The Storytelling Formula That Sells for You

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Most people think that storytelling and selling are total opposites, and that's kind of what people think about when they have their own events and they're like, oh my God, I just hate the pitch portion. I'm like, well, you didn't set them up properly. It's not adding the pitch to the end of the story. It's literally building the offer into the entire story spine. So it's in the DNA and it's in there so tightly that by the time you're done talking, people already know what you do. They've heard proof that it works and they don't feel sold at all. In fact, they know what to do next. Hey everyone, welcome back to the podcast. It's Time for another quickie because there's always time to fit in inspiration. I just got back from the Pink Skirt Project, which is Renee Warren's event, and I got to go up there and spend some time again like I did last year with Renee Warren and Dan Martell. If you don't know who that is, you guys go check out Renee. She has, like I said, the Pink Skirt Project, and Dan Martell is the author of Buy Back Your Time. They are some of the most incredible people I've ever gotten to meet in my life. They are so inspiring. So generous, and they are determined to literally be the best versions of themselves. So when you are around people like that, there is no possible way that you are not working to get better and really looking at yourself and saying, how can I live that way too and make people feel the way that they make me feel in their presence? And so the event was really incredible. I did a, a little bit of a synopsis breakdown on it. On our He Said, She Said, if you wanna hear a little bit about that. But the speakers were incredible. I not only got to speak on stage, but it was one of the first events, um, outside of Powerhouse Women that truly I stayed in the room for the full 2 days. I stayed in the room and I learned from everybody. And it was so incredible because it was exactly what I needed. And it reminded me how important these events are to go to because you access a part of yourself and become a different version of yourself that you just literally cannot do on your own. You just can't do it until you're in an environment like that. So today, because I have been talking all about being a professional podcast guest and the importance of it, and if you don't know, I am doing a free training for you. And this free training is potentially one of the most important things you can get on. And yes, that's a huge statement. And a very bold thing to say, but this could change the game for you. This could become one of your biggest sales channels. If you are a more long-form girly living in a short-form content world, this is for you. If you've got a coaching business, if you have a great business, if you have a product business, if you have a story, if you are somebody who's like, man, I just wish people would give me a chance. I've never been on a podcast before. Maybe you have been on podcasts, but you're just not quite dialed in. Or you had no idea that people were making money from going on podcasts. This is for you because there's a whole world out there, especially if you go listen to Daniel Priestley, he's incredible, where he talks about how he has made millions of dollars from podcast guesting. And I am getting a ton of testimonials from people telling me that they have made tens of thousands of dollars from my podcast links that we recorded a show.. And from them being a guest and sharing what they had on my show and being an incredible storyteller and doing all the things that I'm gonna teach you on this training, they have made incredible money. And so I would love to teach you the ins and outs and the secrets from the people who are doing this. And that is gonna be on this free training at milliondollarguest.com/training. So I hope that you go check that out. And today I wanna teach you a little bit about storytelling.

And this is something that I watch so many people get wrong.

