How To Create Powerful Stories With Your Brand

Knowing your niche is important in your business. There is your big overarching niche, so if you're a florist, a hairdresser, a coach, a photographer etc and then there is what I call your distinctive specialty which digs a little deeper on how exactly you do what you do.

So, for instance, if you're a florist - are you doing retail? Are you doing events and weddings? Do you own a flower a truck? Or is your specialty weekly subscriptions or something like that?

When you get into that distinctive specialty, it gives you more of that opportunity to dial into your unique custom fingerprint. Your fingerprint is what differentiates you from everybody else. Others may do what you do, but no one does it like you do. Two questions that comes up for a lot of creative entrepreneurs are how do you identify that custom unique fingerprint? And what's the best way for you to tell people about it, so that they will want to work with you?

All business is about problem solving

It doesn't matter what type of business that you're in, you have to be able to focus in on the problem, or the pain point that you're solving in order to drive your audience to take action with you. So the more quickly you can identify the problem you solve for your clientele, the better.

And it's important here that you're not just focusing on the surface level problem but addressing the deeper problem that they face. A great example of this is when I was working with couples for their weddings, I just didn't talk about how I was an amazing florist who did weddings but I also addressed the one of the biggest problems that they faced -- how much do wedding flowers cost and lack of clarity around their budget. 

I wanted to be different from other florists and show my custom fingerprint through my marketing messaging:

As you can see from the above I clearly spoke about and described their pain point which is having a vision that doesn't fit their budget. I went beyond talking about the client surface problem, which is they're just looking for a florist for their wedding and I addressed a deeper level problem for them.

So if you were a person planning your wedding, after reading this, how would it make you feel? Would you think that this person could help you? Does it come across differently than if I just put out marketing that said 'Hey, I'm a florist I do weddings'?

The more clearly you can communicate your client's problem, the more clearly, they will think that you can help them with their situation.

When we are able to mix this clarity of messaging with a story it becomes even more powerful. Using stories to talk about you and your brand help to make you more relatable. By highlighting a context or situation in which you or someone else struggle with the thing you now help people solve, you're allowing your audience to see how this problem/ challenge/ issue may be showing up in their lives. You also implicitly are showing a path forward, a way to solve their problem or achieve a possibility that they want.

You are showing them what is possible.

What makes an effective story?

Effective stories will provide contrast between where you are now and where you were before. They provide contrast between the problem and the solution. Contrast does two critical things:

1/ It creates dramatic tension

2/ It showcases transformation and provides a clear before and after picture.

The before and after picture  allows your audience to identify themselves in their current situation, in your experience, or in the character's experience, right, it allows them to go okay, I'm starting to identify with what you're saying. The after picture shows the desired situation or the result that they want.

When you focus on your struggle, and you're able to add humility and relatability to your current accomplishments, that's when you show how you were able to overcome those obstacles in your life and beat the odds to create your current success. And then you become human and relatable to them.

People want to work with someone who understands their needs firsthand. And, and one of the best ways to create credibility is by expanding on one of the experiences you have undergone. 

Now your story doesn't have to be in the exact same area as your business. You just have to be able to relate that experience to what you do.

Another great thing to do is end of your story offer with some kind of invitation, whether it's an invitation to have a conversation, to share your message with a friend, to sign up for something that helps them solve their problem or create the new possibility in their life.

Having this call to action helps you to transition the end of your story to a segue moment for the client that shows them how they have a choice to make and it's up to them to decide essentially, whether they want to continue on as they currently are or to answer the call and make a choice to change their lives for the better using your products or services.