A man with a passion for protecting the ocean

Listen to our podcast with Jean Tresfon a man who volunteers his time to conserving the creatures and health of the ocean. Click here:  The Story Teller

  

Jean Tresfon is passionate about the ocean and its creatures. He has spent 30 years of his life sharing what he sees with the public through his underwater and aerial photographs around the southern tip of Africa. 

He talks about why it took him a while to find his passion, how he learned to fly a gyrocopter so he could fly above the ocean for a very different perspective, how he does not fear holding those in power accountable for their actions and how lockdown had a surprising impact on him.

He feels enormously privileged to have had experiences that most of us will never have and that is why he feels he has a duty to share his stories.

If you want to see Jean's photographs and stories follow him on Facebook at Jean Tresfon 

Humanise your brand! 

The National Sea Rescue Institute (NSRI) is a non profit volunteer organisation. It relies on support from the public for funding. 

It also relies heavily on the good will and dedication of individuals who volunteer their time to ensure the NSRI is able to operate. These are people who spend hours in training in all aspects of sea rescue and who often risk their lives to help others who are in trouble. 

This is the story of one volunteer, Spencer Oldham who is a family man, business man and yet has voluteered an enormous amount of his time to the organisation. His personal story creates an emotional connection with the audience because we realise the organisation only exists because of hundreds of people like Spencer.

The NSRI becomes humanised when we hear the stories of the people who are prepared to dedicate themselves to a cause out of a belief in altruism.

Click here to listen to Spencer's  story: The Story Teller

In his story Spencer talks about the many hours spent training for all kinds of eventualities, the dangers they face at sea (and on land), the satisfaction of a successful rescue and his continued dedication despite the impact of Covid-19 on sea rescue operations and his personal life. 

Every individual who volunteers for the organisation has a story to tell that creates empathy for the brand. These are the stories worth collecting as part of a marketing strategy to differentiate your brand in a highly competitive market.

 

 

Climb Every Mountain

 

Mountaineering was  a childhood dream for Deshun Deysel which she achieved in 1996.  

She was a member of the first team of South Africans who placed the new SA democratic flag at the top of Mt. Everest. 

The media described Deshun as the first black woman in the world and the youngest South African to set foot on the slopes of Mount Everest.

She grew up in South Africa during the apartheid era in a small township outside of Uitenhage in the Eastern Cape. Her grandmother's recollections of the exploits of Sir Edmund Hillary and Tenzing Norgay who were the first to officially summit Mt. Everest in 1953, stimulated her dreams of becoming an adventurer.

Tenzing Norgay and Sir Edmund Hillary

She has always been naturally sporty enjoying open water swimming, cycling, running, and she played provincial volleyball in high school and college where she studied to be a teacher. 

But mountaineering became her first love. After her participation in the 1996 expedition, Deshun participated in climbing expeditions to five of the seven summits on five continents: Mt. Mckinley in North America, Mt. Elbrus in Europe, Aconcagua in South America, Mt. Kilimanjaro in Africa and she attempted to summit Everest in 2003. 

She has successfully guided teams up Mt. Kenya, Mt. Kilimanjaro and smaller South African peaks. She has also summited Mt. Meru (Tanzania), Mt. Blanc (France) and Mt. Kalapathar (Nepal).

She was to be part of an all women South African expedition which planned to climb Everest in 2020 but unfortunately Covid-19 put a halt to their plans. 

Deshun Deysel is CEO of GoPeak International which consults to and coaches clients mainly in the small to medium business space. She is also a motivational speaker. 

In her business Deshun uses metaphors from her 25 years of climbing experience to help clients understand how to climb to the top.

 https://www.gopeak.biz/ 

Deshun lives in Johannesburg with her husband Charles and their two children, Edward and Judith. At the age of 50 she is still highly driven. She plans on growing her business, writing books and climbing more mountains. 

Listen to her podcast "Life Lessons from a Mountaineer" where she talks candidly about her life and career. Click here: The Story Teller

Photo courtesy of Tony van Marken

Humanise brands with great story telling

"great stories and experiences are bigger than products and therefore humanise brands"

The Health Foundation in the UK teamed up with the Empathy Museum to develop a collection of podcast stories from people working in and using health and social care in the UK. 

The project, A Mile in My Shoes, believed that everyone has a story to tell. By sharing thirty five stories it wanted to showcase the contribution that individuals make to the health care industry.

This is the story of an organ donor nurse.

In 2018 A Mile in My Shoes won several DRUM awards, including Best Charity/Not-for-profit campaign, Best social good campaign, Best live or virtual event campaign and Best B2B content marketing campaign, as well as a silver award at the International Content Marketing awards for Best B2B campaign.

Here we get to walk a mile in the shoes of a paramedic working in the UK.

The Health Foundation quotes the Chairwoman of the Branded Content Marketing Association and member of the DRUM awards judging panel, Patricia Weiss. She believes that the greatest challenge of the century is to provoke empathy in people. 

"Content and experiences like that (A Mile in My Shoes) represents the perfect intersection between the brand purpose and what is really relevant to people. 
This is what happens when a brand could represent the society and also be a catalyst of a broader conversation that is more people-oriented and less product-oriented, because great stories and experiences are bigger than products and therefore humanise brands." 

 

     

In our previous blog post we illustrated how The Health Foundation produced videos that told visual stories which humanised their brand. They repeated this principal with podcasts. Their message is not just about a product, it is about the very real and human face of the brand that we can connect to and will remember.

Click here to the link to their podcast stories and here is a link to our own podcast The Story Teller

A young doctor on the pandemic front line

This is a story about a young doctor, Kirsten Thomas who is an intern at a public hospital which is on the frontline of the COVID-19 pandemic in South Africa.

She talks about what motivated her to dedicate her life to medicine.

She gives an insider's perspective on what it's like dealing with the impact of the pandemic.

She also explains why she decompresses doing crazy sports like paragliding. Click here to listen The Story Teller

In our previous post we looked at how a UK charity had created an award winning marketing campaign telling stories about people working in their health care industry. If you focus on story telling and people, you humanise your service.

In my own podcast The Story Teller, this is an example of how something similar can be done in the South African health care industry because every person has a story to tell. Below is the podcast repurposed for YouTube and IGTV (Instagram).

Story telling and award winning marketing

I have talked a lot in past posts about why you need to consider story telling as key to your marketing programme and why personalised emotive stories create stronger connections with your clients. 

If you think that your business cannot tell personal stories here is a case study of an organisation which has found an innovative way of marketing the services it offers. 

 The Health Foundation is an independent charity committed to bringing about better health and health care for people in the UK.

On their website they have an award winning series of videos which demonstrate the initiatives they are introducing into health care.  The series perfectly illustrates how one can integrate story telling into your brand to promote what you do. It is no coincidence that the series is called The Power of the People and this is what they say about the videos.

“We explore five inspirational examples of innovation in health care.

Our series of five short films – the Power of People – is a unique and moving take on how the lives of people using health services and their families can be improved through the determined efforts of people working in health care." 

·  Pills: Reviewing medication in care homes

·  Flo: Telehealth with a human touch 

·  Bottoms up: Everyone can influence safety, quality and experience 

·  Recovery college: From mental health patient to recovery student 

·  Gold Line: Bringing health care home 

Lets look at the example of Gold Line: Bringing health care home.

It is a 24/7 telephonic service for people who have a terminal illness and are in their last year of life.

Run by nurses, this service provides care and support for patients and their families. The level of care provided by the nurses is such that it means that more people have been able to die in a place of their choosing (usually in the comfort of their home).

This video about terminal illness highlights the experiences and courage shown by the people who have been supported by the extraordinary nurses from Gold Line. Click on the link below to watch.

Gold Line: Bringing health care home 

I defy anyone to watch these videos and not be touched in some way. You feel the Health Foundation is doing good and the memory of what they do will stay with you. 

Can you do something similar with your brand? Can you create a connection with your audience which will ensure their loyalty and belief in your work? Sometimes it means thinking out of the box.

This is not the only way the Health Foundation has been innovative in its approach to marketing. We will look at their other initiatives in our next blog.

Click here to watch the trailer for Power of People 

The importance of emotion in your marketing stories

We have talked about the need for communication to have multimedia dimensions in order to reach as many people as possible. We all have different ways of learning and this impacts whether we remember your service or a product. 

