You probably have a client whose experience with your business could convince someone else to work with you. But would a potential customer ever find that story in your marketing?

Most case studies talk about how good the business is. They describe the problem, explain the solution, and celebrate the results. What they often leave out is the person who experienced the change.

In this episode of Attract Raving Fans, Alan shares the story of Greg, a business coach who struggled for years trying to be everything to everybody. When Greg returned to coaching with a better understanding of who he could serve, and started letting his clients' real experiences speak for themselves, his business began to grow.

You'll learn how to build a simple five-part case study that helps potential customers recognize their own situation, understand what changed for someone like them, and feel more confident about taking the next step with you.

This Week's Small Action

Choose one client whose story would mean something to the kind of customer you want to attract. It doesn't have to be your biggest success. It needs to be a story someone else can relate to.

Write just ten sentences, two for each part of your case study:

1. Who the client was.
2. What they were struggling with.
3. What you did to help.
4. What changed for them.
5. What they say about the experience now.

You're not writing the finished case study this week. You're simply getting it started. Add those ten sentences to your Fan Plan.

Resource Mentioned

The free Raving Fans Scorecard: Six quick questions, about two minutes, and a clearer picture of where your business stands and what deserves your attention next.

https://attractravingfans.com/scorecard/

Coming Next Week

You've been collecting the stories and experiences that show why customers value your work. Next, we'll talk about putting those stories to work through a referral system that helps bring new customers your way.

© 2026 Attract Raving Fans. All rights reserved.

Ever sit down to write a social media post or email and realize you have absolutely no idea what to say?

You're not alone. And the problem probably isn't that you've run out of good ideas. You may just be looking in the wrong place.

In this episode, I share the story of Jenny, a real estate agent who struggled with creating content for her business. She was great at helping first-time homebuyers, but writing about what she did was another story. That changed when she stopped trying to come up with new ideas and started listening to what her customers were already telling her.

We'll explore something I call the Story Gold Mine, a simple way to turn your customers' experiences and their own words into useful content that speaks to the people you want to reach.

You'll also learn how one customer conversation can give you several different things to write about, without starting from scratch every time.

This week's Small Action:

Choose one customer you've enjoyed working with and tell their story three different ways:

• Before and After: Where were they when they came to you, and what changed?
• The Lesson: What did their experience teach you that could be useful to someone else?
• The Question: What question changed the conversation or helped them see something differently?

Keep each one short. You're not writing three articles. You're finding three useful stories in a conversation you've already had.

Resources mentioned:

• Free Raving Fans Scorecard | Six questions, about two minutes, to see which part of your marketing deserves attention next.
• Episode 10: See Your Work Through the Eyes of the People It Helps. Revisit the Language Audit to find the words your customers use to describe their experiences.
• Attract Raving Fans Community | Work alongside other business owners who want to attract more right-fit customers.

Next week: The Client Story That Closes the Sale. We'll take one customer's experience and turn it into a story that helps a potential customer recognize their own situation and understand why working with you might be the right next step.

© 2026 Attract Raving Fans. All rights reserved.

You've got happy customers. They've said nice things about your business. Maybe you've even collected some great testimonials for your website.

So why aren't those testimonials doing more to convince potential customers to work with you?

The problem may not be what your customers are saying. It may be what their testimonials are leaving out.

In this episode of Attract Raving Fans, you'll hear the story of Emily, a web designer who had plenty of positive testimonials but kept encountering the same problem: prospective clients weren't sure she could help someone in their particular situation.

A few changes to just three testimonials made a remarkable difference.

We'll explore why some testimonials simply tell people you're good at what you do, while others help potential customers recognize themselves in the experiences of people you've already served.

You'll also learn the Three-Layer Testimonial, a simple way to turn a nice compliment into a customer story that builds confidence and helps the right people decide whether you're right for them.

Your Action This Week

Find one testimonial from a customer whose experience tells a particularly good story. Does it explain where they started, what changed, and what they'd tell someone else about working with you?

If not, reach out and ask the client what they were dealing with before you worked together, and use their answer to tell a fuller story. Then place it somewhere visible — not buried in a carousel, given room to be read. One more piece of the Fan Plan you're building — the plan every FanMaker builds, one small action at a time.

You don't need dozens of new testimonials. Start by making one of your best ones more useful.

Free Resource

Wondering which part of your marketing deserves attention next? Take the free Raving Fans Scorecard. Six quick questions, less than two minutes, and get a clearer picture of where your business stands.

https://attractravingfans.com/scorecard/

Coming Next: Turning Customer Stories Into Content That Connects. How to get more mileage out of the stories your customers are already telling.

© 2026 Attract Raving Fans. All rights reserved.

Not all five-star reviews are equal. A review that connects is the kind that gets shared as a screenshot, copied into recommendations, and passed from person to person.

Those reviews contain three things most are missing:

• the Before (where the writer was before they found you)

• the Shift (one specific moment that changed something)

• the After (what's different now, often including the exact line they say when they refer people)

In this episode, we compare two family-law attorneys with the same star count and opposite reach. Plus, you get a simple, non-pushy way to help a past client tell the fuller story their current review is only hinting at.

This week's Small Action: Look through your reviews for one that feels like it's hiding more story than it shows. Reach out personally, name something specific they wrote, and ask: "Would you be willing to share a bit more about where you were before we worked together?" You're not asking them to change their review — just to tell more of the story they already started. Add it to your Fan Plan — the plan every FanMaker builds, one small action at a time.

Resources mentioned:

- The Raving Fans Scorecard (free — 6 questions, less than 2 minutes): https://attractravingfans.com/scorecard/

Next week: Moving from the reviews other platforms host to the proof you put on your own site: how to shape a testimonial so the right client feels recognized, not pitched.

