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Tag: business development
Pairing Clarity with Your Signature Style
From Foggy to Focused: How Clarity and a Signature Content Style Can Transform Your Coaching Biz
Ever feel like you’re shouting into the void on social media? You’re posting (sometimes), sharing tips (sporadically), and trying to be “you” online. But somehow, your content feels…meh. It’s not landing, it’s not clicking, and worst of all, it’s not bringing in clients. Let me tell you, girl, you’re not alone.
But let’s be honest here: if you, yourself, lack clarity about what you offer and how you help people, your audience won’t stick around. And without a signature content style to back up that clarity? You’re just another drop in the ocean of Instagram posts and TikTok trends.
So, are you ready to fix that sh!t?
Step 1: Understand Who You Are and What Makes You Unique
You need to understand yourself before you can get clear on your message. What sets you apart? Why should someone hire you over anyone else? This isn’t about bragging; it’s about owning your brilliance. Show up as yourself, be yourself, and stick to it.
- Your Story: What’s your journey? Did you leave a soul-sucking corporate job to follow your passion? Reinvent yourself after a big life change? Share those moments that shaped you—they’re what make you relatable and memorable.
- Your Skills: What unique expertise or perspective do you bring? Maybe you’re the queen of simplifying complex strategies or a whiz at creating connections online. Whatever it is, highlight it.
- Your Why: Why are you doing this work? What drives you? Whether it’s empowering other women to succeed or creating financial freedom for your family, your audience wants to feel that passion.
When you’re clear on what makes you, that energy will naturally flow into your message and content.
Step 2: Get Clear on Your Message
Before we touch your visuals, tone, and personality, let’s start with the basics. If your message isn’t clear, your content won’t convert. For real, that is the problem many of you have.
- Who Do You Help? Be specific. Are you working with second-act women coaches juggling business and life transitions? Call them out. The more tailored your message, the more your dream clients will feel seen.
- What Do You Do? Think results, not processes. Instead of saying, “I help you with Instagram,” say, “I help you develop a cohesive style that gets you noticed so you can book dream clients.”
- Why Does It Matter? Go beyond the surface. Your audience has a problem they need to solve; are you the person to solve it? Are you helping your clients feel confident? Seen? Empowered to grow their business? Highlight that.
Okay, you have what makes you unique and how you will speak to your audience, so what is next?
Step 3: Define Your Transformation and Make It Visual
Your audience doesn’t care about the how—they care about the win. Show them the transformation you provide through your content.
- Tell Stories: Use client wins, before-and-after scenarios, or your journey to illustrate the results you deliver. For example, this pat weekend I got an Instagram message from a client saying… you said to just post it and here is what happened when I posted it!
- Showcase Results: Carousels, reels, or testimonials are great for this. Bonus points if you pair these with the story and transformation that is behind the reviews.
- Signature Style Inspo: Do you teach about your topic in a certaIn way or have a process that you follow with each client, this is a good thing to highlight and include as part of your Signature Style as you gain clarity around your offers.
Step 4: Strip Your Content Down
Your signature content style starts with clarity but thrives on consistency. The easiest way to stay consistent? Creating and living by your content pillars. These are the themes that guide everything you post. To make this concept even clearer, I included the infographic you see here.
Your pillars are a broad theme that ties back to your niche. Pillars are very specific to your Signature Style. You should only have a few pillars and repeat them.
Your pillars help focus your audience on the things that you specialize in. Let’s say you’re helping second-act coaches grow their online presence. Your pillars might look like this:
- How your life journey leads you to coach (includes the ups and downs of the journey, keeping it real).
- The best way to simplify your social media strategies so you can focus on your coaching.
- The biggest mistakes I made as a coach, that you should not make!
Step 5: Nail Your Signature Content Style
This is where clarity meets aesthetics. Your signature style is what makes people stop mid-scroll and say, “Oh, that’s her.” Here’s how to create yours:
- Identify Your Visual Cue: A visual cue is precisely what it sounds like it is an item that shows up in a majority of your posts, is recognizable, and will subconsciously tell your audience member to stop mid-scroll
- Consistency Is Key: Whether it’s your captions, graphics, or tone, keep it consistent, but don’t allow your brand to get lost in the Canva template. Remember you want your content to make your audience feel the same across the board, but that DOES NOT mean it must be the SAME!
