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Stories are one of the oldest forms of learning – it’s how people used to pass down knowledge from one generation to the next. And they’re still incredibly important today for a few reasons. They help people remember information, they help people connect to the information, and they help people make decisions based on that information.

That’s why we’ve asked Jenny Midgley to come talk to us about how to use stories in your business the RIGHT way – to connect, engage, convert and build a real relationship with your audience.

Listen to Jenny’s previous episode: Episode 31 – Intro into brand-building headshots and why you need them with Jenny Midgley
The Storyteller’s Secret by Carmine Gallo

Want to increase your leads, subscribers, and SALES without banging your head against a wall? Stories + Strategy is an online course designed to help you do
exactly this. Get more info here.

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Alyson Lex 0:02
Okay, so I am going to English major nerd at you for a second, because we're going to be talking about stories. And the oral tradition or the telling of stories is 1000s and 1000s of years old. And actually stories is how people used to learn. That's why you have things like myths, and all of those things, that that's how people actually pass knowledge down from one person to another throughout generations. I'm telling you this, because stories are still that important. Even though we have the written word. Even though that written word has gone from books, to online, and all of these different kinds of communication. Stories are still important. They stick in people's brains, they help people grasp complex concepts. And they help them get to know you, and want to buy from you. And so that's why we brought back digital content specialist, Jenny Midgley,

we are going to talk all about storytelling for your business, Jenny, thanks for coming back with us.

Jenny Midgley 1:09
Oh, I'm so happy to be back. I love hanging out with you guys. You have so much longer on show.

Jennie Wright 1:15
We are that fun, which is great. I'm glad you're here. And you've got you've actually got two English majors who are Geeking. Because we both love storytelling. I admittedly am not a good storyteller. I'm the person who starts the story goes about three quarters of the way through that goes, Oh, crap, I forgot to tell you something earlier, that's really important. And then I make you go back, and I tell you that, and then I hinted the ending, and then I go back again. And then the ending is a complete denouement. Like it's like, you're just like, really, that that that was the end. And it's, it's brutal, like do not get me to tell a funny story in a family situation, because everybody's just like, wah, wah, I don't do it.

Unknown Speaker 1:54
It's not a good thing.

Jennie Wright 1:56
But I'm learning. Because storytelling is the way that we obviously, it's a great way to communicate. And we want to hear from you on how this can translate into helping our businesses. So what do we do with storytelling? How is this going to help?

Jenny Midgley 2:11
So that's a very, like, I feel like that's a loaded question. I'm gonna, you know, I could go on and on and on and on, right, and just, you know, share all the examples, right. So that's really at the end of the day, what storytelling is, it's a, it's an example that creates a relationship. It's making something relatable. So when you're talking about whether it's a picture, a video, a graphic, a meme, a GIF, copy, right, like the words of a book, whatever it is, it's making something relatable in a way that creates an emotional connection with your audience, when we're talking in business terms, right, so like, you know, I'm a, I'm, I was an English major for like a hot minute. But because I changed my major, like, five different times in college, I'm in the process of trying not to flunk out. Like, that was really my, my goal was not to fail out of college. I came very, very close, however, but I didn't. So part of that is figuring out when you're talking in the marketing world, there's a lot of language, there's a lot of neuroscience and psychology that goes behind why we use the words that we do, right? And why we create segments the way we do, right? When you're doing video, think about a TV show that you're watching, when you're doing it, like there will be a break in the segment every four to six minutes to a new segment. That's why, you know, when somebody says, you know, when you listen to an older woman, who is saying, Hi, I'm washing my I'm watching my stories, right? It was literally like how I mean, there's a reason that days of our lives and all my children and all those have gone on forever and ever and ever. right because it's just one continuous ongoing story in four to six minutes segments.

Jennie Wright 4:16
Oh, yeah. And it's also the way that I think we all grew up when we were sick with a cold with our chicken soup. We all watched

Jenny Midgley 4:23
and the price is right. The price Oh, prices right.

