YOUR STORY ON SCREEN

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Get Your Story On Screen and Find The People You’re Called To Serve

“This is about more than just business…”

It was a grey Saturday afternoon in Chicago and I was crying into my laptop in the Airbnb apartment I had rented for the week. I was supposed to be working on my big-picture business strategy but I was feeling uninspired. Frustrated to the point of tears. Everything was about to change for me, I just didn’t know it. In fact, I wouldn’t realise it for over 18 months, but I’ll get to that later.

I abandoned my work and went wandering in the city. I ended up at the Landmark Theatre in Lincoln Park watching a film I knew nothing about. It was a film that was to set my life on a new trajectory.

When you were a kid, did you ever watch a spectacle on TV and then get the overwhelming urge to go do it yourself? My mother watched Wimbledon religiously every June and each year I’d set up a makeshift net outside to fulfil my sudden and undeniable desire to play tennis. In more recent times I used to get the same feeling when I read a blog or watched a video online where the person was sharing their message with the world in a powerful, real way. I knew somewhere deep down that my message should be up there with countless eyeballs on it. I had this sense that I was destined to reach more people.

Something Broke Inside Me

On this particular Saturday afternoon I was stuck. I felt like I was on the brink of something great but I wasn’t sure exactly what or how I would conceive it. And as I watched the film it spoke to that part of me that knew there was more to come for me.

The film was called Stories We Tell, a documentary of sorts by Canadian director, Sarah Polley. It tells a very personal story that played out in Polley’s family over the past 30 years. She was airing secrets and sharing truths in a warm and vulnerable way. It was down to earth and poetic all at once and I was captivated. Here was someone who was doing everything I wanted to but didn’t know how. Here was someone stepping up and saying, “Hi world, this is who I am, this is what I’m made of, and here’s what I’ve got for you. I hope you find meaning it.”

I can’t explain it but something broke inside me during that film. I’ve never had that experience before or since. I don’t know how else to describe it. Something broke inside my head – broke off, broke free, just plain broke, I don’t know. But I felt different afterwards. When I left the cinema my eyes were empty and my mind was alight.

Although the facts of the story being told bore no resemblance to my life, I could experience the common humanity underneath. The story spoke to me on a deep level; it reflected a shared experience of the world. I felt like Sarah Polley had reached out to me and as the credits rolled I wanted to reach back.

Life Doesn’t Make Any Sense

Psychologist, Joan Erikson once said, “Life doesn’t make any sense without interdependence. We need each other and the sooner we learn that the better for us all.” Stories We Tell brought that perspective into sharp focus. My mind reeled as I walked the streets of Chicago once more… If you’re not impacting people in a meaningful way, what’s the point? What’s your plan for the long term? Where are you going with all this?

At this point in my business I was making money in web design but I was still seeking the kind of fulfilment I wanted. I wanted to do more than just make money. I wanted to stand for something and I wanted the world to know what I stood for. Crass as it may sound, I wanted to change lives. I had no idea how that would happen on any great scale but I knew that’s what I wanted to do.

I wanted to impact people the way Sarah Polley had impacted me. I’ve followed her career ever since. I’ve explored her back catalogue. I immediately realised she had something of value to offer me and I went out of my way to find it. I’ve recommended her work to anyone who will listen. That’s the power of a REAL story, well-told.

This is all quite familiar to me now because it’s akin to what I experienced when I released my film, Becoming Yourself In Your Business, in 2014. Suddenly the world could see the value in me and my work – the value that I had hoped was there all along. But I’m getting ahead of myself, because for years that wasn’t my experience. For years I struggled with my story locked up inside me.

Pain, Frustration and Unfulfillment

Even though people were paying me money and saw value in the work my web design company did, I felt like the world couldn’t see my value. I wasn’t even sure what my value really was, but in still moments I would hear whispers of something bigger. I felt like one person on the inside and another totally different person on the outside. The world didn’t treat me the way I saw myself in my most private world. It was a torturous insanity.

Erik Erikson (psychologist and husband of Joan) is the man who coined the term ‘identity crisis’. He discovered that a healthy sense of identity requires psychosocial reciprocity. That means consistency “between that which he conceives himself to be and that which he perceives others to see in him and expect of him.” In other words, if the world doesn’t see in us what we see in ourselves, we live in pain, frustration and unfulfillment.

