How to Share Your Origin Story From 5 Different Angles

Megan Yelaney (00:02.168)

Hello and welcome back to Business Not as Usual. I’m coming at you post nap. If I’m being just so honest about where I’m at in my day. I am recording this on a Sunday and I was with the boys all morning. And Mike said, Okay, go do some work you want to do before your your mom and sister come over to hang out with the boys. And I said, Okay, great. I’m like, I am tired. I’m gonna take a nap. And before you know it, it was an hour. I’m like, wow.

I I was gonna take like a 20 minute power. You know those power naps? I’m so curious if that works for you. Please DM me. Let me know. I feel like anytime I like I try to take those, I just end up tossing and turning and thinking, it’s already been five minutes. Okay, it’s 10 minutes. Okay. It never, it never works, but I feel pretty refreshed. I feel like an hour was good. It was not too long where you’re like, I wanna just sleep for the rest of the day now. So I feel I’m coming at you a little rejuvenated, a little rested.

I was gonna be a little rusty if not. It just felt that like, oof, mama needs mama needs a nap before the boys have a nap. So they’re napping now while I’m recording this. Anyway, you didn’t need that backstory, but you got it. Welcome back. I’m excited to one, announce a really exciting series that I am bringing back, but two, also share something that has been working really, really well for my clients. not just something, a three-somethings. I’m gonna break down three different types of content that’s been working really, really well for my clients.

And it all stems from their origin story. And so what I’m also, it’s kind of like a double dip strategy exercise episode. I’m also going to share five different ways that you can actually share your origin story. So you write out your origin story. How can you share it from like five different angles? I

Help people with origin stories all day long in my program. And one of the reasons we have, we, we put so much emphasis on it is it’s literally like the cornerstone for so much of your marketing and your business, especially with content nowadays. As I am recording this in 2026, September 2026, sharing your story from many, many, many different angles is and having that anchor piece makes

Megan Yelaney (02:11.114)

everything else in your business easier. It really speeds up that trust process with your clients and your with your potential clients more than anything. And it’s just, it’s so cool because I’ve been teaching and sharing about storytelling for so many years. And especially because of AI, but also just like what I’ve seen happen in the industry in the last even like six months, it is more and more important. Real quick aside, one thing that like inspired this episode, although I already had like the inkling that I wanted to do this

But made me go, made the resolve very, very sure to to definitely nail down and help you get the story piece like locked in. Is I’ve seen so many creators have a lot of success lately. Jesse Jean, obviously, with the Yap Challenge. There’s two other, I’m literally forgetting their names, so I’m not gonna try to pretend that I remember. Two other creators that I’ve seen have crazy, crazy launches, like 300,000 plus, almost a million, maybe a million plus, something like that.

And then I’m seeing though, like shortly after, which is so freaking awesome. It’s so cool. It’s so inspiring. It’s like, yeah, the online space is not dead. There is so much success that that can happen. I mean, obviously it’s not dead. It’s not saturated. You can have success. Like these people are popping off, having all the success. I look at that as such proof that it’s possible for you. But what I see people doing wrong with this is they see that success, Jesse Jeans, the other people.

Whose names I literally cannot remember right now. I need to go do a scroll to find them again. They they have done it because it’s built on them and their story and the way they think and their lived experience and their approach, just their personality, like all of this stuff, the way they edit, the way they talk. And what I’m seeing now in my feed is like a carbon copy. I am seeing.

Like once I saw this other creator’s, it’s gonna bug me. You know what I’m gonna do? I’m gonna pause this as I’m scrolling and get her name because I want to give this person the credit she deserves. Hold on. Jessica Carter was one of the other creators. I like how I say, hold on one second. Like you’re not gonna, we’re not gonna edit that out. So I I paused while I recorded. So funny. Anyway, I’m like, I feel like you’re here with me right now in the moment as I’m recording this. Anyway, freaking awesome. I think what she’s doing is so cool. And

Megan Yelaney (04:32.02)

Now I’m noticing the style that she does like pop up so much, like everywhere. And of course, like there’s only so much, like, I’m not saying like with editing, like there’s gonna be certain things that a lot of people will do just because it’s like good editing and it’s interesting and all that. So it’s not even like the fonts or the editing or anything like that. It’s like the style or people literally trying to sound like her. And

It’s just not gonna work. Like she had success. Jesse Jean had success. All these other people are having success because they are being truly themselves. They have a thought, a perspective, a point of view, which we call your distinctive edge. They have such clarity and such conviction in who they are, what their story is, what they bring to the table, the message they want to share. If you don’t have that, trying to just copy a format of editing, copy a hook.

