25 Writing Prompts for Telling your Personal Story
Are you wondering how to share your personal story on social media? You keep hearing it’s a good idea, but you have no idea where to start. In this post, I will share with you some creative ways to tell the story your audience is waiting to hear.
Crafting your story the right way wins every time.
Each of us has a personal story to tell. Our story includes our history, family, passions, business, hobbies, experiences, etc. But too often, our story gets lost on social media because of the delivery or, more often than not, the noise level.
We might say to ourselves;
‘nobody cares about the pictures I post from my son’s Little League game’ or ‘why do people post their meals when they’re out?’
Believe it or not, those personal moments help tell our story.
Learning how to share your story can help attract people to you and, even further — connect with you. Because here’s the deal, we know that relationships are a massive component in the entrepreneurial world. So, to start building that relationship, you want people to get a general idea of who you are.
Personal stories are more powerful than you can imagine.
That brings me to ‘the right way — what does that mean anyway? This misconception is that the only real stories worth hearing in the network marketing world involve ‘rags to riches.’ Please know that these stories exist, but so do the ones that involve corporate employees, blue-collar workers, stay-at-home moms, and everything in between.
Hard Work is the requirement for success!
Telling your personal story effectively follows some fundamental principles, regardless of the medium.
These principles are;
- Focus: A powerful story should focus on one main message or feeling you want to leave with your audience. You can include other messages in your story, but there should be one primary message you want the reader to walk away with.
- Logic (usually): Without reason in your story, your audience will not participate in the storytelling process with you. And, you want them to. You want them to relate, engage, feel, etc.
- Value-driven: Your story should encompass your values. These values come out in your story through the words you choose and the things you pay attention to. Your audience will pick up on the values you express in your stories — this should be seamless. From social media to stage ideology.
- Short: The best stories are short and to the point. They don’t end up on unnecessary side roads that throw your reader off balance. Creating the best version of your story is easy — be sure to stay on point.
You want people to be inspired by your story.
In other words, stay humble.
Keep your ego in check.
Sure, you want to be able to share and celebrate your successes — but remember, your story should be designed to inspire others. It should elicit feelings of being relatable and the whole ‘I can do that too‘ feeling.
An authentic network marketer or entrepreneur is great at storytelling and connecting to people on an emotional level.
4 Action Steps to Help you get Started
Be personal. Start with how you were introduced to being an entrepreneur. What was your life like before that? Remember, nowhere does this require you to talk about your business or products. Instead, the story you tell should be about your experience.
Authenticity is a must. No one likes someone who feels fake – be honest and authentic, and people will resonate with that.
Share things you love. What are you passionate about? Chipotle? Travel? Golf? Share something that is of interest to you. And, this will help attract people to you who like these things. Common ground is always a good idea!
Your life is the content. Events, customers you’ve helped, and clients you work with tell the story of what you do and why you are passionate about doing it. Think about why you love your business or your experience at the grocery store — your personal story is a collection of little ones along the way.
25 Writing Prompts for Telling your Personal Story
- What lesson in life did you learn the hard way?
- Describe a time when your life took an unexpected turn
- Who do you think of when you imagine someone saying, ‘I believe in you
- What slice of your life would you like your children to know that shed light on what has meant the most to you?
- As you look back over your life, what threads do you recognize?
- To date, what are your sacred moments that come to mind?
- Write about several moments in your life that touched your deepest feelings.
- Who could you always go to for honest answers when you were a kid? Explain who, explain why.
- Write of a single experience of your past that found you caring and supportive of someone going through difficult times.
- Write of an instance when time seemed to stop, and you knew you were part of a moment that held great significance.
- What is your faith, and how do you experience it?
- List five things you like about yourself and write a 50-word paragraph on each.
- Something you learned from forgiveness.
- Write about something you learned from fear.
- Discuss something you learned from contentment.
- Write about something you learned from discipline.
- Share something you learned from joy.
- How common were working mothers in your day? Have working mothers been good or bad for our society? Explain why or why not.
- What do you remember feeling the day you launched your business? Describe it.
- What fills up your senses?
- Your favorite meal and why?
- What do you love to look at?
- What thrills your taste buds?
- Write of an experience out of your past that found you in an intense and powerful relationship
- Describe a favorite teacher or business mentor
Final Thoughts…
Overall, we ALL have a story to tell — and sharing it with our audiences can do more for them than fancy products or services.
Find different ways of introducing people to who you are. Whether you use 60 seconds and share it on a Facebook story, take a few more minutes and hop on Facebook Live or you may prefer typing it out as a status — and that is OK too. Just get it out there!
I would love to hear more about your story. Do you find storytelling on social media to be difficult?
Be sure to leave me a comment below.
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