Effective advocacy storytelling is not all about sob stories that make an audience cry. Your storytelling needs to demonstrate that your organization has a clear and achievable plan to fix the problem, as well as a memorable call to action for your audience to know what their next steps are. In this episode, Joe and Martín explain the dos and don’ts of advocacy storytelling, and Martín speaks with Greisa Martinez Rosas, the Executive Director of United We Dream, an organization that has mastered the art of storytelling.
Advocacy storytelling is both an art and a science. While there are millions of stories to be told, you need to choose the right stories for your goals and tell them effectively and compassionately. This week, Joe and Martín tackle the world of storytelling, breaking down what storytelling is, what it is not, who can tell stories, where you can find stories, and why storytelling is essential to your advocacy campaign. This episode’s guest is the Executive Director of the national immigration advocacy organization United We Dream (UWD), Greisa Martinez Rosas, who will share tips on how UWD has developed one of the best storytelling operation in the advocacy space.
Resources
Digital Storytelling for Your Association
Taking a Long-Term Approach to Nonprofit Storytelling
Connect with us!
If you have campaign questions or want to learn more, reach out to us using the contact information below.
Twitter: @cmpwrkshp
Instagram: @TheCampaignWorkshop
Email: marketing@thecampaignworkshop.com
Joe Fuld
Twitter: @joefuld
Instagram: @joefuld
Martín Diego Garcia
Twitter: @gmartindiego
Instagram: @gmartindiego
Presented by The Campaign Workshop
(Intro Music)
Martín Diego Garcia (00:08):
Hey folks, you're listening to How to Win an Advocacy Campaign, where you'll get an insider's perspective that teaches you not only how to fight for what you believe in, but how to win. I'm Martín Diego Garcia,
Joe Fuld (00:18):
And I'm Joe Fuld. And you can find us @CMPWRKSHP on Twitter or @thecampaignworkshop on Instagram. Welcome, and thanks for listening to episode five of how to win an advocacy campaign. On the last episode, we spoke with Christopher Coes about grassroots and grasstops organizing. So if you haven't listened yet, make sure you go check it out.
Martín Diego Garcia (00:41):
Yeah, it was a great episode. And today we get to talk about one of my favorite topics, which is how to harness the power of storytelling. We'll dig into, how you identify a great story and how to build a strategy for incorporating those into your campaigns. We'll go into, where do you find storytellers? How do you effectively structure a story to move people to action? And how do you care for your storytellers? Cause it's a hard thing to do when you're asking somebody to share something personal, but I really want to start off by talking about why do we utilize storytelling and why it's so important and powerful. As you are delivering stories, everything from who's the main person in your story, the type of language and the words you were using in your story really reflect the values that you hold as a campaign. Right? And so as you think about when I listened to the storytellers and anybody uses the word minority I automatically know that they aren't sort of as with it, when it comes to race as they, as they could be. Right? And so even down to little words like that, when utilized in a story, really chill your values and your perspective as a campaign. So those really help give cues to your audiences. The second thing is that stories are really emotionally connective. We hear them all the time and we are, we were wired for them from birth, right? We've been hearing stories in movies and books and at the dinner table. And so we are already wired to gather information and digest information through storytelling. So it allows us to meet folks where they are. And we do that through emotions. I would love to think that humans make decisions on logic and ration, but we don't. Emotions are something that really help people remember and feel connected to an issue or a cause that often we are just using facts or statistics to deliver the impact or the urgency about. And if we just throw those numbers out to people they're really going to zone out, right? And so we really need to humanize these issues by utilizing stories and, and showing the impact that they are having. So, Joe, what do organizations need to think about as they're setting up their advocacy programs and thinking about utilizing storytelling?
