Watch video for Ty Sander's keynote where he shares more on storytelling with 3 ways to bring the audience into the story.

"Decide what differentiates you? What do you want your client to know or believe about you?"

Last week I was in Kentucky speaking to Realtors for Berkshire Hathaway. I was sharing The Power of Storytelling and the first question they asked was how do you tell a story that differentiates you but comes across the right way?

In other words, how do you sell yourself without bragging?

This is a crucial story as an influencer for each of us to master - so let me give you the formula.

Step 1. Decide what differentiates you? What do you want your client to know or believe about you?
Examples - You have integrity. You possess unique market knowledge. etc…
Keep in mind that you can’t differentiate yourself by putting down the competition. Promote what you love instead of bashing what you hate.

Step 2. Determine where you learned or developed this quality or skill. Who taught it to you? Where did you learn this lesson? Or who/what is a great example of this?
Don’t be the hero of your own story. Determine where this quality came from and build the story around that person or experience - making them the hero.

Step 3. Apply that to yourself.
Use a simple line such as: "And as we work together you can count on me to operate with integrity because that is how my parents raised me. "

I was coaching a financial advisor named Walker. As he went through this formula he developed a story that sounded like this:

A few months into my first job out of college our employer took us to an extreme team building experience. It was amazing. We were divided into platoons (teams) and each platoon was led by a former Navy Seal. Our leader was a mountain of a man that looked the part of a Navy Seal. The first thing he said to us was this: "If we are going to win, we are going to win as a team. Which means everyone here needs to commit to this - You are going to do the right thing even when nobody is watching. You have to make decisions for the team and not just for yourself. If we can commit to this, there is no stopping us."
I share that with you because this concept resonated with me and it is a commitment I have tried to live by as I do business. So, as we work together I want you to know that you can count on me doing the right thing even when nobody is watching. I am in it so we both win.

This simple formula allows you to build a specific story that we can each use in the influence process. It will allow us to sell ourselves without bragging and win business through The Power of Storytelling.

It was John F. Kennedy who said, “Leadership and learning are indispensable to each other.” Ego inhibits learning, growth, and progress.

Humility, however, encourages it. The word Humility comes from the word humus, which is the rich, organic part of the soil that allows for growth. Ask yourself if you are sufficiently humble? Do you allow yourself to learn and grow? Do you allow others to grow and develop? Humility is what Jim Collins (in Good to Great) says separates good leaders from great leaders.

The leadership capacity of someone with true humility is absolutely immense, because you cannot contain or restrain his or her personal growth and development.

There is a story of a boy who was walking through the garden with his father. His dad was one of the best gardeners in the town and proud of his work. As they finished the father asked the boy if he had learned anything. All the boy could come up with was that he could tell his dad loved gardening. At that point the dad said, “Son, I had hoped you would observe that as long as the vegetables were green, they were growing, but when they got ripe, they started to rot.”

Successful people stay green; they are constantly learning and growing.

More from Ty Bennett!