“Life is a series of stories,” a friend said to me once.

I thought about that recently when driving around with new buyer clients, and I started telling some of the stories I always tell early in the working relationship with clients. This time, I was talking about roosters.

I’ve thought about writing those stories and sending them to new clients to read before we go out, so that we’ve set the stage even further than we have by them filling out my insightful new buyer/client survey.

But. One of the best parts of stories is the experience of telling and sharing those stories.

My stories are mere words, sometimes well crafted, often funny, usually useful.

If I sent these stories as blog posts to my clients, selfishly, I would enjoy them less, as I’d not be able to hear the 9 year old’s laughter and question, “what’s cockfighting?”

If I didn’t tell these stories in person, which invariably are either in the car or a house together,  I wouldn’t be able to hear the horror, and feel the empathy of my classically-trained-musician client  when I share the tale of a grand piano almost being destroyed when the quest plumbing exploded, or convey the devastation yielded by lead-based paint when I tell about my attorney client who is intimately aware of the dangers of lead because she works death penalty cases.

Stories are great, but when shared one on one, they do more than simply convey information, they help create and foster relationships – the relationships and trust that are critical when I’m advising clients on massive life decisions.

I’ll keep a list of my stories-to-tell, and keep telling them one by one.

*This is part of my October 2018 Monthly Note, but I like it so much I’m making it a stand-alone story.