But we are all the same when it comes to the impact of emotions.

Evolution shows we are hard wired to survive by co-operating with others and forming social groups that are mutually beneficial. For this to work you have to develop a certain amount of empathy to understand and co-operate with others. 

If nothing else, the Covid-19 pandemic shows that people can co-operate when it comes to mutual survival.

Now think about an experience in which you felt a strong emotion. It may have been a moment of joy or a moment of deep sadness or anger. Because of the power of the emotion we are deeply affected and unlikely to forget that particular experience. 

In our family my sister is the one with the clearest childhood memories. If we can’t remember something in the past, we ask her. My theory is that she has a very empathetic personality. From an early age she absorbed and remembered information because this ability was highly developed in her. 

One of the privileges of working as a journalist is the access one is granted to so many sub societies, individual lives, viewpoints and different perspectives. I am so grateful for these experiences that broadened my perspective and understanding of others.  

Story telling allows us to share our experiences with each other. It allows the reader, viewer or listener to gain insight, understanding and feel a social connection. So what is the relevance of this to your business?

It means re-examining your marketing strategies and campaigns. Are you telling your own story in a way that emotionally connects with people? 
This is the gateway into people's hearts and minds. If your product or service is beneficial to society, even better.

What is the best medium for marketing your brand?

We are now able to tell stories in a variety of formats such as videos, podcasts or blogs. We can do this on one site (your website for example) or multiple social media sites. The internet allows us to use and integrate multiple forms of media. But which medium is best for marketing your brand?

In a previous blog we established why story telling is the most effective way to communicate. But what is the best medium to use in communication? 

Research has shown that 40 per cent of individuals are predominantly visual learners so videos, graphics or photographs have impact.

Forty percent of us are better auditory learners – we learn through listening to lectures, discussions or podcasts. 

Twenty per cent of us are more kinaesthetic. We learn by doing, experiencing and through tactile, hands on experiences. 

So if you want people to learn about you and your brand, you need to consider that people are all different. They learn best through different forms of communication. 

So a video may resonate best with 40 % of your audience whilst a podcast is better for another 40% and finding ways of getting your audience to interact with your product will work best for kinaesthetic learners.
Sometimes we learn different skills using a variety of learning behaviours.

Personally I absorb information best when presented with visuals. 
But if I have to learn how to use a new app or programme on my computer, do not give me a manual or tell me how to do it. It is only when I personally manipulate the keyboard myself that I learn a new skill. In this situation I learn best by being hands on.
The best communication combines a bit of every type of learning. Let's take the example of a course I run on presentation skills. You can hear an expert talking about the subject and read material on the subject. Video extracts of presentations can be used to illustrate a variety of pointers. Then finally the learners actually have to do it themselves. Many will tell you this is when they learn the most.

I believe if you can find multiple ways to tell your brand story you will increasing the chances of embedding your story in your audience's memory. Your target audience is not homogeneous. Everyone of them will absorb and retain information better if it is presented to them in the best way they individually learn. So using multi forms of media to tell your story is the smart thing to do if you want as many people in your target audience to learn and remember information about you.

Tales of a Royal Air Force Pilot

Wouter van Warmelo has inherited that very British trait of self-effacement. He does not talk much about his achievements. When he gives presentations about his work as a volunteer photographer at the Red Cross War Memorial Children’s hospital in Cape Town, it's mentioned in passing that he is a retired Royal Air Force pilot. I was curious to know more. In out interview, he reveals that his RAF career spanned three decades, he retired with the rank of Wing Commander (the equivalent of a Lieutenant Colonel in the army) and his contribution was such that he received his MBE from Queen Elizabeth.  

His story begins in Holland where he was born. At the age of three, his father foreseeing the Nazi occupation, brought his young wife and two sons to South Africa two weeks before World War II started.

While his father returned to Europe to fight, his mother was left alone in a new country to raise two boisterous sons. Wouter tells a revealing anecdote about his mother who was a talented pianist. The day the war ended she was giving a recital of Franz Liszt live on SABC radio. 

