Lessons

Lesson Info

Persuade, Connect and Sell with Story

So you're back good lesson thirteen, which is persuade connect and sell with story, but before we move on let's talk about what we just covered in less than twelve the transcription in one person methods the transcript we talked about what the transcription method is and how to use it to create pieces of writing that sound like you and what the one person method is and how to create pieces of writing with it that really connect with your target market and your ideal customer and now we're moving right along. The objective of this lesson is to understand the importance of story and how to tell exciting stories with in all areas of your brand blogging, email, american ing sales copy and social media what you'll learn why you have to master storytelling too right block post emails and social media updates that connect with your target market the new way to stories in your business how to tell exciting stories, the kind that get your target market to come back for more and more because tha...

t's what we want them to do stories are the foundation of great log post videos, sales copy and social media updates that we want to share with others. If you want marketing to get easier because others are sharing your stuff with their audiences, you've got to master storytelling or at least get better at it progress I wanted to start off with this quote the story from rumpelstiltskin toe warren peace is one of the basic tools invented by the human mind for the purpose of understanding there have been great societies that did not use the wheel, but there have been no societies that did not tell stories if you want to read, write great block post entails copy you've got to learn how to tell exciting stories whom and who in here thinks that they are pretty good at storytelling pretty good if decent, who thinks that they're like great at storytelling? Yeah ray's a proud, proud, good good who thinks that they're really not very good at this they're kind of terrible at this. Okay, here's the thing your voice and your stories make you in your brand unique they make you in everything that you do unique. So what I'm gonna ask is I'm gonna ask a couple of you just to share a story about traveling here to creative live or being in the studio audience anything you want to share related to that chris is going to start us off with just a short snippet you had a good one last time about traveling here well, it is nearly as cool a trip well, it was far more enjoyable the last time I came to creative life I'm coming all the way across diagonally the continent basically from atlantic canada on the east coast, all the way down here to the west coast, and last time it took me over twenty four hours to get here, because every single plane was totally delayed and canceled. Everything is not so long away. This time it wasn't, but it was really it was really lovely. I enjoyed it, and I remember at one point, because last time the trip is so bonkers, when I was flying over the mountains, it was dark. It was nighttime because of so late, getting here, and I've flown across canada before and flown over the rocky mountains, going to visit friends in vancouver, so on the west coast of canada, and it was like mind blowing and majestic and beautiful, and it was one of those things I could crawl up in the window like a child and just be like a look at the man in the little tiny houses, and everything is amazing. And this time I was flying over the same mountain chain, but down here, and it was just so different and cool, and I had this feeling of how everything is different when you take the window seat in the head like that whole metaphor idea of, you know, taking that window seat and looking out and seeing what the world's doing and and making that choice to see it so maybe I'll write a block post about that I have it in my book somewhere shot it down is a neat thing very cool, very cool all right somebody else share story about okay amanda um I actually flew teo atlanta and saw your husband standing there and I was like, hey, no, that guy and then I saw just this hair your hair behind them like going onto the plane so it's like wait, that was april and when I got on the plane april was sitting there she's like, what are you you doing here? I'm thinking I'm going teo on then I sat next to this really he was a nice gentleman but he was singing and talking to himself, you see? Oh yeah, so that was kind of interesting, but it was yeah, it was cool thing to see you on the airplane on the way to compare that was really fun. I was so surprised I was not expecting to see anybody I'm about to put on like my medical mass think really easily. So on planes I have to pee where one of those medical masks teo just make sure that I don't get sick before something like this because that would be really terrible and there I see amanda I'm like she's going to think I mean saying putting in this last hopefully she doesn't see this part but okay, so I just told a little bit of story mandy told a little bit of story chris told a little bit of story it all sounded different right and it's just because it's story so if you want teo easily incorporate more of yourself into your stuff it's all about story and it's really about how you're telling the story and we're all pretty good at telling stories even those of you who don't think that you are what you're going to do and we're going to talk about this a little bit more as you're going to start really small and you're going to tell just snippets of story and you're going to zoom in real close like we've been talking about and really share the details often you're not the only person selling your type of product your stories and personality and writing style make it unique so if we shell talks about her jewelry and trish talks about her jewelry in a story format it's going to sound very different now their jewellery is very different but even just setting that apart if they were to tell stories about it that's something that would create a lot of uniqueness, right? You wouldn't talk about it in the same land now I have an example from the studio audience member this person doesn't know it's coming I'm looking at you amanda seo okay right here amanda sue says actually funny thing I was a fitness instructor but my friends and sometimes my family like to joke about so I think sizing me and