In this episode we shall employ the Company Story Builder—a bespoke tool designed to illuminate the path to rekindling that initial spark of inspiration that ignited the genesis of your enterprise. As we traverse this journey, we shall elucidate how defining and articulating your inception story serves not merely as a narrative, but as a foundational element that propels your organization forward, aligning your team's efforts with your core purpose. By the end of this session, you will have crafted a compelling inception narrative that not only enriches their growth plan but also instills new habits and actionable strategies to sustain ongoing progress.

Join us as we delve into the transformative power of storytelling, ensuring that the essence of your entrepreneurial journey resonates throughout your organization and beyond.

Takeaways:

• A well-defined company inception story serves as a beacon of clarity, guiding teams towards a unified purpose and fostering a sense of belonging.
• The Company Stories Builder tool is essential for articulating the essence of your business, allowing founders to reignite their original passion and vision.
• Sharing your inception story with your team cultivates enthusiasm, inspiring individuals to connect deeply with the company's mission.
• Utilizing storytelling as a strategic leadership tool not only aligns your team but also enhances their understanding of the company's impact and goals.

Chapters:

00:29 Reigniting Growth Through Purpose

03:36 Defining Your Company Inception Story

09:40 The Inception of a Vision: Building a Company Story

20:56 Collecting and Sharing Company Stories

27:56 The Importance of Storytelling in Company Culture

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Coco Sellman, the host of the Force for Good Business Show, believes business is a force for good, especially with visionary women at the helm. With over 25 years of entrepreneurial experience, she has launched five companies and guided over 500 startups. As Founder & CEO of A Force for Good, Coco supports purpose-driven women founders in unlocking exponential growth and prosperity. Her recent venture, Allumé Home Care, reached eight-figure revenues and seven-figure profits in just four years before a successful exit in 2024. A venture investor and board director, Coco’s upcoming book, *A Force for Good*, reveals a roadmap for women to lead high-impact, high-growth companies.

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Hello there.

Welcome to the story that scale how your inception story of your company can fuel growth, impact and freedom.

Using the company Stories builder that we designed specifically for you today, we are going to delve right into a masterclass, especially for pillars, purpose led women founders and teams.

And we're going to help you reignite your growth in a way that is going to burn you out.

Not going to add to your time, but helping you reconnect to that which fuels you most, which is your core purpose and the original reason founded your company.

So today in this masterclass, you'll define your company Company Action story.

The origin story of how and why your company began and used to learn one of the force for good tools called the Company Story Builder.

And you'll capture and share that story with your team.

Today's space is all about helping you step into greater clarity and freedom.

But by the end of the session you'll have a complete, compelling but founding story and you'll add to your four page growth plan which if you don't know what that is, we're going to explain it to you and instill new habits and actions to carry forward.

So let's go ahead and dive right in.

Have you built an amazing company but now feel like you've hit a growth plateau?

Many founders reach this point.

Point you are not alone.

Are you still wearing way too many hats?

With the business depending on you for all the little things, maybe you're craving more freedom from the daily grind.

Do the people around you, your team, your customers, understand your why?

Or is the founding purpose getting a bit lost as the daily grind and time goes by?

And most importantly, are you feeling the spark that got you started in the first place?

Saying yes to any of these?

You're in the right place.

Today's session is about turning all of this around.

By defining your company inception story, we're going to back into that original energy and breakthrough stagnation.

It's very exciting, right?

The Force for Good system is an elevated model for leading perpetual growth in your company.

It's a way to gather your team around the important ideas and concepts that create both impact, scale and profit.

This masterclass and the series around it helps you install a system of perpetual growth.

And over time, it's going to help you develop and empower your team to do their best.

Every day you can get access to free weekly tools like the one we're going to introduce today by going to a courseforgood biz weekly tool.

So today's focus is the company inception story.

This is the story of how and why your company began captures your passion and the spark that inspired your venture.

It is one of the core growth elements of the Force for Grand System and it lives on the four page group.

So today's tool is called the Company Stories Builder.

So we're going to use the Company Stories Builder which you can download and in this workshop you're going to write your company inception story and identify high potency action to move your company growth forward.

So make sure you go and download the Company Stories Builder every day.

Come to work and get on the treadmill, the hamster wheel of your life and your business and everybody on your team does the same thing.

If you don't devote specific attention and focus, nobody's going to bring out your company story.

But when you time to do it, you're going to see opportunities for growth.

The origin story of how your company began lives on the four page gross plan.

It's one of a core growth element.

So here's what the four page growth looks like and you can download it when you go to a Course for Good Biz weekly Pool on the first page we focus on knowing your purpose.

The four page growth plan invites you and your team to become clear and aligned on knowing your purpose.

The first thing it contains is your inception story.