Copy a topic idea. Maybe, maybe it’ll get you one viral video. Will it get you a successful business? No, I can promise you that. I can absolutely promise you that. And so while I think it’s so great and I’m inspired by all of these people, I am not then going, okay, how can I exactly copy everything they’re doing? Cause it just doesn’t work. It won’t work. It’s gonna make you have more frustration. But, but, but, but if you nail down.

Your origin story. And when I say origin story, I mean why you’re doing what you’re doing now. The impetus for your business, the impetus for why you are literally creating content, citing clients, working with clients, spending time away from your family to make your business work, like all of that. Why are you freaking here? Besides just money. Yes, money, of course, obviously. And what else? What’s the other purpose? People care about that so much more than you think. And in fact, that’s a huge reason people buy.

And that is going to create all of the other content that you want to put out there. That all of these really awesome people who are popping off, they’ve got that locked in. And when you look at their stuff, it’s all storytelling. And it’s all anchored off of their main thing, right? Thing that they want to be known for. Every single person, I challenge you, I challenge you right now, every single person that has success right now.

Megan Yelaney (06:53.568)

They are known for something. And I don’t mean known in the sense of like niching where they are just email marketing or just this or just that. It’s you could be multifaceted. I’m not talking about niching like a specific skill necessarily, but they’re known for something. So even like, let me just bring up her account. So Jessica’s account, it’s the dot Jessica Carter. Her it says motherhood and personal growth will hopefully make you laugh a little. Scrunchy and Jesus loving wife and boy mama. So she shares.

Hey, well, she now she’s been sharing a lot about her launch, a ton about her launch, but she shared a lot about her editing, content tools I use every day, July income recaps. So it’s like motherhood and sharing how I’m balancing basically motherhood, being at home, being a boy mama, and making an income online now, right? And now she’s really known for her editing and like how incredible her editing is and this like editing style that she’s done, right?

So that’s what I’m talking about. It’s not, she’s not just talking about business, just talking about motherhood. She’s multifaceted. She can talk about multiple things. Like you especially now, people are doing that and it’s working. So I’m not when I say edge, it doesn’t mean you have to get so niche down that like you are talking to postpartum moms at two months postpartum, week five, and they have 10.5 pounds to lose. No, we don’t need to get that specific.

But your the skill and the thing that you wanna be known for, not the skill, the thing you want to be known for. That’s what you want to start to really show and share and communicate in your origin story. So when you’re crafting your origin story, the whole time I want you to be thinking about is this reflecting what I want to be known for? Is this what I actually want to be known for? Is it, am I kind of leaning back into like what’s comfortable, or do I actually want to be known for something else and I’m kind of shying away from it? Okay. Anywho, not gonna go down too much of a tangent there.

But I just had to like set that as an aside. So when you map out your origin story, which I have an awesome template on how to do that, I’ll put the link to it in the in the show notes. It’s Megan Alaney.com forward slash business dash story dash blueprint. So business story blueprint. Once you map yours out, I’m gonna go over five quick ways that you could take that and share that from different angles. And then I’m gonna share three types of content that’s really, really working for my clients right now. And they’re all based on your story. So you need that anchor to really like.

Megan Yelaney (09:15.19)

be able to do this well. But of course, before we get into that, this and so much more is going to be dove deep into in my next live free event, The Content Fix. I’m bringing it back, baby. I’m bringing it back. Okay. I ran this event literally a year ago, like a little over a year ago. It was about a year and a week ago, in September of 2025. And this is going to be hosted the 29th, 30th, and October 1st. So we’re starting off the month together too, on the last day of September.

The three-day content fix. I am so so pumped about this. When I ran it last time, we really went over the different types of content that shows your process, your proof, and your perspective. The three Ps I called it. We’re still, I’m still gonna teach that and and how that really equates to sales, how you need to have all three of those in your content in order to sell. I’m still gonna teach that, but I’m of course giving it a little zhuzh. It’s been a year. There’s a a lot that’s changed in the industry, a lot that

I’ve learned a lot that my my program has taught me, my clients have taught me, all that jazz. I’m actually adding a fun twist. And we’re not only going to learn that, but we are going to write the three pinned posts that do your selling for you. So strangers become buyers before you ever slide into a single DM. That’s the tagline and sub subheadline. I think it’s pretty fun. So go to menu lane.com forward slash content dash fix. You can see all the details, but basically you’re going to

