Recently I’ve taken a group of Entrepreneurs through a Masterclass on my 3 Keys to Marketing success. I know that marketing causes a great deal of overwhelm to many people — in fact, it can seem like a roadblock to success.
If you are somebody who also struggles this area of business, please know you are not alone. There are many who feel the same, and I am here to help you!
In my previous post I talked about getting comfortable with your brand by embracing who you really are, and bringing that authenticity in to your business.
When you start thinking of your brand as an extension of yourself, then it all begins to feel easier, more natural, and more authentic to who you are. You don’t need to put on a different, more ‘grown up’ or professional hat, metaphorically speaking. You just need to show up as yourself — that honesty resonates with people!
In that post I also talked about some common strategies used in marketing to help you get found online by the right people.
So today I’d like to this all up by talking about my 3rd Key to Marketing Success that I taught in the Masterclass. Let’s talk about the power of sharing your story.
Your story is key
Storytelling is so important because it speaks to the hearts and minds of your audience, and allows them to recognize parts of their struggle in yours.
If you’ve ever attended a really good talk, the kind that stayed with you for days after the event, then you will know how powerful a story can be.
So that in mind, I thought I’d share my own with you. The video below is the first of my TEDx talks. I’ve got to say, I felt more than a little vulnerable going out there on stage and sharing so openly my struggle with depression and being on the wrong career path.
But this experience turned out to be the turning point for my own business. Does that surprise you?
It did surprise me at first, until I started to connect the dots. I quickly realized that people were responding to me as a human — the person behind the brand. And that’s what your audience will respond to as well.
So I want to encourage you to start sharing your own journey a little more. I’m not saying spill your deepest secrets from the TED stage (unless you really want to) — it’s more than enough for you to just share a little in your blog posts or videos.
What your tribe want to know is that you understand their struggles, those problems that you help with your business. So tell them how you got to be working in your chosen field, and why you are passionate about your work.
That’s the part of your story that will help you to stand out from the crowd, and to be remembered by your audience.
If you watch my first TEDx you will hear why I became so passionate about helping others to follow their soul’s purpose on this planet by doing the work they were put on earth to do.
What’s your why?
If you are anything like my clients or students, then your business will have been born from your own struggle – am I right so far?
Your life’s path will have exposed you to a pain or a problem that you had to learn to fix yourself, once you found your way you were keen to help others do the same.
It was the same for me. As I said on the TED stage, and repeatedly since then on social media, in blog posts and in books — my WHY is to help people to become who they really are, in business and in life, and that was my journey too.
It was the pain and pressure of being on the wrong life path — not a bad one, but not one that allowed me to embrace my passion, that led to my long battle with depression.
Only once I began to live and work in a way that lit me up, could I see where it had all gone wrong with real perspective. And it’s that perspective and experience that lights the fire in my business today.
So if you come and work with me too, then let me warn you, I won’t be letting you off the hook! I want you to share your essence with the world and be who you came to Earth to be.
How to use this in your marketing
Of course, your story will be different. You will also likely not feel like just stepping onto a big stage and pouring your heart out — and that’s totally okay! In fact, you never have to go that far if you don’t wish to.
It is absolutely enough for you share your story, or just snippets of it, on your social media platforms and in your blog posts and emails to your list.
All that matters is that your tribe get to see who YOU are, and WHY you care about what you do. It’s that passion, that honesty and openness that will set you head and shoulders above the other people in your niche.
So no matter how overwhelming the bigger parts of marketing may feel when you are starting out, and no matter how populated your industry may be, you can always get ahead by showing up and sharing your story.
Think about how full of advertising and sales pitches your social media feeds are. Now think about how refreshing it is when you see something authentic instead. Yes, that’s it! That’s what you need to do.
I hope you found this helpful, and if you did then I’ve got plenty more to share with you! Come on over to my 3 Keys to Marketing Success Masterclass replay. You can watch the whole session on demand for free, and there are worksheets to help you bring what you’ve learned to life in your business.
Until next time, just remember to be yourself. You are a gift to the world.
Originally published at MakeYourMarkGlobal.com, August 7th, 2020.