Paul, today you are a multi-millionaire property developer and mentor. But where were you when you met Andy Harrington and came across the Public Speakers University? It was 2013, and I was looking for inspiration. I was running a cleaning business. That sounds great right. Actually, I was the main cleaner – so mostly I just had a £6 an hour job with a terrible boss! I mean, who else is going to make you work longer hours, for less pay and no thanks? I had previously run a successful recruitment company. A few years before, at 29 years old, I had been living my childhood dream to be a successful businessman and make my family proud. But the recession had seen us off, we’d had to close the company, and that had really battered my self-confidence. I knew there was something better out there for me, (nothing against being a cleaner – it’s a hard job but it wasn’t inspiring me). So I was going to all the multi speaker, personal development events I could get to. I was looking for ‘The One’. The ONE thing for me, the ONE thing that actually IS the best thing in the world (which is what everyone tells you their ‘thing’ is). There were opportunities everywhere – I could trade Forex, I could get into property (quite liked the sound of that one), I buy into gold and silver, perhaps write a book, do something to do with online businesses – run an Amazon shop. All of them were great ideas. But which one should I pick? Have you heard the expression – ‘When the student is ready, the teacher appears’? Well, the next speaker on stage, talking about the art of speaking and the Public Speakers University was Andy Harrington. Suddenly it all made sense! The one thing that united all the speakers I had been listening to, talking about all their various money-making ideas – was their ability to speak!! Whatever business I was going to develop – the best way to get traction for it would be to develop MY ability to speak and sell from stage. So, what happened when you attended the Public Speakers University? It was November 2013 when I attended the University. I soon realised that the event wasn’t just about learning how to speak, it was ALSO about how to differentiate yourself from the crowd. In order to speak – you need something to speak about, right? And that can’t just be the same as every other accountant/life coach/fitness trainer/forex trader/cleaner or whatever else your line of business happens to be. I understood that I needed something unique – a unique system for my business – in order to get people excited and to make me stand out from the crowd. And so, I decided I was going to develop my special system around teaching people how to run a successful cleaning business. Andy was listening to me present my idea in a pod (a small group, led by one of his ACE coaches). He stepped in and said, “No Paul. That’s not it. What else do you know about? What else are you interested in?”. “Well Andy, I like the idea of property and I rent out pretty much every room in my house, so I know you can make money from it. But I don’t know that much about it. And who would listen to me? I mean – I’m just a cleaner!”. And then he said the words that would change my understanding, and therefore my life, forever. He said, “Paul in order to help someone else, you only need to be one step ahead of them. Think about what you like about property, what other people are doing and what you DON’T like about that.” I told him I didn’t like that everything about property seemed boring – all the education was – well, just dull! “So, make it exciting then”, he said. And with that he wandered off to help someone in another pod. So, I left the University fired up. I had a great idea of what I wanted to do, and some idea of how to do it, so I thought I would go it alone. What happened after you went back home? Well, to be fair, I had some results, I felt like I was onto something, and I made a bit of cash, but I felt a bit isolated. I don’t know if you have ever come back from an event buzzing with possibilities and then a few weeks or months later, you have forgotten half of what you learned and feel a bit down about it? The atmosphere, the people and the learning at the University had been really amazing, like nothing I had ever experienced before. I decided I had to come back and I joined Andy’s Professional Speakers Academy. In the Academy, I had access to the amazing ACE coaches, and my fellow students for inspiration. And more importantly, Andy saw something in me, that I didn’t see in myself. He took me under his wing. And not long after it was the PSA Annual Awards Dinner, where I was pretty shocked to win an award for my speaking. It was at that dinner that Andy told me I should come to his Elite programme – to be held in Thailand. And I felt that a week spent working on my business (rather than in it) with personal input from Andy and the ACE coaches, could only superspeed my development. So where are you now, after the experience of Elite? My life has no comparison to where I was in 2013 when I met Andy. I was a cleaner on £6 an hour. And now I’m a multi-millionaire. I still work hard – but NOW I am working hard doing what I love every day, and helping others move from a place of being stuck in a life they don’t want, to living a life of freedom and choice. Elite was life changing. It was so life changing that I have done it twice! The first time I did Elite, I was delivering from stage for someone else. Earning a decent amount – well over 6 figures, but still ‘working’ for someone else and sharing someone else’s system, building someone else’s dream. Andy challenged me. He asked me when I was going to start backing myself. As a great mentor, he knows exactly what message you need to hear and he never lets you off the hook. He also gives you opportunities. Opportunities you might not think you are ready for – but he knows you are. In 2016, Andy put me on stage at the National Achievers Conference – you can see the video here. It was a completed circle. 