Truth Behind Travel

Global | Storytelling to Restore Travel Confidence

August 05, 2021 Dolores Semeraro Season 1 Episode 38
Truth Behind Travel
Global | Storytelling to Restore Travel Confidence
Show Notes Transcript

Founder of "Storytelling with Impact" and Speaker Coach Mark Lovett shares his insights on how how to stay ‘top of the mind’ of our travel audience, how do we tell stories that make us connect with them.

An episode dedicated to storytelling, not just from a tourism and travel perspective but from a human connection point of view.
- How does storytelling work?
- When does it become effective and help you connect?

Mark Lovett shares how Storytelling – done well – can truly be a force for change and how we can all master the art of storytelling if we really put our heart to it.

Connect with Mark on Linkedin or on his website: www.storytellingwithimpact.com

Your Host: Dolores Semeraro

Hospitality Virtual Keynote Speaker Dolores Semeraro is a Travel Recovery Strategist with more than 15 years of experience in hospitality, marketing, and trading. She is passionate about helping her clients develop the leadership strategies they need to restore travel confidence and win their customers back.
www.doloressemeraro.com



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Dolores Semeraro is an internationally recognized tourism keynote speaker and trainer who has inspired thousands of people in the tourism industry to build a stronger, more sustainable, and more resilient future of travel.

In her keynotes, Dolores shares with her audience how to develop sustainable marketing thinking through her action-oriented thought process, which observes the interconnectivity of the stages in the travel product life cycle.

By applying this process, operators in the tourism, travel, and hospitality sectors can visibly enhance the longevity of their marketing strategies, effectively rendering them more sustainable in the long term for the well-being of all stakeholders involved.

Dolores is a passionate advocate for responsible travel, sustainability, and innovation. With her signature Mediterranean warmth and straightforwardness, she encourages audiences to challenge their "Business As Usual" status and strive for the improvement of the tourism industry and the well-being of all stakeholders.

Through her decades-long experience in the industry, she has motivated hoteliers and tourism professionals to take action, enhance their communication, and create a purposeful and innovative tourism ecosystem.

She also advocates for slow travel, exemplified by her extensive travels with her husband and beloved dog in their campervan. When not chronicling ...

Mark Lovett  0:00  
If you look back when we were growing up, of course, first couple years of your life, before you can speak, you learned about the world through story listening. You listen to everyone around you the stories they were telling so that you can understand this new environment. And as soon as you started speaking, you became a storyteller.

Dolores Semeraro  0:20  
Welcome to truth behind travel podcast, the world's first podcast dedicated to travel recovery. I'm Dolores Semeraro. And I'm on a mission to help tourism organizations and travel professionals to lead the business that restores confidence in travel. If you're looking for a travel podcast that gives you more than just wonder last, and we'll help you travel better tomorrow. You found the right one. Subscribe to the show to receive a new episode every Thursday straight to your inbox together with travel tips and best practices of my podcast guests. Hello, and welcome back to truth behind travel podcast, Episode 38. Going fast. Before we start today, I just want to take a moment to thank you. Yes, just as simple as that. Thank you for being here for listening for supporting the journey of this podcast. I see you. Well, who doesn't love a good story? I know I do love it. So on the podcast today, we're talking all things storytelling, and not just from a tourism and travel perspective, but from a human connection point of view. So how does storytelling works? And as a marketing tool, when does it become effective, and help you connect? Either with your new favorite brand if you're traveling or with your desire audience if you are on the other side of the river? So how do we stay top of the mind of our audience? How do we tell stories that make us connect? Well, my guest today is nothing less than storytelling extraordinare. He is the founder of storytelling with impact. And he was part of the founding team of TEDx San Diego. He tells me about storytelling. And if done well, how it can really be a force for change, and how we can all master the art of storytelling. If we put our hearts let us welcome Mark Lovett. Welcome back to the show. Today, I have the great pleasure to welcome a person that doesn't belong to the travel and tourism industry to the podcast, but brings us a wealth of experience wisdom insights on something that we all could benefit a little bit from or a lot from. And that is storytelling. Welcome mark. How are you today?

