Book
Reinventing You
Dorie Clark
Useful when professional repositioning is the point — how reputation actually changes, and how long it takes.
Free tools · Develop yourself · 35 minutes
Build Your Story
Your CV tells people where you’ve been. Your story should help them understand who you are and where you’re going.
Free, no account, nothing to sign up to. You will leave with something written down.
01 · Mark's view
Why this matters, and why most people get it wrong.
You have a story whether you've written it or not.
Every time somebody asks:
“What do you do?”
you make a choice.
You decide which parts of yourself to include.
Your job title.
The company you work for.
Something you've built.
Where you studied.
Perhaps where you're from.
Most of us eventually develop an answer that works well enough and repeat it.
But there's a problem.
Other people are constantly trying to understand where to place us.
They meet you for five minutes and begin forming a picture.
Founder. Accountant. Student. Investor. Retail person. Creative. Corporate executive. Mother returning to work. Entrepreneur.
Whatever information you give them becomes part of the box.
That's not necessarily a bad thing.
Human beings need shortcuts to understand each other.
The problem comes when the box is incomplete, confusing or belongs to a version of you that you're trying to leave behind.
If you don't help people understand you, they'll do it themselves.
You can be complicated. Your explanation can't be.
I've met plenty of fascinating people who become considerably less interesting when they explain themselves.
Not because they aren't interesting.
Because they tell you everything.
They start with university.
Then their first job.
Then why they left.
Then the next company.
Then something they started.
Then another business.
Then something completely different.
Five minutes later, you've been given twenty facts and still aren't quite sure who the person is.
They think:
I've explained everything.
You think:
I'm still not entirely sure what you do.
That's the problem we're going to solve.
A good story isn't everything that happened to you.
It's the thread that helps somebody understand why those things belong together.
A chronology tells me where you've been.
A story helps me understand why it matters.
Find the thread, not the timeline.
Imagine somebody tells you:
“I started in logistics, moved into PR, then retail, then operations and eventually started a business.”
On paper, that can look disconnected.
But talk to them properly and perhaps something else appears.
Maybe throughout every one of those jobs they were the person bringing different people together, creating order from complexity and getting things moving.
Now the story changes.
“I've always been drawn to situations where lots of moving parts and different people need bringing together. That's taken me through logistics, relationships and operations, and eventually into building businesses.”
The history hasn't changed.
The interpretation has.
That's what we're looking for.
What thread explains your moves better than your job titles do?
Your past should help explain your future.
This becomes particularly important when you want to change direction.
Imagine somebody has spent twenty years in finance and now wants to work in education.
They may think the finance career has become irrelevant.
It hasn't.
Perhaps the real story is:
“I spent twenty years learning how organisations make financial decisions. What increasingly interested me was helping other people understand those decisions. Now I want to use that experience in education.”
Same past.
Different narrative.
You don't have to pretend the previous twenty years didn't happen.
And you don't have to invent a new identity.
You need to understand which parts of your past provide credibility for where you're going.
Your experience doesn't necessarily need changing. Your emphasis might.
Your story can also hold you back.
There is another side to this.
The story you repeatedly tell doesn't only influence other people.
Eventually it influences you.
If you've introduced yourself as a finance person for twenty years, it becomes harder to imagine being anything else.
If you've always been “the operations person”, you may stop noticing your creative ability.
If you've spent years describing yourself through one company, leaving it can feel like losing part of your identity.
If you've taken time out to raise children, you may start introducing yourself through the absence from work rather than everything you have become during it.
A useful story creates coherence.
But it shouldn't become a cage.
So while we build your story, we're going to ask another question:
Is the story you've been telling about who you are making the next version of you harder to see?
Personal branding, without the performance.
You may hear this described as building a personal brand.
That's useful language, but I think people sometimes make it more complicated than it needs to be.
This isn't about turning yourself into a product.
It isn't about pretending to be an expert in something you've just discovered.
And it isn't about creating a polished version of yourself that bears little resemblance to the real person.
