Rain Bennett
- Dec 10, 2020
- 3 min read

Ep. 74: The Three Stories About You

This is Rain's second to last solo episode of season 5, storytellers! On this episode of The Storytelling Lab, Rain breaks down the 3 types of self stories: the story you tell yourself, the story you tell others, and the story people tell about you. Rain gives some valuable introspective advice and motivation to help you get out of heads and start living your truest story.

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The past couple of weeks on The Storytelling Lab, we’ve been talking about identity -knowing what kind of storyteller you are and not listening to the false narratives in your head.

And what I’ve noticed through producing the show and the feedback we receive, is that so much of what prevents people from telling their authentic stories is not necessarily knowing the perfect story structure or when, where, and how to distribute their stories, but rather the stories that are told about them.

There are three stories about you:

1. The Story you tell yourself.

2. The Story you tell others.

3. The Story others tell about you.

The story you tell yourself is based on what you think.

No one else hears this story but you and often, you don’t even hear it. Either way, this story is almost always false and misleading. It’s that negative voice in your head that’s telling you that you don’t belong, or you can’t do it, or that you’re not as good as “they” are.

That’s called “impostor syndrome” and it stems from your ego -- rooted in insecurity.

First, recognize that you are telling yourself a story that can be altered. Most people go through life believing it as fact and don’t even realize that the story can change. Once you recognize that, you can slowly start to chip away at the structure and take control over that narrative.

The story you tell others is based on what you say.

This is the persona you project to the world and it can be a far cry from the story you tell yourself.

Many times this story is an inflated version of who you are, or who you want to be, or who you think you should be in others’ eyes. But the more consumed you are with how people perceive you, the larger the gap will be.

The third story is the story others tell about you. And it's based on the things you do.

This story is what is known as your personal brand or image. And yes, you have one even if you think you don’t or spend no time trying to cultivate it.

People who haven’t become self aware of the first story (the one they tell themselves), often think that the third story (that others tell about them) is most influenced by the second

(the story they tell others).

So they tend to dig in and shout it from the rooftops in an effort to dominate the stories others tell about them.

But if you focus on your purpose in life and those you seek to serve instead of your insecurity and ego, the story you tell yourself will be fully aligned with the story you tell others.

And if you can align the first two stories, you don’t have to try to control the third, because the actions you take will speak for themselves!

Peace and Love,

Rain

If you would benefit from understanding what steps to take when crafting a story, and setting up a consistent practice of telling those stories, I have a solution.

I just released A Storytelling Workbook for Beginners for you to exercise those storytelling muscles daily or weekly to tell up to 100 stories!

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