Visioncasting, Leadership, and Marketing

Please don’t confuse marketing with simply selling services or products. Sure, it’s true to a certain extent when you’re immersed in tactics. After all, you do want to get customers and clients.

But today I’m going to ask you to think about marketing in a completely different way, at least for a little while. I want you to step outside the identity of being a business owner and start seeing yourself as a leader.

What Does It Mean to be a “Leader”?

Leaders are those people who have the ability to speak into the lives of other people and transform them into followers. And the primary way they do this is by telling stories.

Never dismiss the power of a good story. In fact, stories are the framework for the human meaning-making process.

We all have a story, which includes our past, present, and idealized future. Whenever we have experiences, those that align well with our stories are considered good, or meaningful. Meanwhile, those that are at odds with our stories are considered bad, or meaningless. This is how we make value judgments, by measuring everything according to our stories.

Perhaps the most important way that leaders use stories is what is called visioncasting. They offer a vision of a future possibility that gives people hope in the present. Of course this vision is not meant for everyone. This vision is specifically meant for their identifiable audience.

And this is where good leaders know they need to be careful. Every leader eventually wants to expand her or his influence. The way they do this is by telling a larger story, a story that includes more people in it. However, when they do that, they also water down their original story, the very thing that attracted people to them in the first place. This disconnect naturally causes some original followers to drop off. So, as they attempt to expand, they have to make sure that this new, wider vision will draw in more than it will turn away.

What Does This Mean for You?

Hopefully, as you read what I’ve written above, you will realize that leadership is marketing. And the study of leadership can help you better understand what marketing is because it offers a different angle into what’s going on. Let’s look at a couple of the implications.

First, leaders don’t sell products. They don’t sell services. Leaders sell hope. They have a unique sense of direction that they know the world would benefit from, and they figure out how to present it so their audience can really grasp the significance of their vision. When your marketing is at its best, that’s exactly what you are doing: selling the hope that is your vision.

Second, leaders also know their audience extremely well. They don’t speak to everyone. They know exactly who they are speaking to and how to speak to them. They know what motivates them. They know what scares them. They know what they dream of. This is why they are able to resonate and get a response. And this is what you ultimately need to be able to do to make the sale.

Sometimes, stepping outside of ourselves to get a fresh perspective can be extremely helpful when we need to finetune our performance. So my challenge to you is this: Stop thinking of yourself as a business owner, and start thinking of yourself as a leader in your niche.

I want you to practice visioncasting. Forget about your products. Forget about your services. I want you to learn how to talk about what you do in a way that taps into your audience’s innermost desires. I want you to walk around your office and practice articulating what is possible in a way that would cause your audience’s jaws to drop and maybe even bring a tear or two to their eyes.

And to help you with that, I’m going to walk you through some elements of a good visioncasting.

Tips for Visioncasting

1. Remember you’re not selling a product or service, you’re selling hope. You know your audience. You know what they want and what they need. You know how they will feel once they get it. So make sure to highlight the benefits of what you do rather than features. Emphasize the liberating experience that they’re hoping for right now. Save the talk about your products and services for later. After all, they are secondary in your marketing.

2. Use the right words. This is where you need to listen before you speak. Interview past clients and customers so you can find out what exactly it was that they had hoped for when they came to you. You can also look at reviews for books related to your topic to see what people are saying that they really needed. And as you conduct your research, pay attention to the language that they use. Then, in your marketing, use their own words to speak for you and what you offer. Why speak for them when they can speak for themselves?

3, Use the right images. Visioncasting is extremely visual. Use the images in your ads and on your website to help them visualize the hope that you are offering them. Show them images of people who are happy, people who are succeeding, people who are living their wildest dreams. And don’t limit your use of imagery to pictures. Use imaginative words. Use descriptions that bring in the senses. Give them the opportunity to become immersed in the story you are telling, in the vision you are casting.

4, Create a sense of belonging. Use past client testimonials to showcase the community of people out there actively participating in the hope that you offer. Everybody wants to belong to something. Present the opportunity to participate in a special sense of solidarity.

5. Give them something tangible to realize the hope. This is where your offers come in. Don’t think of them as your products and services. Instead, think of them as tangible manifestations of hope. People who need help are generally overwhelmed by confusion and stuck. They are probably so frustrated they’re ready to give up as they feel the fires of their passion dwindling away into nothingness. Your offers give them the opportunity to take back their power and to act. They give them the opportunity to revive and rekindle their passion for what they do. Your offers give them the momentum they need to step boldly forward into that new future that they truly long for.

Move from Hell to Heaven

Visions of possibility are meaningless without context.  Where there is no need, there is no such thing as a solution. You cannot have one without the other. So, when you are visioncasting, it’s important to note that you cannot have hope without despair. You cannot have heaven without hell.

In a sense, this article is a follow-up to last week’s article that talked about triggering fear. The two work well together.

Think of it this way. What if I offer the possibility to “See your world with more clarity than ever before”? It’s a great vision, but something is seriously lacking. It’s not connected to a story that people can relate to. It’s meaningless.

What happens, though, if I introduce an eye chart? “Can you read it?…Not well, huh?…”.  This triggers their hell, which includes the pain and frustration that comes with poor eyesight. This helps them to experience their struggle and become more aware of their need for escape.

Now we’re working with a story and have context. And it is this very context that makes my heavenly vision meaningful as I say, “What if I can help you see your world with more clarity than ever before? I’ve got a pair of glasses for you that can fix that.” Suddenly, the value of the offer (which was also present in the first example) becomes obvious.

So, as you can see, visioncasting is not something you can do disconnected from your audience. You have to find ways to relate the vision to their lives and struggles.

There’s More to the Marketing Puzzle

Learning how to do visioncasting and inspire your audience to act is critical in the marketing of your business. But it’s also just one piece of the puzzle.

If you want a more comprehensive understanding of how a marketing system works as a whole to build a business from the ground up or take an established business to a whole new level of success, then I recommend you check out Heather’s Get Leads & Clients Academy

If you would like to know more about the academy, watch the free masterclass below: