When I was young, yes I know I'm still young, but I'm talking about REALLY young, I worked on cruise ships.
I spent almost a year cruising the Caribbean as a photographer; shooting, printing (in the days before digital) and selling photographs of families, couples and fine young things out for a good time and the four 's' words, sun, sea, shopping and s...let's just say love!
The sun shines most days round the islands; they donned the latest beach fashion and strutted their stuff on the ship's promenades, the pool and restaurants. They were beautiful, young men and women with sun-cream oiled skin basking in the glorious sunshine.
The sea is bluer than you can imagine, rich and deep and inviting, with the occasional appearance of smiling dolphins riding the waves of the ship passing and flying fish soaring by as we moved between the islands.
Each island greeted the ships with offers of shopping excursions, somewhat reluctant and grim-faced locals selling their wares to the holiday stricken passengers out for the best deal, something different that proved they were really there!
And the final 's' - let me tell you a story.
One evening I was invited to the ship's library to take a photograph of a group of people who wanted a special token to remember their cruise by. They were a group of young couples who were celebrating theirs friend's upcoming wedding. A kind of joint bachelor and hen party over the three days of the cruise and they wanted a group shot that they could all take home from the trip. I entered the library and saw that they were in the middle of an intense conversation. I cleared my throat to draw their attention and introduced myself.
Are you ready to take the shot? I asked.
Sure, yeah, let's do it, they replied.
Then one of the guys nudged the other and said "I bet she has the best answer. Let's ask her". Then a third piped up, "we're wondering what's the wildest place that anyone has done it.. you know Dave here reckons that maybe you would have a good story to tell, I mean you have that cute Irish accent".
As I set up the group photograph, I joked with them about how much fun it was to think about the answer to the question. They were a handsome group and it was easy to take a good shot. Once I had finished they reminded me that I owed them an answer.
So I described a beautiful castle in the west of Ireland, a hike up a windswept hill and the mist lifting to reveal the breathtaking view of wild cliffs and the fierce drop to the pounding waves of the ocean below.
I described how we had walked up the hill with the soft rain (a truly Irish phenomena) caressing our faces and how at the very top of the hill, we had entered the ruins of the castle. He had taken my hand and led me up to the second floor of the broken down, burnt out building?.
Each person in the group, probably like you, was leaning forward in anticipation of the next words that I would say.
I smiled.
I sighed.
And I said "there is nothing in the world more powerful than love, except perhaps, a really great story!"
I have yet to meet someone who does not like to hear a good story. Stories Empower. Stories Sell. Stories are the way we live and breadth in the world!
Next time, you need to deliver a message in a powerful way, simply tell a good story!