The Art of Story-Telling – Pete Godfrey
Story-telling is one of the adjacent areas of focus at SRA in 2025. There’s huge power in hearing and learning from the stories of others. As part of my own quest to learn and know more about the art of story-telling I sat down with a fairly accomplished story-teller, an individual well known to many in the SRA family, Coach Pete Godfrey, to pick his brain about story-telling. Here’s an edited extract from my recent chat with Pete – note I have had many chats about many things with Coach over the past few years. For those of you that don’t know him or that don’t know him well – he’s an understated wealth-of-wisdom.
Q. Let me open with a broad question and see where it takes our conversation. Why story-telling?
A. That is indeed very broad. Humans are narrative animals. We are story-tellers at our core. Before the internet, before books, before pencils and paper, before stuff was carved into stone tablets or onto cliff faces or on the walls of caves humans told stories. It’s how knowledge was transferred across cultures and between generations. We are born to tell stories. We have to tell stories, and the reality is that we do tell stories every minute of every day. It’s just that we generally don’t refer to them as stories. For example I might ask you how was the trip from Lilydale to Collingwood today mate? Sure you’ll answer the question – but you’ll tell me a story.
Q. I am pushing the idea of story-telling at SRA in 2025. Can you take your answer above and maybe narrow it down for my athletes and readers a little?
A. Sure thing. I might call on Gerald Chesin and an article he wrote way back in 1966 to help simplify and move this story along. “Storytelling is usually referred to as the telling of a story without the aid of the printed page, pictures, or any properties which would break the magnetic flow between the listener and the teller.” I really like Chesin’s idea of magnetic flow between the story-listener and the story-teller. I reckon you’ll be able to use ‘magnetic flow’ from here on at SRA. It has a powerful resonance.
I think the idea of magnetic flow moves everyone (tellers and listeners) beyond just conveying information, data and//or facts. There’s something else going on, something deeper and more connected, more human. As story-tellers we want our stories to mean something to the listener. We want them not just to hear but to feel something.
Q. Rather than me dropping in another question here I know you well enough to give you the space right about now to keep riffing. So, would you mind continuing to riff?
A. I’ve said to you a few times Shaun, you are wise beyond your years. I’m happy to keep riffing. There’s a freedom that comes with story-telling. Sure there might be some key information and data to be conveyed, or a particular message to be channeled, or knowledge to be transferred, but the story-teller is free. The storyteller is bound by nothing; they can stand or sit, they are free to watch the listener or listeners, they are free to note reactions to the story, free to use the body, eyes, voice as aids in expression. A story told is more spontaneous than a story read.
Q. And?
A. And, the story-teller can personalise the story. When you make a story your own and tell it, the listener gets the story, plus your appreciation of it. There is a filtering or injection of personality in telling a story. This gives storytelling an intimacy or personal quality.
Q. Over and above your long career in senior leadership and management, and beyond the many books you’ve read and the few you’ve written, you’ve spent decades involved in sport as a player, coach, advisor and mentor, so you understand the ‘world’ of athletes well. Do you think the focus here at SRA on story-telling in 2025 and beyond is the right one?
A. Absolutely. I’ve watched the videos that you’ve been producing of late with key athletes telling their stories and the videos you’ve been cutting of your own story – the SRA Way, hey? I think their power is self-evident. I said earlier we are narrative animals. It’s in our DNA to collect, craft and share stories, and in your world, in your business, stories about triumph over adversity, stories about pushing beyond previously achieved limits, stories about breaking boundaries and achieving goals are inspirational. There’s eye-opening benefits in stories of the everyday too, as well as stories that might not end so well. Every story has its purpose.
Think about it this way, hearing the right story or many just right stories has great value. It may help someone else face some of the problems that confront them. As they identify with characters, aka another athlete, a trainer or a coach, they may see themselves and their problems, challenges and goals more clearly and perhaps meet them more realistically than they could before they knew these story characters.
