Minimum Viable Story

A Minimum Viable Story is not your autobiography. It’s not the unabridged director’s cut of your life.

Think about what really moves someone to trust. Not your credentials. Not your accomplishments listed like a résumé. It’s the answer to two deeper questions: What would this mean for me? And Do I actually believe you?

Your MVS is built to answer those two questions at once. It’s the story that lets people see themselves in your experience, or see your vulnerability in a way that makes you real. That combination—proximity plus honesty—is where trust lives.

The phrase “Minimum Viable” does important work here. It’s enough to start with. It’s not the finished thing. You won’t spend six months getting it perfect before you share it. You won’t hold it until it’s flawless. A Minimum Viable Story is meant to be deployed, to be tested against real audiences, to evolve based on what you learn about who actually connects with it and why.

In practice, your MVS gets built through a process: The Beacon gives you the target. Your background shapes what you can tell. Story beats provide the scaffolding. You draft it, you edit it, you polish it. Each iteration teaches you something about what lands with your audience and what doesn’t. Your second version will be better than your first. Your third will be sharper. The iteration is the point.

This is why it’s called a Minimum Viable Story and not “Your Final Origin Story.” You’re building the first real thing—not a rough sketch, but something real enough to work with—and you’re building it in public, adjusting as you go.

The real power is that your Minimum Viable Story becomes the core story you use across everything: your website, your pitch, your podcast intro, the way you introduce yourself at a dinner party. It’s the Origin Story that answers the question of who you are and why someone should pay attention. It’s small enough to own, powerful enough to matter.

Get one version done. Share it. Watch what happens. Pay attention to which parts create real Resonance and which parts fall flat. Then make it better. That’s the whole game.

A Minimum Viable Story isn’t minimalist because it’s lazy. It’s minimal because it’s focused. Everything in it has to earn its place by serving one of those two questions: Does this make me matter to you? and Can you trust what I’m saying?

Start there. Build from there.