Joe Fuld (03:06):
Well, again, I mean, they need to think first that we, as people are just wired for stories, there's a great book called The Storytelling Animal. That I'm a fan of that you all can check out by on Amazon. That gives you a little more detail into that, but just taking a moment back here every year, whether it's Democrat or Republicans, President, the most compelling part of the State of the Union is when they have the people in the balcony talking about an issue and how someone was impacted by an issue, whether it was healthcare, whether it was a veteran, and groups and organizations need to think about what is their own balcony, what are ways in which they can put people out front to make sure their stories are heard as loud as possible. Now everyone's not going to have an opportunity like the State of the Union to get their message out, but it could be on their Facebook page. It could be at a press release. It could be at a community forum, all of those things matter. And so people need to be thinking about the different types of storytellers that they could employ, meaning different types of testimonials, different lengths of stories, different mediums, that these stories are going to be used different places in which the storytellers are going to live. That could impact specific legislators. All of those things are going to be really important. And, you know, I think that storytelling is something that any organization should really be building into their communications and their organizing program. And it is from my perspective, a sort of cross departmental thing that needs to be going on. It's a part of membership. It's a part of organizing. It's a part of advocacy. It is a part of outreach in general, and thinking about the different storytellers you're going to need for the long term, but Martín, you've been doing this for a while. Tell me what a good story is and what a good story is not.
Martín Diego Garcia (05:12):
There's a really simple structure that you want to follow when you're thinking about creating a story and whether it's the story of how your organization was developed or the story behind why this campaign got started, whether it's a story that's associated with a specific issue or a story that shows your success rate and the momentum, the little wins that you are building upon, right? You have to first outline the challenge, right? What is the problem and what is the, and how are you and your organization connected to that problem? Right. So how are you connected to the current resources being divvied up for the pandemic relief, right? What, how does your organization attach itself to the importance of ensuring that whatever the next bill or, or relief package looks like? Why should individuals who are living with HIV AIDS be included in that conversation, right? So what is the collective problem that folks are facing? The second thing that you need to do is then figure out what is the contrast, right? What are the two paths? What is the choice that folks have to make in order to be on your side or not be on your side? And what is the consequence there? Right. So if we're including folks who live with HIV/AIDS in a relief package and ensuring that folks are getting the resources that they need, we will likely continue to do research to help end the epidemic. We would likely make sure that folks who are probably disproportionately affected because of their health conditions, right, are less likely to die because of the, because of the coronavirus. And we're ensuring that they're getting the medical attention they need. Whereas if they're not, we're sort of leaving these folks out on a limb to support themselves and get by, get by, get through the pandemic on their own. Right? And so you have to really paint a clear choice for folks and a clear contrast so that you get then to the opportunity for them to take action, which is the last part of your story, how do they then choose the path that you want them to take and what is their urgency and action that they can now take, whether it's calling their Senator, calling their representative, signing an online petition, right? Showing their support somehow to ensure that folks who are living with HIV/AIDS are included in the next relief package. So you want to have a clear challenge. What is the overall problem? A clear choice that lays out what is the contrast between your side and the opposition or doing something and not doing something. And then lastly, what is the urgency in that really specific call to action that you want folks to take?
Joe Fuld (07:49):
Yeah. And I'll jump in on the, like what it's not right. It's just not a rote recitation of facts and figures, right. That could be worked in and a part of the story. So you're not seen as a number or a statistic and that it makes it emotional, but what you don't want is it to be, as if someone is reading a policy paper, the whole idea of telling a story is you have that emotional impact. And that is so important as you're thinking about where to find storytellers, right? So you have an issue, you have a cause you know what you're doing, you've, you started a campaign. Really start looking at the folks who are volunteering, who are supporters who folks who would be directly impacted by the piece of legislation, by the information that you're putting out or whatever the campaign may be, right. Who are the folks that are going to be directly impacted there and start talking to them, start listening to them and listening to their stories and how, how their families or individually will they be, will they benefit from this, or how are they being harmed from whatever the cause or the issue may be that may be happening is. And so think about how do you find those storytellers who are authentic to the issue and are, are being impacted by the decision that's being made by legislators on that particular bill or topic.
