Advocacy Made Easy: Crafting a Personal Story that Connects
Challenge, Choice, Outcome
“I’m having serious doubts about this story. But maybe they won’t call on me?”
I texted that to my family from a Moth StorySLAM in Kansas City, hoping to tell a story about my family’s quilting tradition for a storytelling competition with a theme of “I Got it From My Mama.” I wasn’t there to beat anyone. I just knew that while sharing a personal story with strangers can be nerve-wracking, it can also empower and heal. Months into processing grief from my mom’s passing, I was reaching for some positivity.
I’ve heard it said that our brains are “wired for stories.” Paul Zak, a university professor and leading expert on the neuroscience of human connection, agrees. His lab confirmed that oxytocin is the neurochemical responsible for triggering empathy. Plus, he identified two key aspects of an effective story. He wrote, “First, it must capture and hold our attention. The second thing an effective story does is ‘transport’ us into the character’s world.”
How do we tap into those components when we tell our stories?
To help craft focused stories with great impact, I recommend the “Challenge-Choice-Outcome” method I learned from the Sunrise Movement. In a typical lobby meeting or committee testimony, you only have 3-5 minutes to capture and hold attention. This method boils a story down to its essence.
Some readers might be familiar with the EPIC format (Engage, Problem, Inform about a Solution, Call to Action) I teach to communicate the problems and solutions of policies. Story sharing differs from EPIC in the way we focus on the emotional impact of the story. We want to relate to the policy without getting into the specifics of legislation. The goal is to paint a mental picture so that your audience understands how policy affects real-life people.
Moving from political theory to reality is the most powerful thing you can do in a lobby meeting. On an agenda, it’s nice to have someone give an overview of an issue using EPIC just before another advocate tells a personal story using Challenge-Choice-Outcome.
Here are the three components of Challenge-Choice-Outcome:
1. Challenge
Think of a challenge you faced in your life connected with the policy at hand. A challenge with significant stakes at risk captures and holds attention. Focus on a particular slice of life instead of delivering your entire life story. Captivating stories often come from facing hard challenges. Like the band AJR says, “100 bad days made 100 good stories.”
Can you think of a time when you faced a situation where you felt you were at a crossroads? Did you have to find a creative way out of it?
What are the stakes in your story? Was your health at risk? Your job? Your community? Your independence? Your dignity? Your relationship with your family? When the stakes reflect common values, it makes a story relatable even to people who oppose your position.
Examples:
For trans folks, the challenge might be to decide which gendered restroom to use in a state where it’s illegal to use a bathroom that doesn’t match one’s assigned gender at birth. The stakes in that case could be personal safety, arrest, or loss of dignity.
People with inadequate health insurance coverage might have to choose between a costly surgery or the risk of not having proper medical care. Financial stability and death could be on the line.
Every single day someone living in poverty is choosing between food and rent.
Notice how all the stakes in those examples (safety, freedom, dignity, financial stability, health, food, shelter) are something every human wants. Anchoring your story to basic human needs and wants help form an empathetic connection with your audience even if they don’t immediately relate the the specifics of your story.
What are the memorable details from that challenging time? Vivid sensory details help draw people into your situation. Paint a picture in their minds to set the stage and transport your audience into your world. In 2016, I heard author Pamela Covington tell a story at a RESULTS conference about a difficult Christmas when she cooked a turkey from a food pantry in a borrowed apartment. Her depiction of how two rats surprised her and made her drop the precious turkey stuck with me for years! (Listen to Pamela’s story here)
When talking to an elected official about a specific policy, connect your life challenge to the decision they have to make when they vote. Your story should show how the policy in question improves your life or makes it harder.
2. Choice
What choice did you make in the story? Why did you make it? What made the alternative to your decision unacceptable to you? Or, was a choice made for you in a way that took away your agency?
It’s important to share your thought processes in arriving at your decision, so folks can go on the journey with you. It can be tricky to provide details without losing your audience in the weeds. But details specific to your situation make your message memorable and build empathy with the decision-maker. Your senator may never have met anyone who has faced the problems you have. This might be the first time a constituent has described the issue in such a personal way.
Remember that lawmakers are human, each with a limited perspective. Most members of Congress have privileges that create blind spots in their perception of constituents in need. Tell them the things that might not be obvious to a person of privilege and wealth. You are the expert in the challenges you faced. Help them see the world through your eyes.
3. Outcome
What happened after you made your choice? Did it resolve the problem, or did things get even worse?
If the outcome is positive and your elected official had something to do with enacting the policy that made your happy ending possible, let them know. Your story can inspire them to keep up the good fight!
But not every story has a happy ending. Sometimes we face impossible choices that can only result in “bad” or “worse.” Your members of Congress need to know this. Even though those kinds of stories aren’t comfortable to tell, RESULTS volunteer Candice Ellis shared her reasons for sharing them when I interviewed her for my book, From Changing Diapers to Changing the World: Why Moms Make Great Advocates and How to Get Started. Candace said,
“When I tell my story over and over again, it’s very emotional. It’s exhausting because I’m not too keen on being vulnerable. But just the fact that my story will help someone, or that my story will be an inspiration or enlighten whoever I’m talking to makes me feel like, ‘If you’re willing to listen and make this count, then I’m willing to tell you.’ If my story can inspire someone else, I’ll tell it 1000 times.”
And the StorySLAM Winner is…
ME! No one was more surprised than this girl when the audience judges gave me the highest scores. Still, I had a lot of time on the drive from Kansas City back to St. Louis to consider how creating my story might have gone smoother if I’d started out using the Challenge-Choice-Outcome advocacy tool. Even though I’d taught the skill to activists, I hadn’t considered how it has broad appeal to any short story situation.
I did indeed have time to re-adjust my story to include the ongoing challenge of deciding year after year to hold a family together through a quilting retreat tradition. In my particular story, I faced a challenge, but Mom’s sudden death meant that the family didn’t get to make a choice about gathering anymore. We could only choose to come together without her to support each other in completing the last quilt she left unfinished.
Someday, when I have the recording of my story, I’ll update this post and share it here. In the meantime, go out and tell YOUR stories. Whether addressing a Moth audience or a member of Congress, sharing a short, targeted personal story is one of the best ways to connect with people on a human level. If you tell a story in a lobby meeting or even at a StorySLAM, tell me about it in the comments!
How to Purchase My Autographed Books Online
My first book, “From Changing Diapers to Changing the World: Why Moms Make Great Advocates and How to Get Started,” is a warm and witty guidebook helping moms to make a better world for all of us. It provides inspirational stories and “how-to” instructions for new and experienced activists to get more involved in advocacy.
My second book, “Advocacy Made Easy: How to Turn Civic Frustration Into Powerful Action,” is a practical handbook designed to demystify the advocacy process for everyone. It offers a convenient, step-by-step guide to making your voice heard in the halls of power—no political experience required.
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