Make It Visible
You’re full of amazing coaching skills, ideas, and a desire to make a difference, but marketing your coaching biz isn’t your thing?
Meet Michelle, your business bestie who knows exactly how to help coaches like you get seen, get heard, and get paying clients.
No more feeling invisible. Let’s make marketing easy-peasy and magical.
Make It Visible
#206: How to Craft a Story That Builds Your Brand and Wins Clients
Drop me a line and share your thoughts!
What if your personal story was the key to attracting high-paying clients and booking your dream speaking gigs?
In this episode of Make It Visible, I’ll share how to craft a personal story that captivates your audience, builds trust, and converts followers into clients.
Here’s what’s coming up:
✅ A framework to craft a story that captivates and converts.
✅ Why your story is the foundation of your brand.
✅ Bonus tips on using storytelling to elevate your Facebook ads.
✅ A sneak peek of my Ads Summit talk next week!
And don’t forget to join my FREE 3-day training starting January 13.
I’ll teach you the #1 strategy that coaches and speakers use to attract high-paying clients and book the best speaking gigs. Spots are limited, so reserve yours now at strategy.shineandthrive2025.com.
I’ll be speaking at the upcoming Facebook Ads Summit from January 13th to 15th—and you’re invited!
Get your Free Ads Summit tickets here https://michellekuei.krtra.com/t/LUEfH98a6ooQ
About Me:
Hey There! I’m Michelle! Your Visibility Marketing Coach, content and Email Marketing Strategist, Motivational Speaker, Author (…And soon to be your new business bestie!)
I’m an international speaker, Visibility Marketing Coach, and founder of Elevate LifeCoaching.
I help coaches like yourself to build your brand, attract high-quality 5-6 figure clients, and land paid speaking gigs.
I’ve been public speaking since I was 9 years old.
My dad helped me draft my first speech and signed me up for a contest. (Yep, voluntold!)
And since then, I’ve been the go-to person whenever someone needed a speaker on short notice.
At work, I was the one presenting, running workshops, and leading training sessions.
While everyone else stayed quiet, palms sweating, hoping not to get called on, I was the one grabbing the mic and taking the lead.
After working with hundreds of coaching clients to help them boost their visibility and market their businesses, I realized there’s a HUGE missing piece most coaches overlook.
This is the #1 strategy top coaches use to grow their coaching business. are you using it?
🐦 SOCIAL STUFF:
Instagram ➔ / elevatelifecoach
Facebook ➔ / coachmichellekuei
Linkedin ➔ / mich...
Welcome back to Make it Visible. I'm your host, michelle, and today we are going to talk about one of the most powerful tools that you can have in your business. Whether you are a coach trying to grow your coaching business, or perhaps you're a speaker and you're trying to get more speaking gig, this is the number one asset that you can have in your business and that's going to get you booked and get you sent out. So what is it? Well, it is no surprise that your personal story is your most powerful tool that you can have in your business. Your story is more than just like a collection of experiences. I know this is one of the common struggles a lot of my audience are experiencing is your life is so full of colorful moments and moments where you're overcoming the obstacles, you're trying to rebound and get back on your feet. So there's all these ups and downs and it is hard, super hard, right, to identify exactly which story is important to share, to talk about, which we'll talk about later. But storytelling is the foundation to your brand, and this is where Donald Miller is known for story brand, because a lot of what he's teaching you is about using your story to build that journey right, the journey that your audience can identify and relate. That would allow you to build your brand. So, basically, storytelling is the foundation to your brand. How you show up on social and the story that you tell messaging whatever that you wanted to call it is the things that you're telling your audience about and that's going to drive them to either to follow you for more or they'll tap you out because they feel it is not for them. So in this episode, I'm going to show you exactly how to craft a personal story that captivates your audience. Whether you're a speaker or you're a coach, you're trying to grow your business. How to strengthen that brand and comfort your followers or your audience who's listening to you, whether it's in a live setting or podcast or webinar. How to comfort them into high paying clients.
