What you’re about to read is a clear case for turning your personal story to sales during your next launch…and how you can start doing it right now.

Have you heard this story?

Girl starts blog.

After blogging for a few month, girl says she wants to make money and have her own online business.

So, girl writes ecourse. She’s going pro. She’s ready to play bigger.

She spends 3 months creating in her cave. She’s ready to share this puppy with the world.

So she sends out a few tweets – an email to her very small list – hoping, praying, fingers crossed.

Girl “launches” said ecourse – but no one buys, her list doesn’t grow, there are no side effects.

Except – the Girl wonders what went wrong.

Girl resumes blogging. Follows all the same advice.

Regular newsletter.
Guest posting.
Tweets.

6 months later, she tries again with the same response.

What’s missing in this story?

Well, there are 2 things missing and you’ve probably heard about them before – because they are missing from many people’s not so successful launches.

Let’s assume Girl has an amazing product.

So far – we haven’t heard about 2 things related to this amazing product:

She’s missing the why – the deep seeded – real reason she created her amazing product.
She’s missing the who this amazing product will be valuable for.

(And the girl’s audience and followers are also missing out on this too!)

So – those 2 things = no value is shared.

But the heroine of our story is a smarty pants.  She realizes that 1 faulty launch is probably normal, but 2 in a row – there’s got to be a reason.

So far in Girl’s story, we’ve heard nothing about the why she created this product, what led her to put together such a transformative training, what she hopes to teach others in this training…nada.

We’ve only heard that she wants to make money online. Nothing more.

So Girl’s audience is left with no context, no reason for bonding with her, no supporting her – no reason to give a crap or buy her offerings.

This is an exaggerated story but is sadly very common when it comes to people starting out online.

Time to build a foundation – and do it with a simple little piece of gold called the backstory.

Our heroine needs to find a way to turn her story to sales.

The importance of backstory: 2 case studies

I’m going to take you back to 2009 when I first submerged myself into the online business world. At the start of my journey I was looking for teachers…the right teachers.

What’s important about all 3 of these examples is that I started to follow them – I signed on – bought a program, because they told me their story.

Marie Forleo
In early 2010 I subscribed to her list….not sure how – one of those magical moments you can’t quite track the genesis of…

The moment:
Revealing backstory mp3 that she shared during her launch of Virtual Mastery where she told a story about running down the street in NYC to make sure her fiance was okay.  The emotion, the raw-ness of it. That got me in a real, genuine way.

The outcome:
Connected me with her story and showed me what I needed to know during those first moments in this world – that she was real.  Needless to say, I joined the program without any hesitation.

Since then – I’ve been fortunate enough to get to know her well and work with her on the first 2 rounds of B-School and she is one of those people who is so dear to me and I joke about this – but it has happened more than once where I thought about her and she called me on the same day. Spooky but true.

Danielle LaPorte
I became aware of Danielle, followed her, read/consumed/drooled over her blog – all of the normal subscriber routes.  But I never fully connected with her voice until I heard her recount her story in person at Rich,Happy, and Hot Live…

From the moment I heard the timbre of her voice, sharing her personal business journey, I became a lifetime customer – and I will go see her, buy what she has to offer because of the connection she made with me during that “speech”.

The story, the background, getting to know her in the right format – this changed my experience.

And – this is what you need to look for – the moment when people pay attention.

How to know if your story is worthy?

HA! Trick question. Your story is worthy. ‘nough said, okay?
You are worthy, what you have to say is worthy…and it will benefit someone in this world.

Don’t hold back.  Be proud of your geeky, nerdy, dorky swagger.

When I was working as a pilates teacher, I’d often talk to my clients about how I became a teacher. They were curious, so I told them.  What I focused on was this – that I had always been the weakling growing up – the one who conveniently got “sick” during gym class because I never felt like I measured up or had any physical ability.  After discovering Pilates, I had a sudden realization of strength, feeling of grace, and that’s why I knew I owed it to other weakling, clutzes, non-athletes to teach.

Funny thing too – many of my clients came to me thinking they would probably “fail” at Pilates, but I put them at ease and was excited to see people who hadn’t dared to move – finally move. Not only did my story help me find the perfect client – but my story helped me talk to that client too!

Story To Sales Hot Spots

Your About page
This is the easiest, most obvious place to tell people who you are, what you’re about, your mission in life, and how your experience can help others. Check out my ever-evolving one here and also a little post on about pages too.

At the beginning of every video
Doing a quick – hey – here’s who I am and what do is a quick reminder to people about who you are.  When I first watched Brendon Burchard videos, I heard his story about an automobile crash several times… and the way he told it every single time – felt new to me.  I knew the story, but him telling it was important for me.  Now, he doesn’t tell that story so often, but he always puts his past, his story into the videos, so we feel a connection with him on some level.

Author bio box
You’re doing all those expert-status building guest posts. Make sure to write a tight, thoughtful, real bio of yourself.  Do the same with your Twitter Bio and Facebook About description. Check out my author box at LKR or Mogul Mom.

During your launch
This is the place where all your hard work and sharing will hopefully have helped people get to know you a little better.  Share even more of you, your story, how you got to where you are in your pre-launch content and communication to your list.

Storytelling Isn’t about you

A few words of warning and a reminder –

First – you don’t need to be transparent about every single aspect of your life, but share specific stories related to what you are launching.

Second – not every life story in your library is going to be relevant to your business. Pick the right stories that show people turning points or an overall change in your approach which led to success.

Third – always ask yourself if what you’re sharing will somehow help someone – even one person – in your audience.  It’s not about you – it’s about THEM and about the lessons they need to hear (and learn).

Time to write it out

Now that you see some pretty basic reasons why your story is important to share – time to spend some time figuring out what that story is.

It should be simple – it is your story after all.

So – here’s what you should do right now – think about what you teach, what your blog is about, what your mission is, who you want to help… and imagine someone is standing right in front of you who needs your help.

Write it out as if you’re telling that person your story.

To get you started here is an easy story starter – that people love to hear…

When I first started my business, I used to do x… when I switched to y things really took off for me….

Leave a url in the comments below to your about page or best example of sharing your story!

Ready to learn more about launching from the moment you have an idea to when people can click buy? Check out Fearless Launching to see if it’s right for you.