The second is the core purpose, then the a hundred year company vision and then later we get to the 10 year impact goal and the core values.

Today we're going to dive into the inception story which is at the very top of the core growth plan because it is the foundation and alive everyone in your company, where you are going and why.

It will help you make decisions as you think about your customer and how you're going to serve them.

It will also influence your strategy as you build your impact plan on pages three and four of the growth plan.

So get out the Company Stories Builder which you can get it for free until April 7th.

Go ahead and pick it up.

In the first page of the Company Stories Builder we're going to prepare you to connect with your deeper reason.

The first question is what is the story of how your company began?

Think about, write down, visualize why you started your company.

And so was there a moment, was there a series of events that sparked your company?

Think back and remember what led to it.

What conversations did you have?

Who were you talking to?

Was there a problem you experienced or was there a problem that you noticed somebody in the world experiencing and you discovered that there could potentially be a way to do it better?

What were the hopes and the dreams that you, the founder or the founders, what were the hopes and dreams of creating this business?

What did you hope would be possible?

Just take some notes, write down whatever comes to your mind.

And was there a person or a situation that inspired you?

In the case of my healthcare company, Alume, my stepdaughter Amelia, inspired we had found out after all kinds of challenges of caring for her around the clock and spending a lot of money in private care, we discovered that she qualified with our health insurance for 16 hours a day of nursing services.

And we were so excited.

But then we couldn't find a home health agency that would provide these particular services.

We came to understand it's because it's such a niche, such a specific type of service.

So we were inspired and I say we, I mean me and one of my co founders, Christine, and then we found ourselves a nurse who is experienced in this niche and we decided that we wanted to do this, that we could make it possible for more children and adults like Amelia with medical complex needs and technology dependency to have this service available to them.

So this is our inception story.

It came from our copy experience, but it doesn't have to.

It could be something you see somebody else experiencing an injustice or a gap in the market.

And then going to the next page of the company stories builder, you can start to ask these next question.

What was the transformation you hoped the company would offer these constituents?

What did you hope you could do to help them?

What was the change you hoped you could bring to their lives?

In the case of Illuminate, I wanted these children and their families to have access to home health services around the clock home health services and a payer.

That was what I wanted.

Anyone who wanted it could get it if they were qualified, had a medically fragile loved one.

So that was the transformation.

The next question is, what did the founders hope to create for others in the world?

I wanted to double the access to this kind of care in my state at the time.

So I lived in Connecticut at the time and there was, there was a number of people who were on waiting lists.

I wanted to double the amount of services provided in 10 years.

Why did we start the company?

Because there wasn't enough access for these patients.

Why did you or the founders of your company start your company?

What was the deep and profound reason worthy of all the risk, all the sacrifice, all the long hours, the vacations where you're on the phone, investing in the business, not paying yourself enough at times, maxing out your credit cards, whatever it is, what made it worth it.

And what is the story behind the name of your company?

Did you have a particular story behind the name of your company that you could weave into your company story?

So now you've gotten some ideas about why you started your company and remembering the big transformation core purpose you wanted to bring.

So then the next step here, this next page is where you do the inception story.

Mad lib.

Right?

And this is designed to be a way to get your ideas out and draft them quickly.

So here we have it.

Ever since that year when our founder and you say this founder's name had this profound experience and discovered these needing people or core constituents having a tremendous need for specific core need, problem or pain.

So that's how we start.

Ever since the year when our founder the founder's name and then you name the core profound experience that this founder had.

In this case, I had called over 30 home health agencies and none of them would take us because none of them did this kind of home health.

I discovered all of these patients not being served in the state and not having access to home health services that they needed around the clock.

That's when Alume decided to become dedicated to supporting children and adults with medical complex needs at home.

So you name your car constituent and then you in experiencing at home remarkable care.

That was what we were driven to do.

Our core purpose was remarkable care.

Take a moment to draft this out.

This is the first part of the sentence.

Creates your company story, your inception story.

Now, if you're a company that's been around a while, you can go on to the next piece.

And it says all these years later, we are now serving a thousand patients at home.

For example, 87 towns in the state of Connecticut.

We remain dedicated to helping complex nursing patients at home, helping them overcome the challenge of accessing 247 nursing care so they can experience being surrounded by the care they need at home with a funding source.

This is how you map out your inception score.

Try this out.

Set a timer for 10 minutes and just blow through this.

And then you can ask ChatGPT or your favorite sources for AI to make this even better for you.

So this is how you create your first draft.

All right, so an example here.

I just gave you an example of Illuminate, but I'm also going to share with you Madlib in helping break down what the SPANX inception story look like.

Spent hats then dedicated to supporting women in experiencing confidence, comfort and empowerment and what they wear.

So that's how the first draft of that first paragraph works.

Now, because they've been around a long time, you can keep going all these years later.

