So Hank Green announced last Friday that he, and the good people from vidcon, are launching a new conference called Nerdcon: Stories. 
I’ve been a fan of Hank and John for quite some time but this is probably the coolest thing that either of them has ever done.
The conference is basically designed to celebrate stories but it goes deeper than that. It’s celebrating human stories because Hank and the folks at Nerdcon realize that stories are the crux of the human experience.
Think about it.
We all love TV shows, books, movies, and social media but the reason that we love them is because they are riddled with stories and ever since we were little kids we’ve loved to hear someone tell us a story.
Story permeates our existence. You can’t hang out with a friend, or call your mom on mother’s day (don’t forget May 10th) without telling a story.
What I’ve noticed is that people not only like to hear stories but we actually ARE stories. If I asked you to tell me a bit about yourself… you’d tell me a story.
I’m currently writing a book that explores this idea as it relates to relationships and especially as it relates to personal coaching and mentoring relationships.
Side Note: People here the word mentor, and they kind of freak out a bit. It sounds super profound and complex and they get visions of kung fu masters up on mountaintops but mentoring is very simply listening to and telling personal stories.
Listening to and telling stories is how we connect as people and it’s how we come together and help each other as well. If I share a story about something that I’m going through and ask for advice, you would probably share a story about a similar situation and how you got through it. It’s all stories.
Hank mentions in the above video that “every human society that wants to behave differently, first has to change the stories they tell.” This is true on the macro level for society but it’s also true on a personal level for you.
If you want to change, get better, lose weight, get your dream job, whatever… You have got to start by changing the stories that you tell.
Photo taken by Dustin Oliver
Notice that I said stories. PLURAL. Change will only happen if you change the story that you tell your friends/family/the world AND the story that you tell the person that lives above your bathroom sink. That would be you.
Change starts when we reframe, and rewrite our own stories. My goal, as an author, speaker, and entrepreneur is to help you unlock the power of your own story. I do that by listening to stories and helping people see them from a different perspective.
Your story is inspiring and powerful and if you don’t think so, I dare you to send it to me so I can prove you wrong.
You can email me your story at andrew.linderer@gmail.com.
Thanks for reading and don’t forget to comment, like and subscribe.
P.S. If you know Hank, please let him know that I would be a fantastic speaker for Nerdcon: Stories! Shoot I’d even just love to just go to Nerdcon, speaking there would be kind of like giving a TED talk. It would pretty much make my life.
Andrew Linderer 