Sharing your story with others (WHEN IS IT SAFE?)

Everybody's got a story. But what if your story is one that has the potential to harm someone or even harm you? In this blog post and video I'm going to share with you 3 safeguards that you can use to determine when and how to share your story. But before we dive in, let me introduce myself.  I'm Darieth Chisolm and I’ve helped hundreds of women worldwide tell their stories. Basically I help them get seen, get heard, and get paid. I'm qualified to do this because I've spent over 30 years in the media and on television telling stories. I'm also a filmmaker, author and a visibility coach. 

So what is the first safeguard? If you’re still in the story then don’t share it.

So many women come to me and they say, “I've got a really great story but I'm not so sure how to tell it. It's still raw to me. I'm still emotional, realizing some of the pain.” If this is where you are then now is not the time to tell it. If what is happening to you is currently happening and you are still very much caught up in the emotion around it, don’t share it. If there are some things that trigger you or perhaps you feel unstable telling the story or worse; someone else could be harmed by it then it's probably safe not to tell that story.  We have 99 stories, right? So pick a different one. If you know that emotionally, you're not prepared to openly share it. If it's not something that you want to be made public, then it's not the right time to share it. You can simply choose a different story. 

So safeguard number two is; if you can't tell the truth, don't share it. 

Nobody wants a story that's been fabricated. If you feel like you've got to add extra stuff in it just to make it sound interesting or delicious, then it’s not the truth. Your story needs to be authentic. It has to be real and raw and relatable, but it does not need to be fabricated. It does not need to be a pack of lies that are strung together. And unfortunately, sometimes when people get to a place where they want to make their story more interesting, they start adding in things that really didn't happen or exaggerating the story. So if you can't tell the truth about your story, then it's not one that you want to share. 

The third safeguard; if your story has the potential to help others, then share it. 

If you know that this story is the one that has the potential to help someone, that it's a story that could inspire or motivate or create change, or have people think more deeply about something… Then that is the story that you want to share. Many of my clients are really trying to narrow into the story and they're looking at ways that they can use their story to be of service. I remind them that storytelling is what so many of us do anyway. It’s how we communicate and how we connect with one another. So if your story is positioned in a way that inspires and encourages then that is the story that you want to share now. 

If you’re still figuring out what story and whether it's safe to share, I want you to keep these three safeguards in mind. If you're still trying to figure out what the story is and whether or not it's safe to share, and you'd like to get some support around your storytelling, I've got a free resource for you. You www.darieth.com/magneticspeaker  and I've got a free training there that will teach you some of the core basics around storytelling, as well as how to package your story up if it’s your desire to share your story with the world.