Joe Fuld (09:08):
Yeah. And this is a constant thing. You can't just wake up on one day and say, I need storytellers now. You have to have a process to really engage and organize storytellers in the specific places. You need them in the communities that you want them and really be doing that outreach consistently throughout. It's hard to do, but when you do it, it is so rewarding. And there's lots of different things on the blog at thecampaignworkshop.com, just search storytelling, you'll see a bunch of posts on it, but we're happy to give you more information about it. So Martín, do you have a favorite advocacy story before we go into the next segment?
Martín Diego Garcia (09:49):
I think sort of harping back to, I mean, I really got politically activated when prop eight in California happened here around marriage equality. And I, I think they did a really fantastic job of one back on episode three, right, like honing in your message and changing that message from rights that we deserve as individuals to really talking about love and what, what marriage actually meant to folks and utilizing different folks from different places, whether it was folks who, who had a religious affiliation to folks who were families to folks who were just in love and why, why sharing that really powerful story of, I love this other human and therefore want to show this commitment to them was something that was a values thing, but it was something that we, we all strive for and we all want to end up doing and why would we deny folks based on somebody that they love, right. That they, they're not allowed to do this thing. And so switching from this facts and figures, this is a right. We deserve to, we're just in love and we want to get married story was just so powerful. And obviously we've seen the impact of that since. And, and that I think was a really great demonstration of how to really captivate folks with storytelling.
Joe Fuld (11:04):
Yeah. Well, one of my personal favorites was you know, the first smoke-free sort of city ordinance that I worked on was here in Washington DC. And we were able to get a restauranteur named Andy Shallal to own who owns busboys and poets to not only allow us to come in and film in his restaurant, but actually give a testimonial about why he thought smoke-free restaurants were important. He had smoke-free restaurants before it was the law. He really was open to talk about it. We could not find really any other restauranteurs that would talk on the record. It was pretty courageous for him to do it. We're up against the restaurant association he was willing to do it is, you know, we were able to get members of his staff to talk about how freeing it was to work in a smoke-free restaurant. So, and sort of a non-traditional ally to come out and do that was really important. So that's one that sticks out in my memory of a great story and a good storyteller. Well, we're super excited to hear from Greisa Martinez Rosas on storytelling, and we'll do that after the break.
(Music)
Martín Diego Garcia (12:23):
And we're back, I am super excited to be joined today by Greisa Martinez Rosas, who is always an inspiration to me whenever I get to see her or hear her speak. Greisa is the executive director at United We dream, also known as UWD. UWD is a national nonpartisan membership-based organization of over 800,000 immigrant youth and allies which is led by the 126 affiliate organizations in 26 States. UWD advocates for the dignity and fair treatment of undocumented immigrant youth and their families. Originally from Hildago, Mexico, Greisa, came to the US with her family at a young age as an undocumented immigrant. They, she then went on to study political science and economics at Texas A&M university, and has since been organizing immigrant youth, students and workers for the passage of pro-immigrant policies at the local, state and federal level for the past decade. And I'm sure has plenty of stories to share from doing that work. Welcome Greisa and thank you so much for joining us on this episode of storytelling.
Greisa Martinez Rosas (13:30):
Gracias Martín, I'm so happy to be here.
Martín Diego Garcia (13:30):
It's always a pleasure to see your lovely face and your beautiful smile. You always light up a room.
Greisa Martinez Rosas (13:37):
Thank you.
Martín Diego Garcia (13:37):
As we talk about this episode on storytelling. I know you have an amazing story and often share your story and was wondering if you would share a little bit of your story for our listeners and particular about how you got into this line of work.
