I had an enlightening discussion last night.

I was chatting to a group of speakers, consultants and trainers and we were talking about using stories from your life in your talks.

The enlightening thing was that to a person, we all basically said: “well, I don't really have any interesting stories from my life…but I bet you have some amazing stories to tell”.

In other words, we all looked at our own experiences, and because we'd lived them (and re-lived them many times in our memories) they all seemed a bit dull to us. But to everyone else we mentioned them to, they were really interesting. 

And vice versa, of course. The stories about themselves that everyone else thought were incredibly dull were interesting and new to us. 

The same goes for your content too.

I can't tell you the number of people who tell me that they don't think anyone would find their area of expertise interesting enough to get regular emails about. Yet, of course, they themselves are incredibly interested in the emails they get from other people about topics those other people fear are deathly dull.

Familiarity might not breed contempt, but it certainly causes you to find your own stories and content a lot less interesting than other people do.

So if you're worried that others might not be interested in what you have to say, remember that they're probably thinking the same about their own content.

Try out your stories. Share your ideas and insights. Watch whether people perk up and listen.

If your stories are relevant to them and your content is about problems or issues they have, they'll be interested, I promise you.

It just takes a little bit of courage to start.