©2026 Attract Raving Fans - All rights reserved.

Most feedback requests are disguised review requests — and customers can tell. The awkwardness doesn't come from asking; it comes from asking in a way that's about what you need rather than what you want to understand. In this episode, Alan tells the story of a veterinarian who dreaded asking for reviews for years — until one question changed what came back. You'll get the One Feedback Question — *"Was there a moment when you knew this was the right decision?"* — and three ways to deliver it: in person at the close, by email a couple of days after, or as a 30-day follow-up. The question invites a story instead of a rating, and produces the language your best customers are already carrying — the most valuable marketing copy your business will ever have.

This week's Small Action: Think of one past customer whose experience you believe was a good one. Send them a personal message with the One Feedback Question: "Was there a moment when you knew this was the right decision?" When they respond, write down their exact words — don't paraphrase. That language belongs in your marketing. That's the next piece of your Fan Plan — the plan every FanMaker builds, one small action at a time.

Resources mentioned:

- The Raving Fans Scorecard (free — 6 questions, about 2 minutes): https://attractravingfans.com/scorecard/

Next week — you've collected a story; now we make it reach the next person: why some reviews get passed around and others just sit there, and how to help a customer tell the fuller version that moves someone deciding whether to choose you.

©2026 Attract Raving Fans - All rights reserved.

Exceptional moments create raving fans. Inconsistency erodes them — quietly, invisibly, without producing a single complaint. In this episode, Alan's example story is about Amelia, a business owner and physical therapist whose most loyal patients all shared one small moment — the day she told them they'd earned the right to call her "Millie" — a moment she'd been giving unevenly for years without realizing it.

Plus, you'll learn about the Consistency Audit. A simple three-question process to find the three to five moments your best customers always experience, spot which are slipping through the cracks, and write the simplest version of how to make the most important one happen with every one of your own customers. The goal isn't a perfect experience — it's a reliable one.

This week's Small Action: Run the Consistency Audit on one moment instead of five. Pick the moment you'd hate to find out a customer never got — if you've been doing the Part 4 small actions, it's probably the Turning Point, the gesture, the Recovery Response, or the post-delivery touchpoint. Then ask it honestly: does that happen every time, or only when you remember? If it's the second one, write down the trigger — not what the moment is, but exactly when it happens. One sentence. Then mark the four things you've built this month: trigger, or memory? You don't have to fix them today; you just need to know which ones are running on memory. Drop it into your Fan Plan — the plan every FanMaker builds, one small action at a time.

Resources mentioned:

- The Raving Fans Scorecard (free — 6 questions, about 2 minutes): https://attractravingfans.com/scorecard/

Next week — "How to Ask for Feedback Without Being Awkward" You've built a solid customer experience; now we start on the story your customers tell about it — beginning with how to find out what that story actually is.

©2026 Attract Raving Fans - All rights reserved.

Most businesses treat the finished job as the end of the relationship. But the post-delivery window — the days and weeks a customer spends living with the result — is when the story they'll tell about you is actually written. In this episode, Alan tells the story of Wes, a roofing contractor who texts every homeowner a drive-by photo thirty days after the job ("still looking good up there") and became the most-mentioned contractor in his category in his city — not because his work was better, but because nobody else was still showing up a month later. You'll learn the Post-Delivery Arc — three touchpoints (the Day-After Check-In, the 30-Day Follow-Up, and the Meaningful Milestone) — that keep you present during the window when your customers are deciding what to say about you.

This week's Small Action: Think of the last job you finished, and let the date decide. Wrapped up yesterday? Text to ask how it feels today. About a month ago? Drive by, take a picture of the work, and send it. Longer than that? Find the thing worth marking — a year in the house, a first winter under that roof — and say so. One customer, one message, today. Then set the next one up: take the job you're about to finish, count thirty days from it, and set a reminder for that date with the customer's name — a date and a name is the whole system. Your Fan Plan — the plan every FanMaker builds, one small action at a time — just got one step stronger.

Resources mentioned:

The Raving Fans Scorecard (free — 6 questions, about 2 minutes): https://attractravingfans.com/scorecard/

Next week — The Most Underrated Raving Fan Strategy: a great moment now and then doesn't build raving fans — a reliable one does. We close this 4 Part series on the thing that holds all of it together.

©2026 Attract Raving Fans - All rights reserved.

A customer who's watched you fail and put it right has more evidence of your character than one who's only ever seen things go well — and that evidence is what travels. In this episode, Alan tells the story of René, a caterer whose worst review became one of his best sources of new business, and unpacks why (researchers even named it: the service recovery paradox). Then he hands you the four-step Recovery Response: acknowledge without deflecting, make it right before you explain, do one unexpected thing that wasn't asked for, and follow up after the repair — the protocol that turns your hardest customer moments into the ones that earn your most loyal raving fans.

This week's Small Action: Think of the thing that goes wrong most often in your business — the everyday one, not the rare disaster. Then write four lines for it, not four paragraphs. One: the sentence you'll say to own it, with nothing hung on the end. Two: what you'll do to make it right. Three: the unexpected thing you'll do once it's fixed — a real gesture, not a discount. Four: the sentence you'll send a week later. Then put it where you'd actually look on a bad day — phone, job folder, cabinet door. Ten minutes now means you're not improvising when it happens. One more piece of the Fan Plan you're building — the plan every FanMaker builds, one small action at a time.

Resources mentioned:

The Raving Fans Scorecard (free — 6 questions, about 2 minutes): https://attractravingfans.com/scorecard/

Next week: The Follow-Through That Sets You Apart

The days and weeks after the work is done are when a customer decides what to say about you — here's how to stay in the room for it.

©2026 Attract Raving Fans - All rights reserved.