4.11 – How To Stand Out From Your Competitors

You might be tempted to skim or skip this chapter. DON’T!

Have you ever been to a party or networking event and there

was one person in the corner of the room with a growing audience

surrounding them? Odds are that person is a storyteller. Some people are

naturals, while some have to work at it. I’m one who has to work at it, but

here’s a story that might help you understand me better:

They say success is never a straight line. Ask any entrepreneur with

a few grey hairs and they may vigorously shake their head in agreement.

I thought it was important for you to know one of the authors of this book (Bob) isn’t perfect. (I can’t speak for my co-authors, however.) In fact, I want to show you my scars so that you know that not only have I accomplished enough to be qualified to teach you, I have the street cred of a fighter who has survived to tell you all about it. I’ve collected amazing victories and suffered some devastating defeats.

I’ve always been a bit underestimated in my life. I was a skinny asthmatic who was the youngest in his class. I entered high school 5’1″ and 90 pounds wet. I’m a bit of a late bloomer I suppose because I left high school 6’1″ and 150 pounds. I don’t come from money, but I do come from a line of hard-working people. I’ve carried on that trait by working my way through high school as a janitor on weekends and working my way through college as a

computer operator.

After college, I cut my teeth and navigated through the corporate world. After

working 12-hour days for six years, I was motivated to start my own business. I was able

to land a programmer-for-hire gig at a credit reporting bureau. I was able to work my

own hours, start my high school coaching career, and have time to dive into emerging

technologies and study Direct Marketing.

From 1999 to 2009, I built a highly successful marketing agency. In that time, I also

wrote three books and spoke on stages all over the country. I charged high fees and was

in high demand. It was hard, but satisfying work that not only gave my family a nice

income, it also provided incomes for dozens of people that worked for me.

However, in 2008-2009 the economy tanked. Unfortunately for my agency, many of our clients who had been making money for years suddenly saw their businesses dry up, which in turn caused our revenue to stop like a car careening into a concrete barrier.

At age 39, I reached what could only be described as a personal and business crisis.

I suffered my first anxiety attack and spent a night in the hospital wondering if I was

dying. There’s nothing like not knowing where money will come from to make payroll

and pay creditors to send you into a tailspin.

To keep the lights on and people fed, I borrowed money and racked up credit card

debt thinking we’d be able to market and sell our way out of a hole. Finally, in early 2009,

I had to lay off my entire staff, which included friends, family members, and my current

business partner, Brandon.

The only way I knew to survive was to hustle. I took on coding projects, did marketing

consults, and serviced small Google Adwords clients to service my debt and pay the bills.

This time was humbling for me, but it also was a time for me to go back to “school.”

I wrote my fourth book. I helped others write books too. I started a radio show with my

friend Mark Imperial on 560-WIND in Chicago. Although I didn’t realise it at the time,

those things not only kept me above the surface of the water, they taught me a great deal

that is so much a part of my life now.

It was about 2012 that I started to pay attention to Facebook Advertising. I actually

got to meet Tom Meloche, one of our co-authors, because I invited him on my radio

show for an interview.

I remember after that interview I began to study Facebook more intently. I invested

in a $97 course and began to learn everything I could. As my confidence steadied, I sent

out an email to my old crusty mailing list and asked who wanted help with Facebook Ads.

That email produced JD and Amy Crouse of Bolder Band Headbands (I tell their

story in this book). It produced Sander of Dharmashop.com. It produced Mike of Blue

Ribbon Foods.

From those clients and several more, I quickly grew my income and within 12

months paid off my six-figure debt and started a 401(k) for my retirement and a 529

plan for my daughters’ college education.

It led me to Facebook headquarters in 2016. It led me back to my friend Brandon

Boyd who I laid off seven years before that, and we started Feedstories together.

Today we’re a growing video and Facebook agency. I’m writing this, my fifth book,

getting new speaking opportunities, reconnecting with old friends and clients, and

finding new opportunities to serve and impact people’s lives.

I tell you this not to brag, but to encourage you.

Many of you are on the path like I am. You may be experiencing the highest of highs

or suffering through the lowest lows.

My best advice and words to you are to stay with it. Keep fighting! Success may be

one meeting, one project, or one opportunity away.

Entrepreneurship will have its highs and lows. It’s not a path many will choose to

follow. I tell my basketball players, “If it was easy, everyone would be playing this game.”

