Carol Cox: If you're looking to use storytelling to
promote your business or your nonprofit,
you're going to get so much out of my
conversation with Ashley Vann on this
episode of the Speaking Your Brand podcast.
More and more women are making an impact by
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Hi there and welcome to the Speaking Your
Brand podcast. I'm your host, Carol Cox.
Today we are digging into the power of
storytelling, but from some unusual angles
that I don't think we've covered explicitly
on this podcast before.
So I'm excited to talk to my guest, Ashley
Vann, who is the founder of Victory Cup
initiative, which is based in the Orlando,
Central Florida area where we both live.
And earlier this year, I had the pleasure of
attending their annual breakfast.
It was the first time I had ever attended.
I was invited by a woman who has been
involved in it, quite active in it, and so
she extended the invitation to me and I got
there. It was this beautiful venue, Doctor
Phillips in Orlando, and it was full,
entirely full with people.
But what was so special about it was that
each non-profit who had the opportunity to
address the audience only had a couple of
minutes to tell a story about their
nonprofit, and then we all got to vote on
who we wanted the the fundraising to go to
no place one, two and three and so on.
And it was such an incredible experience.
It was such a great way to showcase the
power of storytelling, especially for
nonprofits. So of course, I've gotten to
know Ashley this year, and so I invited her
on the podcast to dig into storytelling,
both for nonprofits but also for your
business and for your personal brand.
Ashley, welcome to the podcast.
Ashley Vann: Thank you for having me.
I'm excited to be here.
Carol Cox: Well, I am too. So tell us about Victory Cup
initiative. Tell us a little bit more about
what it does and then what you do at the
annual breakfast.
Ashley Vann: Okay. So Victory Cup is about inspiring
excellence in our community, one story at a
time. And what that means is we really
believe that everybody wants to be a part of
something bigger than themselves, bigger
than their jobs, bigger than their everyday
life. And they can achieve that by getting
involved in the nonprofit community, and
that we are all surrounded by men and women
who have a lot going on in their lives, and
they're doing really incredible work every
day to just really care for our community's
most vulnerable.
So each year, the Victory Cup, we have an
application period, and we'll get typically
anywhere between 80 to 100 applications and
we select ten nonprofit organizations.
We work with those nonprofit organizations
over a period of about four months with
seven different coaches, and we teach them
how to tell their story of impact.
Now, if you're anything like me, you have a
very short attention span.
And so we try to get those leaders to really
hone their messaging in 100 or 50s or less.
And it ends up being about 2.5 minutes.
And so we work with the leaders.
We train them. This year we're doing
something a little bit different where we
have a couple of leadership training
sessions for them as well.
And then this year on February 25th, 2025, at
the Doctor Phillips Performing Arts Center,
we'll have an audience full of about 600
business leaders, community champions who
all gather to hear these stories of impact.
And after the 23.5 minute program, everyone
in the room pulls out their phone and
they're invited to vote via text for the
non-profit organization that they feel like
did the best.
And we give away prizes first $30,000,
second place $25,000, and third place
$20,000 to the top nonprofits.
But we like to say that everybody leaves a
winner. And so all four through ten
nonprofits will walk away with a cash prize.
And that we really feel like by hearing
these stories, it creates an enormous amount
of pride for the men and women who are
attending the breakfast, because they're
learning about work that they had no idea
was happening in their own community, and
they're instantly introduced.
Like I said to men and women who are on the
front lines of caring for people in our
community that might be hurting or are just
in a bad situation.
So that's the Victory Cup initiative.
Um, and yes, that's it.
Carol Cox: Well, I really appreciated hearing their
stories, and it's such a skill that you're
helping them to develop by putting them
through all these trainings and the coaching
that they get in order to deliver that 2.5
minute story pitch.
And I was so impressed by them that actually
one of them, Theresa Smith Levin of Central
Florida Vocal Arts, she did her story and I
made a little note, and I found her in the
hallway. Afterwards, I invited her on to
this podcast, and she was on earlier this
year, episode 386.
So that is the impact of storytelling.
Now, Ashley, I know when we chatted a little
while ago, you told me the origin story of
Victory Cup and really about storytelling
because you said that you were in an like an
executive leadership class, and there were a
lot of other nonprofit leaders in there, and
you had this realization.
Can you tell us about that?
Ashley Vann: Oh, absolutely.
I had the the fortune of taking classes at
the Edith Busch Institute, which is the
nonprofit thought leader, um, school here in
Central Florida, and sitting in the
classroom, sitting alongside 12 to 15
nonprofit leaders.