- Alignment: Make sure that your Signature Style aligns with the type of content you want to create, as well as with your brand; if something is misaligned, you may feel like something is off in the pit of your stomach or may begin to play out in other ways.
Step 6: Test, Refine, Repeat
Here’s a secret: no one gets their message and style perfect on the first try. The key is to test what resonates with your audience and refine as you go.
- Pay Attention to Engagement: Which posts get saved, shared, or spark DMs? Those are your winners.
- Ask for Feedback: Don’t be afraid to ask your audience what they want more of. They’ll tell you.
- Evolve With Intention: Your signature style should grow with you. If something feels off, tweak it until it feels right.
The Magic of Clarity and Style
When you combine a clear message with a signature content style, magic happens. Your audience will know what you do and feel connected to you and your brand. And that’s when the inquiries, bookings, and dream clients start rolling in.
It’s not just about looking good online (though let’s be real, we all love a cohesive feed). It’s about showing up with confidence, clarity, and a style that makes your dream clients think, “She gets me.”
So, ready to stop shouting into the void and start building a presence that works?
Business Transparency: Real Conversations Series
Are You Ready to Dive Into Transparency Head First
Jonathan Howard of JRH Graphics and Melanie Richards of Increase Your Visibility Discuss Business Transparency
- Jonathan Howard
- JRH Graphics
- www.jrhgraphics.com
- jhoward@jrhgraphics.com
- facebook.com/jrhgraphics
- instagram.com/jonathanrhoward
- Melanie Richards
- Increase Your Visibility
- https://increaseyourvisibility.biz
- melanie@increaseyourvisibility.biz
- faceboook.com/IncreaseYourVisibilitywithMel/
- Illuminations Groups: bit.ly:/IamVisible
Business Transparency
In its purest sense, business transparency means apparent, unencumbered honesty. A transparent company is a company that is honest in its business practices. However, there is more to it than that. Open companies do not hold anything back from their employees, customers, and investors. No hidden agendas and the narrative is unified. Transparency requires all information required for collaboration, cooperation, and collective decision making is available. Transparency is essential to the success of any business in the correct marketplace and a major building block needed for trust to be established. Simple right? You all know what that definition means and how you can apply it to your business. That’s okay we aren’t sure about some of it either. It’s not surprising that many believe that transparency is nothing but an overused buzzword.
A Real Conversation
Business transparency is precisely the type of topic we love to cover on the “Real Conversations Series.” It’s a hot button subject and many people have strong opinions on topics like this. Hot button topics provide for exciting conversations. Jonathan of JRH Graphics and Melanie Richards of Increase Your Visibility sit down to have a real discussion about transparency. Nothing to sell, no agreed-upon discussion points, no script, and no roadmap. Just a real conversation that touches on a wide variety of subjects ranging from the role of vulnerability in transparency to the role respect plays in business. For new entrepreneurs we explore the importance of just showing up as well as allowing your true self to guide your way. And for established entreprenuers we look at what it means to be an expert adn the key steps needed to establish your expertise on social media.
This lively conversation was important and very fun to have with Melanie. We hope that it helps entrepreneurs understand a bit more about difficult topics such as transparency and how they may impact your business.
What Are Your Takeaways?
Jonathan and Mel provide you with their takeaways at the end of this video, but we want to know what you have as takeaway. What did you learn? What stuck with you? Has this video changed the way that you look at transparency as a whole. We would love to hear your comments in the comment section of the blog below or on social media! If you have questions that you want answered, please reach out and ask us.
Also, please share what would have made this video better or what expectations you had for the video that were not met. Our goal is to continue to provide you withthe best information available, with a practical spin.
Please note, this is the 2nd in the Real Conversations Series, if you would like to see the first one look for Authenticity Beyond The Buzzword!
