What's Your Story?
Here’s your next step to create a clear and compelling message for your business.
Before you even start taking any of these steps, you want to think about what the people you serve want. What do they want – not what they need? (More here)
Then, the first step is, “What’s your invitation? "Are you inviting them into more money or more health or happiness in their relationships? Those are kind of the big three – or it could be a mashup of those. (More here)
Step 2 is, “What is the problem you solve?”(More here)
Step 3 is, “What is your solution?”(More here)
Today, we’re on Step 4: “What is your story?”
You’ve heard it referred to as, “What’s your signature story?” Watch the video or read the article below to discover what your signature story about your business is.
What's Your Story from Adele Michal on Vimeo.
Really, the question is, “Why do you do what you do?”
There’s a story. It could be multi-part, it could have been building and then you have a big epiphany. You might have several things that happened and that you combine them into one story.
I will tell you my story – why I do what I do.
I work with women entrepreneurs who need to learn how to sell better, sell with authenticity, so they can get more clients, bring more money into their business, help more people, and experience the fulfillment that they desire and deserve.
I was a coach and sponsored at a large coaching expo back in 2013. I had a booth.
At that point, I was helping women make more money. I'm not a financial advisor, but I help people – help women especially – delete the blocks that they have to make money and make sales.
I won the American Express Most Creative Booth Award. I got a lot of attention, and a lot of people signed up to talk to me.
As I was conducting those calls, I realized, “I don’t know how to sell. I don’t want to sell. I will visit on the phone as long as anybody will talk to me – but I will not sell them anything.”
After all those calls, I didn’t make any sales – not one. I made one sale to someone I knew at the event.
It was devastating. I had to really figure out whether I could stay in business or not.
I decided not to quit and found a mentor who taught me how to sell in a way that met my own values, was authentic to me, and that I could share with other people – and would really serve the people I want to serve. That’s my story.
My friend Liz is a weight loss expert. She helps women lose weight without dieting by eliminating the emotional stress from their past. The reason she does it is that she has struggled with diet and weight her whole life. Her mother died of morbid obesity.
She said that when she was growing up, she didn’t realize that other people didn’t make and eat a cake every day like her mother did. That led her to be very interested in emotional eating and why people do that – and how to help them stop.
My friend, Annie Franceschi, who does my beautiful branding, was a storyteller since she was little. She wrote four screenplays by the time she finished college. She went to Hollywood and worked for Disney helping them market their movies.
She decided that wasn’t the life for her. When she came back home to North Carolina, she started telling other people’s stories. She realized that she loves telling stories for businesses. She does it in words and in graphics. That’s the way she expresses her gift, and that’s why she does what she does.
Now, what you do, your story may not be because of any personal experience. It could be just because you love it and you do it really well.
My friend Lisa is excellent at systems and process development, so that’s what she does for online business owners: She helps them streamline everything that they do so that it’s just easier. They make more money and help more people. Your story could be something like that, for instance, “I am just a great systems creator, and I love doing that.”
What’s the story of why you do what you do?
What’s that story for you?
Have a think about that this week. Let me know in the comments below why you do what you do.
P.S. I'm hosting an event in October, in Durham, North Carolina. It’s called Choosing Abundance.
It’s a two-day authentic marketing retreat to help people just like you learn what their story is and how to incorporate that in talking about the problem they solve, the people they help, and the solutions they provide.
It’s two days in Durham, with a very small group of other women entrepreneurs. We’re going to go through these seven steps that I'm outlining here in-depth so that everyone there comes away with a clear and compelling message that they can deliver with confidence.
Find out more at www.ChoosingAbundanceEvent.com.
You can either register there, or you can schedule a complimentary session to talk to me about whether this is the right fit for you and your business.
We have an early price discount through September 15th with a two-pay option.
If this calls to you, please head on over to www.ChoosingAbundanceEvent.com and see if it’s something that you’re ready to do to choose more abundance and have more clarity and confidence when you talk about what you do in your business.
That’s it for this week. Wishing you great abundance.