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September 8, 2025 • 37 mins

What if one message could change the way people see your business? In this episode, I sit down with Aurora Winter, award-winning author and founder of Same Page Publishing, to talk about how small business owners can craft powerful messages that connect, convert, and create lasting impact.

Aurora shares insights from her background in neuroscience, screenwriting, and business development to explain why emotional storytelling beats facts and features every time. Whether you're pitching a product, writing your website copy, or considering a book, her frameworks offer practical tools to help your message cut through the noise and drive results.

If you've ever struggled to put your value into words, this conversation will help you shape a message that sticks and sells.

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Episode Transcript

Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Janice Hostager (00:05):
I'm Janice Hostager.
After three decades in themarketing business and many
years of being an entrepreneur,I've learned a thing or two
about marketing.
Join me as we talk aboutmarketing, small business and
life in between.
Welcome to My Weekly Marketing.

(00:31):
In marketing, we all use wordsto sell our business In social
media, in emails or headlines,blogs.
These messages all build ourbrand and sell our product.
When you have something towrite, what's your first step,
though?
You may do what a lot of peopledo, and if I'm going to be 100%
truthful, I've done it too.
Turn to ChatG PT to generatethe first draft.
After all, at the end of a longday, it can make writing that

(00:54):
email or Instagram caption somuch easier.
But not all words are createdequal.
My guest today is Aurora Winter, an award winning and
bestselling author, TV producerand thought leader who has
helped countless entrepreneurscraft messages that don't just
sound good.
They sell offers and buildwealth.
Aurora pulls from her time inHollywood, Silicon Valley and

(01:18):
her knowledge of neuroscience totalk to us about how your
message can become yourmillion-dollar asset, whether
that's through a book, TEDx talk, speaking or simply a brand
story.
Trust me, even if you're a goodwriter, our conversation will
get you to rethink your wording.
Here's my conversation withAurora.
Hey, Aurora, welcome to MyWeekly Marketing

Aurora Winter (01:41):
Great to be on the show with you, Janice.

Janice Hostager (01:48):
So we're talking a lot today about
storytelling and the power ofwords, which I think, with AI
now and storytelling have takenon a lot more power than they
have in the past.
But talk to me about yourbackground.
Like what moment did yourealize that the power of words
that can transform your careerand your income?

Aurora Winter (02:09):
My background is as a serial entrepreneur.
I've launched multiple six andseven figure businesses and had
three exits.
But I also have a background infilm and television and I
remember there was one specific,very stressful moment where the
light bulb went on and Idiscovered that the right words
at the right time to the rightpeople can change the trajectory

(02:30):
of your life.
And what happened was this wasdecades ago when I was a young
wannabe screenwriter and authorand nobody knew me.
I didn't have any publishedbooks, I didn't have any
award-winning screenplays, Ididn't have a background at that
time as a successful vicepresident in the film business.
I was a nobody.

(02:50):
But I was invited to pitch myscreenplay that I'd been working
on at a film festival.
So my shoulder went into spasmbeforehand.
I was like so nervous because Irealized, oh my gosh, in the
next, you know 10, 20 minutes, Ican ruin my career forever.

(03:15):
Because there were 600 topexecutives from film and
television from around the worldin the audience and if they
didn't catch it in the audience,it was going to be aired on
broadcast television, nationaltelevision, on CBC, and so I was
very nervous beforehand, but Ipracticed what I wanted to say
and then, when the lights cameon and I had my moment and the
stage, I was connected to mypassion for the story and the

(03:37):
script that I had written.
And what happened was ittriggered actually a bidding war
and my agent was there fieldingoffers on my behalf and selling
television.
Big Canadian producers andbroadcasters are all bidding to
work with me and to auction thatscript.
So I went from being anabsolute nobody to having my 15

(03:58):
minutes of fame.
And what happened as a resultof the right words at the right
time to the right people wasbasically it launched my career
in film and television andturned into eventually, six
figures and various positions infilm and TV, and much later I
raised $5 million and launchedmy own film and television
production company.