Usually at every program, they would go
around and introduce themselves, and I would
hear people introduce themselves and they
would say the most incredible things that I
had never heard before.
Um, you know, a man who might be wanting to
help veterans who were struggling with
mental health issues or who may have been
homeless, or a woman who wanted to help, um,
moms who might be going through different,
um, social and mental issues, or someone who
was very passionate about caring for
children with cancer.
And as I got to meet these men and women, I
quickly it quickly became evident to me they
weren't doing it for prestige.
They weren't doing it for the pay.
They weren't doing it for the benefits, but
they were doing it because they really cared
about this one population, about this one
niche of our community.
And I thought to myself, you know, there are
thousands of business leaders in our
community who want to hear these stories.
They want to meet these people, but
everyone's just so busy.
Right. Who isn't busy right now?
And we're all busy taking care of our
children, taking care of our parents,
building our own careers, and just sort of.
What if. What if we created an exciting
opportunity where we got business leaders
and nonprofit leaders together, and we
created an opportunity for the for the
business leaders to hear these stories.
But it was also very important to create an
atmosphere where the leaders would not be
asked. The leaders could just come and
listen and decide on their own what they
wanted to do with this incredible
information. So that's how the Victory Cup
was born. We launched our first year was
2016. I think we had 260 people attend our
breakfast, ten nonprofits pitched.
We raised $52,000, we gave away $42,000.
And I think 80% of the people in the
audience said, oh my gosh, now we get it.
We know what you were talking about this
whole time.
Carol Cox: Ashley. So if you think about, you know, you
could have just had the nonprofits give a
standard pitch, which they probably had been
doing. It's like, oh, so I started X, y, Z
because I really wanted to help this
particular type of group.
And these are some of the services that we
provide or whatever, like a standard pitch
that a nonprofit or a business any of us
would give. Why did you feel like
storytelling was the key in order for what
you the work that you were doing to have
more of an impact?
Ashley Vann: Um, well, I think in the nonprofit world to
meet more donors or volunteers or potential
board members, you really want to use data
or story. And it's a really great story.
If you can figure out a way to use both data
and story together. But a story is
transformative. A story is a way to take you
somewhere immediately.
You actually have a physical reaction when
you hear a great story and what I really
love is when the nonprofit leader can come
up with that soundbite, that quintessential
phrase that tells everybody in the room
exactly what they do and why that cause is
so important. So, for example, the Adult
Literacy League, our very first year, we got
to work with them. And I remember one of
their opening statements was, if you can't
read, you can't fill out a job application.
Well, right. Then that tells you how
critically it like no matter what you say,
if someone can't read, they they're not
going to be able to get ahead.
And so it's really important for those
stories to, um, it really connects people.
I mean, I have another just example I would
love to use.
One of the things we do at Victory Cup is we
love to connect people with causes that they
care about, but they may not even know that
they cared about or connect business leaders
with different boards.
Opportunities to serve on a board.
And one morning I had invited a local
attorney with a wealth planning practice to
come meet one of our nonprofit leaders and
she. During her Victory Cup speech, this
person said there are 45,000 homeless people
in Seminole County.
And on your way to meet me this morning, you
probably drove by 12 men, women or children
that you did not even see.
What a powerful statement, right?
Well, fast forward when I took the woman to
go meet this wealth planning attorney, and I
and the woman said, tell me about your
organization. Instead of saying what she
just said about coming to meet me.
She said, well, we were founded in 1970.
So, so and so and so and so and so and so
and so. Well, immediately they lost the
person. Right?
Um, and we hear stories like that all the
time. And so we're trying to talk to the
nonprofit leaders like forget about um, the
how many and think about the who and the
why. You know not instead of like how many
meals you've served or how many people
you've helped. Instead, think about the
woman who had been incarcerated for 30 years
and you taught her how to read and write,
and all of a sudden, this woman who would
never be getting out of this, the justice
system, felt a freedom that she's never
experienced before through writing and
reading, all through the Adult Literacy
League. That's something that can get me
excited and makes me want to take action.
Carol Cox: I love those example, Ashley, because they
showed the specificity of the stories, and I
know a lot of times when we work with our
clients and a lot of people feel like that a
specific story is less relatable than a more
than a more specific story.
So they kind of like make it more generic or
they generalize it, or I say like they
smooth out the edges of it because they feel
like if they just kind of share a generic
story or an anecdote that's more relatable.
