Strategic Storytelling

Being a podcast guest brings many rewards. You open up opportunities. You get exposure in several ways. 

Small podcast? You still benefit. 

Link to the interview on your website. Your prospective clients get a new view of how you think and speak. 

Besides, you never know if just one juicy prospect is listening to that podcast - someone who's hearing about you for the first time, who'd never know about you any other way.

Podcast hosts get lots of pitches - even those with small audiences.  Most of those pitches are pretty awfful. That's because guests are making assumptions about the host's story. 

In this episode, we'll help you bridge the gap. You'll know how to pitch by responding to the host's backstory - what they're really thinking.

If you own a service business, you probably know this already: Writing a book can bring you exposure, credibility, and ultimately, more clients. You get transformed from "business owner" to "thought leader." 

On this podcast, Jane Tabachnik talks about an essential component of authorship: "finding your why". She explains what this really means: it's not about your psychological needs, but rather about relating to your audience. 

We talk about the 2 types of whys - for the author and for the audience. 

Jane considers this element so important, she won't work with authors who come with no understanding of their "why."

You'll also learn about a forthcoming summit from Jane on the topic of marketing your book. I have a session on using stories to write and promote your book. The summit is free for a limited time. Get the details here.   

You'll find lots of lists of "website mistakes." This episode introduces 3 common mistakes that can be fixed with storytelling.

For one thing, you need to be sure you're telling the right story - consistent with your clients' backstory and your own archetype.

You may get advised to choose certain websites as models of good marketing. They're usually great websites - but they won't work for you. 

You'll get lots of examples of websites that use the right stories (and a few that don't).  

Resources mentioned here: 

Free download - Marketing Archetypes
Free download - What Motivates Your Client
Blog Post - Hardest mistake to fix when you create a website 
   Designers and marketers tell you why to start with copywriting. 

Consultation: Strategic Intensive
"Tweak and Critique"  - video review of your website 

Should you swear when you're onstage for your business?

The answer is, "sometimes." Only one of the five archetypes can get away with swearing...and I'll explain which one.

For the other archetypes, swearing can backfire.

Your audience may want you to swear, but you can't make assumptions. 

And swearing seems stronger in certain settings, such as the written word and in one-to-one settings.

One caveat: Avoid "lazy" swearing. Even people who swear like sailors (to use an outdated saying) will be annoyed. We see this a lot in standup comedy, where it doesn't get a laugh. We need to recognize lazy swearing in business, too, where it sends the wrong message. 

Enjoy the episode! Don't forget to leave a rating and a review. Visit my website, https://cathygoodwin.com, to get more info on storytelling, marketing, and copywriting. 

If you've been following the soap opera saga of British royalty Harry and Meghan, you know they generated some explosive content. Apparently, they were surprised at the reaction of their many readers and listeners. 

Most business owners don't share worldwide fame, but many have amassed a large following of admirers.

Any business owner - or anyone who shares a story - can get reactions they totally didn't expect when they planned the communication. One way I work with clients is to plan stories so you won't deliver surprises and get unexpected reactions to your best stories.

In this episode, I share 3 ways you risk getting an unexpected surprise from your story. You'll also discover simple steps you can take to avoid these reactions, while you still get your point across.

The story archetype framework can help you create a consistent message for your small business when the brand is YOU. You can download a free guide to the story archetypes.

Your download includes a short quiz to help you identify your own story archetype. You can begin using it immediately!

Business storytelling can be used to explain a concept, describe what you do, or show why you're so passionate about serving your clients.

Business storytelling can also be used for "story-selling:" you craft your story to appeal to buyers and motivate them to take action.

In this episode of Strategic Storytelling, you'll see an example of the way we can transform a "good enough" story into a strong story that delivers sales. We'll work with a story that was submitted to me by a workshop participant.

The business owner (a financial executive - a corporate controller, to be exact) found a need for a product she could create. She needed a story to get prospective customers involved and motivated. Her first story was not bad...but you'll see what we did to make it even better.

Don't forget to subscribe! Leave a rating and a review. 

If you'd like to work with me to power up your story (or find the best one to use), we can begin with a Strategic Intensive program. Click here to learn more. 

You can also work with me on writing your copy, where we incorporate stories. Click here to learn more about how I write or help clients write their own copy. 

Download my FREE guide to the most common storytelling mistakes (and the one big fix for all three). 

As an entrepreneur, you've probably heard the saying, "A Confused Mind Doesn't Buy." So when you're thinking of expanding your business to encompass your new interests, you may wonder: Do I have to hold back on something I really care about?

I often see this with clients who have been in business a while. As you grow, your interests expand. For instance, on this podcast, I talk about a business coach who used to be "strictly business." She'd talk about sales, marketing, and accounting. Mention "mindset" and she'd insist, "My clients don't tolerate that woo-woo stuff."

