We often get focused on selling our product, but don’t forget to sell your story. It’s what makes your brand unique. Here’s mine…
I’m a husband and father of three boys. Our oldest son Michael was diagnosed with cancer when he was two. My outlook was shaped by the experience of his diagnosis.
Priorities changed. It helped me understand that the little things that bothered me before no longer mattered. And it also helped me understand and appreciate what mattered most.
Michael is now 22 and in med school.
I oversaw fantasy games for the National Basketball Association for three seasons. It was as amazing as you might imagine. I’d sit down with a development team and give them an idea for a game. They’d create it. I helped Samuel L. Jackson draft his fantasy team. I went to drafts and All-Star Games and had brushes with celebrities.
While I was there we partnered with Facebook when it had 50 Million users. I fell in love with the platform. This would matter later.
I’d get laid off from two other jobs covering a two-and-a-half-year period, and I started this website.
I didn’t know how to start a business or what I would do with the site. But I just started writing nearly every day (more than 600 posts in two years) and found a niche discussing advanced Facebook advertising.
I’m an accidental marketer who isn’t comfortable selling. Proof of this is that my first real job was as a telemarketer. I was quite possibly the worst telemarketer there has ever been. “You don’t want our service? No problem. Sorry for bothering you.”
Whether my lack of marketing acumen was a benefit or a curse is up for debate. My business exploded quickly, and it still stands 12 years later.
But, it hasn’t always been easy. I failed to evolve. The pandemic helped accelerate a quick decline in my business starting in 2020, and I reached a point where something needed to change.
Despite resisting it for years, I realized that I had no choice and committed myself to short-form video to turn things around in late 2022. That commitment is paying off.
Telling my story was common during the first few years of my business. After a while, I feared that people tired of hearing it. But the story is what makes my brand unique. I can’t just sell a product or service. My story needs to be “sold,” too.
What’s your story?