(04:18):
So what the story takeaway hereis while many people are
slaving away in their officesworking on something, don't
forget to get out there and tellyour story, because it's when
you share your story thateverything can change.

Janice Hostager (04:35):
I love that story.
First of all, I mean congratson that, even though it was a
while ago.
Congratulations on yourincredible success with that.
So where did you make thetransition to entrepreneurials
and using this information forentrepreneurs and business
owners?

Aurora Winter (04:54):
Well, I've been an entrepreneur since my 20s.
So I've sold my first businessfor six figures in my 20s, so
always been a serialentrepreneur and always loved
writing and storytelling.
But it didn't strike me reallyuntil that moment pitching the
movie I had written that thecommon thread in the success of

(05:15):
all my businesses was telling aclear, compelling story about
why it mattered to the listener,not why it mattered to me.
So when we focus on what is thevalue add and how is it
different or compelling orcatchy, then you can start a
whole conversation.
So I forgot what the questionwas now.

(05:39):
But basically it's been atrajectory of storytelling, not
only in film and television butalso as an entrepreneur.

Janice Hostager (05:47):
Okay, yeah, well, I think you answered it
very well, you know that's thething is that I think many
entrepreneurs really struggle toput their story into words
right, and sometimes it's inpart because we can't.
You know, it's our story and itseems sort of ordinary, I guess
, in some respects, and maybenot for everybody.
Maybe that's just my, but Imean, we have our origin stories

(06:12):
and we have our aha stories andwhat makes a sales story versus
just being interesting?

Aurora Winter (06:18):
Story selling instead of storytelling.
What is a very good thing to dois understand that you have
dozens of stories and you don'thave to put them all together in
one long 20-minute TED Talkalthough you may do that but
it's good to just break themapart and do one at a time.
So, for example, what is thestory of why you started your

(06:42):
business?
What is your origin story?
What was the aha moment whereyou decided that you were going
to solve the problem?
And then who do you solve thatproblem for and what is the
biggest outcome?
So you want to have that kindof origin story.
So, for example, I started acompany called the Grief Coach
Academy, and so what struck meis that the data shows that

(07:05):
people, on average, suffer fiveto eight years from grief if
they don't get support.
And that was a tragedy, becauseI thought like that, five to
eight years in the gray zonewhen you can be living a
colorful life of meaning andpurpose.
It was about nine-step recipethat walked people through a
process of transforming theirgrief into wisdom, into purpose,

(07:28):
maybe not into happiness, butat least into meaning, and we
would shorten that five to eightyear period, which data shows
people typically suffer to maybefive to eight months or five to
eight weeks or in some caseseven shorter.
So that is a story about.
It's got a little bit of datain it, but it's also got a

(07:53):
really compelling like what theFive to eight years versus five
to eight months or five to eightweeks, tell me more.
So your whole story doesn'thave to result in a final sale,
it can just be a tell me more.
Or I launched a company that wasin the yacht sales business.
We set up a tax shelter and sothe snappy conversation opener
for that was five weeks of sun,fun and tax shelter.

(08:17):
What?
Those don't go together.
Tell me more, right?
So then I first started tryingto sell that tax shelter by
giving people this you know 100page document which buried them
in IT bulletins and too muchinformation.
So what is the least amount ofinformation you can give
somebody else that will havethem say no, tell me more.

(08:41):
An example for the publishingbusiness that I run now Same
Page Publishing.
On average, first time authorsspend three to five years
writing their first book.
But if they do it with me, Iinterview them.
They don't have to ever stareat the blank page and we get it
done much more quickly and allof my authors become bestselling
, award winning authors.

(09:02):
Tell me more, right?
So each of these is using thatsame recipe.
Just a little bit ofinformation about who you serve
and what the outcome is and howit is different from the
standard outcome, and then theright people will say tell me
more.
And the people who are notinterested in buying a boat or
publishing a book will say tellme something else.

