The Campfire Effect with Chris Smith

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The guest for this week is Chris Smith, founder of the Campfire Effect. He’s a natural-born storyteller, and he uses his insight to help businesses create authentic interactions with their customers. Smith describes storytelling as the feeling you get when you’re sitting around a campfire. How do you feel? You probably have happy memories and feelings of comfort like the warmth of a fire. This is the feeling Smith thinks businesses should focus on when trying to connect with their audience.

Humans are social creatures. We want to interact with each other. With the rise of social media and smartphones in the digital age, it’s harder than ever to connect with each other. This is something we’ve lost in recent years. Businesses who want to break through this noise need to base their marketing strategy on these campfire feelings. They need to focus on connections with their audience.

The Small Business Difference

A lot of small businesses feel they’re at a disadvantage compared to big-name corporations. Let’s face it, these big businesses have big money to spend on complicated marketing campaigns. What many marketers consider a disadvantage, Smith calls an advantage.

Small businesses can use their stories to connect with their audience. They can be authentic in their sharing and their connections. Small businesses can use this difference to share real stories that their audience will listen to.

For Chris Smith, the small business difference is in your “why.” You can use your “why” to show just how important your business is and to separate from the competition. What does your company do that other companies don’t? Change the focus from “what you do” to “how you do it.”

Understand Your Why

Knowing why you’re selling is more important than what you’re selling. As a small business, you need to delve deep into your own story to really understand your why. Smith talks about a dentist in his home of Phoenix who was searching for their own way. At surface level, he said the dentist wanted to be the best cosmetic dentist in the area. When Smith prompted him to dig deeper, the dentist recognized that his true “why” is actually to help people feel more confident.

This confidence “why” is a much stronger selling point than simply being the best cosmetic dentist in Phoenix. Smith urges small businesses everywhere to be honest with their why. Dig deeper to find something truly important and authentic.

To learn more about Chris Smith’s Campfire Effect and how he uses storytelling to transform marketing, listen to the full podcast here.

What You’ll Learn:

  • 5 Forces of Story
  • How the impact/mission sell
  • About the Campfire Effect online course

Connect with Chris:

Links and Resources: