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You have a valuable asset: your story. Ask yourself: Who are you? Where did you come from? Why are you doing this?
Even if you’re answering these questions only for yourself, your origin story has more power than you imagine. Well told, a founder’s story connects with consumers and keeps them listening.
But how do you connect with your customers on a personal level? Here are 3 secrets.
Secret #1. Your story must be true.
Ebay’s founder Pierre Omidyar wanted to launch a “perfect market.” It was not a good story so Ebay made one up about how he could not find perfume bottles for his wife’s collection and he started Ebay. Somebody ratted that it wasn’t true and there was a backlash. Now Ebay’s origin story is about how Omidyar listed his laser printer for $1 in 1995 on Auction Web (now Ebay). For a week, there were no takers, then bidders began driving the price of the old, battered printer to $14.83, and Omidyar knew he was on to something big!
Don’t make up a story. Why would you when you have so many real stories to choose from? If you need help uncovering them, here’s a hack.
Secret #2. Remember your audience
It’s important to remember your audience; customer, investor, potential collaborator, media, family and friends. You tell the same story but with different emphasis. To your customer your story ends with how your customer benefits. Investors want more grit, how you did not give up. The media likes people-focused stories, while a potential collaborator might be turned off if it’s all just you.
Secret #3. A founder’s story has some or all of these ingredients: 1) I did something out of the ordinary, 2) I changed the world so you don’t have to go through what I went through, 3) aha moment/the first time I thought: “this is a business idea!,” 4) there has to be a better way, and 5) from the time I was a little girl …
Which ingredient you highlight depends on how you want your listener to feel and which story brings it out the most.
Ingredient #1. I did something out of the ordinary, invented underwear and invited strangers to the ladies’ room
Sara Blakely sold fax machines door to door in subtropical Florida. She thought about selling something that will make women feel good and invented Spanx. That underwear which tucks your tummy and tightens your butt, making clothes more flattering. When she got her first meeting with a buyer at Neiman Marcus, she invited the buyer to join her in the ladies’ room. She demonstrated the difference in the way her tight white pants looked – with Spanx, and without. Three weeks later, Spanx was on the shelves in Neiman’s. She then invited buyers for Bloomingdale’s, Saks, and Bergdorf Goodman to the ladies’ room for the same demonstration, and got the same results.
Ingredient #2. Aha moment/the first time you thought: this is a business idea!
Sometimes it comes slowly to you, that this thing you love doing, could be a business.
For Kristen Noel Crawley, she was strolling through Don Quijote, the biggest discount store in Tokyo when – BAM, she saw a wall of lip masks. She became obsessed with the idea of perfect lips. There were no natural lip masks in the US at the time so she created her own. Two years and countless trials later, Crawley introduced KNC Beauty all-natural, collagen-infused lip mask.
Ingredient # 3. I changed the world so you don’t have to go through what I went through
So many business ideas come from someone creating something for themselves that they could not find in the market. Whether it is cake on a popsicle stick or zoom camp for kids during COVID.
Sheila Marcelo was a young mother whose parents moved to live with her to care for their grandchildren, when her father had a heart attack and fell backwards down the stairs while holding her son. (Both recovered.) She was sandwiched and had to figure out childcare and senior care. Marcelo founded Care.com, a platform for care givers for every need, including pet care, because we know kids say they’ll take care of the dog, but it all falls on Mom.
Ingredient #4. There has to be a better way
Everyone who starts a business knows it takes hard work to create and bring an idea into the world, whether it is a product or service. And yes, there are nights you cannot sleep, or you fall asleep like a brick and suddenly wake up, anxious.
And then there are challenges. You overcome because you believe.
Jennifer Justice was raised poor, the daughter of a single mom who didn’t finish high school. She worked hard and became a lawyer negotiating the music industry’s biggest deals. She credited her success to being female with a quiet ego and able to multitask and empathize with musicians from poor backgrounds raised by single moms. When she became a mother of twins, a boy, and a girl, she became outspoken about equality. She founded The Justice Dept, a female-focused legal advisory, helping women entrepreneurs, executives, and talent make more money. “I cannot leave this earth without doing all I can to ensure that my daughter has the same opportunities for success as my son,” she says.
Ingredient #5. From the time I was a little girl…
Mei Park the founder of Tiny Hands got her first taste of buy low, sell high when she was 10 years old. “One day in school, we were allowed to set up a small table to sell whatever we wanted during recess. I brought a zip lock bag of hundreds of tiny semi-precious stone chips that I had gotten from my mom’s favorite jewelry store for less than $10. I knew the other kids would love them and sold five little stones for $2.00.”
Whatever you do for your customer today, chances are you did “it” from the time you were little, if not exactly in the same way. If this is not obvious to you, one way to uncover it, is to go back in time and ask yourself: what do I do for my customers today that I did when I was little?
Tell me your Founder Story, book a 20-minute free session 5 PM CDT, M-F
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