Mark Lovett  3:04  
I'm doing wonderful. Dolores, thank you for having me. It's a pleasure to be here.

Dolores Semeraro  3:09  
Thank you. You are connecting from beautiful Portugal today as we're recording this podcast, but you are not from Portugal. So would you like to tell us a little bit about your story and what brought you where you are now?

Mark Lovett  3:25  
Well, my personal story, I would put in three phases. And phase one was many, many years in the corporate world. As a C level executive. I got tired of that and jumped out and started consulting work. And one of my clients happened to be involved with folks at the TED organization. And he got me into organizing TEDx events. That process really got me in mesh in the world of storytelling, working with speakers producing events, hearing stories that could impact the lives of others. And that was something really profound for me. And after six years of doing that, and producing 20 different TEDx events, I decided it was time for another change. And I had always wanted to live somewhere in Europe. I wasn't even sure where that was going to be. But I wanted to explore it more. I came from California, which meant that traveling to Europe was a very long trip. And I said I want to travel more than to be able to have shorter flights and make it easier. And it just turned out that a friend of mine had recently moved to Lisbon and convinced me that this was a great hub from which to explore in Europe. So I came in visited fell in love with the place and a year after that first visit I was on a plane myself with two suitcases and a one-way ticket and that was just over two years ago. So I've been in Lisbon now ever since.

Dolores Semeraro  4:59  
So you sort of fell in love with storytelling halfway through your life and your professional career. How did that happen? What? What did you see into this art really, that really drawn you in and made you completely reimagine your path moving forward?

Mark Lovett  5:24  
I saw the power that story had to impact the lives of other people when I would put on an event inside Symphony Hall, and we would have 1800 people in the audience, and a speaker would come out and within a 15 minute period, explain something new to the audience, offer them a different perspective, from the way they were thinking, bring to light, an issue that maybe they had heard of, but didn't really fully understand. And I would listen to these audience members during the breaks and after the events. And they would talk about how their view of the world has shifted. And I think there's a parallel there between storytelling and travel. Because when people travel, they come back with that same experience, to say I now see the world differently. Because I experienced another place another language, another culture. And storytelling is able to do that, it's able to say, this is what I've learned in my path. Let me share something with you, so that you can develop a better understanding. And it really captured me and made me want to make that my new career.

Dolores Semeraro  6:40  
It's interesting, you mentioned how storytelling applying to travel sort of makes us old storytellers. Because we, as travelers, we expose ourselves to stories, we learn new stories, we come back with stories, and we obviously want to share them with the world and with our friends and families, the people we know and the people we don't know, even today, thanks to social media, in a way storytelling in travel has generated probably this whole new way of job profiles online, like for example, travel influencers, then they are going on and on sharing their travel experiences and their travel stories, using storytelling as a base of work really. And it made us if I, if anything I observe every single traveler by being exposed to travel, they became storyteller, they became better communicators, the travelers, but when it comes to choosing where to go, choosing what kind of travel product to buy, versus one versus analysis is so much choice today, so many places to go. So many brands offering so many different options. And when it comes to travel and tourism, as travelers we are over-exposed to 1000s and 1000s of messages and content in travel. Every brand is there to tell a different story that eventually would convince travelers to choose them versus another to go to them rather than the competition. So as travelers, what do you think, are the stories that connect the most when it comes to exactly choosing our next travel destination?

