Brand Storytelling: Three ways to use it in your business

Here's three ways that ADHD Female Entrepreneurs can use Brand Storytelling in their business.

I used to hate reading books as a kid.

I could never find a a genre that I really liked, and my mind would wander so I’d have to read the same page a million times (good ol’ ADHD!)

But in an interesting turn of events I’m now the complete opposite. I love getting my nose into a good page turner (and it has to be pages, none of this kindle nonsense), and with my loops in I can happily curl up with a book whilst my kids watch TV.

Storytelling hasn’t always been for entertainment. Back when we still lived in caves we drew our stories on the walls, warning our fellow Homo sapiens that by the way, there’s a bloody big Mammoth over the hill (before you have a go at me for historical accuracy, these examples are merely for illustration purposes only). And this continued with stories like the good ol’ classic “The Boy who Cried Wolf” which at least made you consider the consequences of lying for a few days at least.

And now brand storytelling is one of the many new trendy words in Marketing.

Once upon a time there was a Business Owner…

Russel Brunsen said: “people buy with emotions and justify with logic.”

And it’s true. You only have to wander around IKEA for half an hour and suddenly you’ve bought a lamp and a kitchen utensil you didn’t need. The John Lewis Advert are always a tear jerker and the Nike Advert always makes you feel you should be a bit more active (but you’ll only succeed if you buy their shoes, of course). Storytelling is used all the time by those with big budgets and teams of people.

But as a solo business owner, is this adding yet another thing that you need to learn about?

For ADHDers the answer is: no.

Because with storytelling you actually have an advantage.

Once, my son (who also has ADHD) created a story about a dream he had about dragons that lasted the half an hour trip home. Of course, he could’ve 100% be telling the truth that he remembered every part of his dream, but regardless it was impressive.

And that’s the thing with ADHDers, our minds are designed for storytelling. We can build plots, characters, twists and backstories faster than you can say bookmark (does that work here? I was thinking of a book related word…we’ll keep it).

And that’s why you should be using it in your content.

Story Stuffing: An important note

You may have already stopped reading, but this next bit is pretty important. Because although us ADHDers are au naturelle with the narrative, we don’t tell stories in a linear way.

Which is fine if you’re talking to another ADHDer - our brains can keep up. Everyone else?

Ach, not so much.

We also aren’t great at prioritising: what do we include? Is EVERYTHING important?!

Suddenly this gorgeous, engaging story about your business has turned into War and Peace. Your clients are confused and confusion doesn’t bring in clients.

So knowing HOW to tell your story is as important as just telling it.

This is where understanding your audience is beneficial. Because if you KNOW what they’re like - you’ll KNOW what stories they’ll love to hear. There’s no point trying to get someone to love Twilight if they don’t like books about vampires…or werewolves…or glittery vampires (sorry: spoiler).

What stories to tell?

So you’ve come around to the idea that storytelling is going to make your life easier as an ADHD business owner (Check out The Den if your struggling with this bit) but what stories can you tell?

Below are three places that you can use your storytelling skills to the MAX:

Case Studies

Instead of a screen shot of a testimonial you can talk about your client’s transformation: from when they started working with you through to where they are now - super successful and singing your praises. This gives your audience those “I want that to be me” vibes.

Blog Posts

Truth time: When I first wrote this post I wrote it for SEO reasons. And honestly? It was bloody boring. So I changed it up and told a story (Actually I told two - can you find them all?) That’s how you’ve got down to the bottom of this blog.

Reflective Business Stories

We’d hate to admit it, but humans are nosy. So sharing your business stories - challenges, achievements, problems, solutions - is going to build that know, like and trust factor for your audience. They’re going to see you as a person who “gets it”, instead of someone just shouting in their face about being about to 10x their business.

Stories, Sell.

They do. Otherwise God know what the billion dollar brands have been doing for all of these years. Your stories are unique to you (I can’t think of any other Brand Strategist who had to listen to a dragon dream for half an hour) which is ultimately what you want.

So go forth and tell!