Alyson Lex 4:27
Stories. Yep. Maury Povich. Ricki Lake,

Jenny Midgley 4:34
I remember Maury back before more. He was like Maury, right? Like he was a guest on other people's their Springer. Yeah.

Alyson Lex 4:42
Yeah. Maury was Maury and not

Jenny Midgley 4:45
want to be heard was Donahue. Right.

Jennie Wright 4:48
And Donahue was a great storyteller. Yes.

Jenny Midgley 4:51
Yep. Phil Donahue was a great storyteller. You know, I think that there's something to be said when you there's a really great book by a guy named Mine Gallo called the storyteller secret. And I, it's one of those books that like I got it from the library. And then I also downloaded it on my Audible, because and he also wrote another book called talk like Ted, which is like how to how to do TED Talks. And if you look at those, like the way that those stories are told, right, it's it's short format. It's a and it's about, again, engaging people with kyndra Hall is another great storytelling educator, like on how to tell stories. It's it's creating that hook and that excitement and that engagement in a really quick way, so that you are captivating your audience. And there's a way to do that in your digital marketing. Right? So we're bringing it back to business. So there's like, for every piece of content you create, you have to be asking yourself, why are you doing this? For what purpose? And if the answer is because you think it's a cool idea, stop.

Jennie Wright 6:01
Oh, can we say that one again, please.

Jenny Midgley 6:05
Pull in the back. If you are creating content to satisfy your own wishes, desires and dreams, stop it. Unless it is in alignment with your ideal clients, desires, wishes and dreams? Right, right. Those things match up. You have have at it. If those things don't add up, it's incongruous, and it is going to repel your ideal clients. So if you are,

Jennie Wright 6:40
give us an example of this, because this would be really good. Yeah,

Jenny Midgley 6:43
yes. So if you are some if you're selling cars, right, if you're a car salesman, and in your marketing, you talk about how you, you know, you talk about things like car maintenance, and different avenues for financing, and, you know, trips, road trips that you can take, and all of those things that is in alignment with the subject matter that your clients are going to want to know about, right? Like, because it's not just about buying a car, it's about what they're going to do with the car. Right. But if you're a car salesman, and you're talking about your jeans, and you're talking about, you know, the the the kitchen remodel that you're doing, if you're talking about, you know, how, like you you prefer, I don't know, gel pens, over ink pens, it's in Congress, nobody gives a shit, right? Like your, your people who are buying cars don't care what kind of pen you use. They care about learning who you are, which you are able to share with them through even little anecdotal stories, right? Like you can tell about a time when you got, you know, you went for an oil change, and the customer service was terrible. So that you can then highlight in a series of other content, how the oil change experiences might be different. At your, at your shop. Right? Like you can talk about a lot of different avenues that that are may seem unrelated to car sales, but they're so related to your audience.

Alyson Lex 8:43
And that is where my next question was going to come in. Because I noticed earlier, the three of us really connected over sick days. Right? The prices, right, watching the stories talking about the talk show hosts. And that's a connection that we can make very easily with our audience, if they're around our age, if they've had that same experience in our same country or what have you. And so if we can figure out a way to relate that back to our business, can we use those unrelated stories? Like Yes, a car salesman getting an oil change is very closely related. But what if I have nothing to do with the prices right? Or story? You know,

Jenny Midgley 9:18
soap operas?

Alyson Lex 9:19
In my business? Can I use unrelated stories?

