Put on your bikini.  We’re diving into another 3-part series. 👙

Thanks for coming on this ride with me. ♥️

This is only issue #7 of Drunk Writing Advice, and I’m already finding it challenging to squeeze critical concepts into independent newsletters. 

Over the last three weeks, we hit style lessons hard with newsletters on conciseness, vivid imagery, and rhythm. Alone, they’re important. But together, they’re explosive. Which is why I wrote about them as a series.

In this new series, we’re gonna craft a helluva origin story:

👉 Today: Why is an origin story important, and wtf should you write about?

👉 Week 2: Outlining the story using Kristin’s adapted Hero’s Journey framework

👉 Week 3: Pulling it all together

Let’s pop the cork on your origin story…

-Kristin 🍾 

🍻 In today’s issue:

✏️ Sentence School: Your origin story is NOT your biography. Don’t make that mistake.

🥃 The Writer’s Pour: This process doesn’t start with a story. It starts with assessing your values and beliefs.

🎙️ Drunk Talk: I’m drowning right now. Send help.

🤖 Robot Pals: If it weren’t for AI, I’d probably never interview anyone for Drunk Business Advice. And that would be sad.

You need to write your origin story

Yes, you. I’m talking to you. Don’t look away. Eyes on me.

I can see the thought-bubble over your head… “Nah, I’m good, I’d rather just talk about the work I’m doing NOW. No one cares how I got here.”

You’re. Damn. Wrong.

☝️ Firstly, they do care (more on that in a moment).

✌️ Secondly, even if no one ever reads your origin story, writing it will force you to examine the most critical moment in your personal history from an outsider’s perspective. 

And I guarantee you’ll find golden easter eggs hidden in your past that won’t just sharpen your everyday writing — they’ll help you tie together your whole cockamamie life.

This week, you’re going to establish the foundation of your origin story.

What exactly is an origin story?

Your origin story should focus on a moment in your life when you experienced a personal transformation. It should answer the question:

👉 “Why do you hold your most important belief?”

It’s NOT your biography. 

I was at a publishing conference last year where an author was asked, “When did you know you had a book in you?”.

He replied, “I think everyone has a book in them. And for most people, that’s where it should stay.” 😆

So if your story begins with “I was born in Bumtoot, Mississippi in 1973…” — that’s not your origin story. That’s your biography. And unless you’re Benjamin Franklin, nobody gives a shit.

(And no, Bumtoot isn’t a real town in Mississippi. Or anywhere, for that matter.)

But people can’t contain their curiosity when they're teased with a story of an unlikely transformation. And that’s what your origin story should nail.

Why you absolutely need one

There are three reasons:

1. People connect better with flawed humans. A good origin story makes you relatable in a way a resume never will. It’s the difference between “Hi, I’m Kristin and I’m a business writer," (bleh) and “Hi, I’m Kristin and I was a figure skater until a broken hip forced me into early retirement. So I applied athletic principles to business for 20 years, and now I write about it.”

2. You’ll use it f*cking everywhere. Not just in your “about me”, or your blog — you’ll find yourself referencing it in pitches, podcast interviews, even cocktail parties. It will attract interest and attention everywhere you go.

3. Writing your origin story forces you to understand yourself. You’ll start to detect patterns — the decisions you're proud of, the moments you’d never repeat, and the values that have actually guided you, even when you thought you were winging it. 

I used to think that my figure skating career had zero influence on my business career, and avoided even mentioning it to people. 

Frankly, I was embarrassed. 🫣

I didn’t think people would take me seriously in business if they knew I had started out as an athlete. So it wasn’t until I sat down five years ago to write my origin story that realized what a badass driving factor it was.

Learn from my stupid mistake. Start crafting your origin story TODAY.

Here’s how to get started. 👇

Dive into some exercises to put what you’ve just learned about origin stories into practice. 👇️

Here are some examples (these are mine!):

Here’s an example:

Pay attention to the time Drunk Business Advice arrives in your inbox

But not for the reason you might think…

On Sunday, Drunk Business Advice landed in your inbox at 10:37am.

❌ Not 10:30am.

❌ Not 11am.

So what’s the significance of that?

Well, anytime you get an email from me that doesn’t land in your inbox within 2-3 minutes of a “round” number, it means that I hit “send” — not “schedule”.

And to peel that funky onion back even further, if I hit “send” not “schedule”, it means I literally just finished writing the damn thing.

Y’all — I can’t tell you how much it sucks to be scrambling on a Sunday morning to finish an issue. That was never how I intended to operate Drunk Business Advice. 

When I launched DBA, my goal was to always remain at least two weeks ahead on content. That means if I send an email on the 14th, it should be pretty much completely written by the 1st. And by the time that email goes out on the 14th, I’m wrapping what’s getting sent on the 28th.

But between us, things have been challenging since my surgery in May.

I front-loaded a bunch of content to make sure the newsletter would go out while I was recovering. But I’ve been behind ever since.

I wish that I could spend an entire week getting caught up on DBA, but my other businesses, nonprofit roles, and personal responsibilities, have been pulling me in a million crazy directions.

So all of this is to say—

If you’re feeling behind with whatever it is you write… be it a newsletter, a blog, or simply posting on LinkedIn… please know that it happens to everyone. Even those whose primary damn function is to write. 🤦

Easy breezy interviews

You may have noticed that I interviewed some clever readers for last week’s issue of Drunk Business Advice about the responsibility of being a “first boss”.

And I decided to feature two of them in Sunday’s issue. 🤗

Before AI, producing content based on interviews was time-consuming as f*ck. 

I’d have to read the entire interview at least 3-4 times before I could even outline the story. I would scroll through pages and pages of conversation just to find the one piece of information I needed.

And it was even worse before transcription software became accessible. In those days, I had to listen to the recording, fast-forwarding and rewinding as I searched for shit.

(I know I know. Here’s your tiny violin, grandma.)

But these days, I can simply upload the transcription to ChatGPT, and pelt the AI with questions.

I can quickly grab facts I don’t remember, like:

• How long has Joe been with his current company?

• How old was Leslie when she got promoted to manager?

Or I can ask the AI to dive deeper, and extract more detailed information:

• My article is about how being a first boss is a huge responsibility because it sets the tone for the employee’s relationship with work. What are the most important parts of Leslie’s interview that support this theme?

• Show me the exact quote from Joe after I asked him how I thought his career might’ve been different if he didn’t have such a good first boss.

But here’s what I DON’T ask AI to do:

Ick. 🤮

Remember — if you’re not using AI to help you write, you’re wasting heaps of time. But if you use AI to write for you, it’ll be crap.

I don’t take my place in your inbox for granted.

It’s an honor to be welcomed into your world, and I know I have to work to continue to earn it, week after week. So if you have feedback, or if there’s a topic you want me to cover, just hit reply and tell me!

And if you love Drunk Writing Advice, consider sharing it with a friend. 🥰