3 years before he had inspired me on this stage, and now here I was, talking to thousands, inspiring others. I didn’t get to see Andy directly after that event, I had to rush off. As I was driving home, I thought back to a conversation Andy and I had the week before when I asked him how I could repay him for his support encouragement and mentorship. His words were ringing in my ears, “Paul – outgrow, outshine and outperform me. That’s how you can pay me back”. I didn’t know how I was going to do that, but I was absolutely going to make it my mission and just two words were ringing in my head….”What’s next?”. To find out more about Paul Preston click here For more information about how you can apply for the Public Speakers University – connect with and message Andy on LinkedIn here or on Facebook here

That’s a question I get asked a lot, and of course, there is a lot to it. You need to be able to tell a story. You need to be able to make an impact. Avoiding “death by Powerpoint”, goes without saying. You also need to have memorable and ‘sticky’ content. And, of course, you need to build a relationship with your audience. There’s all this and more. In this blog I want to concentrate on something which you cannot do without if you really want to be considered by your audience (the only people who really matter) as a good public speaker. In fact, if you get this right you will probably be described as one of the best public speakers your audience has ever seen. So, what am I talking about? I am talking about KNOWING your audience. When you know your audience, and I mean REALLY know your audience, you differentiate yourself in all sorts of ways. When you know your audience, your entire presentation speaks to their hearts and minds. It is important to understand that you have to do both. I have seen plenty of speakers who rely on appealing to the audience’s minds. This is typically your ‘death by PowerPoint’ presentation. A bit dry. Over-reliance on facts and evidence. Makes sense but is BORING. The problem here is that if you do not connect emotionally with your audience then they won’t ‘buy’ YOU. Whether you are selling yourself, an idea or a product/service – people buy on emotion. However, emotion on it’s own is not enough. I’m sure you have seen inspirational speakers who connect with their audience. You may have been uplifted and moved. But you haven’t bought their stuff, because there was something missing. If you have any doubts, let’s imagine you are going out to buy a car, or a watch, or a phone. You have a budget in mind. The problem is when you get to the shop/showroom, you see something you REALLY love, but it is 50% more than you had planned to spend. The salesperson talks to you about the features of the product that is within your stated budget, but the problem is that you have seen the other one, the one you really want. The one you can imagine yourself wearing/driving/using. You know how great you will feel. But it’s more expensive. A lot more expensive. So, what do you do? Well, nine times out of ten you will buy whatever it is. And THEN you will justify it with the facts, the evidence. “It will last longer than the other one”, “It has more features”, “I will save money on the running costs”. Here’s the thing. You need both. You need emotion AND you need to tie that emotion to the facts, the benefits, the potential results. And the point is, that when you know your audience well, then you know what is important to them. You know what keeps them up at night and what they want. You know what thoughts run through their mind. When you know your audience – you can speak directly to them. People only buy what they really want, and if you know what that is, and can connect what you have to offer, to what they want – then you are a good public speaker. And always remember that people generally do not buy what they need. They buy what they want. Sometimes, but not always, that is also what they need! Your job as a public speaker is to connect with your audience in a way that makes them move in some way. You are there to make a difference. You are there to entertain, educate, inspire or motivate. And if you know your audience well, you can get away with not being the most polished or experienced public speaker. If you take the focus off yourself and put it on your audience and how they feel, then you are already better than most of the speakers they will have seen! So, now, how good a public speaker are you?