Start somewhere much simpler.
If somebody spends five minutes with you, what do you want them to understand about you?
Then:
What do you want them to remember tomorrow?
And eventually:
If they introduced you to somebody else, what would you hope they said?
That's reputation.
And reputation matters.
It affects who people introduce you to.
Which jobs they think of you for.
Which projects they invite you into.
Whether they see you as a potential founder, investor, partner, leader, employee, adviser, creator or something else.
A clear story makes you easier to understand, easier to remember, easier to recommend and easier to introduce.
That's why this work matters.
Your network can only help with what it understands.
You never really know where the next opportunity will come from.
It might not come from the person you're speaking to.
It could come from their friend. Their employer. Their investor. Their former colleague. Their brother. Their aunt. Someone they meet three months later.
But there's a practical problem.
They need to know what to connect you to.
If somebody leaves a conversation thinking:
“Interesting person. Not entirely sure what they do.”
you've made their job difficult.
If they leave thinking:
“She understands how to turn scientific ideas into businesses and she's looking to work with early-stage biotech founders.”
the connection becomes much easier.
Your story isn't only about presenting yourself well.
It helps other people know what to do with you.
The three people who need to understand you.
There are broadly three situations where this becomes particularly useful.
Someone who doesn't know you yet. They need clarity. Who are you? What makes you interesting? Why should they remember you?
Someone who already knows you one way. They may need to understand that you're changing. Perhaps you've been known as an operator and now you're investing. An employee becoming a founder. A finance professional moving towards education. A parent returning to work in a different field.
Your reputation may need to catch up with you.
Someone who could help you get where you're going. They need to understand why your past gives you credibility for the future you're describing.
This is where a good story becomes commercially useful.
Founders need a story too.
Founders often become very good at explaining their business and surprisingly bad at explaining themselves.
But investors, employees, customers and partners are also asking:
Why you?
Why did you notice this problem?
What happened in your life that made you care?
What have you learned that gives you an unusual perspective?
Why are you capable of bringing this particular idea into the world?
The answer shouldn't be manufactured founder mythology.
We're not going to rewrite your childhood so that everything somehow led inevitably to your startup.
But if there is a genuine connection between your experience and what you're building, we should find it.
A strong founder story creates coherence between the person, the problem, the insight, the mission, the evidence and the future.
Past. Present. Future.
Most biographies spend far too much time on the past.
That's understandable.
The past is factual.
The future feels less certain.
But if you're trying to change direction, your story cannot spend 95% of its time reinforcing the identity you're trying to move beyond.
We're going to look at three things.
The past. Which experiences actually give you credibility? Not everything you've ever done.
The present. What are you doing now? What matters now? What are you building, learning, changing or exploring?
The future. Where are you heading? What are you trying to become known for? What do you want more of?
You don't need to pretend you've already arrived.
But people should have some sense of the direction of travel.
Your story needs evidence.
There is one more problem with personal branding.
You cannot simply announce what you want people to believe.
Imagine someone says:
“I'm passionate about artificial intelligence.”
Fine.
What have they done? What have they learned? What have they built? Who have they met? What events have they attended? What have they written? Which communities are they part of?
Where is the evidence?
Your story is the beginning.
Then comes:
STORY → EVIDENCE → VISIBILITY → REPUTATION
If you want to become known for something new, we'll also work out what you need to do so that the story becomes increasingly true.
02 · Think about this
Sit with these before you start.
- If somebody you had never met asked you tonight, “What do you do?”, what would you actually say?
- How do the people who already know you probably describe you when you aren't in the room?
- What thread might explain your moves better than your job titles do?
- Which parts of your history are you including simply because they happened?
- Is there something you leave out because you think it weakens your story?
- Is the story you've been telling making the next version of you harder to see?
03 · What I would do
The method, if we were doing this across a table.
- 01
Don't start with your bio. Don't start with LinkedIn. Don't start by asking AI to “make this sound more professional”. First we need to understand the person we're trying to explain.
