115 ENCORE: Business Storytelling: Your Mess Is NOT Your Message

Business owners, especially those with small businesses that offer professional services, often get advised to, "Make your mess your message." 

This is awful advice for marketing.

In this packed-tight-with-information episode, I show how sharing your mess can actually harm your business.

You will learn:

1 - Where “Your mess is your message” really comes from (and how TV anchor Robin Roberts used that expression)

2 - How my early message was seriously misunderstood: they read my story as a “mess.” It wasn’t.

3 - How another story was misunderstood: a woman who turned down a scholarship to Juilliard and whose career is just about gone.

4 - The importance of audience reaction to your story: when you put your story out there, they will judge you.

5 - Why the advice to “be vulnerable” can lead to unexpected reactions (and sharing your mess can turn away your ideal clients)

6 - Why anticipating your mess can become a self-fulfilling prophecy

7 - How sharing your mess can lead to an energy drain among your followers (and why I decided NOT to share my cat story)

8 - How sharing your mess can make you seem less likeable 

9 - When it’s time to share your messy life (with a good example from Angela Duckworth)

10 - How a marketing coach (Connie Ragen Green) turned a mess into a triumph (read her book about her cross-country trip)

11 - How to recognize examples of good stories, with examples. 

12 -What lessons I've learned from stories where people absolutely did not connect (and what really works)

References: 

 The Road Trip, by Connie Ragen Green  

My ebook on Amazon - Grow Your Business One Story At A Time.  Free with Kindle Unlimited.

My consultation, the Strategic Intensive, which will help you identify a good story. How to tell a story that sells: a DIY home study course.