Nov 2018 – Tell My Story

Nov 30, 2018Dec 17, 2018

Your 2019…what do YOU want? And your ‘Build, Nurture, Sell’ strategy to get there!

So! Your 2019. What do you want?

Not just for your business…but from your life?

What needs to happen, to get us to where we want to be? Is that aligned with your business right now?

Now – I don’t profess to be a business coach. BUT there is a strategy that we use, for us & all of our clients, to help us get to where we want to be.

It’s about getting clear on EXACTLY what you want – and then making sure you’re taking enough of the RIGHT action, to get there. Small, consistent steps, every day. And it’s a really powerful thing.

So I just thought I’d share it with you, in this week’s blog.

Here’s the full LIVE session from over in our Facebook group, The Copywriting Project.

And if it’s helpful, do come over & join us for more like this every week.

Enjoy!

Nov 23, 2018Dec 17, 2018

Why sometimes, it really IS ok to quit!

I’m SO fed up with all the ‘never give up’ crap all over social media at the moment.

It feeds this myth that if you stop doing something, you’re a loser. A quitter. There’s something wrong with you. You’re not good enough. You’ve failed. You’re not one of us.

You should be ashamed of yourself for quitting.

You just need to ‘hustle’ harder.

It’s utter bull. Seriously. But more than that, I think it’s properly damaging.

Because you know what? Sometimes, it’s OK to quit.

In fact, if what you are doing is NOT working – sometimes, it’s not just ok to quit, but it’s downright stupid to keep on doing it.

There is ALWAYS a cost to carrying on doing what you’re doing.

Let’s say you have a plan. You’re working towards your goals, you’re crystal clear on what you want – what you want your life to look like, and what your business needs to do for that to happen – and you’re taking consistent action to get there.

You have a set back. Maybe some funding doesn’t come off, you lose a client or you’re just having a tough few weeks. You’ve lost your mojo & you’re pretty fed up.

We all go through it.

In this case, it doesn’t make much sense to give up. It’s a temporary set-back in a bigger picture. You can (and will) get past it – BECAUSE you have a clear, viable plan to success that you’re working towards.

But…

If you haven’t got a plan;
If you know deep-down that your business model (or some part of it) isn’t viable;
If you’ve been battling on for months – or even years – and not getting results (like being able to pull out the money you need);
If you’ve fallen into what you’re doing (whether your overall business or some part of it);
If the way you do things has just happened, rather than been properly planned & designed;
If what you’re doing is negatively impacting your health; your wellbeing & your family…

…then sometimes, it really IS ok to stop.

It’s ok to admit that it’s not working & quit doing it.

Because the cost to keep doing the stuff that’s NOT working, is that you can’t then go off & do something that WILL work. And that can be a huge price to pay.

Honestly? I learnt this the hard way. For 7 years, we worked punishing 100-hour weeks, growing a business with zero margin.

Ok – not zero. But less than 10% gross (!) on our core lines, that made up 90% of our turnover.

So we kept fighting for sales, growing the business, growing the turnover.

It was unbelivably stressful. And there was never any more money left at the end of it.

I went out, got myself into Mastermind groups & educated myself relentlessly. I was convinced there WAS a way to make this work.

Sure, we made progress. Got more sales & grew the turnover. Consolidated our buying; upped our prices; squeezed another few % points of margin. Grew our team & strengthened our culture.

We ‘hustled’ harder than ever.

And it took it’s toll.

When every day is a battle – when you’re not where you want to be & not making the money you need – it sucks the life right out of you.

We had goals for that business. But looking back, they were complete & utter fiction. I was dreaming. We had no viable plan of HOW we were going to get there.

The crashing realisation came one weekend, when we got clear on what we want from our LIVES. What we want to do; the places we want to go; where & how we want to live.

And it became clear that, even if we grew the business to £10million, it would STILL not serve us with what we wanted from our lives.

I know that finding the courage to stop doing something can be really, really hard.

