Episode 36 - How to tell stories as a coach and business owner with Jason Leenaarts

If you’re a coach, soloist, or small business owner, communicating your ideas is essential. 

But how do you make storytelling a part of your regular life and business? 

How do you tell stories that are meaningful and interesting to both you, and the people you serve?

And, what do you do when you make a mistake or your work is misinterpreted in some way? 

In this episode, I explore all of this and more with my guest, Jason Leenaarts. 

Jason is the owner of Revolution Fitness & Therapy, a semi-private personal training studio in Northeast Ohio. He's an MNU certified nutritionist, author of two books available on Amazon and former host of the Revolutionary You podcast.

Jason is an avid — and consistent — communicator, having maintained his blog for years, releasing weekly podcast episodes for six years before retiring his podcast, posting social content daily, and publishing two books. Through it all, he is honest and open about his own struggles including his past experiences with drug addiction, as well as the messiness and challenges of everyday life.  

If you want to bring more authenticity and personal storytelling into your brand and business communications, be more consistent with your writing, and navigate mistakes and pushback from others, check out this episode.

We cover:

- Why Jason chooses to speak openly about his experiences with drug addiction and his “colorful” past, and how that has impacted his business and his ability to help people 

- How to balance the personal vs the professional when it comes to storytelling. (And why your “what the hell, I’m just gonna write about the thing I care about” moments can be the most fruitful.) 

- How to write about stuff that interests you while also serving the needs and interests of your audience. 

- How Jason put out a podcast every week for 6 years — what he learned from it, and why he decided it was time to quit.

- What happens when your content bombs and people misinterpret or just plain hate what you’ve said — and how to recover. 

- Jason’s method for responding to criticism and how to use it to make your work better.

- How to balance the need to ship your work with the value of putting out rigorous and intentional work.

- What a regular writing practice can look like, and how to make time for it.

- Why NOW is the time to put your ideas, your wisdom, your story out into the world — and exactly why it matters so much. 

For more, check out Jason at jasonleenaarts.com, on Instagram at @jasonleenaarts, or on Facebook at @jason.leenaarts