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You're not running out of stories; you're just not zooming in.
​read time 3 minutes

I was on a one-to-one coaching call yesterday, and my client (Hi Antonio 👋) said something that made me think...

"I feel like I've only got so many stories. Once I've told them all, I'm out."

I get why it feels that way. You've got your big moments. The move. The career change. The thing that happened that made you who you are. You tell them a few times, and then you think, okay, I've done that one. What's next?

But after considering it for a bit, here's how I've always thought about it:

Every story you have contains about a thousand stories inside it.

Let's use my story as an example. If you've seen any of my reels, you probably heard me say that I moved to Spain for a girl.

That's one of my hero stories, so I tell it over and over because I want people to know that's part of my character. I'm romantic, I'm a risk taker, and I'm impulsive (maybe also dumb lol).

But that's only the macro story; I moved to Spain for a girl; it didn't work out. I stayed anyway. I fell in love with Spain. I started a community. I skateboarded the length of Spain.

But zoom in, and you've got the first week, when I couldn't speak the language, and I felt alone.

Or you've got the moment I realised I was never going to return to the UK.

You've got the story of my first job here.

Each one of those is its own video. It's own moment.

This is how I've probably made close to a thousand videos, and I still don't feel like I'm running out. Not because I've lived some insane life. But when you zoom in on any story, you see there are at least ten stories within!

The story doesn't change. The lens does.

So if you feel stuck, don't go looking for a new story. Go back to the one you've already got and zoom in. Then let me know how it goes.

There's probably more in there than you think.

Tom

P.S. I work with people on a one-on-one basis to help them build their personal brand, just like I have. If you'd like to apply to work one-on-one with me, reply directly to this email and introduce yourself. I read every reply personally.

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