Before the advent of pencil and paper and writing, old people depend solely on the storytelling, in order along the history of their families and tribes from one generation to the next. Of course, it was an imperfect method, as we humans tend to skew a story from our own perspective and add details and nuances that are not in the original story. However, incomplete or exaggerated or simply not the truth of the stories may be, we all live in countries where stories shape our history. Here in the U.S., we were all as children regaled with stories of Paul Revere's Ride Boston by alerting the inhabitants of the arrival of the British, or if you were a child Texas, the defeat of Santa Ana in San Jacinto after the tragic loss of life on the Mexican army in the Alamo.....
I have always celebrated in stories. One of my favorite pastimes as a child was to you with my mother and aunts for the "adult conversation" that are not really suitable for children's ears. But I refused to leave, no matter how much I was asked to go and play outside. I just wanted to hear the stories about the "good ole 'days" (ie back in the old days, as I gleefully after those times) when they were growing up or when things were different. Hearing stories about them in different contexts as I knew that they both shaped my personal history and the history of my family and me in relation to them in a way that I still value to this day. of course, I also much l Overhead family gossip, but then is another story.
You can use the same kind of connection to your customer base by your story or the story of a successful client. Stories help people create visual images of what you're trying to get across. I am apt to remember the history and the image it creates a lot easier than a lot of facts or theories or statistics that only my eyes glaze. When I was a contractual trainer for a virtual assistant training company, I often told stories to illustrate the points of a particular class. About a year after a student completed the program, they told me that they often thought I told the story, as I successfully set limits with my "mother doubt" in the startup phase of my business. My student was struggling with the same questions of doubt as to her family when she started her business and used my story as a guide to their limits in order to keep them sane during this very crazy time in their lives. You just never know how much your story will be other consequences.
In the teleclasses and coaching that I do, I often tell my story of the creepy and stupid as I started my business - a way that every professional advice and a tool that I would not recommend that any of my clients -- but I could despite. I had quit my full-time job without savings, the divorce, my house offered for sale, sold my large possessions, loaded the car with my dog and moves midway through the countryside, moving with my mother back to my childhood bedroom , Withdrew money from my account retirement to me through the first few months, and put the shop in my mother's garage. I was just a failure waiting to happen, but I did not miss, surprisingly enough. I use this story to illustrate the point that, whatever the odds, if you want to start a business and want to be successful, you can do this - and I am living proof that anyone can do it - and if you don 't have all these risk factors stares you in the face, you have a much greater chance of success than I ever was!
Share all your stories with your customers - the good, the bad and the ugly. It will be much more human and more accessible with your customers. A coach with whom I have done some training, Chris Barrow, shares the story of his devastating bankruptcy, as he thought of as one of the most successful financial planners in the United Kingdom. I admire Chris for the distribution of failures in his life and the economy as well as his successes - he lets me know that he's human and he can easily relate to what I know about any moment in time.
Come with a relatively short history 1-2 minutes explanation of how you where you are today and how they influenced why you do what you do. Make it interesting to share the ups and downs and put your stories on your website on your business card in your brochure, in your blog, and in your speech lift. I guarantee you the development of fans now! Http: / / www.AskDonnaGunter.com .
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