We are now serving millions of women over 50 countries and we remain dedicated to helping women of all shapes and sizes overcome the struggle of finding shapewear that is both functional and flattering so they can experience greater confidence, comfort and freedom in their daily lives.

So this is how you use this mad lib to get your ideas out on page and then you can use AI to make it even better.

Once you do that, then you can start to use the vision test.

You want your company Inception Stories to pass these tests.

You want to make sure it has these six.

Three.

Number one, does the story tie together past, present and future into one cohesive story?

Second, ask yourself, does the story depict the people we serve and the needs we aim to address?

Does the story relate to the core purpose when those we serve and create clarity about why that core purpose is necessary?

Then does the story share the vision of what the company hopes will become possible for those we serve?

So it shows what becomes possible, that transformation?

Does it connect progress?

Does the story share the important results and progress already achieved by the company when the cruise story was sharing already millions of women in all these countries?

Right.

Does story number six articulate the inspiring long term goal the organization is working to achieve?

Right.

And its goal within the story enrolls others to want to be part of achieving it?

Once you start to get this vision test going, you might make some modifications to it and then write down your final version.

The next step is really important.

Part four of the Company Stories Builder tool is where you start to decide how you're going to share your story.

Oh, your story is polished.

Now part four is about actually sharing the story and I say it's polished, but really you're going to iterate.

This first draft you're sharing is still really a draft.

The idea of the Force Liquid system is to help you get comfortable with drafting, trying things out, innovating and making it back.

So now you have a story.

You tried it out with yourself and your leadership team.

How you're going to start hearing it.

The story gains power when it's told, heard and repeated.

Repeated by not just you, by others.

So we're going to make a plan to get your company inception story out.

That's what this page of the Company Stories Builder is about.

So I invite you to share your new story in three ways.

I challenge you to commit all three in the coming days.

Number one Internal Share Share your story with your team by the end of this week.

If you have a team meeting coming up or you can call a special huddle, take a few minutes and tell them the Inception story you just posted.

You might say, you realize we never really wrote this down and I wanted to come to you and share what our inception story is and give you the language.

Or it's to make sure we all know about it.

This can be really inspiring for your team.

Come after something you tell them, a way for them to respond to it.

You can tell something about the story matters to you.

How does this story resonate for you?

And you'll find that your team members start to tell you what's most meaningful to them and it creates enthusiasm.

So that's the first piece.

The second is an external Share with your community.

Share your story with your broader community that could be your customers, followers or your industry network.

Post it publicly.

You could put up a refresh story blurb on your website.

You could link it to all your social media.

You could have your about page updated and write a LinkedIn post or article about why you founded your company.

Bring it back to that new page.

Do it this week.

So not only does it spread your purpose driven message, it also attracts those who resonate with this purpose and mission.

It's amazing how sharing your why can actually draw more supporters, clients, believers to your business.

So commit to sharing with your community this week.

Finally, share your story one on one in the next seven days with Think of a mentor, an advisor, a potential investor, even a fellow founder or friend.

Schedule a coffee, chat or a call and in conversation, intentionally bring up and tell your inception story.

You might start with a conversation that says I've been working on articulating my company's founding story.

Can I share it with you?

It's a great way to practice telling it in a more intimate setting and to deepen that personal connection with others.

Through your story.

You'll find even mentors or investors appreciate hearing the heartfelt why.

It often leads to a richer dialogue that may feel valuable and more supportive for your company.

For each of these sharing methods, I suggest a deadline of this week or in the next seven days.

These are important because without a time frame, it's easy to push it off.

Remember, your story has power.

By sharing it, you're going to ignite that power within your team, within your community, and within yourself as a leader.

So don't tuck your story away.

Get it out there.

Now we're going to go into the next stage here.

Part five of the Company Stories Builder is gather other stories so your whole company is rich with other stories.

So you're going to start to collect other stories.

Implement Brainsworm Think back what's the story of your first customer or your first employee?

What are your favorite customer stories?

Customer Successes Customer wins Times when you were able to overcome a customer challenge.

What's a story of how a customer's life or circumstances were transformed by some aspects of the care or the products or the services that were delivered?

Think about those moments and what your favorite employee stories that depict team members going above and beyond in service of others.

So you're going to start to see that there's all this lore and magic and story about your company and you want to start to create a story.

Bank a reservoir of Go to stories you can use for inspiration for marketing, team building.

You name it.

Here we can go on to what is a story of a team member helping a customer overcome a challenge?

What has your customer company had to overcome to grow and survive by its reason?

About how we overcame Covid and what we had to do to get PPE out into the field, how we had multiple town halo halls to make sure everybody felt inspired and how we sent out gift boxes to the nurses in the field.

All of these stories really matter.