9 Tips for Engaging The Holiday Audience
Tips for Engaging the Holiday Audience
Tips to Engage my holiday audience are different than my everyday strategies. Really? Overall, the concepts stay the same; you should just be operating at a slightly higher cadence. And maybe with a few extra jingle bells. Your audience during the Holidays is generally under a time crunch, more likely to be stressed, and focused on what value you can deliver.
What are some ways that you can reach your audience and help them save time? Ease their holiday stress? How can you show them higher value from the services you offer? From social media posts to services provided, I am reviewing 9 Tips that will help you engage your audience this holiday and keep them coming back into the new year. And Right up front here is your bonus tip, don’t forget to sprinkle everything with a bit of Holiday Cheer!
Plan Your Content and Create an Experience
One of the most important things you should do leading up to the holidays to engage your audience is to plan your content. Make sure that what you are posting on social media and your website matches what is happening IRL! Scheduling your posts in advance will allow you to tell a cohesive and engaging story online while still providing varied and “edutaining” content. Planning will enable you to highlight specific products and services deliberately. Your marketing and social media should lay the groundwork for the fantastic shopping experience that they can expect when they shop with you. When they enter your store or website, greet them with an experience that exceeds their expectations.
How Do You Exceed Expectations?
You exceed your customers’ expectations through planning. If you plan your marketing, social media, promotional calendar, and in-store events collaboratively, you can create more with less. It is also easier to get others to work collaboratively with you when you create a shopping “event.” Which only requires a theme, a sign, and people saying it is a shopping event. You can also exceed customers’ expectations by offering unexpected service standards. For example, at my last Barnes & Noble College Store, we would wrap presents for any customer that wanted them wrapped. We never included that on any marketing; we just asked if they wished to have their gifts wrapped. In the first year, we delighted a lot of customers by doing this. The next year we had customers telling us that they came to us instead of a competitor across town because we would wrap their presents for them. And the overall shopping experience was better too!
Engage the Holiday Audience by Keep All Marketing Simple, Clean and Cohesive
As a small to medium-size business, chances are you do your marketing. During the Holiday season, it is more important than ever to keep it simple. Don’t confuse your customers. Eliminate the need for the fine print. Utilize the same elements in your marketing across all marketing, promotion, and in-store assets so that your marketing is yours.
Simple and Clean
Pick a holiday color and theme and stick to it. Make all of your assets match using the same background and color you decide to apply for Holiday. A great way to create an impact for the holiday season is to change out all signage in the store to a Holiday sign with a festive base that is different from your standard signage. Changing the assets is a reasonably low-cost way to dramatically change the look and feel of your brick-and-mortar location as well as your website and social media. The signs should be a part of the story that you are telling with your product.
Resist the urge to over-sign and do not make signs hard to understand. If you want to run a Buy One Get One Free Promotion in a category, then that entire category should be included. If your employees need a document to decipher the sale, then you are going to have customers that are upset or don’t understand the restrictions. Clear, easy to understand, no explanation needed signs and policies are essential if you want happy customers this holiday.
Cohesive Assets
You want your customer’s to be able to recognize your content and marketing at first glance. In seconds you want them to know that what they are looking at is representative of your brand. During the holiday rush, this is even more important as people have less free time to look further. Remember, you have 8 seconds to hold a person’s attention, you don’t want to waste that 8 seconds on them identifying your brand. Pick a Holiday color and stick to it. Use your brand color as the secondary color in all holiday marketing. If a background can’t be scaled appropriately for use on multiple platforms or signs, don’t use it. Keeping these assets cohesive across your brand will facilitate the storytelling and selling process.
Engage by Making Shopping Easy
A great way to engage your customers this Holiday Season is to make shopping with you easy. Create stories with your products, both online and in-store by grouping like products together. You can also cross merchandise items to tell a story. You can identify the connection between products in a well-displayed product story without a sign. If a customer needs a sign to understand the story, then that grouping may be a stretch. Clusters give your customers options and put items in their hands, or online carts that they might not have expected. Creating groupings like Great Gifts for Dad, Gifts for the Traveler, Gifts for Shoe Lovers also create a starting point for customers to look at what you have to offer.
