Over the past 11 years, I have coached at least a 100 women.
And I share this framework to make creating content easy.
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#1: Decide on the main message of your post.
How it works:
{Step1} What is the main lesson you want to leave the audience with?
{Step2} Give an example of how that lesson forces you to do things differently today as a result of learning it.
{Step3} Keep it short.
This is the gift for your audience. Something actionable. Something they think about long after they have left the room.
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#2: Tell a powerful personal story. One that supports the main message.
How it works:
{Step1} Include something high stakes. With some drama.
{Step2} Focus on a micro-moment in time. One moment.
{Step3} Include what you heard, smelled, tasted, touched, and did in that moment.
Quick note: Don’t share the story of your life. That’s a mistake. You will lose the audience. These steps work better.
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#3: Share the promise of your talk.
How it works:
Avoid throwing everything but the kitchen sink into this opening statement.
Keep it short.
If you avoid big words and be accessible, the audience will see themselves in your story.
Easy, right?
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#4: Title your talk
Some of the best ways to start:
{Step1} Why I stopped….
{Step2} Why I believe….
{Step3} What we don’t….
Do these 3 things, and you’ll be wildly successful.
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#5: Remember the human brain has 3 parts
How it works:
{Part 1} The limbic brain, designed for fight or flight (High stakes situations)
{Part 2} The emotional brain, designed to elicit tears when you see a sad movie
{Part 3} The rational brain, designed for executive functioning
When you tell a powerful story, you engage all 3 brains. Why would you ever want to miss that opportunity to really rivet your audience.
If you use it right, personal storytelling is the most powerful tool in the world.
But the truth is, most people have no idea how to do it.
Now, I’ll share a story:
I had a client who was 40+ years old (female) and interviewing for jobs.
She interviewed and interviewed, but just couldn’t get past the 1st round. She had been out of work for some time and the lack of success was weighing on her.
She enrolled in my public speaking masterclass. In our work together, I shared the above framework.
In the first few weeks, she did what most clients do. She stayed high level, never injected much of herself or her own stories into her talk. She narrated the safe stories. We weren’t learning much about HER.
I encouraged her to share a personal story.
“Remember, YOU ARE THE MOST unique thing you bring to the table.”
Something shifted in week 4.
She came to class and shared a story of a time she was rendered homeless. She had never spoken of this experience aloud. To anyone.
For the first time in class, she was sharing.
Her parents owned a motel. The family also stayed on premise. Through a series of unfortunate events, her parents lost the property, leaving her and her sibling homeless. She told a heart breaking story of what the following days and weeks were like. Trying to go to school. Trying to put food on the table. Trying for stability.
Her biggest takeaway from that time in her teenage life was this: She didn’t want charity.
She wanted options.
You could hear a pin drop. The silence was so deafening in class.
I was so proud of her. She had finally gone there.
In the subsequent days, something shifted. She started to make it through round 2 of job interviews.
After our 6 weeks of work concluded, she sent me a note.
“Joya! I wanted to tell you that I got a job. It’s for a 15 % pay bump over my last position.”
The drought had ended.
I congratulated her and asked “What do you attribute to landing the job?”
💪🏼 Because of the personal storytelling in class, she started showing up authentically in interviews.
💪🏼 Because of class, she had gained the confidence to ask for next steps before an interview concluded.
💪🏼 Because of class, the position she waned at the beginning wasn’t what she wanted by the end of 6 weeks.
You learn best by reading a lot and writing a lot, and the most valuable lessons of all are the ones you teach yourself.”
― Stephen King, On Writing: A Memoir of the Craft
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I’m currently enrolling the 2024 year class of my Mastermind, where 8 women are learning how to create a consistent drumbeat of content that converts. The Mastermind culminates in the 8 women giving a Tedx style talk on a NYC stage.
I’m currently filling my 2024 class of the Samita Lab Mastermind, where I’m teaching you the systems and processes to create consistent thought leadership that converts. Apply here.