Maybe you have heard of Maslow’s hierarchy of human needs. The basic premise being that there are basic needs that need to be met first – like water, food, shelter, warmth – before the next set of needs (safety and security) can be considered. After safety and security is belonging (love and connection), then self esteem / accomplishment and finally self-actualisation – becoming everything you can. Although he later amended the rigidity of his structure, this model is missing the Yin and Yang that often goes with human needs. Things don’t always develop in a linear or pyramid structure. What do I mean by that? Well, take security/safety/comfort for example. One of the brains main concerns is to keep you safe. Because, of course, if you die, it dies! And so people get into a comfort zone and they can get stuck there. But after a while of being in a comfort zone, one of the other human needs kicks in – the need for change. Now this is powerful evolutionary need. How has the human race evolved over just a few thousand years, while previous cycles of world evolution lasted for millions of years? Because of the human need for change. And all the time we are in our comfort zone, we are not growing – we are just in a holding pattern. And that’s fine, but at some point it becomes boring and unsatisfying and we feel the need for a new Challenge, a new relationship, a new job, a new house, aa new life. So, then the decision is, do you actually make a permanent change, or do you just temporarily change your state? What many people do is go for the temporary change in state. They turn to something that will make them feel better in the moment. You can achieve that by thinking about it. You can imagine winning the lottery. Or you can use alcohol, shopping, a cigarette, drugs, a workout at the gym, a phone call with a friend, for example. Some of those are better for you than others, but all achieve a temporary change in state. The difficulty of making a permanent change. Here’s the thing. Initially when you think of making a change it seems great. It seems the thing to do. You imagine being slimmer, or richer, or happier, or living somewhere in the sun – whatever it is. But the more you think about it, the more you start to consider the difficulties, the perceived barriers, the pains. You think about having to ‘live on a lettuce leaf’ for 6 months, or you think of working 18 hour days to get a business off the ground, or you think of what OTHER people will say (negatively) about your idea. Or you think of the money involved as a cost rather than as an investment in the future you. And so the Change becomes too Uncertain. And so you go back to what you know – your comfort zone, your safety, your certainty. So – How Can You Make A Permanent Change? You need to keep focused on the prize. You have to look at the outcome you want, and not all the hurdles along the way. The outcome you want needs to be MUCH better and brighter than what you have now, or your brain won’t see it as ‘worth the effort’. Of course, it helps if you have a coach and a bunch of similarly motivated people to keep you on track. It helps if you surround yourself with people who have already made the change that you want to make, or are on the journey to making it. That’s why I created the Professional Speakers Academy, to give people on their journey to changing their lives, the support, community and coaching – or in other words THE CERTAINTY – they need while making the changes they desire in their lives. For more information about our free and paid events, our University and Academy or our webinars and online training programmes go to www.andyharrington.com

Stagefright is a very common fear. And you don’t even need to be on a stage! Any kind of public speaking – whether that is giving a speech at a wedding, or a eulogy, giving a business presentation, or speaking at a networking group – fills most people with anything ranging from mild anxiety to outright panic. There have been many surveys done on fears and phobias – and depending which one you read, Public Speaking is the number one fear people have – above death, heights and spiders! It’s always in the top 3, at any rate. And isn’t that kind of crazy?The body content of your post goes here. To edit this text, click on it and delete this default text and start typing your own or paste your own from a different source. Where does Stagefright come from? Here’s the thing about that. Death, heights and spiders are all dangerous to – or potentially dangerous to your health. But Public Speaking? That comes from somewhere else. Either it is a childhood memory or another fear. Perhaps in childhood you were made to stand up and read something out in class, or recite a poem, and it didn’t go as well as it could. Maybe you were laughed at or criticised. Possibly at home you were encouraged to be ‘seen and not heard’ like “all good children”. Or it could be that you were slapped down (physically or emotionally) for speaking up. Whatever the reason, you now fear others reactions when you speak. Or, it could be that you what you actually have is a need to be perfect, or a general feeling of not being good enough. Perhaps you don’t think you have anything worth saying. For whatever reason, you have developed this problem called, ‘I can’t speak in front of an audience’. Yes, you developed it. You certainly weren’t born with it. Babies have no fear of making a noise in front of anyone. Go to any maternity unit and have a listen. No – the fear of public speaking is something you developed. And that’s great – because unlike the possibly more tribal and instinctive fears like spiders or snakes – which have developed through the ages as a subliminal