- 02
Find the important chapters. The periods and experiences that actually shaped you, whether or not they were jobs.
- 03
Find the turning points. The decisions, people, successes, failures and experiences that changed direction.
- 04
Look for the recurring behaviours. What keeps appearing underneath apparently different jobs.
- 05
Establish what shaped you and what you learned from it.
- 06
Establish what you are unusually good at, and what people already associate with you.
- 07
Establish what you're trying to become, what no longer belongs, and what might be missing.
- 08
Find where your past and future connect — which experiences give you credibility for the direction you're describing.
- 09
Then, and only then, write.
04 · Do it yourself
What you will have at the end.
- —Your red thread — the recurring thread that explains your moves better than your job titles do.
- —Your current box, your desired box and the gap between them.
- —Three proof stories that act as evidence rather than heroics.
- —A one-sentence story, a 50-word introduction, and 150, 250 and 400-word bios.
- —A verbal introduction you could actually say out loud.
- —Your current chapter and your next chapter.
- —The evidence supporting your positioning, and the evidence still missing.
- —A credible Alternative reading of the same facts.
- —A practical reputation plan: story → evidence → visibility → reputation.
05 · Use your AI
The prompt. This is the part most people never write.
TAIU exercise
TAIU build your story exercise
A guided AI interview designed to find the red thread through your experience, clarify how people understand you today, and build the story that helps explain where you’re going next.
Approximately 25-35 minutes
What will it ask me?
- Why now?What are you trying to make possible?
- Your current storyWhat do you actually say when somebody asks what you do?
- Your current boxHow do people probably categorise you today?
- Your chaptersWhat periods and experiences actually shaped you?
- Turning pointsWhich decisions, people, successes, failures or experiences changed direction?
- Your red threadWhat keeps appearing underneath apparently different jobs and experiences?
- What other people seeHow would people who know you introduce you?
- What you're hidingIs there something you're excluding because you think it weakens your story?
- Where you're goingWhat do you want your next chapter to contain?
- The credibility gapWhat evidence supports that direction and what evidence is still missing?
- The AlternativeIs your existing story itself restricting what happens next?
View full prompt
I want you to help me understand and build my personal story. This is not simply a bio-writing exercise. I want to understand the red thread connecting my experiences, how other people probably understand me today, how I want to be understood in the future, and how my past can provide credible evidence for where I am going next. Eventually I want you to help me create several useful versions of my story. But DO NOT start by writing them. Interview me first. CORE PRINCIPLE Do not make me sound more impressive than I am. Make me more understandable. Do not manufacture a neat narrative simply because neat narratives sound good. Real lives are messy. If there are several credible threads through my life, tell me. If my intended positioning is not supported by evidence, tell me. If my current story is confusing, tell me why. If the future I want to communicate does not logically follow from the evidence yet, help me understand what evidence I need to build. IMPORTANT RULES 1. Ask ONE question at a time. 2. Use each answer to decide the most valuable next question. 3. Do not mechanically run through a questionnaire. 4. Follow interesting threads. 5. Ask for specific examples. 6. Do not simply repeat my CV. 7. Look across my whole life where relevant, including education, work, entrepreneurship, parenting, caring, travel, communities, hobbies, interests, relationships, side projects, failures and periods of change. 8. Separate facts from interpretation. 9. Challenge me when my interpretation is unsupported. 10. Do not flatter me. 11. Do not invent achievements, motivations, credentials or causal connections. 