If you haven’t wondered how to share a personal challenge with your community or clients, you probably will. Life is full of them and there’s one that’s bound to be one you keep to yourself for a while but that in fact maybe you can’t. It could be physical and impossible to hide if you’re on camera or in photos regularly. No matter what…
There’s a right time and way, so this episode dives into how to share a personal challenge publicly. There are lots of reasons this might come up. You go through a breakup or divorce, especially if you’ve shared content that includes your family. You have a health issue. There’s a tragic death in the family.
The Best Times to Share
There are things to consider that may help you decide when to share if you have that luxury. (Remember you may not always if it is something physical).
- After you’re healed from the initial personal blow.
- When you need to relay why you’ve been quiet or absent.
- It will help your audience members going through the same or offer prevention so they won’t have to.
Could Sharing a Personal Challenge Backfire?
Sharing too much could blur your own personal and professional boundaries. It can be a challenge to make the distinction if you are the brand. Is your name in your brand for instance? Then it’s you, right?
I chose carefully to have a Brand name that was saleable later. Though I’m the brand for now, it has a mission, a message, and a project that are all trademarked.
I know a friend who as recently as 2016 was struggling as a divorced, single mother who took her kids camping so she could Airbnb her home to make the mortgage and in 2023 is traveling the world and thriving. To tell her story, revealing her name would be wrong. It’s not my story to tell. It also may be a story she doesn’t tell for another decade because it may be too recent, and may change the way her audience feels about her.
When I was living in a town of 50,000 and everyone knew me because I’d been a fitness professional in private gyms, churches, universities, and corporations, published a weekly column in the newspaper, hosted a radio show… I was very private. My personal life was my personal life and customers were customers.
When I shared my personal story in my TEDx talk, it was years later, I was speaking collectively to the world, not to a small group of next-door neighbors. So context is something to consider. You’ll know when you consider how it will make you and your family feel.
Other Episodes You Might Like:
Being Healthy Enough to Beat Breast Cancer: A Trainer’s Story: https://www.flippingfifty.com/beat-breast-cancer/
How to Be Successful Enough: https://www.fitnessmarketingmastery.com/staging/successful-enough/
Resources:
Health & Fitness Business Scorecard: https://www.fitnessmarketingmastery.com/staging/scorecard
My TEDx Talk: https://www.flippingfifty.com/TEDx/
Marketing to Women Copywriting Course: https://www.fitnessmarketingmastery.com/staging/copywriting-course
