Introduction
A car accident changed my life in 2014. On a cold winter day around noon, I was driving on the fast lane of a local route in my town when I came to a red traffic light. I stopped and, by chance, looked into the rearview mirror. A white sports car was coming full speed in the same lane I was standing on. Alarmed at first and then just terrified, I realized the hit was inevitable as I saw the driver looking down instead of focusing on the traffic, probably texting. Â
Instinctively, I braced myself for the crash. Trying to protect my neck, I wrapped the hood of my thick coat around it and held to the steering wheel. The impact propelled my car forward, colliding with the vehicle in front of me. Like in a slow-motion movie, I could hear the noise of torn bodywork around me. All was over in seconds.
Still confused, I tried to move but realized I couldn’t get out of the car. The front bag had deployed, pressing me against the seat. My head was pounding, and my right leg was not responding. The driver who had caused the accident was yelling, but I could not understand what he was saying. Other drivers had stopped beside me, asking if I was hurt. Someone called the police and an ambulance. Reaching for my mobile, I dialed my son, and he quickly showed up at the accident scene. I felt relieved.Â
While waiting for help, my life returned in flashbacks. I had moved near my son’s family to be closer to my two young granddaughters. I wanted to spend time with them in between my busy business schedule. After all the turmoil and constant ups and downs I’d been through, I had achieved a stable personal and professional situation. I had overcome the difficulties I’d struggled with over the years, including my mother’s death at a young age, living through over 20 years of military dictatorships in Argentina, migrating to another country, two divorces, and almost losing my business during the Great Recession. At that point, I had proven to be a survivor. If I had my health and could work, that was all that mattered. My work had been the only safe constant in my life.Â
But with the injuries suffered in the car accident, I wondered if I could face a new chapter in my life in which I could have physical restrictions and live in constant pain, which actually occurred. Two years later, I was walking around with a cane. Traveling or driving had become a challenge. What was next for me?
Our Lives Are a Soap Opera
In the passages above, I left you with a question hoping to catch your attention. You may wonder if I recovered my health, continued my business, or did something else. Later in this book, you will find the outcome of this incident and other passages of my life that you might relate to your own. The idea is to illustrate the storytelling tools I will share with situations I lived over the years and others from clients. In addition, I will also discuss fictional examples from movies and TV shows -mass media- and what we can learn from them.Â
Whether a soap opera or a great classic novel, our lives are stories to be told. Your life, no matter how boring, complicated, or monotonous it might seem, involves amazing anecdotes that could become stories you share with others to reveal who you are. Learning these storytelling tools will drive your career forward by becoming an outstanding public speaker, acing a job interview or annual review, writing and publishing your biography, and even mastering life situations with family and friends like a pro.Â
Build your strengths upon your leadership values, take advantage of your cultural attributes, increase your opportunities to excel, and finally overcome your “imposter syndrome” with the power of storytelling. Get ahead in life, and achieve your personal, work, or professional purpose with these simple tools that will make you stand out from the crowd and influence those who really matter.
Most importantly, this book will make you think about yourself, your life circumstances, and the work, professional, and personal environments you live in today. By becoming aware of the narratives that shape your beliefs and actions, you will discover your own stories to share. So, get ready for a journey of self-discovery!
Getting to know your best friend
Learning to tell our story is an excellent form of introspection. Author Tasha Eurich[1] shares that, “There is strong scientific evidence that people who know themselves and how others see them are happier. They make smarter decisions. They have better personal and professional relationships. They raise more mature children. They’re smarter, superior students who choose better careers. They’re more creative, more confident, and better communicators.”
In order to achieve a better understanding of our values, habits, weaknesses, and aspirations, we need to work on a thorough inventory of ourselves. Think of it like understanding and learning to love your best friend. After all, we must live with ourselves all our lives!