After several years of success, she began working with affiliates and writing her own books on topics like gratitude, wellness and even spirituality. 

Secondly, as you build a following, your audience takes a new interest in you. They want to know more about the way you think. You've earned so much credibility, you'll get followers when you talk about topics that once seemed far removed from your business identity.

So you might try integrating your new interests into a new, more powerful story. Far from creating confusion, you may find your audience treasures your complexity.

If you'd like my help on creating your new story, check out the Strategic Intensive - a consultation program where we build a foundation for your marketing. Click here to learn more.

In the podcast, I refer to the story archetypes. You can learn more (and discover your own archetype) with a free download at http://CathyGoodwin.com/arch

The authors mentioned are Tim Ferriss, Arlie Hochschild and Chris Guillebeau. 

Entrepreneurs and small business owners often believe the sequence "Idea --> Create Offer --> Start Marketing."

It sounds logical, doesn't it?

Truth is, if you wait till you've got a finished product, you've waited too long. You need to get some signs of success before committing to production and creation.

There's a good section in a book published several years ago, with the memorable title of A Year Without Pants. That was pre-pandemic, before the days of widespread telecommuting. 

The author worked for the company that made Wordpress.com. They created marketing materials before they implemented features, which raises the question, "How do you write about something that doesn't exist?"

I encourage my own clients to do things when they launch a new product or service - before creating the program or product itself. First, write the sales letter. Second, tell a story about the product from the client's perspective.

In this short episode, you'll learn more about how to make it happen. You'll save a lot of trouble when you get ready to market your new offer. Your copywriter will love you.

The book: A Year Without Pants.
Free download: Understanding Your Client's Motivation.
Video course: Step-by-step to enter the conversation in your client's mind.  Work at your own pace.

My website: https://CathyGoodwin.com

When I moved to Philly almost 12 years ago,  I had to decide what to keep and what to toss. I was tempted to follow the maxim, "When in doubt, throw it out."  But over time, I've learned that sometimes taking something along will actually save time and space in the future.

Moving to a New Year also encourages the question, "What do we take along? What do we leave behind? And what do we add to our new life?"

My recommendations may seem counter-intuitive, but they're based on my experience working with busy, successful solopreneurs and independent professionals. What I've found is that each of these tips actually expands your opportunities because you become more energized, more alive, and just more of who you are.

References: My course on moving from a side hustle to a full-time business: Click here.
Chris Guillebeau's book on side hustles.
One-to-one consultations on business strategy and branding. Click here.

Just after I recorded this podcast, a marketing coach popped up in my inbox with advice to share your story of personal trauma. Yep, another Cringe of the Day.

You can't miss the Harry & Meghan story, which is one big cringe for many of us. But if you pay attention, you'll see many successful business owners who are doing the same thing: baring their souls because they think it's a wise move.

And where do they get their insights? From coaches like the one who just popped up. They tell you to share your personal stories...and sometimes it's hard to say no. 

Harry & Meghan have publicists, interviewers, and ghostwriters egging them on. Ordinary business owners have to contend with podcast hosts, bloggers, and event organizers.  

This podcast episode highlights 3 mistakes that are so easy for business owners to make. And you'll learn what to do instead, namely, tell a story that supports your brand and plays to your strengths.

Download my free report on branding: http://mycopy.info/brandsteps

Ask me about one-on-one consulting to tell your story and grow your business. 

As a small business owner, you're unabashedly in business because you want to earn revenue. Often that means increasing prices in order to reach your realistic profit goals. 

So how do you announce a price increase? 

Reviewing what's out there, I found two strategies. One is to share your "why." The other is to associate your price increase with an increase in value.

Each of these strategies assumes a story about you - and a backstory about your clients. 

But...is that backstory accurate? Is there a better story to tell? Or do you need a story at all?

In this episode you'll discover why these popular strategies can alienate your clients. This topic is controversial and I'd love to get your perspective. What do you recommend, as a marketer and as a client?

Leave a comment and don't forget to subscribe! To learn more about finding your client's backstory, you can download my free guide here.

Mentioned in the podcast:

Episode #82 -  How to respond when someone projects their story intro your narrative 
Apple
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Utpal M. Dholakia in Harvard Business Review

Hubspot - Let Customers Know About A Price Increase 

Forbes - Chris Kille article on price increases

Go through your inbox and you’ll find yourself responding to messages with, “I bet whoever wrote this is blushing beet red by now. The word ‘cringeworthy’ was designed for this.” 

We’ve all made at least one cringe-creating mistake and I bet you’ve seen plenty of examples, too.

In my experience, these mistakes don’t happen because business owners don’t know any better. The problem is, we get busy and we take good advice out of context. We apply a piece of advice that’s great for someone else’s marketing story archetype…but dangerous to ours. 

