Taylor Robinson | The Art of Storytelling: Part 2 - 021

Sep 7, 2021

Continuing from our last episode, today’s episode of Aligned features another conversation with Taylor on storytelling. Check out the episode to learn how you, as a business executive or marketer, can implement storytelling best practices into your business.

What’s one thing people miss when trying to tell stories?

• In a marketing context, it’s a lack of identifying who“the hero” of your story is and the stakes that drive the story forward.
• People in marketing are scared to show the negative. But that can remove the impact of a story.
• Great stories always end with some form of transformation. The catalyst of the change is what your story is about.

Taylor’s top pick for storytelling inspiration:

• Jaws. Taylor loves not just the movie, but the experience he associates with the film itself. As a child, he found Jaws terrifying but intriguing. And now, as an adult, he remembers the fear the movie once instilled in him.
• The movie’s filming was riddled with problems, so the ingenuity that arose from desperation made some of the most iconic cinematic scenes of all time.
• In Jaws, the external problem is the huge shark killing people (that’s pretty obvious.)
• But the internal problem is Matt Hooper. He’s new to town, his family doesn’t want to be there, and he tries to find his place in the community. 
• The story of Jaws is about Hooper finding his place while also dealing with the external problem. 

Storytelling is very powerful for faith-based organizations

• Taylor uses his creative talents to work on projects he’s passionate about. As a  Christian, he enjoys working on projects close to his heart
• Storytelling isn’t something that we use; it’s something God gave to us. God designed the craft of storytelling to bring glory and honor to himself while advancing the gospel.
• God didn’t just create the concrete world. He created how we understand the world. 
• Storytelling is the only non-biological thing all humans share. Across all of history, the one thing we share is the ability to understand and tell stories.

The Bible is the greatest story ever told.

• The four secret ingredients to storytelling are transformation, vulnerability, details, and stakes. The Bible excels in integrating all of these elements.
• Details: The story of Christ is incredibly long and detailed.
• Vulnerability: God humbled himself and took on the form of a human and offered himself up for sacrifice for our sins, which is very vulnerable. Humans are sinners in need of a Savior; we’re in a vulnerable place because there’s nothing we could do to redeem ourselves.
• Stakes: The stakes are the eternal life of civilization (it really can’t get more significant than that.)
• We think about the Bible regarding its theological implications, but it’s also the archetype of perfect storytelling.

Telling a biblical story: 

• People will take passages from the Bible out of context to justify and rationalize any belief or decision.
• It’s essential as storytellers and filmmakers to realize, as we're conveying scripture to people, that claiming scripture as true is powerful.
• Don’t take things at face value; take God's truth that he has made clear throughout the Bible. 

Dealing with constrained budgets of nonprofits, churches and ministries:

• What Taylor’s grandmother says is true: you get what you pay for. But you have to be careful what you pay for.
• Hire the right people who understand who you are and what your organization is about.
• Some businesses just can’t afford professional filmmakers. Taylor dislikes when organizations request professional services with the caveat of, “we're a ministry you should do things differently.”

There’s value in storytelling to achieve a purpose. But there is also value in storytelling purely for the aesthetic.

• Taylor recommends the book Angels in the Architecture.
• From an aesthetic standpoint, it is crucial for me as a filmmaker and storyteller to operate at the highest level possible.
• The act of storytelling in marketing is about helping communicate to somebody why they should choose to assign their limited resources to you and your product or service.
• The foundation of why you should pay more for an aesthetic: beautiful things are effective things.

Beautiful things are effective things.

• Nothing else in marketing has the complexity nor the capacity to reach, touch, and affect other human beings.
• People now more than ever can tell when something looks cheap or isn’t very good. So why would you ever create something that wasn't going to be as good as you could afford it to be.
• In post-production, the beauty of powerful storytelling is removing the extraneous components to create the greatest impact with the least material possible.
• It's a great way to a better piece, and it's better storytelling,

Episode Resources:

• Aligned is a podcast for executives of emerging middle-market companies and executives pursuing growth and looking for new levers to pull. 
• Order Sean’s book Shift.
• To connect with Sean Doyle, find him on LinkedIn, or learn more about FitzMartin on the company web page. 
• You can find Taylor Robinson’s production company at sixfootfive.com and his storytelling organization at arcstories.com. 
• Save the Cat by Blake Snyder details the steps to a great story, especially on the screen.

Taylor created FlyKid to advance the gospel of Jesus Christ through storytelling. Check out the website Flykid.tv to see Taylor’s methods and organization to help teach the craft of storytelling.