This week, I head to Nice, France to host the “Deep Writing and Reflection Retreat” for my Mastermind. Missed it? You can come to the retreat in Paris this December. 

Details here.

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Welcome to Beyond Words, a weekly newsletter designed to help 1 time-pressed woman tell 1 better story about herself in 1 day.

Today I’m offering you the #1 method to bring a room to its knees when public speaking.

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Context

This week, I’m taking members of my Mastermind to Nice, France. There I will share exercises to help them harvest deeply vulnerable stories in service of their personal brand and their keynotes on stage come November.

I’ll be honest.

My corporate clients always have a hard time with this.

Being publicly vulnerable takes courage.

And most have a hard time accessing that brand of courage.

From giving hundreds of keynotes and interviewing hundreds of leaders, that nothing brings a room to pin drop silence, than incredibly raw and authentic stories.

But, I get it.

In order to make in a corporate setting, women had to

• Keep personal and professional lives separate
• Some memories are too deeply painful to revisit
• There is the worry “Will they judge me?”

So today I will offer a framework for raw and honest storytelling, but for business.

A framework

Last week, I shared this post about Jensen Huang, CEO of Nvidia.

His company’s valuation (at $2 trillion dollars) rivals that of Apple and Microsoft, and he does it with a fraction of the employees.

His own net worth is about $3 billion.

But he wasn’t afraid to tell the audience that he started out cleaning toilets.

Intro/Context

He was born in Taiwan, but was sent to live with his uncle in the United States when he was 9 years old.

Challenge

His uncle mistook a reform school for a prestigious boarding school. As a result, all the kids had chores, including Jensen. But since he was too young to work in the tobacco fields, he got another chore.

Action

Cleaning toilets.

“You can’t unsee that stuff,” he said.

Outcome

He also was a dishwasher at Denny’s when he got older. That’s where Nvidia had its humble beginnings.

Lesson Learned

No matter the task, he was determined to be best. The best toilet cleaner. The best dishwasher. And eventually, the best bus boy.

Raw and honest storytelling also requires a specific mindset

Focus on these 10 principles, and you’ll be on the path to authentic, impactful storytelling.