Have you ever wondered when it is right to tell a hard story? Are you afraid of oversharing with your readers and/or audience? Authenticity is the call of arms right now for writers and speakers, but responsible authenticity is really important.
God allows us to go through difficulty to make us stronger and give Him glory, but how to effectively tell one’s story can be tricky. In this episode, hosts Kathi Lipp and Michele Cushatt provide a list of rules and warnings when you are trying to discern when and how to tell a hard story. This is a must hear episode!
Meet Your Hosts
Kathi Lipp
Author, Speaker, Communicator Academy Creator and CEO
Communicator Academy founder, Leverage: The Speaker Conference creator and master instructor Kathi Lipp, is a national speaker and author of 16 books including “Clutter Free,” “The Get Yourself Organized Project,” and “The Husband Project.”
She is a frequent guest on radio and TV, and has been named Focus on the Family radio’s “Best of Broadcast.”
She is the host of the popular podcast “Clutter Free Academy with Kathi Lipp.”
Over the past 10 years, Kathi has helped hundreds of people increase their platform through teaching and coaching. She is a frequent teacher at writer’ s conferences and has helped countless authors and speakers find their audiences.
Kathi’s desire to help fellow speakers and authors avoid the mistakes she made, increase their confidence and be the person God made them to be, inspired her creation of Communicator Academy. The podcast as an extension of Communicator Academy is just another way Kathi wants to serve her audience.
Michele Cushatt
Author, Speaker, Mastermind Coach
As an experiened keynote speaker and emcee, Michele Cushatt’s speaking experience includes Women of Faith, Compassion International, and various retreats, conferences and events held across the country. She has also led radio, video and audio recording projects.
She co-hosted with Michael Hyatt on the popular This Is Your Life podcast. In addition, Michele serves as part of the Dynamic Communicators International leadership team, led by best-selling author and sought-after speaker Ken Davis.
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Hi Kathi and Michele, I heard about your podcast from Amy Carroll’s Facebook Live post. I’m anxious to hear more!
This is such an important topic. I especially appreciate how you said not to burden your audience. When God said it was time to start sharing our story a year or so after my husband’s death, I set up a few boundaries for myself:
– speak life and hope
– don’t throw him under the bus
– point to Jesus
So far I’ve only shared on Facebook and one speaking event, but I expect to begin blogging soon. God gave me a powerful story to tell about His faithfulness through our story of my husband’s cancer.
Whatever I write has to pass those three tests. If it doesn’t, it won’t be shared. One time as I was writing, I realized one of those boundaries was being crossed. I set it aside and told God, “You’re going to have to fix this if You want it shared.” Sure enough, the next day He gave me the clarity to shift the focus of my piece.