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When you launch your business – your greatest opportunities will often be brilliantly disguised as impossible situations.

I shared earlier the “impossible” situation Janet Simpson found herself in on your way to the top – you might fall down.  She finished her 5 mile race despite falling flat on her face and cracking several ribs.  I shared how that’s the kind of tenacity you have to have to launch your own successful business.

Back in 1997- a series of minor “impossible” situations forced me to leave my “real job”  in advertising and launch my own business.   Along the way – I’ve experienced what seems like more than my fair share of impossible situations.     One thing I’ve learned over the years is this:

Hidden deep inside each and every impossible situation is a great opportunity.

The key word above is “hidden”…. because for some mysterious reason great opportunities are rarely easily visible.

In order to find the great opportunity which lies hidden within your impossible situation – you’re going to have to dig.

You’re going to have to dig into that impossible situation with your bare hands because impossible situations rarely happen when you’re surrounded by the proper tools.

You’re going to have to dig through that impossible situation until your fingers are bleeding – and then you get to dig some more.

You will probably have to dig through layers of gunk and goo which makes raw sewage seem sweet in comparison – all in search of the golden nugget of opportunity which lies hidden within.

Og Mandino wrote:

“Your capacity for occasional blunders is inseparable from your capacity to reach your goals. No one wins them all, and your failures, when they happen, are just part of your growth. Shake off your blunders. How will you know your limits without an occasional failure? Never quit. Your turn will come.”

There is no way to ensure that you’ll never find yourself in an impossible situation – however you’ll reduce the odds of finding yourself there if you never take a risk.

My favorite saying lives on a coffee mug which reads, “What would you do today if you knew you could not fail?”

With that attitude – even the most impossible of situations becomes a treasure trove of opportunities.

Happy gold mining!

There’s no way for me to over emphasize how important it is to know your target audience.  It’s my experience that blogging without a target audience firmly in mind is one of the primary reasons why business blogs fails to make a”connection” with customers.

In  the blog post “Telling Stories to Sell More Stuff” I gave an exaample of how the recent Allstate commercial tells a story which effectively entertains and educates at the same time making it a powerful marketing tool.

I saw another ad in the Allstate Mayhem series while watching a football game the other day.  This 2nd ad  is tightly targeted towards football fans and frames the new story in a way to appeal to a different audience.   Instead of a teen-aged driver in a pink SUV – this story uses a college football quarterback to tell the story.  Though it uses a similar story plot – it casts different “players” to tell the tale so it will “connect” with yet another niche market.

When you defined your blog’s target audience –  you’ll know who should be starring in the stories you tell.    You’ll know who to cast as a villain and who to cast as the conquering hero.

If you haven’t defined your blog’s target audience though – you won’t know where to begin.

Blogging for your business is incredibly easy and hard at the same time.  A blog makes it easy to get your story published to the web.  Unlike the television commercial featured above – you don’t have to hire a production company or actors to tell your story which makes it a great tool to “test” the waters and see which message connects with your audience.

However, while it’s easy to publish your story online with a business blog –  you are still faced with the task of composing those stories with your target audience in mind.  That’s where blogging gets hard for most business owners and bloggers.

Sometimes you have to compose dozens of different stories before you find one that connects with your audience.  Business blogging allows you to “test” these stories and see which one makes a connection.

Your business blog allows you start the process by telling the story with words – and then move on to audio or video if you see that a particular story has struck a chord.

Not long ago, I had a conversation with a client who wanted to try something new with her blog.  She had an idea for a feature she thought might connect with her target audience and it was an idea which had the potential of becoming “viral”.   However, she wanted to test the waters first and her blog was the perfect test vehicle.

Instead of investing in a production crew to create video stories – my client started by creating a written story which she published to her blog.  She then broadened that single story to a series of stories.  Now she is incorporating audio into the story telling process. If that’s successful – THEN she’ll make the necessary financial investment to move to video to tell her stories.

When your marketing and advertising budget is less than 5 figures per month, you have to be “smart” about what paths you pursue.  “Spray and pray” is not a viable marketing strategy for most small and medium sized businesses.  When you’ve got limited resources – you can’t afford to invest in creating a “viral” video that doesn’t work to build your business.   That’s where your blog can be a money saving lifesaver.

Blogging is a wonderful cost effective way test your marketing stories which is just one reason why your business should be blogging.

Since the beginning of time, stories have been used to not only entertain but also to teach and even sell.   Blogs are a great vehicle for telling stories.  If you want to use your blog to sell products or your services, then it’s important to master the art of storytelling.

I got an email from a beginning blogging client the other day – asking if a post was too “silly” to use on the blog.  I replied that there is no such thing as content which is “too silly” for a blog post.

There’s no such thing as “too silly for a blog post” advice comes from someone who wronte about condoms and social marketing in which I told how I mistook a brown paper bag filled with condoms for moist towelettes.  The moral to the story was how my frame of mind affected my perception of what was inside.

“When people arrive at your blog, website or other advertising material, they already have a conversation going on inside their head.  If the conversation on your blog – on your website or in your advertising materials isn’t clear – you might be surprised at how “distorted” you message can get.”

Telling stories is an incredibly effective way to sell more stuff – whatever “stuff” you’re selling because stories can entertain and educate at the same time,

Allstate is currently running a series of amusing commercials which entertain and educate – the story of what your “cut rate” insurance may not cover.

You don’t have Allstate’s media budget to air your amusing and educational stories nationally.  There is another more affordable option available and that’s telling these stories on your blog.

Heck – even if you have that kind of advertising budget- your blog is a great place for entertaining and educational stories to live when they’re not burning up the airwaves.

Before you can decide what storiess you need to tell, you first need to decide what information consumers need.  Allstate’s commercials are educating conumsers about what might not be covered by your “cut rate” insurance.

What information do you need to communicate to your audience?  What do they need to know in order to buy from you?

If you’re competing solely upon price- then telling stories probably isn’t for you,  However, if you’re making a Major Sale – consumers want and need as much information as possible before they make a decision.  Your blog can tell a hundred variations of your educational and entertaining stories.  Those stories may not garner a lot of consumer comments – but they may do something better like contacting you to learn more about how to become YOUR customer,