How ShareYourStory.com helps leaders flip their lived expertise into lasting affect.
The Missed Drawback in Management and Entrepreneurship
Many entrepreneurs and leaders possess the mandatory credentials, expertise, and even a confirmed monitor document. On paper, they’re credible. Nevertheless, in actuality, many stay neglected, struggling to lift funding, entice clients, safe talking invites, or safe broader alternatives.
The explanation? They lack management affect.
That’s the problem Alex Demczak and Will Severns deal with every single day. Lengthy earlier than co-founding ShareYourStory.com, the 2 met as summer time camp counselors. Years later, they constructed what’s now a “story-to-stage pipeline” that helps leaders share their lived experiences by way of books, media, and talking.
On the coronary heart of their work is a straightforward conviction: the world wants your story. Expertise provides you credibility, however affect comes if you invite others into that have.
Why Credibility Isn’t Sufficient
Each entrepreneur has experiences value studying from. The challenges you’ve overcome, the pivots you’ve made, and the teachings you’ve absorbed all type the inspiration of credibility.
However credibility by itself is passive. Leaders who cease there could also be competent, however they’re too typically unheard.
“Lots of the leaders we work with have already got the credibility,” Demczak explains. “They’ve constructed companies, created jobs, or solved issues. But when no person is aware of their story, they miss the affect that adjustments lives, together with their very own.”
Take Sara Blakely, founding father of Spanx. She didn’t have a enterprise diploma or a background in vogue. What she did have was a narrative, and she or he wasn’t afraid to share it. Pissed off with how she regarded in white pants, she grabbed a pair of pantyhose and reduce the ft off. That second of honesty and ingenuity didn’t simply spark a product concept; telling that story repeatedly turned the heartbeat of her model. It gave her credibility, related her with clients, and in the end positioned her because the youngest self-made feminine billionaire.
“We’ve all seen individuals on-line who achieve traction rapidly however can’t maintain it,” Severns provides. “At ShareYourStory, we’re not serious about viral moments. We wish leaders to have endurance.”
And that’s the true problem: shifting past one good story or a second of traction to constructing lasting affect.
Thought Management: The Path to Lasting Affect
That’s what thought management actually is: the constant observe of sharing your story and insights in a means that positions you as a trusted voice. It’s exhibiting individuals who you’re, what you’ve discovered, and why your perspective issues.
As Severns places it, “Individuals don’t purchase from companies. Individuals purchase from individuals. Storytelling is what makes that connection attainable.”
Analysis from Edelman and LinkedIn exhibits that just about 73% of decision-makers view thought management as a extra reliable approach to gauge experience than conventional advertising and marketing. Many even say they’ll pay extra when a frontrunner demonstrates experience this manner.
That’s precisely the house the place ShareYourStory operates. By way of Streamline Books, the publishing division of ShareYourStory.com, entrepreneurs can go from concept to publishing a e-book in simply 9 months. The e-book publishing course of pairs them with skilled writers and editors who know find out how to form a narrative into authority.
“Writing a e-book doesn’t create credibility,” Severns explains. “It uncovers the credibility that’s already there. And a e-book is just the start.”
From there, the pathways widen: authors share their message on-line, on levels, and in conversations which have results far past a single story. Since 2020, Demczak and Severns have helped greater than 100 entrepreneurs cross the end line with their message, most of whom have seen each monetary and private ROI.
When Respect Turns to Affect
A kind of leaders is Liz Casselman. When she revealed her e-book, Not Only a Title: A Journey of Development within the Title Trade, it instantly expanded how individuals noticed her. Colleagues who had lengthy valued her skilled experience started connecting together with her story on a extra private degree.
“One colleague advised me he had learn my e-book on a flight to a nationwide occasion,” Casselman remembers. “He mentioned that whereas he already revered me professionally, the e-book helped him join with me on a a lot deeper degree. It reminded him that there’s all the time extra to the story than what meets the attention.”
That connection carried actual outcomes. Casselman earned again her funding by way of e-book gross sales, talking engagements that adopted, and, much more impactful, it offered her a nationwide platform that has quickly expanded her community and alternatives.
How Entrepreneurs Can Begin Sharing Their Story
The concept of storytelling can really feel overwhelming, particularly if you happen to’ve by no means carried out it earlier than. However lasting affect begins with small, constant steps. Listed here are three sensible methods to start:
- Work with somebody to piece it collectively.
Most leaders are so near their very own story that they’ll’t see it clearly. A mentor, coach, ghostwriter, or trusted good friend can assist establish the important thing moments that formed you and join them right into a narrative. Generally it takes an out of doors perspective to attract out what’s most impactful. - Take a look at it in protected areas.
You don’t must debut your story on a giant stage. Attempt sharing components of it in conversations with pals, household, or new connections over espresso. Discover the place individuals lean in or ask follow-up questions. These low-stakes settings allow you to refine your story by way of observe and suggestions earlier than bringing it into skilled arenas. - Share it publicly on LinkedIn.
When you’ve labored by way of your story and practiced it in dialog, take it on-line. LinkedIn is without doubt one of the best entry factors for leaders to share their journey at scale. Posts don’t require the polish of a keynote, and the platform rewards authenticity and consistency. Quick reflections or classes out of your expertise change into content material that lives on-line, broadens your attain, and introduces your message to new audiences.
Too many entrepreneurs hold their story non-public, assuming it’s not sufficiently big, polished sufficient, or able to share. However the reality is, your story is already shaping you, and it has the facility to form others.
Credibility exhibits what you’ve carried out. Affect multiplies it.
