Today I am talking to motivational speaker, transformational coach and story expert Jessica Rasdall. All this week in The Balanced Entrepreneur Facebook Group, we are talking about Webinars, and how to leverage them to make automated sales and get a ton of phone calls on your calendar without lifting a finger. Jessica is an expert at unlocking the power of your story, which is a critical piece of any webinar, virtual event or live event. You have to have that story.

Time Stamped Show Notes

• 0:00 – Introduction
• 1:00 – Jessica is a motivational speaker and transformational coach who has shared her story of turning her mess into a message for nearly 10 years. When Jessica was in college, she made a life-altering decision that resulted in the death of her best friend. Jessica spoke to over 15,000 young adults across the country before she was sentenced to prison, and today she helps entrepreneurs craft their signature stories.
• 1:50 – Jessica’s clients are transforming what were once considered liabilities into some of their greatest business assets.
• 4:00 – Jessica has three tips for leveraging storytelling in your business.
• 4:15 – Tip #1: Leverage your story to turn people into brand advocates. When you are thinking about your story and your business, and making that connection, you have to understand the power of that. If you take the time to stand behind your message, people start to trust you. Don’t give them everything about your story, because that will make them more interested once they trust you.
• 7:00 – When you craft your story, you basically tell people:
  • Who you are
  • What you do
  • Who you do it for
  • Why in the world you do it
  • And what’s happening because of that
• 8:25 – “The part I think that we tend to leave out in our story, that is just as important as where you’ve been … is, ‘Where are you going?’ ” If you can cast a vision and craft that out for other people, they will want to stand with you. You don’t want your audience to be waiting.
• 10:10 – “When they can feel like they’re on this journey with you, they’re going to go to bat for you. They’re all in. That’s the difference between having a follower and having a brand advocate.”
• 11:10 – Tip #2: Own your own story. If you don’t tell your story, someone else is going to tell it for you. “Once you put it out there the way you want to put it out there, people will continue to spread it.”
• 12:45 – How do you handle the emotion behind your story so that you can own it?
  • Focus on the audience you are there to serve, and how you plan to serve them. Realize that if you cry through the whole presentation, your message will not come through.
  • When you are crafting your story, try to separate emotion from facts. Look at what happened and establish the facts of the situation. Once you begin to just look at the pieces of it like a puzzle, it becomes a lot easier to crack. “My client needs something specific from me. So I’m going to do whatever I have to do to take those puzzles pieces and arrange them in a way that’s going to serve them the best.”
• 18:40 – “My biggest tip I can give you when you’re telling your story is to make it visual.” What are they focusing on? If it’s not the message, you need to change something.
• 20:15 - Tip #3: The power of crafting your story. When you take the time to craft out your story, it gives you the power to rewrite it. “If I was going to share my story, I wanted it to be from a place of power, not from pain.”
• 23:05 – “You can take your story and share it in so many outlets, as long as you are creating a message in there.”
• 23:35 – Something small that we often leave out is why we do what we do. When we are giving an elevator pitch, we tell people what we do, but we also need to tell them why. Make them understand you are being authentic, and they will be more likely to reciprocate.
• 26:25 – Jessica has a gift: a worksheet that will help you craft out your own story.

Resources Mentioned:

• Jessica Rasdall: Website
• Grab your Business Story Worksheet