Tell Compelling Stories: The Value Story // Workshop 2
Part Two
How do you share your value without listing features or without comparing yourself to others?
Last week I started a LIVE workshop series. Over the years I have heard so many creative entrepreneurs like you have such a hard time connecting with new potential clients. They aren’t alone I also have struggled with using social media continuously especially with the ever changing algorithm.
Honestly it is frustrating and can be defeating until… I figured out how to help me (and you) to share stories in a way that didn’t feel like I was selling. I was simply sharing stories my clients had as a result of hiring me.
Then I was able to guide other people through this process and be able to share who they were and what difference they make more succinctly and clearly in a way people could understand. Thank you Donald Miller of Story Brand.
Before I create a website I take my client through the Story Brand framework. In doing this I am able to pull stories from them about their customers and their clients. It has revolutionized my business and helped me get clarity but also help my clients get more customers.
But there was more. I knew there was. I could do more. Because when we are at a networking event if you are repeating your pitch over and over, it feels inauthentic.
Then why does a comedian’s set feel authentic, aren’t these jokes that are memorized?
The simple answer is not for a great comedian. They are telling stories. A good storyteller can react to their audience, adjust which stories to tell depending on who they are talking to.
I believe we should be able to do this too. I use analogies when I am with clients or when I am teaching. I am always thinking of new ones and reusing the ones that have been effective over time.
I created this three part series of LIVE, free workshop because I want you to know how to do this too.
I am trying new things, experimenting this year. As a result this workshop series came to be. Instead of doing it for a paid group I decided to open it up to see how effective it can be for you.
This week we are working on the Value Story and things I learned from Donald Miller and lots from Kindra Hall in her book, Stories that Stick. (Find links below to both books.)
Watch the second lesson in this series below, then come to the live workshop Wed, March 27, 2024 at 2:30pm ET / 6:30pm GMT / 11:30am PT as I record episode 464 of the podcast. Make sure you don’t miss an email about this by signing up here: https://creativesignite.com/signup
Listen to the Pre-Workshop Lesson 2
Join us for Workshop #2
I have a live workshop style episode planned for March 27 at 2:30pm ET / 6:30pm GMT / 11:30am PT. Make sure you don’t miss an email about this by signing up here: https://creativesignite.com/signup
Watch Part 1
Watch Workshop Lesson 1 here: https://creativesignite.com/tell-compelling-stories-p1/
Downloads & Affiliate Links
Download Worksheet 2 here.
Stories that Stick by Kindra Hall: https://amzn.to/3IMtDAM
Choose Your Story, Change Your Life by Kindra Hall: https://amzn.to/3VrA7wp
Building a Story Brand by Donald Miller: https://amzn.to/4ao15cq
Marketing Made Simple by Donald Miller & JJ Peterson: https://amzn.to/3TI8zlg
Chris Martin Studios (my friend and podcast editor): https://www.chrismartinstudios.com/
Rafi Hopkins (my friend who knows how to make things that solve problems): https://sectionsign.com/
5 Minute Marketing Makeover: https://www.5minutemarketingmakeover.com/
Transcripts
Transcript Pre-Workshop Lesson 2
[00:00:00] diane: Hey everybody, this is Diane Gibbs. This is workshop number two. And we’re talking about how to tell a story, a value story today. So we’re gonna do some exercises to do that. And this is the pre-workshop lesson. All right? So again, we’re using stories that stick, um, by Kindra Hall as a main source here, as well as, um, marketing Made Simple and a StoryBrand a lot of things by Donald Miller.
[00:00:29] [00:00:30] And just things that I’ve learned over the years. I. I’m just pulling ’em together. But I’ve learned a lot from the stories that stick with Kinder Haw. So let’s get into it. So this is learning how to tell the value story. Learning how to tell this value story. You think, oh, well it’s just the listing. This is the features and these are the benefits.
[00:00:48] Well, we’re gonna kind of avoid that and we talked about that a little bit last week. So who is the value to, oftentimes we are reaching other, um, companies or [00:01:00] another entrepreneur or. If it’s an author, but they’re trying to sell their book. They don’t want to just make one book. They wanna make many, um.
[00:01:10] One book, but then they’re selling, they’re printing many, I guess, right? So we first need to figure out that the value is to actually maybe more than one person, which it could be to the company, but it’s also to an individual in the company. Um, and it helps [00:01:30] their life to be better because of something that we’re doing at work.
[00:01:34] So. So first thing is we have to understand if the customer already understands that this is a problem, um, that they have a problem and there is a solution. They’ve just been looking and they just haven’t found the right person for the job, or they, they’re really early in on the process. They realize that this is a problem.
[00:01:55] They just haven’t, um, narrowed it down or done enough research and there’s a [00:02:00] lot of stages to that. Issue and why there’s a little time clock here or a stopwatch is because this part, when you’re doing your marketing, if they already know about, let’s use Paul for example. I. Paul is a book designer.
[00:02:17] People contact Paul to make their book. Sometimes people think, oh, I’ll do it on my own. It must not be that difficult. And then they realize it’s difficult or they’re just like, I know I’m gonna have somebody else design this. [00:02:30] I’m not gonna do this myself. I’m not a designer, I’m a writer. Right? So they already know this is something else someone’s going to have to do.
[00:02:37] We don’t really have to convince them or educate them about, there’s a Paul, we need to find Paul. Right. Or a book designer. Um. What we’re asking is how familiar are they with the problem? This is not in any books. This is me. But I have found that actually these become different problems. And I think about this as a teacher.
[00:02:59] I have [00:03:00] students that are super beginner. Um, they’ve had no art in high school. They’ve just been doing things on their own or learning from the internet, and then there’s the sophomores and they know a little bit more, and then the juniors and the seniors, and then you have grad students. And so there’s a.
[00:03:15] Different levels of people and what they know and we speak to them in different way. I’m not gonna speak to um, freshmen the same way I would speak to a junior even, because it can be degrading, you know? So [00:03:30] we want to make sure that we’re understanding how familiar they are with the problem that is at hand.
[00:03:37] So I’ve thought about it like this. They’re either an acquaintance, so they’re new to the problem. They, it’s is a new experience to them. They’re familiar with it, but they’re just getting to know them. It’s something that they haven’t interacted with or they don’t have to deal with very often. Um, maybe they’re a friend, they see each other regularly, but they are [00:04:00] not, um.
[00:04:02] You know, they’re not hanging out all the time. Maybe they’re a best friend. I know lots of things about this problem, but I just haven’t made a decision to get somebody else to do this for me. Maybe they’re a bedmate, somebody that, um, you’re intimate with, you understand this problem intimately, but you haven’t.
[00:04:21] Um, it, it’s a newer it, so it’s, there’s, oh, wow, I’ve gotta get this. You’re in the, the heat of it where you’re [00:04:30] like, I am going to find someone to solve this. I am at that stage. And then there’s the married to it where you have, um, you are completely another color, right? You understand ins and outs of this problem, but there is some reason that you have not.
[00:04:49] Invested in, or you’ve made that decision to move forward, um, in getting somebody else to solve that problem for you. [00:05:00] So depending on your familiar or their familiar familiarity, why can I not familiar? Whatever il Hmm. That word. How long they’ve lived with this problem we’re going to is gonna determine which story to tell.
[00:05:17] So again, we’re just kind of having these bank of stories and we don’t wanna memorize them. We just kind of wanna be like a comedian where we’re. Pulling from, we’ve told the story enough, but we’re [00:05:30] not doing it like a robot. You know, I’m gonna give you an example of me and, um, I was married to it, so I was editing my own podcast very poorly for many, many years, and I sometimes would just publish it straight up.
[00:05:49] For me, I knew there was podcast editors, but I hadn’t done enough research to see if it was something I actually could afford time-wise, or [00:06:00] money-wise. Um, I didn’t know how long it took. I liked these things to be released in a week and. I didn’t know if I could afford to do this. I have been doing the podcast this, uh, June, it will be 12 years, and for, I think the last four years, maybe three years, three after Covid I was talking.
[00:06:28] Yeah, yeah. [00:06:30] In, maybe in 2020. I don’t remember when, but I hired Chris Martin. Uh, who I met at Ben Design Conference and he became my podcast editor. It was something that has completely, uh, oh my gosh. Just relieved, relieved, alleviated, relieved it. I trust him. So that was something [00:07:00] I was looking for. I needed, I understood this, I understood what it took.
[00:07:04] I understood I didn’t have what it took to edit it, to go in and be that detail oriented, to take out things or to, if somebody said a bad word to bleep it. Um, I liked doing some of these smaller edits, but I don’t like doing that every week. It was, it was very painful for me, and so I just didn’t do it.
