katie lee ellison

Just yesterday, I had the privilege of talking over iced coffee with someone I know is a very special new friend and is also a few steps (and years) ahead of me in creating her own business. She has the experience and the know-how I’m steadily learning about audience and powerful content delivery. Aside from the obvious reasons why it was great to pick her brain a little, a whole lot of unexpected benefits (the best kind of benefits) came from this conversation. I woke up this morning and thought, Why don’t I tell everybody? So here we are.

When our discussion turned to the real, deep down reasons why what we do is essential to who we are, I had a few moments of clarity. But first, a little background. A lot of businesses and companies these days talk about storytelling. It’s a buzz word and a topic even the biggest of corporations realize is essential to reaching their audiences. So that’s pretty convenient for me, because storytelling is that core element of the business I’m building: I believe in it devoutly. And here’s why (you might have heard this a few times before if you love Oprah the way I do): All the pain, struggle, wins, and surprises of my personal and professional life are assets. In this conversation yesterday, I very clearly saw how my stories and experiences give invaluable power to my work. And the same is true for you, CEOs, small biz owners, and entrepreneurs. Our stories add up to an incredible arsenal of what we all have and want so much to give.

The real story of who I am and where I come from, what I want and where I’m going, is not something that has come easy and has not always been clear. And this is true for most of us. Maybe even all of us. My story has been gathered during hours at the library researching family ancestry, long phone calls and kitchen table conversations about deep and long-held desires, and countless pages pounded out in MS Word docs digging up my own memories and turning them, turning them, turning them so I can see them and retell them from every angle (as I’ve been taught to do by a certain Brandon Schrand because that is what an essayist does).

And while I was doing all this researching, talking, and writing that adds up to years, stories emerged. My stories–and you’ll just have to trust me on this–they created the reasons why I want to tell yours. Stories tell us where we’ve been, and they help us know where we want to go. And this isn’t just true of individuals. This is true of everything, and it’s true of your business just as it’s true of mine.

The work of telling a story from any angle: This is my specialty. This is how I’ve spent my 10,000 hours becoming an expert. This is how I love to work for you.

So where are you and your business going? Let’s find out together and write it true, so your right people, your clients, understand without a shadow of a doubt just exactly why they need you.