173 From story to sale: How Solopreneurs Can Connect With Their Audience: An interview with Angela Wills.
Release Date: 03/06/2025
177 Storytelling Prompts for Business Stories
Strategic Storytelling
Have you ever faced a blank page, saying to yourself, “I know I need a story…a good story…for business. But I keep drawing a blank.” And most of the story prompts—those questions beginning “Tell me a story about” are not designed for business. They’re designed to get your personal stories. So you get prompts like, “What was your proudest moment…” which rarely helps your business. As I’ve said many times, a business story serves a purpose. It doesn’t just amuse and entertain. It supports your strategy…which is rarely about helping you feel good about yourself....
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176 How To Generate Buzz For Your Products With Client Backstories
Strategic Storytelling
If you’re a small service-oriented business, you want to get people to talk about you! But how do you do this? Small companies—especially service-based solopreneurs—can’t generate buzz the same way as big companies. They need to dip into their client’s backstories. When someone says, “You seem to be talking to me!” -- that's how your buzz begins! In this episode, I talk about what it means for a solopreneur to create buzz. It’s not the same thing as big-company buzz. You’ll get examples of stories that never became the subject of conversation, and how...
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127 How to Demonstrate Your Expertise By Telling Stories (Encore)
Strategic Storytelling
"You're the expert." How do you feel when you hear those words? You'd better get used to hearing that sentenence if you're a service-based solopreneur! Because when you sell a service, you’re selling expertise. You’re offering knowledge and skills beyond what “everybody” has. You hire a licensed electrician because a handyman might do the job...but you want to be sure they won't set the place on fire by mistake. You hire a professional decorator because you want someone with flair who adds something to the project…something your best friend just can't do. So how do...
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175 Three Ways To Create More Powerful Headlines With Storytelling
Strategic Storytelling
You’ve got a nice draft of the copy, all set to go…but will your audience ever read that copy? The answer is: Not unless you’re reeling them in with a strong headline! The truth is, most people don’t get past the headline when they’re reading a sales letter. And yet headlines can be incredibly hard to write…unless, of course, you start with a good story. In this episode you’ll get three tips for using stories to write headlines. It’s one of my favorite topics because we tell business stories to help the copywriting—not to entertain or amuse the audience. You will learn: The...
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174 2 Straightforward Topics To 2X Your Selling Story
Strategic Storytelling
Telling the right story, the right way, can lead to more clients and more sales. You don’t have to come up with a story that keeps you in suspense--a story that could be made into a movie or a slick Superbowl commercial. The selling story for a solopreneur calls for two key ingredients. You don't have to dig into your life story to come up with edge-of-the-seat excitement. In this episode, I'll share two ways you can tweak your story to turn listeners into buyers. You will discover... ...the two tricks to get increasing sales from your story ...when a memorable story can...
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114 Which story attracts clients for entrepreneurs: natural talent vs. hard work and struggle (Encore)
Strategic Storytelling
You've heard it over and over. Success come from hard work, not talent. You're not a good writer? Not a natural business person? Just work, work and work some more. So hard work is admirable, right? People are most impressed by hard workers? Wrong. Research studies asked this question directly, "What impresses employers and investors most?" Employers and investors listened to stories of people achieving success by hard work...and stories of people who were so talented, success came easily. And the winner? Listeners reported greater respect for people who found success...
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173 From story to sale: How Solopreneurs Can Connect With Their Audience: An interview with Angela Wills.
Strategic Storytelling
Angela Wills created her Life Style Freedom business by making connections. She believed business doesn’t dictate your lifestyle: your lifestyle creates your business. “I’m really passionate about helping business owners find a business model that supports their lifestyle.” - Angela Willis Angela is a very down-to-earth business owner who’s built her business by understanding her clients. She understands the juggling act of being a parent and a business owner. “That is a skill," she says. "To me, it comes naturally now…the ability to connect with telling...
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172 What's wrong with the advice, "Tell a story to be authentic"
Strategic Storytelling
Solopreneurs often get advised to show their real selves--to come out from behind the website and reveal who they really are. And one way to do this is to tell stories. What's wrong with this advice? First of all, "Just tell a story" means, "Curate a good story portfolio." A story may represent your self...but you have many selves. The first part of this podcast talks about this point. Which self is the Real You? At about 5.0, you'll get 3 tips to share authentic stories: 1 - know what "be yourself" really means 2 - why "I understand where you're coming from" can mean "I'm clueless" (and what...
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171 - How A Financial Behaviorist Uses Stories To Illustrate Our Financial lives: Interview with Jacquette Timmons
Strategic Storytelling
When you tell stories, do you ever think, "That's all well and good for life coaches with personal stories. But I'm a technical person who wants to help people discover new ways of thinking about their actions. Talking about finance seems to call for discussions of numbers, trends and charts with percentages in three colors. Jacquette Timmons brings a different perspective. She's a financial behaviorist, someone who helps people deal with issues related to money, income and investments. Money reflects what's going on in people's personal lives. If you want to understand money conflicts, you...
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170 How to bring emotions into your business planning by using stories
Strategic Storytelling
Oh no...the New Year begins with two tasks a lot of us dread: planning and taxes. I can't do much about taxes, but this episode is all about making planning more realistic and more fun. Most people make plans and schedules with their left brains. So you get cold, analytical plans...or even worse, daydreams about the future. That's fine if you're a big business...if you sell cola, beer, or sportswear. But if you're a solopreneur, especially if you provide a service, you have a double role. You plan and you deliver. Let's face it: there's no Planning Department for solopreneurs. So your planning...
info_outlineAngela Wills created her Life Style Freedom business by making connections. She believed business doesn’t dictate your lifestyle: your lifestyle creates your business.
“I’m really passionate about helping business owners find a business model that supports their lifestyle.” - Angela Willis
Angela is a very down-to-earth business owner who’s built her business by understanding her clients. She understands the juggling act of being a parent and a business owner.
“That is a skill," she says.
"To me, it comes naturally now…the ability to connect with telling stories. Being approachable as well as businesslike is a skill…when people know who you are, they don’t even look at the subject line.
"They want to know you…it’ll become, ‘Angela has a course and I’m in.’”
Our interview was especially fun when Angela and I gave each other new ideas for connection.
I suggested that Angela focus on “connecting the dots” in her career move from chemistry to business. We talked about how she made that journey.
And then I asked, "But what about people in business who have trouble making connections?" That’s a question I have. I’m not a mom and I live in the city with a cat. Can people connect with me?
Angela says yes. People connect with all kinds of activities. “There are people who don’t go out a lot..but they bake bread. Or they do interior decorating.”
So she had some very specific suggestions for the way I can connect to people as a cat lady in the big city. For one thing, we cat ladies have problems with time management, just as moms do. They’re just different problems.
Highlights of the interview: :
- How Angela’s stories connect with her clients
- Why Angela believes everyone has the potential to connect with clients, using stories
- How Angela’s chemistry background helped her get started as an entrepreneur
- How to keep your business lean and simple (avoiding surprises and crises)
- Angela’s suggestions for helping me connect with an audience that’s very different from me
RESOURCES:
Angela's website Living Lifestyle Freedom