Connect & Convert: How To Craft An Origin Story That Attracts High-Paying Clients Consistently
Here’s a typical scenario I often see among coaches.
They poured their heart into a webinar, crafted every slide with care, and delivered their pitch with passion.
Yet, as the screen fades to black, the silence is deafening—no flurry of sign-ups, no eager inquiries, just a quiet inbox.
It's a scenario that's all too familiar, and if it ever happened to you, it surely left you questioning, "Where did I go wrong?"
In today's article, we're going to explore the often this overlooked element can make or break your connection with potential clients.
It's not about the how flashy your presentation is or the depth of your content.
The solution to your problem require something far more personal and powerful.
From Professional to Personal: The Storytelling Secret to Client Engagement
The heart of the issue lies in the absence of an Origin Story.
An Origin Story is a narrative that does more than recount your qualifications.
It's the journey that reveals your why, the challenges you've faced, and the triumphs that have shaped you.
It's about making your audience see themselves in your story, igniting a spark of connection that no list of achievements can.
This problem is that, conventionally, it is often believed that professionalism equates to a polished, impersonal front.
We're told to highlight our successes and hide our struggles, to maintain an aura of infallibility.
But in doing so, we in fact become just another face in the crowd of coaches, indistinguishable and distant.
Think about the last time you heard a story that moved you. Any movie, book, or shorts.
It likely wasn't the tale of a flawless victory, but one of overcoming adversity.
A story where vulnerability was the hero's strength.
Now, imagine your potential clients hearing your story and seeing their own aspirations reflected back at them. They see YOU as their future self.
That's the power of a personal story: It transforms you from a service provider into a guide who has walked the path they wish to tread.
That makes you a leader.
That makes you their qualified mentor, coach, or teacher.
And this is something no amount of certifications can give you.
The Storytelling Strategy That Wins Hearts and Clients
The key to connecting with potential clients lies in the art of storytelling.
But specifically, the storytelling of your origin story.
This isn't just about sharing where you came from, your ‘qualifications’ of certified yadda yadda yadda or how many years you’ve been in business.
Booooooooring!
It's about weaving a narrative that resonates with the core of your audience's aspirations and challenges.
It’s about heart.
It's about showing them that you're not just an expert in your field, but also someone who has navigated the same journey they're on now.
What often gets overlooked is the human element. The personal connection that makes all the difference.
You need to understand that your potential clients aren't just looking for someone who knows their stuff. They're looking for someone who understands THEM, who has been where they are, and has come out the other side.
Anytime anyone choses a coach, trainer, mentor, it’s never purely just the features that swayed them, but the story, values and philosophy behind it. The founder's passion. The company's mission. The problem they set out to solve.
These are the things that moves us; that make us feel like we're part of something bigger.
A good origin story is a bridge between you and your clients.
When you get this right, this is what turns a pitch into a conversation, and a transaction into a relationship.
It's what shows your clients you're not just selling something. You're offering a pathway to what they've been dreaming of.
And when they see themselves in your story, that's when they go from being interested to being invested.
The Proven Framework to Create Great Origin Stories
A reliable framework I’ve been using for building an effective origin story Joseph Campbell’s Hero’s Journey framework.
The reason why the framework creates a great origin story is because of the following key reasons:
Universality: It deals with fundamental human concerns such as growth, maturation, identity, and the quest for meaning. These are experiences that almost everyone encounters, making the story relatable on a personal level.
Moral and Ethical Lessons: It often includes moral lessons that serve as cautionary tales or guides for living. These lessons can be inspiring and provide a framework for personal conduct and values.
Emotional Engagement: It creates an emotional arc with highs and lows that mirror the human experience. Audiences empathize with the hero's struggles, fears, and triumphs, which keeps them emotionally invested in the story.
Transformation and Catharsis: The main character has a transformation provides a sense of catharsis for the audience. As the hero overcomes obstacles and grows, the audience vicariously experiences the transformation, which can be uplifting and affirming.
Escapism: The story often takes place in a world that is different from the ordinary, providing a sense of escapism. This allows the audience to step away from their daily lives and immerse themselves in a fantastical or exotic setting.
Satisfying Structure: The story offers a familiar and satisfying narrative structure. The progression from the ordinary world to the special world and back again provides a clear beginning, middle, and end that helps the audience follow the story and anticipate the stages of the journey.
Hope and Optimism: The story is often about overcoming adversity and succeeding against the odds. This instills hope and optimism, suggesting that an individual have the power to change their lives and the world around them.
