Your story IS worth telling. And here’s why.
One of the things that’s most precious to me in my business is my 100 Stories Worth Telling Project.
Women entrepreneurs and business leaders who are passionate about what they do and who have fought hard to get where they are today tell me their stories as a way to celebrate their journey — no matter how painful.
After all, as Brené Brown says:
These stories matter. The stories of women’s lives matter. They are worth telling.
But here’s the thing: So is yours.
Our stories are our umbrellas and tents under which people can gather and seek shelter.
Our stories offer other women hope.
Which is why I’m so distressed when I hear women — magnificent women, impressive women, women of experience, women of triumph, women with incredible stories — tell me that they don’t have a story worth telling.
They’ve never gone to jail. Never recovered from being in massive amounts of debt. Never been a single mama who invented The Miracle Mop. Never had a spiritual crisis and ate, prayed and loved their way out of it. Never walked the Pacific Coast Trail, alone, to grieve their mother and their addictions and find their way home to themselves.
Those are good stories. Great stories. They start to form a template for how we tell the stories of our own lives…
…and, unfortunately, they start to tell us our stories aren’t scary enough, dramatic enough, or successful enough to be told.
And that’s exactly the opposite of the truth.
You don’t have to walk the Pacific Coast Trail to find your way home and other women need to know that. They need to see ordinary journeys of resilience, endurance, and grit to know it’s possible for them too.
They need your story. Even if it seems ordinary to you.
Especially then.
Otherwise, all we know is that when you’re in crisis, you need to fly to an ashram. Go to Indonesia. Abandon your shoes and your life.
And we can’t all DO that. Most of us won’t. Most of us keep putting one foot in front of the other and keep going. We reinvent our lives from inside our lives.
It’s a daily story of massive, radical, ordinary heroism.
That’s my story. That’s your story.
That’s a story worth telling.
That’s the story we need to hear.
We don’t only need the movie-ready stories of Cheryl Strayed or Elizabeth Gilbert or Erin Brockovich.
We need you, too. We need your story.
So when you think you don’t have a story, here’s a way to discover that you do.
Ask yourself this question: What have I overcome?
Maybe you were bullied by an ex-boyfriend and you got through it and now you run a business geared around empowering young girls.
Maybe you had three jobs and still managed to ace your university exams, which is a miracle on two levels because you’re also the first kid in your family to go to college.
Maybe you survived your partner’s soul-assassinating infidelity and emerged like a phoenix — and, strangely enough, rose up the corporate ladder even as your marriage went down in flames.
Maybe you struggled in school and are now the best damn teacher the world has ever seen.
Maybe you’ve got no time because you’re working, growing a business, going back to grad school, and raising kids — and yet you’ve discovered that taking time for yourself changes everything.
Maybe you grew up in a home with dysfunctional parents and becoming a parent yourself has been an incredible source of light and love and the best thing you’ve ever done.
Maybe you have three kids and a booming business. Respect to you!
Maybe you’re never going to have kids and here’s why.
I would read all of these stories and learn. Witness. See myself in them.
They would inspire me, lift me, give me hope.
So your story doesn’t have to be dramatic, dangerous or glamorous.
It just has to be yours.
Your story is a gift.
Your story is hope.
Your story is worth telling.
Not just for you, but for all of us.
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PS. You can submit your story to the 100 Stories Worth Telling Project here.
PPS. Leveraging your story in your marketing — in your funnels, your email sequences, your website copy, and your social media posts — is a bold action that will make you unforgettable in the hearts and minds of those people you most want to serve.
Download my free story guide and find out how to write yours today.