Mark Lovett  8:30  
So when you use that phrase, you know storytelling and connecting, that's really the essence of what we do as humans are that we're constantly in a mode of creating our own story. Where we choose to live, where we choose to work, who we choose to live our life with. We're always asking ourselves kind of subliminally, how can I make my life story better? What can I do to have a better narrative, a happier narrative going forward? And when it comes to travel, we're really doing the same thing. We're sort of trying on a lot of different options to say, What if I went to this city versus that city? What if I took a train versus flying. And we almost imagined in our own mind that we're in this movie, of what our vacation is going to look like what our travels going to look like. And so this is where travel brands play such a significant role in that process. Because we're hearing from these brands as to who they are, what they do, and what they can offer. And then we have to figure out which of these many options as you mentioned, do we feel is going to be the best fit. And I think in the past, our main focus was really on quality and value. We wanted our travel experiences to be as enriching as they possibly could be. We wanted to feel that our hard-earned money was well spent. Use the phrase that was worth it. And of course, the best phrase is yes, I would do it again. Because that speaks to satisfaction. And when we're satisfied with an experience, we have a desire for more. So that's obviously what the travel industry wants to have satisfied customers who say, Yes, I want to go to that again. So while safety has always been a concern for consumers, that factor is, of course, become more prevalent over the past 15 months or so. So we not only want to hear about travel opportunities that satisfied you know, they're fun, they're entertaining, they're educational, we also need to feel that the process of that traveling is going to save. So we want to hear from brands that they're paying attention to the realities that we're all facing, but also that they're willing to change their business model to adapt. And I think there lies an opportunity for a brand to impress customers, by doing something that both faces the reality that might actually be a little out of the ordinary, something new and refreshing.

Dolores Semeraro  11:11  
I think that's what people are more receptive to at the moment when they resurface from their homebound time that they have spent sort of grounded and now they are starting to travel again, what stands out is what grabs the most attention. And in storytelling, I see an opportunity to create content that does stand out. But not everybody is sort of grasping it not everybody in tourism and travel as industry operator, are mastering this skill. Where do you see brands failing at storytelling?

Mark Lovett  12:00  
Well, one of our primary desires as humans is simply to be understood. And from the other side of that equation, that means that we have to spend a lot more time listening before we're speaking. So before we're creating our own brand identity, you truly have to understand who that customer is. And I think most businesses have always understood that. But in changing environments, every day that we wake up, what's important to those customers can be changed a little bit. And in my view brands that fail, they do so because they don't put themselves inside the shoes of the customer in that moment. And understand what are they dealing with right now. They don't fully understand the current needs and desires, but also the challenges that they're facing. So a lot of people have challenges today with their job security, or their family ties, their ability to travel becomes different. So they still want to go. But maybe they have restrictions on their life. So you know, just as an example, the other day, when you talk about a failing, I got an email from a major airline. I'll just say that. And they were telling me that some of my points were about to expire. And they offered me some suggestions on how I could keep those points active. But namely, it was Hey, if you travel, some more than your points will be good. And I thought that at this point in time that messaging was rather insensitive, that it was way too early to be talking about canceling things. No, they could have said they were extending the deadline on those points. They could have said they understood where I was at. And my challenge is travel. And they could have won me over. Because I would have walked away with the feeling of they're paying attention to me and what my circumstances are. So in this case, I think they failed to do that. And they left me scratching my head with this thought of who came up with this campaign and what did they think they were trying to accomplish? They think that the fear of losing points would force me to negate health concerns in order to travel more. So it felt like they lost that sense of humanity there.

Dolores Semeraro  14:30  
I can see how some of the travelers we attract might not just be the right one for our tourism business. So how can we reconnect with our true audience? in my career, I've been in hospitality communicator for the past 15 years. I know what it means when your audience is not responding to your message. So I know the pain of many independent tour operators and what they're going through. I want to share with you the six reasons why a tourism and hospitality brand message fails to reconnect with their desire and audience and how to avoid it. All you need to do is to download the free four steps travel recovery video training that I designed for those just like you struggling to reconnect with your travel audience. The link is in the show notes. Now back to the shop. Absolutely valid point. And I agree with you, because I personally received quite a few of these emails as well, your points are going to expire soon, would you like to retrieve them and turn them into a dishwasher? or out of our catalog, for example, I know some airlines did that. And very few actually came up with a more sensitive approach or so but I didn't receive other emails as well. I won't name the airlines, but during the lockdown, this specific airline communicated to me through newsletters and so on about all their sustainability activities and initiatives whilst they had their fleet on the ground. So how will they make the most of that time? And I thought that in those types of emails, they weren't, they weren't selling me anything. They were just telling me what they were doing in the meantime. And they were making me they were sort of building up in me unconsciously, a perception of a brand that cares. Because they came out with a campaign that would talk about what are we doing for the environment while everybody's at home, and we can't fly our planes, and you can't travel from the place a to place B. Meanwhile, this is happening. And we want you to be aware of it. And I think this was a great example of bringing that not just human side into the brand into the way they communicated to their customers, but also to create an opportunity to talk about something related to responsible travel and sustainability, something that perhaps many travelers today are more aware of and are more sensitive to. So for example, I see more and more about my own listeners and also the feedback and the comments that I receive out of a podcast and the work that I do in travel recovery. People are asking, Where is my money going? Who am I helping with my money when I spend my money in a holiday package? Is this money staying in the local community? Am I losing me using local products and my traveling to a remote destination that is been affected by tourism or has been or has a way of improving perhaps infrastructure or schooling, or education in general? So travelers are now asking these questions and this is an opportunity for brands to perhaps explore a whole different side of storytelling, what do you think

