443 Pivot Point: Realizing You Predicted the Future
Your stories don’t define you. How you tell them will.
Hi! I’m Sarah Elkins, your host and chief storymaker at Elkins Consulting.
If you’ve been listening to my show for a while, you’ve probably noticed a big change in the format in recent weeks.
Summertime is hard on podcasters! We lose a lot of our listeners this time of year and it can be difficult to be motivated to keep putting out quality content when we know people aren’t as likely to listen.
This summer I’ve been focused on brief, less than 20-minute episodes that keep a person’s attention while still offering insights and entertainment.
What you’ve been hearing, and will continue to hear in each episode, is a brief story of pivotal moment in my life, and then a thread pulled to generate insights about it. I have two goals for you, dear listeners:
One – to uncover your related story for you to add to your collection to practice and have ready when the opportunity presents itself.
And two – to demonstrate storytelling in a practical, approachable way so you hear how I compose my words, phrases, and use tone-of-voice to add dynamics and meaning.
In today’s episode you’ll hear an early episode of my podcast, #17, recorded and posted in December of 2017 called Desperate for Connection.
I’m re-sharing it, nearly 6 years later, because it’s still so relevant – even more relevant now.
I don’t know who unearthed this old episode, but when I looked at recent analytics for my website and podcast, this one had suddenly re-emerged. So I looked at it and listened to it and had a pretty big insight.
Some of us were already talking about the desperation for connection we were seeing in our communities, even before COVID-19, even before our political environment was so seriously compromised and created irreconcilable division.
It feels meaningful, this recovery of an old episode right now, as if I could see where things were headed and voiced my concern years before things really devolved.
After you listen, it’ll be your turn:
Did a memory come back to you when you heard my stories in the episode?
Did you see yourself in one or more of the characters, and did that generate an insight or discomfort in you?
What will you do with this insight or discomfort?
I hope you’ll see yourself in one or more of the characters at different times in your life, and that you’ll make active, intentional decisions to shift the dynamic of loneliness by connecting with someone with genuine care.
Whether that’s offering a real, loving smile to a cashier at the grocery store or coffee shop, holding the door open for the person behind you, smiling and waving to let someone into a busy intersection or highway, or offering assistance to someone struggling to carry a heavy load.
Thanks for listening to Your Stories Don’t Define You, How You Tell Them Will. Are you curious to learn about working with me? Visit my website, elkinsconsulting.com to schedule time to chat and sign up for periodic updates about my work, and connect with me on Instagram, LinkedIn, and Facebook for content about strengthsfinder, storytelling, public speaking.
After more than 430 episodes of this podcast, I was recently inspired to change the format of the show.
The new format for my show aligns with what I’m learning about narrative identity (how the stories we tell about ourselves internally and externally influence our identity) and demonstrates what I’ve been teaching for years: Sharing a story to reveal who you are and what matters to you.
My hope is that future episodes will offer more clarity about great storytelling and how to find and explore pivotal moments to demonstrate who we are.
About Sarah:
Sarah is a Montana based workplace communication trainer, TEDx speaker, DisruptHR speaker, public speaking coach, professional storyteller, musician, and podcast host. Her workshops and coaching packages with teams and their leaders are known to address and reduce miscommunication – the most common cause of tension and stress in the workplace. Using the team’s results from the StrengthsFinder assessment, she guides teams in learning to speak each other’s “language”, learning to value each other’s strengths and connecting with each other through enhanced self-reflection and effective listening.
Sarah’s nearly 20 years working in government agencies inspired her to complete her MBA and to achieve her StrengthsFinder certification to improve work environments for others, guiding teams toward increased satisfaction, productivity, and happiness.
Visit her website to purchase her book, Your Stories Don't Define You in paperback or audiobook.