Write the three pinned posts at the top of your Instagram page. So even if you don’t have an Instagram right now, you can think of this as the main, the top three podcast episodes or blog articles or substack pins, however you wanna think about it, or or emails in rotation. But the three main pieces that people need to see in order to trust you enough to buy from you. The first is, of course, your story. So we’re gonna get a little sneak peek of that today. The next is, and I’m calling that the why you post, right? The one that really makes someone who’s scrolling.

actually stop and and look into it. Go, hmm, there’s some connection here. I feel like there’s something in this person’s story that’s drawing me in that I can see myself in their story. Right. Then the second day we’re going to do the what you actually do post. So that’s going to be a lot about your process. it really is the one that like when you have someone kind of like interested in what you do, but kind of confused, this post is going to be one you can always send them and it’s going to bring them so much clarity. They’re going be like,

Megan Yelaney (11:41.912)

I get it. my gosh, this is what I’ve been missing. And then day three, October 1st, is the it actually works post. So it’s the proof. We’re really gonna help you take your client wins, client testimonials, and turn it into content that actually helps people see themselves getting that same result, not just like random screenshots with zero context, right? So those three: the why you post, the what you actually do post, the it actually works post.

Those are what you want to have pinned at the top of your page. And by the end of this, if you follow along, I’m giving you a template every single day in your homework. Like we’re gonna have so much freaking stuff for you to do in these three days. You’re gonna be like, how is this free? This is insane. Of course, we have a VIP option where I will review all of your stuff. So you can check that out on the thank you page after you opt in. But go to the link in the show notes, make sure you register. It’s gonna be.

10 it’s gonna be so just as good as last year, but 10 times better. Like 10 times better. I’m so freaking excited for this. Like I loved the content fix last year and I knew I wanted to bring it back, but I wanted to zudge it up and really pumped about this angle. Okay, so let’s dive in to the topic at hand. Your origin story. Once you go through the blueprint, you map that out, you got your origin story. Again, if you go to business, the business story blueprint, it’s in the in the show notes. I got a lot of like activities for you to do today. So

Will recap at the end the order of activities. Do as I say, not as I do. Don’t usually give people this many like steps to do. but I’m I’m like going against my own rules. It’s okay. So once you map out your story, now how do you tell that over and over and over again? So I’m gonna give you five different angles, five different ways that you can actually share your story from a different from a different like entry point. Let’s think of it as you have a house and you have multiple doors to get into the house. If you just keep going through the same door every single time.

it might feel a little stale, but if you can go through different doors, but you’re sharing, you’re getting into the same house, you’re sharing the same takeaway, the same point, the same connection, then it’s gonna seem like a new piece of content, even though it’s basically saying the same thing, right? Going into the same house. So the first angle that I want you to look at once you write out your story from is the scene or behavior angle. Look at your story and go, what is the most specific moment in my story? Like when I’m reading this out, I could like basically

Megan Yelaney (13:54.924)

write a scene in a movie from this. I could drop my audience into a very specific visceral, like, my gosh, I was buckling my kid into his car seat and this happened, right? Or I was putting on my shoes and I got this sudden pang of guilt. Or I was in the car, just turned off the ignition, about to go inside and had such a hit of anxiety and I didn’t know what I was going to do next. Like

I’m just literally made those up on the fly. But let’s say that it’s that moment. Like what is that very specific visceral moment that your ideal client goes through that you went through that’s within your story? So that’s one entry point that you can tell your origin story from. The second, when you’re going through your story and you’re combing through it, is ask yourself, what was the emotion I was carrying that I was really afraid to say out loud? So what is that feeling or fear? The emotion you were carrying, that’s the second angle you’re gonna go through.

The first was the scene or behavior that specific moment. The second is the feeling or fear, the emotion you were carrying. So for example, I thought I was going crazy, right? Let’s say that’s like the start of the hook. Again, it’s going to be the same story that you told in the behavior specific moment, but you’re going to share it from an emotional, an emotion you were carrying. I thought I was going crazy, and then you’re going to basically share almost the same story, but you’re entering from that. So go through your story and highlight and ask yourself what are all the different feelings that I have.

that I feel in this story that I I’m expressing in this story. And maybe even some that I didn’t write down that I know I still felt. The third is mistakes, what you tried that didn’t work. So ask yourself and you might have this in your story, you might not. When I go through my blueprint, when you go when you go through my blueprint, you’ll see I don’t have mistakes as a section. It just naturally is something that people write down because we when we’re sharing our story, we tend to share what we did wrong, right?