That Saturday afternoon in Chicago changed me. After being so moved by someone’s willingness to put their story out into the world, I realised how far my reality was from what I wanted it to be. While Sarah Polley was moving people by sharing secrets I realised I was keeping way more of them than I thought. I started to notice how much I hid from the world in small and subtle but very real ways. No wonder I felt stuck and frustrated.

I decided I no longer wanted to hide. The time for playing small was over. It was time to show myself.

Self-Disclosure

Within a few weeks I had committed to making a practice of self-disclosure part of my work. If I was going to have a real impact and reach a bigger audience I was going to have to put my real self into my work, scary as it felt. I began with an email series where I promised to share with my audience what really went on in my business and my self. I revealed the real me, warts and all, and it worked. My inbox started filling up with messages from people sharing their own personal stories. My relationship with my customers and prospects was stronger than ever before. But I still didn’t feel like I had broken through to the new audience I could sense was waiting.

When our culture talks about the trials of single people who want a relationship but can’t find one, the focus is on the feeling of loneliness and how there’s no one there for you. But when I was single and looking for a relationship the most difficult part by far was having all this love to give and no one to give it to. I felt like I had all this good stuff locked up inside me and what I wanted more than anything else was to get it out there, if only I had someone to give it to. And that’s pretty much how it feels when you have a message to share with the world but you haven’t got it out there in a big way yet.

I knew there were people out there who needed to hear what I could share with them, so I had to keep trying to find a way to reach them. I launched a web TV series to try to find my untapped audience. I started a print newsletter. Everything worked to some degree, but it was slow, hard work and while some people immediately ‘got’ what I was talking about, it didn’t quite seem to click for a lot of people.

Painful Reality Check

A painful reality check came in the form of a short email exchange one morning. A mutual friend had put me in touch with someone I wanted to interview for my web series. She was a big name in the world of online marketing. She was a somebody and I respected her. After our mutual friend made an introduction we exchanged a couple of quick emails during which she very politely said, “No, thanks.” Being so casually brushed aside hit me hard. In that woman’s email I saw a microcosm of the world – I could see her value but she couldn’t see mine. The frustrating thing was I knew if I had the opportunity to spend time with her, or if she saw some of my writings, she would see what had to offer. But I didn’t have anything to showcase who I was and what was unique about my story. Without that I might as well have been invisible. The people who mattered couldn’t see me.

So when I had the idea to make the Becoming Yourself In Your Business film I knew I could be on to something. This could be the showcase piece I was so desperately lacking. I gave it everything I had. I’d studied up on writing, storytelling, and screenwriting, I had been a copywriter for a few years already at this stage, and I’d been studying human psychology and emotion for the past decade. I put all of this knowledge and experience to work when it came to making the film. I had wanted to do something that would integrate all these different parts of me for a while and I could sense it was now or never.

Holed Up

With just a few weeks notice I flew to Ireland with my husband, John. We got together with the rest of the team and shot the film. It was the most fun we’d had together in a long time. When John and I got back to London we were so fired up we worked on the first edit for a week straight. Holed up at John’s editing desk from first thing in the morning until the wee hours, we only left the house when we ran out of food. Within two weeks we had a finished film ready to launch to the world.

After weeks of being consumed by this project and being totally excited and convinced by its merits, I was suddenly filled with crippling doubt. The night before the film launched my deepest fears visited upon me. Maybe no one will like this thing. Maybe I’ve lost all perspective. Making a film about your story, isn’t that totally narcissistic? Maybe this will be the most embarrassing thing I’ll ever experience.

Had other people not also worked their asses off to make this film happen I might have shelved it that night. Thankfully I didn’t succumb to my inner critic.

We sent an email about the film out to my list at 12.47pm the next day. The responses started coming in within minutes. It had resonated more than I ever could have imagined.

“Megan, that was beautiful, inspiring and liberating. Thanks.”

“Megan, maybe I shouldn’t admit this… you ripped me open. I was in tears by the end of the video. Thank you.”

We ran some ads to promote it and people started sharing it, my audience was growing with every passing hour.

Suddenly The World Was Coming To Me

Within days I was getting offers from people who wanted to work with me. I got emails from people asking if they could promote my products as an affiliate partner. People I knew emailed saying things like, “I shared your film with this guy I know and he’s asked me if I can make an introduction to discuss the possibility of partnering on something.” Other people – total strangers – were sharing their personal stories with me and thanking me for the film.

