The Art and Science of Storytelling in the Digital Age

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Hello, everyone, everywhere.

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Pastor Bob Thibodeau here.

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Welcome to the Faith Based Business podcast for today.

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We're so blessed you're joining us.

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You know, this week we're going to be talking about the science behind storytelling.

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Amen.

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And you know, storytelling isn't just an art, folks.

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It's a science deeply rooted in human biology.

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And we learned last time that when we hear a story, multiple areas of our brains act or our brain activates, fostering emotional and intellectual connections.

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Amen.

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I'm going to share this now.

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What I want you to see though, today, I want to look a little bit closer at storytelling in the digital age.

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That's the age we live in now.

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In today's fast paced digital world, storytelling must adapt, okay, to shorter attention spans for one, instead of, you know, back in the day when, when church sermons and stuff would go, you know, sometimes two, three hours, you know, I, I'm, I can remember back in the 90s, I would go to conventions, ministry conventions.

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Oh, I just loved it.

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Two, three days, all day long, from 9 o'clock in the morning till 9 o'clock at night.

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Just different sermons, different pastors and preachers sharing.

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That was awesome to me and I still enjoy it.

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But the attention span of people today, man, if you, if you're going, you know, they're coming in, they're logging into a view, let's say a video on YouTube, and they look and see, oh man, 27 minutes, I ain't got time for that.

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You know, the attention span today is so short, we have to adapt to it.

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Amen.

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Modern audiences, they crave stories that one, are authentic, two, are concise, three are visually engaging.

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But that shorter attention span and various platforms, we need to be able to adapt to that.

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Amen.

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We can use polls, you know, you need to incorporate analytics, see where you're getting your responses at.

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Just because you're Putting it on YouTube doesn't mean YouTube is the place for you.

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It could be tick tock, it could be Instagram, you know, it could be YouTube, it could be your website, it could be television, it could be radio, it could be podcasts.

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Wherever you're seeing the response to what you're trying to share, that's where you need to focus.

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Amen.

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And you can use polls, you can use questions, you can use comments just to try and involve your listeners in the narrative, get their feedback.

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You know, analytics, it's not just being used in business, analytics can be used in your ministry.

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And analytics will provide that insight into your audience's preferences, enabling you to refine your narrative for maximum impact, pastors can use it in their church.

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You know, do you know, do you do realize, I pray you do realize that in the Bible there is no set method of holding your church services.

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It doesn't start well, you know, gotta turn around and shake 15 people's hands for five minutes.

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It doesn't start with praise and worship.

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It doesn't start with, you know, the announcements.

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It doesn't have to have a 27 minute sermon.

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Not 28, not 25.

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It's got to be 27.

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Gotta run that time.

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You know, there is no set structure for this now.

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That's one of the things that I just really despised, I guess you could say.

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When I was assistant pastors and stuff, all these churches had to start on time, had to finish on time because the football game is starting, right?

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Wait a minute, we're here to worship.

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If God's moving in a service, and there are some services that I've been in that let's just say God wasn't moving.

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I don't want to talk about the pastors or nothing like that.

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Let's just say God wasn't moving.

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I was so glad those things were cut short.

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But inevitably there were those churches that I was in where God wasn't moving.

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But the pastor, you know, he.

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It's a 45 minute preaching time.

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I'm gonna take my 45 minutes.

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His church.

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What can you say?

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The point I'm trying to get to, folks, you need feedback from your people.

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I've been in services, I've been preaching in services, especially in some of these churches that, you know, they're used to the 25 minute sermonette and then they're done.

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And I'm going, 30 minutes, 35 minutes.

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And I start seeing people look at their watches.

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That tells me that I've lost them and it's time to wrap it up.

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The days are gone where you can sit in the service for an hour and a half just listening with some good, solid preaching.

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You might be thinking, brother Bob, how can someone sit there for an hour and a half, just listen to preach?

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You get a preacher who's good, that time just flies by.

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I, I love a good, serious.

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Anyway, I'm getting off my tie.

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You know how Pastor Bob is.

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I run down these rabbit trails and then I find it hard to get back up.

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Amen.

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Anyway, the point I'm trying to make is you need feedback from your people.

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All right?