So if you don’t have that, you can add that, right? It doesn’t have to be to your original one, but you can add that as an angle. So what did you try first that made your situation worse or kept you really stuck? So great example for me is one thing that I tried when I was like really stuck in business is I threw money at the problem and I just hired a lot of people to figure out problems for me instead of like taking a step back and actually figuring some of it out myself because I was overwhelmed and I thought,

Megan Yelaney (16:14.284)

I’m just gonna throw money at the problem instead of slowing down and being able to take a beat. And so that is definitely an angle I can take when I tell my story now about rebuilding postpartum and having this business now after kids and all that jazz. And so what is a mistake that you made that made your situation worse or kept you stuck? Right. number foot. That’s number three. Number four, this might not be for everyone, but I tend to have a lot of clients that are like so.

They’re so smart and so good at what they do that they’re like really, really hard on themselves and like, wait, how how did I not realize it was this? Right. Like it’s kind of crazy that I didn’t realize I was going through this. I’m smarter than this. So if you have like an identity or a credential or background that makes these your story kind of ironic or again, high stakes. So I also have this in mind, right? Something I could say, something along the lines of how.

How could I, someone who had built at the time of the story, over three million and had made over three million in sales, how could I have made that kind of wrong investment? I should have known by now. I can’t believe I made this investment. Someone who has been in business for over 10 years should know better. Right. And so my credential of having a lot of experience in business, building three different businesses, successful businesses, and still making some of these mistakes that I was almost embarrassed to admit that I made, right?

And so what is like a credential that you maybe you had? One of my clients’ examples is like she said she has a psychology degree and she can name attachment styles in her sleep, and she still ended up becoming her mother, which is what she helps people avoid, right? when they don’t want to become their mother, obviously. and so that’s like, wait, I how did I not how did I not see this? I was a psychology major, I was a business owner for 10 years.

And that’s where I think the story can feel very grounded and like gives the viewer such a sigh of relief and like, wow, yeah. I if if if Megan struggled with this, of man, me struggling with this is no big deal. It makes them feel so much more capable because you’re kind of opening up that that door and being vulnerable and saying, It’s okay, I screwed this up and I should have definitely known better. Like you, you shouldn’t have known better. You might not be where I’m at. And so of course you’re gonna have this this issue if I had this issue, you know what I mean?

Megan Yelaney (18:33.858)

So the credential door. And then the last one is really just the after. So leading with the result first. So what specific thing changed that you never ever thought would could be a moment or a feeling your IDO client would literally give anything for, anything for. So if you are are on a business journey and you start with six figures and a hundred clients later, I if you told if you told me five years ago this is where I would be, I wouldn’t have believed you.

And so I could be telling the same exact story, but I’m starting with the after versus if I’m starting with a feeling of I almost filed for bankruptcy. This isn’t true. I’m just making this up, but I almost filed for bankruptcy when my son was five years old. but then I found this opportunity, right? And so again, we can share the same exact story, but from all of these different angles. So to recap, you’re gonna look at your story and go, which scene or behavior, a specific moment can I pull from?

What feeling or fear can I pull from? What mistake that I made can I pull from? What credential or identity that makes my story hit even harder can I pull from that I feel like I should have known better? And what after? What specific thing changed that my idol client would give anything for that I could start with? Like look what I was able to do. So that’s gonna be the core of your story. You’re gonna map out in your business story blueprint. That’s gonna be your first step. Well, your first step is to sign up for the content fix. If you do nothing, just do that. That’s the most important step because you’re gonna go over all this and then some.

The second is a business story blueprint. The third is to go through these five angles. And now I’m just gonna a little bonus for you. And I’m gonna link the post. So I made a post last week. Yeah, last week as I’m recording this. And it was the contents but that’s working for my clients right now. And I had a lot of people DM me to get my business story blueprint from this post, which was the call to action for it.

And this one, again, everything’s anchored in story, but I want to just quickly like recap it. I will also link it in the show notes if you’re more visual and you want to see it. But three pieces of content that are really hitting for my clients right now. And every single piece that I shared was posted within the last two weeks, most in the last week that I’m recording this, but by the time you see this, it might be two or three weeks. So they’re very recent types of content. So one is education through story.

Megan Yelaney (20:54.136)

So what it is, it’s sharing education tips around your topic, but backed by your own lived experience. So instead of just I’m gonna spout out some random fact, right? You are sharing your specific story around that fun fact. It works because education without any backstory can be found through AI, of course, right? Simply adding your own experience.

and your credentials immediately adds a trust factor that AI cannot give them. And I have an example in the post. So again, I’ll link the Instagram post down below. You can go see the example as well, because I linked that in the in the carousel post. The second type, identity connection content. So what it is, you’re sharing a specific very niche, like only they would get it moment that people want to immediately share because they feel so seen or because it makes them laugh or feel a type of way.

