I’ve had a few business coaching clients recently get quite flummoxed when asked to share their story.
The conversation goes a bit like this.
I don’t know what to share. I’m scared of saying too much and being too vulnerable.
People might judge me and might leave nasty comments about what I’m saying or how I look.
Does this resonate? It does for most of womankind and holds us back no end. No more I say!
Tell your story in your own unique way.
When these amazing women start to share in their own special way, for someone a blog or Facebook post, for another by creating an artwork or collage, for another a video, they come alive. Their work takes on its own life, attracts readers and viewers who love them and ultimately the lovely clients they really want to work with.
It’s a challenge so let’s face it head on! You’ve been asked to share your story. Where do you start?
Bear with my while I use my story to explain!
This week a story I wrote comes out in book called “Believe You Can Live a Life You Love at 50+”. I’m one of thirty female contributors, all aged between fifty and ninety one! I was asked to write a chapter a year but I didn’t. I had a lot going on, the usual excuses but Sue Williams who was compiling the book kept chasing me and eventually I wrote the chapter this summer.
I scrapped it… it was too sentimental, too vulnerable and felt a bit weak. Sue wanted me to share something about money, my money story and how I became a money coach when I was nearly fifty. I have a chequered money past and I got lost, waffled a lot and wasn’t happy to share.
But Sue was persistent and I had an epiphany.
I tuned into the people who I knew were interested and might be inspired, business women, therapists, my ideal clients. I wrote for them and it flowed. Until then I was writing for anyone and everyone and it’s not a story that I particularly want my uncles and aunts, cousins and some friends to read.
I wrote for women who want a business in their fifties, who have a nagging feeling that they might have left things too late, scared that it could be really hard and that they may face criticism and judgement from others.
I’ve also been asked to share my story in groups and I’ll be honest, it felt self-indulgent! Why would anyone want to hear about my path as a business woman? I’ve had so many disasters and “failures”! The group leader knew I was the right speaker for the group, gave me some guidelines about my story and six of the women listening became money coaching clients! The right story for the right audience.
What’s your story? If it’s a challenge to put it together, get the help of someone else.
Helen Vandenbergh has a great formula to get a book out of someone in a weekend. The questions are planned in advance, with the theme for the book in mind. Then you are interviewed by an expert who can tease some interesting answers from you. This sounds a bit Alan Carr/Graham Norton as I write it!
The interview is recorded, transcribed and you have the skeleton of a book in a weekend which can then be edited. Helen is offering an Essex book writing weekend this autumn BTW!
Here are a few guidelines to bear in mind when you write YOUR story.
- What story you would like to share?
- Who is the listener or reader?
- Why are you telling the story? Have a clear outcome in mind, for example, to inspire someone to take their own first step.
- What were you trying to achieve in your story?
- What challenges did you face?
Please share your story with me! I’d love to hear it!
Rosemary Cunningham helps women entrepreneurs, especially therapists and coaches to create successful,profitable businesses doing what they love. You can book a complimentary Discovery Session with Rosemary here.