Storytelling drives outcomes!
I wrote STORY: the art of standing out to help others to tell the stories of their lives, early in their lives, to achieve desired outcomes, unlike me who had to learn the hard way.
I didn’t know how to tell my story when I needed it most to apply to college. I had a sense of my narrative, but I had never tried to articulate it or prepare to tell it. I knew I wasn’t very good at it, especially in person. I remember going on my first interview at Williams College.
“What do your parents do?” I was asked. Gulp…
I was uncomfortable with the question and clearly appeared so to my interviewer. I transformed my mother’s job as a dance teacher into a choreographer and my dad’s job as a salesman into a businessman. I never talked about how I was the first in my family to go to college. I didn’t share that I was forging new ground. I tried to pretend to be someone else because I felt that I really didn’t fit into the college scene.
Essentially, if you don’t tell your story, other people will — and not in the way you intended it to be told. Anything could happen when they tell it — misunderstandings, false connections, loose ends, red herrings, confusion, and a polite rejection letter saying thanks, but no thanks. Stories drive outcomes.
Storytelling is the new medium for getting into college, landing that first job at a fast track company, getting that plum promotion or navigating any transition you are going through where you need to get a human, the gatekeeper, to let you in, hire you, promote you, vote for you, or invest in you.
Today after several decades of experiences and hard work, I’m light years ahead in knowing my stories and how to tell them. Even so, I was still curious to learn more about how to develop this essential skill. So I set out on a quest to learn from the best modern day storytellers in the world. I’ve synthesized their insights, their principles and their practices to teach people how to tell great stories much earlier in their lives. Most of you reading this don’t have the time it took me to learn how to storytell… you need that skill NOW!
I wrote this book to empower individuals whose “story” is being recorded every day by their likes, shares, geofilters, hashtags, and online browsing and buying history. It’s time to take back the rights to your story. When you let your metrics speak for themselves, and neglect to paint your own portrait with careful brush strokes, shading, color hues and texture, it all falls flat into a formless, shapeless array of data.
No one trains to storytell, but it’s one of the most essential skills you need in order to communicate who you are, what you bring to the table, and why the gatekeeper should take a chance on you.
My book is aimed to teach us all how to tell better stories to the audiences in our lives. It will help you if you are:
- trying to gain admission to the college or graduate school of your dreams
- applying for a scholarship, a fellowship or to be a part of something exclusive
- looking for your first job
- interviewing for a job and need to crush it
- pivoting into a new career or founding a new entrepreneurial venture
- explaining a career pause like raising kids or care giving
- retooling your job skills in the face of automation
- wanting to get from point A to point B in your life or career
- going through a personal or professional transition
- running for political office
- wanting to warm up your world by making new friends, getting a date, or influencing someone you care about
I’d like to invite you to begin this storytelling journey so you can achieve your dreams. I want you to start from a place of utmost optimism including a challenging skepticism of your gatekeepers’ criteria. Challenge the stats you read in the guidebook or the gossip you’ve heard about who gets hired or promoted at company x. In other words, count yourself in, not out, and figure out ways to convince the gatekeepers to admit you by taking a chance on you.
We can all be evaluated by what we’re not. Our height, weight, age, lack of accomplishments, IQ, test scores, transcripts, job experience or lack of it, as well as any other external factors could stop us. But don’t let them. “Heart” simply cannot be measured. Some of the greatest victories in sports history have been won by outmatched underdogs who did not understand the meaning of the word “quit.”
So as you embark upon creating your story, challenge the criteria you are being evaluated against and ask “why not me?” Asking this question creates new pathways and energies to climb over your doubts, reservations and fears about your own competitiveness to get into that elite college, graduate school, investment bank or internship. They have to admit somebody right? So why shouldn’t it be you?
Russell Wilson, Seahawk’s Quarterback, is not your prototypical QB given his 5'11'’ height. But that didn’t stop him:
So don’t let your doubt stop you… and get ready to take the wheel to drive outcomes with your story.
I hope you enjoyed this post — if you want to connect, you can reach me here via email Kimberlya.norton@gmail.com or connect with me on social: LinkedIn, Facebook, Instagram, Twitter. Also, you can find my book, STORY: the art of standing out on Amazon — Link Coming Soon!
