Hey there, I’m Robert Tighe.
10-second bio: I've been working with words and helping other people tell better stories for 20 years. I believe in the transformative power of personal stories, specifically our Origin Stories.
The problem is many of us are scared of sharing our stories.
How do I know this? Two reasons.
1. I work with entrepreneurs, founders, owners and business leaders to help them find, write and share their Origin Stories with the world. Almost everyone I’ve worked with is terrified of what people will think if they put a little bit of themselves out there.
2. Because I’m terrified myself.
This is a space for me to try to make sense of, and share a little bit about what I’ve learned about storytelling and writing over the years. To overcome my own fears and to practice what I preach.
Some of the topics I plan to explore include:
Why are people scared of telling their stories?
How can I write to inspire and speak to connect without coming across as a self-absorbed gobshite (an Irish term of abuse that means exactly what it sounds like: someone who talks a lot of nonsense).
How do I live a life worth writing about?
How can I improve my questions to make my life and my writing more meaningful?
I’m convinced that telling better stories can help people live better lives. Stories can also help business leaders and aspiring leaders build trust, build powerful personal brands and ultimately build better businesses.
Stories can inspire and influence your audience — whether that's an audience of one, a new client, or a roomful of strangers. It might be your board of directors, a pitch or presentation, or your very own TED talk. This is something I post about regularly on LinkedIn.
It all starts by reflecting on one simple, but head-scratchingly complex question:
What's your story?
What’s my story?
I'm originally from Galway in Ireland but I've lived in Auckland, New Zealand since 2004.
For 16 years, I was a freelance journalist specialising in sports and feature writing. I also spent five years editing the New Zealand edition of The Red Bulletin, a global adventure lifestyle magazine published by Red Bull.
In 2016 I was the ghostwriter on the book ‘Zero To 60’ that tells Tony Quinn’s incredible rags to riches story. The book went to #1 on the New Zealand non-fiction bestseller list.
In the last few years I’ve taken what I’ve learned about journalism, writing and interviewing and applied it to business storytelling. I work with businesses and business leaders to help them find and tell better stories using the Origin Stories process I’ve developed.
When I'm not telling stories I'm kept busy running after my family (including 3 kids aged 15, 13 and 9) or running away from them to race in long-distance trail events in the forests and mountains of New Zealand.
Read some of my scribbles
The Future of Farming is one of a series of stories I wrote for Agritech NZ and New Zealand Trade and Enterprise.
If "The Dude" from "The Big Lebowski" was into mountain biking instead of bowling he would have been a singlespeeder.
This was one of the most enjoyable events I covered for Red Bull and a bonus was I got to write about it for ESPN.com
If you’re a business professional and you want to start telling stories, LinkedIn is the ideal platform. Here’s my guide to what worked for me.
Listen to some of my stories
Park Howell’s The Business of Story was the #1 business storytelling podcast for 2022. When I quit journalism a few years ago and started working with businesses to help them tell better stories, one of the first business storytellers I stumbled across was Park Howell. So it was a real honour to chat with Park. The topic? Is Your Origin Story Working For You?
What exactly is an Origin Story? How do you find it? When do you tell it? And why in all that's holy is my Brazilianh host trying to do a Belfast accent? I really enjoyed this chat with Francisco Mahfuz for the Storypowers podcast.
Every great leader, visionary and human is able to communicate a story. They spend time crafting their own unique authentic voice. But what enables that voice to be real, yours and a voice that comes from the very heart of who you are? Nick Roud is a world-leading leadership coach who asks some great questions on this podcast.
Contact me at robert@roberttighe.com if you want to book me for your podcast.
Why subscribe?
Knowing our stories helps us to know ourselves. Even if you never share one with the world, reflecting on your journey to where you are now is a great exercise in self-awareness.
I’m looking to build a community of storytellers around the world.
Because we’ve all got a story to tell.
I’d love to hear yours.
Thanks for reading!
Robert