taking me on people sticking me on people like some sort of attack dog as though military automatically equals hand to hand combat training and yet I'm more likely to make you do push ups than I am to take you down although as my mother points out that maybe even more terrifying that is so good that is so good so you should have raised your hand when I said who's really good and writing story because this is really good when I was looking at block post this is what jumped out at me when I read this I thought this is what I have to share this is the example that has to be up here because it really shows your personality and nobody else is going to say something like this in this way so how do you write exciting stories for those of you who really struggled with it you zoom in to catch the details you include at least one exciting detail you use suspense you create a picture for your reader and you think about what it felt like what did it feel like you want that to be part of the storytelling process and you really wanna zoom in to catch those details you really want is your man so I'm gonna give you an example I'm gonna play with amanda story of seeing me on the airplane now she used some really good zoomed in details she saw my tall husband standing there and then she saw hair walking onto the airplane right on then she ash of here in a flash of here walking onto the airplane and then she gets on there and I say to her woman doing here and she's thinking I'm coming to see you obviously those air details that kind of create this story that's exciting for people to hear now if she had said something like I was at the airport and I realised april and I were on the same plane and it was so cool because that's what lots of people put something like that that's how lots of people write their block post or thereabout me page or their sales copy is there thinking very vague we read that kind of stuff all the time rain but if she had put I saw april's husband tall husband and in this flash of hair and I walked on the plane and she's like what are you doing here? That's much more exciting well that's what you want to think about when it comes to story any questions? You guys are good right now so let's talk about the new way to tell stories lots of times I feel like when you're thinking about telling a story you feel is if you have teo tell the entire thing, you have to stay start at the beginning and go all the way through have a mendel have a middle and then have an ending and really what works best on line is to tell the truth in an entertaining bite size chunk tell the truth in an entertaining, bite sized chunk, and especially for those of you who are really struggling with story and this isn't your forte start with just a piece just a sentence, something that you can just boil down to something that is exciting in on ly a sentence or two so with amanda's example, she could say I saw april's tall husband in a flash of hair that is just one tiny bit of piece of that story, and I realized we were on the same flight that's all she would have to say for it to be a piece of story that she could use in something it doesn't have to be the entire thing, and I think that's where we get really hung up and we feel like we have to tell these long stories that are really drawn out and we don't need to do that when I looked yeah, go ahead the whole idea that a picture is worth a thousand words and if you use the right handful of words you can paint that picture and kind of make a profit that's faras the words are concerned so you know painting that picture I can see the other kris with a k your husband and I can see the flash of hair and it paints the picture that's worth of the thousand words and I can fill the rest and myself as the reader yeah really powerful exactly exactly you want people to be able to see it when you write a bit of story and you think to yourself I can't imagine this then it's not done yet that's when you keep working on it when you can't see it in your mind it's not done yet so if amanda had said I saw april and her husband at the airport and realized that we were going to be on the same flight there needed to be more because it's hard for somebody to picture that they can kind of start still like there's a vague inkling of what that's gonna look like butt you can get really detailed like what was my face like when you walked on the plane and I realized that you were there and what it was like to sit next to the guy who is seing and talking to himself and what that felt like even and adding in those details now you can take pieces of that or you can share the whole thing it really depends on the point and it really depends on what you're trying to do, so a lot of times I will add in just a piece of story into a block post, sometimes near the beginning of the block post, to get people really excited, but I'm not telling a huge story. I'm just telling a part of the story and that's where you get hung up, especially in sales copy, you don't want a really, really long stories unless it's a case study, and it makes a lot of sense that kind of story can be powerful, and even then you want toe kind of get it down to the point where it's as powerful as it can be at that length. Trish, you do a pretty good job of when I was looking at some of your product descriptions of putting in bite size pieces of story, and the thing is, I think you just need to zoom in just a bit more just get a bit more detailed and then those bite size pieces of story are perfect. Now we've got a hot seat here and amanda seo, you're going to come up and join me for this one? Come on up here and hang out with me, all right, okay, give her a round of applause, everybody way we'll see we might even have somebody else come up too. All right so let's start by what we're going to dio as amanda sue is going teo tell us the story something to do with your business it can be why you do what you dio can be something that has happened to you within your business it could be anything business related I could help you narrow it down if you need more more narrowing down yes okay so let's talk about some reason why you do what you do something that has to do with the work that you d'oh why it inspires you something like that and wait hold on okay when she gets to the part when she could sue the part where it feels really detailed and you're really invested I want you to