Needless to say celebratory mood was such that she was rather inebriated on air. There was a particular trill at the top end of the piano and Wouter remembers her saying “I fell off my stool but I carried on playing the notes while hoisting myself back up. When I looked across at the studio controller he was having hysterics.”

It seems music runs deep in the blood as both Wouter’s parents were musicians, a passion that has continued down the family line.

So why did Wouter decide to become a pilot? As a school boy he went to an air show where he was befriended by some young pilots who invited him to come and visit them at Swartkops airbase. Wouter was so keen he cycled all the way back to the base. True to their word, the crew took him flying. He remained in touch with them even when they were deployed to Korea. When the crew returned, they continued to take young Wouter up in the air in their wondrous flying machines.

And that it seems was that.

At the age of 18 Wouter joined the Royal Air Force in 1954 in the midst of the Cold War. Simply put “It was between the Soviet Union and the rest.”

Wouter did not immediately become a pilot but first trained as an air signaller learning skills which gave him an edge when he started flying as a pilot. His role was to man the radio, radar, air gunnery, sonar tracking and cook for the crew. When it came to cooking he admits he was a complete failure. 

Eventually he was selected for pilot training. He vividly remembers his first instructional flight. He was driving a jet around the airfield. “I was 21 and my instructor said ‘Oh come on it’s like driving a car.’ I admitted that I couldn’t drive! The instructor said ‘Oh, we then have a problem.’” Eventually I was flying big heavy four-engined aircraft before I could even drive a car.”

Shackleton

Wouter describes that instructor as brilliant. One of the exercises he did during training was rolling the aircraft in an upwards spiral. “I did it perfectly first time. Then he tried and failed. So he made me do it again. He watched me carefully and said ‘Oh so that’s how you do it’. Whether it was a psychological tactic or not, I never knew. But it certainly boosted my ego.” In another training exercise Wouter flew solo to 35 000 feet, which took a long time in those small trainer aircraft. He was alarmed to find he'd misjudged how much fuel he needed and was not going to make it back to base. He was forced to do an emergency landing at another base. His instructor came to collect him and made him do some extra instructional flying. “This is where he used psychology.” says Wouter. “I didn’t think I needed my confidence rebuilt. But I was wrong. The next two flights were horrible. He knew I had taken a bit of a knock.”

Canadian Lancaster

Wouter gravitated into the maritime operations. Though he was never involved in any “hot wars” such as the Falklands, he was very much involved in the so-called Cold War keeping an eye on Soviet maritime movements as well as search, rescue and training.  

He was deployed to Canada for three years first flying Word War II Lancaster bombers for photographic reconnaissance. 

These great planes were eventually “retired” and Wouter “was privileged to fly in the last formation flight of Lancasters." At least, until recently when the British and Canadian museum aircraft managed a short season together in the UK.

Cosmopolitan Convair 540

Still based in Canada, Wouter then piloted the Cosmopolitan Convair 540 flying VIPs as well as general passenger and freight flights. "By the way that tour took me to 82 different airports in North America, from Alaska to San Diego to Key West to Newfoundland and points in-between, including New York JF Kennedy and New York La Guardia". He says it was one of his best flying tours because of the interesting people he met ranging from world leaders, politicians and high ranking defence officials. 

"It was such a privilege," a comment Wouter often makes about his life.

Alert - the most northern settlement in the world

Once a colleague on another squadron took him along on a flight from Ottawa to the most northern settlement in the world. This is a base called Alert on Ellesmere Island, only 800 kilometres from the North Pole. “We dropped off freight, picked up a new load and flew 400 miles south to the most western point of Greenland where we over-nighted but of course it never got dark in the month of May."

After a staff tour in a headquarters, he returned to maritime operations for a while.

He was sent to a joint navy and airforce training organisation in Scotland serving NATO. Not one to mince his words, he got into trouble with his superiors on a few occasions when he sided with the Navy’s point of view rather than the RAF. 

From there he moved to Tactical Evaluation which involved evaluating NATO airbases all over Europe on their war readiness. “It was all mixed up. We would exercise against or with each other; the RAF, Germans, Norwegians and Danes. Anyone who asked Wouter how they were doing during such an exercise received a stock reply: “How do you spell abysmal?”

