This is going to be a less tactical blog than some of my past ones.
Finish with a sprint is not just a title…it’s an invitation to change and tell a newer, better story about yourself and your company.
I don’t know about you, but 2024 has been a real humdinger (archaic language for the win!) of a year for me. I have started new brands, closed some old ones, and begun to weave a new story based on old things and deep passions.
I love people. When you get down to the core of my business identity, I believe in the power of people via referral marketing can change lives. I have another weekly newsletter (on referrals) that comes out each Tuesday. This week, I released my methodology, a statement of purpose and capability, if you will, that tells the story of how I look at referrals and, to a great extent, life.
2025 is fast approaching and I want to call you, if you will give me permission and access to your heart and soul, to a new story.
This story is new, but is based upon everything you are and everything you have done. Who and what you are are a foundation for something better.
In many ways, a story is at the heart of most successful business ventures, and I would argue vehemently that it is essential for small business owners.
Leadership is a story.
Sales and Marketing are a story.
It’s all a story.
I am leading most of my clients through an exercise on story and purpose tomorrow here in Roanoke, VA. For so many of them to travel here to work together at my behest is humbling and inspiring, and it is making for a pretty good…you guessed it: story.
These professionals will be asked to begin writing the narrative for 2025 first thing in the morning, and we will then craft action plans around that story. All of them, like every small business owner, are in sales (we all are), and the power of story is even more present and visible in that context.
The business owner is always the head salesperson for the company, for good or bad. They might not be landing all the new accounts at this point in their business, but they are definitely the head storyteller.
The problem is this: often that story is old and dated
You need to refine and expand/contract stories over time. In business (and life), they grow and shrink based on action or inaction. Too often, a powerful story that launched an entrepreneur into business and powered growth, in the beginning, becomes drowned out by the ‘essentials’ of operations and management. That is a tragedy, dying in the dark, that only becomes visible when the story stops working.
Here are my suggestions for you:
1. What was the original story that launched you into your business?
2. Is it still working?
3. What needs to change/improve?
4. Does the new story make your heart sing?
You, the owner, must be emotionally connected to your story and that of your business. Those stories bring clients and employee talent to you. They power the best marketing method known to human-kind: referrals.
At the core, referrals are all about the story.
Is the story worth sharing?
Does it generate more stories that expand and grow the power of the original one?
2025 is all about your story…will you take the time to write it on paper and in your heart? I really hope you do because I know many of us would love to hear it and I encourage you to share it.
All the best,
Mike
