Expert Interview: Why Telling Your Own Story Is So Vital in Today's Marketplace

Debby Stone

Debby Stone is an executive coach and keynote speaker. She is the author of “The Art of Self-Promotion: Tell Your Story, Transform Your Career,” and the founder of Novateur Partners, an executive coaching company serving lawyers, entrepreneurs, corporate leaders and the organizations in which they work. Prior to 2002, Debby practiced law for 16 years and worked at Bain & Company. Debby holds undergraduate and law degrees from Duke University.

Why Telling Your Own Story Is So Vital in Today's Marketplace

“Regardless of where we are in our career paths—whether we’re just starting out or have reached the pinnacle, or are somewhere in between—we all need other people to get where we want to go. If others don’t know who we are and what we contribute, they are not going to be able to help us reach our career goals. Telling your story and doing it in a confident, authentic and graceful way is the key difference between the people who make it to where they want to be and those who struggle to move forward.”

Why Is This Important?

“We live in a Twitter, soundbite world. That’s about how long people have as an attention span. In today’s workplace—where people are incredibly busy, where change is the only constant—it’s not possible to believe that simply keeping your head down and doing a good job is going to get you where you want to go. We all need to be thinking about how we are telling our stories. Competence is always a piece of the puzzle, but the other crucial piece is how well you present yourself, the brand that is you.

What Are the Key Lessons Learned Here?

“You have about 20 seconds to immediately capture someone’s attention. There are two things you need to be able to do in 20 seconds: 1) establish or re-establish your credibility; and 2) create curiosity so the other person wants the conversation to continue.” You need to be ready to tell your story anytime, anywhere, in a variety of contexts and audiences. The way that you speak about who you are and what you do varies with the setting. If you meet somebody at the gym, your approach will be different from the one you might use at a formal networking event. A canned, memorized, all-purpose ‘elevator pitch’ is not enough.”