One Skill Differentiates Your Message From The Masses

Note: I drafted much of this article over 3 years ago. It's humbling to realize how much I've learned since then and how much in this field has remained the same.

Zig Ziglar was famous for saying that "everything is selling."

Everything.

He was right.

The economy is the exchange of ideas, products, services, and value.

These things are shared through the medium of sales.

Whether your own business or a business you work for, everything is selling.

If you can't convince other people that they need what you can give them, they won't take it.

You won't be able to help them.

You'll have less money.

They'll be less happy.

Of course, regardless of your role, you must cultivate and perform highly valuable skills and results through deep work and an incredible amount of practice. Results are critical.

But you can't give your potential clients those results if they don't clearly understand how your results will help them.

It is imperative that you understand how to sell yourself, whether as an employee or as a business owner.

Unfortunately, most people misunderstand this.

I do not mean that as an employee, you should sell your accomplishments, your titles, and your awards.

I do not mean that as a business owner you should sell your products and your services.

You must go deeper to build attraction, a relationship, and a sale.

You literally need to sell your story.

What Makes You Different?

"Your powerful personal story is the connective tissue between you and your potential clients." - Bo Eason

Why are you here today?

Why did you get in this business?

Why did you choose this career path?

"Because I wanted to make money" or "because it seemed like I would be good at it" are good, but inadequate reasons here.

Go deeper. Much deeper.

Ask yourself why the answers to those questions are important.

Ask yourself again. Ask why 5-7 times.

Get to the core of your motivation. Usually, it'll tie back to some core life experience.

No matter who you are, you have had what master storyteller Bo Eason calls defining moments that shaped you into who you are today.

There's some initiator that got you started on your current track.

These are moments that shape your life, your career, and ultimately your legacy.

These are the pivotal shifts that build you into who you are. They are why you do what you do.

When you operate from a deeper level, everything else changes to reflect your core motivation.

"But you want to remind yourself of your deepest why when you're doing something. And you want to operate from that level because at your deepest level, you'll be operating from your heart, not your head. Thus, your performance will be much deeper, more authentic, and powerful." - Benjamin Hardy

Start with the product you're trying to sell or the message you're trying to communicate. Then go deeper to why it actually matters.

Excellent. You have clarity on what you do.

How you serve.

Why you care.

But why would other people care?

The Origin

When professional speakers are announced on stage, it's customary to have the Master of Ceremonies read off a short, punchy bio filled with their most impressive and relevant accomplishments.

This is a critical element of every speech, even if the audience already knows everything announced about the speaker. Why? It gets the audience in a state of mind, a frame, ready to accept the speaker's message.

Do you have a backstory about the product that you introduce to your customers almost immediately?

It could be in the first email you send them. Or tied to your product in some way. You could place the about pieces front and center on your website.

Just briefly explain the story that led up to the present point.

The execution of this strategy is going to be different for everyone, but you must have the why you identified earlier public. Obvious to everyone.

Your story doesn't simply exist alone. Neither does your product. The story you tell can be ripped off by somebody else, as can your product.

But the combination of your story and product is irresistibly unique.

Where Were You?

At a point in time, you were stuck in the past.

That changed because you had a realization, mentoring, or guidance. Something changed. You could say that you had a fire lit inside of you that carried you to the present day.

All of a sudden, you started living your life differently, and you were able to experience a different result.

And now you're sharing your message because you want to help other people get unstuck from that thing.

When you share your message from the angle of liberating previous problems, you're selling with extreme empathy. And people buy when they feel understood.

You're saying: I used to struggle with the same thing you're struggling with. I figured out this process. I use the process that I'm going to give you in this product.

Because of that, I think it's really going to help you and I invite you to take it.

When it comes across like that, it is not just salesy. You're drinking your own content.

Where Have You Been Able To Go?

Laws are born from conflict.

Products are born from conflict.

All successful entrepreneurs are essentially just highly trained problem solvers.

At some point you had conflict in your story. A product or service was born out of that conflict.

How did you overcome it?

We think that we just want to hear stories of achievement, but we only care about the achievement when it's juxtaposed with the low situation. The impossible odds. The overcoming.

What we really care about isn't the end result.

We care about the journey.

In Expert Secrets, Russell Brunson explains the difference between internal and external transformation. Although Cars was one of the most popular animated movies of its year, Lightning McQueen doesn't actually win the race at the end.

He underwent an internal transformation.

Your customers want to transform as people.

We want to grow, evolve, and improve.

Give them the pathway to do so.

Conclusion: Writing Your Story

How are great stories made?

This is a new lens you can use when you watch movies and read fiction from now on.

What conflict was this born out of?

How can I help ease my clients out of that conflict?

How can I show them that it's possible for them?

What emotional transformation do they ultimately seek?