Whether it’s a business overall; a particular product or service that’s not performing; even a marketing strategy you’ve put SO much into.

It’s often easier to keep on going. The harder thing to do is admit it’s not working & quit (100% the case for us).

BUT I truly, truly believe your business should serve you. Not the other way around.

So if there’s parts of it that aren’t working, it’s ok to stop. We don’t have to buy into this social media ‘never give up, fight to the death’ mentality. It’s such utter rubbish.

Just because they’re your dreams, doesn’t mean anyone wants to buy them or that you have a financially viable business. There’s other ways to serve your dreams, if the way you’re doing it now isn’t working.

For us? We could’ve just carried on for another 7 years. Social media would’ve provided a truckload of affirmations & cheerleading. #NeverGiveUp #YouCanDoIt #HustleMonday etc etc etc.

But we’d pay one hell of price. Because we’d NEVER have gone on & built something better.

Now, we have a business that truly fulfils us. That adds huge value for our clients & WAY more people than our old business could ever have served. That generates sustainable, predicatable profit (in a way 10% gross margin could never have done). That gives us the freedom to travel & work from anywhere. I love it.

We had to stop doing was wasn’t working first. So if something’s not working for you, it’s truly ok to let it go, in order to do something better. Something that will serve YOU and the world around you, to live the life YOU want.

So hey! A bit different from me this week – but it there it is.

And if you want to join a proud quitter, come on over to our Facebook group, The Copywriting Project. Would love for you to join us!

Until next time

Nov 11, 2018Dec 17, 2018

The 9 REAL reasons people buy from you (they’re not what you might think…)

A quick question…

Why do people REALLY buy from you?

It’s a question that’s been top of mind a lot for me lately! Because it really IS the key to writing powerful copy, to drive the action you need in your business.

The reasons people tell you they buy (or the reasons you might think) are never the real reasons.

And it truly matters. Because if you can tap into these deeper motivating desires in your writing, your copy gets SO much more powerful – to connect with your audience, create desire & get people to do what you want them to do (like buying from you).

Watch the full video now (with subtitles), from over on our Tell My Story Facebook page!

I know I bang on about this a lot – but it all starts with knowing your ‘who’.

Who are you talking to? And I mean really knowing them. What are their hopes, their dreams & their fears? What do they want? What’s keeping them awake at night? What problems are you solving for them?

Because once you’re clear on this, THEN you can start tapping into those deeper desires.

It’s not about writing copy for a ‘target market’ – but getting clear on the living, breathing human being you’re trying to connect with. So you can choose words to speak directly to that person & resonate with their core desires, in the most powerful way.

So what ARE the real reasons people buy? Here’s the 9 most common motivating desires:

They want to impress people & be more popular (what other people think of us matters hugely – even if most people would never admit that this is a core desire!).
They want life to be easier.
They want more income (and wealth is a BIG one – as it buys everything else we’re talking about).
They want more meaningful relationships.
They want to feel more attractive & desirable.
They want to be more healthy.
They want more time, to do the things they WANT to do.
They want to feel more secure & set up for life (there’s a reason so many people play the lottery every week, despite the ridiculously long odds of ever winning).
They want to feel like they’re making progress towards their goals. Because they imagine how they’ll feel when they’ve got the money or lost the weight.

And when you know your audience inside out, you start to understand which two or three of these real desires is driving their buying decision – so you can start tapping into them in your copy.

(Actually, it might even be four – but your product or service definitely won’t tap into them all. Pick the most relevant ones for you but don’t try to cram them all in!).

Let’s take an example. Let’s say you sell trainers.

Someone might say they want to buy a new pair of trainers, because they want to start running again.

And it’s perfectly true.

But that’s NOT the real reason.

