Here is an interesting concept that I was discussing with someone last week. How do you tell your story? You’ve heard it put a few different ways I imagine. What’s your pitch? What’s your elevator speech? etc… The overriding point is that people want to know in 30 seconds or less who you are or were or will be or all of the above. Now I could go on about what it says about our society that one must be able to tell their story in 30 seconds or less but I leave that for another day. Besides, why have an argument with reality? The fact of the matter is you need to be able to give people the nugget of who you are and what you do so that they want to hear more. It’s like hooking them to a movie. Boy meets girl, boy loses girl, boy gets girl back (that fits about a thousand movies but people seem to love it). There is an article entitled “What’s Your Story?” (Ibarra and Lineback, HBR January 2005) which speaks to this issue. I won’t regurgitate it for you since your library can feed you a copy that you may digest in your own way but I will share what it and countless other promoters of the story say about how to formulate yours. First you need your key elements;
- A protagonist (your prospective customer or employer- people love being the center of a story)
- A catalyst (your passion or skill which would engage you to help the protagonist)
- Trial and Tribulation (a problem hurting the protagonist)
- Turning Point (enter our hero with her passion and skill)
- A resolution (happy protagonist thanks to our hero)
With these elements you craft a sentence that relays your story, good to have a short version and then be able to elaborate with a long version of juicy detail because the hero will be so compelling they will want to hear more.
Sometimes we are so wrapped up in our story we can’t really distill it ourselves. This is where it is helpful to talk with colleagues about what you do and have them explain it back to you. It’s particularly helpful if your friend or colleague has marketing or some other story telling experience but that isn’t a requirement, it just makes it go faster. I had coffee with a marketing guru and after babbling for a bit about what I do and care about he came back at me with the following:
Helping businesses accelerate success and growth by realizing the value of
individual contributors and teams through the successful implementation and integration
of systems and processes.
This is pretty good. It has a business (protagonist) in peril of not realizing value (read lost money) and it has a hero (me) coming in to help them successfully implement and integrate solutions. Certainly it is enough to warrant further response, perhaps “Really, and how do you do that…” or something along those lines. It gives me a chance to explain why I think most software and process change fails (80+% failure rates) and how my skills and talents have made a difference.
As with all great stories revision and change will happen but it’s important to have a start to work with so your are ready for the inevitable question of “What’s your story?”
