The most effective blogs and emails I write (as in, the ones that get the BIGGEST response) are the ones that share a story — a personal story!

The thing is, it can be hard to come up with a personal story that relates to your topic off the top of your head. All that creative pressure will keep you stuck.

In this blog, I’m giving you some questions to answer to help you come up with your own arsenal of personal stories to use in your marketing. You’ll want to download the action sheet that goes with this blog, print it, and use it to brainstorm your best stories.

Also – block off some time for this! Creativity needs breathing space!

You’ll brainstorm a ton of great personal stories, but you’ll want to polish up 2-3 of these stories to use as your core stories for your launches, interviews, blogs, newsletters, etc.

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1. YOUR ORIGIN STORIES

The life path is answering the question, “How did you get here?” It’s important to review your journey to see how you got to the point of creating the business, products, and services that you’ve created.

Think about your answers to these questions:

1. What events in your life led you to start the business that you’re in now?
2. What events in your life led you to offering the specific products you offer?
3. What events in your life led you to start doing this specific type of work?
4. What events in your life led you to work with this specific type of person / client?

2. YOUR LOW POINTS

The reason why you want to share your dark moments is because everybody has them. If you only share the shiny stuff, you become like a plastic object sitting on a pedestal — totally untouchable and unrelatable.

People like to work with people who get them. Human beings crave real connection more than ever. Sharing your low moments is your chance to show people that you’re human and you’ve been through some shit, too.

Think about your answers to these questions:

1. What was a big failure or flop that you had when you started?
2. What kind of serious sacrifices did you have to make to get to where you are now?
3. What were your lowest points? Times when you wanted to give up?

3. YOUR TURNING POINTS

If you only share your dark moments, people won’t be convinced that you can help them! If the point of sharing the darkness is to empathize with your audience, then the point of sharing the turning point is to show them what it looked like when you stopped falling and started climbing.

Consider the following:

1. When was it that you decided to do something differently / take a new direction in your life or work?
2. When were some times that you took a different direction than originally planned? (i.e., things didn’t go as you thought and it ended up being for the better?)
3. When have you experienced the greatest “aha” moments? Were you in a particular place, reading a particular book, listening to particular music, talking to a particular person?

4. YOUR BIG WINS

This is where you get to shine! Show people that even though you’ve had hard times, you’ve worked hard and achieved some amazing things.

Honestly, the bragging part tends to be the most difficult part. I want you to list anything and everything that comes to mind (even if it’s just, “I got out of bed this morning!”)

Consider the following when brainstorming for great personal stories:

1. What kinds of results have your clients and customers achieved?
2. What have you been able to help people to do?
3. Where have you been featured?
4. What have you successfully created?
5. What past job experiences have you had that are relevant to your current work? What did you achieve there?
6. What were big (or small!) wins that you had when you were a child, teenager, young adult? Even if it seems silly, what were the moments where you felt most accomplished?

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