A Masterclass On Storytelling: Define And Tell Your Personal Brand Story

The word ‘storytelling’ is everywhere, and it seems it has blown up over the last few years although it is the oldest form of communication there is.

And still- it’s one of the biggest challenges people face when they want to build their Personal Brand: telling their story.

What to say?

Which one to choose?

Don’t think you have a story?

Or you have a story but it’s not very interesting?

If any of those statements sound familiar, then you’ve come to the right place because in today’s episode I’ll share with you the why, the what and of course, the how when it comes to telling your story to build your Personal Brand.

Ready?

Then let’s go!

‘Steve Jobs always said it needs to be simpler and that our products are way too complicated. He refused to accept a laptop with 5 USB plus and demanded to reduce it to 2. He was right – sales went up. He was this genius who seemed to have answers and ideas before the consumers knew about it.’ 

~ This was one of many stories Steve Wozniak told at a conference I attended a couple of years ago and trust me- we all hung in our chairs, leaning in and listening.

This is the power of storytelling: it makes it memorable and with that, it makes the person either telling the story or the person who is the centre stone of the story stick. And this is exactly what Personal Branding is all about:

Helping you to stand out and memorable for all the right reasons.

Stories are so effective and powerful because of the emotions they trigger in us and when we release certain hormones and imagine the story in our own head, we will remember it.

However, hardly any (especially the left brainers, the technical experts amongst us 👋 there) are struggling with knowing, owning and telling their story.

I know it too well because I never told my story. I told the stories of the Brands I was the face of, behind the scenes. 

If you listened to last week’s episode, then you will know that my story telling light bulb hit when I spoke at the future females launch event in Brisbane, got off track with the educational s=content, told my story and people were hanging in there, leaning into what I was saying and lined up to speak with me after I finished. 

This was the first time I told my story and shared it in a speech, and you can bet – it has become a constant in pretty much every keynote I give when it comes to Personal Branding.

It’s my signature story but not the only story.

You see, the story you tell depends on what you want to be known for and associated with. I finished last week’s episode with a task and that was: to divide your life into 10-years chunks and write down every single story you can remember happened in this time frame.

Often people get too hung up with focusing on one of their recent stories but the experiences that got you to where you are now are the ones who really shaped you. So, your signature story may happened when you were a little child, a teenager or when a significant change in your adult life happened.

This is also what we are looking for when we work with our 1:1 coaching clients:

What are those turning moments, those situations that changed everything as these tap into the story framework that every movie, series, theatre script follows. And yes- there are some that are more comprehensive and have 7 steps like the brand story framework from Donald Miller who also has a guide in there who helps but because I like simple, I keep it short and sharp):

1)    Set the scene aka: what’s the context for what you want to share? Describe the situation. For the biggest impact: make it vivid and include details like smells, noises, time of the day/ year …

2)    What got in your way? Who was a challenger or villain? What problem or hardship did you face?

3)    What action did you take? 

4)    What were the results 

5)    Share your learnings and take outs (which is also a kind of summary of your story or emphasising the key essence of your message because this is what makes people remember and relate to you)

Knowing what situation and story has made the biggest impact on you in the way you think, act and simply who you are, gives you so much clarity and with that confidence that people buy into you.

There is the saying- if you want to fast track your learning, start personal development because it can uncover hidden spots in your mind that can hold you back but can also work as the catalyst for what’s next.

This is also the principle of reframing because te story we tell – firstly ourselves and others – are what define our value and the perceptions others have about us. There are 2 ways of reframing: context and content.

So for example: 

If your dad has had a massive impact on you, let’s say in a negative way – you can either take on the victim mentality and blame him for everything that has happened to you. Or you reframe it and thank him for shaping you to the person you are because the negativity was the drive for you to change it into something positive.

Getting really personal here for a second: this is actually my own example.

My primary school teacher always told me I wasn’t smart enough to go to University so I shouldn’t aim to finish secondary school.

Now I could have taken that as gospel and not work hard.

However, this actually sparked something in me and I always thought in my quiet introvert self ‘I’m going to show you lady”

I used it as motivation and drive to do better and show her that I can do things they never expected me to do. It wasn’t easy and I struggled through school, pretty much every year but I made it and eventually went to University and got my Bachelor in Business, and Master in Marketing and HR in less than minimum time. It the end, the constant struggle but also the constant effort to overcome it has prepared me for bigger things and I couldn’t be more grateful. On the other hand, my best friend at high school, she was super smart, never studied for anything and still got A’s and B’s. When her parents divorced, something switched, and she started to miss school and exams and dropped out before she finished grade 12. She had literally the best natural foundations but lacked the drive. And her circumstances of her parent’s divorce got the better of her and got her off track. This was the start of going separate ways unfortunately as she was busy with her baby and I was head down with my studies.

Now this is a story that I don’t really tell- I think it might even have been my debut here. But I think it’s an important one to contextualise the story telling principle and how you can find your story you want to tell.

Now this story won’t be a story that I will tell more often if at all because it’s not something I want to be known for or associated with or is part of my why I do what I do. My career story where I faced a major disruption, not on my terms is my story that makes sense as to why I coach professionals to take control over their career and level of success by building their Personal Brand.

So, you see- you will have a ton of stories already. It’s just a matter of going through your history and write down – even if it’s just bullet points – to capture them and then identify, which one is most suitable to tell that is aligned with where you want to go. And that’s the most important part here – your story is either written for you or you write it so make sure you use this powerful tool to create your next chapter.

Give a brief outline of the back story – the journey that has taken you to where you are now but then connect the dots and make it easy to understand why you want to do what you want to do next.

This is what you want to include in any of your marketing material, especially on your LinkedIn profile so you’re not getting boxed into roles you had and environments you come from but open opportunities you want to get into.

You can simply use phrases like: ‘having worked in xxx industry and facing xxx situation has made me realise that [challenge or problem]. This is what got me interested in [solving this problem] and now I’m excited to apply this in [your goal/ next step] further.’

See how it works?

It all comes down to making sense and bringing people on your journey!

And now over to you!

I would love to know what was one of those stories and experiences that have shaped you to the person you are today?