12. Distinguish between: - who I have been - how people probably see me - who I am becoming - how I would like to be seen 13. Remember that my objective is not to tell everybody everything about me. The objective is clarity. You can be complicated. Your explanation cannot be. PHASE 1: WHY NOW? Begin by asking: "Why do you want to be able to explain your story better now? What are you hoping this makes possible?" Explore the answer. Determine the real context. It might involve: - networking - job search - promotion - university - returning to work - changing career - entrepreneurship - fundraising - attracting employees - investing - building a public profile - speaking - launching an initiative - joining a board - entering another industry - personal clarity - something else Do not assume which. Identify the audiences who need to understand me. Remember this throughout the exercise. PHASE 2: HEAR MY CURRENT STORY Ask: "If somebody you had never met asked you tonight, 'What do you do?', what would you actually say?" Ask me to answer naturally. Do not improve it yet. Then ask: "What feels incomplete, uncomfortable or frustrating about that answer?" Explore whether I: - over-explain - rely on a job title - describe only my past - struggle to connect different experiences - undersell myself - oversell myself - sound generic - hide something - have several identities competing for attention - do not yet know how to explain where I am going PHASE 3: MY CURRENT BOX Ask: "If five people who know you professionally had to introduce you to somebody tomorrow in two sentences, what do you think they would say?" Do not ask what I hope they would say yet. First establish my CURRENT reputation. Then ask: "What would you WANT them to say?" Compare the two. Identify: CURRENT BOX DESIRED BOX THE GAP BETWEEN THEM Do not assume the desired box is realistic. We will test it against evidence. PHASE 4: IF I HAVE ALREADY COMPLETED OTHER TAIU WORK Ask whether I have completed either: TAIU Find Your Superpower or TAIU Find Your Purpose If yes, ask me to paste the relevant TAIU Handover. Use that information as evidence. Do NOT repeat those exercises. If I have not completed them, continue normally. They are not prerequisites. PHASE 5: LIFE CHAPTERS Ask: "If your life so far were a book, what would you call the major chapters?" Help me identify approximately 4-7 chapters where useful. They do not need to correspond to jobs. A chapter might be: - a place - education - a relationship - building something - parenthood - a career - a failure - a period of reinvention - travel - a difficult period - a particular obsession - something else For important chapters explore selectively: What was happening? Who were you becoming? What did you learn? What changed? What did you discover about yourself? What from that chapter still influences you today? Do not turn this into therapy. We are looking for the experiences that help explain the person. PHASE 6: TURNING POINTS Explore the moments when direction changed. Ask for important: - decisions - opportunities - people - successes - failures - setbacks - risks - discoveries - places - conversations For each important turning point investigate: "What changed because of this?" "What did you understand afterwards that you didn't understand before?" "What did this make possible?" Look for causality without inventing it. PHASE 7: FIND THE THREAD UNDER THE JOB TITLES Now look beneath the chronology. Ask: "What thread might explain your moves better than your job titles do?" Do not accept my first answer automatically. Test it. Look for recurring behaviours such as: - bringing people together - creating things from zero - seeing opportunities - simplifying complexity - organising chaos - caring - teaching - persuading - creating belief - crossing cultures - fixing - designing - entertaining - challenging convention - building communities These are examples only. Discover mine from evidence. If I have apparently unrelated jobs, investigate whether the same underlying behaviour appears across them. Do not force unrelated experiences into a false pattern. PHASE 8: WHAT DOES NOT BELONG? Ask: "Which parts of your history are you including simply because they happened?" Help distinguish: IMPORTANT TO MY STORY from: TRUE BUT NOT NECESSARY IN THIS VERSION A good story is not a compressed CV. We are allowed to leave things out without pretending they never happened. PHASE 9: WHAT AM I HIDING? Ask: "Is there anything in your history that you tend to avoid mentioning because you think it weakens your story?" This could include: - career breaks - parenthood - unemployment - failure - a business that did not work - changing direction - unusual education - starting late - being young - leaving a prestigious career - an unconventional background - something else Do not automatically turn difficulty into an inspirational story. Instead ask: "Does this actually weaken the story, or could it help explain the person you became?" Use evidence. Sometimes it should remain private or irrelevant. Sometimes it is the missing piece. PHASE 10: THE THREE PROOF STORIES Identify THREE specific stories from my life that demonstrate important aspects of who I am. For each establish: THE SITUATION THE PROBLEM OR OPPORTUNITY WHAT I DID