Michelle :And I also got a couple of big announcements that I would like to make. But first of all, I will be speaking at the upcoming ad summit next week, sharing some insights about how storytelling is going to make your Facebook ads stand out and win clients. And there's also a big one, which also starts on January 13. So mark this on your calendar. This is very important because I am actually hosting a free three-day training series where I'm going to show you exactly the number one strategies that coaches and speakers are using to attract their high-paying clients and getting the best speaking gig. So you definitely don't want to miss this one, so mark your calendar right now, january 13, where I'll be hosting a three-day training series. You can watch it at any time from anywhere, and the first video will be dropping on January 13th, and all you have to do is just head over to strategyshineandthrive2025.com to save yourself a spot.
Michelle :Okay, so let's get started. Hey, you're listening to Make it Visible Podcast. I'm your host, michelle Kui. Okay, so let's get started. You should never be the reason you give up on your dream to become a full-time coach. I'm all about making marketing the easiest part of your coaching business, so that you can turn a passion for coaching into a visible and profitable reality. So buckle up, ladies, let's get started.
Michelle :Your story is your brand. This is an idea that a lot of marketers and coaches who coach and tell you that storytelling is important is probably going to say over and over again. Is that your story is your brand? You are your brand, but that's really vague in terms of what do you mean by your story is your brand right. Basically, your story is the message that you want your audience to remember you. By Now, most of us, we remember story better. There is a study that shows people actually remember things 22 times better compared to without the story, versus with the story. So people remember 22 times better when you tell them in a story format versus if you tell them just like for facts and numbers, and so keep that in mind. This is the reason why storytelling is huge, and last year, there's a lot of people coaches and speakers are tapping into how to do the storytelling, and I got a whole lot of podcast invitation because it's a topic that a lot of people are interested in. Now you might be thinking okay, michelle, what makes you qualified to talk about this topic? Right? So here's the interesting thing.
Michelle :When I first started out my coaching business journey, I was struggling, just like you. I was struggling to get clients, I was struggling to get the audience. I was struggling to attract the people that I wanted to attract. To get the audience, I was struggling to attract the people that I wanted to attract, and I didn't know marketing at all, so I didn't start out as a marketer. I didn't know how to market my business, and one of the things that I quickly realized was that people resonated with story, the overcoming challenges or obstacles, overcoming the self-doubt, lack of confidence those are the things that a lot of people are resonating and if you look at our everyday behavior, we all experience some type of negative self-talk, the self-doubt right. So in order to demonstrate that was the story, one of the things I really went into was that first year I started my speaking business. Instead, I published my book and with that book, I was struggling to get it out there, market it and getting people to feel excited.
Michelle :Oh, she wrote a book. First of all, when I first started out, people were like, oh, who are you? You wrote a book, great Congratulations, you wrote a book and that was it right. So I needed to start building that audience and building the authority, the expertise in that space of I was positioning myself as a confidence coach. So in order to do that, I need to speak up more, and so that first year I decided to put my coaching business, growing it on the whole and focusing on establishing that authority, establishing that credibility, and that's how it got me started, because then I started to bring traction, bringing traffic into my coaching business through the way that I was speaking and sharing my message. And so, if you really look at my journey and this is something that I had to reflect early on last year to think about how I built my business it was through the public speaking, right.
Michelle :So telling the story is really powerful because now it allows you to build that authority, that credibility. So, first of all, why does your story matter? Well, it matters because storytelling allows you to build that trust. You have that emotional connection and you become the authority within the niche that you're trying to establish, especially if you're able to identify some of the core message and core story that you can bring it and demonstrating oh, this is exactly what I did, right. People are looking for relatability. People are looking for how is what you're teaching me actually going to show me that this is working right? And what better way to be a testimonial when you can testify based on your own journey? So it's really powerful because now you can talk about your story. I mean you know your own life journey inside out, so it makes it easier to create content, to talk about things that you typically a coach who would struggle on social media, because a lot of you are out there and you're trying to figure out exactly what do I post? Well, tell story right. Who knows your story inside out? You do, so why not start creating content based on the storytelling format? And that would allow you to actually not only establish your authority but actually make you feel more relatable when you do that with your audience. So your story definitely matters, and that's the reason why we go into storytelling.