And this is also something that I got wrong for years and years and years. And I will tell you that by not only keynoting for years, but also recently because I've been so busy, I have been asking for Q&A on stages so that I don't have to prep as much. And one of the major things that happens during Q&A and keynotes is that the audience will feel the difference of a speaker and they won't necessarily be able to pinpoint why, put their finger on it. And they won't even be able to tell you why they want to buy from one or the other. But the difference is that they answer the questions with a story. And so my question to you is, are you storytelling or are you story selling? So most people think that storytelling and selling are total opposites. So you tell a story to connect, then you can awkwardly pivot into a pitch, and then you pretty much lose the room. Right? Because it's like you just told this heartfelt story and now you're gonna pitch something. And that's kind of what people think about when they have their own events and they're like, oh my God, I just hate the pitch portion. I'm like, well, you didn't set them up properly. Like you haven't told them anything is coming. You didn't weave it throughout. Now it does feel salesy and shitty. So let's talk about story selling because it's different. It's not adding the pitch to the end of the story. It's literally building the offer. Into the entire story spine. So it's in the DNA and it's in there so tightly that by the time you're done talking, people already know what you do. They've heard proof that it works and they don't feel sold at all. In fact, they know what to do next. So the first thing that I want you to do is to start with the belief, not the offer. So you never wanna open with what you sell, obviously. You wanna open with what you believe. So let's think of this. Let's think of a sentence. I think most people are one honest conversa— conversation away from the thing that they actually want. And that sells nothing, but it sells everything at the same time because the belief is the hook and the offer rides on that belief later. So number 2, the best people on the planet who are great at this do this. Number 2, answer the question with a story that has your offer hiding inside of it. Whenever I am on stage and people ask me a question, I do not give an answer. I start with a story. So when a host asks you something like, how did you figure this out? Or how did you know what you wanted to do? You don't answer with an explanation. You actually answer with a scene. So somewhere in the middle of a scene, a client, a customer, a student, a version of your work shows up naturally because it's part of what actually happened. So you're inserting the offer and you're also telling a story. So something that has to do with your offer, an outcome, a way that you thought about it, a way that you knew that you were gonna land on this offer, whatever that is, you're going to start. With that. And so an example is, instead of saying, I coach entrepreneurs on visibility, you tell the story of the one client who is terrified to post a single video and what happens 6 weeks after she did. So right there, by saying you have a client, it says, oh, you have a client, what did you help them with? And then you share what you help them with, and you share a very beautiful, in-depth emotional story, or a funny story, or a transformational story, or all of the above. And all of a sudden, people fully understand what it is that you do. So number 3, name what you do in one sentence, but bury it in the middle, not the end. So this is the part that people screw up all the time. They save the pitch for the ending, which is exactly when the audience has already checked out And instead, in the middle, you want them to be thinking of what you do and the fact that you could help them throughout this whole story. So instead of just hearing a story, they're like, I have this problem too, exactly what they're talking about, and this is the person that could help me. And now they're committing not only to this story, but they're starting to commit to you. So instead, name what you do in the middle of the story, and this is done pretty casually. This can be something like, that's actually the whole reason I built my coaching program the way that I did. So one sentence, and then you're gonna keep on storytelling. And right there they're like, oh, this person is a coach and this whole story has to do with everything that they do in life.

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So number 4, we want to let the testimonial do the selling and not you. So you're never going to say, my program is amazing, obviously. Maybe you will say that, I don't know. Sometimes I've said that. But you say what happened to someone else because of it. So she went from zero followers to fully booked in 8 weeks, and that's proof, right? My program gets results, and you don't have to say it, and you don't have to feel salesy because you can just say, she went from zero followers to fully booked in 8 weeks. So number 5, we wanna end on the belief, not the ask. So we wanna close the loop that you opened from the beginning. We wanna come back to the belief from step 1, now proven by the story that you just told, and the offer already landed like 3 steps ago, you guys. You don't need to ask for anything because the story already did the selling. So you wanna leave people with a line to remember because storytelling makes people feel something, but story selling, what we're talking about today, makes people feel something and know exactly what to do next without feeling pitched because they already have you in mind for the thing that you have been talking about because you chose to tell the stories that are aligned with your offering. So you didn't answer all of the questions with stories that have nothing to do with your offer. They all had either a testimonial of a client, they had your, your moment of realizing exactly why you wanted to set up your coaching program like this because you went through something similar. Every story is traced back to the offer that you have been very lightly seeding throughout the entire talk. So you will now not be able to unsee this method. In every single talk that you listen to, in every single podcast that you listen to. So you guys, a podcast is just a verbal sales funnel. That's it. We talk all about funnels all of the time and how important it is to have a landing page and a great sales page. And that's all this is. It is a verbal sales page. It is a verbal funnel that you're walking people through, through story. So you guys, I hope I get to see you in the training. We're going to learn this and a whole lot more of exactly what you need to do. And I am sending you all the love. Go to milliondollarguest.com/training, and I can't wait to see you there. Bye, everyone.