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Marketing podcast with Bernadette Jiwa

Perhaps one of the most primary objectives of marketing is to get people talking about your business. Sure, you actually want them to buy from you, but when there’s buzz, when people think what you’re doing matters, there will be sales.

To me there is no more important job than building your business in a way that allows you to stand out from everyone else.

But, how do you create something that will get people talking? How do you build a story that people want to share and become a part of? How do you not be boring?

Not being boring doesn’t mean you have to create controversy or fanfare, it means you have to do something in a way that others don’t. It means you have to do something better, faster or with more soul.

There are two parts to beating the boring equation – first you need a value proposition that allows you to both stand out and deliver something that no one else is. And then you need a story to carry your value proposition.

What most of us are really trying to do in this world is build a loyal community and few things build community like a story worth sharing.

The first element, the value proposition, however, is actually the harder part to get right.

So often we want to tell the world about our product or our service. These might be nice things, but the reality is they don’t build community. Community forms around ideas, process, common language or what I’ve come to call “Method.”

In order to truly tap the power of a value proposition you must fully develop your way of doing business, your method for standing out and delivering value.

When you get this part right, the story people tell and build practically creates itself out of the common language of the community that forms around your unique method.

And that’s how to not be boring!

To expand on this notion I visited with Bernadette Jiwa, author of Make Your Idea Matter: Stand out with a better story for this week’s episode of the Duct Tape Marketing Podcast.

Jiwa’s book is a tremendous resource in arena of storybuilding and making your business one that people can’t live without.