Looking at the list above, we find reasons 6, 5, 9 & maybe 1 come into play:

6) They’re buying the trainers because they want to get healthy. They want to be fit, well & strong. They want to live a long & healthy life. People are afraid of dying.
5) They want to feel more attractive & lose their wobbly thighs or those few extra pounds they’ve put on.
9) They want to make progress towards their goals. They can imagine how they’ll feel when can get back into those old jeans again.
1) And maybe, they’ll spend top-whack on the very latest trainers, because they want to impress people. It makes them feel good to have that designer label on their feet.

Of course, the techinical information – the durable foam midsole & waffle pattern outsole for durable traction – are important details.

BUT when you tap into the emotional element in your copy too, and paint a picture of how their life will look when they have your product, it has the power to create a FAR deeper desire that mere technical details could ever achieve.

Or another example – the Dyson Supersonic Hairdryer.

I REALLY want one (will treat myself when I hit my 90-Day Goal targets!). But I don’t need one.

I’ve got a perfectly good hairdryer, it cost 15 quid & dries my hair just fine.

So why would anyone spend 20 times that, on a new Dyson Supersonic?

Well – reason 2, mainly. I want my life to easier. I hate drying my hair. It’s boring. It’s uncomfortable, blasting your head with hot air for 20 minutes. And my heavy old hairdryer makes my arm ache.

I want to save time. Who wants to spend their life drying their hair?

Reason 5 is also a BIG one here. I want to feel more attractive. I want glossy, shiny, healthy-looking hair.

And of course, reason 1. I want other people to be impressed by my hair (even though I don’t feel good admitting that little bit of vanity!).

Dyson get this. If you look at their marketing, they don’t just talk about the V9 motor or the 26 degree cool shot (although the technical details are important).

BUT they talk about how you will feel when you use their product on your hair. They show you that they understand your frustrations; how their product addresses these problems; and the before-and-after transformation of how your life will look, once you buy their solution.

It’s remarkably powerful stuff. The desire it creates is incredible (as their sales of a stupidly-priced £299 hairdryer proves).

And this is level of emotion that we want to be getting to, in all of our copy.

You can start to use your words to conjure up images & vivid pictures, that help your reader to understand how they will feel (and how their life will look) as a result of buying your product or service.

It creates desire. And when you use your words to get people WANTING what you sell, that’s when your copy gets really powerful. Because then they take the action you want & buy from you. .

Which as business owners, is what we really want, after all (reasons 1, 3 + 9)!

(For more like this, do come join us over in our Facebook group, The Copywriting Project. It’s completely free, with weekly Live sessions – and is turning into a lovely community of like-minded business owners!).

Until next time

Nov 1, 2018Nov 7, 2018

Your 90-Day Goals…a powerful way to make stuff happen!

I love 90-Day Goals. Taking your bigger-picture plans and breaking them down into 90-day chunks is a really powerful way to make stuff happen.

It’s long enough to make real progress (30 days is just too short) – but not so long that your goals start to wander or you start to lose focus.

And then you know exactly what you need to do to make it happen – today; tomorrow; this week and next week. Every single day, for the next 90 days.

For me, having that clarity is brilliant. You never end up staring at your screen, knowing you should be doing something to drive your business forwards, but not quite knowing exactly what that something should be (and ending up doing nothing at all).

Here’s the full Facebook Live session on “Your 90-Day Goals” – from over in our FB group, The Copywriting Project! If you want to skip the pre-amble, start from 30 secs in 😉

And this works for ANY goals you might have – not just for your business, but for personal stuff too (big and small):

Making more money (to do your kitchen / change your car / move house – whatever you want!)
Getting more free time
Finding more customers
Writing a book
Hiring more staff
Launching a new product or service
Building a new website
Rebranding your business
Booking your dream holiday
Loosing weight or getting fit…

…it’s literally endless.

So I thought it might be helpful to share a few examples with you, of how it all works!

One of my goals for 2019 is 8 x big speaking gigs. We’re very clear here at Tell My Story who we love to serve and the difference we make for our clients. I’ve been speaking on stage more and more recently, and we’ve learnt that it’s a great way to reach your target audience, add real value for people and bring your dream clients your way.

