Storytelling to Sell | Ep 064

The Business Project Podcast. Business can be complicated. We break it down so regular people like us can understand and find success. I'm John Crespo, accountant and consultant. I'm Casey Bryant, marketer and event planner. If you run a business or want to run a business. Welcome to the show. 

What's up, guys? Hey, hey, hey.  I'm over here trying to  get all my phone stuff done. I forgot to get my microphone ready.  Welcome to live. We are live at 8. 30 southern time. Yeah, 8. 30 southern time. Couple minutes late. We're getting there though, y'all. It's all good. It's 8. 30 but I haven't left the house yet.

Yeah.  My husband gets mad at me all the time for that.  So welcome to another episode of The Business Project, you guys. This is our fourth live. Our fourth live. My microphone's doing some funky things. Um, okay. I want to start off by telling you a story. Ooh, I like stories. You want to hear a story? Yeah.

Okay, so my daughter Who is 13, had to do a project for school. Okay. And her project was to do some sort of art photography. Okay. Right? So photography. So I'm really excited. I'm like, ooh, this is my opportunity to teach my daughter some photography. Cause I dabble with the camera a little bit. Not an expert, but I know enough to get, to have fun with it.

That's your world. That's your world. Yep. So, and I have a really expensive camera, like a 5, 000 camera. Yeah, and I love my camera and you can do so many cool things with it, so I'm like yes This is my opportunity to teach my daughter how to use a camera some photography so  I'm like Come on, kids. Let's go.

I'm like, I got my camera. Let's go outside. And, you know, she's 13. So she's a teenager. So she's like,  maybe later. And then, you know, a couple days later, it's getting closer and closer to the deadline. I'm like, come on, kids. I got my camera. Let me show you how to do this. She's like, no, mom, I still got like three days. 

So she's a procrastinator  and a crammer. Yeah. So it's like the day before she's her photography things do. And I'm freaking out because I'm like, I haven't even shown her F stop or how to, you know, do the background blurry or any of that, any of that. This is going to take a week for me to train her. She says, mom, it's okay.

And she grabs my phone and she goes outside and she takes up, she grabs one of our chickens cause it had to be with an animal.  She grabs a chicken, she takes a picture with the chicken, with my phone. I should have brought the picture.  We'll post it on our Facebook and our Instagram. I want to see the picture.

Yeah, it turns out to be, like, the most amazing. Background is all blurry. Very focused on the chicken. Just the chicken's profile. It's literally like a chicken's profile. And She's like, she just throws her, my phone at me and she's like, there, all done. Can you go print this? What? And I'm like, what? So we print it out, she brings it to school and everybody's like, whoa, your picture is so cool.

And so 

iPhone saves you lots and lots of time, saves you lots and lots of money. All you gotta do is grab your phone, go get a picture. iPhone.  These cameras on these phones today are just crazy. Like, they can do so much. They can do so much. So, do you see what I just did? I did. Yeah. I stole a, I stole a story. I told a story.

To sell a product. Yeah, doesn't that make you want to go out and get an iPhone versus spend 5, 000 and lots of Time on lessons true. Yeah, that's a big  difference in price For a quality product. Mm hmm. Yeah. Yeah, and we were all able to do that by telling by telling a story So I saw your spin there. Yeah, that was nice.

Thanks Don't buy iPhone though. Samsung is the way to go.  We're not getting paid by iPhone. I was just using that. That was a real life example. And so that's, today we're talking about  telling a story to sell your business.  And that is just an example that I use because everybody knows what an iPhone is.

And super simple, easy, and it's something that happened in real life. And so that is my tip number one is to  apply, like take real stories that happen in your life to sell. Your brand, whether it be testimonials, that's why testimonials are so powerful or whether it be, you know, some person that you helped and it helped change their life or whether it be your personal story about how your product or service has changed your life or transform your life through your business.

So telling stories is such an amazing way to sell your product or service in a way that connects with your audience. And it. It works so much better than just throwing up an ad and saying,  buy the phone. You can do this, this, this, and this telling the features, right? Giving them an actual applicable, applicable, applicable, applicable, relatable  story that they can put themselves into so that they can see, Oh, I could save time and money also by buying your product.

