« The 8 Experience Telling Principles »

I perched at a counter stool, legs dangling as I watched people walk past.

Ozo on Pearl had opened just days earlier, on February 14, 2011 (incidentally, the day before I blank slated this site), and it was well on its way to becoming my favorite Boulder cafe. I loved the way a single shaft of sunlight pooled at the door, flanked by two full-length windows on either side for people watching. A mom rolled her two kids in in a very modernized version of a red wagon.

I enjoyed the warmth and sighed to myself. I was here, in from the cold, with a specific purpose. I wanted to write about what it is I do. I wondered: how do I talk about this particular craft of mine? Year over year when asked what I do I’d either evade the question, briefly describe my latest project or, if time weren’t an issue, say: I’m in a traveling circus.

That isn’t so far from the truth, because being an experience teller is like waking up each day, looking in on the animals - feeding the ones that need feeding, petting the ones that need petting, and getting back on the horse for another go round.

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For a time I was a blogger. My career in blogging started in earnest when I got back to the States after being in Japan nearly four years. I went to a blogging conference (BlogHer) and started to see the ways in which blogging could be parlayed into a lifestyle, a career of my own making. Year after year I blogged, sometimes several times a week, and always speaking from experience, if at times without a clear purpose.

From the blog came paid speaking and consulting engagements. From the blog, I built a career. At the beginning of 2011 I published an ebook and starting writing more intimate writing to the letter. I no longer saw myself as a blogger, but as an experience teller.

Now, I see the blog as a tool and what I do on it, experience telling.

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Back at Ozo I pulled out a notecard and drew a Venn diagram with the words: Experience, Capture and Tell. In the middle, a dollar sign. Around the outside, incubate and/or untether.

I was mapping how it is I do what I do while getting paid to do it.

I was mapping what I've come to call Experience Telling. 

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Experience telling is my work in the world and it may be yours, too.

Experience telling is what I do here at gwenbell.com, and have been doing the past six months on the letter.

Experience telling is what I aim to do when I speak - whether one on one or to a group.

It’s what I do when I text, email and write.

It's what I do anytime I publish. 

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When we tell from experience, with a desire to connect, we’re experience telling. 

Since the day I drew the Experience Telling Venn diagram I’ve identified eight experience telling principles which I intend to tease out over the next eight posts (in short form) and next few months (in booking form and on the letter).

1. Verbal Asana Experience tellers practice verbal asana.

2. Self-contained Experience tellers write self-contained pieces.

3. Lean Experience tellers strive to be lean of speech.

4. Verbal Rulership Experience tellers rule their verbal domains.

5. Eschew Absolutes Experience tellers eschew absolutes and focus on actualities.

6. Down the Slot Experience tellers take their audience down the slot.

7. From Experience Experience tellers tell from their own experience.

8. Timeless Experience tellers aim for timelessness when they publish.

If you’d like to dive deeper into the work of communication (satya), read Judith Hanson Lasater and Ike Lasater’s superb What We Say Matters. Of the books I’ve read on communication, What We Say Matters is the richest, most accessible I’ve encountered. I can’t recommend it strongly enough for those of you who would like to become stronger experience tellers.

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