Which sounds evoke memories for you?

There’s something about the sound of church bells that goes straight to my soul.

I grew up in Sherborne in Dorset, home to a beautiful abbey church and bell practice was on Tuesday evenings. I have no idea why I remember that as nobody I knew was involved in bellringing, but I do.

In my teens, my friends and I were likely to be sitting around on a hillside overlooking the town and the abbey, doing nothing in particular but just hanging out, with the bells ringing in the background. There was a sense of remote infinity.

In the winter, with windows closed, it was harder to hear the bells so when I hear church bells now, I go straight back to balmy summer evenings and that sense of remote infinity.

Now I live in Petersfield and guess what – bell practice is also on a Tuesday!

What memories come up for you with certain sounds?

Want help in finding your stories? I can help you.

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Sharing stories helps you connect with your audience – to a point, that is.

Sometimes though, no matter how relatable you might think you are being, the gap between where you are and where your audience is remains too big. It’s too hard for them to put themselves into your story when they have zero experience of your world.

If your story is about the challenges of living within a jet set life of glamour when your audience inhabits a world of basic survival you risk creating too wide a gap between where you are now and where they are, however much they might want to bridge that gap.

So start where your audience is. Find out more about them, their levels of knowledge, the worlds they live in, etc. and choose stories that match that.

So yes, stories will help you connect but make sure they’re the right stories.

And if you need help with finding those stories, let’s have a chat.

Want help in finding your stories? I...

Are you one of those people that others open up to and share their life stories, whether you ask them to or not?

It frequently happens to me.

On a recent morning walk, I found myself chatting with a complete stranger.

He seemed keen to talk and shared a lot of his personal story. In truth he wasn’t in a good place so for the most part I listened and reflected.

Imagine my surprise when as we parted company he thanked me for making his day!

I thought about why that might have been.

Simply letting him talk probably helped.

With a counselling background, I knew how hard depression is, for both the person suffering and those around them so he probably felt understood.

I was familiar with several of the techniques he was using to improve his life and could tell him about other people I knew who’d successfully used those techniques so he probably felt validated.

I’ll never know – but I know that I made his day.

Encouraging people to share their stories as a means of...