AQW: New Chapters

A QUICK WORD ON: NEW CHAPTERS

A few years back, I worked with storytelling expert and coach, Hillary Rea. At the time, I was feeling untethered; unsure about where my career was going, and completely at a loss as to how to tell the story of how the heck I ended up where I was. It was an incredible experience that brought me tons of clarity - I highly recommend checking her out.

In addition to clarity though, I learned a bunch of nifty tools and concepts for making sense of the stories I wanted to tell. One profoundly simple concept I learned is that: a story has a beginning, middle and an end.

To illustrate this, let me share this quote from author, comedian and actor Mike Birbiglia:

“Sometimes what people THINK is a story isn’t a story. My dad will call me and be like: ‘Oh, I’ve got to tell you this great story. Jim over at the post office has heard of you.’ And that’s the end of the story. That’s not a story! People always say you’ve got to have a beginning, middle and end, but [F] the MIDDLE! If you have a beginning of story and an end of story, everyone is satisfied. At any party, if you’ve got a beginning and an end, people go: ‘Got it. That’s a story. I can get on board with that.’ If you have a middle, you’re basically a genius.”

Ever since I learned this, whenever I’m crafting a real-life story - for this newsletter or for a talk I’m giving - I use a very simple tool. It’s so simple, I’m not sure you can even call it a tool. It’s a table with 3 columns and the columns are labelled: B, M, E…for you guessed it, Beginning, Middle and End.

B, M, E…

👈 Me working out what a story I wanted to tell in a previous newsletter is actually all about.

I work out how to tell the story by scribbling notes into each of the 3 columns. And then sometimes, I realise that what I thought was the beginning of the story was actually the middle. Or what I thought was the middle was actually where I want to begin this version of the story. It’s often in the moving around of the bullet points from column to column that the actual story I want to tell becomes clear to me… and ultimately to my audience.

This week, I was using this little table to help develop a story I might tell one day. Where the story ended was present day. And - without going into too much detail as I’m not ready to tell this story yet - I didn’t like the ending.

And so… I moved it to the middle.

It felt so much lighter and optimistic to move my current situation to the middle column. To be sure, there was a twinge of uncertainty that came with a blank space in the E column. But the twinge had a hopeful edge that wasn’t there before I’d made the shift.

So I’d like to provide an addendum to Mike’s quote above:

“Sometimes what people THINK is the end, isn’t really the end. It’s the messy middle and the end - or at least the next chapter - is yet to be written.”

Yes, go on and cue Natasha Beddingfield.

BONUS CONTENT

Hillary has SO many great resources for storytelling - including her own newsletter and podcast - collected on her website. Check it out HERE. I promise that through learning how to tell your story, you’ll learn WAY more than you bargain for.

WORK WITH ME

I support female leaders to hone their authentic leadership style and write the next bold chapter of work and life.  It's the most rewarding work of my career to date and there are TWO ways I currently do it. 

1️⃣ I run an online, self-paced course designed to support emerging female leaders in creating their unique and powerful gameplan for more progression, impact, fulfilment and FUN in their careers and beyond. 

2️⃣ I support high-performing female leaders inside of bespoke, 1-to-1 coaching partnerships to produce extraordinary results by bridging the gap between where they are now and where they want to be.  Please note: I have space for a couple more partnerships to kick off in September and then I will be winding down my 1-to-1 practice for a while. (Because adventure awaits!) If you are curious about what a coaching partnership with me could look like, now’s the time to get in touch.

Sending best wishes from the messy middle,

Joy

P.S. In case you missed it, enrolment opens in August for Progress with Purpose. This is my self-paced online course designed to support female leaders to take ownership of progressing their careers in full alignment with their values and priorities.  If this sounds remotely interesting to you, I highly recommend you join the waitlist.  

P.P.S. Always feel free to get in touch if the spirit moves you or to share this with a friend if you think it might resonate!