It just makes all the difference. So can you do that with any business type?  Storytelling with, let's just say I have a convenience store.  Can I tell a story about my convenience store to get people to shop at my store versus the one down the street? Yeah, so the way to do it is to first you have to know what problem you're solving, right?

So you got to figure out what problem is your business solving convenience or so you're very convenient and then What is different about your convenience store versus the other convenience stores? Maybe I said they get to see your smiling face when they walk in the door And so that when you are telling your story That is the problem that you're solving in your story.

Yeah, right. So like when when I was talking about the iphone Uh, the problem was time and money and you know, I, I don't want to go get all those, this camera equipment and spend the time learning how to use it. So time and money was the problem that we're solving. So we've revolved the story around that.

So if you're doing a convenience store to see your beautiful face, you want to create a story that revolves around solving that problem. What's the best way to tell your story?  The, by real experiences. Like, can you,  like, if you want to get your story out there. Is it a combination because some people will write a whole story like on their posts on their social media posts You got a whole story written out  Is that as effective as video or like telling it through a video through like a?

Maybe like a produced type of video type thing, commercial, maybe. Yeah, so this is one of the challenges that we face every day as a business owner. Is, do I spend time writing a blog? Do I create a short video? Do I create a long commercial? Cause we can take the same content, that story for example, that I led off with. 

Excuse me. That was like my, did you hear that? That was like my throat talking in the picture.  Wow.  Um.  Yes.  Um. Okay, so back to it. Hopefully that doesn't happen again. I guess I need breakfast. Um. So the, the story that we had just talked about, you could take that story. I used it as an opener for a podcast, which was kind of a long form.

You can take what I did. You can tell the story. You can do a long video telling that story. You can write that story in a blog or you could take it and you can find a fun way to clip it up and make a short video. So maybe you have like. You know, Mackenzie on the couch watching TV and the mom comes on.

It's like, you got to get your project. And then like 10 minutes later, 10 days later walking, you gotta get your project. She's still sitting on the couch and then she just grabs the phone and runs and gets the perfect picture. You know, you could do a 10 second video. With that. So yeah, I think it depends on who your audience is and I think it depends on what you're comfortable with.

So if you're not comfortable with doing a 10 second video, then maybe do a longer video or tell the story and through a live video or a different way. And I also think playing with different things, cause man.  Our, um, it depends on your industry, it depends on your audience, but the world of marketing, it's insane to see how quickly it is changing.

So a great example is.  TikTok about last year at this time was very short, 10 second clips, very high edited professional. Those are the things that we're doing well on TikTok. Now TikTok is trying to, for marketing purposes, for advertising money, they're trying to push longer videos, longer, more relatable, like sit, let's sit down on a couch with the coffee and have a conversation videos. 

So if you're stuck in doing all the crazy edited short videos and you spend all this time doing those and getting good at those, and you're not able to pivot, then you're not going to do well. So I think it's just, and if you're not wanting to keep up with what's working and what's not working all the time, just try different things.

Just try and figure out what you're comfortable with, figure out what your audience connects with, but don't get stuck in doing it one way. Yeah. Just because you're scared of video. If you're scared of video, don't not do video because you're scared of it. I agree. I agree. And I think that the premise behind it all is, um, you want to share why you're doing something or the, the reason behind your, your service or product that you're selling.

You want to share it in a way that is relatable,  right? And it, and I know, I know we mentioned this before, but it, it'll humanize what you're doing. It'll humanize you, you know, to, to your potential, you know, potential. Clients or customers and people today want that connection. We're so we're in such a, we're in a world that's so technology focused, everybody's online, but they're still yearning for a connection.

So these, that's why this type of, uh, video or sharing or content, uh, creation is so.  Yeah, and we've talked about so many times in past episodes that one of the great things about being a small business is that you are the person behind the business. You are, you have neighbors and friends that see your face and that know about your business and that want to share your story and people want to support local businesses.

They want to support friends. So I think that figuring out how to tell stories to solve their problem with your face. And your personal, you know, experiences and other people around you is going to have such a bigger impact than, you know, Coca Cola trying to do it. Yeah. I love that, you know, and as you were talking, I was like picturing some videos in my head of stories, right.

And different types of, um, businesses that, that would be amazing in these types of story videos, like a bakery.  What got you into loving to bake? Right? Was it your grandmother? Was it your parents? Was it a good friend? Was it a mentor or something like the story behind it? And then you have to go in early in the morning if you're going to own a bakery and prepare things like the story behind you coming into your shop and preparing everything to bake and the ingredients, you know, getting dirty with the stuff.

