Commitment Summit · Dominican Republic
Story to Sell.
how to grow your business by telling a better story
1999. My parents' house.
I could build anything. I could not ask for the money.
i was 18, and selling scared me to death
A quick show of hands
Who here is a
salesperson?
Okay. Different question.
Who here has to sell to keep the lights on?
that gap is what the next hour is about
Why we resist it
We've all been burned by bad salespeople.
So we swore we'd never be that person. And then we swung so far the other way that we started underselling things that actually work.
The reframe
Selling is
serving.
But here's the catch
Nobody buys until they're sufficiently disturbed.
Stage 01
No idea
They have the problem. They just don't know it's there yet.
Won't buy
Stage 02
Not enough pain
They know they have a problem, but they're not disturbed enough to do anything about it.
Still won't buy
Stage 03
Sufficiently disturbed
They know, and it bothers them enough that doing nothing now costs more than saying yes.
Buys, and buys today
The dentist test
Same cavity, three different people.
No pain
The cavity is already there. They've never felt a thing, so there's nothing to fix.
A little pain
It twinges now and then. Two ibuprofen knocks it out, so the appointment can wait.
Can't sleep
It's two in the morning and nothing touches it. They're calling the second the office opens, and they don't ask what it costs.
same cavity the whole time. only the pain changed.
Where the money actually is
Almost all of your marketing is aimed at stage three.
Where the customers are
Stage 1 · 2 · 3
Where your marketing goes
Stage 1 · 2 · 3
story is the only thing that reaches one and two.
Your actual job
Story is what moves people up the scale.
01Name itSay the problem out loud, in their words, before they can feel it themselves.
02Raise the stakesShow them what it actually costs to keep living with it.
03Show the way outA plan so clear and so small that saying yes is easy.
that's not pressure. that's a filling instead of a root canal.
What my uncle taught me
If you have a product or service that will help someone, you are morally obligated to convince them to buy it.
and if you can't help them, sell something else.
What that looks like in your world
Underselling has a cost.
Home servicesThe Roofer
Sell the patch instead of the replacement, and a family stays under a roof that's going to fail.
AccountingThe Accountant
Skip the tax-planning conversation, and your client overpays the IRS again this year and never finds out.
RecruitingThe Recruiter
Soft-sell the retained search and that seat stays empty while the team covers for it.
60-second exercise
Tell your neighbor about one person your business genuinely helped.
not a company. a person. what changed for them?
The clarity problem
Confused people don't buy.
The brain ignores anything that burns calories to understand. If your message makes people work, they move on.
I'll go first
This was my homepage.
Read the first sentence. It's about me. Twenty-five years in and I still catch myself writing it that way.
Live teardown
Whose homepage are we fixing right now?
read your first sentence out loud. is it about you, or about them?
The one rule of story
Your customer is the hero.
You are the guide.
Luke had Yoda. Frodo had Gandalf. When your marketing makes you the hero, you're competing with your customer for the lead role. They'll cast themselves every time.
Donald Miller's StoryBrand framework
Every great story runs on seven parts.
01A characterYour customer is the hero, not your brand.
02Has a problemWhat's broken, how it makes them feel, and why it's not right.
03Meets a guideThat's you, with empathy and authority.
04Who gives them a planSimple steps that remove the risk of doing business with you.
05And calls them to actionHeroes don't act unless they're challenged to.
06That ends in successShow them the win.
07And helps them avoid failureName what's at stake if they do nothing.
that's the whole map. now let's compress it to three.
The framework
Every message that sells has three beats.
Problem
Start where your customer is stuck. Name the frustration underneath the situation.
Solution
Show up as the guide with empathy, authority, and a plan that fits on a napkin.
Outcome
Paint what life looks like after. Nobody boards a plane without a destination.
Beat 01 · Problem
A situation is not a story.
"You're sweating through dinner wondering if this repair guy is ripping you off."
The external problem gets attention. The internal one drives the purchase.
Beat 02 · Solution
The guide brings three things.
Empathy"We know what that feels like."
Prove you understand their problem before you pitch your product.
Authority"We've fixed 4,000 of these."
Give them a reason to trust you can actually do it.
The PlanThree steps. Max.
People buy the option they can picture saying yes to.
Beat 03 · Outcome
Show them the after.
The house is cool, the invoice matches the quote, and your number is saved in their phone for next time. If you never show the destination, you're asking someone to board a plane without telling them where it lands.
Worksheet, 3 minutes
Now write yours.
01Their stageNo idea, not enough pain, or sufficiently disturbed? Write for the middle one.
02One customerA specific person, real or typical. Name them.
03Their problemThe situation, and how it makes them feel.
04Your solutionEmpathy, authority, and a plan in three steps or fewer.
05The outcomeWhat life looks like after they say yes.
Now compress it
The one-liner.
Most people you help struggle with problem.
We solution so they can outcome.
What it sounds like
Roofing"Most homeowners struggle with not knowing whether a roofer is being straight with them. We give a fixed, photo-documented quote in 24 hours so they can see exactly what they are paying for."
Accounting"Most small business owners struggle with a surprise tax bill every April. We do tax planning all year so they can stop overpaying and stop getting blindsided."
Stand up, 90 seconds
Say your one-liner to two people in this room.
you won't know if it works until you hear yourself say it
What to do when you get home
Put it everywhere.
01Your websiteThe first sentence of your homepage headline.
02Your answerTo "so, what do you do?"
03Your proposalsTop of every estimate and pitch.
04Your teamYour best story dies if only the founder can tell it.
05Your contentEvery post, email, and video is one of your three beats told again.
06Your follow-upsThe people you already know and haven't called back yet.
stop making it harder than it is
Five-minute AI hack
Let AI sharpen it in five minutes.
01Paste your three beatsProblem, solution, outcome. Straight off your worksheet.
02Ask for ten one-linersThe exact prompt is on side 2 of your worksheet.
03Say the best one out loudAI writes the drafts. You decide which one sounds like you.
The part that saves you every week
One story. A month of content.
01Feed it your beatsProblem, solution, outcome, plus two things you have already written so it sounds like you.
02Ask for twelveFour on the problem, four on the solution, four on the outcome.
03Write to stage twoThe ones who know and have not moved yet.
all three prompts are on side 2 of your worksheet
Since 1999, one rule I won't break
Clarity beats clever.
If you have to choose between sounding impressive and being understood, be understood. Every time.
The commitment
Right now somebody is losing sleep over the thing you already know how to fix.
you're the only one who can go tell them
One more show of hands
Who here is a salesperson?
Almost nobody put a hand up an hour ago. You have a story now. Put it up.
The challenge
Build a business that lasts.
and a life worth coming home to.
Your one-liner, three real conversations, seven days. Then go enjoy the people you brought with you. They're the reason this matters.
Questions
Send me your one-liner.
i'll write back with a sharper version, free
Today's deck: story-to-sell.pages.dev
More prompts like these: AIwithJay.com
