How to tell your story and SELL

I know people who get 200+ likes on their LinkedIn content or 50k+ views on their YouTube videos, and somehow get almost zero business from that engagement.

It sucks because getting that kind of engagement is HARD— but if it doesn’t turn into money, then what’s the point?

(when they come to foreclose on your house, just tell the bank “Wait, you don’t understand… my engagement is AMAZING for an account my size!”)

Why is their engagement so good, but their sales are so 💩? What’s missing?

→ A story.

I could go on forever about narrative bias and how it fulfills the human psychological need to feel safe by reducing uncertainty and blah blah blah… but for the sake of this newsletter, let’s just talk about how storytelling applies to selling sht with content.

(and btw this works on YouTube, LinkedIn, or anywhere else)

Here it is:

Your narrative is a simple, 3 part story. And if you convince your audience that all 3 parts of that story are true, then they’re ready to convert (ie, give you money for your sht)

→ DIFFERENTIATED POV

This comes first: the unique way you see your niche, which attracts people who vibe with you and repels people who don’t.

Don’t be deliberately controversial, but do say something DIFFERENT.

It’s an undeniable truth, and once they’re presented with it they can never un-see it. It’s usually something they already knew was true, but just didn’t really want to admit.

They’ll see it and think to themselves, “Damn… he’s right.” And that’s when you’ve converted them from a casual follower to someone that looks to you for leadership.

Here’s an example of how I use this in my content:

It doesn’t always have to be that obvious, but there’s also nothing wrong with just saying it like that.

And once they’re on board with your POV, that opens the door to the next part of your narrative:

→ MINDSET SHIFT

“And therefore, you must understand that:”

This is the new belief they need in order to succeed, usually replacing another belief that’s holding them back.

→ Mine: Building a personal brand is the key to making yourself visible

Note that this mindset shift has to come first, because skills and tools are useless without the right mindset.

For example, you could give someone a calculator, but if they think math is lie made up by round Earthers then the calculator will be useless to them.

(I can’t confirm that math is a Round Earth conspiracy theory… but it probably is)

And here’s how I use this in my content:

This post pushes back on the idea that it’s too late to build an audience, because YouTube and LinkedIn are too saturated— they have to believe they can be successful on those platforms before they’ll work with me.

This is the toughest part, but if you can get them to make the mindset shift then you’re probably 80% of the way there. They’re bought into your framing of the problem, so they’ll naturally be open to your solution.

Once they’ve made the mindset shift, they’re read for the next step:

→ CAPABILITY SHIFT

The specific thing (process, tool, etc) that achieves their goal. If mindset is the “why” this is the “how”

And there’s some nuance here:

This is a little different than your offer— the capability is a little more broad. Your offer is HOW they’ll gain the capability.

For example if your offer is spreadsheet software, the capability could be “tracking all your income and expenses.”

For me, it’s “LinkedIn and YouTube are the best ways to build a personal brand.”

And to convince them that’s true, my content shows the potential of those platforms:

This step is usually the easiest, because the first two steps naturally set it up.

And once you’ve convinced them they need this capability, the next step is clear:

→ OFFER

Your offer is simply the obvious solution to everything you laid our in your narrative. It’s not a question of IF they need your offer— the question is whether their timing and budget allow for it.

For me, it’s 1:1 coaching for YouTube and LinkedIn. It’s the obvious followup to the first three parts of my narrative, right?

One little detail here: I always like to tell people they could do it on their own, it’s just faster and easier if you work with me. First of all, it’s the truth.

And besides that, I would never want someone to feel like they got tricked into working with me, and if that means I have a few less clients, I’m fine with that.

Don’t tell people ONLY YOU have the Top Secret Magic Beans that can solve their problem. It’s better to keep it real and play the long game.

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Once you get this figured out, everything gets a LOT easier. People come to you already bought into your ideas, they convert much more often, they don’t fight you on process when you’re working together, etc.

This is taken directly from my coaching program— if you want the whole PDF (18 pages with a bunch of examples etc), just reply to this email and I’ll send it to you because you were cool enough to subscribe 😘

PS - Here’s the part where I try to sell you something. If you want to talk about how you can use LinkedIn or YouTube to grow your business, reply to this email or just set up a call here!