Within a couple of weeks I had accepted an invitation to speak at a seminar in the US where I shared the stage with marketing legend, Jay Abraham. I had never even dreamed something like that would be possible. It felt like I jumped forward a few years in the space of a couple of weeks.

A switch had been flipped. My experience of the world was different now. Within a few weeks of releasing the film I was stopped in a restaurant by an acquaintance I’d only met a couple of times before and hadn’t seen in years, to say they’d seen the film and had been inspired by it. At the next industry conference I went to people asked to have their picture taken with me. I’ve even been ‘recognised’ in public. It was a bizarre experience.

After years of pursuit and unrequited admiration, the world was coming to me all of a sudden. Before I made the film I felt like I had a powerful message but the market at large didn’t seem to ‘get’ it. The film opened the audience up to me. I had finally figured out how to present my story and my message in the right way.

It struck me that people were watching my film and experiencing the same kind of thing I experienced when I watched Sarah Polley’s film. That meant much more than any amount of extra sales ever could. The business benefits were nice, but the relief and joy I felt wasn’t because of that. It was because the world finally saw me as I saw myself.

All The Advice Was Wrong

It wasn’t until much more recently that I figured out why the film worked so well and it’s something you need to understand if you want people to listen to you, follow you, or buy from you…

All the advice and best practices out there teach you to make your marketing messages all about the customer. “No one cares about you or your company,” they say, “always talk about the customer, use the word ‘you’ a lot.” And there was a time when that was unique and refreshing and it used to work, but these days so many people understand this premise and follow best practices that it’s not enough anymore.

Every industry is swamped with websites and videos that say the same thing. When you are talking directly about the customer all the time there is nothing to set you apart. The truth is if you want customers to pay attention to you, you have to talk about yourself. You have to talk about whatever it is that no one but you can. You have to show them who you are and tell your story.

This is a counterintuitive truth; it goes against all the standard advice out there. But if you do this right, you’re not really talking about yourself, you’re expressing a common humanity. On the face of it you might be talking about your own experiences but what you’re really doing is talking about your audience’s experiences. You are telling them their own story by telling them your story. That’s what Sarah Polley did. That’s how she hooked me in. That’s what I did with my Becoming Yourself In Your Business film. And it’s what you need to do too…

Here’s How You Can Do This

You need to identify the story that only you can tell. You have to write your story in such a way that the subtext is as strong, if not stronger than the text. Let me explain what I mean by that. The text of any story is what happens – the surface level facts. The subtext of the story is the underlying truth – the stuff that is said between the lines. The subtext is what really moves us. But no one ever talks about it. Not in the marketing world, that’s for sure. Because it’s hard to teach. It’s not formulaic.

So much of the subtext depends on how you present the story. There is a kind of poetry to a well-told story. Just the right word, just the right tempo, an almost hypnotic structure. There’s an art to it and if it’s something you’re new to or too close to it’s very difficult to get right.

When there are layers to a story and it’s presented in a way that speaks to your subconscious as well as your conscious mind, it has this compelling, spellbinding quality. A comment we got again and again when we launched the film was, “I clicked through out of curiosity. I only intended to watch a minute or two but I ended up watching the whole thing.”

It’s easy to manufacture stories and videos and sales messages according to the standard formulas that everyone else is using but if you want to create something timeless, something unique, something powerful and true to you then you need to engage in artistry.

What does artistry mean? It means being original, not a copy. It means telling your story in a way that captures what’s uniquely you.

Artistry means outwardly being yourself. It means making your work, your marketing, your organisation unmistakably you.

It’s rarely talked about but it’s this artistry that really matters in business or any meaningful endeavour. It’s the 80/20 or maybe even the 95/5. Increasingly I’m seeing successful businesses where this kind of artistry is the 5% of activities engaged in that are responsible for 95% of the success. The reality is businesses aren’t successful, people are. And success depends on being influential. A successful entrepreneur must effectively influence customers, employees, partners, suppliers and collaborators. Being influential depends on outwardly being yourself – that means engaging in not just business, but artistry. It’s artistry in action that inspires people, captivates people and makes them believe in you.

