Upon Arrival | Events & Incentives with Adelaine Ng

Ep 48: How sports betrayed me but led to my powerful Goldilocks storytelling business with Rachel Boardman

August 12, 2021 Season 1 Episode 48
Upon Arrival | Events & Incentives with Adelaine Ng
Ep 48: How sports betrayed me but led to my powerful Goldilocks storytelling business with Rachel Boardman
Show Notes

It's the story you hardly hear: Life after professional sports can be a huge struggle for many athletes trying to find a new identity and be just as successful. But Rachel Boardman's own story of transformation has enabled her to extract lessons that entrepreneurs and event professionals can use to employ storytelling and take their business to the next level. She shares her Goldilocks formula that demystifies the science of storytelling for impact.

Rachel is a former UK national athlete, a PhD turned Storyteling Coach and host of the S Word podcast. A natural-born storyteller, she can often be found crafting and telling stories across social media and podcasts. She specialises in helping other entrepreneurs easily attract their dream customers through storytelling in all aspects of their business.

Quotes from Episode

"I got to the point where I was like, I can't do this. And I felt like swimming had betrayed me. I had like this big, messy breakup with it and I just didn't want to have anything to do with sport or exercise for that matter."

"I realised that everybody that I talked to in the athlete world, whether they were just a high school athlete, whether they were college, whether they were an Olympic medalist, a Paralympic medalist, all had a similar mental health journey when they left sport, because you lose your identity".

“As a species, we're built on storytelling... You are a better storyteller than you think you are…And most of the time it's about having that structure to focus on (which) allows you to squash and stretch out your story. And basically, it starts with your who and your why.”

“All you want to do is tell them a story that either changes their belief, entertains them, solves a problem, gives them some kind of teaching point, and then relate it back to something that you do in your business. Show them how you can help them and then tell them how they can start working with you.”


-Rachel Boardman

Don’t miss:
- The event that made Rachel feel betrayed by her sport
- The identity crisis that athletes need to process to transition successfully
- How to start being a good storyteller
- The science and art of business storytelling
- Rachel’s process of coming up with good stories to tell
- How stories can take events to the next level
- The biggest lesson Rachel learned from sports that she applies in business

Rachel’s recommendations:
Notion productivity app
Wired for Story by Lisa Cron
The Science of Storytelling by Will Storr

Rachel’s podcast:
The S Word

Connect with Rachel:
Facebook: Rachel Boardman
Instagram: Rachel Boardman
Clubhouse: @rachboardman

Share this episode: https://pod.fo/e/df7c9

Connect with Adelaine:
Email: uponarrivalpodcast@gmail.com