up and I asked a single question. What is something about you that nobody here knows? I tossed the beach ball to the first student, who ducked allowing the ball to bounce off the unprepared student behind him. (That’s why we use a beach ball instead of a baseball.)

Speaking to a communications class at Aurora University about the importance of storytelling in business.

Around the room the beach ball flew to the next storyteller. One young student has lived on her own since she was 17. Another collected exotic animals, including an alligator. A third has traveled to more than 20 countries.

The final catcher of the beach ball was instructor Franklin Rivera, who led 44 men into battle upon his graduation from West Point and is also related to former Secretary of State Gen. Colin Powell.

In the second class, students were asked about their No. 1 obsession. The responses ranged from music to cars to sports to fluffy cats.

The exercise was fun, and it especially kept the 8 a.m. class awake. Asking questions leads to storytelling. And by continuing the line of questioning, we began to understand each person’s unique story.

K+L Storytellers takes a similar approach with middle market, culture-driven companies that want to better understand and project their stories, both internally to improve culture, and externally to increase brand awareness.

Like many college students, companies have short-term goals and long-term vision. Sharing stories with emotion and authority provides a trust with the audience, which is a foundation for increasing sales.

Spinning a few Dad jokes aside, what was some of the feedback of our classroom experience?

·         Ebony Scott, a junior marketing major, said marketing professionals “have a responsibility to depict clients in the way they want to be represented and how they would want their stories to be told.”

·        Senior Dirk Schoger.said, “Your lecture on storytelling was interesting and informative. The material and the stories you had to share with the class were very engaging, which is proof of the effectiveness of a good story.”

Nice to know our future storytellers are poised and ready to bring their stories to the world.

A Story: Keep Going

I love to run, but I detest feeling cold. So last Saturday, I went to our local Vaughn Center, plunked down two dollars in quarters pilfered from our family coin jar and exchanged them for the privilege of running the track.

Six times around makes a mile. It's really not hard at all. Unless you are Marvin.

I don't know if that is his name, but that's what I'm going with. He looked like a Marvin, a rather nostalgic name befitting a man who is most probably in his seventies, wrinkly skin on his dark-skinned face, still broad-shouldered, still built like the athlete I suspect he once was. He wore chinos and a black polo top.

When I spoke with him, I didn't ask him his name. It was enough for me just to approach a stranger. Many people don't know this about me, but I'm a real introvert. Big groups terrify me and meeting strangers . . . don't even get me started. But this man did something that was so massively impressive, I had to work up the nerve to tell him the truth. And I did. I thanked him, straight out, for inspiring all of us that day.

Marvin walked at a complete 90 degree angle. He used the rail around the second floor track as a guide because, obviously, he really didn't have a lot of clearance to see far ahead. He would stop a lot. He would stand at the rail and watch the basketball and volleyball players below make three-pointers or spike the ball over the net.

I imagined him fifty years before. A great player, someone with promise, maybe a scholarship to college or the captain of his high school team.

Then something happened along the way. Was it a car accident? Years of hard work stacked on top of each other? An illness winning the war on his body?  

So I asked him, after thanking him, if it was painful to walk. Because it looked like it was, and he shook his head and said, "Oh yeah. My back, my lower back." He was sitting on the bench alongside the track when I talked with him. I figured I had one more question before he thought I was a nut, so I asked him what I really wanted to know: What motivated him to come out here and go through all this pain?

His eyes had a fierce light of goodness. He stared right at me and said, "I've got to try. I've just got to keep on tryin'."

I thanked him again. It was one of those moments where I felt like I'd been touched by an angel. One human being sharing with another about courage, life, determination.

Michele Kelly is CEO and Co-founder of K+L Storytellers, a brand storytelling and content company passionate about helping middle market companies scale through story.

Hiding in Plain Sight a True Art Form

What if we had only three ways to communicate with each other?

·         Writing a letter and sending it via the United States Postal Service to a business or residence

·         In-person visit at home or at work

·         Calling a business or residence on a land line telephone

In the first three decades of my life, these were the only methods of “getting a hold” of someone. And they were effective because each method nearly always elicited a response.

Today, we can reach someone instantly. Multiple applications provide a direct pipeline to your mobile device, tablet or personal computer. Besides email and texting, we’ve got Uber Conferencing (they have a great hold song if you haven't heard it), Facetime, Skype, Slack, Twitter, Instagram, Facebook, SnapChat, and LinkedIn. Leaving a voicemail is almost shocking to the system (it requires a lot of energy and time to hit “play”). An article in Psychology Today cites that inboxes are one of the most common triggers to social anxiety and productivity-related anxiety.

