[00:00:00] Hey, hey. Welcome back to The Selling Your Expertise podcast, the show that helps women confidently sell their skills without feeling awkward, pushy, or like they need a giant audience because you don't. I'm your host, Renee Hribar, and today's episode is all about. Your stories, specifically how your story, yes, your real life stories.

Those are the secret weapon you'll probably want to share more about. And most likely, if you're like most of the amazing, smart, brilliant women that I get to hang out with on a regular basis, you're probably. Hiding it, especially when it comes to attracting new clients. I cannot tell you how many times if I had a nickel for every time I heard from someone I'm working with, but why would that matter?

I'd have a lot of nickels. So let's set The focus this [00:01:00] week is about sharing stories that sell, and no, you don't need a Kardashian worthy life story to do it. Oh, please, I hope you don't have one, but let me tell you about this one client and for this story. Of course, as you know, I never call my clients my name, so for this story, we'll call her Emily.

Emily is a web designer with a master's degree in graphic art from Rutgers University and a decade of experience. But when it comes to showing up online, her posts are beautifully branded, but they never included a question or shared any personal anything. She was coming out there onto the socials.

With basically her cv, right? She's like, here I am, here are, here are my qualifications. Here's what you know, here's what I do. So it was all, what, what, what? Fact, fact. Fact. And I shared an analogy with her about how there was an MP three player, in [00:02:00] fact, many MP three players before there was this thing called the iPod.

And what helped the iPod become, well, the iPod was. A thousand songs in your pocket. It was more than just the facts around the thing. It was about a story, a thing that someone else could live into, an idea that someone else could live into, that someone else could relate to, that anyone else could relate to.

And so when it comes to showing up online for you, what does that look like? I really want you to think about that. I'm planting that seed today. So she was definitely sharing value and obviously that is always a good thing. She was sharing lots of facts, but nothing about her. Personally, so when I first brought this up to her, even with my, I thought very good analogy, she froze.

Like the look on her face was not one that anybody wants to see. She. Kept asking, do people really [00:03:00] care about my story? I'm a web designer and I'm a really good web designer. I mean, people who get their websites designed by me, they tell their friends, they bring me more clients. I love getting referrals.

They don't care about who I am or why I am doing this. And I said, yes. Yes, they do. And you know what? Finally got people booking consults with Emily and booking those discovery calls. It wasn't her credentials, it wasn't her service menu, it was her story because at at this certain point when Emily and I started working together, she had come to the pipeline of referrals drying up and.

I hate to say, well, I told you so, but I told you so. I get this all the time too. My clients, they'll take some of my advice begrudgingly sometimes, and then they'll do it and they'll come back to me, oh, Renee, it worked. I'm like, [00:04:00] why are you so surprised? So anyways, back to Emily's story. The moment that she shared the Tale of navigating a messy divorce in her thirties with a 4-year-old daughter that was nonverbal, everything changed now.

She was so scared to share any of that. she could not wrap her head around why anyone would care. I mean, and honestly, it wasn't as if she poured her heart out about everything. She wasn't sharing the printed pages of her journal or anything. She just started to include, in addition to what she was already doing, the reason why she chose to leave her corporate career and hang up her own shingle as a web designer, because the reality was when she got.

Divorced and she lived away from family and her daughter needing her full time. She needed to have a flexible schedule. She needed to take her daughter to doctor's appointments, and she [00:05:00] needed to get support for her daughter that she needed. And guess when those doctors are available, not nights and weekends.

Right. They're available at 10:00 AM on a Tuesday and 1 45 on Thursday, so her need for that flexibility was why she started her business, and it also helped her share why she's so passionate about the details and looking at things from different angles and exploring different versions of what we see in one way.

What else could it look like? She's really good at imagining different scenarios, which makes her a phenomenal freaking web designer. So the story though, made her relatable. It helped her build trust with the people that were reading and listening to her online. And it also humanized her because her.

Honestly, her resume is like stellar, so stellar. Her testimonials, her recommendations, so stellar. It almost made her unapproachable because she was [00:06:00] so good. And so, I mean, the reality is people want to see themselves in you a little bit, and especially in your story. It's always amazing to me how everybody I work with seems to have some kind of connection to New York.

Even though I haven't lived in New York for about a decade and a half, I still, obviously I'm a New Yorker at heart. Born, bred, raised, and. There's, there's this, there's something about that, and it's because I share it and people aren't, you know, aren't afraid of it. But the reality is, is that it's could be something as little as geography, like I just said, they want to get to know you.

You want to get to know them. And if you want to hear mine, my full one, go back and listen to episode one. I lay it all out. So here is your focus for this week. Create one story. Whether it's a written version or an audio version or a video version about a real life moment that connects back to the work you do.

I mean, it can be why you started your business like Emily shared. [00:07:00] It could be a tough decision you had to make at some point. It could be a before and after moment for a client. , It could be any of the things that are coming up, so you, I'm sure you're already thinking of things as I'm sharing them, but just start by painting the scene and showing the transformation.

You do not need to be perfect. Just be real and it doesn't need to be. Perfectly written. If you don't consider yourself a writer or a videographer, I mean, it, it literally, my first video was with Christmas lights. There were Christmas lights. It wasn't Christmas by the way. It was just the Christmas lights, because that's what somebody told me was best, the best lighting.

You know, you have to have a chapter one here, so, uh, I can just tell you that it's okay to start where you're at. Let yourself be where you're at and just be real. That will come through. So your action step is pick one story for this week and write it down. Document it, right. Either get it on written or audio or video, [00:08:00] outline it, and that's it.

Don't worry about publishing it yet, just write it out like you were telling a friend over coffee and hey, you've got that story written down. You know, get on my email list and I want you to maybe share it with me. That would be super fun. I would love to see what you've come up with, even if it's not ready for publication yet.

So the reality is this, when you're on my email list, you have a direct connection. That's how we can stay connected outside of this podcast. Take my free sales mini course. Lots of people take it multiple times and start to shift the entire selling dynamic. You are not out there begging for scraps. You are good at what you do and it's time to get paid accordingly.

And of course, the best part about being on my email list that everybody says is they love that they can hit reply to any email I ever send them and ask me anything. Can't wait to see you on Friday. Keep your story close and your confidence high. You've got this, my friend. Let's see you Friday.