Bite-Sized Storytelling
Why small moments are worth sharing
Hi Cringers.
When you hear the, “tell your story,” line people usually mean the elevator pitch; Who are you? What are you about? How can you help me?
Which is all fine and good, but the elevator pitch is more like a taster for getting to know someone. It barely scrapes the surface of who someone is and what they’re about.
There’s THE STORY and then there are the storIES.
When you focus on sharing small stories and everyday moments people don’t just get to know the main story arc of your life, they get to understand how you show up in the world, what you notice, and what you value day after day.
When I think about the people I know and love, I don’t think about them in epic tales. I think of them in small moments.
Just think of your family legends. If your family is anything like mine, you’ve probably heard the same ten stories repeatedly for years. In our family, it was the Siberian Peach Pie story, the story of our dachshund (RIP) swallowing a fireball and eating an entire carton of boiled painted Easter eggs, the time we went to a restaurant and the server didn’t know what ginger ale was, etc.
They might not be the types of stories that make it into the main plot, but they’re just as memorable.
That’s because everyday stories tend to be more relatable. If someone tells a story about watching another customer break a bottle of milk at the grocery store, we’re more inclined to think of that storyteller the next time we're in the milk aisle at the grocery store.
Small stories can be stickier than the epic Big Fish tales in that way.
What I love about writing regularly online is it forces me to reflect and think about the small stories I wouldn’t have told otherwise.
I’ve worked over the past couple of years to write down all the fragments, to tell the larger story of who I am in bite-sized scenes rather than getting too caught up in my “one big story,” (though that is important to develop too).
When you share regularly online, you will attract people who will come to know you over time through lots of different snapshots and interactions.
While it’s nice to have one big story you can tell when you first meet someone, it’s the smaller stories that can help people to know you in deeper ways.
Exercise
If you want to start sharing your story publicly but feel stuck, consider starting with the smaller moments of your life.
Here are some prompts to get you started:
What is one of your earliest childhood memories?
What is a social interaction you’ve had in the last year that’s stood out to you?
When was a time you noticed something that others missed?
When you get in the habit of writing these micro-stories every day, you may even start to realize that the small stories are telling something deeper or getting at something you overlooked with your main story.
Did you have any family legends growing up or stories you tend to share over the dinner table? I’d love to hear them. Reply and let me know.
Cringely Yours,
P.S. Need help translating your story and expertise into words and visuals? Book a free 15-minute intro call, check out my website, and/or connect with me on LinkedIn.
Great points. Short and relatable is better than a wall of text in many ways.
My kids ask me to tell them stories from when I was younger. And I felt kinda sad imagining that I only really remembered a few. But I saw how I could recall fragments of my life and use the internet to put together some pieces, and more memories came flooding in pieces. For example, I played “Impossible Mission” on the Commodore 64, looked it up on YoTube and got to watch someone playing it. I texted my brother, and we both had a laugh. Anyhow, this advice is priceless. Thanks, Isabel.