Hello again; I hope you are doing what you can to continue moving forward even during these tough times we are living through.
Today, I’m starting a new series of posts on the subject of story telling. Specifically telling your personal origin story.
The most important story we have to tell is our own.
Our stories are how we build our brands.
Because people don’t buy our products or services, they buy our stories.
It’s how I became known around the world as The Blind Blogger and am starting to be referred to as Mr. What’s Your Excuse.
And my years of experience tell me that successful people get really good at telling their story.
Now, I can say this all day long, but it won’t really help you much.
You will still be stressing over what words to use for your elevator pitch, origin story, or social media profile.
So, I’m going to share some examples of what I consider to be great personal story telling.
Yes, I will use myself as an example. And yes, some of the other examples were crafted by me.
Many of you have great stories, but you are leaving something out because you don’t think it’s important.
Alex Sanfilippo
Let’s talk about my friend Alex Sanfilippo.
I met Alex after we shared the stage during the Pecha Kucha portion at Pod Fest Expo in 2019.
We became friends, and we have appeared on each other’s podcasts.
In preparing to interview him I found out that he had sold lemon aid and golf balls as a young man. We didn’t talk about that too much during our conversation, but it stuck with me.
I like helping out my friends, so I started recommending Alex as a guest to some podcasters. And I always mentioned how he was a life-long entrepreneur and told them how he got started.
This week, Alex wrote a post sharing the business lessons he learned from those early experiences.
I asked Alex if I had anything to do with that post. He said absolutely. He went on to say that so many people have asked him about the lemon aid and golf balls that he finally had to write a post about it.
And he admitted that it was because I used that line in all his introductions that it stuck in people’s minds.
This is a perfect example of leaving something out because you don’t realize the power of the image it creates.
In this case people are reminded of their own childhoods or stories told to them by parents or grandparents.
They can respect him more because his experience as an entrepreneur was built up over years.
And they can connect to him as a human being in a way that they wouldn’t without knowing things like this about Alex.
For those of you who don’t know Alex was a very successful executive in corporate aero space prior to starting his latest venture Podmatch.com
A service that matches podcast hosts and guests using artificial intelligence.
Without knowing of his childhood business, some people may have been intimidated by him.
A Blind Eagle
I sometimes forget to mention that I am an Eagle Scout. One of the few blind eagles in fact.
And given that the motto of us Eagles is once an Eagle always an Eagle; leaving this out is a disservice to myself.
Because many people have fond memories of scouting both boys and girls.
And because people understand how difficult it is to achieve the rank of Eagle Scout.
Plus it leads to other experiences and lessons I can share with people from those times.
What have You Left Out?
So, ask yourself is there something important about me that I am leaving out? Or something I am glossing over?
It could be something that you experienced or overcame years ago, so you don’t think about it as often. Or you don’t value it as much.
It’s not an easy one to learn how to tell. We stress over it so much. And calling it an elevator pitch just makes it harder for most people.
That’s why when I talk about this subject I encourage people to see themselves as the hero of their life story.
None of us came from another planet or were bitten by a radioactive spider; but we all have a story.
Through sharing examples like these I hope to help you craft a better personal story.
One that shows people who you are, what you have been through, and what you are capable of.
Telling your origin story isn’t easy. Mainly because unlike stories in a book ours is always changing.
So, don’t beat yourself up because you aren’t happy with how you introduce yourself to people in person or online.
Just keep working at it. Because the other sure truth is our stories get better the more we tell them.
I would love it if you would share some of your own stories in the comments. Or send them to me via email.
If you want some help from a great story teller, then reach out to me. We can schedule some time to work on your personal story.
Wishing us all the best, Max