In an engaging chat, Martin Strong highlights the many ways in which storytelling serves as a bridge to human connection, drawing on his extensive experience in both radio and academia. Hosts Kevin Ribble and Kat Stewart guide the conversation to explore how storytelling can illuminate the collective human experience while simultaneously addressing individual insecurities. Marty emphasizes the necessity of detail and imagery in crafting compelling narratives, pointing out that effective storytelling is rooted in the emotional connection it fosters with the audience.

The episode also tackles the modern challenges faced by storytellers, particularly in a digital age dominated by social media and curated identities. The paradox of heightened connectivity through technology is juxtaposed against an increasing sense of isolation. This tension is palpable as the hosts discuss fears that often prevent people from sharing their stories, including anxieties surrounding judgment and the pursuit of perfection. Strong's insights encourage listeners to move beyond these limitations and embrace the authenticity of their narratives.

In an uplifting conclusion, the episode reinforces the significance of storytelling as an act of connection rather than performance. Strong's assertion that 'you are the story' serves as a powerful reminder that each individual has a unique voice and perspective worth sharing.

Takeaways:

• The art of storytelling is rooted in the connection between the storyteller and the audience, emphasizing the importance of emotional investment.
• Authenticity in storytelling is paramount; it allows the storyteller to resonate with their audience on a deeper level.
• Fear and insecurity often inhibit individuals from sharing their stories, yet embracing imperfection can lead to more impactful storytelling.
• Detail and imagery are essential components of effective storytelling, as they enhance the listener's experience and engagement with the narrative.
• Storytelling can serve as a bridge, fostering connection in an increasingly divided world fueled by technology.
• Every individual possesses a wealth of stories within them, which can be unlocked through thoughtful reflection and practice.

Companies mentioned in this episode:

• Ignite Voice Inc.
• Kame Sushi
• CFOX
• BCIT

Your voice is your superpower. Use it. Welcome to Ignite My Voice Becoming unstoppable. Powered by Ignite Voice Inc. The podcast where voice meets purpose and stories ignite change.

Deep conversations with amazing guests, storytellers, speakers and change makers.

And then all of a sudden, I was reading that story about the sushi chef throwing the beer down the stairs and I thought, this is a great story. I can't wait to tell this to people.

Hey, it's Kevin and Cat. Sushi robbery, beer throwing, masturbating AI and a backyard story.

Okay, so we're diving deep into the connective tissues of storytelling with this next guest. And as you can tell, it's anything but ordinary.

We're talking about projecting our insecurities, the emotional investment it takes to tell a good story, and how imagery, detail, motivation and voice all play a part. It's about impact and connection.

There's such a hunger for connection in this hyper curated social media world. Yet there's also a lot of fear. The fear of not telling your story right. The fear of not being perfect.

The shame that comes with saying something wrong. Gosh, we fear judgment.

But great storytellers, well, they move through all that. They tell stories with joy. They need. Well, they have to tell them. They're lit up by the act of sharing.

Oh, and by the way, in great storytelling, you don't matter.

And our guest today, Martin Strong, tells you why. Martin gets story. From his years in news radio to his work as a voiceover artist and as a professor, Martin has honed the craft of storytelling.

He understands what it takes to draw someone in, to layer in detail, to shape an image, to invest energy into making a story land. His roots are deep in story.

I started as an announcer, very badly. Announcer. Okay, okay, here's the news.

We were all bad.

Okay. And then the one thing I could do was write. I was a good writer. And I was surprised to find that not everybody could write.

So I got a job doing the Rock Journal.

That's what it was.

Oh, and back then, the Rock Journal, just. If people don't realize, we had regulations that were quite strong in radio. Federal government regulations that required foreground programming.

And you were doing that right, where you had to write for a stretch of time on a particular topic.

Yeah. Like they had these things called mosaics. 30 seconds, you had to talk about something for 30 seconds that had some meaning to it.

It couldn't just be the weather or what you had for breakfast or something. It had to be so at sea Fox, they would say, okay, you have to talk about the Police, the band, the police for 30 seconds.

They started in Eng and it's really funny. The announcers needed some help with this, so they hired me to write these little 30 second scripts.

