I want to share a real-life example with you about the power of story and the very real, very tangible outcomes of developing yours for your business.

When Andy Falco Jimenez came to Mike Koenigs’ Instant Customer Reinvention event two years ago, he was $70,000 in debt and his house was in foreclosure. The dog training business he had run for 25 years, Falco K9 Academy, was not bringing in enough income to support his family, and he had no idea how he was going to get through the next month. In fact, he’d only been able to attend the event because a friend had given him a free ticket.

I’d been invited to speak at the event and Mike and I sat down with Andy for a one-on-one “Hot Seat” coaching session. Andy told us his story and his situation. He was frustrated because he was an intelligent person, yet he just couldn’t seem to turn things around. He also wanted to write a book, and had been working on it for about five years.

The first thing that struck me and Mike about Andy was his story—and the fact that he wasn’t incorporating it into his business’s USP and messaging. Andy had started his business after a life-changing experience he had had as a police officer. In a chase to capture a suspect who was on the loose, Andy had followed him to a garage, where the suspect was hiding. As he approached the door to the garage, Andy’s police dog ran around to a back entrance. Just before Andy stepped through the door, the dog bit the suspect, who was hiding just behind the door—with a gun. The dog had saved Andy’s life.

We urged Andy to embrace this experience, make it a core part of his USP, and use it to connect with his target audience. We also assured him that he was an expert in his field—a title that he struggled with himself because he doubted his own skills and authority.

Andy took our advice and ran with it. Two months after the event, he had finished his book, Falco: Walking with God and a Dog. Understanding the importance of a list, he built up his own using crowd grabber campaigns with Instant Customer, and marketed to his ideal customers with videos, podcasts and a blog.

Since that Hot Seat session in 2012, Andy’s clientele has quadrupled. He receives invitations to speak all over the country in front of large audiences, giving presentations at venues such as Planet Hollywood. He has appeared in two documentaries and has been featured on the National Geographic Channel, the Disney Channel, and Animal Planet. A few months ago he published his second book, Dog Sniff Evidence, which is now a number-one bestseller on Amazon. Andy had found his story—the driving, core purpose behind his business.

So now I ask you: Are you leveraging your story within your business? Let me know in the comments.

Sometimes all it takes is an outside point of view to help us pinpoint the changes we need to make in our own businesses. Mike and I are looking forward to the Hot Seat sessions at our Make Market Launch IT event! Find out more about our event here. Seats are limited!