Have you ever watched someone tell a really good story? You're engaged, gripped from the start, cautiously waiting, brimming with expectation of what's next. And, then you look down, shoulders fold in because you wish you could tell a story like them, but you can't…

My daughter thinks life is a series of rocks to elegantly and gleefully skip across as she navigates her own river of life. She has no idea that those rocks will become harder to find, harder to get to, slippery AF, and she'll fall off and bang her shins, break wrists and ankles, and maybe more.

Most people don't. It feels narcissistic, like they're placing a strobing spotlight on their ego, obviously desperate for external validation. But then I'm here telling you, “Your story matters! Share it!" Confused? I get it. Read on to learn more.

In an age of Marie Kondo, essentialism, minimalism and rock-hard habits being today's gold medal cocktail, complexity doesn't jive. In fact, it's straight-up counter culture, it's harder, messier, stickier, more…complicated. Aren't we all supposed to agree we're aiming for simplicity?

Do you know what’s flawed? You. And every single person around you. It's what makes you, you. It's what makes them, them.

Identities. They shift over time in lockstep with the accrual of struggle, maturity, exposure, reality, practice, participation, and observations.

Authenticity—that's the question that's been plaguing me lately: what is “authenticity,” and what the hell am I supposed to think about it?

You might get close to impacting people with your story if you “hit the mark” and check the box of what you're supposed to do to get by. But telling the truth, in a strategic way, that's when you provide value that changes people's lives.

Leaders and athletes are often afraid of sharing your story for fear of coming across egotistical or shamelessly self-promoting. It's a real concern for anyone wanting to leverage their experience, and their story, for growth. Learning to build trust, rapport, and creating a boomerang effect keeps your audience coming back for more because they know you’re going to share something of value.

It can feel intimidating to dig beneath the surface like you might just offend someone with your honesty. Yet without it, without the editing and impressing that Brene Brown talks about, you risk losing a felt connection with your audience. That connection is what builds influence and impact, trust and rapport.

Your story, my friend, is part of your perceived value as a person, as a brand, and as a company. But how can you use your story to increase your perceived value? How can you use your journey that got you here to persuade people to think you are better than your competition? Here are 3 ways that a well-crafted story can elevate you and your brand’s perceived value.

Guilty until proven innocent. That’s sort of what it feels like when you’re creating a new company, business, product or service—you sort of have to prove yourself to people before they buy in. How do you do that? You have to architect a story for people to believe in. To do that, you have to understand these three fundamental things.

A parable is a fabricated story that lets you wrap your own story in a cloak of something people more fully understand. It provides clarity, and a “kind of like" bridge between what people know intrinsically, and what you do. Want to learn how to you use it?

As a brand, you have to control the story your customer is telling themselves and reroute it towards your epiphany. If they arrive at the same ah-ha moment, you’ve captured their attention, made an intimate connection, and opened the door to sharing your plan, your solution, your product as the bridge between where they are, and the possibility of what could be.

A lack of confidence comes from a lack of certainty. And a lack of certainty comes from a lack of clarity in how you want to serve your audience or your customers. If you know how you want to serve, then you can reverse engineer the stories that can bolster that mission.

Ask yourself these 11 questions to help you discover what matters in your story, what parts of your story highlight your company values, and which ones to trash. You can use these in your branding, messaging, and marketing materials to get people to connect with you, your emotion, and your experience, then get on board to be your advocate—for life.

We spend 1/3 of our lives working, and now, more than ever, people see being connected to the mission and values of a company as a necessity, not a nicety. In that, leaders need to know how to galvanize people, and provoke a sense of belonging and motivation in each team member.

How do you do that? With magnetic, evocative and symbolic storytelling.

There are stories you just can’t unhear, unsee, or stop thinking about. There’s a reason for that. Stories carry weight because they persuade you to learn something new. If the story is powerful enough, the details are etched into our memory, and are stamped with the teaching, making it unforgettable. Find out the more here.

Our brains are designed to receive stories as a fundamental key to survival. They teach us how to build, grow, thrive, and avoid disaster. They transport us, and warn us. They scare us and make us laugh with abandon. They make us feel. And they inspire us to take action. Learn how to tell stories for your business.