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Analytics as a great way to determine your audience's preferences.

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And that enables you to refine your narrative for maximum impact.

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Like I said, when I started seeing people looking at their watches, I knew I was losing them.

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And let's go ahead and time to wrap it up.

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Amen.

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Interactive story.

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Don't look at your watch right now.

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Glory to God.

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I'm trying to get there best, fast as I can.

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Amen.

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Interactive storytelling, folks.

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That's what connects people.

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Through engagement tools like polls and comments.

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You can ask questions, things like, what do you think of this?

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What problems do you have in this area?

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And ask questions like that.

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These types of questions not only help in engaging the person you're talking to, but your audience, your listeners, everyone.

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They will give you some tremendous feedback if you'll just ask.

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They may even help you generate additional training to offer in the future.

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Additional subject matter for your sermons, maybe some different products for your business.

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I know everyone struggles to find new things from time to time.

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I do too.

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But.

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But this is one way that can help you in these areas.

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Amen.

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And, and platforms like tik tok and YouTube and Facebook, they prioritize visual first storytelling.

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This requires creative approaches to keep content compelling.

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You know, I spent this year on growing my YouTube channel and getting it populated with a lot of content because that's what their algorithm likes.

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And it does seem to be starting to show some results.

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Praise the Lord.

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It took almost a whole year.

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We're there.

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Amen.

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Because I want to, I want you to understand this is not something that you're going to, you know, okay, we're going to do this and I'm going to fix this this weekend.

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You may get some feedback this weekend.

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It's not going to be fixed in a weekend.

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I'm telling you right now.

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You need to get this and get it started.

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It may take you a year to get things turned around.

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Amen.

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You need to make sure though, that your stories remain relevant and impactful and they do it over time.

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By crafting what we call evergreen digital narratives, your messages are able to remain impactful, inspiring audiences over and over and over again.

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That's why YouTube is so great.

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Not just a one time thing.

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You know, we have the podcast, we have our podcast episodes.

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That's where I do the faith based training like you're listening to right now.

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It's on YouTube.

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It's on a podcast.

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It's not just on the radio.

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I've been on the radio.

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I did a whole year, nationwide radio.

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And when you, Once they listen to it, it's gone.

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It's gone now.

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Unless they come to your website and get the digital copy.

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That's what's nice about a podcast.

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They can go straight to the website, listen to it 10 times in a row if they want to.

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I've got ones that I've listened to 10 times in a row.

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I've got stuff that I've, you know, my bookshelf's full of CDs and all that.

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Now it's a lot of times just download it on the Internet.

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Back then you couldn't, but I burned out some CD players.

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Amen.

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Because you need to do this.

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The digital narratives is what you need.

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All right?

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Mastering these techniques will ensure that your storytelling, if it's in business or whatever it is you're trying to do, thrives in this ever evolving digital landscape.

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I remember 78 players, 45s, 33 RPM, eight track tapes, cassette tapes, CDs.

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Now they're MP3 files.

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Now you just downloaded straight from the Internet.

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Things change over time.

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That's the point I'm trying to get to.

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And you need to change with it.

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You need to continue to impact audiences into the foreseeable future.

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You need to work to grow your business or ministry at the same time, all without having to recreate this content all over again.

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Hey man, that's why you need to do this.

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That's why you need to develop that evergreen content and you need to get your stories down.

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And that's why I'm conducting on November 26th a digital and in depth training on using these digital products called Faithful Storytelling.

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The power of Faithful Stories.

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And it's coming up on November 26th, going to be at 12 noon Eastern time.

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And I'd invite you to come to it.

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Just go to this link here on your that you see on the screen.

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If you listen on the audio, it'll be in the show notes.

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It's faithcaster academy.com faithful-heartedtelling that once again, faithcaster academy.com faithful-worktelling and even if this is after the the live event, that event will still be in place.

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You can go ahead and listen to it.

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There is a cost involved for the live training because I got some special things I'm giving away to the live people on live training.

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It's $27, but for that small amount, it's well worth the investment.

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I guarantee it.

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Amen.

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Just go to faithcasteracademy.com Faithful Storytelling for more information.

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Till next time.

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This Pastor Bob reminding you to be blessed in all that you do.