Learn your own story, Then learn how to tell it

Communication

Do you know your own story? Have you learned how to tell it?

My Presentation in Dallas, Photo by Mendel Kurland
My Presentation in Dallas, Photo by Mendel Kurland

A couple weeks ago in Dallas

After three months at home, away from conferences, talks and events, I headed out to Austin and Dallas for meetings and a conference.

While in Dallas, I had the opportunity to deliver the keynote to the local WordCamp event.

My topic and focus was on stories and storytelling—as I wanted to introduce every one of the 350 attendees to my story curve.

lema-story-curve

Here is my talk

You need to know your own story

Let's be honest… no one is going to know your own story better than you. Sure, people can help you craft and edit it. But knowing it – that's on you.

And learning how to tell it is just as important as knowing what it is.

As I shared with the attendees, you can't have an impact on others until you

  • learn your own story
  • embrace your own story
  • learn to share your story

When you learn it, embrace it, and learn to share it—amazing things can happen. You know who to help. You know how to help. You know what to say “yes” to and what to say “no” to.

But what's the secret formula?

In my talk, I gave people three formulas you could use. Here are the three slides.

StoryOne

StoryTwo

StoryThree

And what I told everyone was this:

The verbs of your life tell your story. 

So, which verb do you connect with most?

verbs-of-your-life