The Seven Habits of Highly Effective Storytelling VII: “Believe and Be Relentless”

By Chris Terry

Vice President, Communications Strategy

This article is the last installment in my "Seven Habits of Highly Effective Storytelling" series for communications professionals. It isn't a story-generation tactic or narrative device but the habit of unflagging determination and creativity.

Hard news, i.e., "real news," like announcing a new product, a leadership change, or financial results, requires little actual media pitching or imaginative storytelling.

It's after the launch, when the company is starved for news or relevance, after all of the new features, materials, and other easter egg stories have run, that creative storytelling wheels must spool. Here, the PR practitioner's own interests and ideation faculties can connect seemingly unrelated ideas or trends into a new way of understanding a product or service and pursue these ideas.

Serious reporters and editors have sensitive b.s. meters that can smell excrement from half a world away. Your story, pitch, or idea must be rooted in reason and facts. Moreover, you must ignore internal naysayers, who can't "see" your story. Many people you work with just aren't creative, just as many can't perform differential equations (guilty).

In short, you must be relentless and believe in the story you develop and pitch.

No Bad Ideas, It's a Brainstorm? "Give Me A Break, How's That Going to Work?!?!"

Not long after I joined Ford, the Comms team organized an offsite, all-hands brainstorming session to boost our share of voice in earned media. We broke into four large groups, each tasked with creating as many creative sources as possible to inspire story ideation in five minutes.

Ideas were flowing; it was a frantic, rapid-fire brainstorm. After a pause, I blurted out, "19th-century German philosophy." A woman I didn't know protested.

"Give me a break, how's that going to work?"  

I was mortified. When our team read our ideas to the larger group, she grimaced, offended that this idiotic idea was read aloud. My embarrassment yielded to anger, then inspired determination.  

A few months later, I sent her an article bylined by Ford Europe's superstar Chief Designer of Interiors, Ernst Reim, with a conspicuously unlikely headline.

My note to her read, "Just because you can't imagine something doesn't mean someone else can't. Please let me know if I can help you ideate stories for ________."  

If You Want Better PR, Let Your PR Pros Off the Leash

Of course, some of these story pitches will fail. This is even more true today with dwindling media staff and more content "written" (excreted) via AI. But drawing upon one's own enthusiasm in the face of skepticism and believing in one's ability to "connect the unconnected," the practitioner must remain undaunted.

Ford put a ton of pressure on its Comms staff to ideate and pitch stories back then, but gave us free rein to explore any (vetted) idea and talk to anybody in the company. Some flourished in this environment. 

Public relations is no refuge for the meek, uninspired, or easily dissuaded. To borrow from another client — Cadillac — and the great Rory Harvey, the most gracious executive for whom I had the privilege of writing in my career, PR practitioners must believe and "be relentless."

Without this, the six other habits I outlined are for naught. In the words of my dad, "big smoke; no fire."

Keep those creative fires burning. If your flint is wet or you'd like help finding your storytelling spark, please contact me or Craig.