Tell your story and attract your listeners

You are strolling at the market and you see a young man standing on a platform. He shouts about creating a better world. “Things have to change. We can not continue this way. We must consume less! Therefor, I have….”

Everyone walks by and nobody seems to listen or looks interested in his story. You also keep on walking. “When nobody stops to listen, it probably is not interesting”, are your thoughts.

A bit further you see a young lady. She is sitting on a bench and more than ten people are sitting close to her and listen. She is telling a story, but you can’t hear it. You move a bit closer.

Luisteren naar verhaal

You can hear what she is talking about, but it still is difficult to understand everything she says. Slowly you move closer, until you are almost uncomfortably close to some other listeners.

She is telling her life story. Every now and then someone gets up and walks away. In the spot that comes available quickly two new people move in. They don’t want to miss anything.

She is sharing more and more of her life story and talks about how she solved and sorted things out while she is working on her life mission.

Her daughter, Susan, is right next to her. She is also in the story but does not really notice. The game on the Nintendo DS requires all her attention, while listeners look at her now and then.

Sometimes one of the listeners asks a question. She answers the question and continues with her story.

My story

Just like Susan’s mom, I am sharing my story. I am not on a bench or platform at the market, but I am sharing it here at ErnoHannink.com, and at ErnoHannink.nl, on Twitter and Facebook. Sometimes I even write a book about it.

You can read for example my story about choosing a target audience, fear, why and how, in the Dutch book ‘Kies je doelgroep‘ (aff). Next month it will be available in the stores, after working on this book for almost 3 years. Exiting.

By sharing my stories on the internet more and more people find these stories and tips. More than 6,000 people want to receive these tips via the email and subscribed to my newsletter on attracting clients via internet.

More that 10,000 people can follow my stories via Twitter and another 2,000 people follow the Facebook tips via my Facebook pages.

It wasn’t always easy but I am moving forward, slow and steady. I know that it can be done faster, but I want to do it my way. Time and attention for our family, the community and my business in balance.

When we earn more money than a certain level we will not become happier. Therefor my focus is being happy as often as I can during my journey.

You too have something to share. You have a mission and want to share it with many people. You too want to be happy and spend time with your family.

That is why I am starting a series of 7 articles on how you can attract clients and grow your company. The clients come to you:

row of clients for your business

In addition to the clients that you already have, 1 or 2 new clients via internet, every month. Clients that come to you. From personal experience I know this is possible.

Why via internet?

Just like Susan’s mom I can share my story at the market. However I do not expect to see many independent professionals at our market.

A number of ways to reach more people are:

  • Public Speaking about your topic – find networking events and promote yourself as a (free) spreaker
  • Networking – visit networking events and share your story with other attendees
  • Write a book – publish a book on your topic and spread it
  • Canvassing – visit people/companies door-to-door and start a conversation
  • Publishing posts – write daily in your blog
  • Newsletter – send a newsletter to your subscribers
  • Online Networking Sites – share your story in the social networking sites

Internet helps you to use your time in a smart way. Setting up your business the smart way (versus the hard way) you can save time on travel, networking, having conversations with potential clients, and creating quotes.

An important part of family and business balance is that you become very smart and efficient with your time. Internet makes it possible that I can publish my story at any time I like.

The independent professional find and read the story at any time they like. They read the story that you published today, yesterday or even two years ago.

Rich Life

My mission in life is to help as many independent professionals as I can to create a rich balance for entrepreneurship and family. A rich balance means: earning enough money to live worry-free and enough time for your family.

A rich life for and independent professional can be realized by paying attention to 5 topics in your life:

  1. yourself
  2. your family
  3. your business
  4. your community
  5. creating a better world

What is your mission in life? What do you want to accomplish? Why?
How can you reach many people for your mission in life?

Your website, newsletter, online networking will make people come to you. People that love to listen to your story and that want to learn.

Listeners series

The article above is the introduction for the 7 articles on how you can tell your story and attract listeners and clients.

The 7 articles will help you to take the next step and there is more for you 🙂 Why? I want to help you to find a rich balance in entrepreneurship and family.

The next article will be published Monday and will be about balance in family and business for independent professionals.

Series:

  • Attracting clients and time for your family
  • Balance in entrepreneurship and family
  • Choose your target audience and focus
  • Build your hub so the client can find you
  • Contact with your target audience
  • In the centre of your target audience: LinkedIn
  • In the centre of your target audience: Facebook

Your story

Respond to this article with your story and a link to your website below. This way more people will learn about your story. Share it now:

Credit foto Mark Lyon en idealisms

By Erno Hannink

Sparring and accountability partner for entrepreneurs who create sustainable positive impact. Explores decision-making. Shares his insights on this in, articles, books (Dutch), podcast, newsletters, and tools. Has a life mission to reduce social and ecological inequality. Father of two children, husband of M., runs, referee for the national soccer league, and uses stoicism for calm. Lives in the Netherlands. Speaks Dutch, English, and German.

2 comments

  1. I am an architect by profession but my true passion has always been artistic design. This is why, after ten years of working in the industry, I decided to quit architecture altogether ( it was not an easy process) and concentrate full-time on creating family trees… with a twist. By that I mean my templates are designed in such a way that they can accommodate anyone you wish to include in them — i.e. family, friends, etc.
    I had nightmarish experience in getting my web site up and running. Finally, after a lot of stress, time ( more than a year) and analyzing in depth why (…this happened to me) and how (…this happened to me), I got my web site finished. It was a very long and painful process, that I probably needed, in order to learn certain things. There is a reason behind everything that comes in our life. I was very stressed and my family suffered consequences.

    In my case I learned not to always do things instinctively because “my gut feeling” isn’t always right; as a matter of fact it is often very wrong. I also learned the importance of signing a business contract.
    I did not know all this a year and a half ago. While I write about it, everything sounds so logical and simple. But it’s all good now, it is human to make mistakes and I want to start 2013 with being more gentle to myself. So, enough about my wrong moves !
    Now I have my web site finally and no clue where to start.
    That was part of my story concerning starting up a company and being mom of two.
    It is hard to keep balance and not get stressed out, but I will follow your advise in this article.
    Thanks:)

    1. Thank you Olya for sharing your story. It is a beautiful website.
      Feel free to come by any time and share your experiences. We can learn from this.

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