I love helping people to find the ‘golden nuggets’ in their stories.
Problem is, we all know our own story so well. We lived it, so we don’t give it a second thought.
But to others, it’s fascinating. Because they don’t know our story. They haven’t lived it. And things we think of as ‘ordinary’, may seem ‘extraordinary’ to someone else.
On my Storytelling for Business workshop on Saturday, one of the sessions I ran focused on looking for the stories that demonstrate the qualities and values that make us who we are.
Vee Smith specialises in web design and email marketing and she identified that the qualities her clients would want to see in her include being creative, resourceful, versatile, trustworthy (that she’ll do a good job) and knowledgeable, with a good eye for detail.
When I asked her if she could think of a personal story that showed she had those qualities she said, very matter of factly, “well I taught myself to make my own clothes when I was younger. Then I started making wedding dresses for people. Oh, and sequined ballroom dancing dresses too, for competitions”.
What??!! The whole group was blown away by a story she had never even considered telling.
So think about things you’ve done in your life and ask yourself (or even better, ask someone else) what does that story say about you and what qualities does it demonstrate?