It’s easy to see why we all want to run from the mayhem.

Hiding in Plain Sight

There’s no place to hide, so we’ve become creative to avoid being reached. We hide in plain sight.

Phone numbers and physical addresses of business are disappearing from websites and business cards. Instead, we leave a note and send it off into the web abyss and cross our fingers that it will reach the right person AND they will be kind enough to respond.

When a phone number we don't recognize pops up, we watch our phones do the dance. We need “approval” from someone to connect on LinkedIn and other social platforms and, oftentimes, contact information is buried or nonexistent on profiles.

But the No. 1 way we hide is by ignoring the call, text, letter, email, IM, social request, etc. altogether. We simply do not respond. That fact has nothing to do with technology. That fact has to do with people making a choice.

While we haven't done a formal survey on this, we sure have heard people talk about this phenomenon that, with all the ways in which we can communicate, it is getting harder and harder to elicit a response. Is that the story a company wants to convey? How is responsiveness a reflection of a company’s brand?

What are some of your experiences with unresponsive responses?

Unmasking Your Corporate Stories in 2019

As your company’s sales projections for 2019 are being finalized and the marketing team prepares its strategy for going live with your messaging, it’s time to evaluate the WHY behind your company.

An analogy can be made from Halloween. Trick-or-treaters dress up in costume and go door-to-door with one goal in mind: to bring home the bounty. That’s their prize. There’s an unwritten contract that if the receiver dresses up in costume, the giver will hand over the goods. Companies also have a trust contract with prospects and customers. Content nurtures those relationships so when it’s time for the big “ask,” you are on the short list.

So what’s the WHY behind your mask? What’s your company’s heart and soul? Those are the stories that you should be planning for next year. You, and only you, own those stories. Your closest competitor won’t have the same stories you have.

Dozens of princesses, superheroes and witches trick-or-treat, but there is usually one that stands out with her/his creativity, originality or design (we had a giant hot dog stop at our house this year -- there aren’t many of those around). Believe it or not, you want to be that hot dog.

K+L Storytellers Co-founder Michele Kelly will be speaking about the importance of storytelling at three separate events this week.

●       On Nov. 7, she will team with Miranda Rodriguez, owner of Marketing for the Uninhibited on “Meaningful Marketing in 2019” at the Women’s Business Development Center in Aurora. Register here.

●       On Nov. 8, Michele will present “PItch Your Investor Story” to the Women Tech Founders at Galleria Marchetti in Chicago. The real-time investor pitch (think Shark Tank) will be followed by the WTF Awards. (This may be the best title for an award yet. Who wouldn’t want to have a WTF Award on their desk?)

●       On Nov. 9, a one-hour interactive presentation “The Power of Storytelling” will be held at STEAMfest, 2018 an event hosted by Steam Ahead at Hub 88’s headquarters along the I-88 suburban high- tech corridor.

We want to hear your story. What’s your differentiating WHY? Why are you a stand-out, can’t miss hot dog (OK, pick your favorite costume this year) among a sea of expected masks?

Married to Each Other AND the Business

“Seriously. Are we really husband and wife now?”

The question sounds like a refrain that a couple might utter while standing at the altar. But for my beautiful bride of 27 years, it comes up nearly every evening as we transition from business partners to life partners.

Friends, family and clients are fascinated (and dumbfounded) that Michele and I operate K+L Storytellers AND are wife and husband. “We’d be divorced” is a common response we hear through a haughty laugh and swig of a vodka-esque drink.

One point for sure: It’s not always easy. In fact, it can get darn right nasty as business and marriage roles often intertwine, making neither very fun.

So how do we make it work?

There’s not an easy answer. One advantage we have is that our children are older. They are not tugging at Mom every 15 minutes. Another advantage is that we’ve been in business together on and off since 2003. The nature of the business has shifted, from public relations/communications to storytelling and content.

Our business, like so many others, took a massive blow in late 2007 through 2011 when our clients were cutting costs in their own fight to stay afloat. As a result, I returned to the corporate world, which stabilized our family and financial lives, but also strengthened my education. I worked with younger people who mentored me in SEO and social media. I teamed with marketing professionals who guided me on brand strategy. I sat next to data scientists who analyzed and heralded the importance of the numbers behind PPC, website visits and posted content clicks. I learned from other business owners on how to grow a business, engage new clients and how to better manage cash flow.

And then, through no fault of my own, I was laid off on my 58th birthday.

After countless job interviews and with no contract in hand, Michele asked if I wanted to rejoin the company. I was humbled and embarrassed because it was the only offer on my plate. But I was hardened in my resolve to help build the business back to peak form.

