Creating your business story- Final
===
[00:00:00]
Claire: Okay, so I think the biggest thing is when we're running our business, we get really caught up on, you know, the logistics, the products, the services, how do people understand what we're doing? But at the heart, going back centuries, the heart of everything is the storytelling piece. It's what the story is, what ultimately makes a successful business.
Claire: It is everything and we hear it a lot, but then we're like, well, what does that look like? How do I improve my storytelling? What's the framework? You know, what's the next steps for [00:01:00] me? It's not about marketing tactics, but it's actually how ultimately we can build. Real true connections with your customer, your clients, with your audience, both online, offline, how I look at your storytelling, it's your brand, it's your story is essentially the foundation of your brand.
Claire: So, you know, people get caught up with the perfect colors and the website and this and that, but ultimately it's how that makes the person feel. And that story, a story is the most powerful way to create that emotional connection. And so sometimes we forget to spend the time developing that. And this is the situation now more than ever, especially because we were talking about the rise of AI.
Claire: We're living in a world where we are now competing with more attention than ever. It is the most valuable currency that we have. Time and money. It's It's just getting someone's time for them to notice us. So we actually [00:02:00] have to work extra hard to tell the stories that are going to resonate. And so that's why when we look at storytelling, foundationally at the very element of the story is building trust.
Claire: And trust, therefore, will help people understand. What your brand stands for, even if they don't need it necessarily, but they like what it stands for, they're going to promote it, tell their friends, get involved. And I know we naturally do that. I do that all the time. It's like, as soon as you hear a good story and metrics of something that we're sharing, we're sharing the story.
Claire: And at the end of the day, that's what, how your brand is going to stand out and why people should care. Um, and so we need to figure out why people will buy what you're offering and they need a story that's going to push them to buy that product. People buy into your brand, your story, because they're buying a belief, they're buying an emotion and they're buying that brand, what it represents.
Claire: So [00:03:00] today we're going to look at that. How do we do that? How do we dive deeper? You know, at the end of the day, the story that we tell, it is the foundation of the success of our business. Without that, you can't build the rest of the house. So, you know, whether we realize it or not, It is at the forefront of everything, and this is where we need to figure out, okay, how will my story or my brand, how will it differentiate from everyone else out there?
Claire: The good thing is as a human being, we all have different experiences. We have different insights, we have different knowledge, we have different expertise. So that story, no one's going to have the same story. So it's about telling the story that's going to resonate. And this is the thing is that we want to keep one story repetitive over and over and over to keep the same story to really resonate.
Claire: And so if we want to capture people's [00:04:00] attention, there is nothing like all the statistics, all the research in the world. There's nothing more powerful than a story. And that will build the trust that will build why they care. And that's why they'll keep showing up. I thought this was really interesting.
Claire: Stories increase. The perceived value of a product or an idea or a service by up to 2, 706%. That's wild. So just to put it into our perspective, like, It's one thing to like improve it, but by this much more, we are so, so lucky to know that we can tap into these stories because we all have them. That's the one thing that grounds all of us is that we have stories and I see so many business forgetting to add the details of their story or the little nuances, but that's ultimately what might completely trigger that person into.
Claire: Thinking differently, buying from you because it's it's created an [00:05:00] emotional connection with them. And so it's really important to keep going back and you know, what is the story that I am crafting? What's the business story I am sharing that's going to connect people and drive that growth? I'm going to show you in 15 seconds how one of the most viewed in the last year campaigns for telling a story, whether you like them or not, they are good at storytelling is Starbucks.
Claire: There we go. Some say the world has never been more divided, that we've never been more disconnected. But through our windows, we're able to see so much good every day. And it's clear that a little kindness is never really little, really simple. There is so much in that, that we can pull out the core message, the core story of your business.
Claire: The rest will follow. They'll start diving in and looking at the other things that you're offering. And once you get them into that funnel, what we call, you know, your [00:06:00] pipeline, they'll start exploring other opportunities. Some people and most people that, you know, you're buying a brand, you're buying a feeling, you're buying a belief.
Claire: And so sometimes we get too caught up and I do the same thing. I know me, that's been always a, you know, a weakness, like, well, you want to tell everyone what you can offer. Uh, but people are very overwhelmed. They just want to know the one thing that you know, that you're going to solve a problem for. And then over time, and if you look at really successful business owners, you can see that they've been in business for a long time.