(09:23):
And that's fine.

Janice Hostager (09:26):
Yeah, I love that you broke that down into a
formula, because some of us arewired for facts and figures.
All of us, I'm told, buy anemotion, even though we don't
necessarily realize it, and youreally combine those really well
together.

Aurora Winter (09:42):
Thank you,

Janice Hostager (09:42):
With that formula, yeah,

Aurora Winter (09:44):
There's another formula that I can share here
really quickly, but I did wantto piggyback on what you just
said, because most peopleespecially the more educated
they are, we tend to communicatein facts and figures.
But actually, if youcommunicate in facts and figures
, you will trigger the part ofthe other person's mind that
does not lie.
We buy with emotion and then wejustify with facts and figures.

Janice Hostager (10:09):
Right.

Aurora Winter (10:10):
If you trigger the analyst part of the brain.
They always want more data andthat part of the brain is
skeptical.
So you don't want to lead withtoo many facts and figures.
You might want to sprinkle onein there, like I did.
A couple of examples of that.
You know five to eight years ofsuffering, or five weeks of
sudden fun and tax shelter.
You know just a little bit ofdata can be really useful.

(10:33):
Or people suffer on averagethree years or so trying to
struggle with the blank pagewriting their first book.
All by themselves, just enoughto.
But then you want to.
Okay.
Here's a good example.
So I said people, first timeauthors, spend three years
writing their book.
I said they struggle for threeyears writing their book.

Janice Hostager (10:55):
Right.

Aurora Winter (10:55):
That little word is an emotional word, so just
data would be three years, butadding emotions is struggling
for three years or staring atthe blank page.
Just a couple of words will addthat flavor of emotion because,
as entrepreneurs, we solveproblems.
Therefore, we need tounderstand the problems that our

(11:16):
ideal client is dealing withand let them know that we can
help solve them.

Janice Hostager (11:22):
Yeah, that sounds amazing.

Aurora Winter (11:27):
There's three steps to the neuroscience of
effective communication and Igive it to people quickly and
they'll be able to remember it.
I went into more detail aboutit in my book Turn Words Into
Wealth, which gives you sevendifferent ways to monetize your
message.
But as some real quick examplesthat I can give here today, the
way the mind receivesinformation is through three

(11:49):
filters.
The first filter is is thiseven something I'm interested in
?
And that's the ancientreptilian brain or the croc
brain.
So an example of that would bethe title of a book Turn Words
Into Wealth.
So there's some benefit,there's some clarity.
If people are interested inturning their words into wealth
or another book I have it'scalled Marketing Fast Track.

(12:09):
If they're interested inputting their marketing on fast
track, tell me more.
Or that would be the subjectline in your email or it would
be the first thing that you say.
Most people make the mistake atRotary Club meetings and other
meetings they first say my nameis, my company name is.
Don't do that, start with somekind of benefit.
I didn't do it on this podcast,but I often say at the
beginning, instead of hey,Janice, it's great to be on the

(12:31):
podcast, I often say I lookforward to helping people turn
their words into wealth.
So it's like that's the brain.
But the second thing that thebrain is looking for is social
grief.
Human beings survived throughthe millennia not because we
were faster or had sharper teeth, but because we were a tribe.

(12:51):
So we're always looking forsocial proof.
So, example this book.
It's got some awards on thecover.
It won Outstanding NonfictionBook of the Year when it came
out in its category, which ispublishing.
So social proof is reallyimportant.
Or this book I write fantasytoo Magic Mystery and the
Multiverse.
It won the Reader's ChoiceAward, best book for teens.

(13:12):
So if you can slide in quick,what is the category that we're
talking about?
And can you even say it in abit of a short, concise way and
then give a little bit of socialproof and then you can add a
little bit of content.
So and the sequence does matterso the little bit of content
could be a story.
It could even be a statistic.

