When you meet new people in real life (if you ever do meet new people in real life… #hermit) does the conversation ever go something like this:
Them: Hi, nice to meet you. So, what do you do?
You: Hi, umm, <mumble something about having an online business and pray they understand about 62% of it>.
I’ve been guilty of asking this same question in the past, as if a person’s most interesting topic of conversation is about the work they do.
But we’re more than the work we do.
We’re multi-faceted, complex, fascinating humans with thoughts and feelings and experiences and stories that go far beyond how we make a living.
These days, when I meet someone new, I’m more likely to ask them to tell me their story. And usually, I’ll get a chronology of major life events that somehow relate back to the work they do. (Funny how we think our worth is always linked to our work.)
This is actually an approach I used to take when I first started writing about pages for clients. I’d show the reader why a person was “qualified” to do the work they do based on various past events in their life.
I don’t do that anymore. Not because it’s irrelevant, but because it’s not always relatable – and therefore captivating – for the reader.
Chronologies are dull. Vulnerable stories are not.
These days, I like to hunt for what I call the “turning point”. What is the ONE most significant thing that happened in your life to lead you to the work you’re doing now? It’s less about the work itself, and more about who you are as a human (your drives, your desires, your fears, and your resilience) and how that all relates to your reader. Your reader being a person you ultimately want to buy something from you, who shares some of your drives, desires, fears, and resilience.
Your turning point is about peeling back the curtain to reveal an irreversible change in who you are. It doesn’t have to be dramatic or shocking, but you have to be able to distinguish between who you were before the turning point, and who you became afterwards.
The way you express this HAS to resonate with your reader. Not because they’ve been through the same thing, necessarily, but because it helps them understand who you are and how you’re like them.
When you nail your turning point, your best-fit humans feel a connection that runs far deeper than words on a screen.
They suddenly can’t imagine not having you in their life in some way.
And they feel compelled to reach out to you because your message has buried itself under their skin so that they, too, feel changed in some way.
This is exactly the reaction you want. Because those best-fit humans have to feel like they know you, and that you know them, before they’ll buy from you.
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