We’re encouraged to knock out a blog post in fifteen minutes or less. I’m a pretty fast writer but I make cringeworthy mistakes when I do that. I have to review…and review again.

We’re told to begin with a story of something embarrassing so we appear vulnerable. Who can forget that email about the person who lost their underwear at an inopportune moment? 

We’re told to be controversial. Take a stand. Criticize your industry. Take aim at the competition. We’re not warned, “But don’t come across like a victim.”

We’re told, “Don’t give away the store. Don’t share too much.” We’re not warned, “Don’t leave your audience thinking you’re a scam artist.”

In the right context, each piece of advice can be extremely useful. 

If you’re a Role Model Archetype, you’ll share your own struggles – more accurately, how you conquered those struggles to become a success. 

If you’re a Celebrity archetype you’re probably not reading this email…but you can get away with a lot. Celebrities attract passionately loyal followers who want them to be outrageous. 

Celebrity archetypes can get away with a lot…and Role Models are next. If you’re not familiar with story archetypes, download this free guide.  

On this podcast, you won’t just learn about mistakes. (That would be mistake #3). You’ll discover how to fix them…especially the third: you’ll find a rare example of how to turn snark into strategy. 

More mistakes? Look up Podcast Episode #81 on networking mistakes.
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Learn more about storytelling when you visit my website and purchase my kindle book: Grow Your Business One Story At A Time.

If your services relate to problem-solving, I’m willing to bet that few people will call you for an appointment until they’ve experienced a sharp defining moment. Psychologists call these experiences “crystallizing moments” as things come together clearly.

We often think of “last-straw moments” as pretty extreme, such as the person who wakes up in jail with no memory of how he got there. But game-changing moments feel huge to the client, not necessarily to anyone else.

These last-straw moments are also called "crystallizing moments." A lot of things come together and your client realizes, "Something has GOT to change, right now." That's usually when they call you.

In this short episode, you'll get several examples of these "last straw" moments with tips on how to incorporate them into your content creation.

Learn more about collecting your clients' last-straw moments when you download this free guide: Understand What Motivates Your Clients. 
http://CathyGoodwin.com/baggage

Read my kindle book - Grow Your Business One Story At A Time

Visit my website CathyGoodwin.com to learn more about becoming a better copywriter and content creator. 

And don't forget to subscribe and leave a review! 

When you tell stories, you influence your audience. In business and in life, you're encouraged to share stories that reflect your audience's reality. 

But all too often, you're faced with someone who projects their reality onto your story.

In this episode, I'm joined by Nicole Lewis-Keeber, a life coach who's also a licensed therapist, with special expertise in trauma. She will explain how foisting a story on your listener can create a great deal of harm. It can even be considered a micro-trauma.

I was inspired to create this podcast when I read comments in a Facebook group, Community of Single People: people who are happily single with no interest in changing their status.

They reported therapists and doctors who seriously advised them, "If you just start dating and get married, your problems will go away."

Nicole dismisses this story as nonsense. Bringing a new person into your life, she says, can add even more problems! 

Even worse, these authority figures are projecting their story into someone else's narrative. 

If you're single without children, they assume your story will be, "I'm lonely and depressed." That's their belief about single people - a belief, Nicole says, will be created and reinforced by the surrounding society.

It's not just about being single.

If you're older than sixty, your story must be, "I'm weak and frail and helpless...and maybe broke, too."

If you're a new business owner, your story must be, "I don't know how to do anything and I'll probably fail."

These stories are especially harmful when we hear them from authority figures (such as doctors and therapists), who are supposed to be the experts.

They're also harmful when we hear them from friends and coworkers. We don't want to make them feel bad or disrupt a relationship. But when a coworker expresses dismay at a single coworker's life, she's imposing her story: "Being alone on a holiday will make you feel depressed." The single person's real story is, "I clove being alone on holidays and wouldn't want it any other way."

At 17:00 Nicole talks about the ways these forced stories can create trauma. Some even create negative trauma adaptations, with the need to cope through substance abuse and self-destructive actions.   

At 21:54 - Nicole suggests appropriate ways to respond when someone forces their story into your narrative. She encourages us to be direct and not accept the forced story. 

Nicole can be found at https://nicole.lewis-keeber.com/

Whether you’re looking for a content creator, a designer, or an accountant, most likely you won't start with a search engine. You'll ask around before you get serious.

The WSJ recently wrote about a corporate trend: avoiding the usual job posts in favor of queries to a well-connected thought leader.

Alas, all too many business owners think of networking in terms of The Coffee Date. If you’ve been in business awhile, you’ve probably got enough Coffee Date Stories to fill a comedy set at a business-oriented comedy show.

On this podcast, I share a few stories of networking gone wrong. Some of them feature experienced marketers who should know better…or just had a very bad day. 

Even better you’ll discover how to use stories to make sure you connect effectively, so you don’t waste your time and theirs. 