But I'm like, no, no, no, it's actually the
opposite, because the more detailed you are
with your story, even though it seems
counterintuitive, the more the person will
remember it. And, like you said, have some
type of emotional reaction to it.
I always use this quote by Sue Monk Kidd,
which says that she said, the deeper we go
into our own experience, the more we hit the
universal experience.
So like you're talking about those 12 people
that you passed on the drive today who are
homeless, or the incarcerated woman who was
taught to read like those things stick in
our mind as visual images because they're so
specific versus, yes, there are homeless
people out there who need homes.
Okay. But but that doesn't like that.
Nothing pops into my mind when I hear that.
Ashley Vann: Absolutely. And I remember one year we had
this incredible storyteller, we had this
older gentleman, and he was part of the
program, and he had this great story and the
story that he was telling was the story of a
million teenagers that his organization
serves. And so when he would get up to tell
the story, he would always say, I'm going to
tell you a story about.
And then he would say, say, Jennifer.
And then he would proceed to tell the story.
And I said, when you when you don't know the
person's name, you're not dignifying who
you're talking about, and you're not
connecting me to the teenager whose name
might have been Tiffany, who lived over in
South Orlando and was struggling because she
went to this high school.
And this was the issue.
And as long as you get that person's, you
know, permission, it's so much.
It's so important to be using specific
details. 1,000%.
Carol Cox: Yes. Yeah. I always say given them a name,
you could even say like, you know, I'll call
her Tiffany if you want to make sure that
you're not revealing any unidentified or,
you know, things that maybe people could
figure out. But yes, I totally agree with
you about giving names and details and
setting the scene for all that.
Now, one thing we talked about during our
coffee chat is that you mentioned about when
we were talking about storytelling
structures, and there's lots of different
storytelling frameworks and structures out
there. And you said that one thing that we
need to be careful of, especially say, at
your event where you are having ten
nonprofits go in a row that you don't want
it to come across as formulaic, where
they're all kind of starting the same like
the beginning, middle and end.
So it all feels like some type of structure
that they've all been given, because by the
fourth or fifth one, the audience is going
to be like, okay, we know what's coming
next. So can you talk to us a little bit
about kind of balancing structure and
novelty? When we think about sharing,
whether it's a pitch for something or about
sharing stories in our presentations?
Ashley Vann: Well, I think that's a great point.
I think whenever you're sharing a story, you
don't want to be pitchy.
I think the beauty of sharing a story really
well is that you come across as an expert.
And so you don't need to pitch.
And I think sharing a story is about trying
to identify who the who, what is resonating
in your story with the audience member.
And when I say audience member, I mean one
on one, like if I'm talking to you and I'm
sharing this incredible story with you, I'm
hoping that it's going to just create
authentic communication between the two of
us. So sharing a story and then ending it
with a pitch is never a good idea.
And I think when you come across someone and
you share a story and they connect with you
and there is no pitch, then the reward is
greater than anything you could have ever
imagined, because you're giving them an
opportunity to explore, to sit back, to
contemplate, to ask you questions.
And and I say this all the time.
Someone might come to the Victory Cup, and
most of the time they get out of the ten
stories there, 7 or 8 of the organizations
there never have even heard of.
And some of the causes are things that they
could have never even imagined.
A few years ago, we heard a story about a
young teenage girl and how her father had
stolen her identity.
Well, when you first hear that, that sounds
so terrible to you.
But if you think about a struggling parent
who would do anything for their children, an
endless upon endless credit card appeals
come to your home and you're looking for
some way out.
You can see how it's no longer a crime, but
it was a strategy to serve this man's family
better. And I'm not saying that it was
right, but I'm saying all of a sudden you've
had a transformative moment to step outside
of your life and to see something from
another person's perspective, from another
walk of life. And it just made you a better
human being. And what you decide to do with
that information is totally up to you.
And if you box me in with a pitch, you might
lose the potential of a great reward.
Carol Cox: It reminds me of the saying that people don't
like to be sold to, but they like to buy.
Ashley Vann: 100%.
Carol Cox: Right? And so, like, I almost feel like as
someone sharing a story is the beginning of
a conversation rather than the end all be
all of a conversation because, as you said,
like you want the person hearing the story.
Then to follow up with questions or to be
intrigued and curious to want to know more.
Ashley Vann: Yeah. And I mean, Carol, I would love to come
back on your podcast at some point and just
talk about fundraising, because that's
really a passion of mine, and that's where
the storytelling comes into play.
But whenever talking to anyone, I always
like to share what the biggest goal could
potentially be, and then let that person
decide how they want to play a role.
