This blog post was originally published on March 2nd, 2020. It has been recently updated with new information to help small business owners use their stories in their weekly nurture emails as part of their email marketing.
Once upon a time, there was a 15-year old girl who played harp and sang at the Minnesota Renaissance Festival. She was asked to make costumes for other performers, based on the ones she made for herself. The first year, she made about 5 pieces for other performers. The following year, costuming took up most of her summer.
This continued on, to varying degrees depending on education opportunities and access to sewing machines, for 15 years. Somewhere in there, she got a degree in Creative Writing and Theater. She worked various and sundry other weird jobs, some good, some bad, one involving large cats.
After that, she gave up costuming to become a full-time touring musician. (Instead of part-time, as she’d already been doing for several years.) That’s where she started her very first email list.
Then her life fell apart. (That’s a different blog post and one that may or may not happen in the future.)
So she went back to a “real job.” First, she made Muppets for Sesame Street Live shows. Then, she got a job in a totally new field, using the creative writing side of her degree as a copywriter, writing promotional text on websites for law firms. After that, she worked for a well-known Mar-Tech start up. Then, she launched her freelance copywriting career.
Now, she teaches business owners how to harness the power of email marketing to get more customers and make more sales.
That is a VERY condensed version of my odd work history.
But all of it has added to my current experience as a small business owner, helping other small business owners.
Regardless of your background and work history, you’ve got amazing skills that you bring to your small business too.
Yes, Your Experience, Whatever It May Be, Does Matter to Your Business
I cannot tell you how many successful small business owners I have met who:
- Do not have college degrees.
- Have all sorts of weird life experiences that they use in their businesses every day.
- Have college degrees that have nothing to do with their businesses, but which they use every day, despite that fact.
- Have “pulled themselves up by their bootstraps.”
- Have the benefit of love and support from their families, friends and loved ones.
- Have done well in the “real” business world before they started their own companies.
- Never fit into the “corporate world” well, which is why they started their own companies.
Any of these look familiar to you?
They should. Because most small business owners have at least one of these traits in common.
The other trait they have in common is a crazy dream that they want to make into a reality. That’s what drives them to start their own business and make it happen.
For the record, I have been self-employed in one form or another for most of my working life.
I have had “real jobs” as well, including working at a pet shop, a McDonald’s, as an 800 number operator, doing cold calling for various organizations and businesses, singing telegram performer, professional actor, and more.
I can say honestly that all of these experiences, as well as many others I’ve had in my life, are all useful to me to this day.
Enough about me for the moment.
The real question is…
What Life Experiences Do You Use Every Day for Your Small Business?
I don’t care if you’re a full-time small business owner, like me, or if you have a side hustle that makes you a bit of money. Everything you’ve done up until now is a valuable resource for your business.
Are you a teacher? Great. Then you know how to engage an audience of any size and show them why what you’re talking about matters.
Are you a scientist? Fantastic. You understand the value of research and development. You can see where that will apply in many areas of your business to help it grow and thrive.
Are you a factory worker? Wonderful. You understand the processes that go into making a product and you can improve upon that in your own business.
We all have amazing experiences in our past that can help us deal with our present and grow into our future.
Did I mention the job with large cats? Yeah, that was entertaining. Literally.
I was a speaker for the Great Cats of the World show on the Renaissance Festival circuit for a year. I was already on the circuit, playing harp, when I took on this additional job.
I stood on stage while various large cats (lions and tigers and cougars, oh my) were paraded around behind me. I was supposed to convince people that these beautiful, majestic creatures were truly wild animals and shouldn’t be kept as pets. Yet we still had people walk up to us after the show and ask if they could pet one. (The answer was always no.)
I learned a lot about creating and delivering a presentation doing that job.
Trust me. If you can talk about how a large cat can easily kill you, while one is standing right behind you batting at your skirt, you can handle pretty much any presentation after that… ever.
For the record, that show still exists and they still use a lot of my script.
The point here is, it doesn’t matter how weird, small, large or unusual your life experience may be. You can use it to grow your business.
Why Small Business Owners Have Some of the Best Stories
I have traveled all over this country. I have encountered people who have what seem to be the most “boring” jobs in the world. I have come across business owners who make really weird products or offer very unusual services.
Until you hear their stories.
Everyone has a story.
Most people think their stories are boring. That makes a certain amount of sense. We’ve lived our lives. They don’t seem terribly remarkable to us because we were there for all of it.
But when you look at someone else’s life in comparison, your life is extraordinary.
Your experiences are unlike everyone else’s.
Maybe you were a high school sports champion.
Maybe you lived abroad as a child.
Maybe your family performed as a group for local, regional or national functions.
All of these are experiences you can use in your business and stories you can tell to show your customers how well you understand them.
Yes, all of this does come down to stories.
Your story matters to you and you alone. However, your story can feel relatable to your audience, when you tell it in the right context.
I am one of about 5 people I know who have had the Great Cats of the World speaker job. We’re a pretty rare breed. (Pun intended.) But as soon as I mentioned being able to handle any presentation ever after that experience, did you relate to it?
Maybe you took a speech class or participated in a Toastmasters program. Did you have the jitters? And when I talked about delivering a presentation with a tiger behind me, did you “get” that feeling?
Because my feeling of a tiger behind me is pretty darn relatable, regardless of the circumstances you’re presenting under. Even if that tiger is a mental one. It is still a barrier we all need to conquer.
(For the record, my tiger’s name was Rajina. She was very sweet and well behaved. She was a “baby” 250-pound Siberian tiger who was still growing. She would eventually reach 650 pounds.)
You Can Use Your Stories and Life Experiences to Build a Relationship with Your Subscribers
Okay, not many people have the experience of standing in front of a tiger on stage.
But everyone can understand the feeling of being intimidated when standing on stage. And the metaphor of having a tiger hungrily staring at you while you’re talking is a pretty good one.
What stories do you have from your life that you can translate into relatable content for your audience?
How can you show your subscribers that they too can achieve success, based on the experiences you have had and the products or services you’ve created as a result of those experiences?
What life experience do you bring to running your own business? How does that make your customers’ lives better?
Tell those stories. Bring that experience to bear on your business. Show how that experience helps your customers and what benefits it brings to them.
You can do this in several ways:
- Blog posts (like this one)
- Product launches
- Product explanations
- “Getting to know you” content
- Videos
- Presentations
- One-to-one encounters
And, of course, in your emails…
Use What You Know, Whatever That May Be, to Grow Your Business
You’re a small business owner. That alone sets you apart from most people in your community.
Small businesses are the backbone of the U.S. economy. We employ people in our communities. We support our families and friends and receive their support in return. We build upon what we know to make the world a better place.
Let your past experiences drive your life, and your business forward to success! Then share those experiences with your subscribers in your weekly nurture emails, so they can see how your experiences benefit them.
Want to learn more about how to use your life experience to get more customers and make more sales?
I show you exactly how to use these stories as one of the 7 Email Types in the 30-Minute Email Workshop.
In this 2.5-hour workshop, you’ll learn how to use all 7 of these easy-to-use frameworks to write your weekly nurture email, including an irresistible call to action, in just 30 minutes.
You’ll also discover copywriting tips, marketing tricks, and lots of other useful information you can apply to every part of your business.
Click on the button below to find out how you can use your previous experience to connect with your subscribers in your weekly nurture emails, so you can turn them into happy, paying customers.
Thanks to the fabulous Kaye Caston for the 2 pictures of me performing in this post.