As I Overcame One Problem Another Appeared

In the months after releasing the film I was invited to do talks and interviews about my work and my philosophy. This is what I had wanted to happen all along. But as I overcame one problem another appeared. Now that I had people’s attention I was experiencing a phenomenon I call ‘Look at me! Don’t look at me!’

The ‘Look at me!’ bit is the part of you that yearns to get your message out there and be noticed. It’s the part of you that loves the idea of being invited to speak as your real self. The ‘Don’t look at me!’ bit is the part of you that whispers, “But what if you’re not enough?” It’s the part of you that’s terrified of the vulnerability of putting your real story out into the world.

In the midst of all this I had a conversation with a mentor of mine. I said, “I’ve been doing some consulting recently and it’s strange… I kind of feel like I’m cheating.” “What do you mean?” he said. “Well, people are giving me money and it feels like all I’m doing for it is turning up and talking about stuff I enjoy talking about.” He laughed, “Yes! People will happily pay you just to show up and be you.”

I realised two things from our conversation. First – when people are paying you to show up and be you, that’s a sign you’re doing something right. And second – I realised that I am enough. My story is worth telling, it is of value to others and it’s enough just to show up and be me.

And the more you show up and be you, the more demand there is for it. ‘Show up and be you’ is what I did on a mass scale with my film – anyone who watches it gets to really experience me. I realise now that’s what Sarah Polley did with her film too.

I don’t want you to think for one minute that I no longer doubt myself and am never haunted by the not-good-enough demons. I still face that stuff on a daily basis, but I have accepted I’m enough, my story is enough, and it’s my duty to share it.

If you are able to help others, you also have a duty to share your story. Here’s what I’ve learned: No one has a boring story. Everyone has a story that can change minds, open hearts and inspire action. You just need to know how to draw it out and tell it well.

When it comes to telling it well, you can’t overlook video. Film is the most powerful medium of our time. Your story on screen can, for a brief glorious moment, stop the world from turning as your audience first loses and then finds themselves in your story. Give them that experience and they will never forget you or mistake you as just another face in the crowd. They will believe in your message as passionately as you do.

“Can You Make A Movie Like That For Me?”

As soon as we put the Becoming Yourself In Your Business film out in the world, we started getting the question, “Can you make a movie like that for me?” I always answered truthfully, “I’m not sure.” I knew we could turn a story into a script and shoot and produce it beautifully, we’d done that before. The big question in my mind was whether I could help people find the story to tell. I knew everyone has a story worth telling but it can take time for them to see it and I wasn’t sure if I could facilitate that process.

I went to work on that question. I sat with it for a few months and then I developed a process to walk people through uncovering the story they have that’s worth telling. It’s a more evolved version of the process I used to create my film. Next I put lots of different kinds of entrepreneurs through it as part of a special program. My suspicions were confirmed – everyone I worked with had a story worth telling and I was able to draw that out of them. The very nature of telling a real story that has the power to connect with and move people means that it’s not always comfortable and you have to be willing and able to introspect and go deep. This is what Christopher West said about his experience with me:

I want to be clear about something. When I work with someone to uncover their story, it’s not unusual for tears to be shed. We are not talking about crafting typical marketing stories here. This is the real deal. This comes down to the humanity that unites us and the emotion that drives us all. If it doesn’t elicit emotion in you, you’re not doing the work. I had my own unexpectedly emotional come-to-Jesus moment in the development of my story, which turned out to be fundamental to making the whole thing hang together. If you don’t feel anything neither will your audience.

Going through this process with a varied group of entrepreneurs, each on their own unique mission, made me realise that the answer to the much asked question is, “Yes, we can make a film like that for you.”

I’m excited to be able to offer you the opportunity to collaborate with me and my team and have us tell your story on screen. The Your Story On Screen service is extremely limited and it’s not for everyone, but for the right person, it’s exactly what you’ve been waiting for.

Let me explain who this service is for, what the eligibility criteria are and how it works.

Eligibility Criteria and How It Works

Your Story On Screen is a service where my production team and I collaborate with you to draw out your story, script it, shoot it and produce a short film.

Who is this for? A better question might be, ‘What is this for?’ I hope it’s clear by now that the process I’ll lead you through and the film we’ll create together is about much more than business and run-of-the-mill marketing messages. It’s really about furthering your cause. If you have a focus that goes beyond the bottom line and you’re driven by a cause or a mission of any sort, then this might be for you.

