357 The Objects That Matter To You
Your Stories Don’t Define You, How You Tell Them Will
357 The Objects That Matter To You Connection, especially in today’s day and age, is becoming a lost art. Today we are given the unique and groundbreaking idea from Lisa Weiss, to ask about the objects that are held onto by the people around us, connecting with them through the shared love of holding onto pieces of the past that have shaped us into who we are today. Highlights What are you keeping from the past? What commonality do you look for in others? What do you surround yourself with that matters to you? Quotes “I don’t want to live an unlived...
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357: Sarah's Hike
Your Stories Don’t Define You, How You Tell Them Will
357 Sarah’s Hike Many times in life it feels like we’re in the plot of a movie franchise from 2003, hopelessly watching and waiting for the inevitable drop of the other shoe, the logs or cars to fly off of a semi-truck on a highway that we have to take. Often this stress and future-tense fear can become all-consuming, blinding us to the people we share the car and road with. However if we remember to take a breath and slow down, letting those in your car offer their insight and assurance, you will make it to your destination and this too shall pass. In this episode, Sarah Elkins...
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356 Anchored in Time
Your Stories Don’t Define You, How You Tell Them Will
Labels and judgment are an unfortunate symptom of society, more often than not people will be framed in a particular light without any chance to defend themselves or for a full explanation to be given. Because of one person saying something, one bad interaction, or one misinterpretation a person can be frozen in time under whatever label was given to them. In today’s episode Sarah Elkins ruminates on enlightening experiences that have recently occurred that have helped continue to shape her perspective on the damage of labels and unfair judgment. Highlights Art imitates life...
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354 Amy's Mess
Your Stories Don’t Define You, How You Tell Them Will
354 Amy’s Mess Hunger, for the lucky among us, is an inconvenience, the final straw during a bad day that fuels a bad temper, or an awkward moment in a silent room. But for many in our community hunger is painful, difficult, and inescapable making it near impossible to do anything let alone attend school. Approximately 2.5 million children are homeless in the United States, many of whom somehow still have to attend school, often hungry. But we can help, whether it be through donations or time, we can help the children in our communities. Today Sarah Elkins and Amy Adams discuss , a nonprofit...
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355 Create The Community You Need
Your Stories Don’t Define You, How You Tell Them Will
355 Create The Community You Need Building a community can be a daunting yet very rewarding task, in order to find this community often you need to spread out and meet strangers, expanding both your world view and understanding of others. In this episode Sarah Elkins and Emily Carlson discuss the importance of building community and making your very own personal board of directors to work together for a better tomorrow. Highlights Knowing what really matters to you and never compromising your values. What you want from life changes over time. Ask what someone has...
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353 Food Stories Revisited
Your Stories Don’t Define You, How You Tell Them Will
353 Food Stories Revisited Revisiting episode 292 “Food Stories” Sarah Elkins reminisces on the importance of love languages and how important it is to show those you love how much you care. Love languages come in many different forms; gift giving, words of affirmation, and for today’s episode specifically, the act of cooking and giving a good meal to those you hold close. It is vital to the health and continuation of relationships that we discover these languages and think about how these actions impact how others view us. Highlights Spending time with those you love,...
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352 Human Curriculum
Your Stories Don’t Define You, How You Tell Them Will
352 Human Curriculum Human connection is imperative to our growth and success as people, however if we do not take time to work towards creating a community to feed our social needs we will end up stunted and spinning our tires unable to continue. In this episode Sarah Elkins and Christopher Filipiak discuss the importance of community and growth, which often comes with the fact we must allow ourselves to be vulnerable by loving and being loved in return. Highlights Growth often means vulnerability. Creating community and passing those skills down to those who...
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351 Communication Is In Everything We Do
Your Stories Don’t Define You, How You Tell Them Will
351 Communication Is In Everything We Do We are always communicating in everything we do, from overtly talking to or texting someone, to smiling and nodding to strangers you pass on the street, it’s human nature to want to be seen and heard and to give that to others. In this episode Sarah Elkins and Jim Collison discuss the importance of communication and how understanding your strengths leads to better communication not just with others but with yourself. Highlights Choose to put yourself into situations where you can tell a great story afterwards. Live a life...
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350 Growing Through Failure
Your Stories Don’t Define You, How You Tell Them Will
350 Growing Through Failure It is vital to our success to fail, we need to try things that are new and be comfortable in the fact failure is normal and expected. By letting ourselves be uncomfortable and fail at new things, we leave room for growth and success. In this episode Sarah Elkins and Paige Arnof-Fenn discuss the importance of trying new activities and accepting our failures as opportunities to grow. Highlights Building a community of people who know when to reach out for help and who you can reach out to. Don't just do what you’re great at, try things that are...
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349 Community Building
Your Stories Don’t Define You, How You Tell Them Will
349 Community Building How we choose to spend our time directly impacts the way we live both in our careers and in our day to day lives, however if we are spending our precious time surrounding ourselves with negativity and naysayers we are very unlikely to succeed. Which is why it is so important to find a community that encourages and supports each other. In this episode Sarah Elkins ruminates on the path that led her to success and satisfaction, the importance of the individuals that helped her along the way, and the community they built. Highlights Identifying paths and the...
info_outline344 Evolving Stories
Returning for his second episode, Tom Jackobs and Sarah Elkins discuss how storytelling has changed for both of them since their last conversation, how their tools and strategies have changed, as well as how important storytelling is as a medium for both of them.
Highlights
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It is okay to look for coaches, especially when you yourself are a coach.
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Find your own strategies and tools for writing and working.
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You can be good at things and not be the best at them.
Quotes
“At least I started writing, because that is the hardest part.”
“I’m not a chef, but I’m a good cook.”
“We need the ones that are going to slow us down and make decisions better.”
Dear Listeners it is now your turn,
You’ve listened to this whole conversation about how Tom started his book, how he wrote his book, why he wrote his book, why he started his podcast, and some of the challenges he experienced in that time. What is something you want to take on that you’ve been considering for a long time that you are now ready for that maybe you weren’t ready for a year ago or five years ago. What will be your first step? Are you the kind of person that needs a template to get started or are you a person that looks at a blank page and gets inspired?
And, as always, thank you for listening.
About Tom
I am a Coach of Fitness Health, Entrepreneur, Public Speaker, Improving Sales, Customer Service.
Be sure to check out Tom’s LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram! As well as his podcast on Spotify and Apple podcast!
About Sarah
"Uncovering the right stories for the right audiences so executives, leaders, public speakers, and job seekers can clearly and actively demonstrate their character, values, and vision."
In my work with coaching clients, I guide people to improve their communication using storytelling as the foundation of our work together. What I’ve realized over years of coaching and podcasting is that the majority of people don’t realize the impact of the stories they share - on their internal messages, and on the people they’re sharing them with.
My work with leaders and people who aspire to be leaders follows a similar path to the interviews on my podcast, uncovering pivotal moments in their lives and learning how to share them to connect more authentically with others, to make their presentations and speaking more engaging, to reveal patterns that have kept them stuck or moved them forward, and to improve their relationships at work and at home.
The audiobook, Your Stories Don’t Define You, How You Tell Them Will is now available!
Included with your purchase are two bonus tracks, songs recorded by Sarah's band, Spare Change, in her living room in Montana.
Be sure to check out the Storytelling For Professionals Course as well to make sure you nail that next interview!