Only Sharing Facts & Numbers Isn't Attracting Your Ideal Client

All startup founders must learn the art of storytelling and why it matters.

Let's talk a little bit about your story and why it is so powerful. I want to share with you a few ways you can think about owning your story.

A lot of us intuitively know stories are powerful, but oftentimes we get in our own way because we think that our story isn't powerful enough. We think our story isn’t anything special or unique. We also might suppress our full story because we feel others might judge us for it.

Any of this ringing a bell? If the answer is yes, I know exactly what that feels like.

As I mentioned, let’s break down why stories are so powerful and how you can tap into the power of your story in particular.

First of all, stories make information up to 22 times more memorable than facts or data alone. If you are someone in a more technical or formal industry, you might think you always have to back up what you say with numbers or with facts.

Facts don't actually make people remember things more. And numbers don't make your case all that much more persuasive. These things help, but generally, people make decisions based on their emotions and then they justify those emotions based on facts. You've got to lead with the emotional side of stuff first, which includes your story and what you believe.

Why is that? Why should you lead with your story?

What's fascinating about storytelling is that when you hear a story, the parts of your brain that light up while listening are the same parts of your brain that would light up if you had been there. As if you had experienced that thing in real-time.

An example: You read a story or watch a video of someone eating an ice cream cone. As you watch, the parts of your brain that light up will be the same parts of your brain that would light up if you were actually eating an ice cream cone yourself. Stories transport people. Watching or listening to someone’s story makes you feel as though you really experienced it.

That being said, when you think about your business, and when you think about the work you're doing, most likely you are helping your clients solve a problem that you have once had yourself. You learned how to solve that specific problem because of your direct experience with it. Because of your personal experience, your ability to share your story of struggling and overcoming this particular challenge will transport your prospects. As your prospects are transported they begin to feel emotions that correlate with their life and feel understood.

At the end of the day, that’s all we want – to be understood.

Your willingness to share your personal story can make your ideal customers recognize that you understand them in a way few others can. Instant connection.

Point number two I want to make about your story, I can guarantee that whatever it is that you do, it really isn't all that unique.

There are probably several, if not dozens, if not hundreds, of companies or individuals that do basically what you do. They deliver similar results for similar types of clients. So… what is it that differentiates you? It's you!

It's your background, it's where you come from, it's your perspective, it's your personality. It is you.

Your perfect customer is going to be drawn to working with you because of what makes you different, what makes you, you, not the facts you can deliver. Yeah, people want the facts too. People want you to back up what you say, but why they are ultimately going to invest in working with you is because of your unique background, personality, perspective, and value.

They want to work with you because of the connection they have with you and your message. There is nothing that connects us more directly or more deeply to somebody else than storytelling – hearing about who they really are, what they've been through, their experience – their story. It’s always nice to hear someone express something that we identify with, something that makes us laugh, something that makes us feel seen.

As you go down this path and you think more and more about the way you build your authority as an expert in your industry, you also want to be thinking about the stories that you tell.

Do the stories you tell call out to your ideal client? Will they make them say, wow, that person gets me or I get them?

Share the hard stuff you’ve been through, it’s okay. Oftentimes our best customers are the ones who have been through similarly hard things. I tend to work with people who've been through some shit in their life because I've been through some shit in my life. I tend to work with people that have a lot of depth to them and who care about impact because I do.

If you can dig deeper into who you are and what makes you tick, the more you'll be able to understand what your ideal client is like. How they think. What they believe in.

I urge you to intentionally think through how you can share your story. Doesn't have to be every detail of it, but it has to be true and it's gotta be real and it’s gotta be honest.

I think you will be amazed at the outcomes and feedback as you start to tell your story more and more. You will build a stronger audience. You will build stronger relationships with your perfect clients. You will build this momentum over time around what you're doing and how you do it. You will be running your business from a genuine and authentic place and that feels really, really good.

If you want to learn a bit more about how you can unapologetically build a powerful personal brand authentic to your story, I have a free 5 step guide that can help you with that.