#108 - THE Most Important Step in Sharing Your Business Story
The Final Week in Our Practical Series on Brand Storytelling!
Happy Tuesday, happy Virgo season, AND happy birthday to me. It feels fitting that on this, the day of my birth, I get to gift you all with the fourth and final instalment of our practical storytelling for business series—adapted from my monthlong course of the same name.
This week is all about expression, actually sharing your story. You have your foundations, your context (including Purpose and positioning), a high level story, and now it’s time to choose the right places to show up with the right version of your story. Because your story evolves and adapts depending on the medium you’re using to express it (an Instagram post version of your business story is going to be quite different in length and makeup than the about page of your website).
Why a whole week on expression? Because stories are something you share. It’s the most essential part of creating a story. It’s what leads to connection, community, and empathy between you (the storyteller) and your audience. This is where truly engaging your audience and converting them into customers comes to life.
The place I encourage my students and workshop clients to start is with a manifesto—a declaration of intentions, opinions, objectives, or motives. I want to take everything you’ve done so far and put it together in a manifesto. It codifies what you believe. Create the ugly first draft, refine it into the long version of your manifesto; then cut that even further to one paragraph for the short version of your story; and then take some time to think about how you pull that back even further to express who you are and what you do and how you serve people in a single sentence or two.
Once you have the three versions of your manifesto, you can start to think about where in the world they can live to most effectively engage your audience. For example, the long one is GREAT for an about page on your website. Then, once you choose the right channels, it becomes about CONSISTENCY. Consistently showing up in the world, creating experiences through your product or service and sharing your story in a way that begins to weave a story together that is reliable and allows your audience to draw a clear picture of who you are and what you can do for them in their lives. The bonus to showing up consistently in the world is that you build trust and a brand that people develop clear associations around.
Now it’s time to choose the right channels (places in media and the world where you can market your business) to share it. GENERALLY the best channels are the ones where your customers spend time. If you have customers that spend a lot of their day scrolling social media, you should be there with them. If they do a lot of online searching (which huge portions of the population do) you should have a website with solid SEO in place, if they’re the outdoorsy type or spend a lot of time with community groups, your brand should be out there showing up IRL (in real life) with them. AND hopefully, because you’ve already been insight mining in week one, you’ll already know the places where your customer spends time and truly engages. Another way to consider potential channels are places where your product or service shine. If you have BEAUTIFUL objects to share, Instagram may be your friend, if you create amazing experience, YouTube may be a place for you to shine.
And then there’s just one final thing you need to do to really bring a story to life. Without this step, everything else you’ve done up until will have been pointless. It’s simple, but hard: start. That’s it. Take the first steps, test it out with a few people you trust, build on it and evolve it as you get feedback and watch it come to life in the world. I’ll be here cheering you on as you.
I’d love love LOVE if you would share the short version of your story in the comments so others can see the amazing work you’ve already started to do in bringing your story to life.
AND if you’ve enjoyed this series and want to dive deeper you can enroll in my Storytelling for Business program here (scroll down for the self-guided program)—there’s an option to get 1:1 feedback time with me after you’ve gone through the full program which includes weekly instructional videos, worksheets, and a ton of other bonuses. You can also ALWAYS reply to this email with any questions you’ve had over the last few weeks or put them in the comments on the site. I’d love to hear your feedback on the series. Thank you, for coming on this adventure and I have more fun to share in the coming weeks as we I dive into fall here in Toronto and continue this wonderful adventure in storytelling.
A Story Well Told
No links this week because I want you to think about those untold stories. The ones that live inside you. The amazing story well-told could be yours. Honestly, truly, it is. But it takes action from you. Stepping into your Purpose, daydreaming a little and deciding to do it, take the leap and share that story, career ambition, or life experience with the world. You can reach out to me any time if you need a little help with it and you can ALWAYS dive into my Storytelling University courses to get you going. You've got a story inside you and this email and my work is all about helping you share it with the world. You've got this.
Chantaie Allick
Writer|Strategist|Storyteller
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