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Importance of Story

Let's dive into becoming a part of your customer story, and the reason that I chose this picture in particular to start this is not feel like now that it's big. It looks like I'm making this really weird face. But the reason I chose it is because I'm wearing my Warby Parker glasses and Warby Parker has become a part of my story, and so I thought that this was the perfect picture to show to start us off. So we're going to talk about why it's important to become a part of your customer story, how to become a part of your customer story, what buying really means and how to use this to your advantage. And this one, I hope, is going to be a little bit of an ah ha for some people. How to write a captivating about Paige Why the feeling of belonging is such a big deal and why you want to infuse your business into your customers habits. All of these things add up Teoh really loyal customers who can't get enough and who want to be a part of things and who feel like they're a part of things, and ...

you'll have them for life. So let's talk about how we do that. The importance of story is Module 17. Story is not just for books, right? We make sense of the world through story. When we talk about things, we often use story. That's how we talk about things. Stories air more powerful for your marketing than anything like statistics and facts. The statistics and facts are good, but the stories air much better. They're gonna help you a lot more. The details of your brand customer service and customer experience make up the stories. I have talked in my courses a lot about Bonnie Christine's Creativelive course on One of the reasons is because I've had such a good experience with her course, and I loved it so much. And when I talk about it, I talk about specific details of it, and also she did an amazing job at the beginning of her course of really engaging people. If you guys have seen it, she shared her story and it was a really in depth and it was a really thoughtful and helpful, and I think it made a huge difference and people automatically feel connected to her when they see that, I know for sure. Another example. The Whole Pet Diet by Andy Brown. This is a book that I used when I adopted one of my doggies and she was really sick, and she was missing half of her hair and she had mange and she had kennel Cough. And we took her to the vet and the vet wouldn't taker. She they said She's too sick. She's going to infect other dogs. We can't help you, really? And and so we took her to another vet that vets said the same thing. We tried one more, and that meant that the same thing. So I took her home and I thought, I am going to figure this out. I looked online for whatever I could, and I found this book, and I used it to make her food. I used it to give her extra vitamins, and the vet, the first that I took her to, said, This song is kind of a lost cause. Her hair is never gonna grow back. I can't believe that somebody even adopted her. She's so lucky that somebody like you would take her on. I thought I'm gonna take you on a second. Don't say anything more about my dog, but I use this book to nurse her back to health. And she had seven puppies shortly after that. We didn't know she was pregnant cause she was so malnourished. But she had seven puppies. She's so healthy now she looks like a normal doggy with all of her hair. So when anybody tells me that they're having problems with one of their cats or dogs, I tell him to look at this book because it has all these different recipes in it. And I recently suggested it to someone on Facebook because her dog is having like arthritis problems. And there's a chapter in their about that. And so I told her about Kaya, our dog, and how it helped in the next thing that she wrote on Facebook. I just bought that book, and it was through story. If I had just said, this book is really helpful, she might not have bought it, but because I said we used it to nurse Kaya back to health, and this is how we did it. That's the reason why it was so compelling, right? Another example, in my blogging course for Creativelive. I kept talking about the top coat for my nails, and it's the butter topcoat, and I was talking about how it's it's it's expensive. I think it's about $20 for a top coat, so it's expensive. But I was also talking about how my nails lasted in an entire week and I couldn't believe it. And so people were buying that top coat because I talked about how well it lasted and how it was worth it for the top coat. So these stories are the ones that we tell over and over again and that sell products, and it's the customers telling the stories. You've got to create the stories for them. So in order to get your customers to tell stories about your business, you've got to make them feel something. You have to delight them to give them an experience worth talking about. So I want to know how you do this. What stories do you imagine your customers telling about your business right now in my head? I wonder what people are going to say about this course. If they watch it online or they were here, I wonder what stories they're going to tell. It's really interesting to me to think about that kind of stuff. I think about it when I'm creating courses. What kind of stories could come out of this and stuff that I would never think could come out of it, comes out of it. For instance, I have talked about in previous courses somebody who took a course. Her name is Charlie from the Female Photographers Association. How she wrote an e book and she was able to use the money that she made from that e book to put a deposit on her house, the down payment on her house. And she emailed me saying, It's because of your course that I took and went through that I was able to create this product and that it sold so well. And that's a story that when she tells people, I guarantee you other people are going to come and work with me and by for me they're gonna be like, I want to be ableto put down a down payment on my house through an E book. I want to learn how to do that. That's one of those stories that's gonna get told over and over and over again and is going to generate a lot of good things for me. And the reason why is because you have to start with the quality product, you have to start with a quality service, right? Or else nothing else is going to come of it. I mean, if I had used the whole pet diet and it hadn't worked, I wouldn't be telling people about it. Right. So you have to have something that is good. That's high quality that people are going Teoh, talk about. I want you to imagine also the stories that you tell about your business. So stories of a particular student that you had intercourse or or customer who bought something and what they said about your product, what are some of the stories? Also, what stories come up when you think about why you started