Holiday Gift Guides
Another great way to make shopping easy is to create a simple holiday gift guide that features some suggested items in different categories based on what you want to highlight. A single sheet of letter-size paper on the counter can do wonders for your customers. While they may not shop at that moment, many customers will take one and may return to get something on it. These serve as tools to get your customers thinking about you as a resource for them during the holidays.
Create A One-Stop Shop Experience
What are some things that people ask you for that you don’t have? During the holidays, not having batteries if products you are selling require them may cost you a sale. When I say create a one stop shop experience; I understand you can not be everything to everyone! You should make sure that people can walk out with everything they need for anything you sell. Also, have an option available for them to wrap gifts, and either cards or gift tags. You want to make it easy for your customers to purchase gifts from you, you don’t want to send them elsewhere to get giftwrap, cards or batteries because they may just go elsewhere for the gift as well.
Engage the Audience with Events But Don’t Interfere
Events provide you with opportunities to engage followers, drive new business, introduce a wider audience to your brand, and to fill the environment with Holiday cheer. These are all reasons to have a robust calendar of events during the holidays. When planning these events be sure to take into consideration the impact they may have on your location. Will the event cause you to block off a portion of the sales floor customers may want to shop? Will a VIP Night require you to close the store early? Generally, the benefits of the event outweigh the impact on the customer in these cases but during the Holiday Season the opposite is true.
Showcase A Charity or Socially Responsible Brand
As you can see from the statistic to the left, cause-based marketing and socially responsible products are popular among consumers. These types of products will drive consumers to your location. Showcasing a charity or one of these socially accountable brands also allows your customers to feel good about their holiday purchase as a portion of the sales is going towards a good cause. Remember to research the values and goals of the brands that you bring in. Make sure that their stance aligns with your brand and beliefs, and you are publically aligning yourself with them.
Know Who You Are Aligning With
The public alignment between yourself and the cause-based brand or charity can yield many benefits. However, if the brand or charity you choose has values that do not align with your audience, you may have a small public relations situation on your hands. So do your due diligence, work with brands that have a proven track record, and be able to discuss the charity or brand you are working with in-depth based on facts.
Engage Your Audience by Adding Local Flair
Work with local vendors to showcase some unique items that will add a special touch to your holiday assortment. These individual items and local vendors will add another dimension to your product selection. It provides your audience with an unexpected option that will delight them. It helps you drive your business and gives local and small businesses more exposure.
Adding local vendors also opens up the opportunity to engage another segment of an audience. Small and local businesses have loyal followers that are willing to shop at establishments that support the local economy. Allowing these businesses to market select items as part of your holiday collection helps you engage a new audience that may not have shopped with you. The goodwill that is created by doing this also extends past the holiday season. Continue collaborating with vendors throughout the year, and you will see an increase in traffic and support from many other local businesses.
Celebrate the Season
This one seems obvious, but it is my experience that many times, businesses forget about this. Plan events, promotions, and train your staff to highlight the meaning of the season. Be authentic in your celebration of the Holiday. Include stories of hope and goodwill in the stories you tell as part of your holiday celebration. Bring your community together with special holiday events like tree lightings, caroler, and a reading of Twas The Night Before Christmas. Surprise your audience with a free beverage while they shop, or some warm hot chocolate during the first snow of the Holiday. Remember the spirit of Christmas in every interaction and see how you can use it to make each member of your audience smile.
Don’t Forget Other Key Holidays
Don’t forget the other holidays celebrated by your audience. Add Hanukkah, Kwanzaa, Boxing Day, and others to your calendar and make sure to recognize them when they happen. In some areas, you may wish to bring in select merchandise for these holidays, as well. Also, make sure you use the term “Happy Holidays” when greeting your customers to be inclusive.