I’m certain that you aren’t adding the label ‘cultural artefact’ to the videos you are producing, but nonetheless they are cultural artefacts. Without sounding too high-brow about it, imagine your videos being archived somewhere and re-discovered somehow in two or three generations time. They tell a story in the here and now, and they will tell a story for all time – across cultures and between generations right?
Q. I’m sure that many of our athletes and readers of this interview with you are saying to themselves I’m not creative. I’m not a story-teller. What do you say to that?
A. I say BS to that, but let me elaborate. We’d need another hour to debunk the ‘creative’ myth, but creativity is a bit of a myth. The shortest explanation or piece of advice I can offer here is that story-tellling is a ‘craft’ and like any other ‘craft’ it can be learned, and practiced, and improved and refined. It sounds a bit like strength and conditioning right? And the great thing here is – just like strength and conditioning – as humans we already have a baseline of performance as story-tellers to work with. We use language every day and so we tell stories every day. We can get better at the craft of story-telling every day.
Q. Pete as always, your time and insight is highly appreciated. How do we best close out this part of our chat about story-telling?
A. You are too kind, mate. I appreciate the opportunity. We should close out with a story about a story I guess.
It might be short or long. A few words or many sentences. It might be about something quite mundane or everyday. It might end well or it might not. Occasionally it might be a story that is quite inspirational or profound. It can be told sitting down or standing up. It can be told to one, a few, or many. There’s an intimacy in intimacy, and so it requires no formality. It’ll be best with some personality. It doesn’t need a script or plot, scenes, characters or a narrative arc. It might be just a fragment. It might be incomplete. With no props required – can you feel its magnetic flow?
Bio:
Given he’s heading for 62 next month and has managed to do quite a bit with his life to date, shortening Pete’s bio was a bit of a challenge but here goes.
A 35-year corporate career in senior leadership and HR management is matched with undergraduate and postgraduate qualifications in Arts, and Industrial and Employee Relations. Pete is also a qualified and accredited Leadership Coach. He is a Fellow of the Australian Human Resources Institute too.
Basketball-wise where most of us know him from Pete is a Basketball Australia ‘Performance’ accredited coach and a five-time Coach of the Year across the Big V and NBL1 leagues. Pete also coached/mentored myself across my short tenure at Kilsyth Basketball, and continues to do so till this day.
Writing and storytelling has been woven through his work, sport and personal life, and with his corporate life winding down his writing life is winding up. Pete is currently undertaking a MA in Writing and Literature and runs (solo) a freelance writing practice. He has self-published three collections of writing with more in the draft phase. I have had the privilege of reading and commenting on one of his draft manuscripts ‘It’s over in a heartbeat’ and look forward to its future publication.
Pete also does a free-to-subscribers weekly drop that he calls ‘dream intentionally – while you’re awake’ which I thoroughly recommend here: https://pbgwriter.ghost.io/
I had to edit out family, travel, motorcycling and swimming, but it’s fair to say the man has many layers.
Epilogue:
What began as a discussion about story-telling, quickly unfolded into a larger understanding of why stories matter.
At SRA, 2025 marks a deliberate push towards harnessing the power of telling our stories. We recognise that the people we serve each have a special story to share – These stories shape culture, inspire action, and provide insight. They allow athletes to see themselves reflected in others’ experiences and offer a sense of belonging and direction.
Pete’s insights remind us that storytelling is not an exclusive art form reserved for the creative inspired. Instead, it is a craft – one that can be practiced and refined. The challenge is not in whether we have a story but in how we choose to tell it.
The concept of ‘magnetic flow’ that Pete highlighted speaks to the deep connection between storyteller and listener. It’s a reminder that the best stories aren’t just heard—they’re felt. These stories are not just content; they are cultural artifacts, holding value now and in generations to come.
What’s your story?
– Shaun Atkins
Director – SRA Sports Therapy