Crafting and Sharing Our Stories

Today I did a life map exercise as part of a course I am taking on storytelling for change. Storytelling is a buzzword these days specially with entrepreneurs. Taking into account what we know about connection, we fully understand how sharing our stories can forge that connection with our intended audience and community.

I saw this firsthand when my business partner, Eleonora Spagnuolo, shared her story on mental illness and entrepreneurship in a room full of 200 people during a HubDot event for the European Entrepreneurs Conference! Hearing her speak so courageously and with so much vulnerability still makes me teary. At that moment surrounded with those people, I knew she connected deeply with their hearts.

As I was going about how to do my life map, I remembered what we are emphasizing in Co.LAB — “transformation” and I used that as a springboard in creating a piece of my life map that is pivotal for me.

The part that I focused on was the inciting incident that led me to where I am now. In the online facebook masterclass on Expanding Your Stakeholders’ Avatars, I mentioned about Satir Change Model. This model is where we are drawing inspiration on why inciting incidents (foreign element in Satir’s Model) are important.

Even though I have other life experiences that has shaped me as a person. The most current and most pivotal one was my breast cancer journey.

It was indeed a great period of chaos as I learned to redesignlife, owned my choices and yes, claimed my space. It wasn’t easy and it still isn’t but I came out of that experience fiercely defining my boundaries and my appreciation of myself.

If you are looking for a tool to step back, re-examine life and share your story as an entrepreneur, why not do a life map and see what comes up for you?

Here are some ways to start:

🎯Choose a defining moment that stirred powerful shift for you.

🎯Identify how you were before this incident and how you felt. What needs were met or not met?

🎯And as you go through the chaos, what were your insights about yourself? What did you learn? What did you move forward to?

🎯As you transform, how are you ensuring that practice and integration are included in your daily life? how are you sustaining your changes?

🎉And when you are done, give yourself a great big hug and a pat on your shoulder. For you are here in your greatness, your boldness, your “enoughness”. And it’s time to acknowledge and celebrate how much you have experienced, changed, grown, transformed.

Share your life maps in the comments so we can know each other more.