Thank Your Customers
Thank your customers for shopping with you. Thinking of you. Thank them for being loyal customers, and for choosing you to help them celebrate the Holidays. Another one that seems like a no-brainer, but many businesses do not do this enough. A great way to engage your audience is to thank them for being your audience. You should thank them for being loyal followers on social media, thank them for shopping with you when they make a purchase, thank them for stopping in when they come and browse your store or website. A customer that feels appreciated is more likely to purchase.
Thank Your Customers Advanced Move
Want to go one step further in thanking your customers? Run a Thank You drive! Create cards that say thank you, and have a spot for a customer’s name and a place to thank them for something, write one out for each customer with something unique on it. Create a location in-store where they can take a photo with their card and encourage them to post it on social media. Dedicate a few feed posts and maybe a lot of story posts to the customers that you thank during the Holiday. Imagine the goodwill this creates.
The 9 Holiday Engagement Strategies
These 9 Strategies are based on Jonathan’s 18 years of retail experience. He has seen success with these strategies used together or individually. They will help you engage the holiday audience this season. Depending on the type of business and your location these may be used at varying levels, however, we believe that the concepts are universal. Experiment with a few and build on your successes. We would also love to hear about how you engage your holiday audience and what has worked for you.
Customer Service: The Foundation of Business Success
Customer Service is So Out of Your Lane, Why Are You Talking About It?
I am sure you are all thinking right now, why is this guy talking about customer service? Why not write about branding or social media or stories? Stick to what you are good at, right?
So to those questions, I have three answers:
- If you think that social media and branding have absolutely nothing to do with customer service, you are sadly very much mistaken.
- If you think that client relations is not customer service, you are in for a rude awakening.
- I am good at customer service. I am freaking amazing at customer service. It is one of my strengths, and it is very much in my lane.
So, Let’s Talk Customer Service?
I am talking about customer service because without customers (or clients) your business will close. If you aren’t marketing with customers in mind, your business will fail. Not treating your customers like family, the family that you like, then you are going to have a significant issue on your hands. Remember, the marketplace is more crowded than ever. Customers have more choices than ever before, and if you are not treating them like they matter, they will be gone. No matter how large or small your business, you need to be adding value. You need to surprise and delight your customers every single chance you get. From the first time, they contact you on social media, right to the 750th cup of coffee they buy from you. Every experience needs to give them a reason to come back.
The Customer Journey
Is it the first time you are coming in contact with the customer? What stage of the customer journey are thin? What have they heard about your business? From reviews to social media, to experts and peers impressions of your brand. A customer may have heard of your business name 30 times and gotten 15 good stories and 15 negative ones before they even contact you. As a business, you never know. Every single time I see an oversimplified version of the customer journey, I want to scream. Don’t get me wrong; the stages are valid. Their thoughts and experiences at specific stages in the buying process are essential to know so you can deliver the right message, content, and so that you understand the process. My problem is, no customer journey looks like this:
If the customer journey were that simple, all businesses would be able to control the variables, eliminate the guesswork, and get customers from awareness to retention in 5.2 seconds flat. Seriously, these customer journey charts make it look like a walk in the park. But in the real world, the customer journey is littered with land mines, lobbed grenades, and all other sorts of marketing shrapnel. Because realistically the customer journey could look like this.
Why Does It Matter
The second diagram is more representative of the modern-day customer journey. Not as easy to map, not as easy to react to and about 100 opportunities for customer service to impact whether or not they decide to buy. If you look at the journey in the way that is represented in the second diagram, you realize how important it is for everyone in your organization to be on the same page. From customer service to social media, to call centers. If one hand isn’t telling the other one what it is doing, you are destined to have customer service issues that will cost you sales.
If the overall customer experience is not a positive one, they are less likely to begin doing business with you. People like to feel good, make them feel good every step of the way.
Customer Service and Profit
Do you believe that this statement is true? To be profitable, you must compromise on the service you provide.
