You may not feel like sharing the horrors of your redundancy, divorce or diagnosis for colleagues, friends, clients and acquaintances to read with their morning coffee.

But think again… because if you have a story to tell that can move and inspire, there may be advantages in telling it in the national press.

People do business with people they like – and your honesty and candidness about challenges you’ve faced and the advice you’d share are a shortcut to making you relatable and real – it’s how you get people to know, like and trust you.

So, I’ve created list of stories that are the subject of frequent press callouts (I know because I write these stories for the press myself!). It’s not exhaustive, but it gives you some ideas…

*Here are some of the stories the media can’t get enough of *

💡 Stories of change
Career change, lifestyle change, habit change, moving to a different area or country. How you changed your life and found happiness. How travel changed you.

💡 Stories of loss
Bereavement, job loss, business failure, baby loss, financial loss. Enduring and ultimately overcoming/coming to terms with major grief or disaster.

💡 Family stories
Your dad’s bankruptcy, mum’s secret life, brother’s disappearance, etc. Happy stories can work too! Also, specific challenges of starting a family and of motherhood and fatherhood and impact on career and mental health.

💡 Picture-based stories
“The picture that changed everything. The last photo of our family before xxx. The photo that inspired me to lose weight/leave my marriage/change careers/move to the seaside etc”.

💡 Unusual business stories
“Going into business with a daughter, friend, mum etc”. The unusual product or service you provide. Hobbies and passions that became a business. The circumstances that led to your ‘aha’ moment.

💡 Marriage and divorce
Marriage stories tend to need some kind of hook, eg, ‘The surprising way he proposed’ or ‘Everything went wrong on our wedding day’. Divorce is always of interest, with peak times in January and September. What led to it, how you got through it, what advice you’d share. But there can be legal implications with sharing some divorce stories.

💡 Health stories
How a health issue has changed you, or how you’ve tackled it (especially if it’s an unusual way), or how it led to career change. Coming to terms with a mental health issue and sharing what helps. Sleep and burnout are always of interest. As is addiction – how you finally gave up alcohol, drugs, gambling, social media or other addictions.

💡 Weight and fitness
Weight loss through diet (what finally helped you make the change?) Or weight loss jabs (and side effects). Fitness is always interesting if you were very out of shape to start with or have used a radical or unusual new technique.

💡 Neurodiversity
Of particular interest right now are struggles to get a neurodivergent child diagnosis/support, or the impact on your life/career of being a neurodivergent adult, or why you employ neurodivergent staff.

💡 HR nightmares
What you learnt from working with a toxic boss/passive aggressive colleague/bullying line manager, or what you learnt from being a boss/manager. Why you left your job/changed careers.

 

This list is just a starting point – there are so many other press angles and hooks. Is your story relevant to the media? Let’s find out.

Contact me for help with nailing your press story, writing press releases and pitching to journalists, and guidance on using it to get your message and expertise out there in ways that feel comfortable for you.