Like that stuff, people.  Yeah. And it just, it just builds that, that it, that connection, right? So stories like that, simple things like that, just telling your, your life.  People like to hear that. Yeah, they do. They love it. And there's so many different aspects of it. You can tell the stories of your team. You can tell the stories of behind the scenes.

You can tell the stories of why you did it, of your customers. I mean, there's so many angles you can take in telling different stories throughout your business. You should never run out of content when you're doing it that way. I don't think so. Yeah. So, we've got questions coming in. I forgot about my phone.

Hey guys, the whole reason that we're doing this. Um, are you, there, Justine's in the background from our page. Are you iPhone or Samsung? And Faye says Android makes good Camera phones too. Yes, Faith, we know that you are an Android and John. My phone, my phone has amazing video and picture quality.  Justine says I acknowledge that Samsung is better after seeing that my husband's phone worked in the tornado and mine didn't.

Yeah. Good morning, Crystal. What's up, my lady? What's going on, Crystal? Yay. Yeah. All right. Cool. If you guys have any questions specifically related to our topic today, which is story story telling to sell or any other business related questions, feel free to put them in the comments. We would love to, to answer them for you.

We are live on both Facebook and Instagram  every Friday morning at 8 30. We're thinking about changing the time Thursday at 5 p. m. Not am is what we're thinking about doing. So if that would interest you, even if we're not live anymore, let us know in the comments, because we're doing it for y'all.

Exactly. Should we hear from this? Lauren? Let's go. Let's do it. Better business Bureau in the building. Woo. Hoo. Let's hear from our girl, Lauren from the BBB. 

Hi everyone. My name is Lauren Peters, director of marketing and communications at the better business Bureau serving middle Tennessee and Southern Kentucky. John Crespo, this tip is for you and your clients. I know you work with many businesses during this time of year as they prepare or you prepare their taxes.

So I just want to provide a few tips. First things first, this time of year scammers will call you saying that you owe past taxes.  If they say you owe past taxes, hang up the phone and contact the IRS directly. Go to the IRS website and make sure you use the phone number on their website to contact them.

Second thing to be aware of is pop up shops. There's so many tax preparers that are popping up this time of year. They're not vetted. Please do not use them. Stick to ones you know, stick to ones who've been in the community for a long time, and ask your friends for referrals. Have they worked with a tax preparer in the past that they trust?

So those are our tips for the week. Remember, Better Business Bureau is here to help you in any way we can. Always feel free to send us an email. By sending it to info at go BBB. org. John Crespo, we're rooting for you this time of year, and we know you're taking care of our small businesses. Everyone have a great day. 

What's up?  I love Lorna. I love her. She's got some great tips all the time. She does. And they're going to be coming to us every week with some good tips. Her and Christina. You're going to hear from Christina in a little bit.  Yeah. Okay. So let's go through some commercials. Ooh. Yeah. And then storytelling commercials, storytelling commercials that sell the product.

And then we're going to tell our story. Okay. Yeah. Does that sound good? That sounds good. All right. Um, so I can't see all the buttons over there cause I am blind without my glasses. I think we can make this happen. Okay. So this is, I got it. This is, this is a commercial. We're going to go through, we have three commercials and with like big, huge brands.

Not small businesses, but we're going to go through these and then we're going to talk about how they tell a story because I want to use these as an example, we need to apply it, right? Apply it and take it in. And so as we're going through these, y'all get out your pen and paper, not if you're driving, but take a mental note and, um, and think through how you can tell stories like this through your business.

And these are commercials. So these are short form video. This is just one way to do it. And what do you think about them? What do you think about those stories that we're about to watch? Yeah. Alright, y'all ready? Here's the first one.

Oh my gosh, that one cracks me up. Y'all remember that commercial? Yeah. That one makes me laugh so hard.  So, does question, in the comments, does that tell a story? And if so, what story does it tell? How is, how is Old Spice telling a story through video with that? I think it tells a story on the scent, the importance of a good smell.

Yeah. Right. That ladies probably want their, their men to smell and you know, men want to smell to attract their ladies. Yeah. So I could see what they're, I could see who they're, who they're targeting with that ad for sure. It makes me want to go buy some old spices and tell my wife, Hey, what do you think?

