The ugly part of your success story is what makes it beautiful.

In last week’s episode, I interviewed Elizabeth Eichhorn, a former business coach of mine and fellow entrepreneur. I brought Elizabeth onto the show to share the story of her first business and talk about some of the big moves she made along the way that led her to where she is today.

What I didn’t know going into the chat was that Elizabeth’s first business, Mary Lee Cookies, an early player in the Gluten Free food business – actually failed. And I’m not sure Elizabeth was planning to share that with me on her episode… but she did, and she found the courage to be real about it.

What happened after Elizabeth shared these details was quite magical… The story of her failed business generated emotion… She dug deeper. She spoke of the reality of her personal life at the time… And she talked about the deep sense of loneliness she felt even as she was on the brink of success.

Women in business, does this resonate?

Sharing only the good parts of your story sounds like the right thing to do to make people buy into whatever it is you are selling… products, services, a promotion, a new role… and I can tell you this: while it definitely feels SAFER to stash away all the less magical moments… it is those ugly parts of your story that you actually NEED to share in order to connect with people.

People want real. They want to know what really happened. And what you did next? And how that felt? That is what good storytelling is all about. It turns out that a lot of the time, the ugly parts are what make your story beautiful.

In this episode, I’m going to dive deeper into my interview with Elizabeth Eichhorn and talk about some of the GEMS from her story.

I hope you enjoy this episode. Thanks for listening! Be sure to subscribe to my show wherever you get your podcasts. Like, love and share these episodes generously... because every engagement matters when you're elevating the visibility of women in business. That, dear friends, is the whole point.

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