July 11, 2025 • 10 mins
If you’ve ever been asked, “How did you get started?” you know how often this question comes up in podcasts, interviews, networking events, and client meetings.
But instead of giving a throwaway answer to satisfy their curiosity, what if you could use that moment to attract your next best client?
In this episode, we explore how you can transform the most common origin story question into a powerful marketing tool. You'll learn how to frame your response to show your passion, uniqueness, and credibility—without sounding scripted or obnioxious.
You will discover:
- Why most people waste their origin story—and how not to toss yours away
- Two origin story strategies: Show your passion or highlight your unique difference
- What to do if your origin story doesn’t fit those categories
- A pro tip for “connecting the dots” between an unrelated past career and your current offer (so you increase your credibility)
- How to use your story as part of your website, podcast appearances, or live networking
Resources:
- Download the free guide: The 3 Essential Stories You Need for Your Next, Best Client. Click here for access.
- Want personalized help shaping your origin story to fit your strategy? Book a consultation by starting here.
If you find this episode helpful:
Please leave a review on Apple or Spotify. It helps others find the show—and helps you build a stronger storytelling strategy.
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:00):
{
(00:01):
ArialMT; Times-Roman;
If you\'92ve been on a podcast as a guest, or if you\'92ve gone to a major networking event, you\'92ll inevitably be asked something like (00:02):
How did you get here? Or What got you into this field? We\'92re going to talk about how to answer this question in a way that moves your marketing forward \'96 it doesn\'92t just satisfy someone\'92s idle curiosity.
Welcome to the Strategic Storytelling podcast. I am your host, Cathy Goodwin. This podcast is dedicated to helping solopreneurs and small business owners use storytelling for their marketing strategy. No campfire stories, no bedtime stories. We\'92re all about business.\'a0
In this episode, we\'92ll talk about how to turn your origin story into a client attraction tool .\'a0\'a0
You get asked this question a lot. Why waste it?\'a0
WHEN THEY\'92RE ASKED, \'93HOW DID YOU get into this,\'94 Most people freeze or else they\'92ve prepared a story. Often it\'92s a true story like \'93someone suggested I do this.\'94\'a0
I am suggesting two ways you can answer this question that won\'92t just satisfy their curiosity. It\'92ll help your marketing. And I have a special tip if you can\'92t achieve these objectives with your origin story (00:07):
turn it into another kind of story.
What happens when someone asks you, \'93How did you get started with this?\'94 It happens all the time and it\'92s sometimes generated by curiosity , by someone who has no intention of working with you.\'a0\'a0
But \'85 so what? Who cares why you got into this field?
Let\'92s take an example from a friend of mine from grad school. Let\'92s call him Bob.\'a0
Bob was getting a degree in, of all things, accounting. He loved accounting. He loved being an accountant. He seemed to be a really good accountant.\'a0
But he didn\'92t fit the stereotype of an accountant. He liked to watch football. He played basketball in the gym with the other graduate students. He was a runner. He was an extrovert who\'92d even performed in some plays when he was in college.\'a0
So every so often, someone would ask Bob, \'93What made you decide to go into accounting?\'94 And he would answer truthfully (00:13):
\'93I\'92m always been good with numbers, so my dad suggested doing something practical with it.\'94
Obviously a true story. At the time people were just curious. They weren\'92t potential clients. But what if the Bob ten years later told the same origin story? It\'92s not very interesting and it doesn\'92t tell us anything that would affect our decision to hire Bob.
I lost track of Bab after grad school, but I often wonder (00:15):
what would I tell him today,? He needs an edge.\'a0 So what could he do?\'a0
There are two ways to twist an origin story. Show your passion or show why you\'92re different.
First, Bob could explain why he\'92s passionate about helping clients.\'a0 \'93I could see how accountants were taking advantage of business owners \'96 charging them extra if they were late or didn\'92t have their documents in order.\'94\'a0
Even better, he might have a story of an accountant who were a big help to him or his family\'85if that\'92s true. For example, \'93My parents got audited. They hired a tax preparer for help\'85and they realized they\'92d been overpaying on taxes for years.\'94\'a0
Or he could say, \'93As an accountant, I help people see where their money is going. I help them reach their financial goals, and that makes me passionate.\'94
Alternatively, he could answer the question, \'93Why should I hire you? What makes you different?\'94 He could say something like, \'93I have a unique take on accounting because I ran a business myself\'a0 before becoming an accountant.\'94\'a0
Or, \'93I created a program to help solopreneurs because I realized they have different accounting issues. Nobody else has a program that works this way.\'94\'a0
This answer really answering the question, \'93Why are you different?\'94 or \'93Why are you passionate about what you do?