[00:07:26] And I didn’t do it well. So now that Chris is doing it, this was [00:07:30] huge for me, talk about a relief, but it was just me finding him and working out a schedule that could work with him and, and it’s been awesome. Like I trust him. I, we find new music or we tweak things or he gives me suggestions. Um, and I really.
[00:07:56] Believe what he’s telling me and believe that he’s not just telling me [00:08:00] nice things. I believe he’s telling me things that are helpful that I can do. So that was me with, uh, I was married to this problem for seven years, I guess, or eight, nine years. Um, and that’s a long time to do something alone. And I knew the problem.
[00:08:20] I just had not. I actually didn’t believe I could afford it, and I didn’t believe that I could find somebody [00:08:30] that I could trust to do it. But I did, and Chris is awesome, and I’ll link his information w below an acquaintance. Um, maybe this is a new project that you’ve gotten and you are not an illustrator, so you have to find an illustrator and maybe you haven’t worked with an illustrator in the style that you’re.
[00:08:53] Um, client is needing, or that you think is the best style. So you are an acquaintance [00:09:00] to this problem because this is a new issue for you. You haven’t encountered this type of book or this, um, whatever it is that you’re doing that you need to find an illustrator. Again, we interact, we. Have this issue a lot as designers or if we’re web designers, maybe we don’t have, we always have been given the copy.
[00:09:22] Um, and now we don’t. Now we need to find somebody who can do the brand strategy or somebody who can write the web copy. Um. [00:09:30] Whatever it is, we understand that there’s a problem, we understand there’s somebody else to do the solution, but, um, it will be a different conversation that you would have with someone if you were just acquainted with it.
[00:09:43] If I just was starting a podcast and I knew for sure I didn’t want to. Um, edit it. I didn’t know anything about editing. I would need to find a Chris, but Chris will have a different story that he tells for somebody who is just starting a podcast that has no experience and is [00:10:00] not at all comfortable with doing the editing.
[00:10:03] And then a different story that he would tell me who has been doing the editing for nine years. Um, so those are two different stories and you d need to tell, you need to know who you’re talking to. So again, in those, here’s your action step. This is the one we’re gonna do together is who’s the identifiable character I.
[00:10:25] In the podcast story, that would hopefully be me, but maybe I didn’t [00:10:30] tell the story well enough. So we’re gonna break that down about how this could be a better story or this is, say you’re Chris and you’re telling the story, um, how could Chris tell the story about me? As an identifiable character, a specific detail, and then authentic emotion.
[00:10:50] Maybe I got that part. I was frustrated again, you don’t have to have all four. You need one. The significant moment was when I had too many other things on my plate. I [00:11:00] stopped having time for this. I didn’t wanna stop the podcast, but I was not able to continue alone anymore. I had to have help. My health was gonna start decreasing.
[00:11:14] It wasn’t good. Life on Saturdays was all podcast and I was just getting burned out and miserable. So again, thinking about what, what was that? When was that? Again, [00:11:30] these are all the relationships, so what’s held them back from making a decision to get somebody to do blank for them? So if it’s, um. It’s a podcast or it’s a book you’ve written.
[00:11:43] What’s held me back from getting somebody to do the design or to do the cover or to do the editing or whatever it is that you do, what has been holding them back? From making that decision, from researching the decision, um, for [00:12:00] them, and then why haven’t they taken the plunge? So is it because they’re just super new and they’ve just gotten the project?
[00:12:07] Well, how can you tell stories? I. That will help those people. It’s about being present in the right places as well. So where do these people hang out? And I know we say that all the time, but this could be physically, where do they hang out? Um, where do you find the people that you’re gonna do business with?
[00:12:26] I. Maybe it’s in groups. So maybe [00:12:30] if I’m writing a book, I’m gonna start going to some sort of book conference or, um, self-publishers, or I’m gonna start investigating those things. Maybe there are LinkedIn groups or Facebook groups or, or physical groups in or conferences. Um, maybe it’s. A group in your city writers.
[00:12:49] I’m gonna ask other writers where they get published or how they get published. Um, where are they looking to for inspiration? Are they going to certain podcasts and listening? Are [00:13:00] they, um, again, these are all things we’ve already known, but again, thinking about each level that where people are very intimate with this issue, where are they going?
[00:13:11] I might go to a different place for a podcast, um, investigation than. Somebody who’s brand new to wanting to make a podcast, um, where are they getting information about trends? Maybe it’s, they’re on Pinterest, maybe they’re, um, at a writer’s conference. Maybe [00:13:30] they’re, you know, where do they get their information about?
