SPEAK+ Week Three

Week Three of SPEAK+.
Embrace your stories.

Years ago I invested in coaching with a very outgoing and highly successful business strategist. Using money from our line of credit, with two babies at home, I ventured to Vancouver to have our full day strategy session together.

I remember the hotel room vividly—a room I didn’t feel I could afford. The downtown hustle and bustle. The honking cars and many Starbucks.

Mostly, I remember feeling intensely nervous! As I walked to her chic apartment in Yaletown, I was overwhelmed with feelings of not being special enough.

I struggled with the mental narrative that even though I had big dreams, I didn’t know if I had a life story that deserved to fulfill those dreams.

Over the next 6 hours we intently strategized about my offerings, what I was passionate about…what my purpose was. I spent over $15,000 on that coaching/website building learning experience. It was a great expansion process that helped launch my coaching programs and supported my speaking career.

And after all of that strategizing and creating and designing and launching—I still, deep down, thought about not being special enough. That my fairly normal, middle income childhood and subsequent married-with-kids lifestyle was just not compelling enough to be able to speak with conviction about resiliency and courage!

It took a few years after that to really embrace this truth: it’s not about being special, it’s about being significant.

Your impact as a speaker is directly related to the significance you bring to the stage. You bring significance by being YOU and sharing YOUR STORIES with courage and conviction.

Start writing down the stories of your life that have had meaning and impact for YOU. Here’s some examples: you learned a lesson, you were challenged beyond what you think you could handle, a moment that brought deep joy/love/fun, times of frustration or fear. This is the beginning of your Story Inventory (start now….it will serve you well!).

This week is all about owning who you are and using this self-reflection to create a bio that adds depth and humanness to your Impact Statement. Happy writing!

Your story matters.

Week Three of SPEAK+ is crafting your biography.

Let's make this process fun and light. There is no right or wrong way to write your bio. Stop worrying about getting it right and, instead, spend more energy crafting a cohesive story around WHO YOU ARE, WHAT YOU DO and WHY IT MATTERS.

This PDF GUIDE will walk you through developing the foundation pieces for your bio including your Traction Title and Impact Statement (which you already created—YAY!).

Once you are grounded in both of these you will feel a deeper sense of confidence to get out there and SHARE YOUR EXPERT GIFTS.

We will start with taking INVENTORY of all you are and have done.
Next you will create your Traction Title.
Finally you will add in your Impact Statement (which we did last week).

This will lead you to creating your Short Bio and Professional Bio.
It’s all in this PDF WorkBook. CLICK HERE TO DOWNLOAD.
Print it off and get writing!

Your Action Steps for this week…

• Download the Bio Creator Workbook. Create your Short and Professional Bio and share in the SPEAK+ Private Facebook Group under the Week Three post. This is how we get to know each other better too :)

• For 1on1 clients please refer to your google doc for additional action steps and customized feedback.