Story Tuning with David Cohen

Is it hard to explain what you do?

Or why you do it?

Is the story of your business in tune with the story you want to live?

We are living characters in our own stories.

But that doesn't mean we're good at telling those stories, or even necessarily able to see where our own stories are going. If that's how you feel, then I'm so glad you're here.

Hi, I'm David, and I just know that you've got a great story to tell. You might not have connected with it yet. It may just be a feeling that you have a purpose or a superpower waiting beneath the surface. Or maybe you know that purpose clearly and you're trying to make it part of your story, but it gets tangled and knotted when you try to share it.

It's okay. After all, you're the kind of person that works hard. You make things happen. You've got skills, talent, experience and a point of view that set you apart. And you're here because for you the next step is to tune into that story: to focus in and connect to the meaning and patterns behind all those hectic plot points that keep your world so busy.

Together we'll find that narrative that tells people who you are, where you're going, and why it matters.

Why Should I Work On My Story?

Call it your personal brand, call it knowing who you are as a business owner, call it naming your superpowers - when you develop a strong story you benefit from the five C’s:

• Confidence – Understanding who you are and the natural patterns you keep expressing through your life and business choices helps you feel more confident in your own skin and less apologetic for external “shoulds” that aren’t really fits for you, but may come from the norms of the industry, or parental baggage, or some well-meant advice that makes you second guess yourself. Say “No” where appropriate and “Yes” with conviction, and say a whole lot less of the “er”, “um”, “maybe”, and “harrumphs”.
• Compass – I like the compass as a metaphor. A compass helps you know which way you’re going and let’s you explore with the confidence that you can pick your own path without getting lost. A compass gives you the contrast necessary to let you know when the beaten path is moving you in the right direction and when it is actually taking you away from your goals.
• Clarity – Seeing your own patterns (behaviors, habits, biases, values, priorities, etc) and learning to name them gives you a vocabulary for talking about yourself and your business, they are also reflections of who your target audience is. This fuels the confidence mentioned above – so you can develop those strong talking points that will be part of your marketing and networking. Not rehearsed speeches, but flexible and resilient concepts that can be riffed on like a musician noodling over familiar chords, adapting to the communication needs of the situation at hand whether that’s making a one-minute speech at a networking meeting, writing a sales page, or explaining to a logo designer what you want your brand mark to communicate.
• Context – Context is the other side of clarity – when you understand where you fit in the business ecology, you start to identify those who value what you value (and what you provide) – and you can then think about how to maximize that value. Are you a glass of water outside on a rainy day, or a bottle of water at a stand by the park, or a thermos of water in the middle of a desert? Knowing your context will help you find your sweet spot.
• Choices – Or more specifically, owning your choices: Digging into the motivations and priorities that underly your story helps you own your decisions. Are you all about practical expansion? Or maybe you’re all about saving the world – or you get off on intellectual challenges – or wielding influence is more your thing. Recognizing your patterns and motivations can help you to stop apologizing for (or stalling on) pursuing the objectives that are important to you (vs. objectives important to some theoretical business from a business school textbook). Likewise if you’ve been denying or afraid of your own patterns then you may have been quietly finding ways to sabotage your own progress. The recognition gives you the ability to call yourself out on the carpet and determine to which goals you are truly committed.