And then there'd be this big binder in the control room and you'd look on the log thing in that hour you had a mosaic and you'd look and you go, I'm going to play a police song in 10 minutes. So you go to the P's and you find the story of how Sting met Stewart Copeland of the Police. And you'd read this script.

So the performer would read your writing.

Yes, exactly.

Now isn't that interesting?

I never thought about it in this way, so clearly, but at the time the government was trying to force storytelling when the radio station kind of resisted it in a strange way.

Well, it was like the government wanting stories. They wanted content. They didn't want just the radio station to play music constantly and ads they wanted.

They somehow felt they had to pay because they would just make tons of money if they just played the records. But they felt like they had to pay for it by giving stories to people. It's interesting. I've never really thought about it too much.

Well, there was a belief in community in the medium, contributing something back. Right. Whether that's news to inform people of what's going on in the community or just storytelling.

Yeah. And news is interesting because that's how I kind of started. I was never a really great announcer.

Like I could never sit down by myself and, you know, be compelling in any way.

You weren't a stand up comedian?

I guess I love music. Well, I think I'm a funny person and I could write funny and I could do these things. But news came along and I was not into news.

I was not a journalism major. I went to BCIT radio. I was, I considered myself sort of a funny guy. And I just really wasn't really cutting through as an announcer.

But this news job came up and the boss, the program director said, you know what, you're funny. You should be on the news. And I thought, oh, that's interesting. I never even thought about it.

And I remember telling my dad, my dad said, you don't know anything about news. And I said, well, they don't care. They want a storyteller.

They want somebody who can tell the stories of the news because they had to do news back then. Nowadays rock stations don't do news, but they had to do news.

So isn't that interesting in that it Sort of foreshadows where we are today that the people that really tell the stories about news that are authentic are the late night hosts. Adding humor. We're doing now what you did kind of way back then, right?

That's a good point. I mean, a lot of people, I mean, that's kind of where I get a lot of News is watching YouTube clips of Jon Stewart and Jimmy Kimmel and stuff.

And so that's how I started. And a lot of people said, what are you doing? You're not a news person. And I had this attitude about the news too. I thought, well, the news is sacred.

Like everything's gonna stop now. We're gonna talk about the news. And I would tell tomorrow. I remember that actually.

I remember the story, the news story that hit home to me, what I was doing and sort of set me on a path of my style of doing news. I was doing the news and everything was so important and I was so worried about getting it right.

And there was a story about a sushi restaurant in Vancouver that was robbed the night before. It was Kame Sushi. And I'd been to the restaurant and it.

To walk into the restaurant, there was this big stairwell, a big tall set of stairs that you had to walk up. And then you go in.

And I remember that was Richard's, wasn't it?

I can't remember the address.

Down the road from.

Yeah, it could have been because I'd been there many times. And you'd go up these big long, like big tall steps and there was a. A robbery. And the guy, I think he had a gun and he robbed them.

And then he was running down the stairs and one of the sushi chefs grabbed a 24 pack of beer. Like a big case of beer.

That would hurt.

Yeah.

And he threw it probably. It was Canadian.

Yeah, it probably was.

It was probably Molson Canadian, not American beer.

And he threw it down the stairs and it went flying down the stairs and apparently hit the robber in the back, knocked him over. And then all the sushi chefs grabbed him. And I think they caught him.

And we're not talking no knives here, no sushi.

That probably helped filet, you know, they could probably filet him very quickly. And I remember telling that story thinking, this isn't news so much as it's just a really interesting story about the community.

And I thought, this is what I'm going to concentrate on. And it's funny and I can make it funny and I can and throw in lines about fileting or whatever.

I wish I'd thought of that at the time and that's when I realized that it's not just news, it's storytelling.

Do you develop your style? Because you obviously had a very specific style in what you were looking for.

Well, it took a long time, I think for me, I loved David Letterman. David Letterman was my. I was just obsessed with that early Letterman show From the early 80s, that kind of style of sort of snarky comments.

And it took me a long time to learn. Like, I realized that I could actually write jokes. I could write funny lines. But you had to write them. They don't.

