How sharing your story breaks down barriers and builds your brand
There is a school of thought that if you share too much about your soft underbelly that it will turn people off or make you appear weak and incapable of serving them.
I used to think that way.
Coming up in corporate throughout my career always working for large organizations with structure, layers of management and codes of professional conduct, it became a way of being that I was asleep to for many years.
Until I started my own business in 2006.
But for the first decade running my business, I kept operating as if I was in the corporate environment. People were referred to me from my “history” in corporate and what I’d become known for.
However, in the last few years I’ve come more into my own, and yes, it’s an ongoing journey. What I’m focusing on now is bringing more of Terry into the forefront and allowing myself to be 1000% me, which is unfolding every day as I relax my resistance and trust in my value.
When I drafted the title of this article, I instantly thought of my first book, 14 Days: Loving Life with the Love of my Life. Plain and simple, it’s a love story—my love story.
I won’t go into the story of the story and how it came into being because I write about it in the book. However, the experience of writing this book was all about sharing all of Terry and what I went through with my husband, Chuck, how we met, fell in love and traveled together on a soulmate journey that was a testament to our love.
After Chuck passed in 2004, I longed to know that I wasn’t alone in my grief, my joy of having the most incredible love in my life and losing that love to cancer. The standard “grief” books were not interesting to me. I wanted to read a love story—so I wrote one.
Why I share this with you is because I had to be super vulnerable in telling this story. Looking back, there were still things I likely didn’t share because it was too painful to give oxygen to in my grief-stricken state.
But after 14 Days published, I was amazed at the readership and feedback I received. It was as if the world was giving me this giant embrace filled with love and empathy that had a beautiful energy to it. I found that because I’d shared my soft underbelly, told my story—not to invoke pity or sympathy, but to inspire readers to live and love in every moment—I created a connection that I’d never been able to create before. It was palpable.
“...because I’d shared my soft underbelly, told my story—not to invoke pity or sympathy, but to inspire readers to live and love in every moment—I created a connection that I’d never been able to create before.”
When you are thinking about your business, your personal brand, YOU, what is a story that you hide from the world? What are your fears? What is your biggest triumph? What is your biggest learning? What are your strengths? What are you afraid to share about yourself or how you show up in your business because you think it may repel clients?
I’m not advocating that we all become blathering “it’s all about me,” solopreneurs and endlessly talk about ourselves and our drama. But if you’ve been reading what I’ve been putting down in my content, you know what I mean. You can take your story, your life, your own personal examples of learning and growing and use it as a backstop to what you are teaching your audience and your clients.
When you share what drives your soul, what fills your heart with passion and lights you up—as well as what pisses you off—you not only create deeper connections with your audience because they “see you and relate,” but you create a level of realness and human-ness that is distinctly unique to your brand and you.
Find new ways to weave your stories into what you do, how you’ve dealt with and grown through your business and what you’ve learned working with clients. If you’re like me, you’ve had some pretty bold lessons along the way that have made you who you are today—the good, the bad and the ugly. Own it and share it because it’s who you are. 🍀