Mark Lovett  18:09  
I would have to agree there's a sold expression, top of mind, when people are considering a choice, what is the at the top of their list, there's no guarantee that's what they're going to choose after a lot of evaluation, they could find a better choice somewhere in the list. But those brands that are top of mine get first consideration. And top of mine oftentimes aligns with someone's values, with the quality with their return on investment, you know, with the value that they're going to receive. So to your point in the story, you just told of having a brand that's communicating, this is what I'm doing during this time when I can't normally be serving you. When that message aligns with someone's value, that brand then becomes top of mind. So when it is time to travel, when people are thinking, now I want to consider where I'm going to go or what I'm going to do or how I'm going to get there where I'm going to stay there mind start sifting through, what are my top choices and brands to have that opportunity to consistently reflect their values and alignment with their customer's values so that they stay top of mind, even when they're not selling even when things are experiencing a downturn. And that's not only true of times when a pandemic has hit but during economic downturns also when people are being laid off and money is tight and so industries go through that retraction. But every downturn always turns around, things always do come back. When they do come back. You want to be the brand at the top of their list.

Dolores Semeraro  19:55  
What do you think are or which one do you think are The industries that are proving to be more agile in these difficult times it when it comes to communication when it comes to storytelling, of course, but some have shown more compassion, have shown a different way of communicating on exactly what you just said the values, you know, by going there and sort of tickling that part of that feeling, that sense of belonging, that sense of what will resonate with their audience. Some are proving to be more agile than others, some industries are a bit stiffer on the product side, some others are showing more of the human side. What have you noticed? Who is winning this game, do you think?

Mark Lovett  20:53  
So agility is a key factor for any business. And I always tie agility, to the concept of awareness that companies need to be very aware of what's happening, logistically what's happening, even within government policy decisions, what consumers are doing, how their wants and desires are changing. And while every industry was touched in some way, by this pandemic, over the past year, plus, the restaurant industry really went through a very tough time, they're still going through it, of course, and it went from things are normal, two things are shut down completely. And everything was closed, to where things could partially open up. And I saw a lot of restaurant tours become very flexible in how they operated their business. Some restaurants who never offered takeout immediately said you can come here and get takeout restaurants, they never had a delivery service work for them. So we will now deliver food, they would alternate their menus, they would have different pricing structures so that people could then eat more affordably. So I saw a lot of creativity in the restaurant industry. In this thing started to come back, one of the first things that were allowed, at least where I'm at is outdoor dining. And so we started to see new outdoor settings spring up out of nowhere that wasn't there before. And that took some interaction between the industry and the government's because there had been regulations about where you can put chairs and tables. So there was a combination of regulations being flexible and relaxing. And then restaurant tours, taking care of taking advantage of that, I should say. musicians, of course, were hard hit in concert venues were closed. So a lot of musicians started turning to online concerts. And some of them would charge a normal fee. But other ones also said I'm going to have a concert in it's paying what you can because they knew that certain people still had their jobs and they had money and they were happy to pay 10 or 20 euros for a concert. But other people had lost their job. But they still wanted to connect to music because that was important to them. So some people were able to attend at no cost. So those musicians were not only trying to generate revenue, but they were really aware of what was happening out there. They started taking advantage of digital tools that they hadn't done in the past. And I think the last item that I bring up, of course, sitting on an airplane for hours became a real concern. And so I was watching what the airlines were doing and how they were handling that. And most all of the airlines immediately stepped up their cleaning procedures, they changed how their employees interact with planes. And I was really impressed with one video that I saw, you're living in Lisbon. The main hub here is for tap Portugal, they fly all over Europe. And they quickly produced a video that showed exactly how they were cleaning that plane. And that restored in me this feeling that they got it. They were listening to health experts, they were listening to the concerns of their consumers. They adapted their procedures and their policies. And now they were giving me a visual so that I can see exactly what they were doing. So back to that point of the top of mind, they immediately went back to the top of mind because I gained that confidence that they were addressing the needs of the situation.