What has your company achieved that makes you and your team feel at these sense of pride?

Start to think about these customer impact stories.

Overcoming challenge stories.

You can find values in action.

Identify where your core purpose is in action or where your core values are in action.

A team triumph story is always good.

Implementing a new system or creating a new product or whatever it is like.

These are great stories to have a pivot story.

Times when you made a big change in your business and had to go a different direction because something changed or you realized something wasn't working.

You can find support stories where people helped you, an individual, a mentor, partner, investor, your early employee who was crucial to your journey.

Future vision stories, future scenarios illustrate the impact you inspire to give.

You don't need to flesh all of these out right now, but take note of these ideas.

These are the types of stories that can continuously field your company's culture and brand and so One of the pieces of the Force for Good system is called the seven rituals of Innovation.

These are where you meet regularly with your team daily, weekly, monthly, quarterly and annually.

Different purposes and functions and they'll focus on different time horizons when you meet with your team.

Coming with a story is a great way to really foster vision into your company and by gathering and sharing these stories and inviting others to share stories.

So one of the great tasks you can do that really empowers teams is have every week at your weekly meeting have somebody else be responsible for coming with a inspiring story of one of these times.

And you might be amazed by what you discover.

You start to discover that this company is more than just you start to discover company has a whole team of people that love and care about it and are loving it more because they're part of the journey.

They're the main characters of building this extraordinary company.

Here's where you're going to write down other ways you might start to share those stories.

I just can't you some examples but you want to write down your specific action.

Who is going to do what and by you just saw the company stories builder.

We just walked through it.

You can download it at Overgood Biz Weekly tool.

It's free for the next week and you can go back to the four page growth plan and fill in the inception story and you'll start to see that this inception story is going to come hide everything that's on the four page plan and help you really grow your company organically and give your team tools they need.

You're also going to want to double check for alignment with your inception story and everything else in your four page plan.

If you've already drafted it, I invite you to acknowledge what you already created today.

You reconnected with your founding purpose.

You reignited tension.

You created clarity on your uniqueness as a business.

You discovered what makes your company special and you're articulating the specific problem you set out to solve and how you approached it.

You've essentially established your unique differentiation is incredibly valuable.

Sometimes in the hustle we forget to put the special DNA of our company company into our stories.

Now you've put it in words.

You can leverage that uniqueness in your branding, in how you pitch and certainly in how you and the other leaders of your team are going to lead.

It's going to give you alignment and inspiration.

Use storytelling as a powerful leadership tool to align people.

When you have a story, it creates more clarity for them about what you're trying to build.

It builds confidence in your why.

It's a guidepost for the future.

And just notice how as you give this gift to your team members, this story does more than tell a story.

It gives people clarity about how they can be of highest and best use.

Be sure to establish some high leverage habits.

We talked about some immediate actions that you can take using the story builder itself.

Think about how you can create repeated actions that will continue to bring up this story and other stories.

High leverage habits are those tiny but mighty routines that you do consistently which have disproportionate positive effect on your business growth and culture.

A little effort you and repeating them each week or each month create a big return, especially when done on a consistent basis.

So in the context of storytelling and purpose, we want habits that continually reinforce broadcast your why without you even having to be there or working too hard about it each day.

Think about what you might do.

Kick off your weekly team meeting with a quick story.

Add the company inception story and video with the founder sharing it to your orientation.

Every time there's a new hire it automatically share.

Include that video on your social media and run it once a week so that it's coming back up to customers in your community over and over again.

Add a personal purpose reflection to your routine every week.

Perhaps every morning you might read it again to yourself.

I like to read my four page plan, especially the purpose section out loud every week.

Share a new company story.

Edit your monthly town halls and make that engaging part of your journey something lasting and enriching for you and your team.

These are the actions that you already decided to share your company and section story and start to identify new stories for your story that get clear of what those actions are and be sure to put them in your calendar.

Designate some time to get them done.

So recap.

Today in this masterclass we used the Company Stories Builder and defined your company Inception story.

You also learned that you can use this story builder to create more stories and reconnect.

You could even pass it along to different members of your team.

You could assign them to listen to this recording or watch this video and use this step by step method to craft and test powerful stories.

You discovered key insights about your purpose, your uniqueness and the power of storytelling within your company.

You identified action.

Congratulations.

We launch a mini masterclass and provide access for one week.

You are also invited to participate in our Growth Experience which is an online program in 12 modules.

At your own pace.

You can implement the full Force Prevent system includes video tools and assistance and you can do this with, with your team or alone.

You can also order the book A Force for Good and the book includes a full explanation of the whole system and it walks you through all of the tools of the Force for Thank you for being here today.

It's my pleasure to serve you, to be a part of your life and your growth.

I always like to say that the world is made better by women led by so let all all you'll make the world a better.