I get a voice message from Brian, my partner-in-crime, telling me about the great talk one of our clients has just given.
He also sends me the feedback from the event. The audience loved her, she got perfect scores, and a bunch of leads.
“Amazing stuff!!!” I text back. “Though if one lead is from that Spencer guy, maybe she should let that one go.”
When I checked the feedback, I saw there were a lot of super positive comments, but there was also this one:
“You are very easy on the eyes”
– Spencer
And I thought, “That’s why we can’t have nice things.”
But a few minutes later Brian says,
“That’s her husband.”
“Oh. That’s a relief.”
“LOL. I did the same thing. WHAT?? Oh. Soon as I saw his name I realized. He’s the nicest guy. He goes to every speech. Listens to her rehearse for hours on end. Gives her feedback.”
“I think my wife coming to my speeches would not be a good idea. I would definitely point her out in the audience after every story and make her die of shame.”
“LOL”
“I’d go ‘And if you’re wondering what my wife feels like when I share stuff like this, you can ask her, she’s right over there.’”
“Haha”
It’s true, I'd do that, and Patricia would be really embarrassed if she came to one of my talks.
But maybe not as embarrassed as me, when I realise how easy it is to expect the worst from people. Because that’s not who I want to be. It really isn’t.
But, somedays…
It’s hard to be anyone else.
Oh Lord, please just let me be misunderstood
It’s easy to complicate storytelling. I’ve talked recently about being get hung up on thinking a story needs to be “big” or epic to be worth telling, but one of my favourite kind of stories is so far from those that it’s ridiculous:
I misunderstood something. That’s it.
I thought Spencer was a creep, when actually he’s a loving husband
My daughter says “I can’t read because I’m four,” and I hear “I can’t read because I’m poor”
A client arranges a lunch meeting with me, I show up a day too early, and get annoyed he’s late
And it works when it happens to other people too: I once told my girlfriend to “wear something nice because we’re going out and I have a surprise for you,” and she thought I was going to propose. Crazy, right? 🫣
Making mistakes and screwing things up are the basis for many of the best stories.
You don’t even need to go that far, though:
It’s good to be right, but when it comes to finding a story to tell…
It’s better to be mistaken 🤘
-Francisco
Whenever you're ready, there are 3 ways I can help you:
Getting clarity through your story to stand out from all the other coaches, speakers and entrepreneurs out there
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If you (or your team) got any storytelling challenges, I’m sure there’s something we can do together ;-)
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