HE IS LIKE ME...
I met Ken Ruffo a few years prior to the ‘transformation to Storyseller’ at a Joe Stumpf, By Referral Only, event. The year was 2009. We sat beside each other for 2 days and forged a friendship that has lasted nearly a decade. Ken is one of the nicest, most genuine people that you have ever met. Huge heart. Loyal. Trusting. Once you meet Ken it only takes a few minutes to realize that he is a ‘good dude.’ Sitting and talking to him for days about life, marriage, my sons, and real estate I knew that he was someone that I’d stay in touch with over the years.
The next year Ken moved to Texas.
When Susan and I went to San Antonio a few years ago on one of her work trips for PARCC, some 8 years after we first met, I let Ken know that I was going to be in town and would love to hang out. He rearranged his schedule so that we could spend 2 hours together having lunch and just catching up.
No one knows this, but Ken was my first introduction to Ryan Fletcher – the founder of ImpactClub® and the man who runs an organization that Forges Elite Storytellers – (www.StoryAthlete.com). Ryan has helped thousands find their inner voice and share their Story.
It was 2011 and I was on Facebook doing some mindless scrolling through feeds one evening. There was this dude, scruffy looking just looked like a normal dude, and he had a page on Facebook that explained how he grew his real estate business from $8,000 in year one to $187,000 in year two through Copywriting.
I didn’t think much of it until I saw that my buddy, Ken, liked this Ryan Fletcher dude.
Truth be told, I thought when you liked a page back then that you were a ‘member’ or that you ‘subscribed’ to that page.
I did some more research and signed up on Ryan’s free site. Then a few days later I received a 36-page Newsletter that talked about how you could move people to Action by writing words on a piece of paper. Ryan, after reading a Dan Kennedy book, The Ultimate Sales Letter studying copywriting and became obsessed with copywriting he transformed his real estate business in one year by writing copy.
He then went on to test his copywriting skills through direct response at a financial services company, Agora Financial. Ryan wrote a campaign that resulted in $30M in sales in a 6-month period. His campaign shattered every other campaign and he was quickly recognized as one of the top copywriters in the world.
Ryan after a stint of Agora and being recognized at the crème of the crop in copywriting decided to move back home and teach others what he learned to help with copywriting, and this is about the time that I found Fletcher.
Thanks Ken for liking his page or I may have never found Ryan.
Since late 2011 Ryan has helped transform my real estate business, one from where I was sending out ‘cookie cutter’ newsletters and getting a handful of referrals each year. I’ve always said that I am a horrible salesperson.
Since 2002 when I first got into real estate I was never one to ‘chase’ business. I did an extraordinary job for my clients. Working my butt off and finding ways to innovate, as documented in my book The Psychological Approach to Sell Real Estate, and getting business from referrals by sending out a ‘cookie cutter’ newsletter every month for 8 years.
However, I hit a lull in growth. I was stagnant for 6 years in the growth of my business. A
After meeting Ryan and speaking with him on a weekly basis, he pushed me to learn write. First by studying some of the best copywriters of all time; Gary Halbert, Eugene Schwartz, Dan Kennedy, Joseph Sugarman and many others. My bookcase is filled with hundreds of books that break down every aspect of writing copy.
The slippery slope. The take-away. The transition. The Parable Method. The Rule of 3s. The Emotional Connection.
I studied for 2 years how to write copy. Then on a call one-week Ryan and I were analyzing my business, I explained the newsletter and how that was the main source of my business, but I had hit a ceiling.
He took one look at the newsletter and said, ‘This is sh*t. You need to write your own Story. Take what you have learned the last 2 years in researching iconic copywriters and write your own Newsletter.’
And that is exactly what I did. I wrote my first ‘Story’ that was unveiled in my September 2013 Newsletter. It took me 40 hours to write about 1500 words. I went back and forth with Ryan on structure and how to tie point A, to point B, to point C, to point D (the accepted belief), then back to point A. Ryan since 2013 has taught hundreds of people this ABCD-A method that he and I worked together fine-tuning those first couple of years. He now has ‘re-launched’ his teachings through www.StoryAthlete.com.
Something amazing happened when I started sharing my stories through writing and publishing my newsletter.
My business that had been stagnant for 6 years saw a nearly 200% growth in 2014, again in 2015, and yet again in 2016. In a 36-month period my revenue increased 583%.
The change was that I shared stories. I talked about personal things like being a new parent and not getting any sleep, to coaching kids soccer, to a Disney trip, to losing 2 cousins, to learning hardwork from my Dad and growing up on a farm, to learning to treat everyone the same from my Mom…
All about my belief system and who I am as a person.
And when it came time for those in my audience there was automatically a trust because they knew me as a person, they read about my trials and tribulations each month. When I learned a new life lesson, I would share that message through the newsletter. When there was a struggle, it was written.
Write this down… Connection = Trust
When you know someone is ‘like’ you. Has the same beliefs, fights for the same things, goes through the same struggles there is a ‘connection.’
And once there is a connection with someone, there is a level of trust that is not there with a stranger or someone whose story you don’t know.
Had I not had a connection with Ken nearly a decade ago, I never would have noticed that someone I trusted had liked this scruffy looking dude, Ryan Fletcher and I would have skipped right over his page. But that connection has led to a transformation since 2011 that led me to the point where helping others Forge their own Legacies through Story is what inspires me.
If you want to leave a Legacy and become someone that has Trust with your audience, your potential clients, then learning the science of Story is a must!
Cheers!!