Getting Clarity of Your Story with Steve Woodruff (#81)
Clear Storytelling The King of Clarity Steve Woodruff
Steve Woodruff, known as the King of Clarity, is a consultant and author who has helped many professionals - from solo consultants to Fortune 100 pharmaceutical companies - with their brand identity and messaging. He’s best known for his intensive clarity sessions, which, in less than a day, unlock a company's DNA and market positioning, and produce crystal-clear messaging to generate sales and referrals. He also helps people find their professional purpose with Clarity Consulting.
The author of Clarity Wins, Steve loves to help people and businesses find clarity. In our conversation you’ll hear how Chris Brogan gave him his nickname, how a Russian oligarch and his French chateau plays a part in Steve’s story, and so much more.
“I’ve replaced the term elevator pitch with the term memory dart. Which is an even shorter version of an elevator pitch. Symbols are the most powerful, an analogy or a word picture. Distill it down to something that is symbolic.“ - Steve Woodruff on clarifying your message
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Getting Clarity of Your Story with Steve Woodruff
Story Asking and Networking
How does Steve suggest finding the right career, the right job, the right path? He says it’s through clarifying your why. Rather than looking for the career you can fit into, truly understanding your DNA, your personal brand, you’re looking for what exactly is your puzzle piece and what would be a great job for that.
Once you understand that, and can explain that concisely and consistently, it’s all about letting your network know what it is you’re looking for. Knowing the kind of career, the kind of company, and the kind of boss is much easier than just trying to find an opportunity where you can force your fit.
“Then you go into the market actively saying ‘This is what I’m looking for.’ You proactively tell your friends an colleagues. You paint the picture.” - Steve Woodruff on career paths and story
We’re All Up Against the Noise
When it comes to getting your story out today, Steve says first know that you’re not alone. It’s the same challenge we all face. With the average American spending up to 11 hours each day in front of a screen of some kind, storytellers have to compete with a lot of content.
Our competition is Netflix, Facebook, cat videos and more. So what we have to do is to rise above the noise. Effective storytelling and exploring different media platforms are key.
“We are inundated with a tsunami of noise. One way to rise above is effective storytelling. And if we’re going to compete, we have to use multimedia.” - Steve Woodruff on getting our stories seen
Connect with Steve:
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The Storytellers Network with Dan Moyle publishes every Monday at 7 AM EST.