WHY I DID IT WHAT HAPPENED WHAT IT REVEALS ABOUT ME WHAT IT GIVES ME CREDIBILITY TO SAY OR DO NOW Do not turn these into exaggerated heroic stories. They are evidence. PHASE 11: PAST, PRESENT, FUTURE Now separate my narrative into: PAST Which experiences genuinely give me credibility? What should people understand without hearing my entire history? PRESENT What am I actually doing now? What am I building, learning, changing, contributing to or exploring? FUTURE Where am I heading? What do I want more of? What do I want to become known for? What kind of opportunities would I like my story to attract? Do not make the future sound as though it has already happened. Ambition and evidence are different. PHASE 12: THE 95% TEST Ask: "What percentage of the story you currently tell describes a version of you that you are trying to leave behind?" Explore this. If I am trying to reposition myself, assess whether my current biography continually reinforces my old identity. For example: If I want to become known as an investor but almost everything I say reinforces my identity as an operator, other people may continue sending me operating roles. If I want to work in social impact but my entire story describes corporate achievement, people may not understand the transition. If I want to enter music but introduce myself exclusively as a business student, the people I meet will naturally place me in that box. Identify whether the EMPHASIS needs changing. Do not rewrite history. PHASE 13: WHY YOU? If I am a founder, entrepreneur, initiative leader, investor, creator or somebody trying to build something, explore: Why you? What caused you to see this? Why do you care? What do you understand because of your experience? What gives you credibility? What have you personally observed? What have you learned? Why are you likely to stay with the problem? Do not manufacture founder mythology. Do not pretend every childhood experience inevitably led to the business. Look for genuine coherence between: PERSON PROBLEM INSIGHT MISSION EVIDENCE FUTURE If this section is not relevant to me, skip it. PHASE 14: TEST THE POSITIONING AGAINST EVIDENCE Now examine how I want to be understood. Ask: "What evidence in the real world currently supports this story?" Consider where relevant: - actual work - projects - businesses - results - qualifications - learning - writing - LinkedIn or other content - events - talks - communities - boards - volunteering - people I spend time with - networks - side projects - things I have built - people I have helped Then ask: "What evidence is missing?" Distinguish: ASPIRATION from: POSITIONING SUPPORTED BY EVIDENCE Help me build the missing evidence rather than simply rewriting the words. PHASE 15: FIND MY RED THREAD Only after sufficient evidence, propose up to THREE possible Red Threads. For each provide: THE RED THREAD WHY IT FITS EVIDENCE WHAT IT EXPLAINS WELL WHAT IT DOES NOT EXPLAIN HOW IT CONNECTS PAST TO PRESENT HOW WELL IT SUPPORTS THE FUTURE I WANT Do not choose the most impressive sounding option. Choose the one best supported by evidence. If one clearly dominates, say so. If several remain plausible, keep them alive. PHASE 16: THE MEMORY TEST Ask: "If somebody spent five minutes with you, what are the THREE things you would most want them to understand?" Then: "What is the ONE thing you would most want them to remember tomorrow?" Compare this with the Red Thread. Simplify where necessary. PHASE 17: THE NETWORK TEST Give me this real-world exercise. Ask five people who know me in different contexts: "If you had to introduce me to somebody in two sentences, what would you say?" Do not tell them what I hope they say first. Collect their actual language. Then ask: "What do you think I am unusually good at?" "What kind of opportunity would you naturally think of me for?" Bring their answers back into this conversation later. When I do, compare: HOW I SEE MYSELF HOW OTHERS CURRENTLY SEE ME HOW I WANT TO BE SEEN Identify important gaps. PHASE 18: THE ALTERNATIVE Only after helping me understand my existing story, ask: "What identity are you reinforcing every time you tell this story?" Then consider: "Could the story you tell about your past be making your next move harder?" Give me ONE credible Alternative interpretation of my story. This is not fiction. It must use the same facts. It may change: - emphasis - organising principle - starting point - ending point - audience - interpretation For example, perhaps I have organised my story around an INDUSTRY when the stronger story is about a CAPABILITY. Perhaps I have organised it around ACHIEVEMENT when the stronger story is about BUILDING. Perhaps I have organised it around EMPLOYERS when the stronger story is about PROBLEMS I repeatedly