But 8 x bookings feels quite a lot (especially when in my head, I really want more than that!). They’re definitely not going to happen by chance.

This is where the power of 90-Day Goals comes in.

What do I need to do – today, tomorrow and over the next 3 months – to get 8 x speaking slots booked for next year? Well:

Go to more networking events (to build relationships & help people understand the value we could bring for their audience)
Reach out to people I know who organise events and tell them I’m available!
Update my speaker bio – ready to send at short notice
Create a new A4 PDF, to send to conference organisers – this is who we are; this is our message; this is how we can serve your audience
Make a spreadsheet of all the events I’d love to speak at; when they take place; and set a reminder to contact them at the appropriate point in the year
Add it to my LinkedIn profile
Work on / plan / write / update my talks!

Which admittedly, is quite a lot of action. BUT at least I’m now clear on what needs to happen. The tiny actions, every single day, to start making progress. Even just 10 minutes a day adds up.

And my first London speaking gig for 2019 is now confirmed for January (yay!).

Which would never have happened without my 90-Day Goals…

Another example – that book you’d love to write. Quite a big goal, no?

But when you chunk in down into 90 days, it becomes way more managable to make it happen.

It takes you 90 minutes / 2 hours to write 1,000 words (it does for my book, anyway!).
The book needs to be 50,000 words long.
So now you know how much time you need to block out every day or every week, over the next 90 days, to get it written.
And if that’s not realistic – because you simply don’t have that much time – your target becomes 30,000 words in 90 days. And you get it finished in your next goal block.

One final example, which lots of us will have in common – you have a new product or service to launch.

We have a new service here at TMS that we’ll be launching in January (can’t wait to share it with you!).

And you need a bigger audience of people who know, like and trust you – so they’ll be ready to buy when you launch.

So your 90-Day Goal becomes getting 1,000 more people on your Facebook page or in your Facebook group, or 500 new people onto your email list. And to add value and nurture those people.

Which then becomes very easy to break down into the action you need to take over the next 90 days. The tiny steps, day-by-day, to make it happen. Like:

You need a new sales funnel to bring 500 new people onto your email list.
So today, you need to starting creating a new lead magnet – “5 Ways to come up with Great Blog Ideas”. You finish that bit by bit, over the next 4 days.
Then you create your Mailchimp landing page, for people to download it from – another 4 days.
Then you set up a new Facebook ad to drive traffic to your new landing page – another 4 days.
Then as people download your lead magnet and come onto your email list, you need to start nuturing them.
So you create new emails; videos; blog posts and articles. Bit by bit, day by day, an hour at a time.
All to get more and more people engaged – so when you do launch your new product or service, they’re ready and hungry to buy from you.

And you really CAN make them teeny, tiny steps. You have a business to run – so it’s about finding that 30 mins or hour, every day, to keep taking small actions and progressing towards your goals.

But it really, really stacks up! Because at the end of your 90 days, you’ve then got those extra people in your audience and you can make the sales you need.

There’s no overwhelm, because you know what you need to do right now. You’ve got a plan. You’re never sitting there, hoping your launch will come off, but not taking the action needed to make it truly successful. You can make the most of every minute of your time.

It’s powerful stuff.

And the best bit? Your reward! You’ve gotta treat yourself to a little reward at the end of each 90 days, when you hit your goals. (I really want a Dyson Supersonic Hairdryer. Not that I’ve fallen for their marketing much 😉 So that will be my reward, at the end of this 90 day period: shampoo-advert-worthy hair. A noble goal, I think you’ll agree).

Anyway! I’ve gone on long enough. But seriously – 90-Day Goals can change your business and your life. They have mine. Let me know if you try it – would love to hear how you on!

(For more like this, join us over in your free Facebook Group , The Copywriting Project. We’re sharing everything we’ve learnt about copywriting – so you get practical tools, tips, inspiration and support to use in everything YOU write!)

Until next time