Find and Tell Your Origin Story: Robert Tighe

Why are you you - and why are you here?

Explore the stories that shape you, change you and define you

 

Robert Tighe leads us on the discovery of our Origin stories. As a journalist he was inspired to find and help people tell their amazing stories. (Everyone has amazing stories.)

Episode 91 (Robert Tighe is based in New Zealand)

 

In this conversation we explore:

• What is the origin story and why is it so important?
• Searching through the stages of life to find key stories
• The relevance of stories that shape you, change you and define you
• Telling good stories starts with story finding
• Addressing the question "why?"
• The relevance and danger of sharing painful stories
• Using story telling as a leadership and teambuilding tool

About Robert Tighe

Robert helps business leaders reflect on their past to create a more purposeful future.

Irish born, Robert explored various pursuits before returning to his first dream of becoming a journalist. He enjoys finding and conveying stories.

Learn more about Robert and book your Story Strategy call at www.RobertTighe.com

Excerpts from this conversation with Robert Tighe

05:22

Robert, you you brought up Simon Sinek. And in the power of why I'm wondering how important is why in discerning one's origin story?

 

05:36

Yeah. I think it's really important. I think it's really key because I think the best businesses have a really authentic, why behind you know what they do.

And listen, I know, there'll be some sceptics out there who feel that, you know, I sell widgets, and I make really good widgets, and I sell them for a lot of money.

And I don't really care about my why. And that's fine, too, that there's that I totally understand that perspective. But I think more and more so now than ever before.

You know, we're all in the people business. You know, we're all kind of that it's that horrible cliché people buy from people.

But if they don't know about you as a person, then it's really hard for them to trust you, it's really hard for them to get a sense of why you or your company or your product, or your service is the right person to help them solve their problem.

And I think if you can demonstrate an authentic why and the origin story isn't about making up a story here, I think it's probably good to get that across.

But if you can get across your why and on in a real a very real and authentic manner. I think it just really helps you stand out from the crowd of other people, in your space, in your industry, in your sector, whatever it might be.

And it's particularly important, I should add, George, if you're in any kind of business, where you're selling your expertise, right, you know, where you're in that kind of people to people type business, because,  if people know your why, they can get your why then it can really kind of give them a sense of okay, yeah, this is, this is I'm in the right place here.

This is the right person to help me solve my problem.

15:26

You mentioned the term that you're more of a story finder, than a storyteller. How, what are what questions do you pose to people to help them find their best stories?

 

15:42

Yeah, I don't know, if I have like a template of questions that I asked it is very much a conversation.

And it is very much as I've talked before, about really making it easy for them by asking them to go back to you know, a few different stages in their lives, to take them back to their their, their earliest memories.

One question that I love to ask people is, what is your earliest understanding our kind of realization of the concept of what you do now?

So it might have been said, say the industry you're in now. Or if you're in sales, what was your very first understanding of what selling was?

What was your first understanding of say what a customer was, I worked with a customer experience consultant recently who he talked to me about what he did, but he spent 20 minutes talking in jargon about UX, and CX and all these terms and acronyms.

And that meant nothing to me. When I stopped and asked him to think back to his very first understanding of what a customer was, and and what a customer meant, he told me about his first job working as a paperboy during a paper round.

And he realized very quickly that if he didn't get out of bed on time, the papers didn't get delivered on time, the customer wasn't happy, and his boss wasn't happy, and he didn't get paid.

So see immediately kind of grasp that the customer was key. You know, from the very early ages, it was very first job, he realized that, you know, keeping the customer satisfied was the most important part of his job.

And I just said, listen, that's, that's it, you've made that you're working in customer experience now. And essentially, that is still the same kind of thing that you need to focus on. Right.

So in terms of questions, I think, rather than questions, it really is helping people identify stories that maybe they don't recognize the value in themselves.

Because I think a lot of the time we're too close to our own stories, right. You know, we've lived with them for so long, and we kind of discount the value in them.

So I think that's, that's a key part of the process. George is helping people identify the value in their stories.

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Your Intended Message is the podcast about how you can boost your career and business success by honing your communication skills. We’ll examine the aspects of how we communicate one-to-one, one to few and one to many – plus that important conversation, one to self.

In these interviews we will explore presentation skills, public speaking, conversation, persuasion, negotiation, sales conversations, marketing, team meetings, social media, branding, self talk and more.

 

Your host is George Torok

George is a specialist in communication skills. Especially presentation. He’s fascinated by the links between communication and influencing behaviours. He delivers training and coaching programs to help leaders and promising professionals deliver the intended message for greater success.

 

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https://www.linkedin.com/in/georgetorokpresentations/

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