(13:33):
It could be your story aboutwhy you started your business.
It could be a story of clientwhose life, whose life you have
changed, for example.
A little example of that wouldbe I helped a client.
He first came to me.
He wanted to be an author.
He he had dreamt of that foryears.
He was a super busy litigationattorney, just couldn't find
time to write this book.

(13:54):
He brought a draft idea to mecalled the Mirthless Troll,
which I did not think was agreat title, and then, when we
worked together, his first bookis now titled Confessions of an
Accidental Lawyer.
It's won a dozen awards,including American Fiction Award
.
He's written a second book nowand his books have over almost 3
million page reads, over100,000 readers, about 3,000

(14:18):
reviews on Amazon.
So that's a little story.
It has some statistics, but italso has the struggle part of it
and then the celebration part.
So that's a little hero'sjourney.

Janice Hostager (14:31):
Right, right.
So one of the things you say inyour book Turn Words Into
Wealth is that a brand is astory.
So can you unpack that a littlebit and give us an example of
how powerful brand stories canattract clients or investors?

Aurora Winter (14:44):
A brand is actually super, super valuable.
I don't know if anybody followsGary Vaynerchuk, GaryVee, you
know he has been saying in thisage of AI, the only thing that
is going to remain as valuableis your intellectual property
and your brand.
So I really think this is verytrue, because AI can produce so

(15:08):
many words so quickly.
But what is really valuable areyour stories.
Maybe you use AI to help youall of them but your stories,
your client stories and the keything about a brand that most
people don't understand is abrand is not your logo.
A brand is not what you sayabout yourself.
A brand is not the colors onyour website.

(15:31):
A brand is what other peoplesay about you when you're not in
the room.
So there's very little space.
There's very little space onother people's brains for who
you are.
So you want to keep saying whoyou are and what you stand for
and the transformation youprovide, and share stories of

(15:52):
that transformation with yourclients, your patients, the
people that you impact, againand again, because the average
people need to hear the story atleast seven times before they
remember it, and I really inviteand encourage everybody to
share it in a story format.
Data shows that a story, aproduct or service plus a story,

(16:15):
can sell up to 27 times morerevenue than if it's just
presented, as is.
So stories add meaning, theyadd value, but they're also the
things that go viral.

Janice Hostager (16:28):
And one thing that I've noticed in working
with myself or my own business,and also working with clients,
is that if you don't define yourbrand and by your brand I mean
the whole thing from your why,all the way outward to your
story, other people will do itfor you, and then you lose
control of it.

Aurora Winter (16:47):
Brand by default or by design and, as you
probably read in my book TurnWords Into Wealth, Oprah is a
great example of that.
I mean it was very unusual whenshe chose to be on the front
cover of every O magazine.
That had not been done, but sheknew the value of brand right

(17:10):
and brands are the most valuablethings.
From Coca-Cola to Oprah.
It's the brand that reallyretains the value.
If you don't have a brand, thenit's going to be, you're going
to be just the same as everyother service provider who does
that same thing, and that is arace to the bottom of pricing
and you'll end up pricing atjust barely survival level and
unfortunately that could be justbarely survival level for

(17:32):
somebody in the Philippines, notsomebody in Texas.

Janice Hostager (17:36):
Right, right.
So why do you think thoughtleaders need to be authors?

Aurora Winter (17:42):
Ah well, the root of the word authority is author
, and.
And what?
yeah, so if you, the fastest wayand most effective way to have
a compelling brand is to have agreat book, Amazon is, as we
were saying before we startedrecording.
Amazon is the number threesearch engine.

(18:03):
So if you solve a problem andyou have a book on Amazon that's
got a clear title and subtitle,you can reach people around the
world and they can seek you outto solve that problem.
And the really cool thing is,the book has already served to
attract your ideal client andtell people who don't want what
your service is.

