The Secret Sauce Podcast
Helping people build big businesses & live big lives - one ingredient at a time. That's our mission. Welcome to the Secret Sauce Podcast.
The Secret Sauce Podcast
The Real Reason Nobody Cares About Your Success Stories (And How to Fix It)
Storytelling may be the single most powerful tool you're underutilizing in your business. In an age where every industry faces increasing commoditization—particularly in real estate and lending—your ability to tell compelling stories could be the difference between thriving and merely surviving.
"The most powerful person in the world is a storyteller," Steve Jobs once said, and we couldn't agree more. The problem? Most of us are telling the wrong stories in the wrong way. We position ourselves as heroes, boasting about deals closed and numbers exceeded, without realizing our audience simply can't relate to these achievements. They scroll past, unmoved by our professional victories.
What if there was a better approach? In this episode, we unpack a powerful three-part storytelling framework that transforms how you connect with clients. First, start with a moment of conflict or challenge your clients faced, not a dry summary of what you did. Second, make your clients the heroes of the story, positioning yourself as the guide who helped them (think Yoda to Luke Skywalker). Finally, close with meaning—showing how your clients' lives improved because of the outcome, not just the transaction metrics that matter to you.
The beauty of this approach is that while your clients remain the heroes, you become endeared to your audience as the storyteller. People connect with you on a deeper level, understanding your values and approach through the stories you tell. In a world of commoditized services, this emotional connection becomes your greatest competitive advantage. Ready to transform your marketing and client relationships? This episode gives you the blueprint to get started.
This is the secret sauce podcast, with Chad trees and Lacey Morris, where we want to help people build big businesses and live big lives. We think every episode is going to maybe give you one ingredient that you could add to your recipe to create your own secret sauce. This is secret sauce podcast. Let's get into it. Storytelling is your superpower in a commoditized industry.
Speaker 1:It's pretty good hook huh, you like that, all right. This, this episode, is going to be all about storytelling. Uh, I, I was thinking about this and, uh, we're starting to inject it more in our business. Uh, and I just wanted to share it. So I'm not, I'm not a pro at this, but it's something that I've been thinking a lot about. It's on my mind, and so whenever something's really heavy on my mind, I'm like, yeah, that'd make a good podcast episode well, I wouldn't even say you've been thinking a lot about it.
Speaker 2:I would say you've been studying a lot about it. I would say you've been implementing a lot here.
Speaker 1:Oh yeah, yeah, I mean definitely studying, uh, implementing, we started implementing and like it just feels different. So, um to set this up a little bit, um, pretty famous guy, ste Steve Jobs, once said that the most powerful person in the world is a storyteller. I just think that's so good. It's spot on In our businesses. So, lenders, realtors, Sales.
Speaker 1:Sales in general. We like to highlight ourselves and everything we do and the marketing that we do, everything we talk about and everything we do in the marketing that we do, everything we talk about. Even if we do tell a story, we tell it in like making us the hero and I just think there's a lot missing there. You know, people aren't going to relate to that, the only people that are going to relate to it are other realtors other lenders and we're not trying to sell them Right.
Speaker 1:So I think you will love this episode. If you are struggling with how to maybe connect with your clients in a different way, have your clients really lean in and want to interact with your business. In a digitized social media world, we all know we need to get better at it. Storytelling is the number one thing that's going to make people engage with your business.
Speaker 2:I mean, I couldn't agree more that an MSS word of all the commoditized.
Speaker 1:You got it, I did it the first time I was focusing.
Speaker 2:I'm super proud of you, but that is if you do not believe our industry in whole is leaning towards that. You're mistaken. Like we, every single piece of technology is trying to figure out how to commoditize what we do.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and this, this episode is so real, it's so raw, it's so needed. Um, and I, I just I love it because we need all these these ideas and techniques, but this is really, I believe, the heart of if you want to stay and you want to survive not just survive, but thrive Definitely Storytelling is where it's going to be.
Speaker 1:Yeah, the facts behind it. So we just get into some facts, right? So humans are wired for stories, like it's a reason why we love going to the movies, reading books and the framework for most of these stories the framework for most of these stories, if you want, like, once you study this a little bit, the framework for the most all movies, blockbuster movies, uh, you know, action movies, all the way down to rom-coms everything typically has the same typical framework for a story Um, and it's what engages us as humans. Our brains are just hardwired to love it. So you know, humans are wired for story, not for spreadsheets. Facts tell, but stories actually sell. So I like to think, okay, there is a three-part framework for the story and the storytelling that sells. There's a three-part framework and we've got to start with a moment, not a summary. So in every story there's a moment that is the turning point or the conflict right.