And you’ll learn a technique I found in Dorie Clark’s excellent book, The Long Game, on how to respond to that inevitable question: “Can we get together and talk about our businesses?” Not surprisingly, she’s far more tactful than I am.

If you’d like to learn more about backstories, you can download my free report, How To Learn What REALLY Motivates Your Clients. 

I also have a course on this topic. Use the coupon LISTEN20 to get a 30% discount. 

Just browsing and enjoying the content? Click here to buy me a virtual coffee.  

"Your copywriting needs to be edgy!" is the advice I've given for years. 

I could have added, "And your books need to be even more edgy!" 

For a good part of summer and fall of 2022, I worked on a book with a message. The book grew out of my standup comedy sets, where I used humor to send messages that fight stereotypes about being single and growing older. Audiences remember stories - especially light-hearted stories. 

I got distracted from some parts of my business, but I also learned many lessons that apply to business writing as well. 

This episode tells the story of how I came to write this book. You'll also discover 5 lessons I learned from writing this book, with examples and, of course, stories. The language in this episode is (as always with me) completely G-rated. I don't mention the title, which contains a mild swear word. You can read the trigger warnings and order the book at http://CathyGoodwin.com/agebook

As I say in the podcast, the book originally was targeted to women around 35; it's turned out to be popular with Millennials as well as women over sixty. And almost half of my reviews on Amazon are coming from men. That was one of the biggest surprises. 

I have a website to support the book - http://AgingInSneakers.com 

For background, I recorded an earlier episode on edgy copywriting: 
Click here for Apple.
Click here for Spotify. 

Or just look for Episode #77 from wherever you are now. 

When I work on content strategy for lawyers, financial planners, and other professional service businesses, they point out that they can’t promise their clients a “win.” Lawyers can’t promise they’ll win court cases, financial planners can’t promise they’ll make you rich, and real estate agents can’t guarantee your home will sell in 30 days. Life coaches can't promise you'll reach all your goals.

Some services try to create a strong personality.  They write brash copy so they sound like a version of Tony Soprano.You can't make false promises or exaggerate. 

Other services go to the opposite extreme. They tiptoe around their brand by following the industry standards. They make copycat websites. They don't stand out in the online world. And they don't communicate value to their clients.

In this episode you'll discover 3 ways to differentiate yourself by focusing on service delivery, not outcomes. You can use the 5 story archetypes as a guide. 

You probably know that storytelling can be fun. And you probably know storytelling can be the most important tool in your marketing kit. 

But how do you evaluate what you're really getting from telling that story? 

In this podcast we look at your investment in storytelling: the time you take to plan your story (and most business owners don't plan enough); the cost of any training of consultation; and finally, the opportunity cost: when you use stories in your content, you give up opportunities for straight information, alternative stories, and more.

On the "return" side, you'll find many ways to benefit from storytelling. We'll just look at 3: reinforcing your brand, enhancing the value of your offer, and clarifying what your clients will gain.  

You'll gain a greater appreciation for storytelling, and hopefully you'll get answers to the question, "Is storytelling just a lot of trendy fluff? What's the benefit to the bottom line?"  

Free download - The surprising way to discover what really motivates your market - Click here.

BTW - the link to the "pants" story is 
https://www.banterist.com/ebay_dkny_mens_1/

I get a lot of questions about edgy copy because it’s popular today - for all the wrong reasons. Business owners want content that startles and grabs attention. And there’s a lot of pressure to write like you talk…and make that talk informal...sometimes with words that can get you in trouble with the content filters.

But…is that always a good thing? We want copy that’s bold … but is this the way to stand out?

The answer is "Absolutely yes!" for some businesses...but not for most.

The truth is, the best edgy copy is relatable to your audience. For some businesses, that means using language that would make a sailor (or a Tony Soprano) blush with shame. For others, it might be ultra-feminine language, so sweet it might as well be written in pink. 

This episode shows you how to give your content the edge so you become irresistible to your ideal audience. You sort out your best followers and the others realize, "Hey, this isn't my scene." And that's a good thing. 

Related podcasts: Episode #30. 
Apple.
Spotify. 
FREE download. Discover what *really* motivates your market. Click here.

Quiet quitting - means you tell a story beginning, “I’m not paid enough to do this."     

Quiet quitting has been around a long time.  I know many people who did the bare minimum to avoid being fired or keep their business going.

In this episode, we explore the full story behind quiet quitting. You'll also discover a better story to tell - a way to change your Quiet Quitting story into a Strategic Success story. 

Success might come from doing less....or doing more even when the rewards aren't easily found.

This episode demonstrates how you can understand a concept more easily when you start with a story. Learn more when you download my free report on storytelling for branding: http://mycopy.info/brandsteps

And if you'd like to get a better understanding of business storytelling, check out my kindle ebook Grow Your Business One Story At A Time.