your stories don’t define you

forward by Cheryl Snapp Conner

I first “met” Sarah Elkins four years ago, I believe, through an introduction on LinkedIn. The ability for anyone—or everyone—to publish articles on LinkedIn had recently opened, and that ability had opened up an entirely new avenue for like-minded people to connect, to learn and to explore new ideas together. 

Someone—I can’t remember who—suggested Sarah and I should get acquainted, believing we would have much in common. Boom. 

Sarah is someone who truly understands the power of communication and, in so many ways, the exponential power of using communication for good, sharing the challenges of her own work, life, the ups and downs of career, and expressing herself through the universal language of music. Sarah is someone with the courage to share not only the good experiences but the moments of greatest vulnerability—the highs, the lows—all through the lens of the genuine desire to inspire and benefit others. 

Sarah initiated the annual No Longer Virtual NLV events to bring a select set of great minds together for their mutual enrichment and advancement in person, and out from behind the keyboards and screens that have brought us together. 

But most of all, as perhaps the most defining aspect of her talents, she has put her primary focus on teaching us the power of stories—all stories, but most importantly our own stories—in defining our lives and legacies, allowing us to emphasize and document not only the occurrences in our lives but the meaning behind the events. She has become a bona fide expert in helping all within her reach to focus our attention on the stories we remember, the stories we tell, and our choice of the stories we listen to from others. 

In my life and career as a communications specialist, I spend each day of my life compelling clients to understand the power of words. Sarah has masterfully taken this truth to an even higher conclusion by teaching and demonstrating the power of stories. 

What we believe, what we experience, what we remember, what we choose to remember, and the way we reframe and create a story for our continual use to reinforce ourselves and for the edification of others—this is the power Sarah Elkins has captured and magnified in this book. 

Due to our mutual passion for words and stories, Sarah gave me the great honor of inviting me to be the first guest of her amazing podcast on the power of stories, now well beyond a hundred episodes deep. We eventually had the chance to meet in person at an LA event where we spent an evening sharing our ideas and stories together in real life. I documented that story with a selfie photo and a single caption: “Sarah Elkins and I have met. The world is complete.” 

The emotion was true at the time and now carries an even greater power as we experience and document the stories of living and working in relative isolation while we combat the global pandemic of COVID-19. The stories of struggle, of sacrifice and of the human experiences that unite us carry more power now than ever before. 

There is no doubt the learning, the richness and the expansion that comes from our stories is the place where Sarah Elkins’s legacy lives. By reading this book and taking hold of its principles, you become a part of that legacy, too. Use that power well. 

Cheryl Snapp Conner is founder and CEO of SnappConner PR and creator of Content University™. She is a speaker, author, national columnist and a specialist in PR strategy, thought leadership, and business communication.