Using Feedback to Refine Your Personal Stories

Whether you are campaigning for office, organizing around a specific issue, or mobilizing your community to vote, your personal stories can be an effective asset when talking one-on-one with voters. But no matter how great a storyteller you are, feedback is essential to your success; by refining your story through multiple rounds of feedback, you as a candidate can ensure that your stories resonate effectively with your voters and align with your campaign’s goals.

Feedback is a valuable tool for crafting a compelling, authentic narrative that strengthens a candidate’s connection with their audience — and this resource can help!

Using this worksheet, ask someone like a close friend or family member to provide feedback on your personal stories. (If possible, try to get feedback from someone who has also shared their own personal stories.)

Some recommendations:

• Ask your feedback giver to prompt you with an issue and then act as the listener.

• As you share your personal story, ask your feedback giver to focus on your delivery, your brevity, and the attention paid to listener cues.

• Ask for specific recommendations for improvement, not just an “overall feel” of your story.

• Ask for feedback in real time. Remember, your listeners will react to your stories in the moment.

• Whoever is giving you feedback should do so immediately after observing your stories. Focus on your insecurities. Decide what part of sharing your personal stories you are least comfortable with. Is it nervousness? Is it brevity? Is it the awkwardness of posing an ask to the listener? Whatever you feel insecure about should be the focus of the feedback you seek.

(Pro Tip: If you pose questions beginning with “How” or “What,” you are more likely to get specific responses.)

To learn more about sharing your personal story, you can take our course “Using Personal Stories on the Campaign Trail.”