“Up to now I’ve been working with individual creatives. I’ve been an individual creative. I’ve never worked in a corporation.
“Yet I’m getting invited to hold workshops in large companies and executives are coming to me for coaching.” That’s how a client I’ll call “Rita” began a consultation a while back.
“I haven’t walked in their shoes,” Rita continued. “My coach told me to market to people like myself. But in this case, I’m not marketing to me! Why would someone believe I can help them?”
Rita had fallen for the widely reported myth of, “You must tell your story. You’re qualified because you are just like the people you help. You know what they’re going through. You can help them.”
Rita was fully qualified. She just needed a new story.
Rita had a story that resonated with her audience of solopreneur creatives. She could share her experience of moving from a struggling solopreneur to a confident, profitable business owner. But she couldn’t tell an origin story about moving from frustrated corporate executive to confident, fulfilled professional.
Rita’s dilemma will be familiar to business owners who experience a shift, or pivot, as they grow. They start to attract clients in new markets, so they need new marketing strategies, new copy, and of course, new stories.
These shifts are inevitable. You change. Your market changes. You discover new solutions. You get invited to take on new challenges.
When business owners call me, they often believe they need to start with the common definition of a rebrand, i.e., a new website, color scheme, images, and slogan.
Actually, your first step calls for telling a new story — 3 stories, in fact:
Story #1 – what your business will look like after you’ve made the shift
Story #2 – the new success stories your new customers will share
Story #3 – the new origin story you tell when you’re asked, “Why did you make this shift?”
In my latest training, we’ll be talking about these challenges.
“3 Keys To Differentiate Your Services So Clients Won’t Settle For Anybody Else”
Click here to register to join us.
And if you’d like to get the lowdown on the different stories you can use during a pivot, check out my book on Amazon – Grow Your Business One Story At A Time. It’s currently in kindle form but you don’t need a kindle to read it — just a computer or smartphone.
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