A personal story or anecdote can be the perfect gateway to the hearts and minds of your audience.
Not only does a personal story give you a chance to share your experiences, but you also get to build trust with your audience by showing what you know about your niche. Because lets face it its hard to stand out on the internet. We have people telling us over and over and over that we need to stand out from the crowd but then they tell us all to do the same things. But how do you separate yourself from the crowd, how do you present the same concepts of ideas in a different way then other people.
I submit that telling your personal story would be the method that you need to employ.
After all, if you’ve gone through something yourself, even if it was just one time, you probably have an insight to share with other people who face similar circumstances right? Cold calling leads, spending all kinds of money on “the thing” that will make your business the best ever! We have all been there and done that, your not special in that manner. I can’t tell you how much money I have spent on different things that were supposed to bring me money and fame (but I bet my wife can, they are good at that 
).
The key to writing an article based on a personal story is to tell your own personal story clearly and explain the moral of the story (i.e. what did you learn from it?).
Without that, there’s no point in telling the story at all. Your wasting your listeners time (or readers if you write it out).
Sharing a story with a clear moral is a good way to share the experience AND build trust with your audience as an authoritative voice in your niche.
Ezinearticles.com has learned this and have provided us with these great tips on how to tell your personal story. You need to apply this particular personal story template not only in your articles but in your About Me video’s that you do for your website.
Here’s a general overview of how to do that with your personal story:
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Provided By EzineArticles.com
Pick Your Story – Every day we stumble across opportunities to share our personal story, but we don’t always think to write down what happened and save it for an article to be written later. Start writing down what happens when you’re experiencing something new or something related to your expertise.
Once you start doing that, you’ll have some idea of the personal story you’d like to tell through your writing. You could be writing about something that just happened yesterday. Or, you could think about the past and flip open your journal to bring back older memories.
- Tell the Story – Set the scene for the story by providing the who, what, when, where, why and how of what happens. Leave out information if it seems trivial or unimportant to the story. Use chronological order as best you can.
- Explain the Moral of the Story – Feel free to combine the story and moral together. The more you go into detail on why you’re telling the story and what you learned from the experience, the better.For example, you might be writing about a recent night out when you were trying to save some money. The moral of the story could be something like, “See it really is possible to find inexpensive food and entertainment in the heart of New York City. Dinner for two and a movie cost us less than $40. You, too, can save by following these tips …” followed by your own original tips.
- Give Further Advice – Add additional advice as you see fit. Also, think about whether you would have done things differently given the opportunity and share that.
Regards,
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{ 12 comments… read them below or add one }
Am going to have to revisit a few post. Thanks again Clint.
This is a really important post. Telling your story and allowing people to see behind the curtain and allowing your true character to unfold is the key to creating trust in online relationships. Stories sell!
Thanks Clint
My husband and I are the opposite I see. like. buy. – he looks at the price tag LOL
Andrea
Clint,
This article is so timely for me – for two reasons. 1) I just created my profile with ezine.com, so I’m going through the same training there, and it’s always good to have the lesson affirmed by a third party (like you!), and 2) I was just reading John C Maxwell’s The 21 Irrefutable Laws of Success. One of the laws is The Law of Connectivity. Here, Maxwell explains, is where leaders become transparent with their followers. By telling personal anecdotes, leaders create an emotional bond that causes loyalty. When loyalty is created, followers tend to buy from you – The Law of the Buy-In!
Thanks for the post!
Juli
Juli, thank you for your kind words, and good luck with EzineArticles.com. Its an excellent place to set yourself apart from the noise of the internet and a valuable resource for targeted traffic.
Interesting, but there’s so much more to storytelling that using a template. The story must be relevant to the audience and even in professional or brand storytelling there needs to be a protagonist and a hero … telling a story for storytelling sake doesn’t always mean the audience will care. Thanks for the tips …
And I agree Marquita, but how do you help someone who is not used to writing out their story. How do you address someone’s lack of confidence in expressing themselves in written word? You provide them a template, a place to start, until they develop their own unique method. To simple say that a story must be relevant is meaningless if your not giving someone new to blogging a roadmap.
Great stuff man!
Thanks for breaking down the fundamentals on creating your own unique story in just using a article template when writing articles from article directories like for instance Ezine Articles. Keep it rockin Clint!
Thanks Clint, this is definitely something to think about.
Using a template to tell a personal story is a great place to start. But once you start doing it, I bet that template will be tossed out the window. The more you use personal stories, the easier it is to do it. So much of the ordinary and mundane is actually rather interesting when you look at it as a springboard to a network marketing lesson!
Thanks for sharing, and explaining the template.
Willena Flewelling
I really digg these templates provided by Ezine. They can be really helpful, especially to the beginner. Thanks for sharing.