“I must tell you this story about Cyprus,” says Wouter. “There was a Romanian passenger plane to Larnaca in Cyprus. A passenger complained about feeling sick. Flying into the sun with a dirty windscreen, the pilot suddenly spotted a runway and landed. But it was the wrong one, it was a helicopter landing strip. There were 157 people on board and the strip was too short. So he slew the plane around at the end. Luckily no one was injured but I was sent to sort it out.” 

The passengers were sent onto Larnaca by bus but the plane was stuck. The army was put on standby, fresh pilots from Romania were brought in. The plane was stripped of all excess weight and fuel. After ten days of negotiations and careful calculations the plane finally took off without incident.

“Three months later the Director of Civil Aviation phones me,” says Wouter. “He asks was there any medical examination of the passengers. I say ‘Yes. Why?’ Because the passenger who was the cause of all this has put in a claim against the airline for landing her at an airfield with inadequate medical facilities. I said: tell her trick lawyer that if he does that, we are going to charge her for causing an unnecessary landing at an airfield. Because you know what her problem was? Her bra was too tight! That’s what the doctor told me anyway. We never heard from her again."

Did Wouter ever have anything to do with the British Royal family? “I was backup baggage plane for the Queen Mother in Canada.” I must have looked confused because he explains that the standby aircraft had four engines for safety but there always had to be a backup plane on standby. That backup plane had to have its own backup plane which Wouter was designated to fly. However his services were never required.

His last job in the RAF was in charge of the day-to day running of the UK Military Search and Rescue Organisation based in Scotland. The worst rescue mission he had to oversee happened when an oil rig came adrift in the North Sea due to extreme weather conditions. “We sent in helicopters, a Nimrod maritime patrol and search and rescue aircraft. It was a really terrible night. We rescued 180 people off the rig and transferred them to other oil rigs. But we didn’t know that there was something seriously wrong with one of the rescuing helicopters. Eventually they tied it down on an oil rig. The next morning they discovered pieces of equipment had been dislodged from the engine. But we managed to get everyone off that night. And the oil rig was also saved in the end.”

One day Wouter received a report that the Queen was in trouble and a rescue helicopter had to be dispatched immediately to the Castle of Mey in northern Scotland. There had been reports the day before that she had over-extended herself climbing up a lighthouse.

“Something didn’t jibe” says Wouter. “So I spoke to the sergeant who'd received the call. He said the Royal physician, when asked who it was, had merely said it was a senior member of the Royal Family. Everyone immediately assumed it was the Queen but in fact it was the Queen Mother who by age was the senior member. Anyway we sent off a helicopter to pick her up and take her to hospital in Aberdeen. It was suspected she had a fish bone stuck in her throat.”  
Later in his report the helicopter navigator stated that they’d had a bit of difficulty with the Queen Mother because she wouldn’t put on her life jacket. The reason, it turned out, was that she had a problem putting it on over her hat and she didn’t want to take off her hat. Ever respectful of the Royal Family, Wouter points out he cannot vouch for the veracity of the report. "She was fine and the helicopter crew safely returned her to the Castle of Mey the next day. We were warmly thanked by Buckingham Palace."

Buckingham Palace

Wouter did in fact meet Queen Elizabeth at Buckingham Palace as one of the recipients of an MBE. He recalls that the protocol was handled very smoothly every step of the way. He was given strict instructions about being in the presence of the Queen. “The first time you called her Your Majesty and thereafter as ma’am. She would shake your hand and when she exerted light pressure pushing her hand towards you, this was the signal that it was over.” The MBE stands for Member of the British Empire and ranking higher, the OBE is Officer of the British Empire. According to Wouter there is an alternative, rather subversive interpretation. "The MBE stands for my bloody efforts and OBE is for others’ bloody efforts.”

Wouter chose to take early retirement at the age of 50. “In the air force 55 years is the normal age to retire because of the stressful life one leads and one is not considered very useful after that.” He moved to South Africa in 1987 to begin a new phase in his life which is just as colourful and interesting as his life in the RAF.

In our podcast “The Story Teller” you can find out about the wonderful work Wouter (now 84 years) is doing at the Red Cross War Memorial Children’s Hospital in Cape Town. Click on this link The Volunteer Ward Photographer at Red Cross Children's Hospital