Story As Differentiator

Shaan Puri and Sam Parr believe that your personal story is your greatest asset in business, more valuable than the product itself. They emphasize leveraging your unique narrative to create opportunities and accelerate growth, especially when you're young.

• Your story is your real differentiator

  • "Your story is your asset right... the flowers might be great but your story is the real differentiator"
  • "How many other people are there with your story? Zero"
  • "You're gonna get more value out of the story you're creating than the cookies that you sell"

• Leverage your story to unlock growth opportunities

  • Use your story to get on stages at relevant conferences
  • Tell your story on platforms like TikTok
  • Send cold emails to CEOs of major distributors/retailers
  • Create speaking opportunities that showcase your unique journey

• Persistence in outreach is critical

  • Reference Nick Mowbray who "emailed every retailer in every country every single day"
  • Keep following up until someone finally responds
  • "You're one email and 20 follow ups away from just about everyone on earth"

• Target decision-makers directly

  • "I think if you hustled more to the top you could actually get more growth faster"
  • "How do you go to them and be like 'hey I wanna be in your store'"
  • The most powerful people are "one cold email away"

• Use your youth as a temporary advantage

  • "There's a small window that you have where you're like this prodigy"
  • "You've got this like two to maybe six year window where you being pestering is just cute and awesome"
  • "While that window is open, take it"

• First businesses build skills for future ventures

  • "This probably won't be your last business, this is your starter business"
  • The stories from first ventures "got me bigger and bigger opportunities as I went"
  • "Building your skill and building your story... is gonna be a lot more valuable than the [product] that you sell"