I recently went Live with michelle ray Michelle Ray, a writing teacher, memoirist, and the creator of States of Matter on Substack, to talk about creative flow, storytelling, and how to stand out online by bringing more of your true self into your writing.
This conversation was such a beautiful reminder that the content that connects most deeply is rarely the most polished, perfect, or performative. It is the content that feels alive. The content that carries your real voice, your lived experience, your point of view, and your unique way of seeing the world.
Below are more resources around what we talked about:
How to extract stellar stories from everyday moments (even if you’re an introvert who spends 90% of your life at home :D )
How to communicate your value through content, so people choose you over your competitors
How to find your captivating tone of voice (so your content doesn’t sound so vanilla any more)
How to unlock your creativity through pleasure and simple AF nervous system regulation
Everyday Life Is Full Of Content Inspiration
One of the biggest takeaways from the conversation was that we are surrounded by story material all the time.
You might see two dogs fighting and then shaking off the tension, and that becomes a story about nervous system regulation. You might have a client conversation where something finally clicks, and that becomes a story about perspective shifts. You might read someone else’s post and realize there is a deeper layer you want to speak to.
The point is not to force inspiration. The point is to become more awake to it.
When something catches your attention, you can ask yourself two simple questions:
How does this connect back to my method/solution?
How is this relevant or important to my audience?
Those questions help you turn everyday observations into meaningful content that does not feel random. Instead, your stories become bridges between your lived experience, your body of work, and the desires of the people you are here to serve.
Here’s more on that:
Your Story Helps Your Audience See What Is Possible
We also talked about the role of the expert, coach, or guide as an embodiment of the transformation their audience desires.
Many of us have been through our own version of a dark night of the soul. We have moved through stuckness, confusion, self-doubt, burnout, anxious attachment, under-earning, or misalignment, and we have come out the other side with more clarity, confidence, peace, or freedom.
That lived transformation is part of what makes our work powerful.
When you share behind the scenes stories from your life, you are not just talking about yourself. You are modeling a new way of being. You are showing your audience how someone who is regulated, confident, self-trusting, abundant, or securely attached actually moves through the world.
Your audience does not just need your tips. They need to see your transmission. They need to see how you think, how you respond, how you make decisions, and how you live the work you teach.
Storytelling Helps You Admire Yourself And Own Your Evolution
We also talked about how writing your stories is not just a marketing practice. It is also a self-connection practice.
When you look back at your life and begin to name the transformations you have moved through, the choices you made, the patterns you shifted, and the wisdom you gained, you begin to see yourself differently.
You begin to admire yourself.
This is something I love bringing into Human Design work as well. When you understand your design, your gifts, your shadows, and your natural way of moving through the world, you can start to recognize the brilliance that was always there. You can see how you have evolved from shadow into gift. You can witness your own becoming.
From that place of self-love and self-recognition, visibility becomes less performative. You are no longer trying to prove yourself. You are simply expressing what is already true.
I have a whole 30 day Human Design Storyselling + Self-love journey here:
Your Experience Communicates Your Value More Deeply Than Credentials Alone
Certifications, degrees, and training can absolutely matter. They show that you have studied, committed, and developed knowledge. But they do not always show people how you think, how you guide, how you solve problems, or what it actually feels like to work with you.
Your stories do that.
When you share how you navigated a hard decision, how you helped a client move through a limiting belief, how you solved a problem in your own life, or how your method was born from lived experience, people get a much clearer sense of your value.
This is especially important for coaches, healers, therapists, mentors, and service providers. Your audience wants to know your style. Are you gentle? Direct? Deeply nurturing? Tough-love oriented? Spiritual? Strategic? Playful? Provocative?
The more honestly you reveal your way of being, the more naturally you attract people who are aligned with how you actually work.
Your Online Voice Should Sound Like You
Especially now, when AI-generated content can sound overly perfect or generic, your humanness is one of your biggest differentiators.
Your writing does not need to sound like everyone else’s. It should sound like you.
For some people, that means a warm and nurturing tone. For others, it means humor, directness, emotional depth, spirituality, strong opinions, storytelling, or a more conversational rhythm. The goal is not to perform a voice that seems popular. The goal is to amplify what is already naturally present in you.
This is also where Human Design can be so helpful.
I have a guide on that here:
Creativity Needs Pleasure And A Regulated Nervous System
One of my favorite parts of the conversation was the reminder that creativity does not thrive under pressure.
When writing feels like a chore, it is often because we are trying to create from a dysregulated, rushed, overly mental state. We sit down thinking, “I have to write this now,” and immediately the creative flow shuts down.
Instead, we can bring the body and pleasure back into the process.
That might look like taking a few deep breaths, doing five minutes of breathwork, dancing to a playlist, shaking off tension, lighting a candle, sitting in a cozy writing nook, using voice-to-text, or creating a little ritual that makes writing feel delicious again.
When you enjoy the process, that energy transmits through the writing. People can feel when your words are coming from pressure, and they can also feel when they are coming from aliveness.
More on that here:
