Welcome to the Telling of Story Podcast. I’m your host, Storyteller Jewels, and along with my guests, it’s my endeavor to explore the art and science of storytelling to attract, engage, and retain a business audience, and to unpack why it works for some, and not for the many that try.
Listen in as Angela reminds us that storytelling is a skill that must be learned and practiced.
[00:00:31] Angela: I think everyone is able to tell their stories. There’s no one who doesn’t have a story and is not able to tell their story, but there’s. of telling a story, which you have to learn. You can’t shelve the idea of learning with getting some technical training on the science, the theory, and the art of telling the story.
[00:00:53] Angela: So I believe in any business context, they need to build a space for people who have the kind of skills and experience to tell that story, to tell their stories. in a way that it resonates to the people that they want to.
[00:01:13] Jewels: In this episode, I have the pleasure of talking with Angela Motegi. Angela is a Development Communication Specialist with over 15 years of experience working with various international and regional development organisations focusing on communication, research and strategies for social impact. She currently runs Purple Frames, a development communication consultancy firm based in Nairobi, Kenya and supporting organisations and communities across Africa.
[00:01:41] Jewels: Angela is passionate about social and environmental justice. And she is most happy when helping developed conscious organizations, communities and individuals to achieve impact and visibility for their causes through storytelling and participatory communication approaches. Angela has been [00:02:00] successful in integrating storytelling, media and development communication techniques for social impact, focusing on a wide range of development issues such as agriculture, health.
[00:02:11] Jewels: Waste management, just to mention a few, for behavior change, research, social mobilization and advocacy. In addition to a professional experience, Angela has a Master of Arts degree in Development Communication and Bachelor of Arts degree in Communication, Public Relations and Electronic Media. Angela has been learning to dance salsa for the better part of her adult life, even though she cannot dance beyond the intermediate level.
[00:02:37] Jewels: In her next life, Angela hopes to be a cello player, even though at the moment she cannot play a musical instrument to save her life. Angela, welcome to the show.
[00:02:48] Angela: Thank you so much. I’m happy to be here.
[00:02:50] Jewels: I’m so glad you joined me all the way from Nairobi, Kenya. I was there back in 1996, which is a very long time ago, [00:03:00] and I had such a good time there.
[00:03:01] Jewels: It was such a beautiful place with some beautiful people. Take me all the way back to your favorite childhood experience.
[00:03:10] Angela: Okay. Thank you so much. And thank you for that question. My favorite childhood experience is, when I was young, we used to go to, during the holidays, we would go to our grandmother’s place, which was a bit different from where we used to live.
[00:03:27] Angela: And other, my cousins would come, and all of us would be there. And our grandmothers, since my grandfather had like three wives, would tell us stories. So each of our grandmothers would tell us stories and it was really nice, would stay up to the night hearing various stories. And I just loved the aspect of stories, the imagination that it elicited as a child.
[00:03:54] Angela: I really loved that. So I would say that is my best childhood memory [00:04:00]because it’s about having other people bonding with my cousins and mostly that will not happen until we go there for the holidays and stuff like that. So tell
[00:04:11] Jewels: me how did storytelling, you know, as a child, has that helped form or develop you as a professional now as you’ve gotten a little bit older?
[00:04:20] Angela: Yeah, uh, to a greater extent that has helped me because what I’ve learned is over the years in my profession, people want to, to relate with a story other than read or. Uh, read maybe a report, a technical report or something. So they, they want to break it down to how that is affecting a human being, how that is your core and how that has affected you.
[00:04:45] Angela: I, I don’t know how to explain this, but I’ve seen that, uh, when you ask people about what they feel about what they know is much more powerful than just, uh, [00:05:00] having statistics presented. You know, because even within statistics, people have, there’s a unique story within statistics. So, I believe people are not just lumped in, in, in the statistics.
