But HOW do I tell my story?

Excerpt from my ASES 2024 Annual Member Meeting Keynote from March 28, 2024: (~1400 words, ~9min read)

First and foremost, happy 70th birthday to American Solar Energy Society! I was honored to be asked to give the keynote to this year's annual meeting, and as a former ASES Regional Board Member (yay NorCal Solar!) it was amazing to speak to this year's gathering.

It's been seventy years since ASES was founded in the same year that Bell Labs patented its solar cell, which operated at a then unheard of 6% efficiency! 

If you listen to my podcast, you’ll know I’m a self-professed quote hoarder. I’d like to thank listener (and fellow RPCV), Aaron Nichols, who helped me find these 2 quotes today and also contributed to the draft you're about to read. You should go follow Aaron.

"Don't be satisfied with stories, how things have gone with others. Unfold your own myth" -Rumi

AND

"The world is full of stories, and from birth to death, we are all living out our own mythologies." -Joseph Campbell

It wasn't that long ago that a renewable energy future seemed like a myth. When I started my own solar company in 2006 in Monterey, CA, renewables still felt like an impossibly small niche. My B-school mentor told me to find a bigger niche 😅, one that could be a Trillion-dollar industry. But, we believed in the myth, lived it out, and every day, it started to become more of a reality. 

This is why I constantly harp on the power (and importance) of storytelling. Because, everything starts with storytelling, and then the stories we tell ourselves become the stories we tell others, and those become the ways we've tangibly affected the world.

In our information-saturated age, business leaders won’t be heard unless they’re telling their stories.

We’re social creatures, and we relate to other people through the stories we tell. It’s no surprise. Humans have been communicating through stories for upwards of 20,000 years, back when our flat screens were cave walls.

Facts and figures and all the rational things that we think are important in the business world actually don’t stick in our minds at all.

Stories create “sticky” memories by attaching emotions to things that happen.

That means leaders who can create and share good stories have a powerful advantage over others. And fortunately, everyone has the ability to become a better storyteller.

Now, you ask, "how do I craft a good story?"

Let's remember the core elements of great storytelling:

Start with a message

Every storytelling exercise should begin by asking: Who is my audience and what is the message I want to share with them? Each decision about your story should flow from those questions.

Settle on your ultimate message; then, you can figure out the best way to illustrate it.

I encourage you to develop a story bank of your own.

To do this, you have to learn to

Mine your own experiences, and those of your team (get real)

The best storytellers use their own memories and life experiences to illustrate their message. What events in your life, your day-to-day business, and your experiences on the job or with customers selling or installing projects make you believe in the idea you are trying to share?

I like to prompt clients to:

“think of a moment in which your own failures led to success in your career or business endeavor.”

Any of these things can be interesting emotional entry points to a story. While there may be a tendency not to want to share personal details at work, anecdotes that illustrate struggle, failure, and barriers overcome are what make leaders appear authentic and accessible.

As Brené Brown has demonstrated, the key is to show your vulnerability.

But,

Don’t make yourself the hero

Don’t make yourself the star of your own story. The story needs to be relatable. Whenever possible, endeavor to make the audience or someone from your team the hero. This increases their engagement and willingness to buy into your message.

Remember, it's ultimately not about you.

One of the main reasons we listen to stories is to create a deeper belief in ourselves, so when the storyteller talks about how great they are, the audience tends to shut them off.

Again, DO Highlight a struggle

A story without a challenge simply isn’t very interesting.

Good storytellers understand that a story needs conflict.

Was there a competitor that needed to be bested? A market challenge that you had to overcome? A change-resistant industry (hello, Utilities!) that your organization transformed?

Don’t be afraid to suggest the road ahead will be difficult.

😣 Humans actually like to be told it’s going to be hard.

A well-crafted story embedded with a rallying cry 📣 means you don’t necessarily have to demand change or effort from your audience. The right people will want to become your partners in change because they want to be part of the journey.

but please, 

Keep it simple

Not every story you tell has to be a surprising, edge-of-your-seat epic. Some of the most successful and memorable stories are relatively simple and straightforward. Don’t let needless details detract from your core message. Work from the principle that “less is more.”

Transporting your audience with a few interesting, well-placed details — how you felt, the expression on a face, the humble beginnings of a now-great company — can help immerse your listeners and drive home your message.

And remember, practice makes perfect

Storytelling is a real art form and as such requires repeated effort to get right. I encourage everyone to start with simple posts here on Linkedin. Find a place you can gauge and test reaction or feedback to the message, iterate and improve. 

Then you can work up the courage to post more vulnerable and emotion-driving stories.

Stories are the original viral tool...trust me, for the extra three minutes you spend encoding a leadership or industry-focused communication in a story, you’re going to see returns that last for months and maybe even years.

Storytelling may seem like an old-fashioned tool today — and it is. That’s exactly what makes it so powerful. Life happens in the narratives we tell one another. A story can go where quantitative analysis is denied admission: our hearts. Data can persuade people, but it doesn’t inspire them to act; to do that, you need to wrap your vision in a story that fires the imagination and stirs the soul.

I’d like to close with a quote from a Harvard Business Review article:

"The most successful storytellers often focus listeners’ minds on a single important idea, and they take no longer than a 30-second Superbowl spot to forge an emotional connection.”

Whether you are an engineer working tirelessly to improve photovoltaic technology, a salesperson bringing clean energy to homeowners, or an advocate championing policy change—you are all storytellers at heart.

YOU are the storytellers, but remember it's not YOUR story but rather your CUSTOMER'S stories that need to be told, and we need to inspire THEM to be advocates to help elevate the visibility and momentum of the Renewable Energy sector.

We are not merely selling a product or service—we are kindling a movement powered by the sun and fueled by our stories...Stories of innovation, resilience, and transformation.

I am honored to be on that journey with you, and helping tell your stories from the front lines of the clean energy revolution.

If you didn't already know, we produce stories each and every week, twice-a-week, with leaders on the front lines of this clean energy transition, and we share about them here on Linkedin. Our approach is through the medium of the SunCast Podcast and if you haven't subscribed or listened to one yet, I'd be so honored if you gave it a chance.

Thank you for being a subscriber to this Newsletter. I'm sure that there are folks in YOUR network who are hiding behind their stories and they should be sharing them with the world.

Would you be willing to share this article with them? You can do it privately, or you can re-post this to your own Linkedin network and help us get a broader audience for Valence. Either way, I'm honored that you're here, and I want to SEE you posting your stories. Tag me in the comments, DM me when you've done it, so I can celebrate that win with you!

See you back here in a couple of weeks. 🙏🏼