When I was little, I would tell stories to anyone who would listen. The tall tales would ramble on, and at the end I’d tell the adult (who probably stopped listening long before) that they were not to share these stories with my mom. “She doesn’t like to hear things she’s already heard,” I would say. The truth is these stories had little truth to them, and I didn’t want to get caught telling a fib.
 I’ve been a storyteller all my life. Thanks to age and a degree from a well-respected journalism school, the stories I tell have far more truth to them now. Not to brag, but I think I’m pretty good at telling stories, both in written and verbal form.
 Storytelling is a skill that every team member at View Newspaper Group has to be good at. Our reporters need to be good at it as is the nature of their job. Our graphics team has to be able to tell a client’s story with words and images in a display marketing message. From administration to IT, each View team member is a brand ambassador for our company so it’s important they know our story and can share it easily with anyone who asks “So, what do you do?” It is also important that members of our sales team master storytelling, so they can share our story with clients to ensure they trust their investment with our products.
 A Harvard Business Review (HBR) article on the topic of storytelling confirms the importance of the skill in business. From the article, “In our information-saturated age, business leaders ‘won’t be heard unless they’re telling stories,’ says Nick Morgan, author of Power Cues and president and founder of Public Words, a communications consulting firm. ‘Facts and figures and all the rational things that we think are important in the business world actually don’t stick in our minds at all,’ he says. But stories create ‘sticky’ memories by attaching emotions to things that happen. That means leaders who can create and share good stories have a powerful advantage over others.”
 While not everyone is a born storyteller, it’s a skill that can be learned. Here are some tips to help you tell your story:
 Know your audience: From the HBR article. Ask yourself, “who is my audience and what is the message I want to share with them? Each decision about your story should flow from those questions.”
 Let’s say our audience is a potential print advertising customer. We do as much research as possible before meeting with this person to try to understand their business. When we arrive, we do not launch into storytelling mode. First, we ask questions. This helps us to understand our audience even better. We aim to learn what business challenge we can help them solve, what their budget is and what audience they are trying to reach.
 When it comes to message, our team has a clear goal — share our story of growth. In the last two decades we’ve grown from one newspaper to 14 across the state. We’ve done that by serving as the community connection for our readers and our clients. We connect readers to their community, and we connect our clients to our readers. We do this through our newspapers, our events, our team’s volunteerism and our company’s commitment to giving back to the communities we serve.
 “Here’s a good idea: Have a point!”: When I shared with View Newspaper Group Advertising Director Pete Clinton the topic of this week’s column, he said “Have a point!” I thought he was just stating the obvious in regard to how I should write the piece. Turns out he was quoting one of his favorite scenes in the 1980s hit Planes, Trains and Automobiles in which Steve Martin’s character is sharing tips on how to be a more engaging storyteller with John Candy’s character.
 It’s not nice, but he has a point (ha!). A good story must have a point.
 When meeting with a new client, our point is that print advertising works. Print advertising: cuts through the digital clutter; is trusted; is read by all ages; has a great shelf life; pairs great with all other marketing formats and makes an impact.
 Practice: Fortunately, contrary to what I told my captive audiences as a little kid, my mom doesn’t mind hearing things over and over as is evident by the number of times she has had to hear me practice storytelling. From work presentations to maid of honor speeches, both she and my husband have listened as I’ve honed my storytelling skills. Maybe it’s your pet, your co-worker or the mirror that will first hear your stories but like most things, practice makes perfect when it comes to this skill.
 What tips do you have for storytelling? Email me at ecaswell@mihomepaper.com.
 Emily Caswell is the Brand Manager for VIEW Group, the branding division of View Newspaper Group.