Michelle :Now, in order to get into storytelling and how you craft that story that everybody wants to sit down, pull a chair and actually listen, there's a couple of key steps that you need to have. For example, step number one is you need to have a core message, and I actually created a resource for you. So if you'd like to have that resource, either send me an email or there's a number on the top of this podcast episode. You can simply text me a message and say, hey, I want this core message resource that you're talking about on your show, and I'll be more than happy to send that to you, or just simply send me an email. I do have the resource to create your core message, and the core message is really important because then it allows you to pull out which is the story that's important to share with your audience. It helps you to identify what you want your audience to take away about you.
Michelle :So how do I come up with a core message so really quickly? The way that I came up with it was identifying my core value. Okay, so let's say your core value are. Let me use my example. So, when I first started out, I have three core value that it was unshakable, not negotiable, and they are ABC. I've talked about this on multiple different podcasts in the past as well. So what are those three core values? Authenticity, bravery and connection. So let's say I'm using these three identified values. Then I can pull out the story that demonstrates authenticity. I can pull out the story that talks about bravery. I can pull out a story that demonstrates authenticity. I can pull out the story that talks about bravery. I can pull out a story that talks about connection. Right, so it becomes easier for you to identify what are some of the key stories that you should be sharing. That would further demonstrate the value that you have and that would further allow your audience to remember you by right. Very simply, very quickly.
Michelle :So let's say your core message is about. I empower coaches to turn their story into brand that thrive, then what I'm going to talk about is, first of all, thrive, right, what does it mean to thrive? And so I will create content that show and demonstrate that. When are you not thriving? When am I not thriving? I am not thriving when I'm playing small, and what are some of the things that I'm playing small? So having that core message is important, because then all your marketing material will just be centered around that core message. So that's step number one.
Michelle :Step number two is you want to highlight those relatable moments. So we talked about it when you identify your core message, because what you are going to pull from your story, your lifelong journey, is to somewhat demonstrating and going back to teaching the point of authenticity. Right, when was there a period of life where you felt you're not authentic? That would be a great story to share. When, on your journey, you discover that bravery was important, that would be another story to share. So, as you can see that, when you identify these core values and core message, you start to pulling the pieces together on which stories would be important to share and why they matter to the audience and what you want them to remember you by. So step number two is highlight relatable moment.
Michelle :Step number three is to showcase the transformation. So I have another resource for you in case you wanted to grab it, and this resource allows you to do a before and after story. And I think it's really powerful when coaches especially some of the newer coaches you don't have any testimonial right and sometimes it's hard to come up with testimonial, and even when you are the testimonial yourself, it's hard to describe it in a way that it is short, it is concise. You can talk about it in five or 10 minutes video format, so it's really hard to talk about it. The way that I want you to think about it is you want to demonstrate like a turning point, right, a big turning point from the before and the after, and one of the great industry that does this really well is the fitness industry. If you look at all these social media posts that they have been posting online and on social, a lot of them posts a before and after story. You'll see the picture, the visual of what the client did before, or what they look like before and what the client looks like after working with the personal trainer, right? So the fitness industry does this really well by showcasing your transformation. Now think about how you might be able to turn that in for your coaching business or for your speaking engagement. Okay, when your audience walk into a conference, what do you want them to experience and how are they going to experience afterward? That's something that you wanted to talk about, right, and that would be a perfect testimonial for yourself to demonstrate to the event coordinator. Hey, people who come to your event, this is what they're going to experience that transformation, the before and the after.
Michelle :And then step number four is you want to tie it back to the audience. I cannot stress this enough. I see coaches and speakers making this mistake all the time on social is when they tell story, they tell a lifelong story. So your post is long and you lost me by the second paragraph and it's all tied together. It's just very difficult to read. You have to remember that the attention span is really short on social, so you don't want to have a long post and giving people a laundry list of all your story, you pick out what is important, what you want to tell them and how it's going to help them. That's what you want to talk about.
