Sharing personal stories that have influenced you in your values or thinking are never easy to share with others publicly without tremendous courage. The best stories are of a hero that transforms, is challenged and overcomes told with emotion and brevity. To be told effectively it means reliving that experience for a moment.

There is a science as well as an art to storytelling, and like anything else, it takes time and knowledge to get good at it. It also takes courage and a certain level of vulnerability because telling the type of stories that connect with others requires us to share a bit of ourselves without guarantee or promise. The stories that resonate are the ones of transformation, revealing those moments when we fell, when we were challenged, made the wrong decision and had to overcome obstacles. They are the stories of the lessons learned along the way to triumph and success, through which we reveal our humanity and truly connect with others.

Everyone has a story, sometimes it just takes an outside perspective to reveal it.

Often times we can’t see our own story because we are too busy living our lives, reacting to situations. To us our lives appear “normal”, if not boring, especially compared with the Facebook versions of others.  But everyone’s life is different and although we share common realities ( or what I like to call narrative themes: love, loss, betrayal, relationships) our experiences of them are very different and shape our unique perspective of the world. Given that no one person’s experiences is exactly the same, together they naturally create interesting and compelling story that describes you, and what makes you different while at the same time the same.

Most branding exercises are about molding yourself to to fit and external idea of who you think you should be or set of values. In taking the perspective of a storyteller, we look to build your brand from the inside out, by looking at your experiences, putting different moments into context and finding the common thread that ties them all together. In going through this process it then becomes easier to see the connection between your personal value set as demonstrated through action or shaped by situation.

A Narrative Summary is an outline of your key storytelling elements drawn from your experiences that are unique and specific to you. It lists your personal values and draws a direct line to your life experiences as an expression of those values. It also lists the words and phrases you use, because how we communicate is also an expression of self. Developed from Discovery session and recording, an outline highlights those words and phrases of ideas most commonly used that can then be incorporated in your individual story development or personal communications.

To enhance individual stories,  images and symbols are also suggested that can be used represent your values, character and ideas. In combination with your story database, personal values and key words, we identify your Mentor Archetype: those unique skills and knowledge that you have that helps others be heroes in their own journey.