Because growing up, I don't know if you. When you're with your friends, that's when things are the funniest. When you're in high school and out of high school and, you know, university.

And you're just joking around, everybody's riffing off each other.

Yeah. And it's free wild. Yeah. Never is that no care in the world. Yeah. And I thought that's what I'd like to do on the radio.

But it took me a long time before I realized, no, you have to sit down and write and you have to sit down and really rack your brain and think of funny lines. So what I started to do was I would write when I. And then I. I started working at Rock 101.

And then I got teamed up with Bro Jake and I decided, because there were a lot of other people on the show and I just thought, you know what? If I'm going to cut through on this, I'm going to have to put in the extra work. And I don't know, radio people, you know, not necessarily.

Not the hardest workers, not the hardest working people.

What they generally, they get into it because it's fun and easy and a lot of people think once they're in, it's just fun. But I just decided I was going to go home. It was the morning show, so I had the afternoon.

And I thought, I'm going to go home every day and have a nap and then I'm going to wake up and I'm going to write for an hour at least, and I'm going to go through the news and kind of figure out what was going to go tomorrow. And then I would write funny lines and then I would go in and then it sort of sounded like they were just off the top of my head.

But it was all evilly planned.

It's a creative endeavor. And what's that structure like for you? How do you know what's funny? How do you build on that storyline to incorporate?

Yeah, I mean, that's sort of the key. And sometimes things that you think are funny don't play and other times things that you think are mildly funny seem to work better. But that's. Yeah.

So I mean, that's a big question.

It is, isn't it? Because getting at the heart of creativity, everybody has a different process with it. Where does it come from? How do you develop it? Where do you end?

How do you integrate it into the story?

Well, that's another reason we wanted to talk to you. You have done things in your life lately that are working with people to get at that root. Right.

You know, one of our major themes is stories about connection. We humans, we need connection. We're social animals. We've got to connect with people. Right.

So story is something that's really important to us, but it's not always as easy as we think. Like you just said, you know, you had to invest some energy, some work to get good stories.

It hurts your brain sometimes.

So since then you have ended up teaching a course you developed on storytelling.

Discover your inner storytelling. BCIT Part time program. It's an online course.

So you've worked with people quite a bit over the last, I don't know what it's been about 10 years or something, right?

Yeah.

At least on trying to teach this root of the core of storytelling. What have you noticed in working with people that don't think they're storytellers or are brand new to it?

Yeah, I think most people have way more stories in their heads than they think. There's an exercise that I love that I like to do with students right off the top. And it's something I call a backyard story.

And I get people to spend like a good 20 minutes, I give them a piece of paper and then they draw a picture of the backyard. Or sometimes it's a. Some people didn't have a backyard. They lived in an apartment or whatever, but a space that they remember.

Like it could be the back deck, it could be a park from when they were a kid, from when they were a kid, the one they remember the most. And then I get them to spend 20 minutes really, really remembering every little detail. And no detail is unimportant.

If there was a tree there, if there was a, you know, a pool or something. And then once they finish that, I say, tell me a story about something that popped up in this. And I've never had anybody say, I don't remember.

They're so eager to go oh, yeah, yeah, I remember that. I fell out of that tree.

So it's a connection.

What is your trick there? You're trying to get their brain into that space that then gets the stories to come or what?

I think so I think it's about detail, specific detail. I think that's. I mean, that's a key in storytelling, is detail. And it's those details that kind of are the connective tissue to stories.

And like, I always tell people, like radio people when they're hosting a radio show or something and they're telling a story about. They went into the coffee place to get coffee this morning and the person got their name really ridiculously wrong.

And I always say when you're telling that story, don't. Just don't say, oh, I went in and I ordered my coffee. I ordered my, you know, you guys had double tea, whatever, and I just got coffee.

But it's always like a macchiato or a coconut latte or something extra hot, no foam. Exactly.

Too sugar, no vanilla.

And don't fill it up to the top. And all those little details that sort of creates the story, I think. Or helps to elevate the story.

Well, it creates the imagery, doesn't it? I mean, even if you say, I went to the coffee shop. No, I went into Starbucks on Camby. It was raining. Right. You paint the whole picture really strong.