Claire: And there's one that's about making smart decisions, how to make better decisions when you're sitting down and building your business. And so. When we look at our stories, when people hear your story over and over and it truly resonates, your story might not resonate for everyone. And we're going to look at that, like the rich, you know, the riches are in the niches we'll look at.
Claire: But when people hear your story and it resonates. It's to a lifelong relationship [00:07:00] that leads to customer showing up, buying from you over and over. Think about your favorite brands. Why do you keep showing up? Why do you keep going the same stores? Why do you still paying the money, even though you could go somewhere else and it's cheaper?
Claire: Or maybe it's better. Why do you keep showing up for that product or that service? We live in a world where there's, So much noise digitally, and we're always trying to get people to listen to. And so a great story is not just explaining what you do, what products you have, what you're offering, but it's.
Claire: Always going back. The story is giving a reason for your audience to care about your brand. So right now, I want you to just take a few minutes and I want you to take a second and write down a word, a couple of words, but what belief or value does your business represent? So if we look at Nike, It's about everyone being an athlete, and we look at Apple, it's innovation, creativity.
Claire: We look at [00:08:00] Starbucks, and it's about creating that third place as a home. What is it that your business, or your aspiring business, or what you hope to create, what is that belief or value? The next question to consider is, how can I use my story to build trust with my audience? It could be so many things.
Claire: And so that's where we really have to start diving deep and understanding who is our ideal customer on the other side. Who is it that is, that we see that's interested in what we're offering that has shown up for our product or service. How can we understand them more carefully where they're sitting, where they're living, where they're, you know, interacting, how they speak.
Claire: And we're going to look at that in a moment, but I want you to figure out You know, where are the ways I can use my story to build that audience? And then the last question is, At the end of the experience, they go through the [00:09:00] whole experience from the first time they, they interact with my brand, me, my business, my offerings, when they leave, what do I want that customer?
Claire: So it doesn't have to be complicated. It's just that, what do I, what are the benefits that they're going to walk away with? What are the things that they're going to believe about my brand? So now we're going to look at, you know, what are the elements? That really make up a compelling business story.
Claire: What's the framework? Because this is all great to be like, yes, stories are important and they build trust. But then when we go deeper, Hey, we're going to this, we're going to start looking at, okay, what elements of storytelling that I, I need to start with? What are the next steps I need to do? And how can I scale this?
Claire: Because ultimately that's what it is, is that there's so much out there. It's so hard. I hear this a lot. Well, I'm just a. There's only a small team of us or there's only this and we need to start getting our messaging out, but I'm not sure how to do it. And I don't have the [00:10:00] resources to spend, you know, 20, 000 to, you know, run a campaign this month.
Claire: But don't worry, you can do it on 20. And we'll look at, you know, unique ways of doing that. So the first and most important thing is that we look at the customer is the hero, just like in the Starbucks video. And what happens is that when we make the customer The hero, they start to feel, they feel understood and it's so subtle.
Claire: And so the most powerful frameworks you can use is what we call the hero's journey. But the twist is you're not the hero of your story. Unfortunately, and so many people get this wrong. They try to tell their story that might be part of your website. Here's the founder story. If you want to read a little bit more, your customer is the hero of the [00:11:00] story.
Claire: And that is the most important thing to take away from today. So what is really required at this point now is focus on the customer's actions. So if we look at here, all the things that has happened in this video subtly, which it's 15 seconds, but it focuses on, so the customer is the hero focuses on customer actions.
Claire: It can see different people of different abilities, races, coming in, feeling welcome. They're smiling. They're happy. It feels relaxed. It's highlighting the customer experience. They can seamlessly pull up to the window or they can go and it's accessible for them to walk in. To the area into the space, and these are all such subtle things, but they've been so intentionally designed without us realizing it, but putting the customer as the hero.
Claire: The next framework is showing the transformation. Someone comes in and in this 15 seconds, they [00:12:00] leave happy. They sat down, they're smiling, they're having a conversation and it's just coffee. They're not pushing your products. They're not saying, look, we got the pumpkin spice lattes out this year. It's none of that.
Claire: What you've bought into the brand, and then because you bought into the brand, you get excited about what, what else is coming down the pipeline. There's a problem solution format, and it's happening suddenly. What's the problem being solved? Well, someone wants to get coffee to come in, and when they come in, Their life is transformed.