Greisa Martinez Rosas (13:51):
Yeah, no, I first, I just want to say how proud and excited I am to be on this with you. Martín it's, it's an honor to be in any project that you're involved in, but also to tell the story of what we're doing at UWD and, and support you and your leadership. And, you know, I think storytelling, I'm so happy that you're covering this because I think storytelling is at the heart of every, every strategy that actually wins. If you look at the fight for LGBTQ marriage, when you look at the fight for ensuring that like black people are treated as people in this country, all of it at the heart of it has been storytelling and what this moment means. And so for me my story begins when I come into this country with my mom and my dad their names are Louis and Elia Martinez Rosas. Um we came to the US when I was very young, we crossed the Rio Grande, the waters from Hidalgo to Dallas, Texas, which is where we grew up. And in Dallas, you know, I always knew that I was undocumented. I knew that there was something that I was, that was a secret that I couldn't tell a lot of people. And I knew that it was, I kept the secret, not only to protect myself, but mostly to protect my family and my mom and my dad, who I saw every day, get up at the crack of dawn and my mom making my dad like a little cup of coffee in the morning with tortillas and frijoles and my dad like running the truck and then like woke up the whole neighborhood. Cause it was like one of those old rickety white trucks. And he at the same time that both of them led a congregation in Dallas, they were both Southern Baptist preachers. They also had to make ends meet. And so my dad was a guy, I don't know if you've seen them, but they're like these like wooden pallets that you see at Costco or like some of these places. And he would go out to the to the companies, like get them bring them home, fix them up and sell them, sell them right back to them. And it was like I thought that I was like the ultimate immigrant hustle.
Martín Diego Garcia (16:04):
I was gonna say, that is a hustle!
Greisa Martinez Rosas (16:04):
Yeah. So that's what we lived off of. You know, there was a lot of sometimes like shame that came from that work as growing up poor in Dallas. But a lot of lessons, like I remember every Sunday we would go out before like the big industrial, like trash would come on Monday mornings, we would go out and like, do like a scouting. So we would have like our truck, like my dad like would like pull us all up into the truck. And like, my role was to be like the lookout. So I would go into these big dumpsters and like look out at the top of it and see like, Oh, is there any pallets here that we could take? And then there was, I was like, yeah, come over. And my motivation was that at the end of that trip, I always used to get hot Cheetos and an iced tea that was like my, my payment for being a good lookout.
Martín Diego Garcia (16:58):
Staple snack in a Latino household.
Greisa Martinez Rosas (17:03):
And so one of those days it was a Sunday and my, we found something, my dad was backing up the truck, my mom, you know, it was like, okay, okay. You're close, almost hit it. And this Sunday was different because at the corner of our eye, we saw someone that worked at the factory, my dad had over the years, like met a lot of folks. Like they like were help, like help them sometimes they'll call him and say like, Hey, I, I think that there's something here that you want to come see, but this time it was a new, a new person. And then this person was a white man. And instead of like curiosity, there was accusation. And I remember just the way that he looked at our family with a lot of hate. He started yelling at my dad, like, why are you, why are you stealing? Um he called him a wetback which is a derogatory term for Mexicans and undocumented people. He told them that he should be ashamed of having his daughters there with him and in his eyes, I just saw, I never knew what it was, but I, I could feel his eyes on me and my mom and my dad and, and I could feel like deep hate and anger. And I was so confused. We were, we just had the music on and all that was on my mind was hot Cheetos, you know? And in my dad's eyes and my mom's, I saw shame. Um and in that moment, I just, that moment comes back to me so often because those same eyes are, the eyes are that gaze are like the gaze that we see in people all across the country that gaze is from that man is lethal. And we've seen it in the recent months where you see black and brown people being killed by police in the streets. And so for me, that moment of being undocumented, of being brown, of being poor, it's the thing that really energized me when I was a senior in high school. And there was this big announcement that there were going to be they were gonna put my mom and my dad as being felons like this law that passed in Washington, DC, that would sat that they were felons. And I just couldn't stay still. I couldn't let another, like more people be able to tell my mom or my dad that they should be ashamed for something like just trying to survive. And so I, and my friends organized like this big walkouts of like young people of our high schools and like, I don't know where that came from. Cause it wasn't really me. Like I was a girl that was just trying to like, let me put my head down, let me like, do what I gotta do. But I think that moment, that Sunday, I think is the thing that, that pushed me to do it that like, I couldn't just stand back and do nothing.
