Your Idea Has Been Done Before. Your Story Hasn’t.

Today, what I wanted to share with you was one of the things that really makes people stand out.

When you lean into being exactly who you are, all of who you are with your unique specific stories, the ones that make you you, the things that make you stand out, the weaving together of the things that only you have.

That's what makes somebody really stand out is when you just lean heavily into exactly who you are.

When you put all those details together, no one else on the planet has them.

As far as I know, there is nobody else on the planet who has gotten a dragon tattoo on her shoulder when she was 18 and then joined a dragon boat racing team in her 40s.

Now, if that has happened to you, you need to call me so that we can be friends, right? There's nobody else who has done those two things and also started a newspaper in fifth grade in her elementary school and also ran the radio station and college and also was an editor-in-chief of magazines in her early 20s who started to throw parties to get writers and editors together because I understood finally that editors need writers.

We need you.

We need fresh ideas.

Conference designers need speakers.

We need fresh versions of the human story.

Your version of the human story is really unique if you lean heavily into who you are and your version of it.

I cannot tell you how many times I have been pitched the corporate version of a story that everyone already knows.

I have been pitched that story again and again and again and again and again.

And I will never hire you to be on the stage that I design if it's the same story that everybody else is telling.

Lean heavily into your point of view when you are writing a book that is about a topic that has been done before, which, of course, they all have.

Right? So yes, of course, there are new things coming along the pike.

AI was new in the early days and when people first started talking about it.

And now everyone is talking about AI.

And I am pitched AI topics all the time.

So what is your unique fresh take on it? That's really challenging to do, right? And I don't want you to feel discouraged when you hear me talk about this because you do have a unique version of the human story.

But sometimes it takes a lot of choirs asking yourself, what is your point of view? What do you disagree with other people on? What are you scared to say out loud because of what other people will think? What are you brave enough to do on that stage, to say on that stage, to write in your book? What are the things that you're kind of like, ooh, I'm not sure if I want to say that.

Those are the things to lean into.

Of course, there are things you shouldn't say.

Of course, you get to be discerning about what you say.

Of course, you get to decide what's for you as a person and what's for other people.

Today, what I wanted to share with you was one of the things that really makes people stand out.

When you lean into being exactly who you are, all of who you are with your unique specific stories, the ones that make you you, the things that make you stand out, the weaving together of the things that only you have.

That's what makes somebody really stand out is when you just lean heavily into exactly who you are.

When you put all those details together, no one else on the planet has them.

As far as I know, there is nobody else on the planet who has gotten a dragon tattoo on her shoulder when she was 18 and then joined a dragon boat racing team in her 40s.

Now, if that has happened to you, you need to call me so that we can be friends, right? There's nobody else who has done those two things and also started a newspaper in fifth grade in her elementary school and also ran the radio station and college and also was an editor-in-chief of magazines in her early 20s who started to throw parties to get writers and editors together because I understood finally that editors need writers.

We need you.

We need fresh ideas.

Conference designers need speakers.

We need fresh versions of the human story.

Your version of the human story is really unique if you lean heavily into who you are and your version of it.

I cannot tell you how many times I have been pitched the corporate version of a story that everyone already knows.

I have been pitched that story again and again and again and again and again.

And I will never hire you to be on the stage that I design if it's the same story that everybody else is telling.

Lean heavily into your point of view when you are writing a book that is about a topic that has been done before, which, of course, they all have.

Right? So yes, of course, there are new things coming along the pike.

AI was new in the early days and when people first started talking about it.

And now everyone is talking about AI.

And I am pitched AI topics all the time.

So what is your unique fresh take on it? That's really challenging to do, right? And I don't want you to feel discouraged when you hear me talk about this because you do have a unique version of the human story.

But sometimes it takes a lot of choirs asking yourself, what is your point of view? What do you disagree with other people on? What are you scared to say out loud because of what other people will think? What are you brave enough to do on that stage, to say on that stage, to write in your book? What are the things that you're kind of like, ooh, I'm not sure if I want to say that.

Those are the things to lean into.

Of course, there are things you shouldn't say.

Of course, you get to be discerning about what you say.

Of course, you get to decide what's for you as a person and what's for other people.