[00:13:33] The changes in the industry or changes in the space because again, people who are brand new, they don’t know a lot about the industry or that area or where illustrators where you would go. So I do think each level of familiarity I. I said it better then has a unique way to connect with and approach them.
[00:13:55] And I think social media is great, but it’s just one way. [00:14:00] Um, and there are different methods of social media. You could make YouTube shorts or you can make, um, again, focus on one and then when you can add it, add a second one, and then. Again, it’s just a marketing arm, right? It’s just how far is your marketing arm?
[00:14:16] Can you make the same thing and use it in two different places, right? Um, but it’s about listening to where they are and who they are because each of those different [00:14:30] relationships is a different story. So this one takes a little bit longer. Um. So you have one where the customer knows about the problem and they’re familiar, and they’re familiar that there is a solution, and then there’s the customer.
[00:14:44] There’s like, what? I didn’t know. I thought I always had to live with this for the rest of my life. I didn’t even know there was a solution existed. I. This was me again. Maybe this is new. Maybe this is not, I have [00:15:00] used Max my entire, um, career. I didn’t have a computer when I was in high school. I know I’m really old.
[00:15:07] We had a typewriter, electric typewriter, but we had a typewriter and. Um, my method, I, so I’ve learned Max, I think Max are awesome, but I didn’t investigate this. I just, if I had to change in names, I need to change the name. I don’t mind if it keeps the doxy part, but I need it to say, you know, [00:15:30] birds O2 or January of 24, and I was having to change the name.
[00:15:38] I thought each one individually. So I have all these selected. I can’t change the name on all of them at the same time. Right. Well, the normal was this that I didn’t even know there was a solution out there. And it takes a lot of time, it’s a lot of effort, and I would avoid it until I couldn’t avoid it anymore.
[00:15:58] I have these, I wanna change the [00:16:00] names. This happens all the time in web, ’cause I’m trying to save for web and I was like, oh my gosh, these are hundreds and hundreds of images. I didn’t know how to do it. And I was just talking to my friend Raffi Love Raffi Hopkins. I was talking to him and he’s like, oh.
[00:16:15] There’s an easy way to do that explosion, right? Um, the normal is I was cooking on one and I was trying to change it. Each one. Anybody else like that? You need a Raffi. Well, the explosion was ralphie’s, like, oh, [00:16:30] you go to that, this, that little circle up top with the three dots, the ellipses, and you click it and look what happens.
[00:16:39] It you go down to rename and then once you hit rename this thing, rename finder items. Anyone that is selected, you can add text before the name. You can add text after the name, and then it’s giving you the example. Example, doxy 1148 dash and then whatever I had the dash is what I added, and it’s gonna save it after the [00:17:00] name and I hit rename it.
[00:17:01] All of them get done. There’s no more time wasting. And oh my goodness, the time it saves me. He just knows how to build things he knows. How to work things and he is awesome. The new normal was now. So much time saved now. It wasn’t this huge thing that I had to do for a week. It was now and not something I avoided.
[00:17:25] I don’t avoid it anymore. So that was the new normal. I maybe could [00:17:30] you give me these in an action step? So if you’re watching this, I’m not gonna do this one for you. Um, think about who the identifiable character was, a specific detail. Write it down. Was there authentic emotion and was there a significant moment?
[00:17:47] What you’re trying to do is identify the value, so what was the value of. Any of these, finding an illustrator, finding a podcast editor, educating. If [00:18:00] your problem is not known by a lot of people, they don’t even know that there’s somebody who can do a book cover or design a book, then you have to educate people.
[00:18:09] Again, that’s people at a different level. And there may be, um, a whole nother set of circles, uh, talking about relationships like that. But, um, I think that there’s three. Main, mainly three or four types of marketing. Um, there’s you, educate, inspire, entertain. Those are the main ones. If I think if you’re looking at, [00:18:30] um, commercials or you’re looking at social media, I.
[00:18:35] Was that post something that educated me? Was it entertaining? Sometimes they’re both, sometimes all three. The trifecta and then there’s encourage. Um, I added that in as, um, a separate one because sometimes the encouraging is. Different than inspiring, but it is similar to inspiring. So think about these things as well.
