Do you understand what makes you different from the competition?
Do you give people have a reason to say, “I choose YOU, and not someone else?”
You can’t win them over with adjectives like “amazing.” You can’t just tell people you’re unique. You have to show them.
You can’t brand yourself as a maverick or renegade. You’ll join a whole crowd of other business owners, all clamoring to be identified as one of a kind. I wrote an article about this. You can read it here.
Do people really understand what you do?
Frankly, you can’t blame them. Today’s offerings weren’t around twenty years ago…maybe not even ten years ago.
“This is not your mother’s coaching business.”
Twenty years ago, nobody had a coaching business…or a video production business, an organizing business or a personal branding business.
Even if your business fits into a traditional category, you probably don’t follow a traditional service model. You use automation. You find creative ways to create benefits for your clients.
Can you enter the conversation in your prospective client’s mind?
When faced with the need to engage with your market, do you feel unclear about your next steps?
Do you struggle to create content that will motivate prospective clients – those who really would benefit from your services – and encourage them to say yes?
In order to do any of those things, you need to engage with prospective clients through their stories. You need a lot more than demographics — their age, marital status, and geography.
You need to know what they want — not where they went to school, what sport they play and what they drink when they’re out socializing.
You need to understand their story — all 3 parts of their story.
Branding your business? Don’t create. Excavate.
The Story Archetype framework gives your marketing a strong foundation. Once you know your archetype, your marketing feels like water flowing downhill. Simpler. More realistic. More you.
WHO I WORK WITH
New business owners seeking a core identity, a mission, and a message.
Seasoned business owners in makeover mode: moving in new directions, plateaued or ready to fix what’s not working.
Business owners and corporate leaders who want to get “that storytelling thing” and add it to their marketing mix.
Business podcasters and meeting planners looking for a dynamic, knowledgeable speaker.
PERSONAL
Spent 20+ years as a marketing professor and researcher in university business schools. Lived all over North America, including Alaska and Canada. Working out, Zumba, classical and classical C&W music, WNBA (Go Storm!), stand-up comedy (performer), and murder mysteries (reader). Probably not an introvert. Currently live in Philadelphia, PA, with a couple of high-maintenance cats who refuse to share their stories.
