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What’s Your Story?

October 20, 2009 By Bonnie Marcus

We all have unique stories to tell about our careers and our businesses. I did a presentation last week on self-promotion in Boston to the Downtown Women’s Club and heard many great stories from the attendees and I was reminded again how truly wonderful all our stories are. Each story reveals something personal about us.

What is the story behind starting our business? Where did the idea come from? Why did we choose to start this particular business?

What’s been our personal journey thus far? How have we taken our passion and turned it into a business?

What attracted us to a particular company and career?

When we incorporate stories into our promotional message, it creates a message that attracts listeners. People love stories so why don’t we tell them? Why do we hesitate tobe personal in our approach to self-promotion? Often we get so hung up on presenting a “professional” persona that we end up with a promotional pitch that falls flat.

If, in fact, the goal of a promotional pitch is to attract interest and be memorable, it only makes sense that we should infuse more of our personality and passion into the message.

What is your unique story and how might you include some of that story in your conversations about your business and career?

Telling your story can make a huge difference in a job interview. It’s certainly an improvement over just reciting your resume. Think of an appropriate story about your accomplishments that will set you apart from the other applicants.

At a networking event, how do you answer the question, “What do you do”? Keep the conversation lively by revealing something personal (o.k. maybe not too personal) about how and why you chose to start your business, about your passion for what you do. People will remember you as they also tune out everyone else’s boring elevator pitches.

In our quest to be professional, we create messages that are dull and forgettable.

Step out of the box and say something that will set you apart.

Isn’t that the goal after all? To have a message that people remember?

Bonnie Marcus

Bonnie Marcus is a Certified Executive Coach. With 25 years of sales and management experience, Bonnie has an extensive business background that includes VP of Sales at several national companies as well as CEO of a national healthcare company. She has held executive positions in startup companies and Fortune 500 companies. As the founder and principal of Women’s Success Coaching, Bonnie’s specialty is helping women in business achieve success and maximize their potential. She assists women with promoting themselves effectively in order to advance their careers and grow their businesses. Bonnie is well known for her motivational speaking and innovative workshops.

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Filed Under: Female Entrepreneurs, Networking, Women On Business Tagged With: business networking, Networking, self-promotion, Women Business Owners, women entrepreneurs, women in business

Comments

  1. Training Connection says

    October 20, 2009 at 1:43 pm

    Great point here. Too often people begin with an apology or try to play down what they do. If they are content, maybe they say the title and let that do all the explaining. People are not asking that question to put you on the spot but everyone initially is just trying to get to know you. Its good to be available for conversation. Make sure you ask the same question to that person too.

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