Jenny Midgley 9:22
Yes or no? So the answer is, there's like, you can talk we can talk about sick days and have completely unrelated experiences, and still share. Right? So the experience isn't the prices right? Or the stories or like, you know, I like I very clearly remember my mom putting books on tape for me when I was sick when I was really really like, that's how I listened to the Hobbit and that's how I listened to some and I very clearly if I if I think hard enough I can remember the sound Right, I can remember what Frodo sounded like on the and and Bilbo Baggins is that like, okay, so like, I mean, I'm reaching into the recesses of my mind of like 40 years 30 years ago. But but that's right. So like, I may not have the experience of having watched the stories, right, my mom watch talk shows, so, or I'm in it, but I'm still going to have some memory that's going to pop up when you talk about being a child and being sick. And what it was like to be cared for, and what that experience was like. So you may be able to say, like, that's it. So this is where and it's so important when you're trying to grow an audience, that engagement piece comes in. So you can talk about things that are unrelated or may seem unrelated. But at the end of the day, if you can ask people what their experience was like, and ask for engagement, and ask for the people want to tell you what their opinion is, right? Like they want to share, at the core of it, social media is social. So if you're talking about a blog post, that then you're sharing in your email campaign, or you're sharing, and you're on your social media asking that question of like, hey, this got me thinking about blah, blah, blah, what was your experience with blah, blah, blah, and then people will share. So it's a way to bridge that gap of not having shared history, not having shared experiences, but still making things relatable.

Alyson Lex 11:35
So I just want to kind of move over to you mentioned, you know, asking for engagement, and it's okay to be unrelated. I've seen kind of a wave of those pictures of coffee, you know, I'm a nine F, like, Is that the kind of stuff? It's like, you know, how, how much creamer? Do you put in your coffee? And it's a grid and the nine F and you give your number and

Jenny Midgley 12:02
so on? But sure, or how? Or like, what's your

Alyson Lex 12:09
Yeah,

Jenny Midgley 12:09
what's your end people are like, What the hell's of immigrant like,

Alyson Lex 12:12
I mean, I definitely should be sharing.

Jenny Midgley 12:16
So it has to be a mix. So you have to share, like, again, like, let's take social media, for example, social media is social, you have to share who you are. You cannot expect to post all business all the time and have people follow you. It's not gonna happen. And I know it doesn't happen, because I have clients. Right? It's a, I post three times a day, and nobody engages with my stuff. And I go and look at their things. And I'm like, do you want the real truth? Or do you want me to tell you something that you want to hear? Right? Like, because you know, they're, they're frustrated? So going at them and saying, I appreciate your effort. That definitely gets an A, but your content gets an F is not always well received?

Jennie Wright 13:13
No, no, it's not. Sometimes it hurts to be honest. It.

Jenny Midgley 13:18
So one of the things that, that because what it comes down to is for every three to four, or for every business post you want to do, you want to have three to four lifestyle posts. And those posts can be and that's that also, in email marketing, same principle applies in your website content, same principle applies. People want to buy goods and services from those they know, like and trust. You build those know, like, and trust factors by showing people who you are. And when somebody shows you who they are, believe them. Right? Like you it doesn't have to be. It doesn't have to be something that is fake either. Right? So you can be unequivocably you, and and unapologetic about it. And, you know, it should be. And I hesitate to use the word should because I just don't like that word and as a general rule, but it should be that you're the same person online as you are like in the digital space as you are in real life. Right? Like, so if somebody were to meet you in real life, they would be like, Oh, that's Congress. I yes. That is the same person who I've gotten to know.

Jennie Wright 14:42
I'd love to dive in on that a little bit if we can. Yeah. Because I haven't. I mean, my experience and I think Allison's experiences too because she's just copywriting like crazy, is that when there's a brand new person and you're brand new online, you almost have not for everybody, but There's almost this dual personality, it's the person I think I have to be when I'm in the online space or on social media, what I expect people to see, hear or understand about me. And then there's the real life stuff, right. And although we've seen a real merger happening of the two, in more recent times, we still have those real lacquered looking, you know, pieces. And I think that that creates that, that lack of conformity, and I call it whiplash. Because if anybody was to meet you in person, and they're like, Okay, wait a second, the person I got used to on Instagram, or Facebook is a completely different person and you standing in front of me, or not even remotely close to that, then they're going to have a real tough time. Sort of marrying the two, right? No, that doesn't mean always show up in your messy bun without makeup on. Unless that's your brand. And you're cool with it, which you should be because it's cool. Says the person who shows up 90% of the time without makeup, I'm feeling personally attacked about this. I love your bond. You look adorable. Just saying,

