How To Craft Your Signature Story
I LOVE helping people tell their stories. Nothing in life brings me so much pleasure as bearing witness to another person’s journey in all its guts and glory.
But you know what really turns me on? A well crafted story. One that reels me in, sprinkles little pieces of bread (mmmmm, bread) along the path and takes me on a journey to REVELATION.
You see, we humans have very simple desires. Yes, we want food, and shelter and sex. But even more than that we want to feel SEEN, HEARD, UNDERSTOOD.
Stories are what help us to do that. We’re telling stories all damn day; with our bodies, our faces, our words, our actions.
I am simply desperate to hear the story of YOU.
Your potential clients are simply desperate to hear the story of YOU.
Not because they necessarily care about you, but because you a simply a mirror showing them their own reflection.
Your story is what builds that whole “KNOW, LIKE, TRUST” thing that online marketers are always banging on about. (aka, we don’t want to spend time with people we don’t like”.
Which leads me onto…
What the heavens is a signature story?
A signature story is simply a narrative arc that you know inside out and upside down that tells the story of you, and why you’re so bloody brilliant at what you do.
For some inspiration, here’s my formal, written-in-third-person (by me!) bio that uses parts of my signature story to help people know if they want more:
Tamsin Crimmens is a writer and mentor for visionary healers, leaders, and world-changers. She’s obsessed with helping women connect with their truth, tell their stories, and make a lot of money in the process.
She’s been called a “Content Queen” by her clients who are legacy-led, multi-6 and multi-7 figure entrepreneurs like Gemma Went, ‘Totally Laura’ Husson, and Lenka Lutonska.
A rare mix of space holder, storyteller, and online business owner, she helps womxn activate their Inner Creatrix (that all-powerful creative energy that makes a magical copy) so they can freak their ideal clients out and have them saying “How are you inside my head!!?”
As a former journalist with bylines in ELLE, Stylist, Grazia, Rough Guides, The Guardian, The Telegraph, and The Sunday Times Style mag, she’s written about it all and interviewed everyone from Caitlin Moran to Stella McCartney.
Tamsin knows how to tell stories that stop the scroll, so if you need help capturing the most valuable commodity on the planet: ATTENTION, she’s the embodied and expressive Creatrix Queen you’ve been looking for.
If you want the much more fun version, take a look about my ‘About’ page for more.
But for the purpose of what we’re going to do, here’s a playful, tongue-in-cheek,
5 Steps to crafting your own signature brand story!
Ok darling, let’s make this FUN, shall we? Who said branding had to be boring? Story time is always the best part of the day, so let’s dive into yours, shall we?
Nothing scares a blank page more than a writer willing to PLAY
Step #1: Set the scene
Grab a journal, a pen, maybe some coloured pens/pencils and your Creatrix playlist. Close the door and give yourself a bit of time to play. Treat this process like a sensual journey through your story.
Step #2: Get your creative juices flowing
Play around with a little movement, or whatever brings you pleasure and helps free you from the cage of the mind! Then when you’re feeling juiced-up, open your journal.
Step #3: Free-write, trying not to censor or edit yourself, answering these questions:
What have been the 3 biggest successes of your life to date?
Why do you think those successes stand out as being important to you?
What has been the biggest challenge you have overcome?
What skills did you need to move past that challenge?
Describe your family's attitude around pursuing their own dreams and towards you pursuing yours.
What are your opinions? what do you see that you agree/disagree with? what do you know to be true?
What are your flaws?
Who or what has been instrumental on your journey so far?
What parts of your story would you rather keep hidden?
What ties all of this together? What are you uniquely here to do?
Step #4: Tie it all together
Take your coloured pens and notice any themes that keep coming up. Did anything surprise you? Are there any parts of your story that you still feel an emotional charge around? Be kind and gentle with yourself.
Stories are about how people overcome obstacles – which is exactly what we’re doing as coaches and entrepreneurs: helping people solve problems and overcome obstacles to get more of what they want (time, money, confidence, sex, whatever!).
Step #5: Get playful with how you craft your story
Even though a lot of people in the online world like to give formulas and rules for doing things, there are no rules! You can tell your story however you like.
Take a look below for a playful and fun way I like to tell my story:
Bring ALL of you to your story
Here’s a silly, tongue-in-cheek version of how I show up as ME on the internet.
This is why I am qualified to help you express yo’self and make money from your words and thoughts and basically just being yourself:
Weird, shy, sensitive kid becomes STAR and award-winning* author of the Silly Billy Stories. Written at just 6-years-old, primary teacher and fellow student INSIST I read them aloud every week in front of everyone(!!!!). Essentially Health & Safety directives about looking both ways when you cross the road etc. Very important body of work.
Weird, shy, sensitive teenager. Channel angst into becoming straight A-grade English student. Everyone in agreement, I am very good at writing.
Due to said A-grades, I “read” English Literature at University. Despite spending three years mostly watching Gilmore Girls, still managed to get that magic scroll (aka a degree).
First job out of Uni is press officer at a *very* fancy think tank. Still not sure what “think tank” is. Wrote press releases about public policy that national newspapers published (sometimes on the front page!).
Was all, “I’m going to quit and become a proper writer!” – started writing random articles for magazines like ELLE and Grazia. Interviewed celebs like Stella McCartney and Aubrey Plaza! Lots of fun, very little money.
To pay for cocktails at extortionate London bars, started writing for brands! Wrote more random stuff for Swarovski, Jacob’s Creek, Bally etc. It was weird. Everyone was like SHIT, CONTENT MARKETING IS A THING!!! Writers everywhere rejoiced at easy money.
As all good writers do, go to India to find myself. Find drugs and wanton sex instead. Also do a lot of yoga – genuinely saves life.
Brief stint in Arts Marketing writing copy for plays and musicals. Fun! Got to see more celebs and actual STING hanging around the theatre.
Start attending, then hosting, women’s circles and teaching yoga. Lots of healing, lots of therapy, lots of holding space and discovering why I am so naturally good at it (spoiler: parent’s fault).
Start talking to my womb and creating more stuff. Launch programmes and 1:1 offers and share what I’m learning about cyclical living and pussy power. Fun but tiring. Introvert inside just wants to read novels all day.
Go deeper into world of online coaching and business. Also weird. Learn a lot of new words like “funnel” and “lead-magnet”. Lots of people hire me to write things for them. Also write my own stuff EVERYDAY.
Pandemic hits. Feel tired of holding space and writing everyday. Stop everything and read novels for a few months. Total surrender.
Learn more about nervous system regulation, trauma and attachment theory. Dots fit together and mind is blown.
Actual millionaires start hiring me to write things for them… weird. They seem to like it… words convert and make them more millions… think I’m onto something here.
Books are full with very successful clients who love how I hold space, make their words sound better, understand what they’re talking about because I’m not stupid, actually quite clever.
Realise I am pretty good at this one specific thing. Tell you about it via written word. You are still reading. Point made.
*Award granted by Mum and may have been made-up.
What you leave out matters too
A final word on writing and sharing your story: You DO NOT have to include every single detail.
I don’t tell bit of my story anymore, because it’s simply not relevant and/or it doesn’t feel good to express it.
I’ve told stories about my traumas and healing in other places, so it’s not that I’m afraid to share, more that I’ve created boundaries around what I do and don’t want to divulge.
Vulnerability is important, but it’s just of vulnerable for me to show up and share about my business goals as it is to share more personal stories from the past.
You get to choose what to edit out – so make an empowered choice and own your own narrative.