[00:18:58] So there are these different types [00:19:00] of marketing arms. So in the book, in the value, uh, story, chapter four, um, in stories that stick, she talks about workiva. Um, and this example is there was this um, financial advisor guy. I am probably going to butcher the story, but there’s a financial advisor guy with the dad bod and he did not want to have a dad bod.
[00:19:23] He wanted to um, do a triathlon and he was, this is not [00:19:30] him, but I’m saying it’s him ’cause he sort of has a dad bond. He wanted to change his personal life. But what happened was they were, when they would do their quarterly reports, they had to meet and they couldn’t meet during eight to five. They had to meet either before or after.
[00:19:47] Well, it ran into his running time or his biking time, or his swimming time, which was before or after work. So he had to drop from that triathlon. Because he wasn’t able [00:20:00] to get in because this always happened because they need to make sure that their report numbers were correct. So in steps, Workiva, which is some sort of reporting company that allows, if Joe puts in some numbers, then Judy, um, needs them for a report.
[00:20:18] They’re the same. Judy’s pulling from the same, we don’t have to do this. So. Inefficiency is gone. Um, your effectiveness is so much better because you’re [00:20:30] not having to double check right at the end, right before I go to change the numbers or put it in a pitch so that I’m being honest. Right. Could you do the identifiable character, this significant moment, a specific detail and authentic emotion?
[00:20:46] The normal, the explosion, and then the new normal. What? What were those? To me, this was a really interesting, yes, there is a value, [00:21:00] um, in the Workiva story for the company. The company now is more efficient. They are, um, they’re not wasting, maybe paying overtime. They’re more effective, but there’s also a value to this guy.
[00:21:18] The guy who wanted to do the triathlon, now he is happier about his job and his life because he can have a life and have a goal [00:21:30] before and after work and he can do it. So the value was really, to him, it is definitely a value to the company. The company sees that value, but the story is more potent when you tell it what his value is.
[00:21:45] ’cause that means that. You’re caring about your people, your teammates, your colleagues, and you want them to be happy. If they’re happy you’re outside of the house, then they will help you inside of the [00:22:00] company, right? Better. So identifying that value. Can you think of any other value? Now, here’s one for you.
[00:22:09] You’re gonna pick one client transformation that you, one of your real clients, and I want you to think about the normal, what they were before you, and then what was that transformation. So, um, Donald Miller just calls it a character transformation. So you don’t necessarily, the explosion is you, you don’t have to tell that [00:22:30] part if you don’t want to.
[00:22:31] But what was the normal and then what was. After, after working with you, after engaging in your product or your service. So think about it like this, that normal, what was the before? Like, what was their dream? I. Their dream was to have, um, you know, a bestselling book or to have a book that they could give to their family members or, um, that they could [00:23:00] start touring around, right?
[00:23:01] They’re gonna market their own, they’re gonna do this on their own or that it gets picked up. You know, maybe that’s the dream that their story gets picked up and then a movie gets made out of it or something. Um, what’s their, before, like in their personal life, did they have a dad bod and they didn’t want a dad bod?
[00:23:19] Um, what is their work reality like? I. Currently. So again, the future of what they want, what their personal life [00:23:30] is outside of work, and then what their work reality is like. This is in the book. She says there’s four types of explosions. She kind of just mentions this, so, um, and I really clinged onto this, so there’s a big thing.
[00:23:45] There’s a small thing, there’s a bad thing and a good thing, and I’m gonna go through quick examples of these. So a big thing. For me, one of the big things that last year I did immersion with Bonnie Christine [00:24:00] and it was a eight week class and it was a lot about illustrator and patterns and surface pattern design.
[00:24:08] But what I was able to do, I mean, it, it had a significant. And just me being able to take old sketches from old sketchbooks, all this that really, I just would think is wasted. Now I can take those drawings and. Expand on them or make something with them, or maybe there’s a start to [00:24:30] something other than just being, living and dying in my sketchbook.
[00:24:33] So there’s a, a way to use these illustrations and I learned a ton about Illustrator in a lot of different ways. So for 25 years I’ve been. Uh, working in Illustrator and in design, but I learned things that I still am not sure, and that’s why I am redoing the course this year because I want to really dive in.
[00:24:56] Um, this was a big thing that happened and this all [00:25:00] happened right as my mom. We started the end of February and then my mom had her stroke, um, the first one on March 10th, and then she passed away on March 25th. This group, and just learning kept me being able to move forward instead of just being stuck in grief.