We are doing that. Together. As business partners. As wife and husband. As “The First Couple of Story,” a phrase used to introduce us recently as we shared the speaker stage. If that’s how people see us, we’re all in.

We comfort in knowing how the other person thinks, how we best work and what makes the other person’s head explode. We know we’ve always got each other’s backs. We can avoid landmines by staying out of each other’s way and trusting the other’s skills. We’ve learned to take emotion out of our strategy discussions (not easy for my Italian partner), and we’ve become better listeners.

One absolute key to our business success is to physically and verbally shut it down at the end of each Friday. It’s satisfying to play husband and wife with a martini (me) and a glass of Malbec (Michele) in hand on the back terrace at the end of the week. Wouldn’t you agree, Babe? (Full disclosure, Michele ignores me when I let this slip in a business setting. However, I often notice a hint of a smile.)

Tomorrow, Aug. 31, is our wedding anniversary, and I am more sure than ever that in business and in life, I picked the right partner.

Vision + Story

These Five Young Authors Wrote A Book. What Can You Give Away?

 

5 young authors. 3 stories. 1 published book. THEY DID IT!!!!

What do you know that you can give away? How can you change young people for life? What is your legacy, that leave-behind to the world? 

Two years ago, I started a program called Your Extraordinary Story to teach middles-schoolers how to write a short story in teams.

This past year, I was invited to bring YES to an after-school program at Washington Middle School in Aurora, Ill. What an honor!!!

We published an anthology of short stories called 3 Lessons. When you write a short story, you get creative confidence - not just about writing, but about creativity and about your ideas.

THANK YOU to Dr. Burton, WMS principal, the My Genius Now grant leaders Pat Swanson and Ann McBride, and the Dunham Foundation for believing that the arts transform all of us, especially our youth. And thank you to these young authors who, with a pencil, a spiral notebook and their imaginations created beautiful, unforgettable stories.

What do you have in your wheelhouse to give away? What knowledge, tools, advice, mentorship, passion can others benefit from? 

Chicken Brats and Tortellini Soup

By Roderick Kelly

Co-founder, K+L Storytellers

Communication is a two-way highway. Information is delivered by one party and received by another. But a glitch on either end can change the game. Here’s a story that our family will laugh about for years to come.

I had scooped up our daughter Katherine in Chicago on Friday after her workday so she could spend Mother’s Day with us in the suburbs and attend our son Patrick’s graduation from Waubonsee Community College. Normally, she would take the commuter train, but she had laundry galore and presents and winter clothes to bring home so of course I obliged to be her Duber (Dad Uber).

As we were driving the 40 miles during a slow Friday rush hour, I asked her to call her brother so he could light the grill. We were having bratwurst for dinner. She quickly said, “Ahhh, I was hoping for tortellini soup.”

What’s a Dad to do? I had my heart set on brats. So I told her to check with Mom. Of course, I knew the answer before she could whip out her iPhone. My wife Michele is going to make whatever the children want. But, since she has a strict policy of turning off her phone everyday at 5 p.m., the question threaded through our youngest son.

Once off the phone, Katherine said we were supposed to stop at the grocery story and pick up spinach, chicken brats and Italian bread. “OK,” I’m thinking to myself. “We’re going to have both brats and tortellini soup.” An odd combination, but heck, I’m game.

Less than a mile from home, I run into the local Jewel and snap up the spinach and Italian bread. I scour the brat and chicken sections. No chicken brats. Drat. I ask the deli server where I can find chicken brats. She politely said she didn’t know and that’s not her department. Double drat. I then see a store worker leaving the nearby break room and ask her if she knows where the chicken brats are. “I’m sorry. I’m in floral, but I can get someone to help you.”

I’m hangry at this point and am eager to wash down my brat with an adult beverage. I decline her generous offer, grab the previously spotted turkey brats and say to myself: “These will have to do.”

I proudly walk into the house with the items, and my wife says: “Where is the chicken broth?”

Huh?

“Yes, the chicken broth for the tortellini soup,” she says with an expectant glance at the clock which reads almost 8 p.m.

I realized the error. Triple drat. (Just to tie up this story, we sent Junior out for the chicken broth and made him take a picture of the product before purchasing.)

The breakdown in this story may have occurred in the delivery or receiving of the information. And that can happen with companies and their clients.

Are your company’s messages and stories being correctly heard and portrayed to your customers and prospects? One way to make sure is to have a well-defined story that can be articulated in writing and verbally by everyone on your team.

Author and political adviser Frank Luntz wrote: “It’s not what you say, it’s what people hear.” Got that right!

By the way, the tortellini soup was great, as were the brats — grilled on a different night.