Viral Storytelling with The Story Lady, Ronda Del Boccio

have you ever stopped to think about the true meaning behind the stories you tell? or do you just pass along the email to your entire address book when you get something? There are layers of emaning to any story.

Do you stop to consider this? Today my article, “What do the Stories You Tell Really Mean” is featured on marnie Pehrson’s Writing and Publsihing blog.

Find out more about storytelling from me here.

Marnie is a tremendous publicist. Check her out at Idea marketers.

Tags: MLM, entrepreneurial authoring, network marketing, story, storytelling, writing help

Did you realiza that bad storytelling can actually be hazardous to your health? 

Did you realize that bad storytelling can make your relationships die a slow and agonizing death.

Did you realize that bad storytelling can destroy your prospecting efforts for your business or charity?

Today I am the featured expert on Power Talk Radio,  with Mr. 90 Day Goals Frank Gasiorowski  And today I am revealing –

“The 7 Deadly Sins of Storytelling and How to Avoid Them”

These 7 deadly sins  of storytelling are deadly because they create harm, distress, or even illness.

One of the 7 deadly sins of storytelling makes physical changes in you that damage your health - unless you understand how to tell yourself the right kind of empowering story.

Another of the 7 deadly sins of storytelling turns prospects away from your business and makes them search elsewhere - unless you understand how to create and nurture trust.

Please join me, The Story Lady Ronda Del Boccio, and Mr 90 Day Goals Frank Gasiorowski tonight at 7 PM EDT on Power Talk Radio.  You may listen via computer or call in to 1-646-716-9940 to chat live.

I’ll also show you how to become a more effective and profitable storyteller in 3 minutes tonight on the call.  This will be the first time I reveal how you can get a customized free report from me that teaches you how to keep from committing the 7 deadly sins of storytelling.

I will also tell you how to grab a copy of the Sneak Peek Edition of the Kama Sutra of Storytelling: Positioning, Power and Profit that now has links where you can earn money simply by sharing!

Join me live tonight - OR you can download the recording anytime.

Ronda Del Boccio, The Story Lady

Tags: story coach, storyation, mentor, Blog Talk Radio, entrepreneurial authoring, success

You are an emerging hero with an important message or solution to share with the word.  Storytelling is your method of message delivery, whether you realize it or not.  Your story is profitable when you know how to leverage it to make money.

However, storytelling isn’t just about telling the story.  Getting your story out is not just about what you say or what you write.  It is also about forging relationships that will get OTHERS telling your story.

I’m going to share some strategies with you to get you started, and then I’ll tell you about the absolutely best JV SKILLS TEACHING product I have ever come across about joint ventures.  It WILL definitively get you on the right track from the very start.

Not everyone knows what a joint venture is, so please let me begin by briefly defining terms.

Maybe you’ve heard or seen the term JV.  That’s junior varsity in school, but in the business world it is a joint venture.

A JV is what happens when 2 or more people work together for mutual benefit. 

Say you have a book coming out and I have a bonus that readers of your book would love to have.  I include my gift valued at $67, let’s say, to your bonus gift page, and along with other gifts, you provide tremendous value to your readers and I grow my list.

Or say I am offering a class on building lasting relationships with your customers (which, incidentally, I do),  and you have a list of marketers and sales people who want to connect quickly with people and forge lasting relationships.  I would share the profits with you because you brought 200 people to a live call with me on which I shared some useful content and offered admission into the class.

Cool, isn’t it?

Those are just a couple of examples, and there are several kinds of joint venture relationships, but to get you started thinking, that will give you the idea.

So how to you form and nurture joint venture relationships?

The Care of Feeding of a JV Partner 

Research à Select à Build Relationship è Repeat

Research your niche.  Use Google, Alexa, Yahoo, and Amazon.com to find potential partners.  For example, you can see who reviews a book in your niche on amazon and research them to discern whether they are a good match for a JV. 

