Presentation Advice, Notes on Taste and How to Plan You Content Strategy

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10 stories we've enjoyed this week

Illustration by Tasia Graham – support Tasia

Hi All,
Would you like to help us with some research? We're interviewing people who have experienced a hybrid work situation for a research project we're doing.

The interview will happen over Zoom and take around 45 minutes. The questions will all be about how you find, use and share stories. If you'd like to be involved just drop us a line. We'd really appreciate your help.

Have a great weekend and enjoy the stories.
Hugh

The Short Story

Russell Davies Presentation Tips Part 1
(22 min watch)

"Taste is a commitment to a state of attention"
(8 min read)

Formats Unpacked: The New York Times 'Daily' Podcast
(6 min read)

How Picasso's Drawings of a Bull Inspired Apple
(5 min read)

One More Try - An Ode to Effort
(1 min watch)

20 Things I've Learned as a Systems (Over) Thinker
(4 min read)

How Hacks Hides Huge TV Moments in Low-Key Scenes
(5 min read)

A Prolific Female Pioneer Photographer
(Instagram account)

Do You Know What Your Content Is Doing?
(6 min read)

Boris Succession
(1 min watch)

Two gentlemen lean against a bar in the mining town of Encampment, Wyoming. The photograph is taken sometime ion the early twentieth century. Both men are wearing shirts, ties and hats, both slightly tilted to the right.

How can we help you?

Storythings is a strategy and content company based in Brighton and London. We'd love to help you with some creative and bold ideas.

Here's 3 reasons to get in touch.

1. You want to talk to us about content production: podcasts, videos, animations, illustrations, editorial.

2. You want to talk to us about content strategy or format development.

3. You want to create a brand or an identity that makes it easier to communicate your message.

We do other things too. We're very friendly and always enjoy meeting people, so get in touch.

The Full Story

Russell Davies Presentation Tips Part 1
Regular readers of this newsletter will know that we're big fans of Russell and his approach to communications. He was asked to do some presentation training but couldn't do it. So he made a video. It's superb. As he points out, you don't have to get yourself to a Steve Jobs level for presentations, but following a few simple steps will get you into the top 1%. The password is 'Truth'.
(22 min watch)

"Taste is a commitment to a state of attention"
'Notes on Taste' is one of the best things I've read this week. Thanks to Ben Dietz for sharing. These 23 notes can also be viewed through the lens of craft. I particularly liked this: "Though taste may appear effortless, you can’t have taste by mistake. It requires intention, focus, and care. Taste is a commitment to a state of attention. It’s a process of peeling back layer after layer, turning over rock after rock."
(8 min read)

Formats Unpacked: The New York Times 'Daily' Podcast
In this week's Formats Unpacked Carol Nahra takes a close look at the magic that makes the New York Times podcast an icon of the genre.
(6 min read)

How Picasso's Drawings of a Bull Inspired Apple
I got this story from watching Russell's video. It's a great example of the work that goes into making something effortless to use or understand in the case of communications. The Picasso story sent me down a bit of a rabbit hole of examples from Apple's obsession with simplifying. I'll share more over the coming weeks.
(5 min read)

One More Try - An Ode to Effort
If you've watched or read a handful of the links I've shared this week you may notice there is a completely accidental theme of attention and iteration to craft. Here we get to see what that attention and iteration looks like in a really simple but creative way.
(1 min watch)

20 Things I've Learned as a Systems (Over) Thinker
"7. The people you’re trying to influence spend 98% of their day overwhelmed by business as usual."
(4 min read)

How Hacks Hides Huge TV Moments in Low-key Scenes
I'm absolutely in love with Hacks, a comedy series in which a young comedy writer is teamed up with a legendary Las Vegas comedy diva whose career has hit a difficult period. As this piece points out, what starts out feeling like it's going to be another odd couple story really does deliver great moments on how women have to fight to be heard in the entertainment industry.
(5 min read)

A Prolific Female Pioneer Photographer
Lora Webb Nichols created and collected approximately 24,000 negatives over the course of her lifetime in the mining town of Encampment, Wyoming. Her amazing images chronicle the domestic, social, and economic aspects of the sparsely populated frontier of south-central Wyoming in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Thanks to Messy Nessy for introducing me to her work.
(Instagram account)

Do You Know What Your Content Is Doing?
If you work for an organisation that creates a lot of content, at some point, the chances are you will question what all this content is for. This article looks at how to develop a content strategy that grows, deepens, retains and converts audiences.
(6 min read)

Boris Succession
Apologies for the inclusion of Boris but this is so well done.
(1 min watch)

We hope you've enjoyed this week's newsletter. I'm sure some of your friends would love to read it. Sharing it would be really appreciated. If you've received this from a friend you can subscribe here and get it direct to your inbox every Friday.

Thanks for reading and see you all next week,

Hugh, Matt, Anjali and the team at Storythings

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Presentation Advice, Notes on Taste and How to Plan You Content Strategy

10 stories we've enjoyed this week

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