[00:05:12] Angela: When you go deeper, you find unique stories that could not be covered by the statistics. And that’s what I try to, to uncover and tell and, uh, have the people tell their stories. So, for instance, I do photo voice. I like participatory communication. So things like photo voice, where you give people opportunities to share their stories through pictures, instead of maybe asking them to tell you maybe a research question.
[00:05:42] Angela: So instead of having the research questions, where are you? You just ask them, uh, what do you think about this? You give them cameras and tell them. So take a picture about what you think about this. So when the pictures come, you realize that, uh, you have much more than what you could [00:06:00] have gotten if you just asked.
[00:06:03] Angela: A question, for instance,
[00:06:04] Jewels: so can you give me an example of, you know, what kind of picture somebody would take and then share with you? And then how do you turn that into a story? Like, how do you bring that to life?
[00:06:15] Angela: Okay, so some time back, I had a project where We were asking children to take photos about fathers in general.
[00:06:25] Angela: So, and this had come from another researcher done about fathers and exclusive breastfeeding. So in this project, I wanted to find what children think about fatherhood. So we trained the children, we introduced the aspect of fatherhood and also taught them about photography and asked them to take photographs about, uh, what do fathers generally do and, uh, what is, uh, like the best experience of you and the father.
[00:06:56] Angela: So when the pictures came. I think it [00:07:00] showed more, more children took hypothetical pictures about their father. So it means that, uh, like they had not had an experience about living with a father themselves. So, and this would not have come out if you asked them what you think fathers do. So they, then maybe they would not have told you that they don’t actually live with a father.
[00:07:23] Angela: And so, and also some of the photos that came out had like fathers as disciplinarian or as a provider, distant provider. And also when the photos came and they were, uh, catch, uh, captioning, it showed that they had, some of the children could not express themselves. in written English. And so from this experience, we had to now, uh, have like a reading sessions with them just to, to meet that gap that we had found.
[00:07:54] Angela: And I feel that this would not have really have come out if we [00:08:00] had not gone the extra way of having the children tell the stories. And it was fun. For them to learn how to take the pictures and interact with their family members and help them organize the exhibitions where they shared their stories with other people and with their family members.
[00:08:19] Jewels: So take me through that process a little bit where they’ve taken the photos and they’ve expressed themselves in a unique way, which I love. What did you then do with those photos? And you just mentioned then that, you know, there was an exhibition. How were they? What sort of storyline or how was the stories told at those exhibitions?
[00:08:38] Angela: Okay, so we helped the Children conduct an exhibition for them to tell their stories to their families. We invited their parents, their fathers, the community members and other stakeholders that would want to see what the Children have done. So we organized a meeting and had the Children that had taken the [00:09:00] photos to tell them about the experience, what they learned in the process.
[00:09:04] Angela: So there was Actually, a panel session where the children now were, were telling their stories about, uh, the process they had gone to and why they had taken such, uh, pictures. And, uh, at the end of the day, Like they were able to have other activities with their parents, like take portraits. Some of them, this was the first time they were having a picture taken with their, like with their dads or with their family members.
[00:09:32] Angela: So it was really good. The children were happy to be heard because sometimes we normally just ask the children to, we don’t really hear them. We just ask them what we want and then we, we, we ask, we package for them what we think they want. But in this process, we gave them the opportunity to express themselves.
[00:09:54] Angela: So it’s not reported from an adult. It’s about the experience just from the child perspective. [00:10:00]
[00:10:00] Jewels: So were the children, did the children spend time sort of scripting the responses on the photos or was it just all from the heart, you know, as they were talking about it, just the picture itself drew out the emotion and they were able to express themselves for each of the photos.
[00:10:16] Angela: So during the, apart from the exhibition, during the process of taking the pictures, the captioning, So they had to caption the story, the, the photographs they had taken to give it context of why they had taken the, the picture. So when they caption, they had to write somewhere and also share in the whole like a panel session with the other children, why they had taken that story.
[00:10:42] Angela: So it gave them also more time to express themselves, to tell their stories, and even during the, the exhibition. They had the opportunity to now share what they learned from the process, what was challenging, what they [00:11:00] feel should be done going forward.
