In this workshop-style presentation, the speaker introduces a structured approach to turning personal experiences into compelling stories. He begins by referencing Bruce Feiler's book Life Is in the Transitions, highlighting the concepts of "life quakes" (major life events that happen 3‑5 times per lifetime) and "disruptors" (events that shift reality every 12‑18 months). These moments are framed as raw material for a personal story inventory. The speaker then outlines a three‑phase story‑crafting framework: story sourcing (identifying moments), story building (recognizing triggers, capturing markers, and documenting), and storytelling (sharing). He defines story triggers—failures, perceived failures, deviant moments, unconventional wisdom, and unexpected outcomes—as cues that signal a story is unfolding. To preserve the richness of a story, he emphasizes "story markers" such as sensorial details, exact quotes, and rapid documentation, followed by immediate retelling to reinforce memory. Practical examples, including his own interim chief‑of‑staff role and a beach journaling session in Cabo, illustrate each concept. The overall message encourages participants to develop sensitivity to story triggers, capture vivid markers quickly, and maintain a story inventory for future use.
Chapters
There's a book, and this is a reference to write down, it's called Life Is in the Transitions by Bruce Feiler. Life Is in the Transitions by Bruce Feiler. And he talks a lot about stories in this book, so it's a great book. Um, one of the things that he says in the book is life is in the transitions. Life is in transitions. And over the course of a lifetime people experience 3 to 5 life quakes, he calls them. 3 to 5 life quakes. Now looking around the panels here, chances are each of you have experienced 2 or 3. And actually, as I look at you, I am familiar with one of your life quakes for everybody around the table here, at least. So, so you have these lifequakes. Um, folks, those are stories to tell. Um, some of them may be too fresh to tell, but in time it'll be the stories to tell. So, uh, so those are, those are important stories to add to your story inventory. So make sure you add those to your story inventory. What are your life quakes? Actually, let me just stop there and just give you 30 seconds, and, and this shouldn't take you that long because your life quakes are your life quakes. So add those to your story inventory. What are your, what are your 2, 3, or 4 life quakes? Then Bruce Feiler also says that we experience one disruptor every 12 to 18 months. So what is a disruptor? Not a quake. You might have had a quake in the last 12 months, but what would be a disruptor that you had, that you've had in the last 12 to 18 months? Disruptors don't have to be bad either. They disrupt your reality. Could be a good thing. Let me give you one of my story disruptors, one of my disruptor stories. Is, and I was sharing this with Sean before, uh, everybody else joined, I think, is that, um, I am now the interim chief of staff to the school dean. Okay, is that a, is that a, um, you know, a lifequake? No. Has that disrupted my world? Yes. Um, moving stuff around, more time. For those that know me, it's like, there's a huge pull to be a consultant like I was before. It's like not doing that. So I have to resist my temptation to, to go do that. Because the ask is there, the demand is there. And, you know, I have the talent and people really like who I am and what I do. And they say, we want more. And I'm going like, no, you don't get to have more. So that's tough, right? That's a tough place. And it's a new place for me. So that's a disruptor. Cool. All right, so I'm gonna, uh, move into, uh, story sourcing. So story sourcing, story, uh, story crafting. The reason why I call it story crafting, because I think there's 3 phases. There's a lot in the world today about storytelling, and I'm like, nah, you're missing— you know, people just don't come out of the womb as good storytellers. There's things about that that lead you to that. And so I broke this competency into 3 pieces. Story sourcing, story building, and storytelling. I think you have to source things well to be able to build the stories, to be able to tell the stories. And so we've already started building that story list, that story inventory. So, so the 3 things I'm going to give you are in this framework is know when you're in a story. How do you know when you're in a story? By the way, my, my guess is that this call today is not a story you're going to tell in 20 years. This is not— this isn't one of your stories, right? So, so that's not it. So, so you're not always in a story, or you could be, but you have to be really refined techniques to build a story out of every moment of your life. So, so one piece we're going to talk about is know when you're in a story, and I'm going to talk about story triggers, things that, that, you know, happen to you, like, oh, I'm in a story now. So