The First Plunge – Conquer Doubt And Fear – Give Your Story A Voice!

A great change in life is like a cold bath in water-we all hesitate at the first plunge” – Letitia Elizabeth Landon

My first plunge at giving stories voice was in February 2016.  The desire to gather and share personal stories lurked in my soul for many years.  It was one of those “someday” desires that I did not quite know what to do with.

Then I read Michael Hyatt’s:  Platform, Get Noticed In A Noisy World.  Finally, I had a path to follow to a platform from which to share the stories.  There were a lot of pieces, or “planks” to building a platform of this sort and the online thing was a whole new world to learn – at least at this level.  I had some raw material, lots of ideas, and….time.

First Plunge To A Second Life

I retired a year or two earlier from a 36-year career in civil service, most serving in air traffic control.  After enjoying the freedom of spending my time as I chose I cleared some pressing things off my plate:

• decluttering the house, and
• getting our financial house tidied up, including paying off mortgages on several properties we owned.  All using the Dave Ramsey Financial Peace plan.

In fact, it was listening to a Dave Ramsay podcast that I heard Michael Hyatt discuss his then-new book:  Platform.

A year later I joined Platform University.

The Framework And Taking That First Plunge

I knew I wanted to write stories in four broad areas:  Faith, Foundations, Flight, and Family.  These are defined on my About Page.

Why these areas?  It’s simple:  that is what I know.  These four pillars or “stones” have defined my life.  One can only write compelling stories about what one knows!  So I wrote and continue to write the stories:

1. of my ancestors – Family,
2. the stories of the families who lived in, and other aspects of, our Historic Home – Foundations
3. Flight, juicy tidbits from my air traffic control days, piloting my father’s Aircoupe, and building an EAA Biplane he started.

As for the Faith pillar, it resides as the underpinning for the other three.

“What’s In It For Me (WIITFM)?”

There was one problem:  the premise of having a platform, is having a message which solves a problem others have. In other words, answering the WIIFM question.

For years, I selfishly wrote the stories I personally knew, having no idea what problem or issue I was addressing in the lives of others.  Do I have readers?  Yes, and some of you even comment! THANK YOU!

I know that family members found the tidbits on our ancestry interesting and even fun.  Aviation buffs seemed to enjoy the posts in that area, and the descendants of the family for whom our Historic Home is named regularly check in for the latest.

But problem or issue solved? Not really.

A Missing Piece

Then I realized, the problem I was solving was rescuing lost stories.  Yes, for now, they were my lost stories, but I was learning what the process was about:  what was involved in recognizing, identifying, valuing, and capturing stories.  Stories in danger of obscurity.

What is missing are YOUR stories!  You capturing your own stories into a form to share and pass down!

A Proven Process

You see, I figured it out as I went.  I did not give much thought to the process I was using.  Like any new journey, you take the first step, then the next, then…not aware that the path I took, could be shared to enable others to capture their stories.  Until now…

So I developed a workbook to help you do just that.  I took the lessons, techniques, and processes I learned over the past few years and put them in a step-by-step guide to help you capture your stories.

• You begin with digging into your thought process and grabbing those fleeting (or nagging) ideas and capturing them.
• Then I help you sort through the jumble of ideas to find a starting place.  That one story idea right for you at this moment.
• Next, we identify the inspiration followed by adding meat to the bones of your story.

It is a clear simple process that you can repeat over and over for each story you want to capture.  In fact, as the first bonus, you will end up with a pile of ideas that you can go back to.

This is not about writing a book or starting a BLOG.  This is about the story you have in your heart and its preservation.  Could it be the start of a book?  Maybe, but that is not the focus here.  The story is the hero in this process.

Ready to begin?  Click here..…….for access to the Workbook and Give Your Story a Voice – Today!

Not ready to take that first plunge just yet?  Click the FIVE LEGACY STORIES Free PDF download below for ideas and inspiration.