Jenny Midgley 16:10
Yeah, no, this is like day six hair. I'm just letting you know, this, I got my hair done on Friday. So like, it's that I haven't, I literally am not going to wash it for a week because of the color. Right? So like, that's nice. Yeah, that is a woman thing. Like, you want to make sure that, you know, I showed up and it was nice and dirty when I got a color. And I'm gonna make sure it gets nice and dirty before I colored before I wash it. So basically, I like I see that all the time. Right, that people are like, Well, you know, they're very concerned about privacy. And that also leads into what I spend a lot of time talking about, which is imposter syndrome. I spend a lot of time working through imposter syndrome with my clients. So one of the things that we talk about is how to be personal with out betraying what you want to keep private. Right? It doesn't, they like you can maintain your privacy and have an online persona that is authentic and real. And you. So and it's about being intentional and strategic. Think about all of the things that you can talk about that don't invade your personal life, right? Like my husband has said over and over again, if it weren't for the fact that I post stuff and tagged him, he would never have Facebook. Right? Like, he has no need for it. Because he, like he, you know, uses it sometimes to engage with people that he knew, like, whenever, but he's mostly on Twitter. So like, cool. But it's because I have this online persona, that surprise, I'm the same in real life. There's I unabashedly the same in real life. But he doesn't, right? Like he doesn't see the need for it. But he's also not building a business in that space. Right? So we talk about, like, how can you be relatable? And one of the and how can you tell your story in a way that you're able to respect your partner's privacy? Should they want to, unlike my husband, would like to have some privacy? He's accepted? Like, sometimes he's like, do you have to, like, Yes, I do. Just let me do my thing. But I'm also like, you know, there are certain things where he's like, you cannot like, please don't share this, and I won't, right. I don't put anything out there that I don't want you to know about that. I don't want you to see, my kids have their own hashtags. Every profile I have is public. You can go find me anywhere. It's cool. Be my friend. You know, follow me whatever I have, you know, but you don't have to get too personal to create a personal profile online that's out of alignment with who you are as a person. Right?

Alyson Lex 19:17
I read somewhere, I don't know, I've had this in my head for years that you have three personas. You have your public persona, you have your personal persona, and you have your private persona. And so public is the public, right? This is personal and public are starting to kind of merge together. But if we think about public being business and personal being my personal life, private is the off limits stuff. And so that's kind of how I operate. My Facebook profile is locked down a little bit But I do make stuff public. So I have the stuff that anybody can see the stuff that my friends can see. And I'm, you know, I'm very accepting of friends, it just, there's another, there's a little barrier, and then I have stuff that does not see the light of day. And that is, you know, stuff that is between me and my husband or in my own brain or whatever. Right? Because that's private. And so I really like the idea of, of breaking it down that way. What am I okay with the world seeing what am I okay, with certain people seeing? And what am I okay, with nobody seeing?

Unknown Speaker 20:38
I want to bring Sorry, go ahead.

Alyson Lex 20:39
Yeah, I was gonna say and then filing your stories and your shares into that. But just making sure that they, they build that connection, because I like, you know, I try to play up the cap thing, crazy cat lady, because it gives me something that people can relate to, if they're animal lovers. They're my kind of people like that sort of thing. And we can all relate to some of the high jinks that maybe pets have gotten into over the years. Yeah, those sorts of things. That's totally public for me. Mm hmm.