[00:11:04] Jewels: Are you able to give me some context as to the types of children that were involved in this particular project?
[00:11:10] Jewels: Were they just a school cohort or? Well, they’re impoverished children. Where did these children come
[00:11:16] Angela: from? So these, uh, were children from 10 to 15 years old that were going to, uh, a club, a football club, informal settlement, but yeah, informal settlements where, uh, children from around the area would go to play football and, and such after.
[00:11:36] Angela: After school and on Saturdays, weekends. So this was good because it kept the youth engaged. They are not engaged in other, you know, bad things. And they are learning and interacting. So this, I partnered with this. football sports club to have the children that were coming to that club. And mostly one male children apart from [00:12:00] one or two that were female.
[00:12:02] Angela: And
[00:12:02] Jewels: were they just from a mixed audience or just from the local area? Like there weren’t any particular demographic. They were just local children in the, in the district.
[00:12:12] Angela: Yes, they were just from the same demographics actually. So my plan had been, has been to expand there. The scope of that research to people of different demographics, maybe in a rural area because this was in an urban setting children in an urban setting, or maybe children that goes to private schools because in in in that demographics.
[00:12:37] Angela: Were mostly children that were attending public schools in Kenya. In Nairobi actually. Yeah. And
[00:12:44] Jewels: what did the children teach you about storytelling?
[00:12:47] Angela: Actually, I had a lot of assumptions, I guess. And, uh, I also feel like I was not prepared to deal with all that came. So I guess if I was to do another, [00:13:00] I would have like, even other collaborating with other people like, uh, counselors.
[00:13:06] Angela: That would, uh, be able to help children who are facing some vulnerability around maybe a certain, uh, sensitive topic such as fatherhood. It’s also taught me to not assume anything. Just, in that moment, just leave my biases for a moment and just be there with them and just feel with them. That’s where the program ends.
[00:13:28] Angela: I think that, uh, the greatest thing was to learn how to listen. I think you can, you cannot tell a people’s story if you don’t know how to listen and listen effectively. So I learned that, uh, Yeah, not to listen, not to, to shelve my biases and to have other collaborations with other people so that, uh, it’s not just about taking from the children, you know, you’re not, you’re not going to, to just take their stories and run with it [00:14:00] and, you know, but you want to, you know, dignify, cover, you know, it’s, it’s not just, About now, this is what they say then, and this is what we are putting there.
[00:14:12] Angela: Actually, for a long time, I was not able to share the photographs that, uh, were taken from the children because I felt like they were too, too intimate. To be shared
[00:14:26] Jewels: with the children a lot more vulnerable? What assumptions did you make? Were they a lot more vulnerable? Did they show you more intimacy than you expected?
[00:14:35] Jewels: And were a little bit more forthright in their responses?
[00:14:38] Angela: They were more vulnerable about, uh, the topic of fatherhood because majority of the children were not living with their fathers. So the concept was not very… other than having a hypothetical idea of what a father does, it was not a lived experience for most children.
[00:14:59] Angela: So even [00:15:00] introducing the topic was a bit, uh, hard. I remember during the last time when we were, the last day when we were now captioning just before the exhibition, the children were, actually some were crying, so we had to, I had male facilitators that, uh, that helped with these children to counsel them, to give them a father’s hug, the ones that had not gone through, had not received, and most of them had not.
[00:15:29] Angela: So it was… It’s quite, uh, I guess emotionally overwhelming. That’s what I would say. But it was a beautiful experience to see that. And that’s why I say probably I would have prepared better to have many other support system that children need. I think I didn’t expect to. To find the kind of emotions and also the pictures that came with it, yeah.
[00:15:56] Jewels: And what has been the impact of that [00:16:00] exhibition? Like, what has happened since then? Okay,
[00:16:02] Angela: so this was like a self funded project. So, what I, we did, uh, for a few times was to have reading sessions with the children. Because, uh, One of the major outcome was that, uh, children, you know, like 10 to 14 years were not able to read properly.