Knowing ourselves better helps us recognize who we are in the world, where we come from, and where we are going, the universal quest for life’s meaning. It is also a way to understand our personal and cultural behaviors, moral and ethical beliefs, and values, compare ours to others, and learn from each other[E1] . For instance, learning about the lives of individuals who inspire us, their struggles, and their outcomes can lead us to understand our goals and where we stand in life.Â
Even if we cannot “live” other people’s stories, we can relate to them emotionally. We can empathize or feel uncomfortable with them, find commonalities or differences, and understand better the meaning of their actions and their actions’ consequences. They also do so by learning about our stories but only if we learn how to share them. Â
With storytelling, we can also influence those around us. For instance, some parents wish their children to succeed and do better than they did -to have a higher education, more money, or an up-and-coming career. Others might also aspire to raise them within the culture of their ancestors and respect their traditions.Â
Through old tales passed from generation to generation, we share family values and cultural traditions with our children, sharing customs, language, food, and family foundation. By doing so, we encourage them to become the type of person we aspire for them to be while recognizing their roots and origins.Â
We find emotional connections by sharing our life stories with friends and significant others. When bringing up memories of times when we were not in each other’s lives, we hope to find understanding, togetherness, and intimacy through those narrations.Â
Finally, stories are also a way for societies to pass on ideologies, traditions, and the essence of their culture through legends, myths, and archetypes. They “teach” us how to behave, what is acceptable and forbidden, and all the shades of standards and norms, written and voiced, spoken and implicit.Â
Through its stories, you can identify the principles and rules -explicit or implicit- a society lives by and dies for. It’s also a way to understand how people in any community conduct themselves in politics, religion, the workplace, business, or the intimacy of their bedrooms.
Why Storytelling with a Multicultural Approach
This work is the expansion of my presentation “Speak up! Tell your Story to Influence Others,” a workshop I offer to rising corporate leaders, founders, business owners and entrepreneurs, community advocates, and all people who position themselves as leaders who can make a difference for themselves and others. My first book, ¡Hola, amigos! A Plan for Latino Outreach,[2] was also the result of several presentations I conducted as a Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation WebJunction cohort trainer.Â
The Speak Up! virtual or in-person workshop I offer has received excellent comments and great reviews, many of which encouraged me to write this book. Most workshop participants were particularly motivated because we discussed how to address discrimination, exclusion, imposter’s syndrome, leadership conflict, and many other topics of concern in the workplace by developing a strong personal brand and the right stories to share.
It’s never been a timelier moment to publish a book that speaks to the increasing assaults on our multiculturalism as a people and our diversity as a country of immigrants. Without unnecessary confrontation but trying to find common ground, you will build strengths upon your natural leadership skills and values, honor your cultural attributes, increase opportunities to stand your ground, and finally overcome fears and self-doubt with the power of storytelling.Â
As diversity expands in the United States -and the world-, ethnic, cultural, gender, and ability gaps widen in the workplace and the community. The tension caused between forces that resist change and those pushing for change can be addressed with stories that can teach, inspire, and bring us together.Â
And these powerful stories very well may be in your life, waiting to be discovered. In this Multicultural approach to storytelling, we encourage you to find your best values, character traits, cultural attributes, and leadership skills to forge the stories that are important to you and make you unique. With these tools, you can then conquer your best dreams.Â
In Part I. Find your Voice, my goal is to guide you in a fun and productive way to discover who you are and unleash the power of your personal brand. In Part II, The Elements of Your Story, we will discuss the essential elements of storytelling that must be present to engage your audience and achieve the ultimate results: to influence others that matter to you.
The last chapter includes “Empowerment through Storytelling, A Self-Awareness Guide,” a template to help you reflect and practice all these tools. It will help you find your wonderful strengths while helping you reinforce your perceived weaknesses. I hope you return to this chapter repeatedly when you need to be reminded of who you really are, look for encouragement, deepen your understanding of certain behaviors, or remember your best qualities.Â
Just as a fantastic variety of human faces results from evolutionary pressure to make each of us unique and easily recognizable, our lives are also extraordinary and can be crafted into powerful stories.   I hope this book becomes a useful tool that brings yours under the spotlight.Â
[1] “Insight: Why We’re Not as Self-Aware as We Think, and How Seeing Ourselves Clearly Helps Us Succeed at Work and in Life” https://amzn.to/3YmsO7H (Accessed February 2023)
[2] ¡Hola, amigos! A Plan for Latino Outreach (Latinos and Libraries Series) https://www.amazon.com/-/es/Susana-G-Baumann/dp/1591584744 (accessed January 2023)
