In a Storytelling workshop, I was asked a question about how often the same story can be told. At first, it seems like a somewhat silly question. I mean, who wants to hear, let alone tell, the same story over and over on the air? Thinking about it a little more, I came to the conclusion that you can tell the same story many times. Inside every topic, every story are dozens of potential stories waiting to be told from a different perspective.
Finding an angle from which to present a story on the air is of the most important things to consider in performance of a break. Every story must have a point of view, or perspective.
Perspective is one of my Three P’s of storytelling (along with Practice and Planning). It’s all explained in the seminar on demand here.
Perspective comes from having a keen, focused sense of who you are as an air talent. It comes together when building a personality brand profile, as explained in the seminar Build a 5 Star Personality Brand.
Every single thing a radio personality does should be performed through a perspective. This comes from having a clear point of view. That doesn’t mean there’s listeners are so excited to hear your opinion on any topic you think is important. It’s more about creating an angle on the story being crafted.
When preparing a story for performance, I coach personalities to find original content using the TESOP process of content curation. It’s the steps to take a Topic to Execution, Story, Observation and Performance. It’s explained in detail here, and highlighted in the seminar on demand Harvest Your Life.
