358. Habits of an Impactful Storyteller - Julia Campbell

Julia Campbell, Habits of an Impactful Storyteller, We Are For Good Podcast

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Overview

Welcome back to our Friday Series: The Habits of an Impactful Fundraiser. This week we’re chatting about impactful storytelling with Julia Campbell, nonprofit storytelling expert and our very first podcast guest. She’s sharing her insight on defining your goal, balancing qualitative and quantitative information, and developing trust. Tune in for tips, case studies and the Do’s/Dont’s for the modern nonprofit storyteller. 📝

Special Guest

Julia Campbell, Founder, J Campbell Social Marketing and Author, Storytelling in the Digital Age

“Building trust is absolutely everything. You can’t collect and craft stories if you don’t have full trust from people you work with and people you are collecting stories from.”

— Julia Campbell, Founder, J Campbell Social Marketing

Episode Transcript

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Episode Highlights

Asking the bigger question (4:00)
Habits to become a more impactful storyteller (9:05)
- Take screenshots and collect examples of things around you that move you
- Constantly be curious and ask questions
- Share stories everywhere you can. Bake storytelling into the daily culture of your organization
Relationships to prioritize (13:45)
Do This/Not That that make an impactful storyteller (18:50)
KPI’s that matter (25:40)
A powerful story that impacted Julia (30:20)
Sustainability and mental health tips (35:15)
How to connect with Julia (37:30)

Powerful quotes

“Fundraisers need to spend a lot more time listening than they do asking questions.” -Julia

“Think of yourself like a journalist and a documentarian. What are the interesting pieces that you want to pull out? What are the most relevant and timely matters that you are dealing with? What is the issue that you are focused on?” -Julia

“It’s not so much about the organization, but the story that they want to tell.” -Julia

“Building trust is absolutely everything. You can’t collect and craft stories if you don’t have full trust from people you work with and people you are collecting stories from.” -Julia

“Think about the people who are well liked and well respected. Get their buy in and their feedback.” -Julia

“I’m not a fan of manipulative storytelling.” -Julia

“How are you going to shed light on this very difficult issue, while still providing agency to the person you are telling the story of?” -Julia

“Boring storytelling recounts things that happened. I like stories that start in the middle, or start with a question. We have to be really creative now, especially on digital channels.” -Julia

“Right now, people are used to that hook. They need to be grabbed from the beginning of the sentence.” -Julia

“Why do you have this fantastic story in your newsletter, but I don’t see it on your social media?” -Julia

“For the virtual event, the KPI we are using is how many people stay until the end? How many people donate? How many are new donors? How many people came to us because they heard about this event?” -Julia

“If you’re telling a story to a person, it is a little bit harder. I would encourage people to collect anecdotal information, as well as qualitative and quantitative data.” -Julia

“What is your goal? Fundraising? Advocacy? Awareness? Maybe you’re wanting people to sign a petition? Look at the top 3 things that will help you determine success.” -Julia

“My favorite part of the day is sitting down and playing legos with my son.” -Julia