You can check out the Alexa ranking of the website of your potential JV and Google their name to find out.what they are doing and how respected they are.  Read their opt-in page, and even sign onto their list to be sure they’re a good fit. 

What is their overall approach to marketing, and is it compatible with yours?  Do they have products and services that are related but NOT the same as what you do?  (If they are a coach and you coach in the same area, they will be reluctant to turn business away from themselves, and who could blame them?)

 Select whom you are interested in forming a JV with. You will want more than one, but you can work with one at a time at first to get the knack of courting.  Once you select your first intended partner, make a personalized contact by email or better yet, by phone. 

 Let the person know that you are interested in a JV and be sure to be clear about what’s in it for them. Show them the money and show them that you are a professional business person (not a rank amateur).  You MUST personalize your contact.  A successful business person has no time for “junk” e-mail. Offer to send a free copy of the book/product. Show them the sales letter and conversion stats.

I have made successful ventures on a new product where the teleseminar we did was the inaugural kick-off event, but I had proven myself to the people sufficiently that they were willing to take the risk.  In other words, I was long past the “first date” and into a long-term relationship by the time I launched the unproven product, so my reputation and habits were well established.

 Offer a healthy commission on your product. The price will determine the margin in most cases. If you have a lowerinvestment item, such as a $47 ebook, you will want to give 50% commission.  If you have a higher investment item or service that requires a lot of your time, you will want to consider sharing about 35%. Also work out the payment method.  If the product is on ClickBank or a similar service, this is already settled.  For your own book, you could use PayPal,or you might use a service like ClickBank or PayDotCom.

Communicate openly and respect the JV’s time.  Remember that you are nurturing a relationship.  Do not expect them to take the lead in contacting you, especially if they are well established.  Cherish and maintain that relationship well, and you will build an honorable reputation and be of value to other JVs. 

Talk over the phone as much as possible, but never be a nuissance.  Give them your Skype or Messenger.  Be sure they know how to contact you anytime during the JV. Do not hide behind email.

 If you are colecting the money, pay quickly.  Write a personalized thank you note. Call them directly and say thank you. Ask if you may keep in touch and give them a call once in a while and open the invitation for them to call you or e-mail you.

Repeat…repeat…repeat!  One of the most important parts of JV  relationships is to work with more than one aprtner.  Start over and over again with someone else. Once you have started building your list, you can  do a list exchange with people of comparable-sized lists and work out more advanced ventures. 

 The fabulous training program I have come across is JV Seeker by Liz Tomey. I’m not easily impressed with products, because most of them are just a data dump.

JV Seeker is a true education in forming and nurturing joint venture relationships from someone who not only knows her stuff but can teach it to you.  Her workbook alone is worth far more than the small tax-deducatable investment in the program (currently only $47 - get this master class in JV before she realizes how ridiculously low that tuition is and raises it!)

Here’s what I love about this product.It’s not some hastily tossed together product on joint ventures.  Liz teaches you through videos, a workbook, audios, and a communityIt is step by step

Liz remembers that someone starting out needs to start with the basics and build on SKILLS (not just have information)

The workbook is outstanding, and the worksheets you can use to take notes about the people you want to joint venture with are worth the price of admission.

Liz shows you exactly how to land the “big fish” of your niche even if you’re a newbie.Liz explains things plainly.  She also has a sense of humor

.She has a powerful story about how she went from being a broke mom to a successful business woman through the power of joint ventures.  She started off as a little fish in the pond and hasn’t forgotten what it’s like to be wet behind the ears in business.

You have a powerful story to tell, and forging joint venture relationships is one of the most profitable ways to tell your story.  Please do yourself a tax-deductable favor and pick up JV Seeker.

Ronda Del Boccio, The Story Lady

Tags: Awaken The Author Within, leadership training, MLM, home based business, Kama Sutra of Storytelling, Geometry of Success

How do you know you need to improve your storytelling skills?  I mean…a lot of people don’t spare a second thinking about storytelling, so why are storytelling skills important?  Why should you care?

