Remember how you learned the best way to lead your customer to you is by taking them on the journey of epiphanies and belief shifts, the same journey you went on while you were experiencing this pain and problem? To effortlessly achieve this journey, you will create your Aligned Story.

Your Aligned Story is the way you’ll tell the story of how you discovered and experienced your Unique Mechanism. This is your vehicle for pulling your Aligned Customer toward your solution. Essentially, this is the bridge that will serve as the portal between the limiting beliefs your audience presently holds, and the beliefs they need in order to take the next step in working with you. It is the story that will guide them to realize your Unique Mechanism is what they need, and you are the only one that can give them it.

Here’s the format of your Aligned Story:

1. Pre-Frame: Have you ever thought, “I wish [insert most common desire]?”
   
2. The Backstory: Describe your life when you needed the change you are offering (this is where your audience currently is).
   
3. No Turning Back: Then, you reached a breaking point—you exhausted all methods and solutions, and had nowhere else to turn.
   
4. Epiphany: You realized, “I need this…” (support, a process, etc—what it is you offer now).
   
5. The Search: You searched for it, but couldn’t really find it.
   
6. Unique Mechanism: So you created it for yourself.
   
7. The Outcome: You finally accomplished it, and this is what your life looks like now.
   
8. The Results: You tested it with a few clients, and these are the results you got.
   
9. The Shortcut: Now you are offering this to others, so they can shortcut the years of struggle, suffering and guesswork you had to go through.

Remember, the point of this story is to guide your audience in experiencing the epiphany you had when you discovered that your Unique Mechanism was your best solution to your pain and problem. It’s an authentic, heart-felt, personal story. It’s raw, and it’s real.

When you present your offer from the standpoint of your Aligned Story, your audience will connect with you. This is not only because it is human nature to connect via storytelling, but also because context will always support your authenticity. If people understand that you’ve been through this before, they’ll know you relate to them and will begin to trust that you are the solution for them.

This is how you effortlessly guide your Aligned Customer through your Customer Journey.

Note: Although writing may not be your Zone of Genius, it’s important to get this down in written format so you have it out of your head and in front of you. Once you have your Aligned Story, you’ll then be able to share it in whatever way aligns best with your personality and strengths. You’ll discover your most aligned marketing method in the next lesson.

Click here for an example story from Alignment Engine (see comments in the doc to follow the story outline): https://docs.google.com/document/d/1j7sAD0yJ1Uk_4yZeno3mB60D15xYG1AiXbI9p5tJKgw/edit?usp=sharing

Complete the worksheet and move on when ready: 
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1I50cRqYM1TNuWk9p4hL1DLXk2mYkWq_EX1GNzWbPKO4/edit?usp=sharing