Martín Diego Garcia (20:03):
I mean, what an amazing story, I mean, like in and of itself, which leads me to my next question. I think you just demonstrated, why do you think storytelling is so powerful and such a powerful tool that advocacy organizations can utilize?
Greisa Martinez Rosas (20:18):
You know, I I was taught storytelling through the Marshall Ganz model. That really is a model that comes from the farm workers and the movement that happened in California and the farm worker movement and in that, and they always tell the story about how Cesar Chavez was like building this big union. And he was like, people were like, Oh, we can't ask members to pay dues. Like they barely have enough food to eat. And his response was like, it has to be like this movement has to belong to the people and they have to be able to feel a connection and ownership of it and the union will show up for them. And so in that same way, I think that storytelling is like ensuring that people feel it in their bones. Like they know what the connections are. We speak about values when we tell stories and values are the things that connect us and like that ground in our work where we tell, well, we paint pictures about the, the things that are guarded in our souls and in our hearts, people are able to not only connect with that part of you, but connect with that part of themselves and then being able to, you know, storytelling isn't enough. And that's what we've learned within the immigrant justice movement. You have to be able to marry that with a clear theory of what you're going to change and a clear call to action.
Martín Diego Garcia (21:41):
Are there ways that you can give us that you all at UWD have, have used storytelling and storytelling effectively in engaging your advocates and supporters to push them to that call to action, as you mentioned?
Greisa Martinez Rosas (21:53):
Yeah. I think that part of you know, one of the organizing rules that they drill into your head is that organizing is about self-interest. It's about like, what does the other person that's listening to you or you're calling into your work, like, what is, what, how is it that their lives are also transformed? And so I, I will say that like, United We Dream has actually now grown to a group of 800,000 people. We have a reach of 5 million people every month and have been able to in the last couple of months, talk to 22.5 million Latinx communities across the country to tell them about like, what's like to ask them what's happening with COVID in their lives to tell them to go out and fill out the census and to tell them about like the things that are coming up for our communities in the next couple of months. And so the way that we do that work is around three things I'll say. The first is like being able to be very clear about the challenge. What is like the, what is the thing that we're facing? And it's not like, let me tell you about a new problem that you want to have. It's like, but putting the, the, the moment that we're in into context. So what's the challenge. The second one is the choice. So what is it that if we make this choice together, are we like what is it that you're telling me to do? Like, what is the call to action that you want to do? Like, what is, and then the third piece is a hopeful outcome. Like if we do this, then this will happen. And so one of the examples is actually on DACA the Supreme Court, the Supreme Court we, we have been leverage like the Trump administration has been leveraging attacks against undocumented young people since day one in his campaign. And he promised his base that he was going to kill the DACA program. They like, first 100 days we are still now like four, almost four years into his election. And DACA is still in place. Obviously it's changed and like he has attacked it and like basically killed it as it exists, but we preserved part of it because of our story. We told the stories of young undocumented people that were were part of essential workers that are the ones that are ensuring that we make it through this COVID nightmare that we all find ourselves into.
Martín Diego Garcia (24:10):
How do you identify those advocates or supporters who have good stories and how do you, how do you help train or what techniques do you have to sort of pull those stories out of folks to know that like, this is going to be a really powerful story to be shared.
