Freelancers: Three Simple Storytelling Steps To Win Attention And Money
Don’t Be Afraid of the Dragon
Hit all three of these points, in order, and you will have tapped into the depths of every human:
- The Hero
- The Dragon
- The Treasure
Or:
- Promise
- Address Concerns
- Payoff/New Promise
I don’t care if you are a software developer, a copywriter, or an accountant. If you want to reach more and better clients, you need to tap into what moves humans, and it’s not just numbers. It’s a story.
Good Stories Have Fractal Patterns
All fractal means is that things look the same on a small scale as they do on a bigger scale.
In a novel, for example, you will be introduced to a hero, follow them on a difficult journey, and there will be some sort of payoff at the end. See? One, two, three.
Each chapter also follows this pattern. As well as each scene. As well as each moment. That’s fractal.
In order to really tap into your potential clients, hit each one of these beats, hard.
Not only on the larger scale — which would be you solving their problem via your work — but in every interaction leading up to the final solution.
Here’s how:
Steal From Every Story in History
Watch how things capture your attention. Articles, movies, books, and even other freelancers. What got your attention? Probably the story told, which you only subconsciously picked up on.
Learn to make this conscious, and learn to reproduce it in your own work.
Better yet, read The Hero with A Thousand Faces, by Joseph Campbell, or watch videos about Jungian Archetypes. Learn to recognize mythology in everything. It’s there.
Once you begin to see it in the things that get your attention, you begin to understand how to make it work for you.
What archetype vibe are you giving off? If you feel deeply unsuccessful, then you will be giving off that vibe. How can we change that?
You Are a Hero of this Story
In order to present ourselves as a hero to clients, we have to feel like a hero ourselves.
Here’s the good news: You are a hero by the mere fact that no one has ever been like you and no one will ever be like you again.
All you have to do is believe it.
Make the Client the Hero
Make your clients feel like a hero for hiring you.
This means not begging, charging what you're worth, and having the courage to say no.
Put the choice in their hands, and make it a virtuous choice.
If they are polite and pay you on time, they have the privilege to work with you.
People love the opportunity to be a hero. If you give it to them, it is shocking how often they make the leap.
Don’t Be Afraid of The Dragon
Don’t shy away from the hard parts.
Have you ever heard that a good way to get people to like you is to ask them to do you a favor?
Or that people become really close after a traumatic experience?
That’s the work of the middle part, the dragon.
On a small scale, don’t be afraid to share the dragon with clients.
That doesn’t mean you go looking for trouble just to con them into liking you, but it does mean that you don’t always have to go straight to the payoff.
The journey is what makes the payoff worth it. Don’t be afraid to share the journey with your clients, where reasonable and professional.
Don’t Forget the Payoff
On the other hand, it’s the work of a con-man to offer the first 2 without a payoff.
This means you have to skip town. This is your snake-oil salesman. This works — once.
In the old west, that might have been a good strategy, but not in the days of the internet. What you put on here is forever. Don’t be a con-man.
The payoff is the work itself. But it is also the relationship. If you play the parts right, the relationship will be strong and lead to more gains in the future.
Cultivate a heroic client, and they will be paying you long into the future.
Be True to What Captures Your Attention
Your brain is constantly filtering reality. It ignores almost everything — it has to! Otherwise, it would always be overwhelmed.
Notice what captures your attention. That’s where the magic is at. Something deep inside you has decided that it is important. Trust there is a good reason, even if you don’t understand it.
That’s the meaning of “follow your passion.” It doesn’t mean to just follow your desires, it means to follow the things that capture your attention.
If you’ve done that properly, here you are, freelancing your talents to clients.
Remember why you’re here. Speak that to life and your clients will respond to it. It’s not an accident.
It’s OK to Fail in the Sandbox
On the other hand, most of everything you try will be a failure. That’s just the nature of trying new things.
Do not think something is wrong with you. Just keep trying new things.
Most successful creatives are only successful due to pure volume.
Keep making things, and watch for the things that capture your attention.
True Success Takes Time
Don’t try to get rich quick.
Follow your own path, fail quickly and often, and learn as much as possible.
Soon enough, you will have more opportunities than you know what to do with.
The Takeaway
To recap, there are 3 ideas here:
- Understand and use storytelling to effectively sell yourself. Learn to see it everywhere.
- Give the client the chance to be the hero — don’t protect them from adversity or the chance to be generous.
- Listen to what captures your attention in life. Tell that story. Don’t let failure discourage you.
In order to be a successful freelancer, we have to learn to be great storytellers.
In the simplest terms, a story has 3 simple steps. Master them, master your success.
