Most people never write about themselves in their emails.
Not about themselves.
Not about the people "behind the brand".
This is a huge mistake.
Here’s why…
There’s a story I tell in my business, StoryLearning, and it goes a bit like this:
- I was on a mountain in Argentina
- Couldn’t breathe because of the altitude
- Stayed up all night reading a Spanish book
- The reading taught me lots of Spanish
- I became fluent in Spanish
- I developed a method to teach Spanish using reading
Now, if you’ve ever read this story on my website, you might've just thought it’s a cute, semi-concocted tale that's just there for the sake of it.
But know this:
Whenever I meet people at conferences, journalists, podcast hosts, etc…
Do you know the one thing they always ask me about?
You guessed it, champ —
It’s that story on the mountain!
Otherwise known as my “origin story”.
It would be impossible to say precisely how many customers have come from this story, but I can say -- without a doubt -- that StoryLearning would NOT be what it is today without that story.
On the surface, there’s one reason for this:
People remember the story.
I mean, people literally come up to me and tell me about that story...
All the time...
"I loved your story on the mountain!"
So, if nothing else, it sticks in people’s minds.
But it does so much more than that...
- The events in the story describe a learning mechanism
- This learning mechanism is what my brand uses to teach our students
- My students know the rationale for the mechanism, so they’re more likely to stick to it
Story --> learning mechanism --> product --> result
See how that works?
But there's more...
- The story is aspirational (it involves traveling in South America and learning Spanish)
- There’s some drama (I stopped breathing)
- It describes the “before” state: Sucking at Spanish
- ...and the "after" state: Becoming fluent in Spanish (hooray!)
In other words, this little story that takes 1-2 minutes to tell, contains an entire world.
It shows that I understand the student's situation.
Shows that I’ve been on the journey of transformation and found success.
Not only that — shows that I offer the exact same solution for them to learn a new language.
Anyway…
This is what a great origin story does.
And it's not just for personal brands.
Faceless brands have origin stories too.
Remember the two Steve's putting together the first Apple computer in their garage?
You knew that story, didn't you?
And did you consider the relationship between that story and the "Think Different" slogan?
(AKA the genius branding that persuades Apple customers to part with ungodly amounts of money at the drop of a hat.)
Oh -- but wait!
Most people don’t write about themselves in their emails.
Oops.
Now you see why this is such a missed opportunity?
Anyway...
Start with a well-constructed origin story.
Namaste,
Olly