27/02/2020
After finding myself disabled in hospital this time last year I experienced a weird epiphany that something that had always been important to me, keeping my personal challenges to myself, keeping all the details to myself, behind closed doors, was selfish.
To be honest, I still feel this concept mind-boggling, it still feels wrong to me, but since I began sharing my story the way people have responded has proven I was wrong and that I MUST keep doing it.
Even when I don't feel like it.
It's an important lesson all business owners should take seriously. Your story and journey are unique, make you relatable and draw people into your world in ways that talking about your products and services do not.
Craigy B!
One aspect of my hospitalisation in 2019 which I’ve not talked about much so far is a powerful marketing lesson I learned during my incarceration to do with storytelling.
I was trying to involve myself in an online course run by a Company called ClickFunnels, a 6 week challenge which I can honestly say is like a marketing degree on steroids, for the speed at which it takes through your paces.
I had no chance of keeping up with his challenge from my hospital bed. The mobile and internet connectivity in the hospital were poor and much of the course content included pre-recorded videos and live broadcasts which I was unable to view.
But one thing I was able to do was to follow what was going on inside a Facebook Group created for participants.
The Membership numbered in their thousands so I was able to figure out a fair bit of the coursework from posts and discussion inside the Group.
The power of storytelling as part of brand building was covered in some depth.
As part of the lesson, the structure of Hollywood storytelling was broken down in a way that kind of ruins movie watching but which also demonstrated how the same formula can be mapped to storytelling in your business.
It’s powerful stuff.
Part of the rationale behind this is that we are somehow hardwired to listen to stories and that stories are more likely to inspire change than facts alone, but also it’s about making yourself relatable, about helping people find something in common with you.
Just like in the movies, where you get to see the main character’s flaws, the idea is that by sharing your vulnerabilities in story form, as part of your journey, instead of projecting a filtered version of yourself, which is what most people are doing these days, is a key ingredient to helping people relate to you.
That’s how people relate to the central character in the movies and the point is the same principle applies in good marketing.
So anyway I experienced something of an internal battle to persuade myself to go ahead and do this.
Historically I have always been someone that has kept myself to myself. In my mind, my business had always been my business and this was a line of thinking which was deeply entrenched.
The idea of sharing my story with the wider world was somewhere near horrifying as an idea to me. But I understood the lesson, so I persuaded myself to do it.
So I tapped out my current situation hospital on my mobile phone with a view to sharing it with this group of thousands…
And that’s where my composition remained … saved as a draft for hours on my phone.
I was really nervous, more than I was at anything that was happening here in the hospital. I’d already acclimatised to my surroundings.
It seems so daft now - I was seriously ill - but it’s true.
I can’t remember exactly what I wrote now but it would have gone along these sorts of lines:
“Hey everyone, I was really nervous about telling you this but it’s part of the challenge so here goes…
I’m stuck in a hospital, I've been told I have lesions in my brain and spine. My problem is the mobile and internet's so bad here I can’t watch any of the videos. So I'm falling behind with the Challenge, I don’t know what’s happening or why I’m disabled it’s a nightmare…”
And as soon as I’d shared my predicament some remarkable things occurred.
The way people in the Group responded was some combination of moving and mind-blowing to me.
There was a mixture of responses inside the Group and personal messages to my Messenger InBox.
Some of it was words of encouragement, some people offering up prayers.
Then there was this other category of response which amazed me, that some people were taking the time to let me know that my story inspired, helped or encouraged them in some way.
Some expressed admiration for the fact I was attempting to participate in the Challenge at all. This was pretty mind-boggling to me and I didn’t really understand it at first if I’m honest.
So I pondered this phenomenon for a while, then slowly my perspective began to shift.
At first I simply felt awkward that people were telling me I’d inspired them. I didn’t really like it that much. It made me feel a little uncomfortable.
But eventually, as I began to accept these people, or some of them at least, were genuine, I began thinking that by not sharing my journey, that by keeping it all to myself, that this might even be selfish in some way. Because that helps no one!
This had never occurred to me.
So I began expressing my story in greater detail over time and began to find more and more people who resonated with my story began showing up in my life.
And new friendships began to emerge.
Friendships which changed my life and led me on this journey to where I am right now…
On the verge of launching my Corporate Escape Plan podcast.
This is a project I firmly believe can inspire people to create better lives for themselves so we’d love it if you would support our iTunes Chart Challenge to raise awareness for our show.
Give us a shout if you’re up for supporting our launch campaign!
Craigy B!