(18:23):
But to be a thought leader,what does that really mean?
A thought leader means you'releading other people in the
direction that you're going.
So what does that look like?
That looks like keynotespeeches.
It looks like having a podcast,as you have Janice.
It looks like publishing a bookor publishing a series of books
.
It looks like leading a charge,whether or not they work with

(18:46):
your business.
So Gary Vee is a great exampleof this.
He's got a media company andworks with Fortune 500 companies
.
I do the same thing, only workwith smaller companies helping
them with their messaging andtheir branding and their social
media and getting on podcastsand radio and TV, et cetera.
But the key thing is.
Gary Vee is always talkingabout hey, post on social media,

(19:08):
post on social media.
Here's what you could do,here's how quickly you could do
it, here's how many times youshould post.
I think he has this theory thatyou should post 15 times a day
on every platform.
He's not saying you know, hireGary Vee Media, Gary Vaynerchuk
Media whatever his name is, Ithink it's called Vaynerchuk
Media.
He's not saying that.

(19:28):
He's saying post on socialmedia, post on social media.
So he is leading the,encouraging people to do what he
believes is right and a certainproportion of those who can
afford whatever $20,000 a monthor $200,000 a month, whatever it
is, the Fortune 500 companieswill work with them.
So, whatever you care about andbe willing to be a stand for

(19:52):
that, as you're being a standright now, Janice you're being a
stand for helping people getmore clear on the marketing.
I haven't heard you say evenone time hire me, right.
So I think leaders lead in thetopics that they're passionate
about.
I'm passionate aboutencouraging people to consider
writing a book and to do it thefast and easy way, which usually

(20:12):
means speaking your book,whether they do it with me,
interviewing them, or maybe theyjust speak it into their phone,
speaking it out is going to bea great, great solution.
Yeah, so that's what.
And also, and like, I've hadclients or prospects come to me
who heard about me from Chat GPTbecause of my book.

(20:33):
I'm, you know, I have a book,so I'm on Amazon.
I have a YouTube channel calledStrategic Basics.
Books are indexed in Goodreads,and so the GEO or the AI search
engine on ChatGPT and Fold andsuch it's like people type in oh
how can I get help publishing abook?
It's like where am I going to?

(20:55):
She wrote the book Germans in2012.
And I was like Lord when Ifirst heard that.
So that's part of somethingthat can benefit even a
relatively small entrepreneur.

Janice Hostager (21:05):
Absolutely, yeah.
Yeah, that's one thing I loveabout really the internet in
general is that it kind oflevels the playing field.
You know, it's not just the bigcompanies anymore.
Anybody can develop their brandonline.

Aurora Winter (21:20):
Oh, and I want to say one more thing about this,
because I think people oftenthink, oh, do I need an agent?
I have to get a publisher.
And I think that, if you'vebeen paying attention on the
internet, Alex Hormozi hasproven beyond a doubt that
self-publishing is the mostprofitable way to go.
He just launched his third book, 100 Million Money Models, on a

(21:42):
YouTube live stream.
I had popped on when I was on.
There were 80,000 people onthat live stream and he won 3
million books and generated over$80 million in a weekend.
So if he had published his bookthrough a New York Times
publisher for one thing that isastonishing he won the Guinness

(22:04):
Book of World Records for thefastest selling nonfiction book,
selling about double whatPrince Harry's book Spare sold.
But if he had been with a bigpublisher he would have gotten
maybe 10 cents on the dollar ifhe was lucky.
But because those sales allwent through his company,
acquisitioncom, he keeps all ofit.

(22:24):
I mean he still has to pay forthe shipping and etc.
But anybody listening who'sthinking you still have to go
through the New York publisherand get an agent and go that?
No, you don't have to do that.
And the other one that brokethis mold was Brandon Sanderson,
who sold over $40 million ofhis books on Kickstarter.

(22:46):
Again direct to office.
There's more than one way toskin this cat.

