About a week ago, I traveled to NJ to meet someone I have known, virtually, for quite some time. Barbara invited me to spend the day with her, meet her family, and just have a low-key day hangin’ out and chillaxin’.
I got in the Silver Bullet (the name of my Ford Escape) and headed out around eight in the morning. There’s nothing quite like the feeling of euphoria when traveling on one of the busiest highways in NYC, heading in the OPPOSITE direction of all traffic. I found myself chanting, “Goodbye suckers! I’m off to have fun on this Tuesday, while you sit in this horrendous traffic (for HOURS) trying to get to work.” <—-This was followed by a prayer of gratitude since charting my own path in business. SO glad I no longer have to sit in traffic anymore to get to a job I don’t enjoy!
I arrived at Barbara’s beautiful home about an hour later. Her twin boys were still asleep, so we made a pot of coffee and sat outside, by the pool, and talked the morning hours away. We experienced what it was like to dream together, share our common successes and struggles with business-building together, and most importantly, focus on a friendship that had been forming for months.
When her boys awoke around 11a.m. (teenagers!), I had the pleasure of talking with them. I have LOTS of experience navigating the quirkiness and mindset of teenagers. As a former public school teacher, I know these peeps inside and out! When they tried to derail our conversation about the importance of reading with off-the-wall comments, I lovingly steered it back to the topic at hand, in my own quirky way.
One of the most interesting conversations we had while I was there was around spending time with mom—and how they would look back on the stories they created when mom was gone, and have such fond memories to relive. I suggested they cook more with mom, hang-out with mom, build experiences with mom. Of course, as adolescent boys do, they poo-pooed that idea and poked fun at it. (Afterall, this is the NORMAL way to handle such deep topics when you are 14 years old!)
But…something amazing happened a few days later. I got a text from Barbara with the picture below.
…and this is what she wrote: “My boys listened to what you said. And we enjoyed cooking together tonight and creating memories.”
My heart SANG when I received this message! And Barbara was one happy mom as well…
I will never forget the memories I made that day with Barbara and her family. I’m very grateful for this experience—and the ripple effect is has, and the ripple effect it will continue to have—on ALL of us.
Stories connect us. They create an impression or a feeling and generate an emotion around an experience.
One of the things I have been teaching the last year is the power of storytelling in your marketing—for the reasons stated above. Simply put, stories are your best friends in marketing.
What if selling your product or service could be as easy as telling a story? What if the story did the hard work of “convincing” someone why they should work with you, or buy your course or program or product?
Guess what? Storytelling in your marketing removes the triggers, the sales-y feeling, and the alarms that go off when someone feels they are being pitched to. No one likes being sold to. It feels yucky and pushy for them. And it feels awkward for you.
I’m excited to share my new body of work with you around storytelling and how to use it in ALL areas of your marketing. It combines your unique Content Personality™ with your unique stories—so that you can sell in a way that feels really good to you. It connects your audience with you, so that you form deep emotional connections with your community.
This body of work will be fully revealed—and taught—at my event, Time & Freedom LIVE!, in October.
I wonder what would be possible for your business, and your marketing, if you spent three days with me, understanding how to craft stories that sell?
I wonder how much more fun your marketing would be if you could tell the stories that matter most to you?
Here’s to having more fun and magic in your marketing—through story and BEING you.