tribal knowledge - this is learned behaviour which is within your control to ‘unlearn’. And here is something that will help you lose that fear. There are two modalities you can use when looking at your audience from stage – Peripheral Vision and Foveal Vision. If you think of it in terms of cavemen times – peripheral vision is what a grazing animal would use to be aware of all its surroundings at the same time. By being aware of everything at the same time, the animal can see changes to movement in the grass that might indicate danger, for example. On stage you may appear to be looking at one thing but actually your awareness is everywhere, rather than on one specific thing or person. Foveal vision is the opposite. This is when your concentration is directly ahead of you and in the middle of your visual field. In other words, it is what you focus on. This is what a predator uses to fix it’s prey and, ignoring everything around it, will pursue that particular animal – because that is the one it focused on. Have you ever seen a video of a cheetah chasing down its prey – it will go after the one animal, even if it seems there are others that would be easier to catch. Now – the problem with being in foveal vision is that it can exacerbate stagefright. You focus in one spot and your brain has the time and energy to be thinking about how nervous you are. Instead what you want to do is be in peripheral vision. Here's an exercise you can do right now involving peripheral vision. Try this. Look at something in the room with you now. Focus on it and think about a problem or a worry you have. Now, whilst looking at that one spot, become aware of the ceiling, the walls to your left and right, things that are in the room, the lighting – see how much you can ‘see’ without moving your eyes. Now try and think about your problem whilst being in that state. It’s pretty hard to be focused on a problem when in peripheral vision. In fact, it’s impossible. When you get on stage and go into peripheral vision, you can leave all your worries at the door. You are fully present in the room and not in your head. Try it and let me know how you get on the next time you have to speak. And don’t worry – that is only one of many techniques you can learn to help with your presentations. If you would like to learn more – come along to one of my free Passion Into Profit events where I show you how to take what you are passionate about and turn it into a profitable business. www.passionintoprofits.co.uk

One problem I often come across when people come to my Public Speakers University is – they think they have nothing to say. I hear things like, and “I don’t have anything interesting to say / I don’t have a story”. The problem is – their focus is in the wrong place. They are focusing on themselves and how THEY feel about what they have (or haven’t - in their own mind) got to say. It is the same reason that people trip up on stage and feel debilitating nerves. They are focused on themselves. What I mean by that is they worry they will forget what they are “supposed” to say. That’s because they are inwardly focused. They are thinking about themselves, rather than thinking about what it is that the audience needs to hear next. When it comes to developing their 90 minute keynote speech – something we train people to do on my 4 day Public Speakers University – a key part is the telling (or more accurately – the ‘re-living’) of their personal or client story.

I run a lot of events in the UK and round the world, and most of the people who come to those events have a dream. Most of those are unfulfilled. And not only that, but they can't see how they are going to get to that dream, they see it as just that…..a dream. That is such a shame, and it is the reason I put on the free events that I hold regularly (have a look at them here). It makes me happy to hear comments like ‘you have changed my life today’, ‘I’m totally inspired’. But it makes me even happier when someone actually takes action on their dreams. It’s all very easy isn’t it, to come along to an event and get all fired up. And you feel like – THIS time – something is going to change. But then, when you get back home, it all changes. Life takes over and you can’t quite get that feeling back. You can’t quite remember what it is that mattered so much to you, what got through to you, how you were actually going to change anything. Why Don't You Take Action on Your Dreams? Partly that’s because life does actually get busy and it is hard to juggle all the many demands. And it is often because you don’t share your dreams – in case someone might criticise or bring you down. The problem with that is – when the dream is just hidden inside, there is no accountability to make anything happen. How sad if that remains the same all your life and you die with that dream still inside you. If you do – then I am telling you – you’re being selfish. What if the Wright brothers had let their dream remain just a dream? If Sylvester Stallone had done that – he would never have seen his film come alive, with himself playing the leading role. What about JFK – and the moon landings – or Martin Luther King – who died for his dream? You see, here’s the thing. If you don’t put your dream out there into the world then it won’t happen. And your unique gifts – the ones only you can bring to the world – will be lost. Let me tell you a story of a little boy. He wakes up one Christmas morning before anyone else has got up and he creeps downstairs to see what is under the tree. He can’t resist as he carefully opens the end of one parcel. What he sees looks familiar – so he opens it properly. “Hmm – that’s the same gift they gave me last year!” he thinks. So, he opens another – just one more! As he opens the end and peeks inside – he is confused. It is another gift he got the year before. He opens another, then another. They are ALL the same gifts as last year. With tears in his eyes he runs upstairs and wakes his Mum. “Mum, I know I shouldn’t have but I opened my gifts already and they are all the same as last year? Why? Why would you do that?”