I came to storytelling from a love of local business and their owners in Richmond, Virginia. 

First, I loved their products, from biscuits to T-shirts to local moonshine. And once I got to know these businesses and their owners, I wanted to shout their stories from the rooftops. I wanted the whole world, or at least the people in my city, to know about them and spend their dollars there.

These startups and small businesses made me proud of my community. So I told their stories in every way I could. I posted about them on social media. I told my friends about them. I wrote blog posts and articles.

I was celebrating these small businesses in every possible way, but I never called it storytelling. It was just something I did.

So let this be the first rule of storytelling and ecosystem building: It doesn’t have to be hard.

If you tell your friends about your favorite local businesses or you post about them on social media, you are already telling their stories; you’re just not thinking about it that way.

In today’s Summer Skill Session, I want to introduce you to my five-step approach to telling meaningful stories about your ecosystem.

If you tell your friends about your favorite local businesses or you post about them on social media, you are already telling their stories.  You're just not thinking about it that way.