Creating a connection with your audience is important if you want them to take an action. It doesn’t matter if your audience consists of one person or 100 people. Telling your personal story is extremely important.
I want to illustrate the importance of telling your personal story with a story about a time in my career as a business owner that was not very fun. This is a way to create more of a connection with a business owner and hopefully create a connection with you as well.
I started my personal training business in 2008 – the height of the recession. I know you’re thinking “Who starts a business during the height of the recession?” – ME! This was about 10 years ago and this Month would mark the 10 year anniversary of that business if I still had it. I sold that business in 2017, and it is actually still open today.
The first year I was in business wasn’t fun at all. In fact, in the first six months, I went through all of my cash because I had invested all of my own money from my 401K from 12 years of being in the corporate environment to start this business and I expanded it way faster than I needed too.
I didn’t understand all of the numbers that I needed to be watching in my business to make sure that it was successful. I had a business coach, the first smartest thing I did with my business, but I wasn’t doing all the things she wanted me to do. Here I was about a year into the business, and I was looking at my numbers for the week and realized I was going broke.
One of the things she wanted me to do was a cash forecasting so that I could see if I was ever going to have a cash crunch. What I used to do was sell large packages of 50 to 100 sessions at a time and all this cash would come in and then, over the next six to 12 months I would then fulfill those sessions or pay the trainers to fulfill those sessions. Well, the problem there is, I would have the cash come in one month and I’d have to hold onto it for 12 months and I wasn’t doing that. Near the end of that first 12 months I was going broke. I was cash poor. I didn’t have cash in the business. I remember sitting at my desk on a Sunday afternoon and looking at my numbers, and on that Friday, payroll and rent were due. The two largest expense of any business, and it was due on the same day.
I didn’t have the money, and there was no way that I was going to get the money because I had already tapped into all lines of credit. My credit cards and everything were maxed out and there was no way that I could make that payroll without a Hail Mary coming in. I literally sat at my desk crying, while looking at my books, and it was at that moment that I picked up my phone and had to make the hardest phone call of my life. I had to call my dad. I had to call and ask for help, and as an entrepreneur it is so difficult to ask people for help. Especially your parents. I love my family. I love my mom and dad very much, but we’re not the type of family that talks about finances or troubles and things like that. It was very, very humbling for me to actually have to ask for help.
I had to ask for a loan of $10,000 and thankfully my father gave it to me, and I emphasize the word ‘loan’ because it was a loan. He gave me a large five page document on the loan agreement that I needed to pay it back. He gave me a six month period of interest free, but then the 8% interest would start to kick in. I’m like, “Wow! Thanks dad. That’s a worse rate than the bank would give me.” But, it needed to get me over the hump and it was that impetus of actually having to ask for help and putting my back against a wall that I went even further into the business and doubled down and within six months, I was able to pay him back.
There’s my story. It’s like a little signature story where I’m making a better connection with entrepreneurs, showing my struggles as an entrepreneur. I hope that gives you an illustration of how you can create a connection with your audience whether it’s with one person or with many people so that you can create better connections with your prospects. Sell more products, get people to take action and ultimately, help more people, and put more money into your bank account.