solve. Perhaps I have organised it around my PAST when the future should become the organising principle. These are examples only. Discover mine from evidence. Explain: THE CURRENT STORY THE ALTERNATIVE STORY WHAT CHANGES WHY IT MIGHT BE MORE USEFUL WHAT COULD BE LOST BY USING IT Do not assume the Alternative is automatically better. PHASE 19: WRITE THE CORE STORY Now, and only now, write: MY RED THREAD One concise paragraph explaining the recurring thread. MY ONE-SENTENCE STORY A clarity test, not necessarily public copy. MY 50-WORD INTRODUCTION Natural language. It should sound like something I could actually say. Do not cram every credential into it. MY 150-WORD BIO Useful for introductions, events, websites and profiles. MY 250-WORD BIO A professional version with more evidence and context. MY 400-WORD BIO A fuller narrative including relevant past, present and future. MY VERBAL INTRODUCTION Something I can comfortably say when somebody asks: "What do you do?" Do not simply make the written bio shorter. Make it conversational. MY CURRENT CHAPTER What am I doing now and why? MY NEXT CHAPTER Where am I going without pretending I have already arrived? PHASE 20: ADAPT THE STORY FOR DIFFERENT ROOMS If relevant to my objective, create versions or guidance for: NETWORKING LINKEDIN A JOB INTERVIEW AN INVESTOR A CUSTOMER A CONFERENCE INTRODUCTION A COMMUNITY OR CHARITY CONTEXT A UNIVERSITY OR EDUCATION CONTEXT Do not create every version automatically. Only create those relevant to why I came. The facts remain true. The emphasis may change according to audience. PHASE 21: BUILD THE REPUTATION AROUND THE STORY Create a practical plan using: STORY What do I want people to understand? EVIDENCE What demonstrates it? VISIBILITY Where should the evidence become visible? REPUTATION What would other people eventually need to say for us to know the positioning is working? Then create practical actions. Do not tell me vaguely to "build my personal brand". Tell me what I should actually do. This might include: - writing about something - completing a project - attending relevant events - speaking - learning - joining a community - helping somebody - meeting people in another field - building a small proof project - changing how I introduce myself - updating LinkedIn - creating a portfolio - collecting evidence Adapt this to me. PHASE 22: RESOURCES Recommend only resources relevant to what emerged. Possible resources include: REINVENTING YOU by Dorie Clark Useful when professional repositioning is important. WORKING IDENTITY by Herminia Ibarra Useful where the person is moving between professional identities. THE DANGER OF A SINGLE STORY by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie Useful where one aspect of somebody's identity has become the dominant story through which they or others understand them. STANFORD LIFE DESIGN / ODYSSEY PLANNING Useful when several possible future narratives need exploring. Relevant high-quality material on personal positioning, storytelling, communication or reputation may also be recommended. Books are not the only resources. You may recommend: - podcasts - talks - videos - articles - courses - documentaries - interviews - events For every recommendation explain: "Why this, for you, now." PHASE 23: BETTER QUESTIONS Based on everything you now know, identify: "The five questions about my story, positioning or future that I should now be asking but haven't." Rank them according to how much answering them could change my thinking. Finish with: "The question I would keep thinking about if I were you." PHASE 24: CREATE MY TAIU HANDOVER Create a concise portable summary using exactly these headings: WHY I CAME HERE WHO NEEDS TO UNDERSTAND ME HOW I CURRENTLY EXPLAIN MYSELF MY CURRENT BOX MY DESIRED BOX THE POSITIONING GAP THE IMPORTANT CHAPTERS THE TURNING POINTS THE RECURRING PATTERNS MY THREE PROOF STORIES MY RED THREAD WHAT MY PAST GIVES ME CREDIBILITY FOR MY CURRENT CHAPTER MY NEXT CHAPTER WHAT I SHOULD STOP OVER-EXPLAINING WHAT I MAY BE HIDING THE EVIDENCE SUPPORTING MY POSITIONING THE EVIDENCE STILL MISSING MY ONE-SENTENCE STORY MY 50-WORD INTRODUCTION MY 150-WORD BIO MY 250-WORD BIO MY 400-WORD BIO MY VERBAL INTRODUCTION THE ALTERNATIVE STORY WHY IT SURFACED MY REPUTATION-BUILDING ACTIONS MY REAL-WORLD TEST RECOMMENDED RESOURCES AND WHY FIVE BETTER QUESTIONS THE QUESTION WORTH CARRYING FORWARD Keep this concise enough to paste into another AI conversation while preserving the actual bios in full. Do not finish by declaring that I have discovered my permanent identity. Stories evolve because people evolve. The objective is not to trap me in a better box. It is to make me clear enough to understand today while leaving enough room for who I may become tomorrow.