[00:16:25] Angela: So we had a number of sessions during the weekends with them to read some stories, just random stories, maybe from the Bible, others not from the Bible. And this, uh, really gave the children confidence to express themselves actually. And so we did this for a period of, One or two months. And then I guess it was not sustainable to say because of course, the funding aspect, the money aspect here.
[00:16:56] Jewels: Changing tact a little bit. Can you tell me a little bit about Purple Frames? [00:17:00]What is it you do as an
[00:17:00] Angela: organization? So Purple Frames is a consultancy firm. Owned by you? Yes, I’m the founder. Sometimes I work with associates, consultants. We have worked for clients. So basically what we do is provide communication services to them.
[00:17:18] Angela: And what I’ve found myself doing most is producing stories of impact. So for instance, if a client has. Uh, project that need to be documented, uh, in, in terms, in, in form of a story. Maybe it’s a report that needs to be broken down into a simple story and to interview other people who are involved to sort of humanize the process and break it down.
[00:17:46] Angela: So that’s what I’ve been doing mostly. And also producing animated videos, communication strategies and
[00:17:54] Jewels: stuff like that. Yeah, you talk about short documentaries, animated videos, comic [00:18:00] strips even. So what, why use some of these formats and what do you get out of presenting in these particular types?
[00:18:07] Angela: I think people want to have fun.
[00:18:09] Angela: So I believe that things are presented in a very complex way. Uh, Aida, I miss you, alright? like a professional in an area and you want to learn about that specific things. For most general people, they want to learn it in a fun and interactive way. So I believe concepts like maybe medicine resistance. If you’re not a doctor or in the health profession, if you present it in a fun, comical way, it’s more impactful.
[00:18:42] Angela: Just saying these are, if you do this, if you maybe drink, take your medicine without a prescription, then you’ll form resistance. But if you create a character that people can identify with, then I think you’re able [00:19:00] to retain more and retain more, form more impressions and maybe affect behavior in the long run.
[00:19:07] Angela: So that’s then people. Take medicine in a rational way. That’s just one example. So I believe creating characters that people identify with is more impactful than telling them. This is, uh, you should not do this. Or, you know, creating maybe a fear, a fear messaging. You can create like the fear messaging in a way that it gives people there’s a little bit of fear and a little bit of their efficacy to perform the thing that they’re supposed to do so that they change their behavior.
[00:19:43] Angela: So all this can be created in character and cannot be created in reports or in fact sheets or yeah, that’s why I believe in using entertainment to pass messages that affect people’s behavior.
[00:19:59] Jewels: So take me [00:20:00] through your process of, you know, when you’re confronted with, you know, highly technical information as you described, how do you start to break that down and form these characters?
[00:20:11] Jewels: Where do you start? What kind of questions would you ask? What kind of stories are you trying to draw out of the people that hold hold the information? Okay,
[00:20:19] Angela: for me, my experience has been I. I have to talk to a professional first, the ones that understand this subject better, and they explain to me, and for me I have to understand it properly.
[00:20:34] Angela: Then, when I understand it, then I’m able to, to communicate it, to create characters, to, to write scripts around that and, uh, have, uh, the process of also scripting the professional is involved because you, as much as you want to create these stories through characters, you have to keep the message, uh, the scientific message, uh, intact.
[00:20:59] Angela: That’s [00:21:00] why you need the professional. So for me, I, I believe it’s a collaborative process. You still also need to find out from the demographics that will be consuming the message so that they, they’re able to accept a character or not. So you can create a character for a certain, uh, people and they reject it.
[00:21:20] Angela: They can reject their representation of. Of themselves in that character.
[00:21:25] Jewels: Yeah, so obviously it’s important to understand both the subject matter, but also the audience that you’re trying to communicate with, right? Yeah, what advice would you give to somebody who possibly is very technical and they’re generally maybe?