we'll do that. Um, I would say when you're in that story, how to live into that story, and I'm going to talk about noticing the details. I'll call those, uh, story markers. And then the last one is store your story, which is, um, you know, story repository, which we've already started. It's a story inventory. Okay, so the first thing, let's do story triggers. How do you know when you're in a story? How do you know when you're in a story? I've got some ideas here, but give me some thoughts. How do you know when you're in a story? Sometimes Uh, when you're deviant, the deviance becomes normal, and then you don't realize that you're in an extraordinary moment. Let me describe that. Um, I was on a, uh, a mastermind event in Cabo, and I was sitting on the beach, and we were told to brainstorm stuff, and I was writing in my journal. And I was sitting there with my back against the cinder block wall, sitting in the sand, and the ocean was in front of me, and I could hear the waves. And I was sitting there journaling, and in that moment, I was like, I've been on beaches because of where I've lived and how I've done stuff. I've been on beaches before. But this is an extraordinary moment to be on a beach in Cabo and just listening to the waves. That's an extraordinary moment. And so, and today I just, I don't remember what I wrote down in the journal, but I remember that moment as a deviant moment for me because I made an ordinary moment extraordinary. That's good. Okay, here's the things I wrote down, and, and you've got, you said some of these things. Here's some story triggers. Failures, perceived failures are big triggers for stories. Being here at Purdue, none of the students wanna go like, tell me a story of success. Tell me how you won it all. Tell me where you won the big job. They don't want that. They wanna go like, where did you feel like you couldn't break through? Where did you feel like it was the end? What made you feel like you wanted a different job? I'm like, oh, those are the stories. So, uh, so those are those things. Um, Sean, you picked it. Unconventional wisdoms, things that are just like out of the ordinary. I like that. Something that's disturbing in some way, that's a story. Um, and something has an unexpected outcome. You planned it, you, you put it out there, and then it's like, and it flipped at the last minute. It's like Okay, that's a story. I could probably, you know, we could probably brainstorm hundreds of these, but these are story triggers. But, but the point of a story trigger is to know in that moment you're now in a story and it, it touches something inside of you. This is a competency, folks, to build. So, you know, over the next month or so, even over the next week, try to open up your story trigger sensitivity, your instrument, and go like, oh, this could be a story. You may choose not to have it as a story, but it could be a story. So open that up. Cool. That's the first strategy. Okay, second strategy. When you know you're in a story, what are the story markers? So write that down. Story markers. And what I mean by that, mark the trail of the story. And so that means note sensorial details. I was sitting on a beach with my back against a cinder wall. I just told you one of these. I took you there. How many of you felt the sand under your feet? How many of you heard the ocean? Part of that, I had to note those details when I was in the story to be able to retell the story. So you just can't just blast through that because you won't remember details, and then that's not as, as, you know, as good to bring the people along. So note the sensorial details. Sometimes take something from that. If it's a conversation, remember exactly the words somebody used. Note that down. You may not be able to pull out a notebook at that point in time, but in your head it's like, you know, as a salesperson remembering somebody's name, it's like, oh, and Sean shared this with me. It's like Brendan just said this to me. Okay, wait a minute. Let me sit back. I'm in a story. Let me remember the exact words that were used so that when I recount the story that I use that quote. Right? So, sensorial details. Remember a quote because you're recreating that moment. So this is, this is a recreation. And the last part of this story markers is document the markers fast. As soon as you can after the event, document the markers. And then I would add to that, tell the story soon. You know, when I was traveling a lot, I call home, I call my wife and I just, I talk to her and I tell her stories. That's helpful for me because then I'll remember the story. And she knows what, she knows the drill, right? And I'll say, hey, are you okay if we go a little longer? I want to tell you a story. She's like, yep, go for it. And you know, I'll tell the story and now it's, I've told, I put it through my body again. I've relived the situation, I've recreated it. So those are story markers. All make sense? That's the second strategy.