Yeah. And Carl was the guy who poured the coffee. Not that you always know his name, but. And then you start.

And then all of a sudden you realize the themes of the story. Like, they got your name wrong. And you. At first, you were kind of offended. Cause I've had weird names, you know, Like, Marfa.

Really isn't that hard, is it?

Yeah, I know. Shouldn't be Marfa. I got once. And then you sort of laugh. And then you laugh at the person. And then you realize, well, maybe that person is having a.

They're working really hard, and maybe they're having a rough day. And maybe you realize that you take yourself too seriously or something. And once you start getting into the nitty gritty, a theme emerges.

Like, maybe I'm a bit of a snob, or maybe I'm too easily offended or something.

Well, it sounds to me that that's talking about humanizing. Right. Of bringing out authentic people.

Yeah.

And not just making us all bots or cliches. Right. It's. You get at the core of real stuff.

Yeah.

And you're looking at yourself, too, as part of this story, not just separate from the story.

Yeah, yeah. I mean, you learn, like people. You learn about people. When you first meet somebody, you're always.

You have an image of who they are, and it's usually wrong, and it's usually shaped on your own neuroses and fears. And then you get to know people and you realize, oh, they just like me or whatever.

And, yeah, that's kind of interesting, the way we deal with people. I have some lines that I remember that were funny that I think about all the time. Like, there was a. Like, this is so stupid.

But it's something I remember now.

Let me understand. You think about this all the time.

All the time.

Let's hear it, Bart.

It's one of those things that somebody says. Well, like, if you say, well, it's just the thing that I thought, oh, that was really funny.

But it's probably completely forgotten, and it was just a blip. It was a news story about a guy who was arrested for having sex with a horse in Washington State.

Okay, then.

And I told the story and I said, it's just important. It's important to remember nay means nay. And I just remember that joke. I think of Kerry Marshall, the late, great Kerry Marshall. He.

I heard him say something on the radio that I think about. I remember all the time. And. And this is so old, it kind of requires some thought. It was when the Osmond.

The Osmond brothers and Kerry Marshall called it the We'll Nap When We're Dead tour, which I just thought was so. And I remember listening to that thing. And I think I just started at Seafox thinking I wanted to. I want to be that good.

How do you get away from bias?

I don't know. I mean, that's a good question. I mean, you look at the way storytelling is used in politics, politicians, who are the most successful nowadays.

I'll try not to mention any names. One comes to mind. It's all about story. I mean, that guy, he can sort of distill a story into a few lines. Build that wall.

That's a story that people remember and they understand. They sort of take in and internalize and it works.

Murderers and rapists are being sent to our country eating cats and dogs.

Yeah. You know, those kind of stories, and they don't have to be true.

You know, they don't have to be based in fact or reality, but it's a story that people can grasp and remember. And, yeah, it's really Powerful and dangerous.

And that's the dangerous part of stories, and we've talked about this before, that one of the problems with story is that humans are susceptible to the power of story. We'll quickly buy in without critical thought. And that's in our DNA. It's from so long ago, so people can take advantage of that.

Or we could use story for good. It's just a tool, right? Could be used for good or bad.

I blame it all on getting rid of those mosaics of the stories about the police. If only we had those people would.

More regulation. That's the answer. See?

Yeah. Well, yeah, it's kind of interesting.

I mean, that's the whole world of broadcasting in a nutshell, is it was heavily regulated before for good or evil, but now because of the Internet, and you just can't control it. It's like this bucking bronco that it's a free for all out there for good and for bad.

How do we use it for good? And Kevin and I often talk a lot about authenticity in storytelling.

How do you bring out the authentic so that people really do connect to the truth of the story?

Yeah, yeah, you're asking some big questions because that's a really. Because authenticity is huge. And authenticity is really interesting, especially in the age of AI. I was listening to a New York Times story.

I was on the train, and it was an article about something. I can't even remember what the article was about, but it. It said you can listen to it. You can either read it or listen to it.

