I don’t tell jokes. Period.
I’m really bad at it. Not just poor, but seriously bad at it. I just cannot remember the details. I always over-explain and I just can’t get the rhythm right. I can do funny comments, dry comebacks or awkward remarks: I’m that guy who pushes the boundaries on what’s considered humorous. But telling jokes…now that’s a skill. And I just don’t have it!
But.
Interestingly enough, I do like writing and I like the idea of telling a story; from creating the initial concept to structuring the flow of ideas/information, to finally weaving all the elements into a cohesive story. I like being able to connect to an audience and bring them on a journey of discovery. Well, that’s what I hope I’m achieving!
With Connect and the Local Guides community, I’ve been experimenting and practising different ways to tell a story in the hopes of bringing people together and to connect with each other. I’ll start with the easiest and most obvious examples:
Writing Connect posts - Last year, I ran a #ConnectWritingChallenge and not only was I telling the story of how to write quality postson Connect, but I also got to read so many amazing posts from the community! This was a shared storytelling challenge which was so much fun and I met @Giuseppe75 , @Gurukrishnapriya , @marcorp and so many more.
And recently, I wrote a piece on creating lists and hopefully, folks can learn to capture a slice of their favourite places and share them with the world! In my case, I wanted to tell the world all my favourite coffee spots and share my secret places for comfort eating!
Writing reviews - Reviews are the shortest form of storytelling! In so many words, I’m telling others my experiences of a venue, providing my personal insights and recommendations. The goal: to let the public decide on whether they’d want to go on the same journey or not!
And on the mobile Google Maps app, you can check to see how many views/likes your reviews have got! This shows you just how impactful your stories can be to others! A couple of recent ones include this review of an Italian restaurant in Manchester (4781 views, 1 like) and a war museum in Ieper, Belgium (3697 views, 8 likes). And if you’re wondering what’s with all the stars and separate ratings in my reviews, do check out this post where I’m using a structured format to help me organise my experiences!
Organising/Hosting Hangouts - I’ve only ever done this for the Connect Live attendees as a way for all the attendees to introduce themselves, tell their personal stories and get to know each other more before the event. This was a joint effort with several other hosts so it’s not just me!
My favourite session was showing folks my city of Manchester as I took them on a 3km tour! Surprisingly the technology held up and the weather was really good so I was super lucky! Note: the recap post is in the private board so, unfortunately, cannot be shared.
Creating videos - This is a fun activity that I’ve always been interested in but severely lacking the skills and time! Nonetheless, I’m so happy with the two results: New Year 2019 and New Year 2020(with @SP31 ). Such great messages and I just love seeing all these amazing Local Guides!
Hosting Meetups - Some meetups are simpler than others but for the more complicated ones where I’m presenting and introducing an area to others, I like to take my guests on a walking adventure to let them get a snapshot of what makes Manchester fabulous; let the city tell its story!!
As part of the Manchester Local Guides, we’ve hosted 26 meetups since 2016. Not a high number compared to many amazing communities out there, but still a number I’m super proud of. That’s 26 times that we got together as a team catching up with each other, telling our stories, sharing meals and exploring our local areas.
A notable mention is one of the more memorable meetups that I’ve ever attended which was in Ghent, Belgium, superbly hosted by @JanVanHaver ! I met so many fantastic and energetic Local Guides there and I felt that I could truly appreciate theamazing places, culture and history of Ghent and Ieper. It was storytelling at its finest!
And lastly, but definitely not the least…Podcasting! There’s something wonderful about this that I wanted to delve into a bit more!
The brief history: after Connect Live 2018, I reached out to a few Local Guides ( @KimberlyAnnG , @Pedi , @vvbellur , @Shirley ) and together we created theGo Loco podcast. Later, we had @Linnea join in the fun too! The idea was simple: let’s create a platform where we could elevate the voice of select Local Guides to the world and let their stories be heard!
So when 2019 came around, we made the announcement and published our first episode! As of today, we have released 14 episodes across 17 files (some episodes came in parts as they were rather long). It’s very much a project that comes and goes as we are all just super busy and podcasting does consume a considerable amount of time for scripting, recording, editing, publishing and then marketing.
Podcasting was very new to me and in a way, it still is and I feel like I’ve only just scratched the surface. For me, this is probably the most challenging and interesting thing that I’ve done as a Local Guide! It has been such a great experience and the joy for me was being able to ‘interview’ folks, to ask them some serious questions, throw in a few silly ones and just getting to know them better! Every ‘interview’ is unique to the personality of the Local Guide which makes every recording a mini adventure of uncertainty! The best bit is that I get to share this magic moment to the world!
Amongst the various episodes that I’ve been involved in, here are some of my highlights:
Episode 5 - Local Guides Do International Women’s Day
In this episode, Vandana was interviewing Aiman and Priyanka and I was providing support with editing. I really enjoyed participating in a global movement to celebrate and elevate women voices, and it was just amazing to hear about their backgrounds, their experiences and what IWD means to them. We had also put out a request to our listeners to share their own views and we were so proud to share their thoughts too!
Episode 7 - Connect Live Application
Besides being a fun episode, it was also great that we had the whole Go Loco team participating and providing their tips and tricks for applying to Connect Live! If you’re applying to Connect Live and have yet to send in your application, do have a listen! Or just listen to it for Pedi’s vocal exercise noises!
Episode 9, 10, 11, 12, 13 and 14 - Connect Live 2019 Series
I brought my recording equipment with me to Connect Live but the decision to record the series came at the very last minute. I came up with the idea days before but I just wasn’t sure if there was time and I would be recording ‘live’ i.e. minimal stops/pauses and completely unscripted.
What I love so much about this series is being able to ‘interview’ a truly global group of attendees about their backgrounds, what Local Guides mean to them and I hope that their stories would help encourage and inspire others! Putting a voice to a username makes a big difference too!
So, what does the future hold for Go Loco? Well, in an ideal world, I would love to grow this project into a true platform where anybody could do a recording, submit it to us and then it gets released under the Go Loco brand. That way, more folks could participate when they have the time, without having the burden of producing more episodes.
However, managing all that collaboration and guiding people on how to record/edit also takes up a lot of time! At this moment, that’s a resource I don’t quite have! But, hey, I’m always open to ideas!
My life, my journey, my story is only reaching its mid-way point, so for now, this storyteller wannabe will have to contend with all that I’ve done so far and I hope that I can continue to create more fascinating stories, in whatever shape or form, to share to the world!
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So…what did the pirate say on his 80th birthday?
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All the best to your application!