There’s always been some opportunity to use the personal voice and personal narrative as a method of income, but especially with some of the new ways that you can use communication technology, the possibilities have really expanded quite nicely for people willing to be a little creative.
Five examples in particular of ways of using storytelling to generate some cash flow would be to advertise your success story, write a book, sell your advice, give individual lessons along the lines of your speciality, or find a way to get speaking fees for coming and talking to a live audience.
Your Success Story
One of the more popular ways to generate income by using a personal narrative is by somehow advertising your success story in a way that funnels attention (and thereby money) into your overall financial structure. It doesn’t really matter that much what you’re successful at – if you can prove you’ve done something worthwhile and then tell that story effectively, then you’re well on your way to converting your life experiences into a valuable form of output.
Writing a Book
It’s easier than ever to write a book right now, and then publish it online. There’s literally no barrier to entry. It’s absolutely free to put your material out there for mass consumption, though it’s less likely that you’ll have a runaway best seller if you either don’t have a great story, or you don’t know how to market yourself. But, assuming those things are in order, there are plenty of examples of people making quite a bit of extra by having their stories available online in book format.
Selling Your Advice
Another thing that you can do, depending on where your expertise comes from, is sell your advice. You can potentially do this as a casual contractor, where people can come to you on a individual level, in person or even potentially online, and you can charge them a set amount for giving them information about a certain topic related to your personal story. Though this is a generally with respect to a successful business venture you’ve made, the actual content is flexible.
Giving Individuals Lessons As Related To Your Story
As a musician, you have a story to tell. That’s what your music is. And, you can make money off of that by giving music lessons. Telling your story in the form of music lessons can be extremely rewarding both personally and professionally, and working with kids in particular is something that many teachers enjoy.
Getting Speaking Fees
And a final way that you use your story to leverage some money is by vetting yourself out as a guest speaker. There’s tons of money to be had on that circuit, depending on what your topic of expertise is, but especially if you’re just talking about ‘success’ in general, there’s lots of room for inspirational speakers out there.