Solid Foundations and School Assemblies

It’s really, seriously winter here now. As I write there’s a warning for SNOWFALL!

I’ve been walking in nature more recently (a consequence of my compounding steps challenge, which I talked about again here) and I’ve noticed the seasons changing more too. It’s this time of year I get a little nostalgic for school assemblies - the Autumn Days song, actually. If you know, you know.

Do they still have assemblies like we used to? I don’t know enough kids to know.

Nostalgia For School Assemblies

I wasn’t an assembly lover in school really, I got dead legs from sitting on the floor, my hearing was never the best and undiagnosed ADHD makes stuff like that a little impossible - but when I look back I can remember a few absolute bangers!

If you had a good storyteller at the front, who’d really got their teeth into something, that 20 minutes (or however long it was) was like heaven wasn’t it?!

I still remember Mr Saunders telling us a story about Percy Vere who never gave up, Mr Pashby telling us all about blakeys (little metal things on the bottom of your shoe to stop your sole wearing out unevenly - no idea what the point of the assembly was, but the concept stuck with me) and somebody else describing pigs in blankets for the first time.

Weird things stick in your mind.

Solid Foundations and The One Page Marketing Plan

I’ve been reading that book (that’s an affiliate link so I’ll earn some money if you do buy through it) and he’s just been talking about building your marketing strategy on solid foundations - not sand.

It’s a reference to a Bible story, just in case you’ve forgotten, about somebody who builds a house on rock, somebody else who builds a house on sand and when a storm comes the rock house survives and the sand house doesn’t. It’s about making good, solid decisions ahead of time so that you can weather what life throws at you - obviously.

I definitely heard that in an assembly, though I’m not sure I ‘got’ what it was about as a kid - it really sparked something in me this time, but maybe not what you think.

The Importance of Storytelling

And while it clearly applies to money, what it actually making me think about is the importance of storytelling. It reminded me of the safety and regularity of sitting in a school assembly listening to an elder talking about something. Quiet time, listening, making connections which still manage to spark something in me 30 years later.

I often wonder how teachers come up with what they want to talk about - I guess current events have an impact, but I wonder if the story comes first or the concept. I wonder if they discuss what they’re going to talk about with each other - plan a sort of syllabus over the year of things that link together. I wonder if they’re remembering the stories they were told in assemblies or at their childhood place of worship or maybe a tale from their nan.

Writing My Own ‘Assemblies’ About Money

I feel, sometimes, like I’m writing an assembly here. I want you to learn something about money, finance and confidence building, but I have to make it engaging and memorable so that those financial foundations actually stick.

I think that’s where the storytelling comes in. It allows the (sometimes) dry content matter to come alive, for people to be able to imagine where and how these financial concepts fit into their lives. Because confidence around money doesn’t come from information alone, it comes from stories that help us see ourselves differently

That’s it folks. That’s the whole post!

Love Eleanor. xxx