Claire: They meet a friend they haven't seen. They're connecting over. And these are all things that we can create, but it's so subtle. So I think it's so important to go back and be like, is when I tell my story, is the customer being celebrated? Are they the hero?
Claire: [00:13:00] And so who is. Your main character in the story, who is the customer?
Claire: So what do they look like? And you're going to have multiple and there's some companies I work with and they have 30, 40 of these different personas customers, and we draw out different journeys for them. They all are going, walking a different journey, but it's really important to sit down and name them.
Claire: And now the next phase is. Well, you start a business because you're solving a problem and [00:14:00] go back to that Northstar what's driving you and so you got to ask yourself, like, what is my business overcoming? And so when you think about your business and your brand, what is my customer? What is that person really struggling with?
Claire: And what problem are they facing? And what's really holding them back. What is it? And put it into words. Write it all out. If you don't write it out, it will be really hard to sit and tell a story. So remember, we call this, you know, the cycle, the, the building that trust, it takes time. It really, really takes time.
Claire: So it depends on where you're at. Just recognizing to keep, keep hitting that home. The biggest danger when telling your story is. To try and relate to everyone to, to, to really relate. But the reality is. It will dilute your story and your brand so much that you'll just get a few people coming in. It is truly the [00:15:00] ones that you really, when you do, and that's why I say, go back here really carefully, really walk through exactly who that customer is.
Claire: And you might write out who that customer is not, and that will help you get started depending like I know it's not this person, especially if you're in the luxury space or, you know, you know, exactly, it's an entry point of this, I'm serving this customer, it's looking like this. And so what's really important is that this is where authenticity is.
Claire: So much easier to showcase is when you're so deep into that persona, into the hero, into your customer. When you really understand the customer, you're going to be really relatable. You're going to speak their language. They're going to understand the nuances of, you know, the imagery you use. They're going to like the [00:16:00] medium of how you're chatting with them.
Claire: You're, you're on the right platform, all these things, all these very subtle things from colors to, and that's where the brand plays. And so if you don't understand the hero of the story, being your customer, then it will be so hard to tell that story. Right. And so it's really crucial that you dive deep into what makes your customers care.
Claire: What is it that's going to make them care? Because at the end of the day, the more that you focus on the individual customer, the more success you'll see. And it seems like, you know, we, we close off all these white doors. We say, yeah, we're there. They're not on our radar. We're just going to focus on the purple door, whoever's in that purple door, and there might be 500 people in all these rooms and we want to tell a story and open the door and tell the story to all of them.
Claire: But you just want to tell a very specific story and have the highest conversion to those [00:17:00] people because they're your people. And then eventually. When you become so big, you can start opening up other doors and you have a bigger team and you have other opportunities. You can sell other things. I run a podcast called the small town entrepreneur and I interviewed a very intelligent gentleman.
Claire: It was Nathan Young. And he's on, he was on the last couple of episodes and he said, you know, he's originally from Hong Kong, moved to Canada. And it was funny because he's like, why do you think fusion restaurants don't do well? He's like, cause they're a fusion of so many things that no one knows what they are and they're trying to appeal to everyone.
Claire: He's like, but you go to a pizza shop or a Vietnamese restaurant, you know exactly what you're getting and they can be the best. They're not trying to appeal to everyone. And I thought that was really interesting because I think by nature, we just feel, you know, we want everyone to like us. We just buy, like, our natural tendency is to not create dissonance.
Claire: We don't want people to be like, [00:18:00] oh, that's ugly. Or, oh, I don't like that. It doesn't matter. There's people that just will not like it. And so we have to then focus all of our energy, all of our time and all of our, you know, cognitive work that we're doing in our business to that very specific customer.
Claire: Because that is where, at the end of the day, The more you focus on them, the more success, meaning the happier you will be with the work you're doing, the more money your company will generate, the more growth. And so sometimes we have this belief that if we, if we focus too small, then we're limiting opportunities and growth, but it's actually the opposite more than ever, because there's so much opportunity.
Claire: There's so there's what are we over 8 billion people in this world? That's a lot of people. It's there's a lot of ways to make a million dollars. But how do you want to make that million dollars? And how do you want to keep showing up for that? I'm Claire Bouvier on LinkedIn. You can follow me. And if you actually want to do this with your [00:19:00] company, reach out.