. His Mum took him in her arms and looked into his eyes and said “Son, when you use the gifts you got last year, you will get some more. And if you share them, well then you will get double”. You see, life doesn’t give you anything more until you USE what you already have. And you weren’t put here just for yourself. You need to share your unique gifts with others. That’s the point of life. Now you may be thinking – "what have I got worth sharing?" A lot of people who came to my Public Speakers University and joined my Academy thought the same thing – but they found that actually they ALL had something unique to share with the world. Even if they were in the same industry or offering the same service, what no-one else can bring is YOU. Your unique set of experiences, qualities and knowledge. You are unique and someone – in fact, lots of people – out there need exactly what YOU bring. YOU. Not the other people in your niche. So – how do you uncover that in yourself and bring it for the world to share? Well one way to stay accountable is to say it out loud. So – go put up a post on the social media of your choice and tell me what you bring to the world – and make sure you tag me into the post. Or you could come along to our next Public Speakers University 4 day event on the 6 – 9th June in Heathrow, where you will not only learn what you have inside you and some skills to put around that, you will also have the chance to practice and to become accountable for taking it forward after the event! If you are interested message me – on FB, Insta, Twitter or LinkedIn. See you there. www.andyharrington.com

It is said that if you divide up all the money and assets in the world equally, every person on the planet would be have a million pounds each! Which leaves you with one conclusion if you are not a Millionaire - someone has got your money 🤣 Money is a currency and currency means exchange, circulation, flow. So, to have more currency (money) your money must flow faster. When you give money to a bank they don’t sit there and stroke your money! Your money is put into circulation, into flow. They DO something with it. But here’s the thing. Before your money can flow, you must discover a way to generate more money (currency) in the first place. The government of the UK needs currency to flow for the economy to flourish. This is achieved by the buying and selling of goods and services. To have more currency and flow yourself you need to be on the selling side (the creator) of that equation more than you are on the buying side (a consumer). Basically, you have to create more value than you consume. And if you are a little scared about making the transition from employee to running your own business, the UK government provides a safe vehicle to encourage you to go from consumer to creator. It’s called a limited company. This is a huge benefit as it means you can have a go with less risk. If it all goes wrong, (hopefully not), you are not personally liable and will live to fight another day. So, how do you make this change from consumer to creator, from employee to business owner? Or from small start up to established, growing business? The answer might surprise you. The answer is LOVE. You need to love what you do, the people you do it WITH and the people you do it FOR. When we fall in love with what we do we become passionate. This energy becomes a driving force that propels us to be more creative and infuses us with a sense of belief. We become enthusiastic and that is transmitted into our work and our business comes to life. If we stay passionate, we will put our heart and soul into creating a valuable service or product that helps others to solve a problem they care about. Once you do that, you become attractive in every sense of the word and like a magnet attract other like minded souls. Suppliers who want to be part of your energy, customers or clients who will buy from you, and also colleagues to work with and for you as you build a team. Money is attracted to you because you are valuable to society and because you are now resonating at a higher frequency (the vibration of love and gratitude). When you live in fear, doubt or uncertainty, you become unclear, confused and lose your passion. This lowers your frequency (current) and you consume more things to solve your problems or distract yourself from them. We all have problems but here’s a mantra that’s served me well and taken me from a lonely drug addict to devoted husband, father of six, Sunday Times best-selling author and multi-million pound business owner.... “Make your goals so BIG they make your problems seem insignificant by comparison” Everyone has the power to love, the power to heal and The Power To Achieve. To find your passion and create or grow your business and of course make more money you would be wise to check this out. https://www.powertoachieve.co.uk/

