0:01  

Hello elevated entrepreneurs very big welcome to a brand new episode of the Elevated Entrepreneur podcast. If this is your first time checking out the podcast. Thank you so much for taking the time to tune in. And if you haven’t already, head on over to elevatedentrepreneur.co To get access to some amazing content that I’ve created just for you. 

0:22  

aToday’s episode is all about your brand, and the story you tell using your brand. Now, let me ask you a question. When asked about your brand, what is it that you say? I and most other entrepreneurs jump into elevator pitch mode, or we tell our customers how good we are at solving a particular problem for a particular kind of client. And more often than not, we’ve lost the customer already. What if I told you, there was a much better way to talk about your brand, a framework that was discovered almost 70 years ago, but it is highly relevant today. Because it gets your customer hooked. The minute you start speaking, if this sounds interesting to you, grab your headphones, grab a cup of coffee, and if you’re driving, turn up the volume and let’s cue the music. 

1:09  

Hey there, welcome to the Elevated Entrepreneur podcast. This podcast is designed specifically for entrepreneurs and founders to implement winning habits, mindset and systems. So they can elevate their entrepreneurship game and quit the hustle game. My name is Dhiren Bhatia. Let’s get started.

1:33  

Whether you’re working on your website, or you’re working on a company brochure, the question that needs to be answered is not what problem you solve, or how you solve that problem. But instead, how do you form a connection with your customer? How do you get your customer to connect with your brand, we’re the best at x , or you see so many reviews just doesn’t cut it, because that is not a story. And stories are what connects us humans and have been doing so for centuries prior. Yet when we talk to our customers, we never talk in story, which is why today I want to introduce you to a framework that was discovered by Joseph Campbell in the 1940s. And it is called the Hero’s journey. 

2:17  

Now the hero’s journey was brought to life by Joseph Campbell in the late 1940s. In his book, a hero has 1000 faces. And what Joseph proposes in the book is that every great story has a few key elements, from the hero to the guide to the challenge to the great plan. And finally, the eventual resolution. This is true in business as much as it is in the movies. And this is why Park Howell , the founder of The Business of Story says our brain can only go 30 seconds without creating meaning in our environment. And our subconscious seeks out context with curiosity. And what he basically means is that our brains will automatically turn off if we don’t get context in our environment if we don’t get context in a particular story, which is why Joseph Campbell’s elements are amazing at helping us craft a fantastic business brand story. 

3:14  

So what are those elements, the first one is a promise to hook the listener. Now, when I say hook, I want you to think about your favorite movie, or the favorite book that you read recently. All of these mediums, entice you to carry on listening, watching or reading by getting you hooked. The hook is really what entices the customer to keep listening. And a hook could be as simple as once upon a time. And in here, you need to allow your audience to understand the reason why they should continue to listen to your story.

3:48  

The second key element of a great story is your hero. And when I say hero, I’m thinking Luke Skywalker or Katniss Everdeen from Hunger Games. But here’s the catch. When you tell your business story, you are not the hero of your story. And I know this might be massively disappointing, but stay with me. You want your customers to listen to your business story and to do that they need to create meaning in this story. And that requires them to picture themselves in your story. Which is why it’s best to make your customer the hero of your story, because that will allow them to immerse themselves in your brand story.

4:31  

 A really good example of where the customer is the hero of the story. We need to look no further than that massively popular brand Facebook. If you ever open Facebook, you always find yourself immersed in a world of your own making your friends, your timeline your relationships, because you’re the hero of Mark Zuckerberg story of Facebook. The next element that you need to create a great brand story is a problem The biggest reason your customer is coming to talk to you is because they have a problem, they need to get from point A to point B, if they need to buy property, they need to talk to a real estate agent. If they need to buy electronic stuff, they need to get into Best Buy, or they need to step into Apple. And that means they always have a gap, a gap from where they are today to where they want to be tomorrow. And your job in this story is to highlight that problem and show them how you can solve it.

5:29  

The fourth key element in your brand story is the guide. Now when I say guide, I’m thinking about Gandalf from Lord of the Rings, or Dumbledore from Harry Potter or read from Shawshank Redemption. The guide is the wise person who points the way out for the hero. And yes, your experience in your business is very important. However, your heroes need to see that wisdom and expertise for their benefit. Otherwise, you could very easily become the antagonist the evil sorcerer like Darth Vader, or Sauron or Voldemort. 