Greisa Martinez Rosas (24:25):
I'll say that we had people from Ireland and, and all over Europe come to the U S and get trained by United We dream on storytelling. And the thing that we always hear from people are like, Oh, well, you know, your story is cool, but like, you know, it's heartbreaking and powerful, but I don't have a story like that. My life has been okay. And I think that's, or sometimes people feel like I don't have a story to tell, like, my life has been pretty, you know, whatever. And I, I, I, that's not true. Like everybody has moments of choice in our lives. So we have made to be able to to call us into why it is that we're making the ask, why it is aware of part of this organization or this campaign or this effort. And so being able to like, do some of that thinking for yourself, I think it's important figuring out, like, what is like the, what are the values that are in action as you're making this choice? Like, whether, you know, you signed up for this listserv because I dunno like you, your girlfriend was undocumented and therefore, you know, you decided to jump in, like, those are the, those are things that are universal, like wanting to care for our loved one as a universal value that I think is important. So we we really ground people on knowing that your story is valuable, your stories worthy of being heard. The second thing is that it is important to be able to think about what your goal is. Whenever you're telling storytelling and whenever you're doing storytelling and including that in your campaign, if your goal is to because your goal actually depends, your goal dictates who the right messenger is and what the right story is. Depending on the audience and the, and the the target that you're trying to hit. And so, you know, that that actually varies depending on which of the pieces that you really want to be able to tackle, but for the immigrant justice movement and and undocumented young people, our goal is to ensure that we change the way that this country sees immigrants, that we humanize them, that we build independent political power for our people that we went, policy change that is able to have material change in people's lives. And when we do that, then we, then the message is pretty easy. Like it's like the people most directly to tell the story, the people that support us. So like the team, we train a lot of teachers to tell their stories about why it is that they support undocumented young people. We do some of the storytelling with like with elected officials across the country. So as people are thinking about including storytelling into their work, they'll be very clear. What's the goal who is like the best speaker or the best messenger for this. And then ensuring that people know that everybody has a story. So it's not about the sob stories actually. Like the, it's not, it's a, if it's a sob story, then I make sure that it's for strategic purposes, not just making people feel bad for you, because then people will just stay there. It's just like, we've all been there, right? Like we S we've seen like the commercial, they're like, Oh, that's so sad. And then like, you just go on about your day you need to be able to have, like, what is like, why is it important for them to move through it, like take action with you and why will their lives also be better if they take action?
Martín Diego Garcia (27:44):
Yeah. Completely agree with you. Amazing, amazing. One thing that I want to sort of wrap up with that I think is also really important is about the care for storytellers, right? Like you were bringing these folks in and you're asking them to do something very brave and very vulnerable. Right. And you were taking them to a place that maybe they do feel shame and maybe they haven't processed fully. Can you talk about how you all sort of hold your folks and ensure that you are also taking care of the folks while they're giving you as an organization, this really powerful thing of their story?
Greisa Martinez Rosas (28:17):
Yes, I will say one is that we, when you are requesting vulnerability from others, you must first be able to be vulnerable. And so everyone that like leads storytelling piece starts out with their own story and why they showed up on that day, why they showed up to this story training piece. So that is going to be important. If you don't feel like you have the right staff, you don't feel like you have the right people to be able to like reflect back the vulnerability that you are expecting from others. You know, I would just caution. The second thing is I think that whether you have it in-house or outside partnering with mental health providers is really important. We work with a couple of partners, the national Latinx Psychological Association, Soul Sisters there's a lot of resources out there for you to be able to like, anchor your work with, with mental health and mind. So I'll say that those are two things that folks should think about when you're caring, not only for like the people that are the storytellers, but also your own team as they like also process a lot of these things that will might be unearthed.
Martín Diego Garcia (29:30):
Yeah, yeah, yeah. Well yet again, you have got me all warm and fuzzy and feeling inspired and ready to take action. You've been amazing. Thank you. Thank you so much for joining us.
Greisa Martinez Rosas (29:42):
Thank you for having me.
