"Inspiration Over Manipulation: The True Power of Storytelling

Storytelling with Integrity: Inspire, Don't Manipulate

Join Mary  as she delves into the true power of storytelling and the fine line between inspiration and manipulation. 

 Drawing from personal experiences and years in the nonprofit sector, Mary passionately advocates for authentic, inspiring narratives that motivate genuine action. 

With actionable tips and expert advice, this episode is a must-listen for authors, speakers, fundraisers, and anyone looking to harness the transformative power of stories without resorting to guilt or deceit

00:00 Introduction to StorySpire ™

00:20 Join the Story Spire Newsletter

00:57 The Power of Storytelling

02:07 Inspiration vs. Manipulation

04:35 Creating Impactful Stories

05:58 Avoiding Poverty Pornography

08:00 Final Thoughts and Encouragement

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Transcript

0:00

Welcome to the Storiespire podcast. I'm Mary R. Snyder. I am your host and storytelling strategist. I'm here with expert advice, actionable tips, and frameworks to create the stories that will inspire hearts and minds because stories change the world. Let's get into it. Hey, before we get started, I want to remind you of something. Have you said yes to my email, my newsletter, the Story Spire News? It is a weekly newsletter with a link to one of the episodes, the episode of the week, along with a storytelling tip, maybe something fun, a resource I found, or an inspirational story just to brighten up your email box. And you can do that simply by going to storyspire. com and clicking on Join Mary. I'd love for you to join me there. Let's get into it. Let's talk about the power of storytelling, the power you have as communicator. Now I'm going to tell you why this matters so much to me. In the version of a story, I was in an audience watching a powerful communicator on the stage and it was moving. And I mean, everything about it, you wanted to be involved with this organization. And then he said, if you don't sponsor a child, they could die, they will die. And I'm like, well that's not true. If I don't do it, then I'm gonna kill a child. And that was what he made us believe. Now was that true? It absolutely wasn't. It was manipulation. It made me so mad. Because the truth is, he held that audience in the palm of his hand. He didn't need to manipulate us, we were already inspired to take action. That happened a long, long time ago. Between that day and today, a lot of life has happened. But one thing that has never changed, is that when I help you tell stories, it's to inspire action, not to manipulate, not to guilt. Because People will join you if you guilt them and manipulate them. Let me tell you a point of reference. When you hear Sarah McLaughlin singing In the Arms of the Angel on your television, I will race through the house to turn that off because I know the images I'm going to see. It's those little puppies that are all forlorn and scarred up and the kittens that look, so sad. I know that manipulation is going to drive me to give a one time donation. Did you notice the one time donation? Because you see, I don't want to be involved with someone who's going to manipulate me. I don't want to do life. I don't want to buy your thing, buy your book, buy your course, join your group, join your organization, donate to your cause because you manipulated me. I might do it once. But I won't do it again. And as communicators, our job is to inspire people to join us on this journey. Now, if you're an author, a podcaster, a speaker, you want to bring them into your sphere of influence, get them on your email list, have them a part of your group of what you're growing. And if you're a fundraiser, you want to bring them into that sphere of influence, have them get on your email list, maybe get that 25 donation to start with that will grow and grow and grow, but you don't do that through manipulation. You do that through inspiration. We want to be with people who inspire us, inspire us to be more, to do more, to believe more, to know more, to trust more, to love more. Now as storytellers. We have to be careful we walk a fine line. I can flip that and go over to manipulation as easy as I can fall back into the information. Because between the information and the manipulation is the inspiration. Enough information to inspire you, but not, not so much that I manipulate you. Not a twisting of, if you don't sponsor this child they will die. Because that's a twisting of the information. That's not what we do here. Over the last many years, I have been working with nonprofits and speakers and I left the nonprofit sector to go out on my own full time and to create the work I do with Impact with Story all through the Mary R. Snyder website. One of the things I created was Story Spire, and the reason I created this framework, this unique way of telling a story, it was all around telling the story, the journey to helping people build the story from the standpoint of understanding what they want their audience to feel, to know, and to do. And that's why I created this. But back to the manipulation over the inspiration or inspiration over the manipulation, let's get it right, inspiring people to action makes them want to come back again. They want to hear the rest of the story. They want to hear the next story. When you think about Sarah McLaughlin, I don't want to hear about any more puppies that are dying. I don't want to hear those stories.. I want to hear the story about the dog that was saved when somebody found it on the side of the road. I want to read the story about the dog who had everything going against it, but this one person said, I'll take that one. I want to hear the inspiring stories. I don't want to see the pornography of poverty. Yeah, you heard that right poverty pornography. I know you didn't think you'd hear that on my podcast. Did you well, let me tell you what that is. That's when those pictures of those swollen bellies and flies all over their face. The children. Do you remember those? I don't remember the organization, and I was very young, but I think it was Sally Struthers that was their spokesperson, their ambassador. And those images would pop up on the screen on television, and I was so appalled by them. I know it created a lot of donations, but did it create a lot of donor relations? Did it create long lasting impact? Engagement. So as you build your stories, storyteller, understand the power that you wield. Understand that you can manipulate, but don't. Inspire. It's a slower journey, but you're still going to get there. And not only would you get there, But the people that join you on that journey will stay there. They will stay with you. They will follow with you. They will buy the books. They will buy the courses. You know, we've all probably, maybe just me, but we've all seen the, hey, if you buy this, I can guarantee you'll get 10, 000 followers or you'll get 10, 000 if you just invest 2, 000 in this thing. Now, I don't know if you've ever fallen for any of that. I have, but that's manipulation because the thing didn't return the results. So am I going to buy another thing from that person? Am I going to buy a book? Am I going to support a cause? No, because you just manipulated me. Now, we probably don't go quite that far, as storytellers, and speakers. Fundraisers, but you can, you shouldn't. So this week I want you to really think about your stories and are you telling the information to inspire? Are you telling the information to inspire somebody to see how they can live life differently, how they can make a difference, how they can have greater meaning because that's inspiration. That's not manipulation. All right. You have a great rest of your day. I look forward to seeing you back here next week. Bye for now.