start holding up your workbooks okay so like a little the meter of this is getting really exciting okay, so what we're going to try to dio is we're going to try to zoom in tow whatever you're telling and use lots of details and get people invested in it okay um let's see here well recently I I was doing creativity coaching but that really wasn't quite clicking with my people and I started trying to figure out what it was that tied everything that I get asked questions about together um I get asked about how I home school and run a business how I run a business with kids in the house um how to you keep your email and check how to keep your drop box in check, and I started figuring out all of it had to do with systems, and I mean, in a unique position to do something with this, because my mom okay, so we've we've already dispelled the myth of left brain versus right brain, but there's still reasons for those stereotypes, and my parents are like the ultimate versions of the stereotypes. My mom is like, super right brain. She likes all of her stuff out on her desk where she can see it, you know, like that it's quintessential creative with the cat sitting in the middle of all of her stuff. My dad, on the other hand, is like super type a. He has all of his books neatly lined up on his desk, like you can tell very much. Which section of the desk is my mom's? In which one says, my dad's, my dad's all up here on this shelf, neatly regimented and here's my mom's like out of all over the place and she's, very free spirited and creative. And my dad's, like he does programming for fun. Eso because of that, because of that experience, I'm I've got both the creativity from my mom, but I have also the system's, like my dad, may lists when I was a kid, I used to make me all mad like here's all the things that you have to do before you can play, you have to load the dishwasher and you have to vacuum the floor and you have to sweep the floor and you have to like it was very, very detailed. Listen, we had to check it all off and used to hate it, and then I think also being in military and all of that kind of added just another little layer of systems stuff so lots of people fall very much into one side or the other, but I'm kind of I'm kind of in the middle I can kind of see both directions on both creative but analytical all at the same time. Okay, so I saw workbooks going up when you were dropping describing the desk that's when it all happened for everybody, right? And then when you were talking more after he got off the desk and you were talking about the list, it was more vague and people started teo kind of put their workbooks down a little bit more. So you did really, really well with describing the death and the cat in the middle of it and your mom's side versus your dad's side, and that got people really interested, right so you can tell that that was the piece of the story that you should be using okay because that was the most detailed zoomed in paris and that's probably why people loved it so much any feedback from you guys yeah well I felt when she he started the I didn't quite know where she was going but then when she described the desk and went really when she got to the list I could identify with her because I feel the same so taipei sometimes and then sometimes can be creative and I have to fund the middle and that's that resonated it's a really weird combo you feel like o c d and a d d all at the same time I feel like you need to have this kind of coffee on your about page like even describing the desk of your parents and where you get this from further down like you're going to tell people how you help them but further down when you're talking about yourself and where you kind of get this from because that would make me think like we could be fresh I could work with you we could be friends that's good wey thing but that's a point in your copy that would really kind of real men and get me excited and it would wake me up that woke you up right that was the point where you got woken up and just a short piece when you're saying, like using just a snippet of story because it's powerful that image it's really visual, you can paint the picture and then let that picture tell the rest of it. You don't need all the other parts, right? So the point of this was tio think about the story and then pull out the piece that was actually the peace you want to use. And so when you're writing, oftentimes I delete things like crazy, I will go in and my draft, I've written all of this stuff, and then I will pull out the best parts of it and get rid of the rest and that's before I go in and revise every word I usually try to delete, I still will delete after I gone in and revised each sentence and all that kind of stuff. But it hurts your heart doesn't chris and hurt your heart when you have to delete the stuff that you worked so hard on you, they're your sentence babies and I say you're gonna do is really horrible. What you getting? Killed a little sense, baby it's a terrible way. Really talks about it. He was like it's going those little darlings you gonna kill your darlings, but you've got to get you got to get ruth let I need to get better about that. I actually have a note in my ever note that I've saved copy that I used on something once before, but then I had to get rid of it for some reason. I'm like maybe I can use it later. Mike yeah, yeah, you can decide to use later, but really, when you're thinking of a story for something specific like this could work really well for in about paige or even a block post just pulling out that piece is what's gonna work the best in leaving out the rest? Okay, all right, thank you so much. You did it. All right. So today's mission is to write a short snippet of story for your next block post email newsletter or social media update and share it in the private facebook group and give feedback if you really need to. If you don't know, what's the best part of it, share it in the private facebook group and get feedback from all of us because that's what we're here for and we can tell you this is what we're the most interested in, or this is where you really need to zoom men, I need more details. Here, like I would like more details when you're talking about the list. I would like zoomed in details for that part of it. If you were going to use that part, so we can really help each other here to write better stories.