Janice Hostager (22:56):
Right, right, just need to be a little
creative.
So talk to me about thatmillion dollar message.
So how does somebody startidentifying their big idea?
Let's say you are a thoughtleader and you're running a
business and you have, I haveframeworks that I use, that I
think I can turn that into abook someday or something like
that.
But how do you identify the onethat's really going to move the

(23:16):
needle for you?

Aurora Winter (23:17):
I think what is really helpful is to look at
examples of other million-dollarmessages and then see the
formula and play with that andsee if it works for you.
So in my book Turn Words IntoWealth, I've given a whole bunch
of examples, but let's givesome examples right now so
people can play with it.
And also like test.

(23:38):
You can actually pay to havethings tested.
I use the, an online servicethat does that, but you can also
run it by people that make sureto run it by your ideal client,
not by random people who arenot in your, in your right yeah.
So an example of a milliondollar message would be a four
hour work week.
That's short, compelling,challenging and totally busts

(24:03):
the myth that a work week is 40hours.
So the four hour work week,like?
Well, tell me more.
Like.
Tim Ferriss actually tested abunch of other titles.
Initially I think it was calledDrug Running for Fun and Profit
, because he had a vitaminsupplement company.
Did not like that title, but hetested various titles.

(24:25):
He also tested various covers.
He had a dummy cover.
He wrapped another book in itand put the book on a shelf, in
a bookshelf, and then hungaround to see which cover colors
and which title people weredrawn to pick up.
So all right.
So the four hour work week andyou break down your message for

(24:47):
what you're up to into somethinglike that.
So what is a myth that youcould bust?
So he was busting the myth of a40-hour workweek, right?
So the four-hour workweek is asuper example.
Another example would be apurple cow.
So Seth Godin's book aboutmarketing is called A Purple Cow

(25:09):
.
So cows aren't purple.
So what is he trying to say?
He's trying to say do somethingunusual.
Right, do something unusual.
In fact, I have a videoStrategic coming Basics out on
my strategic basics channelabout branding and I make the
point that it's better to bedifferent than to do what

(25:32):
everybody else is doing just alittle better, faster or cheaper
.
And there's a young man, hisname is Zach.
He was featured on the BBC.
Over 4 million people watchedthe video clip.
He wears he doesn't wear jeans,he doesn't wear t-shirts.
He has got no modern clothes.
He dresses in Victorian clothesall of the time.

(25:52):
that he wears and makes himself.
Like, wow, he's got a brand andother people have found him and
I remember it, yeah, and otherpeople were drawn to that, and
now he's making by hand customclothes for other people who
want to dress as if they wereliving in the Victorian era.

Janice Hostager (26:11):
Really.

Aurora Winter (26:12):
Yeah.
That is a good brand becauseit's shockingly different, right
?
So his million dollar message.
I'm 25 years old and I don'town any modern clothing.
I dress in Victorian clothes.
Okay, so there are a couple ofexamples, and there's more

(26:32):
examples in the book Turn WordsInto Wealth.
Lean into those and see ifthere's one of those models that
would work for you.
Five Weeks of Sun, Fun and TaxShelter is another example.
So see if you can find anddistill that.
What about you?
Have you got a million-dollarmessage to nail, Janice?

Janice Hostager (26:50):
I'm working on that, you know.
The problem is my message keepsmorphing, you know, and so
that's my fear.
Putting it into a writtenformat is that, I guess.
I feel like I'm gonna get itpublished and it's gonna change,
because the world is, it'sabout marketing, so the world
keeps changing and marketing islike shifting sand, right?
But yeah, we're working on thatone.

Aurora Winter (27:14):
I'd love to encourage you because you're
probably speaking for everybodylistening.
You don't have just one messageand your message can and should
evolve.
But I see that the core of whatyou're up to from the little
that I know about you anyway issomething along the lines I help
solopreneurs have breakthroughsin their marketing and

(27:36):
messaging.