[00:21:42] Jewels: overly technical in their explanation when they’re telling their stories, they tend to stick with facts and statistics and etc that might be boring their audience or might be turning their audience off. What advice would you give to somebody like that? You know, when we talk about storytelling, people sort of misinterpret [00:22:00] storytelling with, you know, fairy tales and childhood stories and things like that.
[00:22:04] Jewels: But what’s the difference between those kinds of stories and what we’re talking about here, which is, you know, business oriented stories.
[00:22:11] Angela: Okay, so for myself, because I’ve worked in, uh, I’ve been the non technical person. In a context where most people are technical, like maybe animal health experts or the health experts.
[00:22:24] Angela: What I normally tell them that if I, I myself, if they explain to me and I don’t understand, probably no one else will understand. So, to break it down in a way that an untechnical person can understand. Yeah. So in most cases, I’ve been there to maybe be a sounding board of some sorts, whether this will be understood by People who are not technical in a certain area.
[00:22:53] Jewels: And is that about, you know, simplifying the messaging? Keep simplifying, keep simplifying until you get to a point [00:23:00] where, okay, now I understand the story. Is that part of your process?
[00:23:03] Angela: Yes. Simplifying. Imagine you’re telling your eight year old or maybe your grandmother about this. So just simplify it.
[00:23:12] Angela: Actually, I guess the more complex it is, the more… You are likely to lose the message. Probably, if you understand it better, you are able to simplify it. That’s what I think. If you understand a concept better, then you are able to, to tell it in a way that is simple, that is impactful, that reduce the vagueness.
[00:23:34] Angela: The jargons and stuff like
[00:23:36] Jewels: that. And how has your sort of childhood upbringing or culture, has that affected the way storytelling is told amongst your community or is it totally separate? Do you see it as two separate things? The way cultures tend to talk with their families versus how business talks with theirs.
[00:23:55] Jewels: Do you see it separate or, or the one and the same?
[00:23:57] Angela: Well, I think, uh, there’s a, [00:24:00] there, there’s a bit of similarities and, uh, Some differences, I guess, similarities in the fact that either way you need to communicate to get feedback, but all that aspect of communication and the process of getting feedback.
[00:24:18] Angela: But I understand this is a language in the corporate culture, which is a bit. formal than maybe if I was talking to my family members, so to speak. So I guess every context dictates a way of doing it, so to speak. Yeah. So there’s an expectation for every context, but the principles are the same. So, Simplifying the message, sharing what you need to, what you, you want people to do, I guess, yeah.
[00:24:54] Angela: Sharing what you want people to do and following up, uh, through, especially in [00:25:00] the, in the work context. In the family context, in the cultural context, it’s a bit late, uh, laid back. What I can say is, like, uh, in my community, I come from a place called Chuka, which is, uh, in Meru. There’s these, uh, dramas. They are called Chuka dramas.
[00:25:22] Angela: And they, they are normally invited for family functions, and they entertain people. But they are also used to pass, uh, health messages. In certain context, so this, even during campaigns, maybe political campaigns, but also if you’re doing a campaign, a health related campaign, they are able to break down the messages through the drums and through the dance and it’s, it’s quite impactful for that specific niche of people.
[00:25:52] Angela: What a fabulous
[00:25:53] Jewels: way to get a message across with, with drummers. Yeah,
[00:25:56] Angela: actually you should check them out, Chuka Drummers. [00:26:00] They are really amazing. Chuka drummers. Chuka,
[00:26:02] Jewels: yeah. Chuka, yes. I’ll get that into the show notes for everybody to have a look at. Is there a reluctance or a joy when you come in and say, we need to tell a better story, we need to tell a simpler story?
[00:26:14] Jewels: How does your audience take it when you start going down that path? Are they excited about? Breaking down their story or are they very reluctant and sort of very, you know, want to stick with the technical facts?
[00:26:25] Angela: Okay, so This is in two ways maybe in terms of organizations or maybe In a participatory project like the purple the the photo voice which one do you mean
[00:26:37] Jewels: either it share with
[00:26:39] Angela: me both Okay, so in the participatory process Like the photo voice.