Because in the nonprofit ecosystem, a
volunteer is the greatest gift you could
ever give an organization.
And we just recently, after this year's
Victory Cup, we had a gentleman who had just
recently retired. He came to us and he said,
I would love to work with you all for 20
hours a week.
I mean, we have gotten such incredible
expertise, mentoring and advice from this
gentleman. This is a gift that we could
never afford to pay for.
And so, um, and if I had just asked him for
$5,000, instead of just being opening up the
vision of Victory Cup, I might have lost
that opportunity.
Carol Cox: Oh, that is such a great example, right.
Because you may be they may have so much
more to offer, but they're just going to
just say, okay, that's what you're asking me
for, then that's what I'll give.
And they may not even voluntarily volunteer,
so to speak, but, you know, offer other
things.
Ashley Vann: Mhm. 100%.Yeah.
Carol Cox: That's a great example. So thinking back
again to this idea of balancing structure
and novelty, and because I want to provide
maybe some practical ideas for the listeners
who are either running non-profits or
businesses. And I think about it this way,
because I can imagine you have a bunch of
whether it's nonprofits or even businesses,
maybe they're at some type of business event
and they have to introduce themselves.
And everyone starts off with the story the
same way. Well, there was a time when I was
X or I had this shocking moment when X,
right? Like those kind of those common
tropes that people use for storytelling.
So I think about it, maybe you mentioned
authenticity is like, think about like what
was the emotional heart of that story for
you? You know, you're the one telling the
story. And maybe think about what is a way
to bring the audience in based on how you
were feeling or where you were or what was
going on at the time.
That's one idea. The other idea I often will
use is playing with the story timeline.
So sometimes starting at the beginning of
the story, sometimes starting at the end or
even starting in the middle of the story,
and then backtracking back and then
continuing on. So I don't know if you ever
played with any of those structures
yourself, Ashley.
Ashley Vann: Yeah. I mean, I think to really go to, um, I
guess exercises for me is to help people
immediately create their own story is to
your point with when you're in the nonprofit
world and you're working with a board or
someone who wants to be a champion of your
cause, they'll say, well, do you have a
flyer or can you help me with my pitch?
And it's more about tell me what it is about
this organization that makes you proud.
And if someone were to expand on I work at
this company and I'm really proud of the
work that we do because of blank.
That's going to open up a story about who
that person is, what is the work that they
do, and how does that individual, individual
person contribute to the success of the
organization. So that's one tool that I use.
Another real easy tool is the I believe.
And that can sound a little bit Pollyanna, a
little soft. But when people share with you
what they believe, I mean, I personally am
someone who my husband always says, you
know, I always want to talk to people and go
deep and hear their story and hear about
what they're thinking and what's important
to them. And my husband says, you know, not
everybody wants to have this deep
conversation. And I disagree with that.
I feel like we all are kind of lonely and
hurting, and we all want to feel safe, loved
and heard. And that's something that I
believe in my core.
And so if you're able to talk to people and
help them kind of figure out what is it that
you believe and what is it that you're doing
that fuels your belief?
That's another great way to launch a Marcia
story. Um, and kind of really just create
more authentic conversation, which is what
storytelling is all about.
Carol Cox: Yes. And and that back and forth.
Right. So it truly is a two way or multiple
way conversation, not just one way.
Ashley Vann: And you might not believe what the person
believes, like you might.
And that's such a great way to exercise
kindness and peace, right?
Which is everybody wants to teach somebody
else something. I think the question is
also, what am I learning today?
Right.
Carol Cox: Oh, I love that. Yes, I definitely will keep
that in mind. That's a great way to think
about it. What am I learning today?
Ashley Vann: Yes. So I've worked with a lot of children
over the last ten years.
I mean, in my career with the nonprofit
sector over the last, I guess, 10 or 11
years, I've worked with about 90 different
nonprofit organizations.
And it's always when I'm working with
children or teenagers or young adults, it's
always easy to find donors or community
leaders or business leaders who want to
teach the kids something.
Well, I think the kids really just want
someone to listen to who they are and what
they've been through. So just a thought.
Carol Cox: Oh my gosh, yes.
That is so powerful Ashley.
Definitely. Yeah.
For all of all everyone listening, whatever
you're working with in your business,
nonprofits, community organizations, that's
a great reminder.