Speaker 1:There's a problem that arises in every really compelling story over time. If you look at this, so you know if we relate this to business, the biggest thing I see is lenders and realtors posting like just closed or just listed or whatever posts, and so we just closed this house. You know, four days on market, 20 grand over list. Uh, the average consumer doesn't care about that. You know, they can't relate to it. It doesn't, they don't, it doesn't invoke a feeling in them, and that's what storytelling really does. So you have to start with a moment. Like the Jones family thought that they were stuck, that they couldn't move on to their next home. They had hit a roadblock, they were having another baby and outgrowing their house and they didn't know where to turn Right. And then step two is that we need to make the client the hero.
Speaker 1:OK, not ourselves, not ourselves, and that's what we all try to do is we all try to make ourselves?
Speaker 2:the hero of the story oh, look at me, look at me.
Speaker 1:It feels good to us, but it doesn't feel good to the people watching it. It doesn't feel good to the people reading that book. Right it's, there's always a guide that comes along.
Speaker 2:Well, hold on. I wouldn't say that I think it doesn't feel good, but what I think the point of that is, it doesn't draw Okay. So when I hear it like we say it doesn't feel good, yeah, I mean like when I see somebody post something about they closed this or they sold this, I'm like, oh, good job.
Speaker 1:You know, but you're also in the industry. You have a little bit of a bias that if you see one of your realtor partners post something that you're like, oh, I like that's cool, yep.
Speaker 2:But I'm not but. But what I'm meaning is it doesn't mean it's not good, but I'm not bought into it, I don't care, I don't have the emotion attached to it.
Speaker 1:It doesn't move the needle for you Exactly, really Like yeah, you're like oh cool, good for you if you're friends watching that you're not like man, I can't wait to go list my house with that person or anything, right, because you don't get a feeling from it. Uh, so you got to make sure that the client is the hero of the story and that you're just coming along as the guide, okay, so if we look at this in movie references, um, people will recognize this in movies throughout, throughout time. We'll start with star wars, right, like everybody likes to think that. Like, who's this? Who's the hero of the of the original Star Wars? Have you, have you seen it? You haven't seen it.
Speaker 2:I know, but you know I'm smiling so big right now because my oldest son is now like addicted and he's watched all of them and he's like mom, we have to watch these together.
Speaker 1:I've never watched one okay, for anybody that has watched any of the star wars movies, we'll know that luke skywalker in the original star wars he's the hero, okay, okay, but the person who comes along and helps luke skywalker, you've got a couple of people obi-wan kenobi and yoda. As the story progresses, in multiple movies yoda becomes the guide, but in in the first episode it's um, well, the guide is Obi-Wan Kenobi, but anyways, those are the people that just come along and they help them get to resolve the conflicts. The conflict is, you know that the Empire is trying to take over the galactic world and like lots of drama, right? So the drama is set. There's conflict. Luke Skywalker is the hero. Yoda comes along, or Obi-Wan Kenobi comes along and helps them finish the mission. Okay, we have to look at ourselves as Obi-Wan or as Yoda, not as Luke Skywalker. Our clients are Luke Skywalker. Okay, if you look at it in another example.
Speaker 2:Well, so let's go back to that really quick though.
Speaker 2:So if, in that same exact scenario that you just explained and you said, I think you said maybe the Jones family and they outgrew their home right, like they're the heroes, so how are they the heroes? Like they didn't think that they could do this. Now they found this house in the right neighborhood or the right school district. That's going to help their family grow. That's going to help. Do you see what I mean? Like, how do we focus? How do we move that? Focus on? I did this versus this is what they did and, like you said, you guided them to help that and to get there. But they are the heroes in it and that exact story.
Speaker 1:Right. So what with the average person watching content or whatever listening to that story? They're going to want to relate more, unless they're a realtor or a lender. They're going to relate more to the homeowner, right? It's like, oh, I could see myself, I've been in that situation right? So they need to put themselves in somebody's shoes and it's more likely they're going to put themselves in the shoes of the person that they can actually relate with the most. And they're not going to. Unless they a realtor, they're not going to relate to the realtor's point of view, right, so how do they get them there? I mean, every story is different. So, like, yes, the framework is the same, but the story how they actually get there is going to be a little bit different, but the roles are the same. The hero, the guide, are always going to be the same, and you got to make sure that you put the right people in the right. When we say that you are the guide, you're not the savior, right, you are just the person that's helping them get there, but you can do it with impact. I think it's not like.
Speaker 1:And then I came along and I listed their house and they got four days on market 20 grand over list. You just put yourself right back in like you became the savior, right? You became the hero again. So you still got to focus on the client getting to the end result and you just coming along. So, on the client getting to the end result and you just coming along, so it's like okay. And then here's what we did. We came up with a listing strategy that was unique, that allowed them to buy their next house without having to sell first. We talked to the lender, worked these things out that they could be non-contingent, so they didn't have a baby on the way.
