Can You Interview Yourself? 11 Questions To Uncover Your Personal or Brand Story.
Being an entrepreneur means you have to do all the things—taking out the trash to developing the high-level marketing strategy; designing your own IG posts on Canva to forecasting revenue for the year. It also means that you are in charge of sharing your personal brand story. And as you start, grow, or scale your company, sharing the key aspects of your story are essential to creating rapport and trust with your customers.
But how do you figure out what parts of your personal story will position—and showcase—you as the definitive solution for your customers, and what will not, especially if you’re doing it yourself? By interviewing yourself.
But, how do you do that? By asking yourself these 11 questions that will help you discover what matters in your story, what parts of your story highlight your company values, and which ones to trash. You can use these in your branding, messaging, and marketing materials to get people to connect with you, your emotion, and your experience, then get on board to be your advocate—for life.
11 Questions To Ask Yourself To Uncover Your Personal Or Brand Story
First, find your unique defining moments, or what I like to call “UDMs.”
What are the turning points in your life (where you might have moved from being the victim to being the leader)? This is showing your transformation.
When was a time when you had to choose resilience in the face of challenge (you chose to fight) or choose to quit?
What have you had to overcome in your personal or professional life (this is showing your conflict)?
What is a roadblock you found a solution to (this is showing your challenge)?
Who was there, how did it feel? How does it inform who you are today? Details matter here, so be specific.
What are 10 cool (aka unique) things about you that only close friends would know (or don’t know?)? Don’t be shy here, details are important.
What is the backstory of how you came up with this idea?
What are the emotions you felt back then? Who was there? What was the moment you started this new thing?
Then, investigate your experience, and how that translates to your industry.
What do you see that is wrong with your industry?
What challenges do people face in your industry?
What are people wanting that they don’t have, as it pertains to your industry?
Then, nail down what the bridge is between the challenge and your new thing, your new company, your new solution.
Can you describe the moment you had the epiphany that led to you creating your company? Is this something you can describe with emotion so others can have this epiphany too?
What has the journey been like since that epiphany moment?
Ok, now that you have answers to these key questions (hopefully you spent an hour or so answering these questions), it is time to start mapping these to your content calendar so you know when to share these moments of your story in a cohesive and strategic way. Next week, I’ll share a content calendar, one that you’ve truly never seen before—I promise—that helps get your customer into the same emotional state as you were during your epiphany to guarantee the most powerful connection. Then, there will be no stopping you.
Need help architecting your story? Reach out! We have a proven framework that will help you extract the most compelling aspects of your story, then map it for the greatest level of connection to your audience, team, and customers. We can also set up an hour consultation to give you feedback on what you’re currently using, and how to pump it up to be more effective and persuasive.
