Stories That Stick: How Storytelling Can Captivate Customers, Influence Audiences, and Transform Your Business

Investor:
Can this founder overcome adversity?
Founder:
Yes.
Investor:
Is this founder fully committed?
Founder:
I bleed my logo colors.

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Investor:
Is this founder emotionally invested?
Founder:
Don’t tell my spouse, but our wedding wasn’t the happiest day of
my life. It was when I filed our articles of incorporation.
Simply hearing these answers is not enough. An investor needs to feel these
answers, and knowing what we know about the effects of storytelling, a well-
told founder story can give all the feels you need.
That fateful day, Brian Chesky faced one of the most intense experiences for
an entrepreneur, and the thing that turned skeptics into believers was his story. It
was enough to overcome any objections, create faith, and ultimately get a yes. A
$112 million yes.
8
The Founder Story to Bridge the Customer Gap
Now, I don’t know if taking on investors is part of your business plan. Many
founders don’t use investor money and therefore don’t use their founder story to
secure funding. Many entrepreneurs use their own cash to drive revenue and
reinvest profit to drive growth. And when I say many, I mean many.
According to the Kaufman Index, 540,000 new business owners start the
entrepreneur journey each month.
9
 Yes, you read that right: 540,000! A study by
Intuit revealed that 64 percent of small business owners start with less than
$10,000, and 75 percent of them rely on their personal savings to start their
business.
10
This means 540,000 potential competitors, 540,000 founders equally as
hungry and willing to throw in their personal savings and do whatever it takes as
you are. If reading this elevates your heart rate just a bit, I hear you.
As a show of support, well-meaning friends and acquaintances often send me
articles or blogs or press releases about other storytelling experts, firms, or
events. While I want nothing more than more people teaching and promoting the
importance of storytelling, each article makes me cringe just a bit. It means
competition. It means, as much as any entrepreneur would love to believe it, I
am not the only one.
Whether you’re in series B of funding or if, like me, you had to google what
that meant, you’re going to face competition and copycats. In those moments,
turn to your founder story for differentiation.

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Why Blend in When You Could Differentiate?
It was 2015, and Desert Star Construction founder Jerry Meek had seen it all. A
third-generation builder, his favorite toy as a kid was a coffee can filled with
nails and, when his father let him use it, a hammer. Looking at Jerry’s portfolio
answers the age-old question anyone has while paging through an upscale home
magazine: Are these homes for real? Yes. Yes, they are. And Jerry builds them.
Truth be told, if Jerry were the only one who built them, there wouldn’t be
much of a story. But, of course, Desert Star Construction isn’t the only luxury
home builder. In Arizona alone, where Jerry is based and where taxes are light,
the competition is steep in the luxury home-building market.
Similar to the founders of Airbnb, Jerry was confident in what he had to
offer. He knew his approach was better, his team was better, and his
commitment to his clients during the long building process was better. Yet he,
like many business owners, was struggling to communicate his love for building
and what that meant to potential clients looking to build their dream home.
When he tried, it sounded like what any other builder would say. He needed a
way to differentiate himself.
He needed to tell his story.
What Jerry was facing was the classic conundrum of small business owners.
The company is no longer in its infancy. Purchase orders have been fulfilled;
there are customers using and even loving the product or service he offers. There
are systems and a team in place, and the search for new customers is no longer
classified as a quest for getting started but rather a continuing effort to keep
growing. It’s no longer about establishment but differentiation.
Sadly, differentiation is more difficult to achieve than we’d like it to be. How
do you show you’re different without looking like everyone else who is claiming
to be different in the exact same way?
I’m reminded of the early days of dating my husband when I would still do
anything to impress him, including watching football (which you already know
about) and watching