Welcome to Issue 33 of A Good Reputation, a newsletter about how to use storytelling to grow your brand. (Did someone send you? Subscribe here.)

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Hello Reader,

“My life, lived inside my head.” —M. Mazloumian

This is one of my favorite six-word memoirs.

Not for me, exactly, but maybe for a part of me I haven’t quite named.

It reveals someone who thinks and feels deeply, but might also be lonely. Or maybe there’s regret around stories untold, words unspoken, and experiences rewritten internally rather than lived out loud.

Maybe there’s acceptance, but also a yearning for life to be felt more than lived.

And I get all of that from six little words.

This little story and millions of others came from a storytelling experiment launched by SMITH Magazine in 2006. Inspired by that famously compact (and possibly fictional) Hemingway line, “For sale, baby shoes, never worn,” editor Larry Smith invited readers to sum up their life in just six words.

The stories poured in.

People from around the country—and eventually around the world—shared tiny stories that were funny, devastating, strange, and tender.

None of them are full narratives. They're just a glimpse. A thread. A truth.

Some of the other others that made me feel:

“Please, time, I am not ready.” –Valentina Raman
“Kid gets magic set, pursues dream.” –Gerry Katzman
“World’s greatest dad. T-shirt says so.” –Steve Leisure

This project recently re-inspired me as I look for ways to access small stories that don't require figuring out your perfectly polished narrative.

Because when the world feels uncertain and stories feel too big to hold, it helps to start with a smaller frame.

A Good Framework

We all love a good framework, right? They have the power to make the abstract a little more tangible and turn the daunting into something doable.

But this one works in a slightly different way:

It's not just a guide. It's a mirror.

First, it gives you a creative container to articulate something so seemingly complicated and complex. But, depending on what comes up for you, it can also become a catalyst for questions and deeper stories born from reflection.

What I think makes it powerful isn’t the format itself, but what it reveals.

You see, the common problem when it comes to storytelling is that we spend so much time running around as humans doing, we forget we're humans being.

So, we end up thinking of stories as a series of events that happened to us.

To make matters worse, we then falsely assume a story needs to be impressive or unique to be worth telling.

But stories are about much more than what transpired—they're a search for meaning.

They're a way to connect the personal to the universal. And they work not because of what they say, but because of what they stir up.

What I love about this prompt is that it shows us that a single line can surface a truth you haven’t been able to articulate.

It can reflect something real back to you.

A Good Reflection

Here’s what came up when I tried the exercise on myself yesterday, my 39th birthday:

A charmed life, full of healing.

I stepped away from my keyboard, looked out the window, and those words just formed in my head. Then, I counted them on my fingers.

Yep, exactly six.

It was easier than I had expected, and also way more confusing.

I know that I've been shaped by the tragedy of losing my dad and older brother before turning six, moving to a new country where I didn’t speak the language before I turned 8, and overcoming a divorce before I hit my mid-30s.

But what I didn't realize is how much I might still be processing so much of what I claim to have processed.

Honestly, I’m still unpacking it.

But that’s what a story like this does—it nudges you toward the next question. It offers a beginning.

A Good Prompt

If you want to become a better storyteller, this is where it starts.

Not with structure or strategy (though those matter too), but with inward attention and awareness.

Notice the words that come up when you quiet your mind for a second and ask yourself, "What's my story?" Start with six, then follow the thread.

If you want to give it a try, there are only two rules:

1. It must be six words.
2. They should feel true and be only yours.

Run with it. Maybe poke at it.

Is this story still true?
Is it still yours?
​Is it worth rewriting?
What haven’t you said?

Remember that the point isn’t to summarize your life, but to uncover what more you might need to explore.

If nothing else, I hope this gives you a reason to pause today. To step away from the screen, take a look out the window, and see what six words find you.

A Few Good Resources

1. Summarizing your life in one sentence might come easy. But summarizing your business, who it's for and why anyone should care? Well, that's much harder.
2. I've been so lucky to have met so many wonderful people on LinkedIn that bring new opportunities. One of those people is Karl, who had me on his show to talk about how business stories outperform features every time.
3. Since launching my beta storytelling cohort, I've been going deep on learning all things community. If that's your thing, these trends from Bri at Ember are insightful.

Hope you have a good one,
Renee