Businesses Need To Create Better Stories

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We all have a long to-do list and tend to think about ourselves and our duties a lot. But other people? Here's how can we make better stories for them & us.

As a solo professional, what’s my story? I’ll give you the “Cliff Notes” and summarize it by saying that quite simply, my story is:

I have a lot to do.

That’s it! It has all the makings of a blockbuster summer movie as a story full of nothing but pure excitement and entertainment! It’s true. I seemingly have a never-ending list of projects, tasks, and appointments that I have to do. After all, running a solo professional business is hard enough, and that’s not even including my role as a bumbling stay-at-home-dad, a husband who can barely cook, a wannabe mountain bike rider, and a nerdy reader of philosophy and history.

And so, I’d venture to guess that if I, or someone else, where to ask you to summarize your story, it wouldn’t be out of the realm of possibilities to say that you too have a lot to do. Let’s face it, each day, or even each half hour for that matter, we have enough to do to keep ourselves, our clients, and our businesses quite occupied with appointments, tasks, projects, meetings, and dare I say…when we can… rest. After all, this is our daily lives. It’s what we do. It’s our profession. And now it’s become our story.

But I hope that in the midst of everything I have to do, and in the midst of my own professional aspirations, I can create a bit more depth to the day-in and day-out list generated by the demands of my business. In other words, I hope that I can create a better story.
How about you? Do you hope to create more daily depth within your profession and business? Do you hope to have your story summarized with more than just “having lots to do?” I know for me, the better story that I hope to create through my business centers on one simple theme:

People always being people first.

That sounds like a much better story than just “having lots to do.”

Here’s what I mean: Our current story, everything on our to-do list, serves an essential role within our businesses and enterprises. Our tasks, appointments, projects, and meetings help us organize, plan, brainstorm, and prepare for all the various demands placed on us by our businesses, clients, and customers. But hopefully that’s not where the story ends. The better stories created by our businesses are the ones where we place people, and their stories, first… even in the midst of our time-crunched daily schedule.

Who are the people, you might ask?

  • Your clients and customers, encompassing the good, the bad, the late-paying, and the high-demanding
  • Your colleagues and coworkers
  • Your vendors
  • Your taxi driver
  • The server who’s waiting on your table during lunch
  • The intern taking your morning espresso order
  • The person you share a seat with on the transit train to/from work
  • Dare I say… your boss, or your board of trustees

When we start placing people and their stories first, the better story created by our business is that we value relationships over revenue. Wow, did I just say that? I did.
And that value is the lifeblood of my own solo professional business. It’s a story that I take more pride in creating than I do in generating revenue and profit.

Does that mean I undermine revenue and profit?

Not at all. It just means that revenue and profit have their place, but it’s not above the value of placing people and their stories first. Additionally, I’ll go as far to say that even though people (as clients, customers, and partners) are the ultimate source behind our revenue and profits, they should always be viewed as people first… not as people who might provide us with business. If they end up providing us with business, leading to revenue and profit, then that’s just an extra bonus.

Without a doubt, creating this better story is sometimes quite difficult.
After all, I have a:

  • never-ending list of vendors and bills to pay
  • business to grow and market
  • prospect who won’t stop asking questions
  • store clerk who’s more interested in their mobile device than ringing me up
  • tired wife who walks in from a long day at work
  • toddler who’s self-entertained by dropping food at my feet while I’m trying to work

Sometimes, the last thing I want to do is put them and their story first. It’s hard enough to just to keep my head from sinking below the surface, let alone place their situations and stories above my own. But yet, deep down, it’s exactly what I want to do. Like I mentioned before, we will always have that never-ending to-do list. We will always have “a lot to do.”

I want my business to create a better story because I want to value relationships over revenue. I want to be known as the solo professional who’s not in it “for the money.” I’d much rather be known as the solo professional who’s in it “for the people.” Just take a moment and look around at all the national and global stories making their way across our news feeds. To say it’s not been a very fun or uplifting few weeks of news from around the globe would be an understatement. With that said, think about the stories that are out there in our world.

Think about your own story.

Now begin imagining how your business can begin creating a better story by placing people as people first. Your community; team; partners; circle of friends, barista, taxi driver, family, clients, and the rest of your daily interactions are craving this better story.

You can provide it.

Don’t let your story be known as just “having a lot to do.”

Start letting yourself and your business create that better story by placing people as people first; by placing relationships over revenue. When you do, I’m here, eagerly awaiting to say, “Wow, now THAT’s a great story! That’s a story made for pure excitement, entertainment, and encouragement.”

The book is wide open. Go and start creating that better story.

Until then… “Newer questions. Deeper Thinking. Better stories” – Wes Wilson

 

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