Every successful MediaMaster’s message grows organically out of their story — it’s the combination of who you are as a person and what value you offer to your audience that creates the attraction you’re looking for.

Creating powerful stories is incredibly important to marketing success, which is why, a few years ago, we wrote a whole book on the subject: StorySelling™. Obviously, we won’t have the space for a book’s worth of lessons, but what we are going to do is focus specifically on the four most important elements of a MediaMaster’s messaging. How you “mix and match” these four in your particular story is going to depend on how strong you are in each area – but having aspects of all four make for an unbeatable combination, in our opinion.

The Four Elements of a MediaMaster’s Message:

  • Background
  • Experience
  • Expertise
  • Promise

Element #1: Background

In America, we’re fond of saying that it doesn’t matter where you come from, you can still experience massive success. Well, when it comes to MediaMasters, where you come from can actually help you succeed! For example, the late Zig Ziglar was the tenth of a dozen children whose father died when he was very young. But his tough origins acted as a personal testimony to reassure his audience – if he could overcome those kinds of odds, his audiences could do the same.

Today’s MediaMaster doesn’t have to spring from the most brutal of upbringings. Instead, they only need to identify that special “Aha!” moment that inspired the motivation for what they’re delivering as a MediaMaster.

Case in point: Tim Ferriss, the MediaMaster Supreme who has made an industry out of telling the world how to get things done in only 4 hours. In 1995 he arrived at Princeton, graduated four years later, and then took a sales job. On the side, he also built his own internet business. By 2004, he was making over $40k a month with that business – when, suddenly, his girlfriend dumped him because he was working around the clock.

That journey provided the spark that resulted in his huge bestseller, The 4-Hour Workweek, which delivered a hugely attractive message to a country filled with workaholics. And Ferriss’s own personal story validated the premise of the book!

Element #2:  Experience

Experience differs from background in that it refers to your life accomplishments in terms of business or your area of expertise. For example, Ferriss had the experience crafting a new business that didn’t tie him up all day. Since he was able to do it himself, he had the credibility to make others believe it was possible for them.

The main point to remember with experience is that if you’re promising that something almost magical is possible to your audience, it’s best if you’ve proved you can do it yourself. People only trust a huge outcome if they can see others have experienced it. Testimonials, of course, can provide the same type of validation, but it’s so much more powerful if you’ve done it.

Element #3: Expertise

Are you great at what you do? It’s an important question to ask – because no matter what it is, that level of expertise could launch you into the MediaMaster all-star team.

You probably have heard of Gary Vaynerchuk—he’s been profiled in The New York Times, on network news shows and he’s appeared on national talk shows. But he only became all that because he was gifted at reviewing wine – even before he was old enough to legally drink it!

His parents owned a brick-and-mortar store, Shoppers’ Discount Liquor, located in Central New Jersey. Gary grew up working in the place and trained himself in wine-tasting as a teenager (he says he spit the wine out after tasting, so he didn’t actually ingest it). As a result, he began doing his own unconventional wine reviews and recommendations for his customers, and he began increasing the store traffic and sales because people sought out his maverick advice. He began recording a video wine blog, called Winelibrary TV in 2006 and started gaining close to 100,000 views on a daily basis. In 2011, however, he gave up the wine reviews and pivoted to being a social media expert coach – and took along his massive following for the ride. Remarkably, it all worked for him.

Now, not everyone can pull this kind of transition off – but his unique expertise, as well as his authentic delivery, definitely laid the groundwork for an incredibly successful career as a MediaMaster. If you can draw everyone’s attention with an amazing skill or talent that relates to their everyday lives, consider making it an integral part of your StorySelling™!

Element #4: Promise

The promise is the motivating factor that draws your crowd, which is why it’s an essential element in the MediaMaster messaging mix. You have to promise something dramatic and credible, something that seems difficult (if not impossible) but that you can demonstrate (mostly through the other three Elements) is achievable.

The 4-Hour Workweek is a prime modern example of this kind of promise. A couple of others are The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People (a book that subtly promises to make the reader a highly effective person in easy steps) and The Purpose-Driven Life by Rick Warren (also subtle – promises to give meaning to the reader’s life indirectly). Even Gary Vaynerchuk’s Crush It! promised to help his followers enjoy the same kind of social media success he experienced. In all cases, the promise offers the possibility of improving people’s lives in a measurable manner.