Dolores Semeraro  24:35  
These are great examples of how even when you're not necessarily utilizing the full scope of service. In terms of business, you still have a way to stay connected, whether you are buying the service or you are offering the service in this case, I love your example of the food and beverage industry which was one of the Perhaps one of them if I look at the way we go about lifestyle, and when it comes to freedom of movements, and even in travel, your experience is about going to a place while you're on vacation experiencing outdoor dining, or a drink at the cafe or a cafe or something. So all these things were taken away. And in one of my recent podcasts, one of my guests mentioned, especially related in relation to Thailand, and Koh Samui, that many of these vendors were in there when the destination reopened because they were hard hit during the pandemic. So their business closed, and many of them couldn't come back as others and oh, couldn't brain vent themselves. So it makes me smile. That's something that I learned. So so many years ago in China, when I was living there, where the Chinese saying that in the word in the Chinese word, crisis, the two items, the two characters that come, the two characters that form the word crisis in Chinese are the two characters that mean, danger and opportunity. So even in the Chinese wisdom, we see this in, in a word in the crisis, there's an element of danger and an element of opportunity. And I see this as a connector of you know, what we're talking about here today. Storytelling is an opportunity for brands, to reconnect with their audience, and for travelers, to reconnect with their brands. So when we want to read from our brands, when we read that message, that content that gets put online, on the magazine, in any way possible, something can reach the audience, whether you're reading it, whether you are watching a video, or whether you're listening to something on the radio, or a podcast, for example, the element of storytelling, or the art of storytelling, as I like to call it is the opportunity that we have today, to reconnect from a human point of view from which on a human base does people buy from people and in the travel industry, that everybody calls it, the people's industry, I see that we care about the people's industry or the industry of the people. So in immediate either way, we want to make sure that whoever persons are involved is not just buying or selling something is connected. And that's where storytelling, I think plays a big role. But I wonder, and it's something I wanted to discuss with you on the show today. A lot of people in the industry, don't have a clear idea of how to embark on a storytelling sort of mindset when it comes to communicating with their audience. How can we help them? How can we break it down to them and make storytelling accessible?

Mark Lovett  28:09  
The first is the simple recognition that storytelling is such an essential part of who we are as humans. If you look back, when we were growing up, of course, the first couple years of your life, before you can speak, you learned about the world through story listening. You listen to everyone around you the stories they were telling so that you can understand this new environment. And as soon as you started speaking, you became a storyteller. So you were telling stories from the time you were two years old. It's how we communicate with each other. It's how we express our humanity. It's how we understand our humanity. And the storytelling continues throughout our life. And as we've talked about, to previously here, we're constantly creating these new stories. And we're understanding what other stories can we weave into our story to make our future stories that much better. So brands, especially in the travel industry, they're always in that position of being first considered when somebody is thinking about their future story. You might wake up in the morning and go to a restaurant that day. And it's a very instantaneous decision. But when it comes to travel, there's typically a lot of thought behind it. Sometimes 369 months ahead of time, there's really that process of somebody envisioning what that experience is going to be like, to the, to the extent that a brand can create their messaging as a story that's going to fit within their customer's story, then I think they have that opportunity connect to connect with consumers on a much deeper level. And again, that comes back to that awareness and that agility that required to understand what's the current circumstance? How can I adapt to it? And then how can I tell a story that consumers will listen to, and basically say, I want that story to be part of my story.

