Why I Am Inviting Coaches Around the World to Become Storytellers of Their Cities

By Peter de Kuster, Founder of The Hero’s Journey and The Heroine’s Journey

There is a paradox at the heart of professional coaching.

Coaches help people discover their potential, overcome obstacles, find direction and create better futures. They work with people who want to grow, change, build something meaningful or make a difference in the world.

Yet finding those people in the first place can be one of the most challenging parts of building a coaching practice.

You can attend networking events, post on LinkedIn, send introductions and explain your services. You can tell the world what you do and why people should hire you.

But what if you started somewhere else?

What if, instead of asking people to listen to your story, you invited them to tell theirs?

That is the idea behind a new initiative I am developing through The Heroine’s Journey: a worldwide network of coaches who meet the innovators, creators and entrepreneurs in their cities by inviting them to share their professional journeys.

It begins with a simple belief: every interesting professional has a story worth telling, and every good story can open the door to a meaningful relationship.

Beyond the business card

Think about the people who are shaping your city.

The entrepreneur who has risked everything to build a company. The innovator who believes an industry can work differently. The creator who sees possibilities where others see problems. The professional who has reinvented a career, challenged conventional wisdom or decided that success must mean something more than money and status.

Their business cards tell you what they do.

Their stories tell you why they do it, what they believe in, what they have overcome and what they hope to achieve.

That is a much more interesting place to begin a conversation.

At The Heroine’s Journey, I have spent years exploring the relationship between stories and the lives we lead. My work is based on a fundamental question: are we living a story that takes us where we want to go, or are we repeating a story that no longer serves us?

This question matters to entrepreneurs building businesses, innovators developing new ideas, creators bringing something into existence and professionals deciding what they want their next chapter to look like.

It also matters to the coaches who help them.

The questions that reveal a person

The Heroine’s Journey uses a distinctive questionnaire to explore the person behind the professional identity.

Consider some of its questions:

What is the best thing that I love about my work?

What is my idea of happiness?

What is my greatest fear?

What is the trait that I most deplore in myself?

Which living persons in my profession do I most admire?

What is my greatest achievement in work?

What role do stories play in my life and work?

These are not conventional networking questions. They invite people to reflect on their ambitions, values, vulnerabilities, achievements and sources of inspiration.

A conversation that begins with someone’s work can reveal what makes that work meaningful. A question about happiness can uncover a different definition of success. A question about fear can reveal the challenge a person is trying to overcome. And a question about professional achievement can uncover a story of courage, persistence or unexpected discovery.

For an innovator, the story might be about challenging an established way of doing things. For an entrepreneur, it might be about the moment an idea became a business. For a creator, it might be about the need to bring something into the world that did not previously exist.

The questionnaire is a starting point, not a diagnosis. The interviewer’s job is to listen, ask thoughtful follow-up questions and help the person articulate their own story.

The result is more than a professional biography. It is a portrait of a person in motion.

A different way to meet potential clients

Now imagine you are a coach in Amsterdam, Eindhoven, London, Paris, Berlin, New York or Singapore.

You want to meet more entrepreneurs, innovators and professionals who could benefit from your expertise. You know that relationships are important, but you do not want every introduction to feel like a sales opportunity.

What if you could invite someone to be interviewed for The Heroine’s Journey?

Your invitation might be simple:

I am building a collection of stories about the innovators, creators and entrepreneurs shaping our city. I would love to interview you about your professional journey and share your story through The Heroine’s Journey.

You are offering the person an opportunity for publicity. You are giving them time to reflect on their work and achievements. You are inviting them to become part of a growing international collection of professional stories.

And you are creating a reason to meet.

During the conversation, you discover what motivates the person, what challenges them and what they are trying to accomplish. You begin to understand their world.

Perhaps you discover a potential coaching need. Perhaps the person introduces you to another entrepreneur. Perhaps a conversation develops into a collaboration or a corporate assignment.

Perhaps nothing commercial happens at all.

That is the nature of relationships. You cannot manufacture trust or guarantee that every interesting conversation will become a business opportunity.

But you can create more opportunities for meaningful conversations to happen.