Your story isn't finished when the words are finished.
Now test it.
Ask five people who know different versions of you:
“If you had to introduce me to somebody in two sentences, what would you say?”
Then ask:
“What do you think I'm unusually good at?”
And:
“What kind of opportunity would you naturally think of me for?”
Don't correct them.
Listen.
Their answers tell you something important about the reputation you've already built.
Now compare that with where you're trying to go.
If there's a gap, don't simply rewrite your LinkedIn profile.
Ask:
What evidence do I need to create so that people begin seeing this version of me without me having to tell them?
That's where personal positioning becomes real.
Can you explain yourself in 50 words?
This is harder than writing 400.
You have to decide what matters. What stays. What goes. What somebody needs to understand. And what you want them to remember.
Once you can explain yourself clearly in 50 words, writing the longer version becomes considerably easier.
But there's another test.
Say it out loud.
If it sounds like a corporate biography, rewrite it.
If you would never actually speak those words, rewrite it.
If somebody understands what you've done but has no idea where you're going, rewrite it.
If they understand where you're going but don't believe you've earned the right to go there, you may need more evidence.
Clarity isn't about making yourself sound impressive.
It's about making yourself understandable.
When other people start telling the story for you.
You'll know your positioning is beginning to work when somebody introduces you and you think:
That's exactly how I would have introduced myself.
That's the goal.
Not endlessly telling people who you are.
Building enough clarity, evidence and consistency that eventually other people tell the story for you.
06 · Get out into the world
Close the laptop at this point.
- 01
Ask five people who know different versions of you: “If you had to introduce me to somebody in two sentences, what would you say?” Don't tell them what you hope they say. Collect their actual language.
- 02
Ask the same five people: “What do you think I'm unusually good at?” and “What kind of opportunity would you naturally think of me for?” Don't correct them. Listen.
- 03
Say your 50-word introduction out loud to somebody. If it sounds like a corporate biography, or you would never actually speak those words, rewrite it.
- 04
Create one piece of evidence for the direction you're describing this month — write something, build a small proof project, attend the right event, or help somebody in the field you're moving towards.
07 · Go deeper
Two things worth your time. Not a reading list.
Book
Working Identity
Herminia Ibarra
Useful where you are moving between professional identities. People act their way into a new direction rather than thinking their way into one.
Talk
The Danger of a Single Story
Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, TED
Useful where one aspect of your identity has become the dominant story through which you, or everybody else, understands you.
Course
Stanford Life Design / Odyssey Planning
Bill Burnett and Dave Evans, Stanford Life Design Lab
Useful when several possible future narratives need exploring rather than one being declared.
08 · The alternative
Before you go.
What identity are you reinforcing every time you tell this story? The same facts can be organised around an industry when the stronger story is a capability; around achievement when the stronger story is building; around employers when the stronger story is the problem you repeatedly solve; around your past when the future should be the organising principle. The Alternative is not automatically better — but you should know what it costs you to ignore it.
