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Running Your Business

I’ve dealt with a few criticisms about including my personal story on my website, but more importantly, for every skeptic I’ve had at least 10 people tell me how much they admire what I share and how it resonates with them (and those folks usually end up coaching with me). So why share your personal story? Because it’s going to be one of the fastest, most genuine ways to connect with those people that you are meant to serve in your business.

My ideal clients are high-integrity healers, practitioners, and female entrepreneurs, who are really good at what they do, but want more financial success in their own businesses. They want more money, free time, and to market from a place that feels good to them in their heart and soul. Developing their own self-marketing system helps them successfully be in their business, have more freedom, and piece of mind (it also helps them go to places much bigger than they had originally imagined). It’s about doing what you love and still being able to spend time with family and friends, simple as that.

Part of building a business that is a JOY to you involves sharing with people who you are. Recently I had the opportunity to listen to Dr. Deepak Chopra share messages on the Soul of Healing. He spoke about the power of a story. He talked about the power of a story as the key to communication.

The first example Dr. Chopra gave was to highlight how our consumer society is literally built on stories. All of our large corporations have marketing teams that come up with a story to sell. The examples Dr. Chopra gave were Nike—the power of the urban hero, VW Bugs—the carefree life of the hippie and beatnik, Apple Computers—the independent hipster. Now whether these images were what the companies had intended (my sense is Dr. Chopra didn’t have that inside information) I’m not sure, but I will tell you everyone in that room could relate to what he was saying and my guess is you do, too.

The second example Dr. Chopra gave was to emphasize the power of the story to heal. He told a touching story about his own father as a young doctor, while serving in the army, was faced with a young soldier who had lost his voice. With thorough research, the senior Dr. Chopra had discovered this young soldier had received news of his mother’s death and when he had tried to tell his superiors, they cut him off before he could even finish the sentence, “My mother...” and his body shut down, and his voice disappeared with it. When this young soldier was able to have his story heard, his voice returned.

This truly brought tears to my eyes. We all want to be heard.

The question then becomes, HOW do you use your story in your business? My answer? Tell it. You’re a solo-entrepreneur, so you don’t have to hire a marketing team to “create you.” You are you. Let the people who are going to do business with you KNOW you. This way you get to be you, do what you love, and work with people who you love (they already connect with you because you shared your story!). How great is that? No more “trying to sell,” instead you get to BE your business and it happens more easily.

The key also becomes about them being able to share their own story and Dr. Chopra clearly showed the power of that. They’ll get the results they are looking for that much more quickly because all the c*r*a*p will be out of the way. They’ll also see that if you can be it, so can they. You are in business to make amazing things happen for people. So, share.

I know I can already hear the “but you can’t do that in MY business!” You have to be very clear, about whom you are serving. The sharing of your story is applicable, even if you have a more corporate target market. However, you’d do it differently. You might not talk about your personal pain, but you’d perhaps make yourself more open, more available, less dull, and looking-like-everyone-else-humdrum. (I had a client who fought me on this and continued to get dripple and draps in advertising; changed gears and presto! 57% increase in sales.)

So what’s been learned? Your story is beautiful. It’s how you came to do what you do. Be willing to share it and you’re on your way to more energy and more riches and a whole lot more joy.

Your EnergyRICH™ Call to Action:

Brainstorm how can you share a little bit more about you to create more of a connection, more belief in what you offer, more quickly.

How can you open up to hear the story of the people that you serve? Think a CEO doesn’t want to share? Oh, think again! And see what happens...

...and then email me about it. I love to highlight Excelling EnergyRICH™ Entrepreneurs: we’ll share your story and you’ll watch the business roll in!