Here’s you know if you need to become a better storyteller:

You desperately need to improve your storytelling skills if … 

·        If you’ve ever had people roll their eyes and look down at their watch when you’re telling a story

·        If people tell you that your emails are WAY too long

·        If people routinely miss important points because they start daydreaming when you talk to them

·        If your email open rates are below 5%

·        If people avoid talking to you

·        If you feel you just aren’t getting through to people

·        If you want to grow your organization, MLM downline, or list

How my sense is that we all can be better at staying on point and on purpose as we connect with people - whether at work or at home or in the community. 

So these are 7 Common Storytelling Mistakes and How to Avoid Them

Mistake #1:  Not having a purpose for your story.  Talking just to talk or blogging just to blog is not the best way to win friends and influence people.Solution:  Have a goal or end or aim in mind when you tell a story.  This will hold the interest of your listener/reader, raise your credibility, and help you keep yourself on track.

Mistake #2:   Not sticking to the point of your story.  You get bored if someone tells you a story that has no point. 

Solution:  Take note of this and have a point or purpose for any story you tell about a memory, event, desire, problem, etc.  The more clear you are about who you are and what you’re about, the more focused your stories will be.  You can download my audio, “The Geometry of Success: 5 Simple Shapes that Shape Your Life” to help you be on purpose and on point.

Mistake #3:  Failure to Be Present.Wandering minds turn people off.  It is so easy to have your body in one place and your mind in another. 

Solution:  Talk directly to the person in front of you.  Keep eye contact and keep your mind on the person, not on what you need to get at the store.  Be Present.  If you are writing an email message, article or story, write it to a single person.  The sense of immediacy and focus this brings will pay off for you.

Mistake #4:  A Disorganized story.  “Oh, I should have told you this first…” breaks up the flow of the story and makes it harder for your listener/reader to follow=olution:  Organize your story ahead of time.  Set the scene, introduce the people involved, and tell what happened.

Mistake #5:  Scattered examples:  If you think up a different story every time you want to get the same result, you’re missing the point.

Solution:  Repetition is actually a good thing when it comes to getting a message across.  I don’t mean you tellthe same story over and over again in a single session.  But think of it this way.  You probably have your favorite personal development speaker.  You may read two or three different books by this author and hear him or her onstage, and you’ll notice that he uses the same stories to talk about a particular point. 

Mistake #6 Focusing only on yourself and your needs/wants.  WIIFM = “What’s In It For Me”, and it is exactly what EVERYONE is thinking when they hear/read your story.

Solution:  Focus on your listener/reader, not on yourself.  How is what you’re saying of benefit or value to them?  The POINT should be what they will gain.  It’s not just about you telling your story to make yourself feel good.

Mistake #7:  Day-dumping or data dumping.  If you’re just unloading a huge steaming pile of facts or unfortunate events of your day, you’re losing credibility–and business.

Solution:  Connect with your reader or listener on an emotional level.  When you speak in facts you touch a mind, but when you connect with someone, you touch a heart.

If you notice yourself making a number of these storytelling mistakes on a regular basis, consider discovering how to emotionally connect with anyone through the power of storytelling with the Storytelling Templates and Storytelling Class below.

 What I teach people to do in my Storytelling for Business Profits class is to come up with a single example/story at first that you use all the time for the same purpose.  You might branch out and have 3-4 stories, but starting with one for each key point that draws customers or affiliates or clients to you is of high value. I even have Storytelling Templates that give you a fool-proof pattern to follow so that you can create a great story immediately.  Download an audio that teaches you one of these Storytelling Templates here and discover how to turn a cherished memory into a memorable story.

The path to better business and better relationships is the way of the storyteller!

Tags: author coaching, business development mentor, network marketing, BookWise, folklore, Kama Sutra of Storytelling