“I need your expertise. I’m building my personal brand and need better positioning on social media. I can’t spend 10 years touring trying build an emotional bond with my audience. Do you think you can help?”
Matthew fronts a rock band, Vinyl Station, and he thinks like a business owner. He wants to take control of his reputation. He needs strategies that leverage his strengths. Strategies that don’t demand a giant budget to execute.
I said yes. We agreed to meet the next day at Peixoto Coffee.
Peixoto is a pretty typical coffee bar in many respects. Old downtown building. Exposed brick walls. Thrift-store furniture. Pierced & tattooed baristas. Metal chairs and tables on the sidewalk out front.
Like I said, typical. As we sat down, I told him, “I don’t really like their coffee, but I keep coming back.”
Does that make any sense?
I’m a coffee lover that didn’t like their coffee. So why do I keep coming back? I’ll give you a hint:
- It’s not the atmosphere. Plenty of coffee shops around here have the same atmosphere.
- It’s not the people. They’re no better or worse than any other shop around.
- It’s not the location. I actually pass a dozen coffee shops on my way to Peixoto.
So what is it?
It’s the emotion I feel.
Feelings are Stronger than Thoughts
Why do I go back to Peixoto over and over again? Because I have an emotional bond with their story. I don’t think about them as a business. In fact, I don’t think about them at all. Rather, I have feelings for them.
There’s the difference:thinking versus feeling.
Do people think about you? Or do they have feelings for you?
The smart folks at Peixoto hooked my emotions. They made it almost impossible for me to imagine going anywhere else for coffee meetings.
Now that’s some powerful brand building there.
If you’re an entrepreneur, a business owner or a personality, differentiation is the name of the game. That’s why What You Do matters far less than Who You Are.
Good Feelings Beat Rational Thinking Every Time
I didn’t like Peixoto coffee. Yet I kept going back. That is not a rational thinking.
Imagine this scenario is true for your business:
Even though some people aren’t crazy about your products or services, they keep coming back for more. They keep buying from you. And they are so happy about buying from you that they recommend you to their friends.
That’s exactly how Peixoto affects me.
You wanna talk about Branding Power? Now that’s branding power. Do you want people to connect like that with you? Of course you do.
So what is it that Peixoto did to hook me? How did they grab my emotions so strongly that I hate to go anywhere else for coffee?
The answer is stunningly simple:
They told me an amazing Origin Story – a love story. Their Origin Story made me fall in love with their little company.
Strategies that Turn Business into Pleasure
See, Peixoto is the only coffee shop for hundreds of miles in every direction that grows and harvests their own coffee beans.
The same family that grows the coffee beans in Brazil also sells me the coffee in Arizona. They plant it, grow it, harvest it, ship it, roast it, brew it and finally sell it to me.
The coffee doesn’t change owners from the time it’s planted in the ground until they pass that beautiful white porcelain mug across the stainless steel counter into my eager hands.
I love that story. It makes Peixoto completely unique. And it makes me feel like I am a small part of something amazing and cool.
And so – because I feel that way – I keep on giving Peixoto my business. And I keep on encouraging other people to give them business as well.
(In fact, I had yet another meeting there yesterday. Peixoto is also my favorite “office-away-from-the-office.”)
Brand Yourself with Your Origin Story
Every great Origin Story has three key elements:
- A Hero – Your brand’s story should have a hero who resembles your ideal customer.
- A Struggle -Your hero should find himself in a predicament that your ideal customer can relate to.
- A Solution – Your hero should find a solution that not only resolves his predicament, but is available to your customer today.
The heroes of the Peixoto story are the owners, Jeff Peters and Julia Peixoto Peters. They are just like me: they love a good cup of coffee. And just like me, they don’t like mass-market coffee.
They struggled to find coffee as delicious as the coffee they drank in Brazil. But not just anywhere in Brazil. See, Julia’s father in Brazil actually owns a coffee farm. They couldn’t find coffee that tasty anywhere else.
Their solution? They decided to open their own coffee shop and sell coffee from Julia’s family coffee farm.
They roast the coffee in their own shop. They grind, brew and sell it right there on the corner of Arizona Avenue and Boston Street in Chandler, Arizona.
How to Create, Attract and Keep Customer Emotion
What Peixoto has done with their Origin Story is something you can do as well. Your Origin Story will communicate your emotion to your audience. And your audience will give your their emotion in return.
Every Origin Story is a love story. Find the love in your story, highlight the Hero, the Struggle and the Solution. Then share it with the world.
A compelling Origin Story is your first best way to make yourself irresistible. It lets you brand yourself and define your identity in a way that makes you stand out from the crowd.
Whether business branding or personal branding doesn’t matter: an emotional connection beats a rational decision every time.
Love: It’s the best customer loyalty program in existence.
A related note: Peixoto’s Origin Story kept me coming back until I learned to love their product as much as I love their story. Now I buy their coffee by the bag to brew at home!
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