Your ORIGINALity is in Your ORIGIN Story

A client asked, "How can I possibly stand out in the thousands of TEDx talks that have been given in the past few years?" I told her the key was to identify the most important "message in a bottle" lesson-learned she wanted to share - and then identify the ORIGIN story behind it because that's where she's ORIGINal.

She told me, "That sounds great. The question is, 'How do I do that?"

Here's how to do that.

1. Understand we don't have just ONE origin story, we have an origin story for every important decision, change, or pivot. The key to is select what of our EEE - Experience, Expertise, Epiphanies - is most relevant for THIS specific communication, and then figure out where and when it all started.
2. Put us in the scene of WHEN and WHERE you began to care. What caused you to became a person on a mission about this?
3. WHEN and WHERE did you see a desperate need for this and decided to dedicate yourself to it?
4. WHEN and WHERE did you experience something wrong and thought, "Somebody ought to DO something about this. I'M as much a somebody as anybody, I'M going to do something about it."
5. Don't just tell what happened, re-enact what happened and what was said. Describe what it looked, sounded, felt like so we see what you're saying and feel it's happening right now and we're right there with you.
6. Distill your origin story into 2 minutes or less. Longer is not better. Pull an Elmore Leonard and "edit out the parts people skip."
7. Segue into how that incident inspired you to start, stop, do things differently. The purpose of an origin story is to SHOW THE SHIFT and clarify how you CHANGED so there's a purposeful point and AHA to your story.
8. Hook and hinge your story and AHA back to your audience with YOU questions (e.g., "Has something like this happened to you? What did you do differently as a result?") so everyone is thinking how this applies to them.

Want an example of how to do this?

I share the origin story behind my business name/mission in the first 2 minutes of this TEDx talk . Hope you find it .... intriguing. (Smile.)

Next time someone asks, "How'd you get into this career?" or "Why did you write this book?" "What inspired you to donate to this cause?"- share your origin story.

People are more likely to relate to you, remember you, and respect you -because when they know where YOU began to care - that's when THEY begin to care.