You can see diamonds in my hands with this.  One thing I see from that that I like is that Any man, like it doesn't matter if you look like him or if you're just a regular man on the street, any man can smell good with Old Spice, you don't have to be a fit man. True. Yeah. Yeah.  Okay. Does it make you want to buy Old Spice? 

I do, I do buy Old Spice. I think I started buying Old Spice after watching those commercials. They have some funny ones. I don't know if it works though, my wife doesn't uh Doesn't look at me any different. I know.  What's up babe?  So tell me, tell us in the comments, even if we're not live anymore, do you think that tells a story?

How does it tell a story? And then how can you take something similar to that and apply it to your business? So, you can see I think the problem that they're solving is smell, right? Or like not feeling loved by your, by your woman or not feeling fit and fancy like him. And so they're using the product to make them everyday man.

Yeah, it's the smell versus it all. You know, as long as you smell good, it doesn't matter what you look like. You will look. Good. Yeah. Exactly. When you smell good, you look good. Yes. Um, so, uh, Justine says there's a comment. Is it from Gail? Is that the one you're talking about? That's my mama. I love hearing personal stories from a business I visit often.

It makes me love the place more to know their background. Yes. Yeah. Yeah. Makes you want to shop there. Okay. We're going to do another commercial. You ready? If I can find the right button.

Wow. What a story. I mean, that really does a good job telling a story. It does. Yeah.  Coke and a smile. I remember those commercials back in the day. Yeah, because you're old. Yeah, I am old. Just kidding. I'm about to get older soon.  Yeah, so what did you guys think about that one? Aw, they said they can't hear it.

There's no sound. There's no sound to it? Aw, man. Well, use your imagination. That really stinks. Okay, we're gonna put links. We'll put links in the comments. Um, to these videos so that you guys can go back and watch them. We're learning. This was a I was so excited too. I was like, look at what I did,  man. Okay.

Well, we got the video part working now. Next time we'll get, you know, we'll have the sound working with it. Yeah. Yeah. Okay. So basically what that did is the, the kid will re the kid, um, was like. Saying hi to the football player and the football players like being mean walking away and the kids like hey Do you want my coke?

And he's like sure and he drinks it and then they're buddies. Yeah. Yeah, that's a good story That football players mean Joe Green He's one of the one of the great football players from back in the day and I what I got from it was  He just finished a long hard game beat up in that game probably got tackled a million times and he's injured And he's, he doesn't want to deal with anybody.

He's like, I just want, I just want to get out of here, right? Limping into the locker room and his, this little fan comes up, you know, and just persistently  wants to reach out to his favorite football player. And then, you know, they connect through Coke. Yeah.  Such a good story. Makes me want some coke.  So bad for you. 

But it makes you smile. It does. As it burns going down.  So, how, even though you guys couldn't hear the video, I'm so sorry. Again, live podcasting is so fun. Uh, what What do you think of it? Do you, how could you apply it to your business? Um, do you feel like it told a story? I think it did. I think that one more than any of the other ones.

I'm so bummed. We're not going to play the last one. The last one's my favorite.  Because, um, because the sound's not working. But, yeah, I, I, I hope that that gives you guys some, just some encouragement in using  video to tell your story. Um,  Telling your story to sell at least. And so our team is, this is one of the reasons we wanted to do.

I wanted to do this topic today is because this is what our team is working on right now.  Yeah, we have a media media is what we do and we've been really good at pictures and writing and we've kind of fallen behind when it comes to the video. And so this last week I challenged the team to think of how to create some short videos, reels, to talk.

Type videos to do what we do, but in a different way. And so we've had a lot of fun this last week, really sit down and brainstorm. And that's awesome. Yeah, that's all. I've been doing that a lot with my business too. Um, and that goes into the storytelling, right? So we're going to talk a little bit about our businesses and why we do it and a little story behind it.

Um, so I've been sharing videos. Um, a lot lately, you know, and it's just conversational tips for small business because I've come from the financial industry, right? Everybody knows that. And my, the reason why I started my business was in the financial industry. My job was to work with small businesses and find ways to get them, um, So I got to see a lot of businesses in their journeys and, you know, just seeing how  there, there wasn't an understanding of how to become fundable or how to even manage a business in general.

