We all have a story. Whether you’re an entrepreneur, executive or business professional, understanding and sharing your journey can be powerful for networking and establishing new relationships. Your triumphs and challenges—wins and losses—along the way from where you started to where you are now have incredible value. Having a well-crafted personal story gives you an advantage in elevating your business and standing out from the crowd. Let’s discuss how such stories can help you build more trust and win more business.
Know Your Brand
The first step in crafting your personal story is defining your brand. What do you bring to the table? What’s unique about you? Why, out of the millions of pages of text available for reading, should people stop to read yours? What experience do you have that others don’t? Knowing these answers will help build the foundation for telling your story and will serve as a reference point when meeting new people.
Understand Your Comfort Level with Different Mediums
Do you want to stick to articles and text? Are you comfortable on camera (or willing to challenge yourself to be)? It’s essential to know what you can commit to in order to tell your story over time.
How to Structure Your Story
Take a mental trip through the milestones of your life, and choose the most relevant ones to drive the brand you want to boost. These milestones could include when you started your first job, important people who influenced you, significant events or accomplishments in your career, or your most memorable moment. Begin to develop a story that ties together each key milestone to illustrate your personal and professional journey so far. As you tell the story, note what will most likely resonate with your future audiences and lead to meaningful discussions. This process will force you to focus on the most interesting parts of your life and how they can help you connect with others.
Think cinematically. Even if you don’t have any visuals when you tell your story, your words and descriptions should paint mental pictures in listeners’ minds. Bring people on the journey with you by how you describe pivotal moments. How did you feel? How did others involved feel? Recall things that will stimulate the senses to reel people into your tale.
Other Ways to Connect Using Your Story
Find ways to add value to conversations by offering helpful insights into a particular issue your audience may be facing. This allows you to highlight your knowledge and experience while showing that you are both genuine and trustworthy—two key components of any successful relationship. The more people recognize these qualities in you, the easier it will be for them to relate to your story and want to work with you.
Tips for Sharing Your Story
Keep your language simple but confident when talking about yourself and your brand. Showcase accomplishments without sounding boastful or arrogant. Be natural with your body language. Don’t try to overstate your importance with power poses. Be fluid and you’ll hold your audience’s attention.
Your story can show how far your life journey has taken you, what you’ve learned and what you can teach. Great stories inspire and create bonds. Keep that in mind as you develop and share yours with others. That way, when someone asks, “What’s your story?” you have something solid but personal that shows who you are. Don’t be afraid to share less-than-stellar past experiences. They can be used to highlight your self-discovery and how you became a better person.
Having a strong sense of who we are, both professionally and personally, gives us an advantage in generating interest from potential partners, investors, customers, etc., while also helping us grow our businesses faster than ever before. Crafting our stories helps us connect on deeper levels than just exchanging contact information—we can share our values and purpose, which helps create lasting relationships built on trust and mutual respect.
So go ahead: Write YOUR story today. If you need help, you can always work with a professional ghostwriter or executive communications coach. Contact us today for more information at PhenomenalWriting.com.