And then they tell you that it's a synthetically created voice. It's basically an AI voice. And the AI voice sounds on the surface, good, and you can understand it, and it's good enough to hear the story.

But then you notice there's something not quite right with that. There's something missing. It sounds like a person. And if you ask somebody 20 years ago, is this a human. A human being talking?

They go, of course it is. It's a human being talking. But now you listen and you go, yes. And it reminds me of vinyl records. Vinyl records.

You remember 20 years ago, you could go. And nobody wanted. Everyone was getting rid of their vinyl and it was dead. It was like. It was like the telegraph. It was a dead technology.

And then all of a sudden, people said, I don't know, I kind of like it. I sort of like it. And then young hipsters were suddenly playing records. And I love to collect vinyl, a lot of us do.

And I honestly can't explain to you Why? I like it. It's a big pain. It's expensive, but there's something about it. I like it. It's authentic.

And there's a feel, and I think there's a vibe or feel that people can hear intuitively. And I think it's the same with AI voices. And I think there's going to be a real backlash about unless it gets so good that we just can't tell.

But it's a very interesting thing. Very interesting question.

Can a computer ever pick up emotion and present authentic, unique emotion? And I hear you arguing. No, I probably agree.

And are we going to get more savvy where we can. We can hear it?

Well, it's like.

And sort of to cut you off, Kat, I was just thinking it's like all the bad YouTube videos where they don't have much marketing money, so they just do. The AI generated voice, you hear them all the time.

Drives me crazy.

And you can spot them in one second, right?

Yeah, it's the worst.

But we, you know, with our voices, we have emotion, we have feeling. We connect with each other through that emotional expression. And that's where authenticity resides, doesn't it?

In that connection to your own emotional presence. And that's why an AI voice doesn't have that.

And that's why storytelling can be so important and revolutionary for the good side of storytelling, because it taps into the authentic voice. And I think that's what you were getting at with the AI voice. It doesn't have that.

Yeah. And you. I mean, when someone's voice sort of breaks up with emotion, I mean, is a computer gonna be able to simulate that? Kinda.

But I think we'll feel it. And it just. Yeah, I don't think it's gonna really work.

And underneath that, I think we need to explore what motivates us to tell a story. Like, the computer isn't motivated in the same way we are. Right.

That's an interesting, interesting point.

So I'm thinking, you know, to have impact on another needs to be the main driving force, doesn't it?

And if it's not, if it's about you, if you're not thinking about the other person, and if they're catching a story or if they have impact, then you're masturbating, aren't you?

Yeah, I guess.

So Kevin's favorite topic.

Yeah, it's always better.

But really, though, I think that's important, is to realize it's not about you.

Yeah, no, I think that's the key to life. I mean, as I Get older. The whole idea of listening is so important. Right. I mean, like a lot of young people, I wasn't a great listener.

I was always busy talking. And I think listening is a huge thing, which is ironic because you're supposed to be storytelling, which is the opposite of listening.

But there is some listening there, I guess that's a big topic.

Empathy is involved in listening. And if you have empathy and you're listening, then you can convert that into a story that's gonna resonate with the listener.

Yeah. That really true.

And that will come through authentic.

And I have a theory when I talk to broadcasting students about value. What value are you bringing to your audience? And you shouldn't crack the mic unless you are bringing value.

And that value can be as simple as reading the weather report, because that's a very valuable piece of information because people will know they need to wear a big coat or whatever. Or you could amuse them, tell them a joke. That's value.

Or you could tell them the news, or you could tell them where to go to get their vaccine or whatever. But you've got to have value in everything you do. And I think it's the same with storytelling.

It just reinforces what we keep saying over and over. And that's. It's about connection. You can't get anywhere without that connection, whether it's sales or telling a story or building a friendship.

Right.

Yeah.

The connection is critical, which is interesting because it brings up a paradox in our modern AI super connected world. We're drifting apart from that, ironically, at the same time. Right.

Isn't interesting that we need that connection, but modern technology is moving us away from it. It seems every year, doesn't it? Don't we move down that path further?

Yeah, no, it's. It's definitely social media and the Internet and the way we use it is definitely driving us inward and separating from each other.

Divisive.