A question I am frequently asked – and I have written about this subject before – is, “How can I be more successful?” Well there are traits which all successful people have, and I believe that if you study what others do, that you WANT to do, then you can shortcut your progress towards any goal. It’s a bit like learning to play golf. If you want to be really good a golf, really quickly, then you need to practice a lot, you need to get a coach, and you need to copy the most successful golfers I the world, and NOT take on the tips from your mate who plays off a 20 handicap!! So, what are the things that successful people have in common. Well, there are many things successful people DO which I would encourage you to emulate – for example – they DO spend time working on themselves and their business, rather than doing all the leg work themselves. What is, perhaps, more interesting, is the things they DON’T do. So, here are the things that successful people don’t do, and that you might be doing. If you are then you need to give them up now! Stop doing these 5 things and watch as your life changes. Stop focusing on the short term. Successful people know that patience is a virtue and that everything worthwhile takes time. They have their eye on the long term. Very few entrepreneurs start a business and are an ‘overnight’ success. It has usually taken years of work in the background to get there. They know that their daily habits will create the life they want. That incremental changes, consistently made, is the way forward. So, stop focusing on the short term. Give up the need to be externally validated. What do I mean by that? Well most people need other people to give them permission to act, or to agree with them to make them feel good about their decisions. Especially – difficult decisions. Why is that? Well, it is because they fear being judged, or rejected, or disapproved of. It’s natural. We grow up wanting the approval of our parents. By doing what our parents want we get love, and approval. And that’s fine, when you are a child. The problem is that many people stay in this mode and need approval from others before they can do anything. Especially if it is outside the ‘norm’. If the ‘norm’ for your circle of influence is ‘get a job and do it till you retire’ and you want to run a business, then you risk the disapproval of others. And so many people never live the life they secretly desire. Many don’t even talk about it, it remains an unspoken dream inside them. Successful people do what they know to be right – whether it’s popular or not. They know that when things change or when new ideas are talked about, there is often disapproval and resistance to change. They accept that and they do it anyway. To be successful you MUST give up the need for approval from others, and trust yourself. The third point is critical and it is – give up excuses and blame. Blame is a pointless exercise. All it does is potentially make someone else feel bad and even if it makes you feel temporarily NOT as bad, long term it doesn’t solve it. It makes you powerless because if it was someone else’s fault then you can’t solve it. And if you can’t solve it then you can’t change the outcome and you are a victim of life’s circumstances, not the master of your own. The hallmark of a true leader is to understand that nothing is failure, everything is feedback. It took Edison 1000 attempts to create the lightbulb. Imagine if he accepted failure? Imagine if he blamed someone else for it not working? Instead he looked for the reason for the result and tried again. He looked for the things he could change, rather than focusing on the things he couldn’t. Stop Playing Safe Successful people don’t do ‘playing safe’. That doesn’t mean they take unnecessary risk, but they do take risks. They weigh up the risks and believe that for big change to happen, something has to change, something has to be done that is ‘not the norm’. They are motivated by change, adventure, excitement, challenge and making a contribution. They are the early adopters and they generally go all in. They don’t ‘toe dip’. Established wisdom will tell you – if something is worth doing it’s worth doing well. I disagree. Leaders know that if something is worth doing – it is worth doing badly. You have to be unafraid to make mistakes, get things wrong in order to get things very right. Give Up Saying Yes To Everything If your life is at the beck and call of others, if you find yourself with too much to do and feeling resentful, or if you never seem to have time for yourself, you are probably saying yes far too much. Everyone knows that TIME is the only commodity no-one can buy more of. It is precious, and where most people know this, they don’t implement any strategies around it. They react to life and say yes to every opportunity, every request for help, every call on their time. They give it away. The most successful people guard their time with ferocity. They put into their diary all the important things – family, kids holidays, personal time. And they won’t allow their time to be wasted. They will cut short unproductive meetings, and cut off people who are rambling around the point. They have no issue with turning down opportunities that are not for them, and not telling white lies about the reasons why. They have the balance in their lives that they want. And that is possible to have – with the right focus, mindset and skillset. At my critically acclaimed Power To Achieve even, people from all walks of life discover how to break free from the shackles of a conventional life, find their inner power and create the lives they are truly capable of living. It’s not for the feint hearted, I pull no punches. But from the thousands of comments on Facebook from people who have attended, it’s clear my methods work. So, if you are looking to break free from the same old same old and reach your personal and professional potential, if you know it is time for things to change for you, and if you are determined to make this your best year yet then keep a look out for our next Power To Achieve Event here? It might just be the best thing you do this year!

I often come across business owners, entrepreneurs, coaches and consultants, who have a very powerful client attraction tool in their business. And they don’t know about it. Which is a shame. Because most small businesses are good at what they do. They are good at being a coach, a fitness instructor, a property developer. What they are often not as good at is in differentiating themselves from all the other coaches, fitness instructors or property developers in their area. And that causes a problem, because if you can’t differentiate yourself from the crowd, then you are going to compete on criteria you have no control over – for example which is the closest gym to me? Or who is the cheapest provider? And you really don’t want to compete on price. There will always be someone cheaper than you. So how do you stand out, so that you are not competing on price, but attracting the ideal client for you? Well, here’s the thing. There are 2 big criteria you need in order to put yourself into a different category, to raise your profile to the extent that you have no competition. Firstly, you need to create something unique. One of the things I teach people is how to take their knowledge and experience and turn it into a unique business system. Once you have that, then you no longer need compete on price – ever. The other thing that everyone has in their business, but most people don’t even know they have – and they certainly aren’t using it – is their STORY. Think about it. Everything special has a story. Christmas has stories of the baby Jesus, and a jolly guy in a red coat called Santa. When we are children we learn many things through stories – from nursery rhymes, to fairy stories and fables. Before written language, all history in all cultures was passed from generation to generation by the telling of stories. The aboriginal people of Australia, the oldest civilisation in the world (according to a DNA study in 2016 from the University of Cambridge), pass down their culture through many stories from the DreamTime; their understanding of how the world came into existence. As we become adults, our experiences become stories. They can be in the form of family history – ‘Do you remember when Grandad went out for some milk and came back with a dining room table?’ type stories. These become vessels for keeping memories, and therefore the people we love, alive. Then there are the stories we tell ourselves. That’s a subject for another day. The stories I am referring to here, are the story or stories of your journey as an entrepreneur or the story of your business journey. Your story is the perfect conduit to achieving many outcomes, the first of which is positioning you as an expert in your field. You see, unless your reputation (good hopefully) proceeds you, most of your potential clients probably have no clue who you are and why they should do business with you. And whilst you can talk all about your product or services and the features and benefits of that – people buy people, and they buy FROM people. Decisions are driven by emotions and then backed up by ‘evidence’. The decision to buy a specific car, for example, is an emotional one. People buy cars based on many factors, the biggest being how they imagine they will feel when driving that car, which is also a reflection of their values…..Volvo – safety, DB9 – impressive but not too flashy, Smart EQ – environmentally friendly, for example. Then they back up their decision with the ‘facts’ that support their decision, ignoring any facts that don’t fit. The car manufacturers know their audience and play to those desires. Their advertising supports the message their audience wants to hear, and their stories are crafted to attract their ideal clients. Well, people do the same when making any decision, including the one to use YOUR company. What I mean by that is, unless you connect with your potential audience, they probably aren’t going to buy your stuff (unless they have no alternative). In these days of social media, people want to KNOW (or at least feel that they know) the people they are doing business with. And your story should give them all the ‘evidence’ they need that you know what you are talking about. There are a couple of other key things that your story needs to do. Your story needs to show your potential customer that you understand their pains because you have ‘been there and done that’. When your customer understands that you have stood in their shoes, and you understand them because you have felt their pain, then they are more open to listening to what you have to say. Your story also builds rapport with your potential clients. There is something about being open and therefore vulnerable, something about trusting your ‘audience’ with your truths, warts and all, which creates a magnetic effect. They trust you, because you have trusted them. Does that make sense? Now there is a lot more to building your story, much more than I can possibly go into here. If you would like to watch a short video about the power of story-telling please click here now. However, to sum up, the power of stories should not be underestimated. It is one of the most powerful tools for creating – know, like and trust. Your clients need to know, like and trust you, before they will ever buy from you. And if you’re thinking – “well Andy that’s all very well for you but I don’t have a story” – I’m telling you, you do. Most people believe that they don’t have a story, or that no-one would be interested in their story. And it is simply not true. Everyone has a story. You have a story. And it matters. If you have questions about how to craft your business story – reach out to me at support@andyharrington.com or join my Facebook Group here. Look forward to connecting!