Jenny Midgley 21:17
Yeah. So I mean, I think that it comes down to like so one of the things that I do with all of my digital content clients is we start with who you are, like, that's we start at, like, we started goals, really. But then the next level is like, helping you to kind of grow out of that mindset, where everything is either lockdown or public, right? That there's there's a gray area that you can go into. So one of the examples I use as like, you know, crafting the story of like, I'm going to tell you a secret. I don't like pickles. My husband loves pickles. And you know, it's a it's a constant. You know, what a battle in our house over the pickles, whatever, you know, and then you know, you can then ask the question, what you know, do you like pickles? Like full transparency I do enjoy pickles. But I only like the bread and butter pickles and I like like they're really good dill pickles not the you know crappy like software. I don't like the gherkins. I don't like it. But you know what I mean? Like, that's a conversation that I can have. That is both relatable shares a personal side of me. And is also speaks to, like, my ridiculousness, right? Like who's gonna talk about pickles? I am, that's, you know, people are gonna expect me to talk about whatever. So, you know, another one of the examples is like, if you, you know, hey, it's, you know, I'm planning my reading list for 2021. What are the must read books? I like, you know, mysteries and thrillers. Using the words, I mean, my we, our us make something personal. So there are six words that you can then infuse into stories, share a bit of your truth of who you are. And it's not out of alignment, it's not going to make you feel achy, it's not going to be selling, it's not going to it's just engaging in a conversation. Because that's what stories are right?

Alyson Lex 23:37
What about telling stories about someone else, like testimonials and case studies, and those sorts of things that we can then use to support your promotion? How do you do that, right?

Jenny Midgley 23:49
So I have, I turn them into graphics, and post them like I just copy and paste, turn them into graphics, I have the benefit of taking of having taken a lot of their photos, so I don't have to go grab photos from people. I have the benefit that like I may or may not have, you know, snap them at one point. But yeah, tournament a graphics tournament to make sure that they're there, front and center on your website, if you don't have a photo of the person asked, right? Because again, that that ties in to that relatability. So you're actually creating a cohesive story by showing a face and their words together in a way that stands out. And then it reflects, it's not even so much about them. It's that so if you have a potential client who looks like that client, they in their head, they don't even know they're doing it. And this is where the neuroscience comes in with marketing. Like they don't even know that these these neurons are firing. They're like oh, That person looks like me. They had this experience, I might have that experience too. I'm going to look deeper.

Jennie Wright 25:10
All right, this is really cool stuff. My brain is going insane right now. Because I'm a total cogs and wheels person, right? You know that I'm process. I am like I'm driven that way. So for me, it's been a real struggle to do the storytelling. Because I find that the storytelling can sometimes come off as just very fluffy like to me, I would not post a post about pickles. Like that would drive me insane, right. It's just not my thing. It's not my, it's just not my persona. But what I want to talk about. And I really want to get specific, and I really want to get process driven for a second. Because I know there's listeners who are like me. And I want to talk about how we use storytelling, to sell a program, product or service. Alright, so I want to tie it like, let's just say I'm going to, I'm going to give you very specifics. And I'd love like an example. So I'm going to launch a eight week course. And the eight week course is all about how to how to create really good organic, let's just say, whatever, I don't care, but a six week course, how do I use storytelling as part of my lead up to my promotion? Or even during my promotion? to sell this program? What do you use? How do you make it not sound fluffy? Because I'm sure as heck not going to post about pickles. Right? So what do I do?

