The Hollywood Star and me: A lesson in giving the media what it doesn't want

As a journalist, I wanted problems. As a ghostwriter, I realise that solutions make for the best thought leadership

I recently took on a new client, my first Hollywood star. Not yet a megastar but a household name nonetheless. Through a series of connections, I ended up ghosting a piece of journalism that’s due to run on a global media platform.

It’s a good story and The Star is a genuinely lovely person, totally without ego (maybe not totally). But I’m more interested in the reaction when I tried to place the material – and what it showed me about the untapped power of corporate storytelling.

Too often, business leaders (like stars) think storytelling is either about promoting themselves and their businesses, or reacting to bad news. Instead, I prefer to help create material that focuses on solutions, allows a nuanced approach that combats bias and encourages engagement with others so as to inspire debate.

That’s what The Star wants to do. Because The Star is living with something that makes life pretty difficult. They want to show that, against all odds, things are positive and life-affirming. Yes, they’ve got benefits most of us will never have but, by telling a story in a different and more constructive way, The Star believes that they will have a greater ability to influence the agenda and inspire similarly-afflicted people.

I agree. But I wouldn’t have when I was back in the middle of the newsroom maelstrom. Trauma and grit were what I wanted. As did the first Editor friend I approached to place our article. The response I got was something like this:

‘This is going to need a massive rewrite. We need more family emotion here, we’ve got to get an insight into how grim The Star’s life is and how it might ruin their career. Anguish, Grant. Give me anguish. And please can we have more of the [insert minor scandal here].’

The Star and I discussed a rewrite but agreed we had something good already. So let’s keep trying. And the next Editor (from an almost identical news organisation) responded like this:

‘This is brilliant. We’ll run it as is.’

Despite knowing how good and emotionally compelling the material is, I was still taken aback by the enthusiasm of the second response because most senior journalists sit in the former camp. Yes, positivity is good but it’s usually framed within something harder and thus gets washed out by the brutal journalistic spin cycle.

Which made me think of my business clients and the stories they want to tell. Stories about solutions and new perspectives, laced with a balanced thoughtfulness designed to get people talking, using channels and platforms that aren’t driven by the negativity of traditional journalism and very often focused on societal issues.

I’m in my 50s and, thanks to my 20-something children, I’m relearning what great storytelling can be. Younger generations want a more constructive journalism, one that embraces shades of grey, that attempts to bring disparate elements of society together, that wants solutions rather than problems. Not just the solution but a plethora of them, up for debate. They don’t want their attention to be grabbed by fear.

I don’t think good news is ever going to supplant bad. Our brains are hard-wired for negativity and, more often than not in business, bad news stories get the attention of leaders – as long as those stories speak about opportunities rather than just problems.

However, constructive journalism is going to become more influential in the way our media operates. I’ve become really interested in The Constructive Institute, based in Denmark. I highly recommend visiting their website and understanding a little more of their philosophy.

As for The Star… well, I hope you like the story when it appears and I hope you’re moved by both their experience and positivity.

More importantly, I hope you think they’re a brilliant writer.

READ THIS

This is data journalism at its finest and poorest. Let’s start with the negative. A study of people in banking to analyse how leaders can use hybrid working models to get the best out of teams, an excerpt of which is reprinted above. Great idea. However, asking 100 people - three quarters of whom are women – is shallow at best, biased at worst because the study becomes as much about domestic lives as a mum, as working ones as a colleague. But the best bit? The study’s authors suggest storytelling is one of the six essential ingredients of great leadership, particularly explaining the ‘why’ of work to ensure that team members ‘are connected to the overall purpose of the team’s mission’. Poor report, great conclusion.

WATCH THIS

I’m not entirely sure of the ethics of this one but never mind. It’s an hypnotic and eye-opening short film entitled Password123 and a great blend of storytelling and AI. The filmmakers have taken hundreds of passwords that have been leaked onto the dark web and used artificial intelligence to match an image to the words and numbers. A unique way to tell the story of why we’re not doing enough to protect ourselves from people who want to steal our data.

LISTEN TO THIS

The one thing harder than starting your story is ending it. This is a great episode of Malcolm Gladwell’s Revisionist History podcast, in which he talks about thrilling, contemplative and emotionally complex endings. When it comes to business storytelling, an ending should bring us back to the beginning. You’ve set out your story, the ‘so what’. Then you’ve supported it with data. The ending should be a reaffirmation of the start, just more convincing and authoritative.

For more storytelling advice, find us at www.everyrung.com or email me at grant@everyrung.com