So, you know,  in the finance world, in banking, you're kind of like. Um, in a factory and you don't have, you can't spend a lot of time with a particular, um, business. You have to move on and, you know, continue to build that pipeline, um, so that you can sell product.  Um, but I started finding a connection with a lot of these businesses and hearing their story, hearing their stories, right, on why they started their business and the struggles that they've been going through to build their business drew me into wanting to learn more and in ways to, and find ways to help. 

So I started doing the consulting on the site because I wanted to help and eventually it just got to a point where, you know what?  If I did this full time, I can help a whole lot more people. So that's, that's like what drew me into starting my business is seeing the struggle and wanting to help and then saying, I can do this full time.

I can help more people. It wasn't, it's not about the money.  It's about being able to help as many businesses as possible be successful. Doesn't that make you want to go?  And buy services from John.  It's a true story, but it's true. You come to me and that's the kind of service you're going to get. Yeah.  So how would we make a small video from that?

Oh, let's brainstorm. You guys have ideas. How would you make a small video from that? Put that into a little short.  Oh man, a small business coming in with the hair all over the place, looking all disheveled, shakes my hand and all of a sudden the light appears and they leave there looking all dapper and ready to go.

And you guys are holding hands, like running out the door.  Wouldn't that make you want to come out and check me out?  I love that. You can do that in 20 seconds. You could. All right. Um. Uh, after when you guys are, when we're not live anymore, we want to hear some of this from you guys. So even if we're not live in here, typing in the comments and watching this, please just have some fun with us and, uh, tell us a little bit about your story for your business and see if people in the comments can help come up with a quick, funny, you know, second video.

Yeah. We've got to create some great content with that. I know. I thought we could help each other out. All right. So you want my story? Yeah, let's go in. Let's hear from Christina first. We're going to hear from Christina first, cause I don't want to forget. Cause I love Christina. She's got some really, really good tips.

She's got a good story too. Amazing story. So we're going to hear from a tip from Christina and then we'll come back and you guys will hear my story. Hopefully you can hear the sound on this. Will you guys let me know in the comments?  So we're listening to the business project, Casey and John are always delivering great business advice.

Hi there. I'm Christina Stubblefield, a digital marketing strategist and co owner of Sew In Media Group. And today I am here to share with you a business tip. Let's talk about the backbone of any thriving business, systems and processes. You've got goals and ambitions. But how do you streamline the journey from lead to loyal customer?

The answer is simple, but powerful. A business system or CRM.  I want to help you discover why a CRM isn't just a tool. It's your business's best friend. Are you ready? Here we go. All your customer information organized, accessible, and up for action. That's what a robust CRM does for you. It saves you time, time you can invest back into growing your business, or enjoying that well earned cup of coffee.

Next, let's talk about conversions. A CRM helps you nurture leads systematically, ensuring that you follow up effectively, and not just shooting in the dark. It's about making every interaction count. maybes into yeses. And when it comes to lead tracking, nothing slips through the cracks. Your CRM keeps a pulse on every prospect, reminding you of follow ups and keeping the conversation going.

No lead forgotten means more opportunities for sales. So if you're serious about scaling up, it's time to get serious about your systems. Implement a CRM and watch as your business becomes a well oiled, Lead converting machine, take control, optimize your processes, and let's turn those leads into success stories.

Your business deserves it. If you would like to connect with me, just visit my website, christinastubblefield. com 

What's up?  Isn't she awesome? She's awesome. She's awesome. We got good people. We do have good people. Yeah, we got, you know what I just noticed? So I asked Pastor Tommy to do something we haven't been able to film yet, but you're the only dude, so I'm sorry. Fellas. This is a chick world. We gotta step up.  We gotta step up.

Put the game controllers down  and let's step up. Let's get out the house. Come on. Yeah. Make some videos, guys. Get her going. My mom says my favorite lately is the Tennessee Lottery ads. I haven't seen those. I haven't seen those either. Now I'm gonna check one out. Yeah. How do they tell a story, mom?  Uh, Justine says it's a good example of using stories to continue your mission or purpose beyond just one video.

Very true. Yeah, very, very true. Alright, so y'all,  Whew, my throat is still, it's like frog, it sounds like a frog. Um,  You want to hear my story? Let's hear it. Yeah. Okay. I tell my story all the time, actually, as a business owner, I think you should know your story because that people want to know your story and you should tell it often.

