In John Jantsch’s article Do People Know Your Story, he asks a series of thought-provoking questions to help individuals get a better sense of what their personal stories are. He poses these questions in a more formal, business-oriented approach, however the questions still call on individuals to reflect about who they are as a person and how their qualities and experiences shape their business or brand’s story as well.
One of the questions that stood out to me was, “what about your childhood shaped you for this moment?” because, honestly, I don’t often associate my childhood with where I am today; I seem to credit my adolescence, and university studies and experiences with where I am. Answering this question made me realize that 20-something-year-old Maddie can’t take all the credit!
When I hear the term “business” in this particular context, I think about my full-time job and career in Communications working for the federal government (mostly because I do not own or hold the pen behind a business of my own).
What landed me here, besides my degree and credentials on my resume? If I had to guess, my love for writing, my creativity, and my willingness to try new things and think outside of the box – all of which I had developed throughout my childhood.
As soon as I could hold a pencil, from the time I learned how to navigate the challenges of using Microsoft Word, I was writing stories, poems, songs, and any other sort of material that I forced anyone to read or listen to (Mom and Dad, you’re both troopers). My imagination and love for fictional tales kept me inspired, and putting the thoughts in my head on to paper (and later, the computer) was not a chore or tedious task for me; it was a process that came naturally and one that I enjoyed.
I grew up believing that those who were frequent and strong readers were also strong writers. I was always capitvated by fictional novels, looking up what certain words meant as a way to expand my vocabulary and better understand the context of whatever book I was reading that week, and I appreciated the way a piece of writing could instill emotion in a reader. Reading more allowed for me to appreciate the ability that strong writers have in order to generate a feeling or thought from their audience, and I always knew that I wanted to have that same power some day.
In this day and age, we are all storytellers, and the label of a storyteller no longer applies to simply writing books. If there’s one thing I’ve learned since my exposure to reading, writing and maintaining a close relationship with my imagination, it’s that we have two very important tools readily available to us at all times in order to tell a strong story:
- The pen (or in this case, the medium in which we are using to share); and,
- A voice.
How you use these tools is up to you, and that in itself has me feeling like a kid all over again.
Algonquin College Social Media Certificate Program 