I embrace storytelling.  The stories I tell are based on my personal experiences rather than trying to recruit or sell anything.  I try to shape the story to the crowd and intent of the meeting, though, so I make it informative or energizing or mentoring or instructing, as the case may be.

With folks who know the Army, I tell them more detail about my time as an ordnance enlisted troop and a chemical officer.  It’s important in both branches – Chemical even more so – to paint the positives and demonstrate how Chemical officers in today’s force don’t fit the CHEMO stereotype that newer officers get exposed to.  I like to share some details about training that we did in my past unit, which people usually find pretty fascinating, and I’m often met with some variation of “I wouldn’t do THAT.”

Now, as a strategist, I mention I do strategic planning – design, JOPP, MDMP – and explain why it fascinates me as a profession.  Since functional areas are voluntary and it’s in the interest of both the officer and the branch to find the right fit for a functional area, I highlight the problem-solving, creative, critical thinking of FA59 – like piecing a puzzle together, sometimes upside down so that you can’t see the picture, and sometimes with puzzle pieces that have shapes you’re not sure of until much later, if ever.  I find that describing my functional area this way helps to explain it to the general officer populous and enables self-selection with those officers fascinated by the description.

With folks outside the Army, I love to talk about what the Army has done for me, so I use stories for that, too.  One of my favorite stories is about my first deployment the dangers, difficulties, and opportunities.  I also love talking about my time in command and all of the individual troops I served with there to share some positive stories about how the Army isn’t one giant, impersonal machine in the government cog of warfighting and interstate relations.

In all, I tell a story to elicit further conversation on a topic of the recipient’s choice rather than trying to drive the conversation any particular way.