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Connor Jeffers is an entrepreneur from Chicago, who owns a growth consulting firm that works with companies to build greater sales and marketing impact through their businesses. He also spends time advising young professionals in their careers.

I personally have scheduled several advising sessions with Connor through Praxis, the apprenticeship program that I am currently enrolled in. He has great insight on marketing techniques and entrepreneurship, and I highly recommend him to any young professional who wants to grow themselves!

How to Craft Your Narrative

Connor starts out telling his personal story as a series of unconnected events, in order to prove his point and give a background for the insight he has to give.

This story sounds much different from the version he gives later on. Connor pulls the events of his life into the arc that they are, actively showing the fact that every aspect of life comes together into a complete story. But it’s up to you to find that narrative.

You have experience in areas that many people don’t.  Connor calls this “domain expertise blindness.” Many things that you take for granted actually give you a tremendous amount of expertise in areas that others aren’t as familiar with.

Where is your expertise? Connor says that finding this area is one of the keys to impacting the world around you.

Storytelling and Your Narrative:

It makes sense that people would connect to a narrative that comes together well; we love stories and love when we can connect to them. (I cover this idea in more depth in my podcast episodes with Hannah Frankman.)

Everyone wants to be a part of an epic story. The people who become successful are the ones whose stories are epic adventures that others want to join.

How can you tell your story in a way that people want to be a part of it? That’s what selling yourself is.

“You’re always selling yourself.” -Connor

Imposter Syndrome

Feel like a fake? You might be great at telling your story, but deep down inside you feel like you’ll be uncovered for being an imposter.

Imposter syndrome causes you to focus on how far you have to go rather than how far you have come. It’s a defeatist attitude that is crippling to many people. How do you overcome it?

• Look at other people’s success as something to pattern and recreate in your own life.
• Stop comparing with others and stick to your goals.
• Remember how far you’ve come.
• Recognize that even the most successful people don’t know exactly where they are going all the time.
• Stop fearing failure.

Connor’s website is connorjeffers.com.