And that's what we're seeing politically too. You're seeing these little trib everywhere and that's a big part.

And each telling a different story.

Yeah, he's telling a different story.

Different bias, different perspectives, different narratives.

I think there's a real hunger for now more than ever for people to connect with story. And. But.

And I guess that's, you know, that's good and bad because people have these bizarre stories that they get together and sort of perpetuate and tell and they become movements.

Oh.

That tends to be building a tribe like minded. So I was just thinking about what you said, where you've Got to get different tribes to connect. And maybe story is the only way.

Yeah.

Story is the outreached hand to try to bring somebody in. It could be, right.

Yeah, well, I think so.

I mean, getting back to how comedians who do the news are kind of sometimes the most effective news journalists out there are like Jon Stewart, the people who make the most sense, the people who connect the most with the viewer. And I think it's because they're great storytellers.

But if I look at myself, I wouldn't say I'm a great storyteller.

And there's probably lots of other people who look at themselves and say the same thing because they're worried, and they have fear around that, and they're worried that they have to be perfect. They have to be calculated. It has to all be, you know, rehearsed, or they have to always be funny or something. Yeah. So lots of people have stories.

How do they get over that fear to tell the story from that authentic place? How do you help people?

Yeah, that's an interesting question. I think with people. Yeah, I think that's a problem. They feel they should be one thing. They should be funny or. Because I always felt. When I started.

I don't know how you guys felt when you started in broadcasting. Early on, I felt like I needed to have a really deep voice, and I didn't. I sort of have, you know, I just have this kind of voice.

It just sort of sits there. And I was around all these people, the Bro Jake, all the people who were successful, had these big, deep voices. And I.

For years and years, and to this day, day, there's a voice in the back of my head. You know, it's like, I got a bigger.

You don't have the real voice, Martin. Yeah.

And. And I think authentic voice, like, getting someone to their authentic voice is really hard. And, you know, the.

I mean, the first thing I like for people who like voice actors, I just. You have to get enthusiastic about the material you're reading.

Especially, like, if you're reading narration or, you know, you have to really get excited and be invested in it. And I think enthusiasm in storytelling is a huge thing. You have to really. You have to get excited about it, and you do that in different ways.

You have to want to share, right?

Yeah.

You have to want to commit to telling the story to the person that you're talking to.

Once you really put that emphasis on who you're talking to, it takes that pressure off of you to talk, which I think is really important for someone who's got such a fear based response to speaking and telling their story. Because I think that's what holds a lot of people back. They may have a story, but they're afraid that they won't get it right.

Yeah, that's exactly what I went through when I first started reading news because I was so intimidated by the material. I wasn't thinking about the listener. I was worried more about whether I got it, the information correct.

And I was reading, you know, reading about politics that I didn't care about. And then all of a sudden I was reading that story about the sushi chef throwing the beer down the stairs. And I thought, this is a great story.

I can't wait to tell this to people. They're gonna.

It came alive.

And that's when I realized if I could bring that to not only stories that are, you know, really innately interesting, like sushi chefs throwing beer down the stairs, if I could bring that enthusiasm and joy to a. About federal politics, then that's great storytelling and that would be good radio.

You went from an. Sorry, Kevin. You went from an AI voice to an invested person sharing.

Yeah, yeah, that's very true. And there's sort of a theory in voiceover about the reporter versus the participant.

And the reporter is the person who's reporting the facts and telling the story.

And then like say there's a fire or something and there's the reporter saying, well, the three alarm fire, four people were taken to hospital with minor burns. And then you have the participants, and the participants are the people who maybe were living in the building.

And their voices are going to be so much more compelling and so much more real. And that's what you want to be. Even if you're technically the reporter, you still want to be that participant.

You want to be a participant in the subject matter that you're talking about.

Here's the takeaway. Get over the fear. Let go of perfection and share your story.

The best storytellers aren't perfect. They're just motivated. They want to connect. They want to impact someone. That's the heartbeat of it.

And the best part, you have way more stories than you think. You are not separate from the story.

You are the story. You but better.

Ignite my voice. Becoming unstoppable. Your voice is your superpower.

Use it.