Dolores Semeraro  30:15  
We were having this conversation not long ago about the anticipation, of travel. So when you are planning to go somewhere, you're planning your vacation. And that is such a precious thing your time, that's probably the only thing that can ever be given back in a way. So you're investing your time you're planning it carefully, you're anticipating where you going, what excites you about it, and I feel there is an opportunity there for those that are receiving that booking or that travel plan. Once their client has booked, they feel like, Okay, I got the booking done. Next, let's get more. But actually, the narrative around the way you communicate to those who have booked with you should change, there's an opportunity there to create a different type of story that, that grows and, and enhances that anticipation. And when in after the holiday, okay, the holiday itself happens and memories are made. And so after, what, what comes after, after that person has gone back home? How do you stay in contact with that person? How do you foster that relationship? How do you? How do you support those memories so that they keep sharing them with friends and family and their audience and their followers and so on? What do you think? Do you see this happening in the industry? Or do you have any examples or something that has happened to you, for example, that calls up exactly this,

Mark Lovett  31:53  
you bring up a good point about the stories on both sides of the vacation itself or the travel. And when someone's planning their travel, there is that anticipation, there's that sense of excitement, that people usually have conversations with trusted friends and relatives to get their opinion. So the stories that come out of a travel trip, you know, afterward, they start feeding into the next person story. So it is important to understand that when someone comes back home, that those rich experiences are going to be passed along. And that you want those experiences to be as positive as possible. Some of that, of course, is what happens during the trip itself, which a lot of the vendors have control over. But that follow-up process can help solidify those memories can help put a pleasurable spin on that. And what a lot of companies do, of course, is they send a survey afterward. Can you tell us how your experience was? I think some of those surveys are way too long and way too detail and have way too many chat boxes. So to be shortened to the point I think is better, but also to invite the narrative. So that if somebody asked the question, whether it's an airline or a hotel or a restaurant, they have that information to say, what was the highlight of your experience? And give them an open box? Not just was your experience good on a scale of one to 10? But what was the highlight? And then, of course, was there anything we could have done to improve that? So it's giving them an opportunity to express the pleasure that they had in that experience, but also that opportunity to say you're interested in my opinion, and you want to know who I am as a consumer. And personally, I get more attached to brands that do that, that have that two-way conversation. They want to know how I felt after that trip, not just focus all their energy on who can I go up next?

Dolores Semeraro  33:58  
Exactly. I think I feel that there is this sort of race towards the accumulating bookings accumulating, obviously, growing the business, which is completely I mean, it is a business at the end of the day. But we also we are doing we're making business where we're growing this industry, thanks to people that are deciding to move from one place to the other. And when what I observed over the last lesson, just about less than two years is the priorities of travels have changed and the concerns and the way you actually prioritize travel has impacted the industry but also the mindset of the travelers. So as we approach travel, and we look at brands that we used to love or we look at new brands, for example, that could help Pas navigate. These current times I personally traveled. I've been traveling for the past four weeks at the time of this recording for the first time in two years. And I know how I felt uncertainty, I felt mistrust, I felt this sort of disengagement with people sort of stepping back when somebody would get a little closer and all these reflexes that are now part of the way we interact with others. Do you think storytelling can help brands and travelers to reconnect the game to come together? Again, I felt that this connection over the past four weeks and i wonder whether we have an opportunity there to use storytelling as sort of a way to find your way back to your audience's heart.

