From 2008–2016, the world knew Michelle Obama as the First Lady of the United States, a woman mostly eclipsed by her husband’s presidency. While she was reasonably popular in this role, her own star didn’t fully rise until 2018, when she released her ghostwritten memoir, Becoming.
While some book tours involve a smattering of poorly attended readings at small bookstores around the country, with maybe a handful of books signed and purchased, Michelle sold out entire arenas. She visited twelve American cities and charged up to $3,000 for a meet-and-greet backstage. Her superpower? “To create intimacy at scale,” Vox Media declared.
This is the magic of memoir.
Memoir pulls back the tightly curated facade of our accomplishments and allows readers to see the hurdles we overcame to arrive at those shiny accomplishments. If you want to build an innate trust with your reader—and your potential customer—you need to let them see the in-between moments alongside the triumphs.
No one knows your story unless you tell them. Here are four ways that writing a memoir will help grow your platform.