[00:26:45] Angela: I think how you also enter or how you introduce a subject is very important. So, my experience with the fatherhood project was, uh, like the first day, because this was a two weeks, uh, exercise. [00:27:00] The first day, it was so hard to, to even communicate. So, we, we actually had to shelve that concept all together and just interact and have fun and connect.
[00:27:13] Angela: So I think connection is really, really important. So once we had that, uh, connection, then we were able to, to even have a discussion about photography and, uh, and fatherhood. And, uh, then we gave them cameras. So they still had, we still had that, uh, interactions and when they came with the photographs, we still had that interactions.
[00:27:38] Angela: But I guess. What we had not anticipated was the rawness of them now explaining why they took the photos. So that was a bit, so what, what, what can I say? It’s you have to connect. You have to connect and you have to, to be open to learning. Really be [00:28:00] open to learning. So, but in the, if I’m working with a client, sometimes the clients, uh, mostly have.
[00:28:07] Angela: What they want, what, what they want to do. So there’s, I add, I offer my advice, but sometimes it’s, uh, there’s a little wiggle room because maybe there’s, uh, expectations from the project funders and various, uh, expectations from different people that come to play in maybe the, the process and the product that they, they want.
[00:28:32] Angela: So yeah, that’s what
[00:28:34] Jewels: I would say. So, what advice would you give to somebody listening perhaps that hasn’t really yet started down that storytelling journey? They may be a little bit fixed in their ways and thinking about their technical expertise, but they understand that it is an important way to communicate.
[00:28:53] Jewels: What advice would you give to somebody who’s… Maybe a little bit new at this and what sort of platforms, where would you [00:29:00] start? What kind of format would work for somebody who’s maybe new on this
[00:29:05] Angela: journey? I think everyone is able to tell their stories. Everyone. There’s no one who doesn’t have a story and is not able to tell their story.
[00:29:14] Angela: which
[00:29:21] Angela: You have to learn. You can’t shelve the idea of learning, maybe getting some technical training on the science, the theory, and the art of telling the story. So, I believe in any business context, they need to build a space for people who have the kind of skills and experience to tell that story, to tell their stories.
[00:29:46] Angela: In a way that it resonates to the people that they want to. Otherwise, I guess you’ll be shouting in the dark, I guess. If you’re not telling your story, or if you don’t have, uh, blinking in the dark, expecting [00:30:00] someone else to see you, but you’re winking. And I think when I started out, most organizations did not value the space of someone who is a storyteller or a communication person.
[00:30:15] Angela: But I’ve seen over the years, most organizations have appreciated the role that storytelling tells in their business, in reaching out to their stakeholders and publics and all that. So, I believe it’s… Also the, the storytellers need to build to make a case for themselves, I think, to say, this is what I offer and, uh, this is how it changes, uh, the way you do business.
[00:30:46] Angela: I, I also believe in that aspect of sort of internal advocacy from the storytellers themself to communicate. So that people understand and see the value for their[00:31:00]
[00:31:01] Jewels: services that somebody might start with, or, you know, is it social media? Is it presentations? Is it video? What sort of mediums do you think kind of work the best for, for corporate, the corporate world? And, and what sort of consistency would you advise that somebody talks about, you know, when they are telling their story?
[00:31:21] Angela: So I’ve learned, uh, because I’ve mostly worked with the development organizations, so the, the NGOs, I’ve learned that, uh, the mediums value from the audience or the stakeholders they reach. So for instance, uh, if you are working with, uh, the CBOs, for instance, the mediums are different, like even, uh, using community radios and, uh, using, uh, groups like.
[00:31:48] Angela: The way I say chuka dramas to tell the story, but if you’re working with, uh, maybe an international organization, so also the mediums, the medium change the way you [00:32:00] write or tell the stories a bit different because you have to tailor your messages according to the people who are consuming the messages, even the channel you use or the medium you use.
