Storytelling is our battlefield; I am the chief storyteller!

You see these hands…they have scars from years and years of cameras, cold shoots, 1k and 2K light burns, cuts, bruises, broken fingers, years of typing with carpel tunnel and consistent camera movements…they represent the battlefield.

It is our battlefield and it is something we hold dear to our hearts. The mere process of finding, telling, curating, sharing, and engaging interactive narratives is more than just an experience…it is years in the making.

Many of us storytellers have learned from our personal experience, failures, and experiments. We have learned from numerous mentors as we have spent years in the apprenticeship process. We have cobbled together lots of job descriptions, career tracks, educational experiences to get to where we are…and we protect our knowledge base(s), we hold it close.

As I sit and watch digital campaigns execute in real time, crisis communications strategies evolve like massive chess matches, video narratives craft together by the touch of numerous editing strokes…I often wonder how I have arrived on this journey that is evolving as fast as the technology out paces itself.

I wonder when I will strategically help our own organizations make the 4K/5K and even 8K video shift, expand our digital channel footprints of knowledge with new social technologies, research the roles of digital personas as we find the balance of distribution and audience curation…we live in a evolving digital battlefield.

As I was teaching a group of undergraduate students the methodology behind the on-camera interviewing, one student asked, “what do you do and how can I do that one day?” They wanted to know my education, my job track, my skill set…and to be perfectly honest…I have no clue If I could re-write this path again. I have found myself getting where I am today fighting the good fight, telling some damn good stories, and become a student of technology and content curation.

Storytelling is a battlefield, one that has provided so many rich paths; paths where I had to earn my way to the next adventure. I never woke-up one early morning and said…”I want to be a storyteller.” I woke up one morning with a camera and decided I want to capture a good story. There is a big f*&^ing difference!

There is a difference between saying you want to be a storyteller and just getting out and finding a good story to tell. If you are passionate about this craft, then you are willing to learn, fail, break the rules, loose money, piss people off…than to enjoy the title of chief storyteller.

Many people think it is corny to be called chief storyteller. I believe I have earned the right to lead not only my organization but the organizations I represent; to be a consistent steward of the narratives they are not only telling, but sharing with the people that love them the most.

My question…are you willing to fight the good fight, draw a line in the sand, and stand-up for the narrative you spent tons of money, time, energy, blood (real blood), real sweat, and real tears crafting? If not…then go find another profession.