I've spent my life working with people to tell stories

I’m Nicholas Pollock and I’ve run Story Electric from Collingwood, Melbourne since 2018. Although until recently it operated another name, ask me about it sometime…

In many ways my story is that of an outsider looking in.

Coming from the world of the arts, I’ve spent my life working with people to tell stories. I trained as a director at NIDA, one of the top drama schools in the world, I’ve directed in theatre, opera, and film. Over the years I’ve collaborated with many wonderful and sometimes difficult performers on complex stories and I’ve shared in the struggle and joys of bringing them to life. I’ve written and worked on scripts for feature films and even composed music for one. Storytelling is my life’s work and I’ve been studying it, practicing it and developing the tools to do it effectively for as long as I can remember.

In 2018, through a strange twist of fate, I found myself transplanted from the siloed confines of my art world to a corporate environment, tasked with helping executives to present their ideas for a series of podcasts, learning tools, and videos.

I was struck by a lot of things very quickly. Firstly, that these people spoke in another language, and shortly after that, just how applicable much of what I knew was to making sense of it. 

I found that as I worked to understand the ideas buried under layers of unfamiliar jargon, I was asking people to simplify what they were saying, and as I did this, people’s stories began to emerge. These were authentic stories, stories that mattered, and I could see the faces of those listening light up. It was like they were hearing some of their long-time colleagues for the first time.

Since then, I have worked with dozens of people helping them to bring out their stories. So often, they are wonderful and interesting, but hidden behind a scaffold of jargon. People seem to believe jargon protects them and fosters credibility, when in fact it so often dilutes a story’s impact and removes the very thing that makes it remarkable – the humanity.

We are humans and stories drive us. This is just as true in business as in our favourite show. 

Please contact me to arrange a time to chat. I’m certain I can help make your story as compelling as it deserves to be.