Martín Diego Garcia (29:43):
So we'll be right back. But if you want to learn more about what Greisa and her team is doing over at United We Dream, we will add a link in the show description, as well as hopefully some other resources to help you out with your storytelling process. We'll be right back.
(Music)
Joe Fuld (30:12):
Wow. That was great interview. I'm sure we'll be putting that out as a full length interview bonus episode cause that was super compelling. Some of the things that Greisa mentioned was storytelling ensures that people connect with you, right? And that is like so powerful. A good story requires a clear strategy. You need to be clear about the challenge, putting the moment we're in into context and you want to make sure there is a clear call to action. There's no one way to identify who's going to have a powerful story. You kind of have to really work on recruitment and engage as many as people as possible to make sure that you're getting the best stories. And it's important to think about what your goal is when you're choosing storytellers. Everyone has a great story. Doesn't need to, you know, make you cry, but you do want it to make you take action. So that is just so important. And story collection itself is about giving people the opportunity to share their own stories and be a part of a movement.
Martín Diego Garcia (31:19):
Yeah, definitely, because what you want to know is right, like what are you trying to achieve with your stories, right? Are you trying to get an elected official to get on your side? Are you trying to do an educational campaign and you're trying to get the community aware of the particular issue or cause that you're fighting on behalf of right. So knowing what you're trying to achieve is really going to help you better understand who's the best messenger for that. What are the best types of stories for that? What's the call to action. You're trying to connect the story to which will really help you hone in on what are the best stories for you to utilize there. And remember that, and Greisa had mentioned this and was a perfect example right? Of how do you ensure that the people who are directly impacted by this issue are really at the core of the storytelling coming out of your campaign. You doing this takes a lot of guts and a lot of courage, right? Particularly if it's a very personal issue, like immigration reform like, right, like reproductive justice, right? It can be really emotional for a storyteller to deliver their story. And so make sure that you're taking care of them, practicing with them. So they don't get so far into the emotions that they're, they're unable to deliver the rest of the structure of the story. And really get to that ask.
Joe Fuld (32:40):
Yeah. I mean, you really want to have a real open mind and a big open time window to collect stories. Again, we talk often about storytelling being a part of your goals. And part of this is what's your legislative strategy. Are there specific legislators you're trying to move. We talk in other episodes about power mapping. We talk about grass tops and grassroots. Those are great places to get storytellers from, but they're not the only places to get storytellers from, but it is a good place to start to think about your donors, to think about your grasstops, to think about your grassroots, who are people that are going to have connections to the people in power that you're trying to move, but then there's lots of technology out there, right? Whether it's doing some searches on Twitter to see hashtags that work around an issue and connecting with people around that, whether it's using a user generated content tool like boast or soapbox or a Gather Voices, we write about this on the blog so check that out. But any of those tools can allow you to send out an email to your list and collect video, which can be super important,uand connective. And you can use this in so many different ways. So I be thinking about that. And then,udon't stop. Right? My other thing that is really important is this is not something you can do in a day. It's something that has to be a mission to allow people, to have their voice and be a part of a movement. And you are giving something to folks, it can be, make them vulnerable. So you need to make sure that you give them space, but you're also allowing them to engage and be a part of something that maybe they really want to be a part of, they just don't know it yet. Yeah.
Martín Diego Garcia (34:30):
I think as humans, we want that human interaction right? We want to connect with other folks and vulnerability does that in a way that like facts and figures just can't right. And so, so harnessing that ability to emotionally connect and show some vulnerability through your stories is going to be super, super powerful. And I think one thing that Greisa did really phenomenally, right, is she really painted a picture, right. She painted a picture and you, and you were there with her when her and her family were collecting those wood pallets. Right. And you were there with her when she had her hot Cheetos. Right. And so as you're prepping your storytellers to give these images and invoke these emotions and, and engage the senses, right. Think about what did they see when they were in the story? What did they smell when they were in the story? What colors were there, right? You really want to paint a vivid picture for your audience as you're giving these stories so that they, they remember them. Right. So that they resonate with your voter, with your target audience. So when they go to cast a vote on that ballot measure, or get more information or donate or take action right there, we're doing it because they remember such a vivid, powerful story.