Many companies operate in this manner, compromise the customer experience to save some money. Not everyone believes that the customer is
always right. Many companies don’t see the value in making sure that the customer is delighted. This is a detrimental flaw in their culture and will lead to their demise. An American Express survey found that 78% of consumers have backed out of a transaction or failed to make an intended purchase because of sub-par customer service. Customers have options; if they are not satisfied with you they will move on
Show Your Customers You Care By Adding Value
Companies that value the overall customer experience are those that are successful. The only sure-fire strategy to maintain your market share is to build your policies and procedures with your customers’ interests at heart. Provide value to every customer. It doesn’t matter if they stop on your social media page, enter your store, or visit your website. Everyone should leave feeling like their experience with your company added value to their day. Be proactive, anticipate problems, provide solutions, and meet them where they are. It is your customer’s world, and you are just living in it.
More to the Foundation
Yes, what I have already mentioned represents a strong argument for making customer service the most critical thing in your business, but I have more for you. There are integral parts of this foundation like customer service is representative of the culture in your industry. Issues caused by poor service may be a symptom of more significant problems in your organization. Or the fact that lousy service leads to bad reputations which lead to customers choosing other businesses to meet their needs. Failure to keep the customer service foundation stable will lead to significant issues within the organization.
Bad Service Is What People Remember
Customers will remember and talk about the negative customer service experiences much more than the positive ones. Every negative customer service experience can potentially lose you as many as ten customers. Every negative experience can hurt your reputation, and a lousy reputation can destroy your business. You need to get it right every time to avoid a damaged reputation. Training your employees and hiring people who believe that the customer experience is the most important task at hand will help make this part of your culture. Anticipating issues and proactively solving them as well as educating and informing your customer base can go a long way in preventing negative customer interactions.
Excellent Service Strengthens Your Brand
Hey, look who is back in his lane! How you treat your customers is directly related to your brand. Poor service and a customer may choose another brand over you. Conversely, if you are well known for delivering a fantastic customer experience throughout a customer’s journey that may be what causes people to choose you over your competition. When everything else is equal, customers and clients are much more likely to choose a business that delivers a great experience.
How You Do One Thing, Is How You Do Everything
Sloppy? Poor communication? When somebody sees the way you do something, they assume you do everything in that manner. Therefore, allowing for poor customer service in your business tells customers that you may not have the highest standards. It leads them to assume that maybe your products aren’t the best, or perhaps the food you serve in the cafe is not prepared under the proper conditions. Sure, one negative situation, maybe a crisis averted, but that same crisis will arise again if you do not address the root of the issue.
Customer Service Issues Can Signal A Larger Problem in the Organization
Many times customer service issues arise as a symptom of other problems in an organization. I still believe that people are inherently good, and when given the tools necessary, and under proper conditions, they want to make other people happy. Poor service many times is a sign of inadequate training and poor communication in a business. Other times it is a result of employees not being empowered to make decisions. Or a management team that is reluctant to participate in the daily operations of a business.
Make Informed Decisions By Talking To Your Team
If things have been going great, and then suddenly you see a rise in complaints look at the changes in your organization. What roles are different? Were associates not trained on specific procedures? Are there open lines of communication? Or are people unaware of policy changes? Engage your staff and ask for input. Listen to what they have to say. Many times employees will tell you what they perceive to be the problem, and they may be 100% right. Even if your employees don’t see the issue in the same way, they will appreciate being consulted. No matter what, don’t just ignore the problems.
When Service is Great Things Are Just Better
When you treat your customers like family, they will return the favor. You will be less likely to have angry customer issues, complaints about the operations of your business, and fewer lawsuits. Because when you treat your customers right, you are opening the lines of communication and allowing for the flow of ideas. Your clients and customers are much more likely to approach you to discuss issues rather than resorting to other alternatives. Treat your customers poorly, and you can almost be sure that you’ll run into problems at one point or another. They don’t have a connection with you, they don’t know your story, and they don’t care if you succeed or fail.
Delighted Customers Leads to Advocacy, and Social Proof Money Can’t Buy
When you provide a delightful customer experience, from start to finish, Across all avenues for every customer, client, and audience members. You will begin to see people pinballing through the customer journey into the advocacy phase. With some people arrive at the advocacy stage quicker than others. It may take more time to earn the trust of other customers. But continue to deliver the same positive experience, and they will reach the advocacy phase as well.
What is magical about the advocacy phase is your clients and customers are doing some of the marketing for you. In our blog and webinar on social proof, we highlighted the power of a brand advocate. Someone who writes reviews or recommends your business to peers is proof that you are practicing what you preach and delivering value to your clients. It is a big win for your business so keep up the excellent work. And don’t forget, to keep the trend of positive proof going by using the great reviews and testimonials in your marketing.
Keeping Customers Is Cheaper than Attracting New Ones
Remember those profits you were protecting by settling for mediocre service; you can say goodbye to those right about now! Another reason customer service needs to be the foundation of your business is that keeping a customer is cheaper than attracting a new one. Once a customer purchases with you, they are more likely to continue to use your services if you continue to meet their needs. Keep in mind that those needs include being treated with respect and continuing to see value in the relationship.
Attracting new clients requires a business to attract leads. Engage those leads and provide them more value than the competition. Hopefully, a high percentage of those leads are converted to replace the customers you lost due to poor customer service experiences. And if the cause of the negative experiences is unresolved, you will continue to lose customers you acquire. Keep your clients when you delight them with a fantastic customer experience. Then build your business when you receive new clients not just maintain the status quo.
Customer-Centric Businesses FTW
When your business is customer-centric, it will make sure that the experience every customer has is a positive one. Your people will go above and beyond to deliver the service that your clients expect. You will anticipate and resolve potential problems making the lives of your customers better. And you will see growth as you retain clients, move customers into the advocacy phase and continue to add value. The only path to business success is having a customer-centric business, and doing all that you can to make every decision with the customer experience in mind.
What’s Your Story? Unleash Your Business Superpower
Surrounded by Darkness
It is 2:45 am on August 24, 2008, and blackness surrounded me. I am laying face down and unconscious in the middle of Columbus Ave in Boston. The man who had moments before been stomping on my head, yelling for me to die was gone. This vicious and unprovoked attack left two friends in the hospital and two others afraid to leave their apartments.
To this day, I have no recollection of what happened; it was all very cloudy and grey in my mind. What I do remember is waking up in the hospital. Confused. Distraught. And in pain. But there was also something else that felt different, but at that moment I could not pinpoint what this different feeling was.
The Darkness Returns
Months later, my attacker pled guilty to 9 counts. But justice was not served as he walked out of the courtroom with his freedom and instructions to attend anger management classes. Once again, I was surrounded by only darkness.
Where was the justice in that sentence?
What message is this sentence sending to people?
Before this moment in my life, I never had any desire to share my Story. My experiences were unique to me and had no way of impacting others. In my mind, those who said they were going to change the world were merely tilting at windmills.
My Own Story Transformed My Thoughts and Beliefs
I left the courtroom, angry and upset, and I walked to calm my nerves. My voice cracked as I answered the first call from a reporter following up on the case. But that small crack in my voice was the last I ever saw of the person who didn’t share his Story. I delivered an emotional but rational response that highlighted the critical points to the argument I had laid out in my head. Ending the conversation with a simple but powerful, imagine if you were the one lying face down on the pavement, how would it feel to know that the man who did this to you walked free.
And I continued to tell my story. Zeroing in on all the emotions that someone experiences when they are violently attacked and continued to ask them to imagine if it was them. Just a short while had passed, and something extraordinary and entirely unexpected started to happen. People began to listen. But not only listen, these listeners then started to re-tell my Story, to rally around it, and to take actions to try to prevent things like this from happening again.
The world around me began to lighten.
My Story Was Now Bigger Than Me
Then one morning, my phone rings and the voice on the other end says, “Please hold for Senator Kennedy’s Office.” The Senator wanted to use my Story as part of his floor speech in support of the Matthew Shepard Hate Crimes Bill. A bill he fought tirelessly for. Legislation that this country desperately needed if we had any chance of preventing attacks like the one that happened to me and so many others.
That Bill was Senator Kennedy’s windmill and his legacy. I can only imagine what he felt the day the bill became law.