[00:25:22] So there were other things that taking this class. Even just for my, [00:25:30] uh, hope for my illustrations, now I have a place of hope to all these illustrations and all these drawings can have a new life. And that was very hopeful. That would be good on its own, but also that these ladies still meet with were a significant part of just my grief and, um, being able to just keep moving forward.
[00:25:51] So a small thing. I’m using a lot of my examples. Um, a small thing. Um, this is my dad. Uh, I think this is one of my [00:26:00] cousins who is now like in his twenties. Um, but this is their, my parents’ front yard. My dad on the tractor, he mowed. And after my dad had his stroke, um, I was mowing. I was using that tractor and I was mowing the fields.
[00:26:14] I would come home, um. And I would mow ’cause my sister and my mom couldn’t use the tractor. Um, but I knew how to do it ’cause we have a tractor. And my dad always, I always liked to mow when I was, would go home. So I would [00:26:30] mow the fields and then I was just using the little John Deere, um, riding mower in the front yard to mow the front.
[00:26:38] ’cause that’s what my dad did. So he’s home from. You know, he went, was in the hospital for over a month, uh, in rehab, um, after his stroke. So my husband John, he, I love to mow. He gets my mower ready for me, and I, I don’t have to do anything. Or [00:27:00] when, if I mowed on the tractor, he gets it ready, puts the gas in, it checks it.
[00:27:05] Everything but maybe making it go it, turning it on. Um, he does for me. So I didn’t even think about checking any of those things. ’cause you know, John does it well, John wasn’t there. So I go in inside and I said, dad. I don’t know what’s wrong with the mower. And the mower was behind the house. This is like, there’s a big kind of hill [00:27:30] down to the right and there’s a river to the right.
[00:27:33] And I said, dad, you’re gonna have to come out and look at it. And so we walks, you know, he, he’s unsteady. This is unsteady ground. We walk around and he tries to crank it and he’s like, oh, Diana’s just outta gas. He’s like, go up to the shop. I went up to the shop, I got the big can of gas, and I walked it down and it was heavy.
[00:27:54] And I walked it down and I filled it up and dad was just sitting on the, on the [00:28:00] mower and he’s like, so I put it in, he cranks it. He’s like, you know what, I think I can, I’m gonna, instead of walking, I’m, I’m just gonna take the mower up. And then he’s like, you know what? I’m gonna finish mowing. I can do this.
[00:28:13] That was it. My dad needed a purpose and talk about a small thing about running out of gas. That situation, that one thing that happened was a big [00:28:30] changer for my dad. So from the stroke, which was a big thing, bad thing, um, changed his life. This gave him purpose and he didn’t feel like he was, um, you know, there was nothing left for him that’s, he was in a depression before this and, um, he didn’t know why God saved him.
[00:28:52] He just didn’t know what he was gonna be able to do. All right, so a bad thing was the stroke. So these are all kind [00:29:00] of dad related. There’s my dad, and you can see he has a stroke because his left arm, his dominant arm was the one that, that side was affected. So the stroke was a bad thing, but for me, um, this was when this huge bad stroke.
[00:29:15] Um, my dad didn’t believe in Jesus before. I don’t think he was, he was, he would say he was agnostic. He believed in God. He just wasn’t really good friends with him, you know? And didn’t have a relationship with him. And [00:29:30] so to me the stroke is huge because my dad got to know Jesus and that’s really important for me and it’s a really important part of his life now.
[00:29:42] And I just thought, ah, that was such a neat. Um, a neat thing that God did in a really, really bad thing and he’s changed his life. So a good thing, I was doing a lot of meetings before covid online, so being on Zoom was really [00:30:00] easy for me. I really love meeting people. I love meeting people from all over. I.
[00:30:04] I was in a pivot place in my business, and so Covid gave the opportunity. I had been wanting to do this four years. I had, um, I think maybe back in, I don’t know, 2014 I had started doing. There’s a whole episode. I’ll put it down below where I interviewed, uh, Natalie Callback in 2018, 19 18, [00:30:30] 19. I don’t remember maybe.
[00:30:33] Anyway, I interviewed her and she had been doing this creative jumpstart. It was for the whole month of January, and it was awesome. And it was such a great creative place for me that I was like, I wanna do something like that for business, for creatives, for business. And so I had this idea and my friend Mario was like, Hey, you just need to do it.
[00:30:55] And in May of 2020, there were lots of things in the United States that were [00:31:00] going on that weren’t all that great. And it was very stressful. And I was like, I don’t know if I’m supposed to do this. And Mario was like, look, you weren’t called to be successful. You were called to be obedient. If you feel like God put this on your heart, then you need to do it.