Memorable Characters and Relationships: The relationships between the hero and other characters, such as mentors, allies, and enemies, are often rich and complex, adding depth to the story and creating memorable and beloved characters.
Symbolism and Metaphor: The story is rich with symbolism and metaphor, which allows for multiple levels of interpretation. This depth can lead to discussions and analyses that extend beyond the immediate story, making the narrative more engaging and thought-provoking.
In the past, crafting such a story is largely in the domain of memoir writers or script writers. And it usually take a long time to write such a thing.
If not this, the coach, consultant or trainer who wishes to write their origin story would normally have to learn this from something and try to make it on their own.
But now, we have AI that can do this for us, provided that we gave it enough context 🙂
How YOU Can Use AI to Create Your Own Origin Story
Using AI, I’ve been able to condense a multi-week work into a 10 minute exercise, and as always I will leave you with some actionable steps you can take to help move your business forward.
So here’s a step-by-step process that I follow when I am helping my clients craft their origin story using AI.
Step #1: First, I give my client a form with 39 questions to fill. This may seem like a lot, but remember that AI needs ample context to create good output.
*this is page 1 of my Origin Story questionnaire
Step #2: I then copy+paste the entire form, the questions as well as the responses into a robust AI. ChatGPT isn’t going to cut it. When I first started doing this I used to use Claude-2 due to their 100k token context window. Right now I use bettergpt.chat with my own OpenAI API key. And I select the gpt-4-1106-preview model for its 128k token context window.
What’s cool about bettergpt.chat is that you can change the parameters and the model you used without having to use OpenAI playground.
Step #3: Together with the form responses, I also give the AI details about my client; the offer they want to sell or their business idea, so that the AI knows what angle to give the client. This is important because of Step 4.
Step #4: In step 4, I ask the AI to brainstorm 10-20 simple narrations based on their story that gives them the right to sell what they want to sell.
Step #5: After we select the narration, I ask the AI to extract relevant details based on the Hero’s Journey framework and the narration we chose. This gives us the chance to assess whether the AI got the facts right before we ask it to begin writing.
Step #6: Finally, I ask the AI to write for me a 2000 word memoir based on the chosen narrative and the extracted details. You can also ask it to write to whichever length you prefer, whether it’s 1000 word, 500 word, or even 300 word. Up to you to decide how long or short it is.
The output is usually around 95% there, requiring very little editing. Weeks of work condensed into just a 10 minute work!
The Origin Story is then used in various forms:
Dossier: If the client is invited to do an interview, they may send this or a shortened version of this to their interviewer as a dossier so that the interviewer knows how to prepare for their interview.
Website: The Origin Story may also be placed in the About section of their website, helping prospects know about their background and qualification in a fun and interesting way.
Networking: Armed with the proper narration of their Origin Story, they can use a condensed version of it as an introduction when they are talking to potential investors, collaborators or clients during networking events. Many have been able to sell their programs just by knowing how to talk about their background.
Pre-pitch: Told at the beginning of a virtual event, or just before the virtual event upsell pitch to ‘earn the right’
Post-pitch: Alternatively, told AFTER the pitch to rehumanize their brand.
The Impact of Authentic Storytelling
By crafting an Origin Story, you're creating permanent asset that will help pave the way for your business goals.
Imagine a scenario where every webinar you host or every piece of content you share resonates deeply with your audience, compelling them to reach out and engage with your services.
This is a reality that many famous authors, speakers, and thought leaders have already achieved.
Think J.K. Rowling, Rhonda Byrne, Tony Robbins, Robert Kiyosaki, and Brené Brown: these legends have all leveraged the power of origin stories to connect with their audience and establish themselves as authorities in their respective fields.
As you begin to share your journey, you'll notice a shift in how your social media audience, prospects, and clients interact with you.
They'll see you not just as a coach but as a mentor who has walked the path they're on.
This fosters trust, and trust leads to action. And respect.
You'll find that people are much more willing to invest in your services because they believe in you and the transformation you offer.
You will receive little to no objections during sales conversations, and in fact you may find that people start justifying to you how much they need you! This is a reality that we often see among our clients.
This is the power of creating a brand that's not just seen but felt. A brand that speaks directly to the hearts and minds of your clients.
When you achieve this level of connection, you become the undisputed authority in your niche, and your business thrives as a result. 🙂
Use the trick I just taught you. Take action. Let me know how it goes.
Felix