Now, one other thing that you mentioned to
me, Ashley, during our coffee chat, which I
really had never thought about in this way
before, is that you said that and you
mentioned this a little bit earlier, that
storytelling can elicit a elicits emotions
in us, you know, whether it's we're
listening to someone else in person or we're
watching a movie or a TV show and we feel
sad, or maybe we feel excited or we feel
angry, whatever it happens to be.
So storytelling elicits emotions.
And then you said music actually does the
same thing. So both storytelling and music
are collective experiences that not only
listed emotions in us, but can elicit the
same emotions in people who are together.
Ashley Vann: Right?
Carol Cox: So it's how like, yeah.
So tell me more about that.
Ashley Vann: Well, I mean, I'm definitely a woman of
faith. And so that's very important to me.
But I do think I always say that music is
the Holy Spirit.
And I think storytelling and what I mean by
that is it's this energy that just brings
everyone together.
There is music that we could play and it
could bring us all to tears, right?
There's also music.
Think about the 4th of July and the music
that's being played throughout the day.
No matter what you have that's going on in
your life, you all of a sudden have this
enormous amount of pride in being an
American and living in the United States of
America. And you also have this enormous
sense of gratitude.
And it's all because of, like, the Lee
Greenwood song or the.
I can't think of the different artists right
now, but it's just really powerful.
And I think a really great the Publix
commercials, they can do that same thing to
you, you know, where it just really centers
you. And I think there's something really
powerful. I think it's really critical to
have the arts be a part of everything that
we do, and I would hate for those to ever be
lost in our community.
Carol Cox: Yes, absolutely.
Music you think of like, you know, like
whether it's a Mozart and classical music or
even, you know, pop songs from when we grew
up. Like they definitely bring back
memories, nostalgia.
You can probably remember where you were
when that song was popular.
So music can do so much.
And and as we've been talking about, stories
can as well.
All right. Ashley. So yeah.
Go ahead.
Ashley Vann: I was just going to say and one one like
perfect altruistic example of music is with
children and babies.
And just to watch how they respond to music
and how it just immediately elevates their
mood. And it's just like, pure and simple,
right?
Carol Cox: Well, it does it for us too.
As adults, you know, we're feeling down,
like put on a fun, you know, pop song or
dance song or something that you really like
and start moving around and start singing
and you probably will feel better.
Ashley Vann: 100%, yes.
Carol Cox: Ashley, can you tell listeners where they can
learn more about you and more about Victory
Cup?
Ashley Vann: Oh, absolutely.
So we have a fantastic website that was
built for us by a volunteer, and so please
check us out at the Victory Cup initiative.
Org you'll hear all about why storytelling
is important, and also you'll see a list of
about 85 nonprofit organizations that have
been vetted by thousands of business leaders
in our community who help us select our ten
finalists each year.
And you'll get to learn about work that's
being done in our community to care for our
most vulnerable, and also just to help
people who are in need.
So that's one way.
We also have a great social media, so check
us out on Facebook and Instagram and
definitely LinkedIn. And then you can hear
about our different events that we have
coming up. We do have we've like I
mentioned, we've worked with about 85
nonprofit organizations in Central Florida.
So we do have quarterly workshops to help
the nonprofit leaders be better leaders and
learn more, and just kind of want to always
find opportunities to support them and serve
them, and so that they're able to serve more
and stay excited and passionate about the
different causes that they are working to
resolve.
Carol Cox: Oh, fantastic. Ashley.
Well, thank you so much for the incredible
work that you do and everyone at Victory Cup
Initiative does. Like I said, I was so
impressed by the organization and the event.
Looking forward to attending next February
as well. And for all of you listening, if
you obviously live in the Orlando, Central
Florida area, definitely check out Victory
Cup initiative and come to the breakfast in
February. If you're not local, if you live
somewhere else, find a nonprofit or
community organization in your area that
you'd like to get involved in.
Hear their stories.
Find out their stories.
See if there's a way that you can get
involved with them as well.
Because as we know, they're always looking
for donors and volunteers and advocates for
their causes. And also, be sure to take our
free speaker archetype quiz if you want to
discover your natural communication
strengths, including storytelling, because
that is one of our speaker archetypes, the
spellbinding storyteller. So you could be
that, or you could be the stellar scholar,
or the fabulous facilitator or the
provocative performer.
They're all fantastic speaker archetypes,
but once you find out which one you are,
you'll get recommendations as far as how to
amplify your natural style and add to it,
including those important storytelling
skills you can take.
That quiz just takes a few minutes at
speaking your brand.com/quiz.
Again, that's speaking your brand.com/quiz.
Until next time, thanks for listening.