Michelle :So ask yourself this question right how is my story going to inspire and guide them to the next step? That's important question to ask yourself when you're sitting down or you're writing your speech or writing your next caption. It's really important to think about what's in it for your audience and what is that key message that you want them to walk away with, because you don't want to give them a whole bunch of ideas and now they're all confused and they're overwhelmed. By the time they finish reading their long post, they don't remember what they have read in the beginning. So you want to keep it short, keep it concise and really think about how is my story going to inspire them and guide them to the next step? You always want to move people to the next step. Okay, so here are the four steps. That's going to help you, and this is the framework that I use to work with my coaching clients.
Michelle :I work with speakers to help them map out their stories and how do you decide what's captivating for your audience, because people's attention span is really small. In one of the talks I gave recently, I talked about this goldfish and this goldfish name is Nugget. I talked about this goldfish and this goldfish name is nugget. So you have to remember nugget only have an attention span of no more than nine seconds, and which is a little one second above more than your attention span. Your attention span is only about a second, so after a second you don't remember anything. So if you tell them a laundry list of stories and you're hoping that your audience is going to engage, they're going to comment or they're going to share your story, then you're doing it by guessing.
Michelle :So if you really want your story to be impactful for people to remember, then what you want to do is highlight the one that's truly important. And how do you know it's truly important? Well, we talked about step number one identifying your core message, right. What is that core message that you want people to walk away with and to take away about you and your brand, your business, your service? What is that one thing that you want them to walk away with? And now you can rotate, right, you can repeat the process with different key talking point that you want to prove, but each time you should be only focusing on one.
Michelle :And so one of the things that I am truly passionate about is I know how challenging and difficult it is to be on social to grab people's attention, to fight against all these algorithms and your competitor, who's putting out and dumping out posts more than you do. And when they dump out more posts than you do, then chances are the algorithm is going to favor their algorithm, right? Because the more you're actually training the algorithm to share, so if you're not posting and which is why a lot of time if you're struggling with consistency, this is also the reason why your post is not getting seen, because your algorithm is always in that learning phase where, oh, I need to find the audience for you in order to show this post to them. And if you don't stay consistent, then that algorithm is not going to be able to get past that learning phase. So you're always in that learning phase and your post is never going to get seen. So that's another reason why we say consistency matters. And once you start getting consistent, the frequency will matter, because all these social media platform algorithms want to learn so that they can send these posts to the people who need to see.
Michelle :Now, that is a lot of work and chances are you are not in favor of the social media platform, right? And the social media platform it's there to work actually against you rather than for you. So you need to come up with a strategy that would actually allow your visibility to be flawless, and that you're strategic about where you're showing up and how you're showing up. And so this is the reason why I'm hosting an upcoming three-day training series, starting on January 13, where I'm going to cover exactly how to use this strategy, this number one strategy that a lot of coaches and speakers are using around the world to get their high paying client and speaking gig, and this is exclusive. I have never shown these videos to the public ever before. So when you jump in, you're actually getting the first behind the scene and all the strategies I have used personally myself and I have watched coaches and speakers, who's in the seven figure business and eight figure business, how I have observed and watch and learn from how they are doing this, and this is how I personally built my business, and a lot of you out there probably know me for oh, she's big on social media. Yes, that's only part of my business, and how I started it and how I pivot, how I use social media is going to blow your mind when I show you the number one strategies that allow me to actually build this massive social media visibility, and it is strategic and you can do this and it is going to make your social media online presence a lot more manageable. Once I tell you how this is done and it comes back in a full circle it totally makes sense. So I want you to mark your calendar right now for January 13, where I have this upcoming three-day training series. If you go to strategyshineandthrive2025.com, you'll be able to reserve a spot in this upcoming three-day training series.
Michelle :Now, a lot of you are going to ask well, is this recording? Do I have to show up on live? I don't have time. I'm going to make it super easy for you, and these are going to be recording video training series that you'll be able to access from anywhere at any time, but it's not going to be available for a very long time. So if you want to jump in, if you want to reserve a spot and you want to get hold of these videos, you want to watch them, you want to learn the strategies that other coaches and speakers are using, then I highly suggest you go and book yourself. Save yourself a spot on strategiesshineandthrive2025.com. You'll be able to grab a spot. It's completely free, and when I drop my first video, I'm going to send you an email. You'll see that in your inbox. All right, so let's summarize.
