I was at a conference last year, listening to a guy talk about his ridiculously short journey from broke to billionaire. You know the type—slick slides, perfectly rehearsed pauses with tilted head, the whole “I was eating ramen and now I own a jet” narrative. The audience was eating it up.
And I all I could this was: this is such bullshit. Utter bullshit.
Not because he wasn’t successful. He clearly was given the nice suit and Rolex. But because the story was so polished, so weaponized, that I couldn’t identify the human in it anymore. It was all triumph, no texture. He’d sanded down every rough edge until all that remained was a marketing mannequin with capped white teeth.
Here’s the thing: In this era of AI-generated everything, people are desperate to do business with actual human beings. Not bots. Not talking heads. Not polished automatons who’ve optimized themselves into oblivion.
They want to know there’s a living, breathing person behind the curtain who understands their problem on a gut level. They want to know why you do what you do.
And the way you show them that? Your expert positioning story.
The Thumbprint of Your Business
Your expert positioning story—sometimes called your origin story—is the primary narrative you’re known for in the marketplace. It’s the emotional magnet that draws your people to you. It’s not just another piece of content. It’s the thumbprint of your entire business brand.
This story lives in the first few pages of your book, weaves through your website copy, anchors your speeches, and informs every newsletter you send. It’s the story that allows your avatar to determine whether they can connect with you on an emotional, philosophical, or even spiritual level.
Because before they buy from you, they need to know what you stand for.
The right expert positioning story will attract people who share your values. It will also—and this is equally important—repel those who don’t resonate with you, what you stand for, or how you behave in the world. (Good. You want a common worldview to reduce friction for everyone involved.)
Before You Write a Single Word
Good content starts with the end in mind. Before crafting your story, you need to get clear on four things:
Your outcome: What is it you actually sell? (For most of us, that’s products and services.)
Their outcome: What specific problem does your avatar want to solve? What’s the biggest result they get when they hire you?
The deep benefits: What will change for them financially, emotionally, physically, spiritually? Will they make $100K a year? Put down the guilt? Fit into 32-inch jeans? Develop a deeper sense of purpose?
The feeling: How will they feel? This is the stuff of stories. And sales.
The Anatomy of an Expert Positioning Story
Every expert positioning story contains four elements, in this order:
Your struggle: The problem you faced that your audience can relate to.
Your journey: How you moved toward solving this problem.
Your solution: What you figured out, which became the basis for your product or service.
Your successes: How this solution changed your life and the lives of others with the same problem.
Simple enough, right? But here’s where most people screw it up: they spend all their energy on parts two through four—the journey, the solution, the results—while glossing over the struggle. They want to look competent. Successful. Like they’ve had their act together since day one. (I mean, is that even humanly possible? I didn’t get my shit together until I was 40.)
Big mistake.
The On-Your-Knees Moment
Donald Miller, author of Building a StoryBrand, admonishes business owners for making themselves the heroes of their own stories rather than the guide to transformation. He’s right. Nobody wants to hear about your impenetrable success. They want to see a real person they can relate to.
That’s why the first part of your expert positioning story—the struggle—is so crucial. Your people want to know that you’ve overcome the same challenges they’re facing. They want to know you’ve had your own on-your-knees moment.
You know the one. That horrible moment when you recognized something had to change. When the status quo was no longer a viable option. When you couldn’t go on the way you had been.
It’s a moment that often represents total failure. It represents pain. And yeah, it’s the personal stuff we generally like to hide—we don’t love admitting we haven’t had our act together since day one. But that squeamish stuff? That’s actually the stuff that sells.
If you’ve never personally experienced the problem you help solve, maybe someone close to you has. Or maybe you’ve worked with so many people facing this problem that you might as well have experienced it yourself—that’s how viscerally you understand it.
Painting the Scene
To craft this moment, you need to place us there with you. Don’t tell us you were struggling. Show us:
Where were you? What was going on in your head? What were you feeling? Who was with you? What were you saying? What did you hear, touch, or smell?
Paint us a scene. This is the beginning for both you and your reader—the kick in the ass that gets the hero moving.
What Are You Really Selling?
Let me show you what I mean with some expert positioning stories from books you might recognize:
Jeff Walker, author of Launch: Desperate stay-at-home dad must figure out how to earn money so his wife doesn’t feel like she’s carrying all the family burden. Doesn’t want to return to corporate. Figures out a way to sell products online. Makes millions and helps others do the same.
What’s Jeff really selling? Not a marketing tool. He’s selling the feeling of being a good provider, someone who has time for family without selling their soul to corporate. He’s selling proof to those closest to you that you’re a hero, not a zero.
Julie Ann Cairns, author of The Abundance Code: From riches to rags and back again, Julie learns wealth can’t be banked on. To be accepted, you have to have common financial circumstances. You can’t have money and love at the same time. If you want both—her definition of rich—education isn’t enough. It’s about mindset.
What’s Julie really selling? Wholeness. The ability to be free of your upbringing so you can have it all—love and money—without ever having to choose.
Dr. Mary Barbera, author of Turn Autism Around: A nurse with a toddler doesn’t want to hear from her doctor husband that their son might have autism. Refusing to believe him costs them big. By the time her son is diagnosed, it’s too late to turn back the clock. She became an expert in Applied Behavioral Analysis to save other parents from the same fate.
What’s Mary really selling? Peace of mind that you’ve done all you can do.
Dayna Abraham, author of Calm the Chaos: A public-school teacher quits her job to homeschool her challenging kid who’s causing chaos at school and home. Worried her child might end up hurting himself or land in jail, she develops a parenting framework that works for her family and shares it with others.
What’s Dayna really selling? Hope. Another option so you don’t have to drive off into the sunset with guilt forever in the passenger seat.
You see how compelling this is? These authors aren’t telling random sad stories. They’re telling stories that sell—stories that speak to the feeling their avatar is after.
Choosing the Right Story
If you’re over the age of five, you’ve got plenty of on-your-knees moments to choose from. But the moment you select must be relevant to the big result you sell. This is the defining moment—the beginning of your journey toward creating that result for yourself.
If you can’t think of a single moment—if you came to the crossroads over time—create a composite scene that represents the feeling you’re after. This doesn’t make your story any less true. You’re remaining faithful to that moment of despair; you’re just making it easier for your reader to follow.
A few considerations:
For those in fiduciary or therapeutic roles: Which client scene can you paint that gets at the heart of the issue? Which composite character can you create to represent this person without breaching trust? Can you get personal by sharing family history that doesn’t involve professional shame?
For those selling products: What in your personal history demonstrates that you understand the relief this product brings? What face can you give us to relate to?
Not every expert positioning story has to begin with despair. But your ability to capture what a problem feels like—to really poke that bear—will serve you well.
The 80/20 of Your Story
Your on-your-knees moment is the 20% that does 80% of the work. But it’s not all you need.
You must have the other pieces—the journey, solution, and successes—to demonstrate that you have a solution, that it works for others too. Without that, your pain story comes across as gratuitous. We won’t perceive you as an expert capable of helping us get the outcome we’re after.
But get that struggle piece right, and everything else falls into place. That first part of your expert positioning story is the very thing that connects you to others because it makes you human. It allows people to know, like, and trust you. To relate to you and understand what you stand for—why you do what you do, why you sell what you sell.
Your Turn
Create a horrible first draft of your pain story. That on-your-knees moment that got you—or someone close to you—started on the journey to solve the problem you now address.
Don’t worry about making it pretty. Don’t sand down the rough edges. Just get it on the page.
This story is the key to connection. It’s the touchstone for your entire business. And yes—it will make you money.
