Yesterday I held two storytelling workshops for small business owners in my hometown.
I’m proudest of these kinds of jobs because: 1) I love helping small business owners become clearer about their missions and messages, and 2) because these jobs are a win-win-win-win.
By that I mean that I was hired by the local Chamber of Commerce, who raised the money to pay me with sponsorships from bigger corporations, so we could offer it to the small business owners for free.
I get paid, the chamber doesn’t have to pull from their funds, the bigger corporations get advertising, and the small business owners get a free opportunity to learn how to market their businesses more effectively (and cheaply!). A win-win-win-win.
But by far the best part about it for me — the biggest win — is seeing the people that I serve have what’s known as a “light bulb moment.” At some point, we will be discussing their story and how to market their business, or identify their ideal client/customer, and something will just click.
They might have been struggling for months or even years to figure something out and we will have a breakthrough, right then and there, that brings them a moment of clarity about their work that they’ve never had.
It’s a light bulb moment.
And if I am the facilitator of that moment, it’s absolutely my favorite thing about what I do.
If you’re in the service business, this is what you should be looking for with your clients. It might not necessarily be a “light bulb moment” because you might not be in a business-to-business (B2B) model, helping your client serve their clients better.
But that’s okay.
Because what we’re all trying to do is solve our clients’ problems more effectively.
And even though the light bulb moment happens in the mind, the way to get there is through the heart. You have to touch their hearts first, before you inspire their minds.
One lady who had a light bulb moment yesterday was a hair stylist. She was struggling because she did a very specific type of work (high quality, high design hair) but didn’t want to alienate those customers who just wanted a haircut for an affordable rate.
Her rates weren’t as low because she did customized, very detailed work. So those customers didn’t belong in her salon, they needed to go to a Supercuts, or similar chain, which appealed to their values of quick, consistent hair cuts for a low price.
But because my workshop attendee didn’t know how to market herself well, she didn’t know how to target just her ideal customer and not the Supercuts kind. When we dug into her story, I learned that when she was a young girl, she struggled with feeling confident enough to be her true self (one that wanted vibrant makeup and hair) and didn’t know how to style her hair in order to feel like who she wanted to be.
So she went to cosmetology school to learn how to do it. And along the way, she found that she loved connecting with her customers on a deeper level and find out exactly who they wanted to be and how they wanted to look.
She was solving an identity problem — the same one she struggled with as a child. Yes she was cutting hair, but she was really helping young women be comfortable in their own skin (or “be comfortable in their own hair,” as I told her).
Ask yourself, what is the problem you really solve for people?
If you’re a chef, are you giving people a nice night out with their family? A romantic evening with a loved one? What is the real reason they are at your table?
If you’re a landscaper, are you just helping ease someone’s mind by handling their lawn maintenance for an affordable rate because they don’t have the time to mow it themselves? Or are you making their lawn a beautiful oasis that they can come home to after a long day’s work and relax among flower beds and koi ponds?
What does your customer really need?
Mine need breakthroughs. Light bulb moments.
What do yours need? How can you do your job so well that you solve their problems and leave them feeling better than they did before you came along?
That’s what you’re after as a business owner.
Because that’s what they need.
Rain Bennett is a two-time Emmy-nominated filmmaker, writer, and competitive storyteller with over a decade of experience producing documentary films that focus on health and wellness. His mission is simple: to make the world happier and healthier by sharing stories of change.
You can read the rest of “Right as Rain” here, and check back every Wednesday on Chapelboro for a new column!
Sometimes its just hard winning on explaining how yo can your solution is the best for their business