Darkness is Lifted
The passage of the Matthew Shepard Hate Crimes Bill marked the moment when color began flooding back into my life . The darkness had finally lifted. I took a deep breath and walked back into my technicolor world a different person than when I was ripped from it the year before. That period of darkness taught me many lessons that will stay with me for a lifetime. But I was happy to return to my technicolor world and continue to use the new found superpower of storytelling to brighten the world just a bit more.
Laying The Groundwork for JRH Graphics
I was still many years away from establishing JRH Graphics, but I was unknowingly laying the groundwork for my future business. As the head of GLAAD’s DC Leadership Council, I worked with a team to help amplify the local stories that needed to be heard by a larger audience. And the fight for marriage equality came to DC, and GLAAD DC LC told lots of amazing and compelling stories of love.
Then there was a wedding contest that was supposed to be for fun. It was a 3 month full fledged storytelling, marketing, and social medi blitz that landed a gay couple in second place in a NATIONAL wedding contest. That would be me and my ex-husband of course. And a small New York Times photo, of minor importance. Or we were on the cover above the fold on the day marriage was legalized in DC. Plus a wide array of rallies, and speeches and so much more. Through this, I was honing my craft. I was learning to trust my gut. And most of all, I was repeatedly being amazed by the power of stories.
Understanding the Importance of Stories
I learned so many lessons running these campaigns, but none was more important than how powerful stories can be. Stories are like no other medium. They empower, inform, and encourage action. Stories are transformational. Stories capture hearts and minds. A good storyteller can simplify even the most difficult issues and create greater understanding with a story. Stories create powerful connections between seemingly unrelated things, and stories bring people together. Something we need now more than ever.
This is My Story
So this is my Story; it is my authentic and emotional Story about how I learned of the power that stories possess. This is also a happy story for me, it is an awful thing that should never happen to anybody else. But it happened to me for a reason, and it allowed me to uncover my passion, and build a business around something I love. This story is a portion of my overall brand and a part of what makes JRH Graphics different.
When you boil all of what I told you down to its essential elements, it is about transforming hate into love. Hate and love are universal emotions. Everybody knows love in some way, and everybody knows hate. These universal emotions are the secret sauce, they are what allows the Story to connect with an audience.
So, What’s Your Story?
Want to know a secret? The words you use to answer this question don’t matter at first. The first time I ask it I am listening to how you provide the answer, then I am watching your body language, and looking for something that will clue me in to the fact that there is a bit more. And then I push.
Why do I push…
Because each time I ask the question “What’s Your Story,” I am trying to get down to the “why.” When you finally reach the real reason behind why you do what you do, the rest falls into place. Your Story becomes your roadmap for everything you do. It provides clarity and purpose for your business as well as great content for me to post on social media.
An authentic story that connects to your why and engages your target audience makes everything easier. Content creation is more straightforward; engagement is more organic, scaling your business is natural and creating measurable goals that move you towards where you want to be in 5/10/15 years is a piece of cake because all the key factors are aligned.
A T-shirt is More Than Just A T-shirt
I want to give you an example. I had a business I was working with to build a brand that they could use that felt authentic. The problem was I could not get down to the “Why” with them for weeks.
Why is it that you make these T-shirts? I would ask
Because they are nice, aren’t they!
Why not cotton socks?
Because we make nice t-shirts.
After a few weeks of beating my head against the wall, I finally saw a glimpse of something and pushed to eventually discover that the family made the t-shirts because after their father passed away, they could not find one of his favorite ones. They found the fabric of the original shirt and now use it for all of their t-shirts. And instead of their marketing just relying on the fact that they make nice t-shirts a fairly low threshold, we were able to create a niche for them and a new need for consumers.
Because that t-shirt is not what they are selling, they now sell memories. And a simple story overlooked by the business owner made all the difference.
We All Have Powerful Stories, Use Them
I hope this highlights what a well crafted and authentic story can bring to your brand. I also hope that this gives you a bit of insight into my business and, it inspires you to tell your Story. We all have stories they are powerful, don’t be afraid to use them.