This works because it immediately increases reach because of how shareable it is and makes them associate you with making them feel a type of way, whether it’s humor, seen, understood. I do this constantly with twin content or boy mom content, because I’m like, my gosh, like there’s such niche specific things that like only twin moms would get that if I see a twin mom get real niche and specific about it, I’m immediately sharing it to my husband. I’m immediately sharing it with my other twin friends. I’m immediately resharing it on my page. Like it’s just like,

my gosh, yes, that’s our lived experience. So think about identities that you share with your ideal client, not just how you help them, but also things that would make them feel like really seen and heard and be that, gosh, this is so good. I have to share this with my partner or my friend or my spouse, right? I do this a lot with my best friend. I’ll share a lot of like millennial, especially like college content because we met and in college. We were college roommates and now best friends, best friends since then.

And there’s just like the college experience in 2005 to 2009 is quite different than what I have seen on the internet today. And so, like, especially the the outfits and the makeup. And so we’ll like whenever I see millennial stuff, like kind of comparing our college experience to like what Gen Z is going through, it’s so funny. Everyone I share with her. So that’s a good example. But again, I have a client, an actual client example that had crazy engagement on it. It had

Megan Yelaney (23:14.312)

my gosh, over a thousand, fifty, over 1,500 shares. Isn’t that crazy? Okay, last one, micro moments. I have whole podcast episodes on this because this is like gold, gold, gold, gold, gold. Micro moment is a post where you drop someone into a very specific moment in their life. It could be something that happens to them on a regular basis or something more rare, but still super significant. And again, this was the first angle that I gave you a little bit ago when I was explaining the five different angles you could share your story from. So you need to have your story for all of these to work.

Why this works, they immediately feel seen, understood, and dropped into that moment. And when done correctly, you show them how you and your method can get them out of that moment. So that’s it’s just such a like really visceral feeling when you read something and you’re like, that happened to me this morning. What? How do I how do I overcome that? How do I I don’t want to do what I did this morning? I don’t want to react the way I did. What what else can I do? And so you’re interested, you’re gonna sway because you’re like, this is freaky. Do you have

A camera on me right now, inside of my head. This is a little bit freaky because this is exactly what I was experiencing, right? And again, the anchor for all of this is really, really knowing your origin story. Every single one of these clients and these examples flush out their story from top to bottom to pull these moments, identity anchors, and educational tips from. Without it, the content wouldn’t have a cohesive through line. It would just be kind of like random, right? So, number one, go sign up for content fix because on day one.

The why do you care post, that’s what we’re going to map out together. And that’s going to be one of the first pin posts that you’re going to do. People care about why you are running your business, why you they’re going to connect with your story over everything else. This is why these people, Jessica, Jesse Gene, the other creators who are popping off. This is why one of the main reasons they’re popping off is they know themselves and their story with such conviction. And anyone who is trying to replicate them is going to struggle. But if you can nail this down.

You can take some inspiration, some tools, some tactics, some tips from them and what they did and apply it to your story, then it’s gonna work so much better. But if you don’t have this as the anchor, it’s not gonna land. And the great thing about story, I just love it so much. The great thing about it is it does not matter what happens with social media. It does not matter what platform you’re on. It’s literally the start of every good speech you can ever think of. Any speech that you go watch, right? Any speech, they start off with a story.

Megan Yelaney (25:44.01)

No one starts a story, no one starts a speech off just rattling facts unless it’s like a really interesting statistic or something like that. But no one’s like, hey, I’m gonna start just getting into the education. No. They’re like, all right, I’m gonna tell you a story first, right? Immediately you you lean in. Immediately you’re like, ooh, okay, what are they gonna say? Versus let’s just spout a bunch of information at your face. Like, no, that’s I’m I’m already out. I’m already sleeping. I’m already pretending I’m paying attention and I’m and I’m not. But when you hook in and you’re like,

I’m gonna share a story and it’s gonna help you realize why what I’m about to teach really is gonna be life-changing and why you need to pay attention. Anytime I teach anything, framework, story, which is gets very inception-y, your edge, content, launching, whatever it is, I always lead. I always start with a story every single time. In fact, I recommend anytime you’re about to tell an educational share tip or anything, always go, what’s a story that can that can sh

exemplify why this matters, why they should care about this. It’s gonna hook people in so much more. All right. Go to the link in the show notes, register for content fix. I will see you there September twenty ninth, thirtieth, and October first. I cannot wait. And then I will see you in the next episode.