Date & Time: January 14th, 16th & 21st. 4:00-5:30 PM
 
Instructor: Michael J. Jordan, Global Communications expert
Author, The Global Communications Toolkit
Founder, The MJ Method Communications Consultancy
 
Course Description:
Objective. You may be pursuing – or already producing – Conscious Fashion. But can you prove it? With concrete, credible, verifiable evidence? Published transparently on your website and social-media channels? If not, don’t be surprised if your skeptical audience of consumers, clients, investors, donors, media, watchdogs, and other stakeholders hit you with that dreaded accusation: Greenwashing.
 
In this Workshop, Michael 1) shares his toolkit to demystify how exactly you can produce persuasive, evidence-driven content, then 2) leads you, step by step, to create your own sample of what he calls Strategic Storytelling. By workshop’s end, he guarantees you a piece of content – like your Brand Story – that’s near-ready to publish on your LinkedIn platform, if not your brand’s website. This evergreen piece can remain there for years, as the brand-building foundation of all your future evidence-driven content.
 
Format. Four sessions, total.
Session #1 (90 minutes): Why Proving Your Impact Matters. Packed with skills and strategies.
Session #2 (90 minutes): Producing Your Own Strategic Storytelling. Focuses on content-creation.
Session #3 (90 minutes): Oral Critique. Trainer leads group in how to improve and revise each piece.
Session #4 (60 minutes): Individual Coaching. Trainer shows you, one-on-one, how to polish your piece.
 
Cost. For his first Workshop for the CFDA, the Trainer is charging only $399 for the first three sessions – from which he guarantees your first piece of Strategic Storytelling. Plus,a bonus Coaching session for free.
 
Takeaways. From Session #1:
Strategic Storytelling: How to Avoid the Greenwashing Accusation
Consider Your Target-Audience: The Strategic Role of Empathy & EQ
Show, Don’t Tell: The Need for Concrete, Credible, Verifiable Evidence
Four-Step Jordan Formula: The Trainer’s Strategic Communications Tool
Four Types of Content: To Build Your Brand & Prove Your Impact
Where to Start: A Roadmap to Identify & Unearth Your Impact & Evidence
 
Takeaways. From Session #2:
What’s the Story: Identifying the Most “Symbolic” Human Stories
Connect the Dots: Turning a Simple Feature into an “Impact Story”
The Fork in the Road: The Trainer’s Strategy to Illuminate Impact
The Diamond: The Trainer’s Own Storytelling Structure
Write Your Story: Brainstorming an Outline for You to Follow
The Path Forward: Strategizing Other Content for Your Brand
 
Instructor Bio
Michael J. Jordan feels fortunate to have lived on four continents – in Central Europe, Southern Africa and China – in a career that’s spanned three fields: as a Foreign Correspondent (reporting from 30 countries), a Visiting Professor of International Journalism, and as a Global Communications Consultant.
From 2011-15, Jordan lived in the remote African kingdom of Lesotho, which is where he first adapted all his International Journalism skills, strategies and storytelling styles to the challenges of Global Communications. Especially in the areas of Health, Development and Environmental Protection.
Among his most meaningful projects in Lesotho was to illuminate one American NGO’s impact on the large community of HIV orphans. He interviewed, photographed and wrote the stories of 24 beneficiaries, which the NGO – Management Sciences for Health – then published as an e-book.
From this experience, Jordan crafted his own interviewing-storytelling method to identify, unearth and illustrate any organization’s true on-the-ground impact, which he calls The Fork in the Road. 
This became the heart of Jordan’s broader approach to what he calls Strategic Storytelling: message-driven, evidence-supported, often-humanized Impact Stories – aimed to persuade any smart-but-skeptical audience. He applies this to the needs of his non-profit and for-profit clients, creating new specialties like Sustainability Storytelling, ESG Storytelling, SDG Storytelling, DEI Storytelling, and so on.
For example, Jordan applied his toolkit to the field of Fashion in this Webinar on Sustainability Storytelling, in this essay on how to avoid the accusation of Greenwashing, and in this recent lecture at the Parsons School of Design. That’s why we’re pleased to have him now serving as a Coach at the CFDA.
Among his clients today, Jordan is proud to assist three African organizations:
*As Global Communications Advisor to Tech Herfrica, a Nigerian NGO empowering rural women.
*As Global Communications Advisor to Beberavi, a Kenyan social enterprise for HIV widows.
*As Global Communications Advisor to SIA-Africa, a Ghanaian NGO supporting youth education.
In New York, he’s also the Strategic Communications Advisor to A Song For You, a music-therapy NGO for hospice patients founded during COVID. Contact Jordan at: michael@themjmethod.com.