If you’ve ever been asked, “How did you get started?” you know how often this question comes up in podcasts, interviews, networking events, and client meetings.
But instead of giving a throwaway answer to satisfy their curiosity, what if you could use that moment to attract your next best client?
In this episode, we explore how you can transform the most common origin story question into a powerful marketing tool. You'll learn how to frame your response to show your passion, uniqueness, and credibility—without sounding scripted or obnioxious.
You will discover:
Resources:
If you find this episode helpful: Please leave a review on Apple or Spotify. It helps others find the show—and helps you build a stronger storytelling strategy.
If you’ve been on a podcast as a guest, or if you’ve gone to a major networking event, you’ll inevitably be asked something like: How did you get here? Or What got you into this field? We’re going to talk about how to answer this question in a way that moves your marketing forward – it doesn’t just satisfy someone’s idle curiosity.
NOTE: This is not a complete transcript. It is a script. There may be small deviations.
Welcome to the Strategic Storytelling podcast. I am your host, Cathy Goodwin. This podcast is dedicated to helping solopreneurs and small business owners use storytelling for their marketing strategy. No campfire stories, no bedtime stories. We’re all about business.
In this episode, we’ll talk about how to turn your origin story into a client attraction tool .
You get asked this question a lot. Why waste it?
WHEN THEY’RE ASKED, “HOW DID YOU get into this,” Most people freeze or else they’ve prepared a story. Often it’s a true story like “someone suggested I do this.”
I am suggesting two ways you can answer this question that won’t just satisfy their curiosity. It’ll help your marketing. And I have a special tip if you can’t achieve these objectives with your origin story: turn it into another kind of story.
What happens when someone asks you, “How did you get started with this?” It happens all the time and it’s sometimes generated by curiosity , by someone who has no intention of working with you.
But … so what? Who cares why you got into this field?
Let’s take an example from a friend of mine from grad school. Let’s call him Bob.
Bob was getting a degree in, of all things, accounting. He loved accounting. He loved being an accountant. He seemed to be a really good accountant.
But he didn’t fit the stereotype of an accountant. He liked to watch football. He played basketball in the gym with the other graduate students. He was a runner. He was an extrovert who’d even performed in some plays when he was in college.
So every so often, someone would ask Bob, “What made you decide to go into accounting?” And he would answer truthfully: “I’m always been good with numbers, so my dad suggested doing something practical with it.”
Obviously a true story. At the time people were just curious. They weren’t potential clients. But what if the Bob ten years later told the same origin story? It’s not very interesting and it doesn’t tell us anything that would affect our decision to hire Bob.
I lost track of Bab after grad school, but I often wonder: what would I tell him today,? He needs an edge. So what could he do?
There are two ways to twist an origin story. Show your passion or show why you’re different.
First, Bob could explain why he’s passionate about helping clients. “I could see how accountants were taking advantage of business owners – charging them extra if they were late or didn’t have their documents in order.”
Even better, he might have a story of an accountant who were a big help to him or his family…if that’s true. For example, “My parents got audited. They hired a tax preparer for help…and they realized they’d been overpaying on taxes for years.”
Or he could say, “As an accountant, I help people see where their money is going. I help them reach their financial goals, and that makes me passionate.”
Alternatively, he could answer the question, “Why should I hire you? What makes you different?” He could say something like, “I have a unique take on accounting because I ran a business myself before becoming an accountant.”
Or, “I created a program to help solopreneurs because I realized they have different accounting issues. Nobody else has a program that works this way.”
This answer really answering the question, “Why are you different?” or “Why are you passionate about what you do?
:
Now here’s a special tip for you in case you can’t find your own story of passion or your story of how you started your business.
Answer the question from the present. In Bob’s case it would be “What makes you a great accountant - now?” In other words, you talk about what lights your fire now. Forget how you got into the field. What matters is what you offer now.
This answer is especially good for what I call a “connect the dots” story. Sometimes you need this story to explain why you’re doing something that seems wildly different from what you did before. Suppose Bob had been a successful fitness professional. He could say that he learned the importance of physical fitness from regular exercise programs and now was transferring that expertise to create accounting programs, making him a better (and unique!) accountant. If he’d been an artist, he could talk about the way he learned to see pattens in abstract. And if he’d been a social worker, he could talk about how he’d learned about people and systems.
When you have a disconnect, it’s important to build a bridge between two jobs. You may even need to do this on your “About” pagevto maintain credibility.
Often it takes an outsider to see the relationship between old and new professionals. We often use the Strategic Intensive to find creative ways to match them up.
This is a common tactic of people who get interviewed a lot. If they don’t like the question, they answer a different one.
Your “how I got here” story is one of the 3 stories you need to prepare before you meet your first client. I have a free ebook, The 3 essential stories you need to prepare for your next, best client. Click here for a free download.
So today we talked about how to turn a common question – “How did you get here” into a client attraction tool. As I said, you get asked this question so often – why waste it?
If you’d like more help coming up with a particular answer to your origin story question, then consider working with me for a consultation. You can learn more at https://cathygoodwin.com/consulting
If you enjoyed this episode, please leave a rating and a review for me, preferably on Spotify or Apple. That’s how we grow and that’s how we get more listeners.
Thanks again for joining me and have a wonderful rest of the day!
Comments & Upvotes