Jenny Midgley 26:32
All right, so I totally hear you. And because I have I mean, one of the the examples that I use frequently also is also food related. Because I have a friend who's also a client who's like, why is it that what I post about fricking ice cream, I get 30 comments, but when I'm talking about life insurance, because she's insurance agent, and literally, I've never met anyone more passionate about life insurance, and this woman ever, okay? She's like, but like, I'm telling them things that can literally save their lives. And, like, make things easier for their families, and they don't care. And I'm like, that's because they just want to talk to you about ice cream. Like they don't give it you know, they're processing, they're holding on to that information, right? And they know that you like, but you're not your visibility. So there's a difference between talking about pickles for the sake of talking about pickles, and talking about pickles and ice cream for the sake of increasing your visibility. Because at the end of the day, it's about those algorithms, right? So if you're going to sell a course on origami, you have to ask yourself, like, let's say your launch is six weeks down the line? Do you have an audience on the platform for which you're selling your origami course? That is going to buy your course? If the answer is no, you don't have an audience, then hell yeah, you're posting about pickles. Because you have to build the visibility. So on Facebook, it's three to five times a day plus stories. Stories can be part like you can do similar posts to stories and and and the actual post content, Instagram a couple times a day plus stories. Are you on tik tok? Is that where you're going to be set? Like, you have to look at three things, you have to look at where your target audiences, you have to look at how you're reaching them, like if you're on the right platform to reach them. And you have to look at how are you increasing your visibility? Right. So and I mean, the example that I frequently use is if your target market is 75 year old women, why are you promoting your stuff on Instagram? Because they're on Facebook? They're not on Instagram. And they're on Google. And they're on emails, and they're typing in addresses in the Google search bar. No offense mom. Right, you say go to the address bar and they go to the Google search bar, right? Like that's what they do.

Unknown Speaker 29:07
So

Jenny Midgley 29:09
you have to really be specific about who it is that you're trying to reach. So knowing who your target audience is is number one. Yeah, knowing how to reach them and what platforms they're on is number two, and making sure that you're increasing your visibility so that they see your stuff. Good is number three. Right? I like it

Jennie Wright 29:28
I'm you've satisfied the process nerd in my head a little bit because I just went down about six different rabbit holes as you were saying that thinking okay, so I need a spreadsheet now and you know if I'm going to post three to five times a day I'm I know like sheets, the Allison's like spreadsheets. Did you say spreadsheet sheets

Jenny Midgley 29:45
and love that there are people like all in the world that love this stuff? Because it is so not me.

Jennie Wright 29:50
It is so us, Alison and I make spreadsheets to make to talk about spreadsheets. We have a spreadsheet for a spreadsheet. It's like the key to the other screen. It's,

Jenny Midgley 30:01
it's kind of hide a little bit inside here.

Jennie Wright 30:05
Yeah, but we're the people. We're the people that will actually, you know,

Jenny Midgley 30:09
we need people like you, right? You need people like us. You need people like me whose desk is littered with sticky notes. Yeah. And then I need people like you who keep things organized and sit in spreadsheets. Yeah,

Alyson Lex 30:21
I'm a really good blend of both. I've got the sticky notes. And pardon me, I've got the sticky notes, and the spreadsheets nice.

Jennie Wright 30:30
She does 1010 can confirm this has been this has been awesome. I love talking about storytelling, because I'm a terrible storyteller in in rehab. I'm getting a lot better at it. I've had to get better at it over the eight plus years in the online world. But I'm still the worst joke teller ever. Unless it's written, and it's a Knock knock. I ain't doing it.

Unknown Speaker 30:51
Just because I just can't. She's pretty bad.

Jenny Midgley 30:53
So there's something to be said like, there. That is a learned skill, right? Like, not everyone can just like come out with the funny like, whatever, right? Like, it's not. And there are people who don't even know that they're funny. And then they say things like, and then like, you're literally dying, laughing. We were recording a podcast and Joe and Sarah, my producer and my co hosts literally backed away from the table, because they were laughing so hard. And the guest Also, my father didn't know that he was being that funny. Right? But they're just people that you enjoy listening to. Right? I mean, these comedians, right, like think about it, like, do you I mean, especially stand up. They are practicing that for hours. They go into like, first they go into the improv dive, you know, the improv nights and then open mic nights and they test out material and then they go and so it's like, all of that stuff. Like what I'm hearing from you, Jenny is more about like your strength is copy editing, rather than the copywriting.