Michelle :So we talked about. Your story is your brand, and in order to create or craft a personal story that will captivate and convert your followers into your paying clients, these are the steps that you're going to need to take, okay, in order to have that storytelling done. Number one is what is that core message that you want people to remember you by? It could be a quote, it could be a quote, it could be a question. A lot of time, if you're a speaker, what I recommend that you do is opening up your speech with the question, but in order to understand what that question is, you should first identify what is that core message that you want to give to your audience. Then you can work your way backwards to figure out. Okay, so what questions should I be asking my audience? And so identifying your core message is step number one.
Michelle :Step number two is to highlight the relatable moment. We all have a lifelong journey and there's so much stories that we can share. We can tell, but exactly what would be important and this is completely tied back to your core message that you had identified earlier, and then the way that you tell it is you want to demonstrate a transformation, right? So think about the fitness industry, how they showcase the before and after picture, and so you wanted to use that strategy as well. When you create content, when you go onto video, these are the things that you should be talking about the before and the after, and no matter what you do and how you do, it always shift your focus. Your story should always be about what's in it for your audience, right, we tell our story, but our story is not really about ourselves. It's really about the others your audience and how is that going to help them. About the others your audience and how is that going to help them. How is your story going to guide them or inspire them, moving on and taking the next step, and that's something important to keep in the back of your mind. So here are the four steps. Step one identifying your core message. Step two is to highlight the relatable moment. Step three is to showcase your transformation. What's the change, what would be different? And then step four is always put your audience in front of you. Okay, and so it's always going to be about them and not about you.
Michelle :And don't forget, I will be dropping my first three-day training series on January 13. So if you'd like to get in and if you'd like to learn the number one strategies that top coaches and speakers are using to book high quality, paying clients and booking their speaking gig, then you definitely want to jump into the three-day training series. And if you want to learn more about how to incorporate storytelling into your Facebook ads, then you definitely don't want to miss the ads summit. I will be speaking at the summit, and so, if you want to get in, I'm going to share the link also in the description box so that you can reserve a spot in the ads summit where I'm going to be speaking. Okay, so let's wrap up.
Michelle :Your story is not just part of your brand, and I saw this question that someone else was asking on Facebook, and they were asking that, well, I don't really have a website, I don't have a business page on Facebook. Can I still have a brand? And the answer is yes, because you are the brand. Your website is not the brand. Your graphic it's not the brand. Who you are is the brand, and so if you can't tell your brand, if you can't tell people why your brand matter, then you don't have a brand, no matter how beautiful your website is. Okay, so think about it. Your website should really be something that you build.
Michelle :Once you have your message clear, once you have your story clear, then you can create copies, and a lot of times people ask me what is copy? So copy is basically messages or words that you put out to talk about your business, and that's what people is going to remember you by. So if you're unclear of what your story is, then chances are you're going to struggle with all the marketing, messaging and content that you ever need to put out about your business to get people to feel excited, to feel emotionally connected to you. So what you want is you want to have that clarity about your story, how to tell it, how to captivate your audience, what's in it for them. And so these are the important steps in order for you to have an easier way of marketing your business, and I cannot stress this enough.
Michelle :Once you have that clarity of what your story is, then you can build your brand. You can build everything else that's inside your business. And don't forget, I'll be teaching this number one strategy that coaches and speakers are using to attract high paying client and booking the best speaking gig in my upcoming free three day training series that starts on January 13. And you can save your seat at strategyshineandthrive2025.com. Okay, and if you have not already done so, I would love for you to share this episode with somebody, with someone or your peer coach who's ready to take their story and make it visible. And I will see you next time on the show.
Speaker 2:Thank you for listening to Make it Visible podcast. If you love this episode and want deeper support for your coaching business, head over to elevatelifecoachingorg and see how we can partner together to turn your passion into a profitable business. I help female coaches launch and scale their coaching business faster than ever, without wasted time and money, filling the gaps in your marketing strategies, creating a simple and easy to follow system so you can accelerate on the path of coaching business that you love to wake up to. Head over to elevatelifecoachingorg and grab a free strategy audit today.