Joe Fuld (35:41):
Yeah. So let's unpack that a little bit Martín. Why is that story so powerful?
Martín Diego Garcia (35:47):
Absolutely. I mean, because you, you feel for, you feel for Greisa and her family, and it's something that at some point in our lives, we likely all feel, right? She talked about that shame and the first time she felt it and felt it in such a powerful resonating sort of like life-changing way. And we all have that, right? Like whether you're a kid on the, on the kickball field and you miss the kick and all the kids start laughing at you. Right. You feel that shame, but that emotion sticks with you. Right? It's just so powerful. And so when you can talk in that way, that connects with an emotion or a value that we all just share because we're humans, or we all have experienced because we're humans, right. That's that memory is going to tap and it's going to get connected and we're going to, we're going to feel that just so much more. And so that I think is the core to the power of storytelling and why you see everybody using it, right. Whether it's a, whether it's a target ad or a credit card ad or it's campaigns and elections, or it's in the, everybody uses stories to get their message across and move people to action.
Joe Fuld (36:51):
Well, but the other thing is the, which we haven't talked about is that it's super economical right now. Right? We're all in our homes. People want to share, they want to talk like, I mean, you know, there are a lot of people that are going through issues of having loneliness, being isolated. And this is a way to sort of share the struggle that you're going through. And it is much easier to be able to use sort of a video platform or collect stories in written form online, then send a crew out to somebody's house and you can do this in a much more sort of broad way to get engagement in specific districts. And it's, I think the first time in my career where one, we're getting higher contact rates because people are home, but also the technology now is there to make it easy to capture and tell these individual stories in a very emotional and compelling way.
Martín Diego Garcia (37:48):
Greisa also brought up a really great point that it was something that I had learned and I'm going to start passing on. And trainings is when they do their storytelling collection, they connect and partner with mental health organizations. So depending on the cause or the issue or the campaign that you're running on, right, having somebody relive that emotional, vulnerable story, right, um you want to make sure that you're providing some resources for them as well. If they need to work through some other stuff there and make sure that, that we are taking care of those folks, but a super helpful tip and thing that we should be doing as we're taking care of our folks and working on these really, really important and very often emotional causes and campaigns.
Joe Fuld (38:30):
Absolutely. I mean, it's so important. And you know, I think we always, as organizers need to leave the community where we're working in, in a better place. And we need to be very thoughtful about sort of the toll of telling these stories and making sure we're being very clear about how the story is going to be used. And what ways it's going to be used and getting buy-in and not having people feel pressure to tell a story if it doesn't work for them, which sometimes it does not.
Martín Diego Garcia (38:59):
Yeah, absolutely. Well, if you want to learn more about storytelling, please check out our blog, but that is a wrap for this episode. Thanks so much for tuning in. If you have specific questions or comments about storytelling, also feel free to contact us via our social media handles or our email address that are going to be in the show description.
Joe Fuld (39:15):
So on our next episode, we'll be talking about advocacy, targeting and metrics with Rose Espinola.. Tune in to learn more about how targeting and metrics can strengthen an advocacy campaign.
Martín Diego Garcia (39:26):
So until next time, this is Martín Diego Garcia.
Joe Fuld (39:29):
And Joe Fuld breaking down how to win an advocacy campaign.
Martín Diego Garcia (39:34):
How to Win an Advocacy Campaign is Joe Fuld, Martín Diego Garcia, Hope Rohrbach, Daniel Lam, Heidi Job, and Elena Veatch. Music by Mike Pinto. Sound editing by The Global Startup Movement. Special thanks to the team at The Campaign Workshop. Remember to review like, and subscribe wherever you get your podcasts.
(Outro Music)