[00:32:13] Angela: changes or varies depending on who you are and what audience you’re reaching out. So I believe every organization needs to, to have like a strategy or a communication plan that, uh, gives them The mediums that work for them, for their specific work, and I’ve also realized that, uh, so for instance, even with the international organizations, the channels or the medium change, depending on even the program that you’re, you’re implementing.
[00:32:47] Angela: So it’s not, there’s the, the storytelling for the organizational storytelling, but then there’s also. the storytelling for a program for impact. So if you, if, for instance, I was [00:33:00] a brand storyteller, for instance, then my medium would be different from if I’m storytelling for social impact. So because the focus is different, the measurement of success is different for these audiences.
[00:33:17] Angela: so to speak here. So I believe starting with a plan and a strategy and knowing who you are and what medium work for you is important. But of course you can’t downplay the aspect of social media because I mean everything since the COVID 19 happened, a big part of our interactions has gone online. So you can’t really not consider how you appear on, on, on the social media space.
[00:33:49] Angela: And it’s not just posting for posting sake. You need to, you know, tell the story so you can have the analogy I give is you, you may have the [00:34:00] roads, but if you don’t have the. The vehicles, then you just have the roads and they are not serving any purpose. So just focusing on the roads and the, and the vehicles and the passengers and all that.
[00:34:14] Jewels: Sound advice, Angela. Thank you. As a parting gift for those that are listening, particularly those people that Two things. One is they don’t believe they have a story to tell, which I think is incorrect, but you, I would love to hear your advice, but they don’t think they have a story to tell. But also there’s a little bit of fear in telling their story.
[00:34:35] Jewels: I come across, you know, particularly You know, business owners and, and founders and people like that, they have, they often, if you just dig a little bit deeper, they have a fantastic story, you know, just underneath the surface of where they’ve come from, what they’ve done, what they’re, what they’re trying to do, but they’ve, they’re quite afraid.
[00:34:54] Jewels: To get their voice out there. They’re a bit scared of perhaps, you know, judgment, I think [00:35:00] is part of it. Um, but they also believe that, you know, the story, nobody wants to hear their story. What advice would you give to somebody who’s in that position that, that knows it’s wrong, but can’t get over themselves in that regard?
[00:35:12] Angela: Yeah. Well, I would first tell them that they’re in good company. Because, uh, I guess. All of us, or a big part of us, feel their apprehension about telling their story. And I think a major part is because of the fear of rejection, so to speak. But, uh, I guess… Someone has to do it afraid. You learn that people are more accommodating, are more human.
[00:35:44] Angela: Don’t fear the backlash in your head that you think you will receive, or the pushback from telling your story. As long as you’re authentic, I believe you need to tell it, no matter what formats you tell. [00:36:00] Don’t worry about it. how you appear and there are people who can help you maybe, you know, edit in a way that helps you come out the way you want to come up.
[00:36:11] Angela: So own your story and share, own your story. So know what your story is and own it and get help from people who are able to help you tell the story better. I think so. They shouldn’t be afraid. They should go for it.
[00:36:30] Jewels: I absolutely agree, Angela. Thank you so much. I’ve really enjoyed our chat today. Where can people find out a little bit more about you and some of your causes?
[00:36:38] Angela: Okay, so I have a website called purpleframes. org and I’m on social media. So for the company, Purple Friends, uh, on Twitter, LinkedIn, and, uh, Facebook, and, uh, myself on Angela Muteki on Facebook and Twitter and LinkedIn.
[00:36:59] Jewels: Angela, [00:37:00] thank you so much for being part of the show.
[00:37:01] Angela: Appreciate it. Thank you so much for having me.
[00:37:04] Angela: I appreciate that, yeah.
[00:37:09] Jewels: I love the work that Angela did with Children and the Fatherhood Project. Combining photography and storytelling in order to help them express their needs. It was also interesting how this approach highlighted the assumptions and biases she went in with, and how the listening first was a better approach.
[00:37:27] Jewels: I also applaud Angela’s approach that learning and communication is better when people are having fun. Something to remember. Much love. Chat soon.