“It is literally true that you can succeed best
and quickest by helping others to succeed.”
Napoleon Hill
Welcome to A Secret Blogmas
2025!
Today is Day Two and this second post is all about the productivity and benefits to using your own lived experience in your content creation and publication. In this post, I’ll talk about the different impacts your experiences can have on your followers and provide tips on managing this and for managing your own mental health in sharing potentially difficult experiences. Keep reading to find out why lived experience can impact the success and popularity of your content and/or your platform…
1. Authenticity
Builds Trust
Audiences
can tell when someone is being real. Sharing lived experience makes content
more credible and relatable.
2. Unique Stories Stand Out
No one else has your exact path. Your
experiences differentiate you from creators who rely on generic advice.
3. Emotional Connection
When you share struggles, wins, or lessons,
people feel seen—and that builds loyal communities.
4. Practical, Tested Insights
You’ve tried things, failed, and learned. That
real-world trial-and-error is often more useful than theory.
5. Empathy and Understanding
Lived experience allows you to speak directly
to the challenges your audience faces, showing you get it.
6. Inspires Others
Your story can motivate people to take action,
especially when they see someone like them overcoming obstacles.
7. Accessibility of Expertise
You don’t need formal credentials to help
people—experience itself is a form of authority.
8. Encourages Vulnerability and Openness
By sharing honestly, you give permission for
others to be real too, fostering deeper conversations.
9. Content Feels More Human
Algorithms may favor quantity, but audiences
crave humanity. Personal stories cut through the noise.
10. Legacy and Impact
Your lived experience, once shared, can
outlast you—helping others long after you’ve told your story.
1. Frame Your Story as a Lesson
Don’t just tell what happened—explain what you
(and your audience) can learn from it.
2. Be Specific and Concrete
Details like numbers, timelines, or “what I
tried vs. what didn’t work” make your experience actionable.
3. Offer Takeaways or Tips
Summarize your story with clear advice your
audience can apply to their own situation.
4. Balance Vulnerability With Value
It’s powerful to open up, but always connect
the story back to a point that helps your reader.
5. Use Relatable Language
Avoid jargon. Speak the way your followers
think and talk so they feel you’re alongside them, not lecturing.
6. Show Both Struggles and Wins
People connect more deeply when you share
obstacles as well as outcomes—it makes your advice feel real.
7. Turn Mistakes Into Guides
Frame failures as “what I’d do differently”
posts. These are often the most valuable for readers.
8. Encourage Reflection
Ask questions at the end: “How have you
handled something similar?” This invites engagement and shared learning.
9. Provide Resources Alongside Your Story
Link to tools, books, communities, or steps
that helped you—so your audience has something tangible to act on.
10. Keep Your Audience in Mind
Share enough of your experience to be useful,
but always filter it through: “How does this serve them?”
Of course, there
was bound to be a bit like this to come in a blog post about lived experience content
helping others – I mean, as a mental health Blogger/Influencer – it’s kind of/basically
what I do! I literally just create content about my own personal, lived
experiences in the hope that it is somewhat helpful to my readers/audience/followers!
And I think I’m NOT Disordered has three types of audience/followers who
therefore very obviously and understandably benefit from the lived experience
content in different ways:
1. Other mental health service users and those
who have struggled with trauma and/or suicide and self-harm – these people will
likely find my content helpful in that it prevents them from feeling alone and feeling
there’s no one out there with any empathy.
2. Loved ones of those people – these people will
probably benefit from my content by seeing it as a means of gaining insight
into how their loved one might be thinking or feeling or what they may be
experiencing which might better place them in being supportive for that person.
3. Services and professionals – I think that
these people could find this content helpful because it provides them with a
level of guidance on what is helpful and what isn’t so that this can reflect in
policy and procedure review and service creation.
The trickiest thing for me amongst all of this was maintaining my own safety whilst writing about situations that were often upsetting and therefore difficult to remember emotionally. But you have to remember them if you want to create content on them and if you want to create content that sticks – content that’s of some use to someone else out there. You can’t half-ass content like this. You need to put your all into it or put in nothing at all.
1. Share from ‘scars’ not ‘open wounds!’
2. Still protect your own privacy and safety!
3. Use it to highlight both challenges and
growth/improvement!
4. Respect the stories of others!
5. Connect your experience to value!
1. Use both ‘Trigger Warnings’ and ‘Disclaimers’ where
necessary/relevant.
2. Have a support system!
3. Separate your worth from your content!
4. Practice after-care e.g. self-soothing!
5. Keep perspective with feedback!