Janice Hostager (27:40):
It's really about how I simplify the process
for people and take them stepby step, because I think what
happens is that people just getso overwhelmed by all the things
with marketing and there are somany things and what I see
small businesses doing isspending a lot of time on social
media and not getting anytraction from it.
They might try running ads andlosing money on them and they

(28:02):
get frustrated.
They don't know where to go.
They start spinning theirwheels and eventually some of
them give up, and I think thisis such a shame.
So I guess that is a part of it, but yeah,

Aurora Winter (28:14):
So that's the lines.
I simplify marketing for smallbusiness owners so that they can
overcome overwhelm andoverspending on social media and
get results with clarity andpeace, something like that.

Janice Hostager (28:33):
Yeah, so I bring them down a trail, and so
we hear so much about themarketing funnel.
I think the marketing funnel isprobably not the greatest
analogy.
I feel like it's a trail thatpeople may need to be moved
along from one step to the next,to the next, based on their
customer's journey.
And it's based on humanbehavior, not necessarily on the
whims or the trends that aregoing on, because we all, when

(28:55):
we're introduced to somethingnew or we're in need of
something, we all reallygenerally make the same
decisions, to get to the point,from being aware that they need
something to buying it andreferring others to it.
So, anyway, but we're not hereto talk about mine.

Aurora Winter (29:15):
Let's talk about social media for just a second,
because I think people confusethe distribution method with the
message.
No matter how you distributeyour message, you need a good
message first.
So first story, first message,first million dollar message,
and then you can distribute iton YouTube or on Amazon and

(29:36):
above, or on social media.
But I think a lot of peoplemake an error of thinking oh,
it's about social media.
Social media is just the wayyou distribute the message.
You need to have a messagefirst, but it's not one message.
You need multiple messages.

Janice Hostager (29:51):
Right.
So that leads me into my nextquestion, which is what are some
mistakes that you see thatsmall business owners especially
make when crafting theirmessage or trying to craft their
message?

Aurora Winter (30:02):
I think the biggest mistake that people make
is they know their business sowell that they start talking at
step 14 and they don't meet thelistener where they are.
So consider that the listenerjust dropped the kids off at
school, is rushing to thegrocery store, is thinking about

(30:23):
what she's going to make fordinner, and then you pop in on
the social media feed or they'relistening to a podcast or
YouTube.
You want the message to bemeeting her or him at that point
.
So, for example, I've hadpeople you know try to explain
what they're up to at my milliondollar message training events
and the audience will, beforethey train the audience, say I

(30:47):
know I really like you, I knowyou're passionate about that,
but I have no clue what you do.
And then, after simplifyingtheir message and clarifying it,
people in the audience will sayyou know that's great and let
me invest.
So that's the most commonmistake that I see.
What about you?
What's the most common mistakeyou see?

Janice Hostager (31:07):
I would say that I oftentimes will see
people selling their product orservice instead of the
transformation that they'reoffering, not stepping into the
customer's shoes, because we'realso invested in what we want to
push right.
Instead of what their needs are.
So I would say that I see thatquite a bit.
But yeah, there are, and we allgo through these phases, right,

(31:31):
we all.
I shouldn't speak for you, butyou know most of us have to
learn really what our customerneeds to hear.
I mean, I will hear, I listento podcasts all the time and
very rarely do I hear somethingthat just like makes me like
stand up and just listen and say, wow, that's it.

(31:52):
They've hit on something thatreally resonates with me and
that I've been missing all thistime and that actually happened
to me last week and I was likeyou know, this really changed
everything.
You know I'm going to buy thisbook and find out what this
author was talking about andlearn more about it, but to have
that sort of clarity and knowyour customers so well that you

(32:16):
know what's going to triggerthat aha moment for them or that
spark where they are like wait,what did she just say?
And stand up.

Aurora Winter (32:27):
What was the book that stood out to you that you
had to buy?

