“So I see that prospect is taking her time. Seems like she’s not totally in,” Brian says.
I’m messaging Brian Miller, my partner-in-crime, about someone I had a discovery call recently about one of our speaking programs.
“I thought the call went well, but I didn’t walk away thinking it was 100% sure,” I say. “No idea what the sticking point would have been other than cost, though. She’d already done her research and was impressed with our results. Unless…”
“What?”
“Unless she didn’t like me, but on the call she seemed to like me enough, it was at worst neutral.”
“LOL. ‘At worst neutral'.”
“I’m, of course, Chaotic Good 😉” I say, “if you get that reference at all.”
He does.
I keep going.
“Never know in cases like these if following up is helpful ir not. I never got around to giving her our suggestions for the talk, might not hurt to email again and mention them…”
I’m waiting for Brian to share his wisdom, I can actually see he’s typing, when a notification flashes on my phone.
It’s the prospect. .
“Never mind, she’s in!” I tell Brian.
I breathe a huge sigh of relief — and then I immediately start wondering if I’ll ever stop second-guessing myself like this.
That would be nice 😅
Maybe you don't want to be so vulnerable…
Not a week goes by when I don’t see someone on social media talking about “vulnerability,” and why you need to “share your story.”
A lot of people take that advice to heart, and decide they need to share heartbreaking struggles and personal tragedy — and that’s ok. There a place for those stories. It’s just… not a super useful place 🫣
You probably shouldn’t use them on a keynote. It’s unlikely they’ll fit most TEDx talks. It would be really awkward to use them to sell your services.
So you either end up having super vulnerable stories you can rarely tell, or you run away screaming from the idea of storytelling because the last thing you want is to bare your soul in public.
…And you don’t have to
Vulnerability is not just blood, tears, and misery. It doesn’t have to be about your deepest darkest secrets, or your soul-crushing failures. It can also be about something much simpler:
Your doubts
Your insecurities
Mistakes you’ve made — or the mistakes you almost made.
Being vulnerable can just be saying “I don’t know everything, I don’t always get things right, and I’m afraid of screwing up.”
That’s all it takes.
No need to suffer every time you tell a vulnerable story.
And, as a tiny small bonus, clearly not what any of us really care about…
It can also help you to sell some stuff 🤘
-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
If you dream of speaking on the Red Dot, take this Scorecard and instantly discover how likely your idea is to be accepted by a TED-style organizing committee
If you (or your team) got any storytelling challenges, I’m sure there’s something we can do together ;-)
Thanks for reading! Reply any time.