:\'a0
Now here\'92s a special tip for you in case you can\'92t find your own story of passion or your story of how you started your business.
\'a0Answer the question from the present. In Bob\'92s case it would be \'93What makes you a great accountant - now?\'94 In other words, you talk about what lights your fire now. Forget how you got into the field. What matters is what you offer now.
This answer is especially good for what I call a \'93connect the dots\'94 story. Sometimes you need this story to explain why you\'92re doing something that seems wildly different from what you did before. Suppose Bob had been a successful fitness professional. He could say that he learned\'a0 the importance of physical fitness from regular exercise programs and now was transferring that expertise to create accounting programs, making him a better (and unique!) accountant. If he\'92d been an artist, he could talk about the way he learned to see pattens in abstract. And if he\'92d been a social worker, he could talk about how he\'92d learned about people and systems.\'a0
When you have a disconnect, it\'92s important to build a bridge between two jobs. You may even need to do this on your \'93About\'94 pagevto maintain credibility.
Often it takes an outsider to see the relationship between old and new professionals. We often use the Strategic Intensive to find creative ways to match them up.\'a0
This is a common tactic of people who get interviewed a lot. If they don\'92t like the question, they answer a different one.\'a0\'a0
Your \'93how I got here\'94 story is one of the 3 stories you need to prepare before you meet your first client. I have a free ebook,\'a0 The 3 essential stories you need to prepare for your next, best client.
So today we talked about how to turn a common question \'96 \'93How did you get here\'94 into a client attraction tool. As I said, you get asked this question so often \'96 why waste it?
If you\'92d like more help coming up with a particular answer to your origin story question, then consider working with me for a consultation. You can learn more at \'a0
If you enjoyed this episode, please leave a rating and a review for me, preferably on Spotify or Apple. That\'92s how we grow and\'a0 that\'92s how we get more listeners.
Thanks again for joining me and have a wonderful rest of the day!\'a0
{
(00:01):
ArialMT; Times-Roman;
If you\'92ve been on a podcast as a guest, or if you\'92ve gone to a major networking event, you\'92ll inevitably be asked something like (00:02):
How did you get here? Or What got you into this field? We\'92re going to talk about how to answer this question in a way that moves your marketing forward \'96 it doesn\'92t just satisfy someone\'92s idle curiosity.
Welcome to the Strategic Storytelling podcast. I am your host, Cathy Goodwin. This podcast is dedicated to helping solopreneurs and small business owners use storytelling for their marketing strategy. No campfire stories, no bedtime stories. We\'92re all about business.\'a0
In this episode, we\'92ll talk about how to turn your origin story into a client attraction tool .\'a0\'a0
You get asked this question a lot. Why waste it?\'a0
WHEN THEY\'92RE ASKED, \'93HOW DID YOU get into this,\'94 Most people freeze or else they\'92ve prepared a story. Often it\'92s a true story like \'93someone suggested I do this.\'94\'a0
I am suggesting two ways you can answer this question that won\'92t just satisfy their curiosity. It\'92ll help your marketing. And I have a special tip if you can\'92t achieve these objectives with your origin story (00:07):
turn it into another kind of story.
What happens when someone asks you, \'93How did you get started with this?\'94 It happens all the time and it\'92s sometimes generated by curiosity , by someone who has no intention of working with you.\'a0\'a0
But \'85 so what? Who cares why you got into this field?
Let\'92s take an example from a friend of mine from grad school. Let\'92s call him Bob.\'a0
Bob was getting a degree in, of all things, accounting. He loved accounting. He loved being an accountant. He seemed to be a really good accountant.\'a0
But he didn\'92t fit the stereotype of an accountant. He liked to watch football. He played basketball in the gym with the other graduate students. He was a runner. He was an extrovert who\'92d even performed in some plays when he was in college.\'a0
So every so often, someone would ask Bob, \'93What made you decide to go into accounting?\'94 And he would answer truthfully (00:13):
\'93I\'92m always been good with numbers, so my dad suggested doing something practical with it.\'94
Obviously a true story. At the time people were just curious. They weren\'92t potential clients. But what if the Bob ten years later told the same origin story? It\'92s not very interesting and it doesn\'92t tell us anything that would affect our decision to hire Bob.