your business or why you love your business so much? What are those stories I would love for somebody to share kind of why they started their business or why they enjoy it so much a story with us. Well, somebody share one of those stories with us, huh? I could get? Yes, Sarah. Way you, Um So my first word was book. So it's always been important part of my life. And actually why I started my business is I want to help people publish their book, see the work imprint through editing and just guidance in general. And I remember math class. I hated math class. It was my least favorite subject. I was terrible at it. Remember, I would sometimes sneak books Sorry, teachers under my desk and read like these fantasy novels during map because I was so miserable and it was like a form of escape. Someone help! I was, like, one damn could write a book and help other people write books so they too could escape. Math class Story is that I wanted to create things that help people escape the harder parts of their lives, which is mascots in my case. And I want to help other people see their work in print, which is a dream of mine, and see their names publish and also help test that experience on of escape through editing and writing. Consulting. Your first word was book? Yes, it waas Oh, my goodness. Okay. What? I want us to think about what parts of that story struck you the most. I also just wanted to say to that when I was chatting with Sarah earlier, she was talking about her ideal client being somebody who was using novel writing to escape her 9 to 5. And I think that that's another piece of it that's really important to I think that's great. So what? What do you guys think really stood out to you? What was the part that really stood out to you about? I think that your first word was book and that you used it to escape math cost. Everyone laughed when you said that, because it's funny and it's amazing and it's great, and it we understand it right. We get it because it's part of story. Use that over and over and over again. And then when people describe you, they're going to say things like, You're not gonna believe it. Her first word was book or she used to escape math class by reading fantasy novels, and that's why she does what she does. Those are the things that catch on that we that we don't realize they're going to catch on. And that's how things spread by word of mouth. It's pretty fantastic. Do you think people get tired of hearing the story? Sometimes I think, like when you get to know certain people, like the more that I, you know, take classes from certain people or whatever. I start to hear the story more than once. And I guess I sort of get a little self conscious that people might be like. She's telling this story. What do you think I mean? Or is it Do you think that when you hear this story more than once? No, not that. No, I almost think I really know her because I already know this story. I know this story. So that's more what I think. Yeah. Yeah, because we're, you know, pretty close. So you feel like you kind of belong a little bit more. Yeah, right. Yeah. I don't I don't think that I think it's helpful to tell it more than once. Obviously, you're not gonna want to do it in every blogger posted every email newsletter, but in multiple places. Yes, because the same people aren't always paying attention. And those are the things that people latch onto and they really like about you. And so it's a good thing it's helpful and repetition when people hear a story over and over. That's when they're more likely to share it as well, because they've heard it more than once. They're comfortable with it. So when they're telling somebody about your brand, they know what story to use, right? That's the one that comes to mind because they've heard it a few times. So I know that we think like people who have heard it before, and I think about this story again. But usually I don't think that they really dio and especially because when we tell stories most of the time it's in bits and pieces. We're not spending an hour on one specific thing. Anybody else wanna share a story of how they started their business or why, so that we can give you guys a little bit of feedback on what really resonates with us as well if we want to get some of these were one that just came in from Jules by Triche, who is in the jewelry business and says that my grandma used to use beads to make handmade beaded Christmas ornaments. So it also makes me feel more connected to her, even though she has passed away and then 3 18 Media says. I started my business because the company I worked for had sucked all the soul out of Web design for me. I was churning out to websites a day with no flavor, no life, and I knew I could do better for new clients. So what stood out to you guys about those of those stories that Chris just told you have a shop? I'm Trish being connected to her grandma by the beads. It makes you feel like you know her a little bit more and that you want to support her. You want to see her six c. It's something. It becomes more special. Whatever she made becomes more. He's getting a feeling from making the jewelry and then from the other one. What stood out to me is the soul sucking part, not sit out to me because I understand that right? I've been there. The more you practice telling stories, the better you'll get. So tell stories within pretty much everything. Even in little Twitter updates, bits of stories can be very small on your about page in your block post in your e mails. It makes it. It also takes away from, like, ah, hard sell. When you start off an email where you're gonna be selling to somebody with a story, it kind of softens that cell that makes you feel more excited about it. How would you tell a story and Twitter with 140 characters. Okay, so, for instance, on my about page, I have things you might not know about me, right? One of them is that I hate chocolate. So that's a bit of story about me that I could share really quickly, right? So just think of things that you can just break down Something about you that makes you unique. Something about your business share, just bits and pieces. Like I love Gilmore Girls. So I will talk about bits of Gilmore girls on social media, and I can do that really quickly and easily, right? So just take whatever the story is and share just a little piece of it, Okay? People who love chocolate or how does she hate chocolate? What is wrong with her right now? Right? You want people who hear or read your stories to pass them on to retell them. So that's why telling the same one more than once is really going to help and catch on. And then when somebody is telling you a story about a brand that you already know, Okay, there is that connection and you feel like you belong because you both know it in your part of it. And there's another picture of me with my big red balloon. You could tell I really like that, right?