3 ways to help leaders be better storytellers

As the great Neil Young once asked, “Who will tell your story?” The answer to that question is different for every brand.

Ensuring your brand’s leadership and subject matter experts are prepared to tell the story of your company at both in-person and virtual events is key.

During an April 2022 session of Ragan’s Brand Storytelling Conference, industry experts Cheril Clarke, founder of Phenomenal Writing, and Ashley Brown, clinical communications senior strategist with Atrium Health, shared their best practices for communicators looking to coach their C-suites to brand storytelling success.

Here are three tips:

1. Choose the right leader to tell your brand story.

The best person to tell the story is whoever can bring the most authenticity to the job, says Clarke. That could mean being someone who is the most knowledgeable or enthusiastic, among other traits.

Oftentimes, that person is the CEO — but sometimes it isn’t.

“I think a little bit to consider it the medium,” Clarke says. “If it’s video, then it could be several people telling [the story], especially if it’s the origin story of your firm or company.”

It’s all about finding the person who can educate and motivate audiences to act, she says.