Mark Lovett  36:00  
You bring up a great point of how difficult it is in the very present moment that things are opening up to some extent and travel is happening. But the first thing we recognize is the travel today is not what it was two or three years ago. There is that caution there is that apprehension. There is that wondering what is safer, what's not just how people interact with each other, can be distancing. Part of it is our own concern. But part of it is just a concern for other people, too. We want to give people space. And I've often wondered, when will we ever go back to the old way of traveling, where you felt comfortable sitting, you know, on a row of seats where everyone's next to a stranger? Yeah, where you can hug friends and family openly where you no mask are not required, very hard to predict the future of how that's going to happen. But I think that storytelling at each moment in that unfolding becomes important, again, so that someone who does travel comes back and tells a positive story to say yes, on the one hand, this trip was not like it was a few years ago. But on the other hand, here were the great things I was able to experience. I could go to this art gallery I could eat in this restaurant. Even with a mask on, I was able to interact with local store people speaking to me. And so I think that storytelling will unfold bit by bit. And vendors have to be cautious. Businesses have to be concerned about how quickly they advertise that story as a return to normal. But stay in the moment so that your story is going to be evolving constantly. But I'm seeing that reconnection. Now, when I go into Lisbon, and into the downtown center, I'm seeing more people from other countries, I'm hearing more voices. It's not like it was two years ago. But you can see that life coming back and you can see smiles on people's faces. And you know that they're going to go home with this story, again, that's different than two years ago, but still has the story where they got to experience this rich culture. So storytelling will always be a part of this return to normal. I like

Dolores Semeraro  38:30  
I think it's very relevant and absolutely valid because it's how can you add the moment project, that content forward knowing that everything is constantly changing, constantly evolving. People are subjected to different types of information and everybody is elaborating and processing information today, whether that relates to their day-to-day life, their freedom of movement, their plannings their savings, their families, everything is being processed, as you know, day by day. So I like the idea of having a narrative that explores the in-the-moment story. So there's an opportunity there to reconnect, rebuild trust, and in your day-to-day work as a coach, as a mentor. As a storyteller expert, you run lots of workshops, you now sort of navigate the online delivery. So who are you mostly working with?

Mark Lovett  39:47  
The top industry without question revolves around climate change. Because one of the things that have become very aware Lately is the fact that if you look at the difficulties we've had during the pandemic, with keeping people on the same page with getting people to follow policies and to understand what the best path is going forward, that's going to happen increasingly, as climate change progresses, and we look at what kinds of transitions are going to happen. So the majority of my clients today are scientists who are studying that issue. But they need to know how to take the data that they're collecting and turn that into stories that resonate with people on that personal level. So it's not just a statistic of co2 levels, or how the oceans are acidifying, or whatever that data might indicate. But to express it in human terms, what does this mean for people going forward? And it's happening more and more now, not only because online events are available, but people are seeing early feeling that in the next six to 12 months, we will slowly go back to more in-person events. And that is the pandemic news, hopefully, lessons to some extent. What will take its place is this news around the climate in the environment. That's where storytelling thinks can play a very big role in getting people to understand what's actually happening.

Dolores Semeraro  41:27  
Fascinating, especially because it does play a huge, huge role in the way we choose to travel. How can people find you? What will be the best way to contact you?

Mark Lovett  41:43  
Most people contact me through LinkedIn. And on LinkedIn, it's Mark Lovett. So it's just my name. And you can find me there and a lot of people connect with me. And some people have questions about storytelling that I'm happy to answer. This is a business environment. So that's really where I focus. I do spend some time and other areas like clubhouse. Because I host rooms there on storytelling, I provide a stage for people to come and practice telling their personal stories. I've hosted some specific rooms bringing in artists are bringing in scientists that they can tell their stories. But LinkedIn is always the best way to connect with me.

Dolores Semeraro  42:32  
Thank you so much. I wish you all the best for the work ahead. And I will leave all the contacts to for people to reach you also in getting in contact with you on the show notes of the podcast.

Mark Lovett  42:45  
Beautiful. Thank you so much. It's been a real pleasure to be here today to share a little bit of storytelling with your audience. And what I always encourage people to do is go out and tell stories, it can truly change the world.

Dolores Semeraro  43:00  
One story at the time. I agree. Thank you, Mark. Hey, thank you for being with me today. And for listening to the podcast. Let me know your thoughts with a teeny tiny review. If you feel like you have something to say about it, go ahead. And if a review is not enough, then get in touch and come and be my next podcast guest. I look forward to hearing from you. Be well and see you again next week.