by J. Haley Phillips
A few years back I managed a gas station.
I’d never managed anything before, and the only training I received was how to do things like paperwork, ordering, and handling the money. There was no training on the people skills and service side of things, it was all based on the tangible essentials. I was left to my own devices. I was nervous. What if I couldn’t handle it? But they gave me plenty of freedom and I knew I could figure it out. This store was my baby and I had something to prove.
And I did it my way.
I started a Thought for the Week that was posted on the door every Monday with some kind of insight or encouragement. I bought rolls of stickers like you get at the dentist when you’re five years old, with smiley faces or silly monsters or cute animals, and I handed them out to anyone who wanted them. My employees and I started memorizing our customers’ names and what kind of smokes or drinks they always got, and if we had the chance we would have it on the counter by the time they walked in. I was blessed with some amazing workers who shared my enthusiasm. We were like a little family. It was wonderful!
Now, our town was tiny and in the middle of nowhere.
It might take you 5 minutes tops to drive from one end to the other, and it would take you at least another 20 minutes through farmland to get anywhere else. And in this teeny tiny town, we had three gas stations. Yup. Three. Don’t ask me why we needed that many. We didn’t even have a decent grocery store.
But many of our regulars told us that we were the only one they would go to.
They could get their smokes and their drinks and their gas at any of these three places, but they wanted to come to us. Why? It was because even though we opened in the dark at 5am and we closed in the dark at 11pm, the sun was always shining in our store. It was because of the atmosphere and attitude we offered them. It was because they liked US and how we did things.
Therein lies the lesson.
Throw out the taboo and rebel against the norm…
J Haley Phillips
Build a relationship
Your readers can learn 3 Tips and 7 Ways and How To from any number of informative people — it’s not about that. It’s about the personal energy you infuse into the information you’re offering them. When you leave yourself out of the equation, you become that random gas station with the faceless attendant that leaves no impression. That’s not what you want.
You want to be that gas station that people visit two or three times daily, stick around to chat, and refuse to go anywhere else.
Now, consider this story itself. I had a point to make: “Infuse your lessons with pieces of YOU.” Did I just come out and say it, and tell you why? Nope. It wouldn’t stick.
Now imagine I was telling you the same story, but it was my cousin who ran the store. More powerful, yes, but still not enough.
If I hadn’t experienced it, how can I infuse it with emotion? How could I draw you in? How could you feel the nervousness and excitement and joy and pride along with me?
And not only that, but you don’t feel like you’re getting to know ME. The continuity of my presence and my personality is what breeds connection. But getting personal is taboo in business.
“It’s not professional.” “Your clients will get too comfortable.” “They won’t respect you.”
I don’t believe that.
Being in business means being a leader, and the best leaders are followed out of love and respect.
How can they love and respect you if they don’t know you?
Throw out the taboo and rebel against the norm…
Build a relationship with your readers!
Let them relate to your struggles and your victories.
We have to pull from our own lives, our own experiences — and our own hearts — if we’re going to connect to the hearts of our audience.