Janice Hostager (32:31):
I scribbled it down.
It was in the car, but it waskind of unrelated.
It was actually about fears asbusiness owners and, for me, one
of the things she said to theinterviewer is that I sense that
you're afraid you're going torun out of time.
And for me it was like, oh mygosh, that's me.
That's why I'm working so hard,that's why I'm burning out, I'm
afraid I'm going to run out oftime.

(32:52):
Totally unrelated to what we'retalking about here today, but
it was like this clarity thatwas like that is why I am
pushing myself so hard, is thatbeing that I'm not 30 anymore or
40 anymore.
I'm pushing, pushing, pushingto try and get through all of
this and try and grow mybusiness.

(33:13):
So anyway.

Aurora Winter (33:15):
Well, what does relate to marketing is that you
know we can use the things thatchallenge us as fuel, or they
can also show up and drain ourenergy and have us go to bed
early because we're exhausted.
So I love the neuroscience ofit.
If you can have something youreally don't want chasing you

(33:39):
but also have what you really dowant pulling you forward, that
is the ideal way to a lot ofmomentum but still keep the
creative spark and the joy,because if you only have
something chasing you, that'snot fun but that is ideal.
It is good to recognize thatwe're all running out of time.

(34:02):
We don't even have tomorrowguaranteed, and I think, from my
work with grief, the benefit ofknowing that we are all mortal
is that it does push us to seewhat difference we can make
today and to tell the people welove them that we love them
today and to forgive peoplewho've harmed us today.

(34:25):
We don't necessarily havetomorrow, right, but the
marketing lesson in this ispeople are five times more
motivated by fear than bysomething that they by greed or
something that they want, andthis is something I have to
remind myself, because I'm sucha positive person and usually I
tend to.
My default is to talk about youknow the direction to go toward

(34:49):
, and sometimes I forget to alsomention the thing that we're
avoiding.
And so good marketing does both.
That's a mistake.

Janice Hostager (34:58):
Yes, yeah, yeah , and that is something that I,
when I work with clients, that alot of them don't want to add
that and I'll say just you know,throw a little line or two in
there about what will happen ifthey don't buy this, you know.
Let them know that if they sayno to this offer, what'll happen

(35:18):
, and it feels a little awkward.
I am a positive person and weall want to paint this picture
of you know what's over there,you know in the future, but
letting them know that there isa consequence to a decision,
whether it's yes or no, there'salways a consequence.

Aurora Winter (35:32):
Yeah, Most people don't really realize that
choosing not to do something isalso a decision right,

Janice Hostager (35:43):
Right, right, yeah, yeah.
So so how can people learn moreabout you and
they want to connect with you.

Aurora Winter (35:46):
So they can find out more about me and my company
at samepagepublishingcom.
So samepagepublishingcombecause I've come on the same
page as my clients and helpedthem with their books.
Or I also help people just nailtheir million-dollar message
and amplify their impact and doa media quick start while they

(36:08):
write a book.
So samepagepublishingcom and onthat page, if you'd like to
learn more, you can sign up fora free business breakthrough
call and if you'd like to get acopy of Turn Words Into Wealth,
you can also get it on that pagefor free.

Janice Hostager (36:21):
Perfect.
Thank you so so much, Aurora.
I love that our conversationtied everything together, from
not just talking about marketingbut talking about behavior and
psychology and all of thatbecause it's all so important in
marketing.
So I appreciate your wisdomthat you shared today.

Aurora Winter (36:39):
Oh it was really nice to hear your insights as
well, Janice.

Janice Hostager (36:42):
Do you see how there's so much more we could
all be doing with our words?
If this episode sparked someaha moments for your marketing,
please share it with anotherbusiness owner who needs to hear
it.
I would be so honored For moreinformation about Aurora or
anything we talked about today.
Visit myweeklymarketingcom.
Forward slash 124.
Thank you so much for joiningme today.

(37:03):
I'll see you next time.
Bye for now.
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