I managed to get a job in the TV industry through sheer willpower and (some might say) obsessive determination,. Early in my career, I discovered my super-power was creating a new kind of TV format combining storytelling, lifestyle, and real-life members of the public for the first time on British TV. My shows fuelled a brand-new genre of TV which now fills our screens – reality TV (sorry about that!).
I had a lot of fun (and learned a lot) creating shows for BBC 1 and Channel 4, and filming all over the UK with Monty Don, Carol Smillie, Laurence Llewleyn-Bowen, and Handy Andy to name but a few. In terms of impact, my greatest success is the ground-breaking ‘Changing Rooms’, which I co-created for the BBC in 1996.
When Changing Rooms first transmitted on BBC One, 50% of the viewing population in the UK on a Wednesday night were watching it, all 11 million of them. The show launched thousands of interior design formats all over the world, made the DIY brands incredibly rich and democratised interior design for the British public forever. So what next…
I was invited to the BBC Academy to teach commentary script writing and, while I was there, I learned that I had been using story principles all along to create my hit shows. It was an epiphany moment for me to be able to articulate what I instinctively knew about the power of storytelling, and to discover that these principles could be used by everyone to make all communication more meaningful and effective.
I set up The Storycoach in 2011 to bring storytelling skills into the business world where I could see they were desperately lacking, because no one was teaching them. I absolutely love bringing the transformational skills of storytelling into the lives of the people I work with. I have a storytelling brain, a deep sensitivity to the stories people want/need to tell and the expertise to help people tell that story. I love to see that thread emerging from the ‘noise’ of all the detail someone is buried in and the confidence and clarity that brings them.
In the past you might have paid a consultancy to take care of your storytelling, but in fact these skills are inside every member of your organisation, and they know the story better than any consultancy! I have seen the revolutionary effect on a business of believing in the creativity and storytelling of its people.
When you think like a storyteller it shifts your mind-set, and gives you a powerful facilitation tool which cuts through the noise of legacy thinking and presumptions.
I really look forward to seeing how your team will flourish with the tools we give them.
Ann Booth-Clibborn
Founder - The Storycoach
