Better Storytelling
We can’t help ourselves. We’re humans. And we love sitting by the fire listening to a good story. It’s just the way we’re built. We crave oral stories to learn from. We all take different things, our own things, away from each story we hear or read. Within each story, there is a lesson for us, regardless of where we are on our hero’s journey. There is also a lesson for us in a story, no matter what our education is, and no matter where we’re from. It’s universal.
We humans have a proud tradition of storytelling. Many of us will be able to recall Homer, one of our great storytellers. Believe it or not, writing is kind of still a new invention, and typing and the internet is brand spanking new when we consider the history of mankind. Storytelling is what Homer and countless others have used over thousands and thousands of years to help humanity live a better life.
And if storytelling is what we humans crave. Then storytelling is what us self-published indie authors should be using in our authorpreneurship journey while trying to become that hero. Everyone can learn something from a story. And everyone is sort of a hero on their own hero’s journey.
So let’s give people what they want, a story. And in return, they will reward us by giving us more of what we want, more sales, more success, and financial security. We can do well while doing good.
When we’re creating our products and services and marketing them, we need to think about the campfire storytelling and the hero’s journey that we humans so love. This is imperative to our success.
There have been countless books, blogs, articles, videos, and anything else we can imagine written and recorded about the hero’s journey. All of us authorpreneurs need to invest some time becoming more familiar with the hero’s journey so we can tell our story better to our market.
Think about this, stats don’t mean that much to most people. But, put the same stats in a well-told story, and we will move people to act because now it means something to them.
Here’s another really cool thing all of us authorpreneurs out there should know. A well-crafted story can help us make 10X the money than we would make without it. As I said before, a great story moves people. If we tie that wonderful story to our products and services, people will be moved to buy our products and services.
Storytelling is a case where less is more. If we can say something in three sentences rather than four, then do it. If we can say it with a picture and fewer words, then do that, too. If we can say it with a picture and no words, then do that instead. Done right, the less we say, the more powerful it is being said. By saying less, we’re saying more.
However, this brevity is hard work, though. And it’s very time-consuming.
After all, I think most of us are familiar with the Mark Twain quote, “I apologize for such a long letter – I didn’t have time to write a short one.”
Saying less and writing less is hard. Just like Mark Twain said.
It’s going to take us a long time. But, the investment of our time of saying in it fewer words is well worth it. It’s going to help us become better storytellers. And better storytellers can sell 10X more products and services, right?
And great storytellers are the ones who have changed this world for the better, right? Wasn’t Martin Luther King Jr. a great storyteller? And wasn’t Abraham Lincoln a great storyteller as well? And what about Walt Disney?
Now don’t stress it. We are no Martin Luther King Jr. or Abraham Lincoln, or Walt Disney. But don’t worry, no one else is either. We don’t have to be perfect. We don’t even have to be that good. All we need is an imperfect story about a flawed person trying to make the world a better place through their authorpreneurship business.
People like people with flaws. They don’t want someone perfect. Having imperfections makes us human and more relatable to the average person. And a great way to share that we are just like others is through storytelling.
We’re going to tell them that we are just like them. We’ll share that we used to be right where they are. And we know how hard it is. Over time, in our journey, we made a few adjustments and got to a better place. And now we can tell them our story and how they too can apply our lessons learned to their own hero’s journey.
But none of this will happen if we can’t tell a good story. We need to invest a lot of time studying the structure of a good story. We have to spend enough time learning this craft so that we can apply it to what we do in making this world a better place as an authorpreneur.
We all can learn storytelling. And learn to apply it to our trade. So get out there and begin your hero’s journey of storytelling right now.
Watch the free video lesson on this chapter!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G_fSjDX-IK4&list=PL_-39bUXJitwL8cHUpiZ5mO0-JJuaPOVl&index=69