I say the same to you. If entrepreneurship were easy, everyone would own a business.

That’s my story. See how it helps build a foundation for my own business? Story

helps you succeed.

In this chapter, you’ll read several case studies and a set of questions to ask

yourself to help you bring out your story. Almost all of the businesses we work with

believe they’re boring, but then in the next breath say their business is different.

Developing your story helps visitors see you’re not boring and believe that your

business is different.

STAND OUT WITH STORY

You have two choices to get more sales with your advertising. You can spend more

money, or you can add more depth to your brand’s story to stand out.

When you share slices of life with your audience, you will get more people following

you and make it super simple for you to connect with your audience. People love to be

connected to people who share the same slices of life with them and will go out of their

way to support someone they believe in.

Following are examples of how stories have driven my client’s businesses over the

Years.

From Kitchen Table Startup to Shopify’s Retailer of the Year

J.D. and Amy from Colorado reached out to me in 2013 in response to an email I sent

out looking to pick up new Facebook clients.

Amy had created a new type of headband from her kitchen table. She told me

that she had hated how headbands she bought would always slip off her head during

workouts and they were ineffective at soaking up the sweat and keeping it out of her

eyes. After a tireless search for something that worked, she decided to make one herself.

After finding the right combination of material and design, she found something

that worked and began wearing it to the gym. Her friends took notice and asked her to

make some headbands for them as well.

After her friends used the headbands and raved about them, Amy went to her

husband J.D. and said that they might have a little business on their hands. She made a

small batch of these headbands and sold them to other women at her gym.

It was then that J.D. (a marketing consultant) knew they had something that they

could market. It was kismet that the very next morning my email arrived and J.D.

immediately reached out and set up a call for the three of us to chat.

After getting validation that people would actually pay for these bands, J.D. and

Amy knew the next test would be to sell these online to complete strangers and see if

they really had something.

However, they had legitimate concerns. They were worried about making a

product in their home that had no proprietary materials or technology that would

make it patentable. An enterprising company could catch on and they could easily

knock them off.

I remember that call as if it were yesterday. I said, “Amy, I know this is just a

headband and I know that there’s nothing inherently special about the material or way

you make them. However, I believe that you can have a successful business because we’re

going to connect your product to you. We’re going to tell your story and we’re going to

build a following of women who are just like you, and they will be loyal to your product

and you and become champions for what you’re doing. They may try and knock off your

product, but the only thing they cannot knock off is your story. No one can replicate

your story and how this product came to light. That’s how we’re going to make this successful!”.

Now, you have to understand that Amy did not intend to launch a personality-based

business. She certainly didn’t think that creating a headband at her kitchen table could

actually become a significant business. She did not feel special. She did not think that

people would be “inspired” by her.

But in order to make this work, I knew she would have to be the face of the company.

I challenged her to be herself and that this product would attract customers who were

just like her. Facebook is the ideal medium for this kind of strategy.

Amy is a humble, middle-aged Christian mom and wife with three kids, who loves

CrossFit and running. She is as comfortable dressing up for a night with friends as she is dressing up in workout clothes and working up a sweat. She and her husband have a passion for business and blessing their hometown. Just count the “slices of life” Amy

shares with her audience! 

I said, “There are tens of thousands of women just like you and all we need to do is

tell your story.”

One of the fundamentals of story is the more you connect with people, the more

they will buy your product. In this case, we already knew the product was good based on

the feedback from their first customers. Now, all we had to do was tell the story and find

more people like that on Facebook.

We started with a video of Amy telling her story of how she created the headbands.

I have included a link on the resource page to a 30 second and two-minute version of

our early videos available at www.PerryMarshall.com/fbtools. You should watch them.

It’s cool to see how the video has evolved. This video isn’t the highest quality but note

the most important thing: We just had her tell her story. Then we included clips of her

working out and put in still shots of her friends wearing the headbands. We put a simple

happy music track under it and away we went. That’s how it all started.

In the second year of business, Bolder Bands won Shopify’s Build-A-Business

Fashion & Apparel Retailer of the Year Award in 2014 amongst thousands of companies.

Seven years later, Bolder Bands is still in business. Millions in sales and hundreds of

thousands of fans and counting, all built upon a really good product from a really good

person who told a really good story.