6:05  

aIt’s important the hero sees that you’re here to help him or her cover the gap that they have in their life. And that means creating and establishing trust, because if they don’t trust you, they’re never going to want you to help them on this journey. 

6:22  

Over the last many few years, marketing has told us that we do business to business or we do business to consumer or direct to consumer. But the absolute truth is that businesses human to human, businesses don’t have emotions. Humans have emotions, which is why it’s very important that when we tell the story of our brand, we are connecting human to human and being the guide is going to allow you to establish that trust and explain why you’re the right person to help your customer, the hero of your brand story. To get forward in life. 

6:54  

The fifth element of your brand story is going to be a guiding strategy. And this is your tool or product or service that you’re selling. Once you’ve gained the hero’s trust, you need to give them a strategy you need to show them your product can help them get away from that gap that they’re currently facing. And that’s the reason why they should be talking to you. What problem are you solving for your customers, as long as you know that and you’re able to articulate that you can build your story at a very primal level, you can show very easily that you’re able to help. 

7:31  

If you think about Elevated Entrepreneur, my job as a business coach is to elevate mindset and habits for entrepreneurs and founders to get away from the bad habits that they follow and move them to good habits, which allows them to be more productive, more efficient, and finally make more money so they can get all the freedom that they desire. In this case, I am not the hero they are. I’m the guide that allows them to use my experience and my knowledge to get them from where they are today to where they want to be tomorrow. And in this case, the Elevated Entrepreneur podcast, the Elevated Entrepreneur YouTube channel are great guide strategies that people can get value from right away.

8:12  

 The next element of your story is an enticing call to action, you need to explain to your hero why they need to come on this adventure with you their guide, as in many movies. The challenge with a story is that sometimes the hero does not know what they want, they probably are not aware that they have a particular problem, which is why you as a guide have to not only provide them with the guiding strategy, but help them to say yes, to get on this adventure with you. And to do this, you need to tell them not only how you’re going to help them with a problem, but you also need to have a clear call to action.

8:47  

A good example of a call to action is landing pages on websites. Whenever you land on a website on a landing page, you’re able to see a very clear call to action. And that’s what you need to bring into your business’s brand story. And finally, the last element of a great business brand story is a successful conclusion. If you put everything that we’ve just talked together, your story now needs to come to a final conclusion. It comes to a successful and a final conclusion, which typically could be a sale or the delivery of a product or a service. And this is not necessarily the time you need to slip back into sales mode. The story should end similar to how it started by focusing on the hero. This moment in your story is where you need to remind them of the benefits and make the process natural. A good example of this is Amazon’s one click Buy feature. If you’ve ever shopped on Amazon, you know how easy they make it for you from searching an item to adding it to your cart and finally paying for it. Super nice and easy. And it’s a successful conclusion in Amazon’s brand story. 

9:57  

So these are the seven key elements that you need to build into your brand story, whether you’re working on your website or your brochure, or you’re giving a presentation, it doesn’t matter. The idea is you need to tell your customer about your brand in a story, and this framework works like a charm every single time. I hope you enjoyed this episode. If there’s a particular comment that you’d like to send my way, head on over to elevatedentrepreneur.fm/speak where you can record a voice note, and I will be happy to feature your comments here on the show.Thank you again, much love, and I’ll see you in the next one. 

10:38  

Thank you so much for staying with me till the very end of the episode, you’ve done it. I’ve got three specific asks for you only if you think that this podcast is worthy of your support. And if you’ve enjoyed the content, my first request is for you to hit the subscribe button. Actually smash that subscribe button so that you can get notified when new episodes come your way. Or if you haven’t already, head on over to elevatedentrepreneur.fm And subscribe to the podcast on the website so that new episodes are emailed to you right away. My second request is for you to help me spread the word with your friends and families and business owners that would enjoy this podcast and help elevate them to you can do that either by leaving a review on your Apple device or just telling your friends how cool this podcast is. And finally, if there’s a question that you’ve been dying to ask me, or this pieces of feedback that you’d like to give me, head on over to elevated entrepreneur.fm/speak where you will be able to record a voice message that I can listen to, and also maybe feature here on the podcast together with my answer. I’d love to hear from you. Thank you much love and I’ll see you in the next one.