Telling your story is the key to making money. Take your customers on a journey that they will buy from you at the end to dramatically grow your business and you do that with the Story Brand framework.
Today, I am excited to have a friend of mine, Eric Upton, who is successfully unemployed and makes his money without having a job.
Like Eric, you can be successfully unemployed.
Marketing and copy writing as a way to make money
Eric started a business and the entire premise is this: there are a lot of business owners out there that waste thousands of dollars on marketing that doesn’t work. They think if they shove more money at it maybe they will get a return on their investment.
The problem is their messaging isn’t clear enough. Eric goes in and helps businesses clarify their message, so when they do marketing, it actually works.
It involves a lot of copy writing, website design, marketing coaching, and training.
The transition from being a Pastor to a full time entrepreneur business owner
Eric was raised by two entrepreneurial parents. He saw the good, bad, and ugly of what it was like to own a business.
He was always told to get the right education, so he could get a good job, so he could provide for a family and live the stereotypical, normal life. That was the route he took.
Eric went to college and he was frustrated by how long it took to get through the classes. He couldn’t go at the pace he wanted.
He got into ministry and was hired as a pastor. He worked as a pastor for 13 years, which is what brought him to Phoenix.
Then, something happened, everything shifted and changed, and the direction he was going in ministry took a huge right turn.
He launched a business. They needed more income to live the life they wanted, because he wasn’t making enough as a pastor.
Eric got involved in helping businesses clarify their message and when they transitioned out of ministry work, his wife asked him why he didn’t just help other business owners.
That was the catalyst to start the business, and he got certified as a StoryBrand Certified Guide.
After he no longer had a job at the church, he had a conversation with Dustin. Eric realized that he had to evaluate what he could bring to the table and what he was good at, what made him feel most alive.
He found that he thrives on helping other people succeed. He also likes to take really complicated things and make them simple, so other people get excited and find success.
Eric loves sitting down with business owners and get them from where they are to where they want to be. It caused him to think of a way to turn this into a business, so he could provide for his family. It has now been about a year.
The step by step process to creating a story that helps your customers to buy from you
Telling your story is the key to making money. Take your customers on a journey that they will buy from you at the end to dramatically grow your business
Know and understand your customer
The first thing a business owner needs to understand is why people listen and what it is they are looking for.
If you are thinking about starting a business, or if you already have one, and you are struggling to get attention or awareness or close the sale, it comes down to messaging.
You probably have a good product, service, and business, but the problem is the messaging.
Everyone is talking about story in marketing right now. The misunderstanding is businesses tell customers about themselves and their history, hoping that somewhere in there is a relational connecting point between them and their buyer. What actually happens is the customer categorize you as something they don’t actually need.
Customers buy because they see or hear words that make them want to buy. We are all in the midst of our own story. That makes you the hero of your story and me the hero of my story. What every hero is not looking for is another hero, they are looking for a guide.
The problem happens when businesses try to play the hero for their customers, instead of the guide. When you position yourself as a hero, your customers look at you and hope you get what you are looking for, but they are busy in their own journey.
When we show up as a guide for our customers, it shifts everything. All of a sudden, we aren’t telling our story, we are entering into the story the customer is telling themselves, and we are showing up as their guide.
Eric leads people through a seven-part framework that helps them clarify their message not based on their story, but their customer’s story. When you talk to your customers, either through marketing or person to person, they listen and respond.
Story Brand Framework In 7 Steps
If you don’t understand who your customers are and who they want to be, you are going to create stuff that doesn’t matter to them.
Step 1: Discover who your client is now and who they want to be in the future.
If someone is in need of lawn care service, they may feel embarrassed by their lawn and overwhelmed. They want to be proud of their lawn. Everything begins with the customer. What is the transformation they want. Take that and talk about what they actually want. Your customers have a desire. There is something they either want to have, experience, or get out of life. In the lawn care example, the customer wants someone to take care of their lawn.
Step 2: Discover what the problem is that is stopping them.
What is preventing them from getting what they want? Understand the three types of problems:
External problem – Internal problem – Philosophical problem
Step 3: Introduce yourself as the guide.
Every guide has two important qualities, which are empathy and authority.
Step 4: Give customers a plan in three to five steps (no more than five, no less than three), break it down, and deliver it to them.
Step 5: Call them to clear and direct action.
If your website has a number of buttons that say “learn more”, you are not calling them to action, you are giving them excuses. This is one of the biggest reasons people are struggling in their business. Tell them clearly with a “Buy now” button. Make it easy and clear for someone to buy. Your customers want to buy, so don’t make it difficult for them. If you don’t give a clear call to action, it looks like you don’t believe in your product or service.
Step 6: Use failure to show people what life looks like without your service or product, but don’t use it too much.
Raise the stakes and show a little bit of failure.
Step 7: Show them a picture of what success looks like.
Going from the problem to solution takes a process. Your job is to show them the path.
If someone wanted to start a business like yours, or be better at messaging, how would they get started?
Take a look at the businesses around you and offer to help. Once you start taking stock of these relationships and help them for free, it shows them you are on their side.
This can spur more conversations that can create income. If they want to sit down with you and do more, that is when you start generating revenue.
Eric has found the importance of mindset and choosing to act in the midst of fear, as opposed to waiting for the fear to go away.
Eric hasn’t woken up once in the last year without the fear of being able to make his business work. These are the realities of owning a business. He is in the beginning stages and he is waking up with questions like, “Am I going to be able to do this?”. He needs to drive forward in spite of his fear.
How are you making the world and people around you better, now that you don’t have a job?
Eric and his wife are on the journey of planting their own church in Phoenix. That is where the majority of their time is going.
He is also understanding what it means to be Dad. Showing up really well for his kids has been the greatest thing.
If you were to go back and give advice to your younger self, what would you say?
Relationships matter most. It is never about what you know, it is about who you know.
Don’t be afraid to sample stuff, just because you are afraid of what others may think of you. All of the failures along the way will help you discover who you are.
What non-fiction book has helped you in your life or your business that you would recommend to others?
- The Road Less Stupid, by Keith Cunningham
- Anything by Patrick Lencioni or Gary Vaynerchuk
What tools do you use in your business or life that make you better or more successful?
Eric uses Slack as a communication channel for clients.
He likes the app called Monday, which is a tracking software process.
Eric is always bouncing around looking for different tools. He tries to elevate the end goal, instead of getting stuck in the process.
How can listeners find you?
Go to ericsupton.com