What I’m proposing is more than simply producing a film that looks nice. It’s an emotional journey, both for your viewers and for you. We will scratch beneath the surface where we tend to live our lives and tap into those inner thoughts and feelings that really bring about change in the world. To your audience your film will be one of those rare conversations that matter.

If you’re not sure how this stuff relates to your business or your life’s work, then Your Story On Screen probably isn’t a good fit for you. But if you have a mission, a message or a philosophy you’re passionate about then this could be a crucial step for you in sharing your story with the world. It could be the catalyst you’ve been waiting for to move things forward.

Whether you have a team of hundreds of people or your business is just you, you can and should put your story on screen. Every industry and every walk of life is crying out for authenticity and straight up honesty from their leaders and influencers – be they CEOs, consultants, advisors, coaches, educators, authors, missionaries… the list goes on.

And those leaders who are brave enough to show their humanity and share their story are rewarded with legions of followers and the ability to make a genuine impact.

Whether you have a mission related to your business; whether you’ve been in business for years and you now have the wherewithal to pursue your true calling; whether you are involved in a charitable endeavour; or whether you’re pursuing political, industry, social or community leadership to make a difference… the ability to share your story in an authentic and moving way is critical to the success of your movement.

The Your Story On Screen service is available worldwide but there is an eligibility criteria that applicants must meet. If you would like to be considered for the opportunity to collaborate with me and my production team to have us produce your film, please make sure you meet the eligibility criteria before applying.

Availability and Next Steps

If you meet the eligibility criteria, the next step is to complete the application form below to have a conversation with us. We have limited availability for this service, so if you think this might be right for you, don’t wait to apply.

APPLY NOW

New York Times Bestseller Misery

I have a friend who spent a year writing a business book that quickly became a New York Times Bestseller. When I showed him my Becoming Yourself in Your Business film and explained the importance of telling your story he said, “Man, I wish I’d seen this before I wrote my book. You know, that book’s a New York Times Bestseller but I’ve never really done anything with it. I never leveraged it to get more visibility or anything because I’m not really proud of it. I know it’s good and it’s got some great information in there, but it doesn’t feel like me. I don’t draw attention to it because it doesn’t represent who I am. It’s like it’s a good book that was written by somebody else.”

My friend’s experience highlights the reason I’ve always been wary of done-for-you marketing services. If what you are putting out into the world doesn’t reflect who YOU are then it doesn’t matter how technically brilliant it might be, you won’t benefit from it in the long run.

Your Story On Screen is a truly bespoke service. This is not a film version of some ‘book writing’ service where they interview you for an hour and then write your ‘book’ for you. This is a piece of work that will come from your soul and mine. Your film will be human, it will be vulnerable, it will be moving. I won’t put my name to anything less. And you shouldn’t either. Because this is about much more than business and marketing.

This is About More Than Just Business

If you’re thinking about this in terms of ‘how could I use a film to sell more stuff, or improve the conversation rate on my page, or double my sales next month’, then you’re coming at it all wrong.

The collaboration I’m proposing between you and I is about much more than that. It’s about more than marketing and increasing your sales. It’s about your mission and your driving philosophy. It’s about something you believe in that’s bigger than you.

You and I both know the best businesses are always about more than just business anyway. From Richard Branson and Virgin, Anita Roddick and The Body Shop, to the Tony Robbins or Oprah powerhouses; these are businesses where it’s always been about more than just the bottom line. It’s about the value they bring to the world. And more often than not it’s about the personal mission of the entrepreneur behind the business.

So I’m not going to start making promises about how telling Your Story On Screen will triple your sales or double your business or whatever; because that’s not what this is about. What I will say is that when you have something of real value to offer people and you focus on getting your message out there in an authentic way, then the financial rewards follow. But it happens in that order. Doing it for the money doesn’t seem to cut it.

With that said, I should be clear – Your Story On Screen is most definitely an investment. It’s a long term investment in yourself, in your mission and your legacy. My film has been the most important investment I’ve made for my business and my work in the world, and if you’re the right person, the same could be true for you.

Creating anything meaningful and lasting comes back to the artistry of being outwardly and undeniably yourself in the world. The best artistry often comes from collaboration; magical things can happen when people work together to make something that really matters.

If you’d like to collaborate with me to put your story on screen, apply below.