A SIGNATURE STORY ABOUT YOUR PERSONAL BRAND

If you’ve been successful with this exercise, what you have just written might well become a signature story of your personal leadership brand. Not only should it help you understand your own brand, you should be able to share those lessons and make them relevant to others. Perhaps you’ve told the story before, but never with a powerful lesson that brought clarity for you and meaning to the listener. Now you should understand why it is important and how you can use it to communicate your brand.

How many stories do you have? In a short time you have identified several. As you become a strong storyteller, you’ll see how the events of your life, when examined, become opportunities to share lessons and the values that define your brand. The more you use this tool, the more you’ll think about stories and what they mean to you and others. In workshops, I’ve watched leaders who didn’t believe they had anything to say, stand up and tell stories that leave their audiences breathless. What’s fascinating is that often they have told these stories to people they know and not realized they had greater meaning. The storytelling structure helps you not only organize your story, but also analyze it to find a lesson and a relevant point for your audience. This “aha!” moment is exciting and easy to replicate, once you apply the storytelling formula. I’ve seen it happen so many times in our....