Part 1: The Virtual Storyteller - The Philosophy of Plenty - Don't Let People Talk You Out Of It!

I didn't plan to write this series so soon or while I was in the middle of it, but I am fielding so many storytelling questions through my email, I thought I'd better give it my best shot.

Today is Non-Fiction Thursday.  (If you don't know why I call it Non-Fiction Thursday - follow this link)

Unfortunately, I have a number of different things to do that are not strictly in my Thursday model, but that is because the virtual storytelling processes we put in place last March are now beginning to generate work all over the country.

This is a good thing. It means that despite the lockdown and the lack of traveling and the advent of virtual school - the virtual storytelling shows are selling.

Now that we are starting to get work, and the business model we put together seems to be sound, I feel like I can share what we've done and how we mean to work this element of our business now and into the future.

I am going to do this in parts to prevent it from getting too long. My goal with this series is to cover the following elements - 

1 - Revamping the thought process on delivering storytelling

2 - Deciding on the direction of your virtual storytelling focus

3 - Performing for a camera

4 - Performing for a virtual audience

5 - Pre-recording material for audiences

6 - Delivering material via a virtual platform

7 - Creating Products vs Services in the Virtual Model

8 - A potential model for virtual residencies

9 - Marketing your virtual performances

Now, to be clear, there are lots of elements I can touch on in this series, but going in-depth would require me to write a manual. 

I am encouraging The David to do a series of videos about marketing and business processes. He is reluctant as he hates working with the camera, and he isn't sure he wants to teach a live/virtual workshop. I'll keep trying to convince him because he is way better at explaining the business side of this than me.

I've gotten emails from a number of performers who are just now beginning to grapple with what is going on in terms of the virtual storytelling world.

My goal in this series is to give people a jumping-off place to begin to focus on reshaping their work if they haven't already done so.

I admit upfront that I have so much to learn, so what I'm doing here is offering what I have already learned, and I hope you will have ideas to help me to keep learning.

I only know what we did as a company. If you have thoughts, suggestions, or comments, please leave them below so we can learn from your process if you are willing to share your insights.

You might ask - Why aren't you charging people to take a workshop on this? You are always talking about monetizing your work, and here you are giving things away for free!

I may very well start teaching virtual workshops on this subject too - but the truth is I would be nowhere if so many great storytellers hadn't been kind, caring, and helpful to me as I started my career. 

Paying it forward is a necessity if our art form is to survive.

Another caveat here - I mean to go through this slowly and explain it in steps so that it doesn't seem random, or unachievable. Another reason to, at some point, teach a four hour intensive on reshaping your storytelling for the virtual world.

Okay, enough pre-amble - Let's begin -

We live in a world built on the concept of scarcity -

That means, we only pay top dollar for things that are hard to come by. This creates a situation where people who provide services or products need to make it feel as if we don't buy it NOW and for whatever price they set, we will go begging in the future.

In other words - capitalism in all things including our work

Now, this is not a bad thing. Timpanogos and The National Festival only happen once a year, and they are an experience. The same thing is true of all of our wonderful national storytelling events. They have their own character and their own atmosphere. We swear by our favorites because they are all unique. We pay what we pay to be part of that experience.

Well, what about storytelling itself? If people don't have to travel across the world or even across state lines, will they value it? 

What if everybody can just click on a link and hear storytelling? Will it be overexposed?

If you can see it virtually, who will want to watch it in person?

We are not the first entertainment industry to be struck by this problem of a changing business model. 

Cable television freaked out over Youtube and Hulu.

How can satellite or cable compete if they force people to pay whatever cable television costs (I don't know what that is as we haven't had cable television for almost two decades) when you can watch it on Youtube for free?

Then, Netflix arrived on the scene, rendered Blockbuster obsolete, and allowed people to binge entire seasons instead of waiting from week to week.

Advertisers freaked out - The whole structure broke into pieces and started trying to reform itself into something new.

Well, cable, satellite, and streaming services have embraced a new philosophy - The concept of Plenty

There are plenty of ways to stream material and everyone can get what they want while paying a much smaller fee. People liked the myriad options, and the world of television and movies is still evolving.

New releases of movies are now rentable online instead of us going to the theatre.

My family watched the new Bill and Ted movie with some friends in our living room on one of our kid's giant computer monitors linked to my husband's laptop.

When I first began trying t figure out how I was going to deal with all of this virtual content and whether I wanted to do it at all, there was a hue and cry from some of the people with whom I shared my ideas.

"If you go virtual, your work will be rendered obsolete!"

"Why would anyone hire you if they could just download your work off the internet?"

"You will record yourself right out of a career!"

"Any show you record will make it impossible for you to do it live."

"How will you keep people from "stealing" your shows?"

"This is a terrible idea!"

Those are words from the philosophy of Scarcity - If they can get you anywhere, why would anybody hire you? Your presence will become useless. Don't do it!

Well, over the course of the pandemic, we have seen something very different happen. We have seen that many storytellers have embraced the Philosophy of Plenty

The philosophy of Plenty sounds like this:

There are seven billion people in the world - 

Who knows how many of them would love storytelling if they had any idea what it was -

Let us make sure that lots of people are sharing stories -

People will find us if there are lots of places they could encounter stories -

Let's grow our audience by using storytelling as a powerful tool during this global pandemic -

Storytellers need to tell, and people need stories. We got lots. Let's share -

How sweet. How naive. How silly. What about that whole overexposed thing!

Well, I don't know about you, but I have a ton of stuff on Youtube. In fact, if you head over to youtube right now, and type in Donna Washington Storyteller - you will get hours and hours of me telling stories online. 

In fact, you can watch hours of bootleg shows, ghost stories, badly shot footage, professional footage and heaven knows what else of me doin' my thing. I will bet the same is true of you.

You know what else you can find? Music. 

Trust me when I tell you that if Tina was coming to town and I could get tickets...I would go, despite watching the above clip.

And despite having hours of storytelling online - I still get asked to show up in person for multiple hundreds of gigs per year.

When this pandemic is over, I hope to have been in even more homes, classrooms, and living rooms than I have up to now. I hope more people are trying to figure out how to get me to show up in person and perform. I think they will.

Why?

Because there is nothing like live performance. There is nothing like sitting in an audience with five, or twenty-five, or five hundred or more and experiencing a shared event.

Nothing.

In fact, I use my youtube virtual storytelling stuff in my marketing. I send schools and supporters to that stuff all of the time. They love it, and it has encouraged more than one group to hire me.

Lots of people find me by running across those videos. 

Watching a storyteller online whets the appetite for a "real" experience. People want to see it live. They. Just. Do.

So, Don't let anyone dissuade you from doing this.

Virtual content is a way to use storytelling and the many opportunities we have right now to expand our business and reach new audiences who will come look for us live when the opportunity comes around once more.

So, strap in, and let's begin this journey into virtual telling.

There is more than plenty.

We have nothing to lose!

Part 1 - The Virtual Storyteller - The Philosophy of Plenty - Don't Let People Talk You Out Of It!

Part 2: The Virtual Storyteller - You Need A Cunning Plan

Part 3 - The Virtual Storyteller - Getting Equipped

Part 4: Lighting the Virtual Storyteller

Part 5: The Virtual Storyteller - Performing For The Camera

Part 6: The Virtual Storyteller - I'm a Teller Not a Film Editor!

Part 7: The Virtual Storyteller - How Do You Market This???

Part 8: The Virtual Storyteller - The Internet Gods Are Not Always Kind

Part 9: The Virtual Storyteller - We Are An Evolving Business