I lost track of Bab after grad school, but I often wonder (00:15):
what would I tell him today,? He needs an edge.\'a0 So what could he do?\'a0
There are two ways to twist an origin story. Show your passion or show why you\'92re different.
First, Bob could explain why he\'92s passionate about helping clients.\'a0 \'93I could see how accountants were taking advantage of business owners \'96 charging them extra if they were late or didn\'92t have their documents in order.\'94\'a0
Even better, he might have a story of an accountant who were a big help to him or his family\'85if that\'92s true. For example, \'93My parents got audited. They hired a tax preparer for help\'85and they realized they\'92d been overpaying on taxes for years.\'94\'a0
Or he could say, \'93As an accountant, I help people see where their money is going. I help them reach their financial goals, and that makes me passionate.\'94
Alternatively, he could answer the question, \'93Why should I hire you? What makes you different?\'94 He could say something like, \'93I have a unique take on accounting because I ran a business myself\'a0 before becoming an accountant.\'94\'a0
Or, \'93I created a program to help solopreneurs because I realized they have different accounting issues. Nobody else has a program that works this way.\'94\'a0
This answer really answering the question, \'93Why are you different?\'94 or \'93Why are you passionate about what you do?
:\'a0
Now here\'92s a special tip for you in case you can\'92t find your own story of passion or your story of how you started your business.
\'a0Answer the question from the present. In Bob\'92s case it would be \'93What makes you a great accountant - now?\'94 In other words, you talk about what lights your fire now. Forget how you got into the field. What matters is what you offer now.
This answer is especially good for what I call a \'93connect the dots\'94 story. Sometimes you need this story to explain why you\'92re doing something that seems wildly different from what you did before. Suppose Bob had been a successful fitness professional. He could say that he learned\'a0 the importance of physical fitness from regular exercise programs and now was transferring that expertise to create accounting programs, making him a better (and unique!) accountant. If he\'92d been an artist, he could talk about the way he learned to see pattens in abstract. And if he\'92d been a social worker, he could talk about how he\'92d learned about people and systems.\'a0
When you have a disconnect, it\'92s important to build a bridge between two jobs. You may even need to do this on your \'93About\'94 pagevto maintain credibility.
Often it takes an outsider to see the relationship between old and new professionals. We often use the Strategic Intensive to find creative ways to match them up.\'a0
This is a common tactic of people who get interviewed a lot. If they don\'92t like the question, they answer a different one.\'a0\'a0
Your \'93how I got here\'94 story is one of the 3 stories you need to prepare before you meet your first client. I have a free ebook,\'a0 The 3 essential stories you need to prepare for your next, best client.
So today we talked about how to turn a common question \'96 \'93How did you get here\'94 into a client attraction tool. As I said, you get asked this question so often \'96 why waste it?
If you\'92d like more help coming up with a particular answer to your origin story question, then consider working with me for a consultation. You can learn more at \'a0
If you enjoyed this episode, please leave a rating and a review for me, preferably on Spotify or Apple. That\'92s how we grow and\'a0 that\'92s how we get more listeners.
Thanks again for joining me and have a wonderful rest of the day!\'a0
Popular Podcasts
Stuff You Should Know
If you've ever wanted to know about champagne, satanism, the Stonewall Uprising, chaos theory, LSD, El Nino, true crime and Rosa Parks, then look no further. Josh and Chuck have you covered.
Dateline NBC
Current and classic episodes, featuring compelling true-crime mysteries, powerful documentaries and in-depth investigations. Follow now to get the latest episodes of Dateline NBC completely free, or subscribe to Dateline Premium for ad-free listening and exclusive bonus content: DatelinePremium.com
Las Culturistas with Matt Rogers and Bowen Yang
Ding dong! Join your culture consultants, Matt Rogers and Bowen Yang, on an unforgettable journey into the beating heart of CULTURE. Alongside sizzling special guests, they GET INTO the hottest pop-culture moments of the day and the formative cultural experiences that turned them into Culturistas. Produced by the Big Money Players Network and iHeartRadio.