Inspiring Others with Your Story

No one wants to hear how rich, sexy, amazing, and happy you are.  Or at least they don’t until after they heard how poor, unattractive, mediocre, and miserable you used to be.

It seems everyone is trained to tell their “story” in network marketing.  All the bling, bonuses, and big bucks they made.  But that doesn’t inspire people.  Remember this:

The only reason you tell your story is for the lesson or inspiration it holds for the audience. Anything else is just beating your chest.

I sat through a convention where speaker after speaker told their story to “motivate” the audience.  It was like they all used the same PowerPoint template.

First were their baby pictures, then the childhood ones.  The house they grew up in.  Then came their teen years. Their first beat up car and the simple apartment they moved into after college.  The guys showed their sports pictures, the gals showed their high school yearbooks. This went on for half an hour each.

If you’re not Lady Gaga or Pitbull, we don’t want to know that much about you!

Your story is inspiring only if it teaches us that you have faced some of the challenges, obstacles and adversity we are facing. And the fact that you persevered inspires us to know that we too can persevere.

Like authors or motivational speakers, we don’t tell our story because people are interested in our story. We tell our story because of the impact it can have on the audience.

So the first step in moving from an excited distributor to a leader who can motivate her or his team – is to be able to tell your story in an inspiring way. And do so from the perspective of the prospect.

So how do you do that?

Be vulnerable. Be empathetic. And most of all, be authentic.

You don’t have to have a, “I used to sleep under a bridge” story. (Unless you really did.) But you do need a story that reveals some of the challenges you faced. The fears you overcame. The sacrifices you were willing to make, to reach the success you have achieved.

Follow this simple formula, whether you’re doing a 30-second testimonial or a 60-minute keynote about your journey.

• Tell us what you do (or used to do) before network marketing.
• Tell us the problem with what you do (or used to do).
• Tell us how network marketing is or has solved that problem.

The whole idea is that there will be people in the audience who relate to your story. They are facing the challenges you speak about and the inspiration comes from realizing they now have a possible solution to eliminate these challenges.

If you’re just talking about your cars, watches, and trips, the candidates in the audience are thinking, “What an arrogant jerk. He doesn’t know anything about me and why is he throwing all his money and success in my face?”

Not a very good strategy for winning converts. Here’s what you need the candidates in the audience to be thinking…

“Wow. She has been exactly where I am now. She faced down some of the fears I have and has overcome some of the challenges I am currently facing. She is qualified to lead me. And I want to follow her.”

And when that happens, you are on your way to becoming a leader in our profession.

– RG

P.S.  This post is actually an excerpt from my next book on leadership for network marketing.  If you want to be notified when it gets published, make sure you follow me on social media and are a subscriber to my MLM Leadership Report here: http://www.networkmarketingtimes.com/mlm-training-ezine/