Hands up if this is you.
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- You’re a blogger with a blog that’s all over the place. You know that having a plan – and laser-like focus – is how you grab people’s attention, build a loyal audience and achieve all your goals (including making money). You wish your blog was doing those things. But it’s not. It’s just not working.
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- You’re a small business owner, and you know you have the right service or product – but your marketing efforts are met with the sounds of crickets. You just don’t know how to get that message out in a way that sticks.
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- You’re a writer or author with a great idea – but the structure is a mess. Your book proposal keeps getting passed over. Your book manuscript came back from your publisher with a note saying “I love the idea, and you know your stuff, but this is too messy and unfocused to be a book. (Sorry!)” Your pitches aren’t getting accepted. Your articles are rambling streams of consciousness. You’re just not getting anywhere.
Here’s the solution to these problems.
All You Need Is The Right Story.
(And a ton of hard work.)
Yes, really.
Hi. My name is Mike, and I help people turn their tangled ideas into a real story.
Have you heard of SEO (Search Engine Optimization)?
SEO is the art of helping search engines discover your great content. (Here’s the best introduction I’ve read on the subject.)
SEO is important with anything you do online – but what happens when those people actually arrive? What’s the point of having an absolutely killer strategy for getting discovered, but your content, the thing you’re promoting, isn’t getting into people’s heads in the way you want it to?
Here’s what storytelling is.
Storytelling is SEO for the human brain.
Storytelling makes content sink deep into people. It hooks them, it excites them, it gives them vicarious experiences that are just as powerful as the real thing. Storytelling is an immensely powerful set of tools for making people care. That’s why you need it.
(Want to learn more? Here’s a free ebook I wrote on the subject.)
Convinced yet?
If not, try digging into this pile of free storytelling resources.
Now – here’s how better storytelling will affect you.
Firstly, it stops you doing this to your phone or laptop…
Blogger?
You need to tell stories that hook people – not just individual one-off yarns that get shared around, but longer story arcs that make people return again and again.
You need stories that raise the stakes and make people care where you’re going, and where it’s all going to end.
You need stories that will grow your blog, not kill it.
Business owner?
You need to launch your products and services with a story that really sells them.
You need to give customers a reason to keep returning, again and again, addicted to the story of your business and what it’s attempting to do for the world.
You need to have something to aim for – and you need to communicate it, so everyone cares where your business is going as much as you do.
Author Or Freelance Writer?
You need to make stories that delight readers, agents and publishers, and to fire off pitches that delight editors and literary agents. (Not “satisfy”. That’s not good enough. Delight. You need to completely floor them.)
You need to decide why you’re doing with all your writing plans and nail down what you really want to achieve (because “passion” doesn’t guarantee success, by a long shot).
You need to know what to do, where to go, and how to get there – so you can write yourself over whatever finishing-line you choose.
I Can Help.
Sometimes it’s a quick half-hour call on Skype. Sometimes it’s an ongoing relationship over many months, involving e-mails, calls, exercises, challenges and entire bucket-lists of milestones ticked off. Sometimes it’s a single piece of advice; sometimes it’s an entire course of it.
It’s always exactly as long as you need to find the right story.
– I’ve helped people build long-term narratives for their blogs, designed to build a loyal audience that has a strong sense of that blogger really going somewhere.
– I’ve helped authors find the story in their notes, first draft and even their final copy, so they can publish a book that truly shows the world what they’re capable of.
– I’ve helped people score guest posts in high-profile sites, and get their pitches accepted in major publications.
– I’ve helped people find the motivation to work, to dodge writer’s block and to outwit their own brains in order to get writing.
– I’ve helped people fall in love with their own stories again – the ones they tell and the ones they live – and I’ve helped convert that renewed enthusiasm into formidable productivity.
– I’ve helped people get started on their dream projects – and I’ve helped people finish them.
How does it work?
We’ll bounce a few e-mails back and forth until we’re both really clear about what you want to achieve from our work together – what you want to get done, by when, based on your needs.
Then we’ll agree on exactly how that’s going to happen – and I’ll work with you to create an effective, reliable road-map for your story that you can use as a guide for your future work, to get you to where you want to be. A few examples from past clients:
– A story audit for a blog – a narrative-oriented business plan that you can use to guide your long-term strategy (for more details of this approach check out my storytelling course for bloggers)
– A story-based marketing strategy for your blog or business that’s designed to grab attention using terrific, social-media-friendly standalone or serialised storytelling
– A series of calls or e-mails concerning the plot of your book until we’ve put everything in the right place and found something that will get you and your readers (and agent, and publisher) really, really excited
– A pragmatic and achievable plan for nailing that dream creative project you’ve never managed to get started, let alone get finished. We’ll map out the whole process in detail, including working out how you’re going to fit it into your busy life and stick to the process until it’s done.
What Do I Charge?
I currently charge a flat fee of £100 for an entire story consult and follow-up, start to finish – and we’ll agree in advance exactly what that entails, before you commit.
Are you sick of feeling stuck?
Let’s Find The Story You Need.
Contact me here.
F.A.Q.
How much time will it take up?
As much or as little time as you need, as slow or as fast as you want, to get your story straight. We’ll go at your pace, based on your requirements and availability.
Do you really know how this storytelling stuff works, Mike?
I do! (And if you’re sceptical – I understand completely.)
But don’t take my word for it – please check out the testimonials of the students of my storytelling course here.
When can we get started?
Let’s go! My e-mail address is here – or fill out the form below. Thanks!
Images: Joel Montes de Oca and Mike Sowden.