I Love What I Do

I absolutely love coaching people to help them develop a story that they want to tell. It is truly one of my favorite things to do. One reason is because it’s a very fast track into getting to know someone. People are sharing important, meaningful and sometimes vulnerable moments with me and it’s my responsibility to handle those offerings with the care and respect that they deserve. 

One of my favorite types of people to work with are those individuals who have no idea what an awesome storyteller they are. I can sniff these folks out right away. They are usually the most nervous and the most self critical. During our time together it is my job to help calm those nerves and to shine a light on and hopefully reflect back to them their own brilliance.

I was lucky enough to work with someone who did the same for me before I told my first story in front of a live audience. I never forgot the way that she made me feel and the confidence she helped to cultivate inside of me. Her advice was so simple but also so wise and I have “borrowed” several of her coaching techniques. There is one thing in particular that she told me that I now tell every single person I work with, “Don’t tell a story that you’re not excited about.” I’m sure some of you are like “Duh Chris” but I think this statement is absolute gold! 

When I work with someone I ask them to come to me with 2-3 story outlines. I can tell right away the story that they think they want to tell. It’s the first one they talk to me about and then I ask them about the others they have and there’s usually a slight pause and then they say something like “Oh, well there’s this other time when…” I listen to the story that they clearly don’t think is any good and then I start to ask more questions about this or more questions about that and I can feel them start to open up more and discover things in their story that they never thought about before. Then their voice starts to change a little bit and I can feel the excitement inside of them grow because the throw away story that they brought to me has some serious legs and they are energized to develop it into something that they can perform.

Is it always like this? Absolutely not. Sometimes the first story they brought is definitely the best story of the bunch but in my experience it’s usually the story they didn’t realize was a great story that’s the one they get most excited about and therefore the one we end up developing into a piece to be told. They are discovering a treasure that they didn’t even know they owned and that is one of the things I love most about this work.