Speaker 1:Whatever the reasons are, you've got to build the narrative, right, right, for what their conflict is, and then how you came along and help them ultimately reach that goal. And then at the end, so that's the final is just, you have to close with meaning. So what does that mean to the client? Right? So again, step one is going to be you're going to create, basically, the conflict.
Speaker 1:Start with the moment that, the tipping point, right. Then you set the set up whose role, who's playing, who, right? The customer is the hero, you're the guide, and then you close with meaning. So, once you've provided all of that, okay, and what does that mean to the consumer? So now here's a picture of them living their lives, their new lives in their new story, in their backyard, like with the tree swing that you basically help them go from overcrowded to enough space for the whole family to spread out. And then there's a picture of them not just the house that you close, but a picture of them experiencing life in their new house, so you're closing with meaning where people can actually connect to that and say man and want that yeah.
Speaker 1:Want it and feel it.
Speaker 2:Well, you and I were discussing this, you made this comment and I just thought it was really really good. You said your service, so your service would be us as a lender, or the real estate agent, or whatever is the bridge but it's not the destination, right, and we have to look at it as what we're doing is the bridge to get them there.
Speaker 2:We're the guide they get them over the bridge, we're the service that helps them get there, but the destination is the outcome, the home, the all the things that we just said, that our hero is, yeah, the client what they're going to experience yep yeah, because right now, what we try to say, like the outcome is, is we sold it 20 grand over list?
Speaker 1:No, the outcome is that they're living this new life in their new home, like experiencing life the way they want to.
Speaker 2:You know, they didn't have to wait a year because of it, like, whatever you help them achieve, the outcome is how they're experiencing it, not how you're experiencing it so good, not how you're experiencing it so good, um, and, and the coaching I've been doing right now with this storytelling, and it's crazy how, um, so we'll, we'll come up with, we'll have one scenario kind of like that, and then we'll all go around and we'll talk about some sort of story, um, and then we kind of all critique each other and, as it's, it's a very interesting exercise because as you're listening to somebody else, you're thinking how does this making me feel right, like, am I buying?
Speaker 2:Like, and and, and that's what happens on the other end of all of the social media stuff that we do. So being so intentional, like I think this is just such good content to slow down and think. But when we did this and we all three go around, man, a couple of people just crushed it and you were like, bought in, you are, you want to know more. You feel so much more connected, like you know, and, and a couple of the students on this call with me. I'm like man, I know you so much better now that I know that I've worked with you for five years, I never knew that that was your path, you know, or whatever it was, and it changes, it changes everything.
Speaker 1:Right, so that's the. I love that you brought that up, because I don't even know if I was going to touch on it. But as you were talking about, I was like there is the like, unintended, amazing consequence of this too, because we go right back to that quote Right, the most powerful person in the world is the storyteller. And to that quote right, the most powerful person in the world is the storyteller. And the storyteller is now endeared in the, in the eyes of the, the viewers, of the listeners, right, so you saying I know you so much better now, like you want to do business with that person, right you?
Speaker 2:connect more.
Speaker 1:You connect more, you understand them more and all they're doing is telling the story. It's somebody else's story, like how you helped them. It's their story, but you're still the storyteller. They're still endeared to you, like they want to interact with you, they want to know more about you and so, um, that's a beautiful, like, I love that. I love that you hit on that. Uh, I don't know if I'd have gotten there. Um, I think we can wrap it Like I want to keep this short and sweet.
Speaker 2:Very powerful, very impactful If you you know and do a little bit of research, right Like read some more stories on storytelling and there's so much information out there. There's so much, yeah, and it's so good.
Speaker 1:I would definitely say get into chat, gpt, talk about, like how do I create a story from this situation? There's a lot of that that we're doing now on our team. That's like hey, here's the situation, here is the conflict, here's what the customer was had going on, here's how we helped them solve that problem. Here's now how, what they're experiencing. How do I tie this into a story framework? That would. That would work. That's going to grab people's attention and and make sure that the customer is the hero. Like, if you prompt it all out that way, it's going to give you a beautiful story, a beautiful narrative.
Speaker 1:And all you have to do is deliver it, and it's still your story. Chatgpt didn't create this like.
Speaker 2:It's not fake, it's not fake. It's very authentic, but it helps you do it in such a way you know that you're not like rambling, but it has major impact and it does it like that, and I think that's the problem that so many people have is they know all of the details. They don't know how to articulate it Right. And you are right. Chat can help do that and help do it quickly.
Speaker 2:And no, it's no longer going to hold you back from from doing this and doing it the right way for the biggest impact. I love it Well, I think we can wrap it right there, thanks, for listening, guys.
Speaker 1:We've got some great content coming your way, so keep tuning in and sharing if you would, and we will see you next time. Thanks, guys.
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