Ideas in the Wild: How Simone Knego is Inspiring People To Share Their Story

Millions of people wake up every day feeling like they’re going through the motions, that the hundreds of choices they make have almost no impact on the people around them. Many motivational books teach that in order to better the world, we must first better ourselves. But we really only need to change the way we see ourselves and the world around us will change.

What we do every day matters and inspires others. By sharing our stories, we can motivate and encourage those around us — and in doing so, change the world.

Everyone has a story, and in The Extraordinary UnOrdinary You, Simone Knego shares her unique journey and the extraordinary moments which have shaped her life and defined her mission. I recently caught up with Simone to learn what inspired her to write the book, her favorite idea she shares with readers, and how that idea has changed her life.

What happened that made you decide to write the book? What was the exact moment when you realized these ideas needed to get out there?

I had been doing some speaking engagements and every time I finished speaking, people would ask me if I had a book. Of course, my answer was no, and the typical response was that I needed to write a book. People wanted to hear more about my life and my stories.

Those conversations are what made me think, “Oh, maybe I should write a book.” The exact moment I realized that I needed to write the book was when I was sitting at a local women’s empowerment luncheon, and I was listening to these amazing speakers. As I listened to these two inspirational, accomplished women, I thought to myself, “This will never be me.”

For a moment, I wasn’t sure if I was feeling inspired or inadequate. That’s when I realized that yes, these women are incredibly inspirational, but you don’t have to be the person on stage to be able to inspire the people around you. You just have to be you. I had to change the way I saw myself and I had to stop comparing my life to other people’s stories.

The stories that happen every day in our lives may seem ordinary to us, but our stories are what make us extraordinary. Everybody is unique. Everybody can make a difference. At that moment in that luncheon, I thought this is exactly what I’m going to write about.

What’s your favorite specific, actionable idea in the book?

My favorite idea is sharing your story. I think it took me a long time to realize the impact you can have on somebody just by talking about your ups and downs, your triumphs, and your tragedies. We live in a society where everything is so in our face that sometimes it’s hard to realize that everybody has struggles and people sometimes don’t want to talk about these things.

I think by sharing the struggles that I’ve had along with the triumphs, it makes people open up and realize that it’s a really good thing to talk about your story. Everybody has a story. By sharing your story, you really can change someone’s mindset. You really can help them.

What’s a story of how you’ve applied this lesson in your own life? What has this lesson done for you?

I was sitting at a conference and there were about 600 women in the room. All at once, I realized that I’ve struggled for so long to keep up on the hamster wheel. I was always jumping from one thing to another and not to say that I was ever unhappy, but I think that I didn’t realize that I could just be happy exactly where I was. I always thought that everybody else’s life looked so perfect, but what was ironic was that people thought the same thing about me.

“Look at her life. She’s so cool, calm, and collected. She has six kids and takes everything in stride. She does this. She does that.” I learned this when I had a discussion with other women and realized we both thought the other’s life was perfect. Of course, we were both wrong!

Now I go out of my way to make connections. When I go get on an airplane and I sit next to somebody, I introduce myself. These are some of my best conversations. Many of my best learning lessons have come from talking to people that I don’t know at all.

When I share my story, people then share their story back and they tell me about the things that are happening in their life. Their whole expression changes after they’re done sharing. It’s almost like, “I’ve wanted to share this for a long time, but I didn’t know how to say it, or I didn’t know who to say it to.” This approach has changed the way I do things, how I reach out to people, and those changes have made such a huge difference in my world.

We’re living in a time that is so divisive. I think that by sharing our stories, we realize that the things that connect us are much stronger than the things that divide us.