09 · Test it
Which parts of this can be tested rather than debated.
- 01
Can you explain yourself in 50 words? If not, the story isn't clear enough yet.
- 02
Say it out loud. If it sounds like a corporate biography, rewrite it.
- 03
Do people understand what you've done but have no idea where you're going? Rewrite it.
- 04
Do they understand where you're going but not believe you've earned the right to go there? You need more evidence, not better words.
- 05
Ask somebody to introduce you and listen. When their introduction is one you'd have given yourself, the positioning is working.
10 · The TAIU handover
Take the output with you.
The prompt already ends by producing this. If you have done the exercise somewhere else, or your assistant drifted, paste this in to force a clean, portable summary. It belongs to you — keep it, share it with people who know you, or bring it into a deeper conversation.
TAIU exercise
The TAIU handover
A clean, portable summary of what you concluded and what you will test next.
View full prompt
THE TAIU HANDOVER Create a concise portable summary using exactly these headings: WHY I CAME HERE WHO NEEDS TO UNDERSTAND ME HOW I CURRENTLY EXPLAIN MYSELF MY CURRENT BOX MY DESIRED BOX THE POSITIONING GAP THE IMPORTANT CHAPTERS THE TURNING POINTS THE RECURRING PATTERNS MY THREE PROOF STORIES MY RED THREAD WHAT MY PAST GIVES ME CREDIBILITY FOR MY CURRENT CHAPTER MY NEXT CHAPTER WHAT I SHOULD STOP OVER-EXPLAINING WHAT I MAY BE HIDING THE EVIDENCE SUPPORTING MY POSITIONING THE EVIDENCE STILL MISSING MY ONE-SENTENCE STORY MY 50-WORD INTRODUCTION MY 150-WORD BIO MY 250-WORD BIO MY 400-WORD BIO MY VERBAL INTRODUCTION THE ALTERNATIVE STORY WHY IT SURFACED MY REPUTATION-BUILDING ACTIONS MY REAL-WORLD TEST RECOMMENDED RESOURCES AND WHY FIVE BETTER QUESTIONS THE QUESTION WORTH CARRYING FORWARD Keep this concise enough to paste into another AI conversation while preserving the actual bios in full. Do not finish by declaring that I have discovered my permanent identity. Stories evolve because people evolve. The objective is not to trap me in a better box. It is to make me clear enough to understand today while leaving enough room for who I may become tomorrow.
11 · Ask Mark
If there is genuinely more to explore.
Still not sure how the pieces fit together? Your Build Your Story exercise is complete. Don’t start again. If you’ve uncovered a contradiction, difficult transition or Alternative that you can’t quite resolve, take your TAIU Handover into Ask Mark.
Starter prompt
I’ve completed the TAIU Build Your Story exercise. Here is my handover. The exercise is complete. Help me challenge the positioning, particularly the gap between how people see me today and where I’m trying to go. Explore the Alternative with me and tell me what I’m failing to see.
Ask Mark is in build. It is not a better prompt — it starts from your handover, assumes the exercise is done, and argues with the conclusion rather than repeating the discovery.
Take this to Ask Mark12 · Talk to Mark
Only where the consequences justify it.
A human conversation becomes particularly relevant where someone is preparing for an important career transition, positioning themselves for investment, entering a new industry, becoming a founder, developing a public profile, preparing for senior leadership, trying to make a non-linear career understandable, or repositioning after a significant professional change. The tool should be valuable enough on its own; this is for the cases where the consequences justify it.
If you do get in touch about this, bring the handover. It means the conversation starts at a much higher level than "tell me about yourself".
Start a conversation13 · Continue
Not sure what the recurring capability underneath your story actually is?
Build Your Story works on its own. But if the red thread stays stubbornly out of focus, the missing piece is usually the capability underneath it.
If that is the part still missing, start with:
Know where you’ve been but still unsure where you’re going?
A story needs a direction of travel. If the next chapter is the part you cannot yet describe, work on that first.