[00:31:16] So I was like, okay. I don’t know Lord. But I did it and it was, it was successful. It brought people together. It gave people from all over a chance to learn together to com [00:31:30] commune together. We had campfire chats right online and they were, it was a really great time. I did this for two summers, but it was a lot of work, but that was a really good thing.
[00:31:41] Here’s. The thing when you’re telling a story, kind of switching gears here. Kendra Hall talks about this and Donna Miller talks about this is having, um, something to be easy to understand. So when you go into all this jargon or industry speak, [00:32:00] it can muddy the water or you’re going into too much detail.
[00:32:05] So stories need to have that are gonna connect, are gonna be. Full of cognitive ease that people understand they don’t feel stupid. Um, so. System. One is cognitive ease, and this is from her book. And then system two is cognitive strain. So here’s an example of ease and strain. I’ve used both of these typefaces the entire time during this presentation, [00:32:30] and one has not been straining, but now is.
[00:32:33] The ease is the same typeface I’ve been using, um, for all of the regular text and then for the impact text or the, um, bigger text. Sometimes I’m using a script, but using a script in all uppercase is extremely difficult to read. We actually have to read every letter because they’re not, scripts are not meant to be used in all uppercase, just so you know.
[00:32:59] So don’t do that. [00:33:00] But there’s ease and there’s strain. One of these took longer. One of these was faster. So we want to be the one that’s ease. So the story that is easier to understand, that it doesn’t have to be, you’re trying to act like you’re a dictionary. I. So Donald Miller talks about making it caveman easy.
[00:33:21] He doesn’t use that term, but so easy a caveman can understand. So he says there’s a five second rule for your website and five minute marketing makeover, which I’ll [00:33:30] link down below. Um, this is a, a video series that he has that’s free, that you can watch. I love it. He says that on your website in the first five seconds, somebody should understand what you do above the fold.
[00:33:44] Can you in five seconds, can someone tell what you do, even somebody that’s not in your industry? So in the initial interactions I want you to avoid, she talks about lists, bullet points, price, comparisons, features, [00:34:00] and benefits. Yes, you will need these. They will need to be on your website somewhere or in your pitch decks or in, um, your contracts or your, your bids.
[00:34:13] But they’re not for that initial interaction. They’re not what you bring with you. I. Is your iPad with the list of your features and benefits and compared to other people, or, here’s three different packages. You don’t wanna do that in the beginning. [00:34:30] So we instead wanna create a shareable experience, you’re gonna create a story.
[00:34:34] The shareable experience is something that when someone else hears it, they’re like, Ooh. I wanna do that. A shareable experience is something that people will go and tell their friends about. So let’s say it’s a podcast. Um, I may tell somebody about this and they are not doing a podcast, but then somebody else, here’s that story about me and what I was trying to do.
[00:34:56] Or the person who has this dream of the [00:35:00] podcast. ’cause Chris is telling other stories. He has other people who weren’t editing their podcast. He has those and then those. Stories. They’re like, oh, their friends telling them that they’re gonna start a podcast. And then they say, do you know about Chris Martin?
[00:35:15] A shareable experience is a story that people are gonna be able to remember, but also it’s simple enough that they can share. Oh my gosh. Let me tell you about blank. Let me tell you what happened. Right? I love, I love this [00:35:30] quote from Kendra Hall and this is in, uh, the chapter four, and it says, beyond simply being engaging stories actually prime the brain to be more open to what you’re offering.
[00:35:42] And I think that this is incredibly important as we figure out our value stories. So that’s the end for this. We’re gonna co have some exercises. During the show on Wednesday, and I hope that you’ll, or the next video, if you’re watching it in [00:36:00] order, um, the next video will show us doing some examples and um, and there’ll be a worksheet just like there was this time.
[00:36:06] So hopefully you are creating better stories for you. And now we’re gonna talk the, it’s the value story. Next week we’ll talk about the founder story and then we’re gonna stop with the founder story. Um, and. Hopefully this has helped. I’d love to know what you think and if it was helpful, um, you can download the worksheet down below and [00:36:30] you can like, and subscribe, but I wanna know what you think, one takeaway, something you didn’t know before, and then one thing, one piece of action that you’re gonna do as a result of watching this.
[00:36:41] Alright, I hope you do the worksheet. Bye.