It should be on your website. It should be post in your social media. You should have a video with your story because that's what makes your business very true. Yeah. So we started, I won't do the business project. I'll talk about local. specifically. So my regular business is called local in my city. And we started in Clarksville, Tennessee.

And we started because my husband moved me to Clarksville from I was my mom was in Mississippi. My dad was in California. So I went back and forth to completely different worlds. But the thing that must be in California both have in common is they have a lot of local people. And I think that's You know, they have their own feel.

They have their own vibe. If you go to Mississippi, we, I was raised like a block from the beach and there's, you know, Mardi Gras and crawfish and all the things. And then when you go to Sacramento, California, it's very local and trendy and businessy, and it just kind of has a vibe. There's local businesses everywhere.

So when my husband moved me here, I was like. I went up and down Wilmar Rudolph and I'm like, where in the world, why did you take me here? This place sucks. The chain capital of the world. Yeah.  But I figured I'm stuck here and I might as well make the best of it. And I started digging in and I realized that there are a lot of really great locally owned businesses here.

It's just that there's not really a good way to connect them with the community. They each have their own individual pages and you can drive by and see them, but there wasn't. Really one place where people were like supporting local and getting excited about local. So we decided to do that we started a Instagram and interviewed business owners and share their products and services and Apparently other people were really missing that and wanting that too because it exploded and so now we have Uh, in June, we launched a new website and a new app to take what we do here in Clarksville and make it national so that we can connect the community with the local businesses all over.

And the cool thing about this too is when you travel. So if you travel to Miami, Florida, or if you go to Texas, Austin, Texas, you can use the same app and pull up the local businesses as you travel. That's awesome. Yeah. What I love about what you guys do is it allows and it helps the small businesses. In the communities to compete with the big corporate chains, you know, because they have all these marketing dollars.

So there's videos, there's commercials, you know, they're just obviously the marketing is,  out there for them. But the small business owner doesn't have that kind of budget. Right. But so having a, a one stop shop place that you can go to and find information on all the local businesses, no matter where you're at, you know, allows them to compete with these bigger chains and help them, you know, just continue to be successful, which is, I think is amazing.

Yeah. Much needed. Much needed. So how could we take that and turn it into.  A short video or a story. Well, you just did your video you're planted into a town in the middle of nowhere And i'm like,  where do I go from here?  And then the local thing pops up you're like Oh, you go on your phone. You're like, look at all this stuff.

And then you know where to go. And then I find John and he, it's like, whoa,  and then we get to skip down the road together.  See, we just made some amazing, those would be funny videos. They would be funny. I think we compete with the. Old Spice one. I think so. Yeah.  Yes. I think so too. If you guys missed the audio and the audio wasn't working, go back and watch that Old Spice video.

We'll put it in the comments.  Um, okay. Well, that was fun. That's fun. Yeah. Do we have anything else? No. I think we're good. It was good. Tell your story. Don't be afraid to tell your story. Yeah. And you can tell it in chapters. You can tell it in multiple videos. You can do different parts. Like part one, part two, like intro, you know, the beginning, the middle, the end, you can do all kinds of stuff, but don't be afraid to just play around with it.

Share your story. People want to hear it. I think the ultimate advice that I want to leave you with is take time to do it. Because it's not just going to happen naturally. You have to put time aside. Say, hey, an hour a week, I'm just going to sit with a pen and a pencil or a keyboard. And an empty notepad and just brainstorm stories.

What are some things that happened in my business last week? What are, why did I start this? What are some testimonials that I got? And just start there and just jot them down. You don't have to use all of the ideas that come to your head, but you're going to find one or two that sparks it, that gets you excited and you get an idea and then you can run with it.

Love it. Good stuff. Yeah. Hope that helps. Hope that helps. Share your stories. All right. Thank you guys. We are popping out of here, but we want to hear from you afterwards. So if you're listening to this on Spotify or Apple Podcast or iHeartRadio or any of those places, we, we want to hear. From you and like, share, get it out to the masses.

You know, um, this is a conversation that a lot of, um, business owners and people alike just should be part of,  let's share it out, let's share it. And if you have any questions, put them in the comments because we can answer them next Friday at eight 30. See you.