Familiar Professional Stories are neither Interesting nor Engaging

When you tell familiar professional stories you fall into a trap clients set for you. First, your familiar professional story makes you sound like everyone else. As a result, clients categorize you as: The Same as Everyone Else.

Current and prospective clients look for interesting and engaging professional stories. Stories which differentiate the value you bring to their tables. First, do the professional stories you tell make the first cut? Or, do you end up in “The Same” folder? Next, are you engaging, interesting and provocative to make it to the second round? Of job interviews, sales presentations, startup pitches and engineering vendor selection.

Familiar professional stories provide clients with a list of professional qualifications to perform specific tasks. To accomplish specific outcomes.

Consider that lots of professionals, with the same qualifications as you, also perform these specific tasks. Then, ask yourself the question that clients ask themselves. “So, just why should I select one professional over the other, based on their professional story?”

When the stories you tell, and the solutions you propose, leave clients asking this question, the answer to this question becomes one you may not want to hear. But need to. When professional stories are neither interesting nor engaging, clients make business and hiring decisions based on price, rather than perceived and justified value.

If you are going around in circles, telling a professional story which falls short of engaging clients, let’s hit the Reset button. Together.

Your familiar professional stories just may not be successfully connecting the dots. Between you and your clients, you and prospective employers. Is your professional future worth spending two hours crafting an interesting and engaging professional story? A story which you will recognize as yours, and yours alone, by the time we complete our mission? And, more importantly, a valuable story which clients and employers recognize as yours, and yours alone, as well. A story which differentiates the value you bring to employers’ and clients’ tables. Time after time.

Tell a professional story which firmly places you in your clients’ “Distinct and Differentiated” folder. Not “The Same” Folder. Gain the professional confidence to get to where you need to go. One millimeter at a time.

I leverage design-driven storytelling to translate across communication disconnects between people and professional disciplines, especially STEM professionals and left-brain, analytical thinkers. Together, we optimize your strategic business and human capital value. So you can acquire and retain employees and clients co-invested in the enduring and remarkable value you bring to their tables. Find out more about my professional story and speaker profile here. I am a member of SME, ASQ, SHRM, ATD and the National Speakers Association. My playbook of communication tools and methods, Do YOU Mean Business? is available on Amazon.com.