The interview is the door opener. The relationship is the real asset.

Why I want to bring this to cities around the world

Every city has an extraordinary collection of untold professional stories.

Eindhoven has innovators working on new technologies and new ways of living. Amsterdam has entrepreneurs, creators and professionals building businesses across industries. London, Paris, Berlin and New York have their own distinctive communities of people imagining different futures.

Yet these people do not always know one another. Their experiences and ambitions often remain inside their own companies, professional networks and social circles.

I want The Heroine’s Journey to help bring these stories into the open.

Local coaches are natural partners for this idea. They understand their cities. They know their professional communities. They are curious about people and interested in what helps them develop.

They can become the interviewers who discover the people behind the businesses, the ambitions behind the innovations and the personal journeys behind professional achievements.

Over time, each coach can help build a collection of stories that reflects the character of their city.

The international platform gives those local stories a wider context. A coach in Eindhoven becomes part of the same storytelling initiative as a coach in London or Paris. Each works locally, but each contributes to a shared international project.

The ambition is not to create another directory of coaches.

It is to create a community of coaches who build relationships through curiosity, storytelling and a genuine interest in other people’s journeys.

Introducing the Founding City Coach

I am inviting coaches to try this idea as Founding City Coaches of The Heroine’s Journey.

The proposition is deliberately straightforward.

You use our questionnaire and interview format to invite innovators, creators, entrepreneurs and other professionals in your city to share their stories. You conduct the interviews and submit them for publication. With the participant’s permission and subject to editorial approval, the stories can appear on The Heroine’s Journey, giving the interviewees an opportunity for professional visibility.

We provide the interview framework, invitation materials and publishing guidelines. You bring your curiosity, your local knowledge and your ability to build relationships.

You can try the programme for your first month free. After that, the membership costs €149 per month, and you can stop at the end of any paid month.

The purpose of the first month is to discover whether the idea works for you.

Can you identify five interesting people you would like to interview? Do they welcome the invitation? Do you enjoy the conversations? Do the interviews help you build relationships with people you would like to know better?

And can you imagine making this a regular part of how you develop your coaching practice?

You do not need to answer these questions in advance. You can discover the answers by trying the programme.

A new kind of professional marketing

We live in a world that encourages everyone to promote themselves.

Build your personal brand. Publish more content. Increase your visibility. Grow your audience. Make sure people know what you do.

Visibility has its place. But visibility alone does not necessarily create a relationship.

Someone can see a hundred of your LinkedIn posts without ever having a conversation with you. Another person can spend an hour telling you about their ambitions, challenges and ideas—and leave with a genuine appreciation for your interest.

The second encounter may create a more meaningful foundation for a professional relationship.

I believe coaches can build their businesses by creating value before asking for business in return.

An interview gives the professional something tangible: an opportunity to tell their story. The coach gains an opportunity to listen, learn and develop a relationship. The platform gains another story that may inspire or interest other readers.

Everybody contributes something. Everybody receives something.

And nobody needs to pretend that a sales pitch is a conversation.

The story of a city begins with its people

My long-term ambition is to establish The Heroine’s Journey as an international platform for discovering the stories of people who are shaping their professions, businesses and communities.

I want coaches to help make this happen, one interview at a time.

Imagine what a city story collection could look like after a year. Twenty-four interviews with entrepreneurs, innovators, creators and professionals. Two dozen accounts of ambition, achievement, uncertainty, reinvention and discovery.

Imagine the relationships that might develop among the people who participate. Imagine the stories that other professionals might recognise themselves in. Imagine the opportunities that could emerge when people who share a city begin to understand one another a little better.

Not every interview will lead to a coaching client. Not every relationship will lead to a commercial opportunity.

But a coach who consistently creates valuable conversations is doing something more interesting than simply advertising a service.

The coach is becoming a connector, a storyteller and a participant in the professional life of the city.

And that is the future I want to explore with The Heroine’s Journey.

What if your next client begins with a story?

I invite you to join me in finding out.

Peter de Kuster
Founder of The Hero’s Journey and The Heroine’s Journey

You are the storyteller of your own life. Create your own legend—or not.