Cobbler's Shoes Syndrome. It's a problem.
OR How I got better at telling my own story through helping others do the same
We’ve spent all month talking about Be The Director, a new way to tell your own story. But, in the process of that journey I’ve had one thought nagging at my brain:
My own story has become confused.
In the name of total transparency; and the importance of trying your own methods, I am going to take you through:
How I tell my story now, and why it needs to evolve
The prep I used to get to the elements of my new story
The results from using our framework, from jeopardy, to character, to structure
If you haven’t read our pieces yet on our Be The Director framework, check them out here.
And if you want to just see the final framework in action, here is my version:
For those who want the full process in all its glory, carry on reading.
The pre-work: your Why
When we run all day sessions on Be The Director, our approach to getting to your own story, we ask people to do some work before they come.
Starting by writing down your story as you tell it now is a pretty useful exercise. It gives you a point for comparison to revisit at the end of your work (which is motivating in itself).
My recent telling of my story tends to be: ‘I’ve worked in strategic leadership roles for 21+ years across agency, media owner and clients the last 11 of which I’ve run my own consultancy. Last year I took that experience and co-founded a business called LookUP where we help businesses drive impact. And lastly I founded a business called Board Women, helping 30+ women get into board sports (surf, skate and snow) to increase their confidence.
See? It’s a lot. I’m speaking to different audiences for each business, but sometimes I need to land all three to one audience.
(1) My consultancy: Founders, CMO’s and CSO’s of start up & scale up passion led brands (e.g. fashion, luxury, beauty, wellness, outdoor, media etc)
(2) LookUP: Founders and Leadership teams of Agencies, Media Owners and Brands
(3) Board Women: 30+ women looking to increase their confidence & find adventure
The industry has also changed significantly since I launched my consultancy. I specialise in fashion, beauty, luxury and lifestyle, and when I began no-one really talked about the intricacies of what they did. LinkedIn most definitely wasn’t as much of a thing, and discretion was everything in my industries. This has fundamentally changed, and you are now hired on your POV as much as you are your experience. Time to catch up.
Getting personal: what makes me stand out?
Before we get into how we make our story compelling, we give people some exercises to dig into what makes them stand out. This is so crucial when it comes to defining your character and how you tell your story, so you may find some of these steps useful (I certainly did).
This is where you may find your passions in work, and out of work can feel at odds with each other.
However, I did align on some common areas of what I am driven by:
Trying new things (new strategic problems as much as new cities, new activities)
Bringing plans into reality (helping clients bring their ambitions to life as much as my family and I travelling and working round the world for 3 years)
Understanding people (going deep on brands and topics as much as interviewing and talking to people of all walks of life for my podcast)
The question ‘what have you overcome’ really makes you think. For me my initial reaction was ‘my life has been pretty easy in the overall scheme of things’. And then, you remember, significant things have happened. I was once made redundant (leading to me starting my own business, a good thing as it turned out). My flat burned down and I lost 70% of my belongings (resulting in a real shift in how I think about ‘stuff’ and a ‘life is short’ mentality). I had a very dark start to perimenopause (meaning I found things I love and that transformed my mental and physical wellbeing and want to help others do the same).
Your story is most definitely a sum of your experiences. Lean into this.
What do I want to be known for? Or remembered for?
The difference between these two is really interesting. Stefanie Sword-Williams posed this question to me during our interview and it stuck with me.
I want to be known for making the complex simple, and the unimaginable achievable. Someone who knows their stuff and gets things done. Who inspires others. Which means I’m keen to do more speaking, advisory work for brands, and continue to do more of the future facing, big strategic work I enjoy.
I want to be remembered for helping people to make brave choices (particularly women, who sometimes restrict themselves). And as someone who really lived, and gave their energy to others. Not missing the moments that matter.
Phew. Big stuff. I was sitting in a cafe whilst doing this and that part hit me like a freight train.
So, pre-work done, I was starting to feel a little more confident that I had the constituent parts of my story, I just needed to make it compelling, and work across all 3 areas.
Be The Director
So now to apply our framework for storytelling. As a reminder, this is what we’re working to get to.
Point of Jeopardy
This is the important one for me to nail. As I’m working across 3 businesses, I need to identify the problem for each, but see if there is a thread that connects them (spoiler: there is).
So let’s take each in turn:
(1) My Consultancy: Founders have to balance ambition with the reality of getting things done. Strategist often don’t bridge that gap effectively. These businesses need a trusted partner to give them the confidence to move forwards.
(2) LookUP: Businesses (and their leadership teams) are losing their confidence in key moments of change. Looking Down is the enemy.
(3) Board Women: Life conspires to kill women’s confidence as they age. It doesn’t have to be that way.
The thread for all is the loss of confidence, and it’s something I plan to lean into. We talk about getting attention by Scaring, Intriguing or Inspiring. What’s interesting for the first two is that scaring is definitely the route forwards. For Board Women, inspiring feels like the route to go; it’s a different future you’re painting for a community.
Character Building
So what’s the role I play in light of this wider challenge? What do I bring to the table? And what are the things I feel like they might be concerned about that I need to address in terms of my expertise? (we call this riding the elephant)
I most definitely flit between being a challenger & problem solver. I like to start with a blank page and question how things are done; but I’m good at setting out direction and the first steps to getting going. I know that being able to do both isn’t necessarily the norm.
(1) My Consultancy: the elephant I need to address is that I’m not an agency. That’s also my superpower. I can bring the experience of being the lead strategist and advisor at a global brand level to the start ups and scale ups I work with. I can be genuinely in the business as a partner. My independent status means I bring the wider view of the world to that business.
(2) LookUP: we talk about bridging inspiration and action, so our role is somewhat set.
(3) Board Women: again, getting people to see a wider view of what’s possible, but then facilitating them getting to try new things, in a safe space is a strong role for the community to play.
The central thought for me that bridges them all is
‘I help people / organisations make confident leaps’.
Story Type
By this point in my story creation, I felt like my story was starting to tell itself (always a good feeling!). My story type for each organisation aligned with whether the Jeopardy I’d chosen scared or inspired, e.g.
(1) My Consultancy: Defeat The Monster
The enemy is lack of ability to match ambition with action.
(2) LookUP: Defeat The Monster
The enemy is going too heads down in moments of change.
(3) Board Women: The Quest
Increasing 30+ women’s confidence through board sports
For each story I need to have 3 points to bring it to life, but I’ll focus this in on my overall story, as at this point I fear I may lose you all..
Bringing it all together
So, here’s the finished article for the story that sits above my businesses, for those moments where I need to introduce myself, in person, or on a platform like Linked In.
There will be many times where I am introducing only one element of what I do, and therefore I have a storyboard like the above for each business, but the exercise has been so helpful in understanding how the three things that I do weave together, the why behind each business, and how they complement each other. It’s also helped me tighten the story for each individual element.
This approach also works if you have three vastly differing audiences. Do them each individually, and work out the common threads to craft a story that works, whoever happens to be encountering it.
Final thoughts and next steps
If you’ve reached this point, and followed me to here, first of all thank you! If you’re interested in having a sounding board in this process for yourself, we are shortly launching a more guided process with content and feedback sessions, so do get in touch to find out more at caroline@wearelookup.com or DM us on Substack.
Next steps for me? I’m sure I’ll continue to tweak my story, but look out for an updated Linked In profile & website copy soon, my story will soon be good to go!