A few months ago I overheard my partner talking about me on the phone.

You need a little background for this to make sense: Last year, we spent six months working as media trainers in Ghana. We worked for the same NGO, but were placed in different host organizations: he was at a newspaper, while I worked with journalism students at a university (and loved it).

A few months after we got back to Canada, here’s what I overheard:

“Nicole’s wanted to start her own business for a while, but it wasn’t until we went to Ghana that she realized how much she loves helping other people tell their stories. So she’s figuring out a way to turn that into a business.”

He was excited for me (sweet!). His parents, on the other end, were interested (also sweet!).

Me in Cape Coast, Ghana. (c) Jessica Campbell

But that wasn’t what was amazing about it.

What was amazing was that he was repeating something I’d said to him a few days before, almost word-for-word.

While working through my plans (out loud—sorry, dear), I’d drafted a clear narrative for my business story. It had a beginning, a middle and an end. A what and a why. Easy to remember and impossible not to understand.

In finding a way to frame my story, I’d made it infinitely easier to share.

You’re up, and you’ve got to pitch.

When I was a journalist, it wasn’t enough to have an interesting subject in mind for a project. My editors expected a “pitch”—the subject, along with some evidence that it was timely, significant or unique (or all three). After the reporting was underway, they’d want to talk about the angle I’d take in my writing. Had I found a story amidst the facts?

If you cringed at the word “angle,” let me break it to you gently. Without one, there is no story.

You need a framing device to create a narrative. A journalist has to pull the most interesting and relevant details out of unwieldy interviews and notebooks filled with scribbles, and find a way to string them together. Someone writing about a business needs to zero in on a narrative that is accurate, compelling and true to the brand.

Because here’s the thing journalists don’t always want to talk about: there is no one truth. There are always multiple possible versions of the same story; part of the job is choosing which one to tell. There’s tremendous power in that, and a huge responsibility.

The same is true of businesses, of course.

There are other versions of my business story I could tell you. I could tell you I was raised on a farm by entrepreneurial parents, and how I kept myself from going stir-crazy by reading anything I could get my hands on. Or I could tell you about how much I’ve struggled with writing fiction over the past few years (and it is not over, I assure you), and how it’s made me think deeply about the writing process. Those elements are part of my bigger story.

Two amazing students in Accra, Ghana.

But for the purposes of my business today, here’s the story that matters the most: in a hectic West African city, in a library office with a faulty air conditioner and no real window, surrounded by determined students looking for practical advice on writing and storytelling, I realized something big about myself. That the work was such a pleasure, it didn’t feel like work at all.

And when a particularly hardworking student told me I was teaching from my heart (his words), I smiled and nodded calmly, as if it wasn’t one of the nicest things anyone has ever said to me and I wasn’t secretly freaking out.

That angle is the most relevant. And it’s the driving force behind my business.

To make your story clear, create a pitch that you can use, in whole or in part, across various media or in conversation.

Here are some elements you should think about:

• a character (you, your organization, or your customer)
• setting (time, place, life stage or circumstance)
• drama (conflict or tension)
• a change or transformation
• why it matters (explicit or implied)

Make it simple and memorable. Make it easy to understand and even easier to share (no broken telephones ’round here).

And here’s a special offer: make your pitch in the comments below, and I’ll respond with some personalized feedback and suggestions.

As you know, it really would be my pleasure.