#84 A Quick But Vital Lesson From SXSW

Two Questions to Ask Before Creating Your Next Story


I'm sitting in another eye opening SXSW session after a full day yesterday of sharing with folks on how to craft their unique stories. It was an audience of marketers and founders full of curiosity about how to become better storytellers and sharers. I shared an idea, well two of them that I want to share with you. The first idea is your story's purpose. You all know how feel about how essential purpose is for great storytelling. It is what makes what your stories unique. But mostly that is focused on the idea of personal or brand purpose. That is about your essential reason for being - why you exist, what you're here to do in your business or life.

But yesterday, I also talked about your story's purpose. The reason for being of your story. While your personal or brand purpose is your north star in all you do, your story's purpose provides clarity and direction as you set off on sharing new stories with the world. And clarity of purpose for your story is key to it being compelling and engaging for your audience. So as you set off on sharing YOUR Big story or just a new story in the life of your brand or career, I encourage you to pause, take a breath and ask yourself two questions:

  1. Why does your story need to exist?

  2. Why are you the right person to tell it? (hint: this is often related do your purpose).

The example l used in the session was: my personal and career purpose is to help share untold stories but the purpose for my article on biking in the city was about helping people in my city think about how we use and share public spaces in new ways.

So what's your story's purpose? How does that change how you approach creating or sharing your story.

I shared one other thing yesterday that if you were in my FieldTrips talk a couple of weeks ago may be familiar.

Hold onto this because your story is magic. Keep an eye out next week for a new Storyteller I Admire post. For now, I’m back to learning, sharing and thinking about new things to share with you here in Austin. “See” you next week!

Chantaie Allick

Writer|Strategist|Storyteller

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March 2022Chantaie AllickComment