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If you’re like most business owners I know, you have a secret wish. You also have a very long not-so-secret “To Do” list. And your secret wish is for someone to come along and magically wipe out your entire list.
Let’s face it: a lot of problems, in all arenas, are solved by everyday slogging it out. If we want to save money, we cut back on expenses. If we want to lose weight, we cut back on calories and eat food that (let’s be frank here) isn’t as much fun. A blueberry muffin or a serving of broccoli? No contest.
In business, a lot of problems are solved by boring, repetitive tasks. I have on my “to do” list an item to move some of my courses to a new platform. Others are even more boring, like learning new software. It’s about as much fun as learning to use a new toaster.
So when you tell a story, your hero is a client with a problem. The client doesn’t know how to solve the problem. Enter the guide — you.
But you’re not performing magic in the traditional sense. You offer a repeatable, proven process to solve the problem. Almost always you involve the client. The client has to prepare, study, or work. Even if you’re consulting, the client will work closely with you on the solution to the problem.
Let’s compare this to stories like Cinderella. She’s sitting by the hearthside, feeling sad because she couldn’t go to the ball. Enter the fairy godmother. She appears: Cinderella doesn’t check her credentials or compare a long list of candidates. She waves her wand. And the problem is solved.
And now let’s rewrite the story. The godmother is now a life coach who’s been chosen by this young woman. Note that Cinderella has to have some sort of agency here: she has to want to see the problem solved. She has to be able to call around to find the right godmother.
And the godmother helps Cinderella find her own way to go to the ball. She helps Cindy help herself. Maybe she’ll help Cinderella start a little side hustle to earn extra money so she can move out and buy her own way to the ball!
And that’s probably a lot closer to what you do as the guide. You don’t just appear; you’re invited. You help the client help herself or at least avoid repeatable problems in the future. Your plumber doesn’t teach you how to unclog a drain but you do get advice on how to avoid doing this in the future.
When you tell the story, you choose the characters carefully so your reader will identify with them. You don’t promise magic (at least I hope you don’t). You make sure the hero (your client) has highly desirable qualities; you don’t want to present a hero who’s stupid or helpless.
So can you promise magic?
Sometimes the suggestion of a coach or consultant can feel magical, because you’re so transformed.
1 – The process is repeatable. If you do x, you get y. If you just show up every day, good things will happen. It will be different for each person. A coach who has thousands of followers can recommend her process and it won’t work for you. If you’re providing a service in an urban area, a rural solution won’t work. For instance, inviting people to breakfast at your home…no way. But if you CAN do this you’ll be really lucky.
2 – The process transforms you in some way. You learn to walk or talk a new way. You have a new method for saving money or investing or going on vacation. You go to an exercise class and realize you now walk differently. I knew someone who said her yoga class let her get out of a car more easily.
3 – You get an aha moment. Someone says something about your business or your mindset and you say OMG.
If you’d like to learn more about casting the characters in your selling story, I’ve put together a low-cost workbook. It’s got details for assigning qualities to the characters. It’s got fill-in-the-blank worksheets. And it includes characters who can add to make the story more fun: the cheerleaders and the villain. Learn more here.