Unknown Speaker 32:04
So

Jennie Wright 32:05
yeah, I've done some copywriting. But I am not nearly as good. I can get you there. But the weird thing is, this is the bizarre thing. When it comes to connecting with my audience, my email list, I tell stories. And Alyson knows this Allison when she like Alison's written for me for my email list, and she's like, directly to the point, hey, I'm doing a class want to come? Thanks. Here's the link. And my audience does not. They don't convert with that. My audience wants the Hey, you know, who could fan

Alyson Lex 32:36
last week? All about her day? Yep. And she's got a meander to the point. Yep. And I'm like, okay,

Jennie Wright 32:45
yeah. So although I'm not the best copywriter I am. When it's when it comes to written, I can definitely do it. When it comes to a Facebook Live telling a story is challenging to me. If I have an audience, it can be challenging, unless I've practiced it like the stand up comedian that you're talking about. I can be incredibly funny. I've had people rolling on the floor laughing and stuff like that. But it's only when it's self deprecating to myself like to something that I've done. And then it's really funny, because I can I can self deprecate like nobody else and make it pretty hilarious. But the point being that, I think you've, you've read it really correctly, it's not my superpower.

Jenny Midgley 33:22
But

Jennie Wright 33:24
I've had to adjust like, honestly, past Jenny eight years ago, Jenny was like, nobody needs to know. bleep about me. Right? It's about the job. Nobody needs to know anything about my life. They have to hire me for my qualities and my thing, and I did it at it. And then, you know, social Yeah. And you're you're like, if

Unknown Speaker 33:43
nobody can see you, but you're like, Really?

Unknown Speaker 33:45
But that's the truth.

Jenny Midgley 33:48
Is it But no, I mean, and I say that all the time. If somebody had told me 20 years ago, that I would have a, like a highly successful Podcast, where I get to interview like, not small time people, right? Like, I actually, I was doing our social posts for our episode yesterday. And I went on our guest Instagram, and I was like, holy shit, she has 32,000 followers on Instagram. Like, I had no awareness. Like, I followed her for years. I know, she's an influencer. But like, there was no awareness in my brain that like, we actually, you know, pulled in a bigger fish, right? Like, I just thought it was a cool story. Right? If you had told me even 10 years ago, that I would be sitting here having a business where I help other people tell their story. And that I have my own podcast and that I without anxiety walk into a room full of people and go talk. Are you fucking get no way Jedi 10 years ago would have been like your Looney Tunes. Yep. Right. How heavily medicated Am I when I'm doing that? Right like, now it's it's when you own Like so there's a really great, I just saw this on LinkedIn the other day. And if you don't follow up Rene brown on LinkedIn, I highly recommend it. But like she said, she posted one of those like graphic text things. And it was like caution if you trade in your authenticity for being liked, you may experience the following anxiety, depression, addiction, rage, blame, resentment and inexplicable, inexplicable grief. And the copy for that post was, maybe humans should come with warning labels.

Jennie Wright 35:32
I love up and I do follow her. I think she's fantastic.

Jenny Midgley 35:36
So it's 100% accurate, when you are not being when you are not showing your authentic self, it feels icky. Which is why people who are not sales people feel icky about selling.

Jennie Wright 35:56
until you realize that selling has nothing to do with sales and everything to do with listening and creating a relationship. And nothing to do with really like Hawking your wares. I do calls this and this is a really interesting segue. And then we're gonna wrap this up. But I do calls with people all the time. So does Allison. And we never sell. We don't we literally don't sell we don't go. So hey, Jenny, it's great to talk to you. By the way, we think that you should purchase our ABC XYZ for X dollars, we will literally have a conversation with people and at the end, we're just like, So is there anything else you want to ask us? Anything we can do? And people's like? How do I work with you?

Jenny Midgley 36:39
Yeah. Like I am, right? The same way? Yes. No, like, people approached me and they're like, Hey, I heard you have a course. Or someone says that I need to talk to you. Yeah, or I saw your Facebook Live. And I'm really interested intrigued by what you have to offer.

Unknown Speaker 36:52
When that happens.

Jennie Wright 36:56
You're not you're not selling, you're not selling anymore. And, and that's where I think some of the power of storytelling comes in. When you allow people to see your authentic self. When you allow people to connect with you. You allow people to understand who you are, then I think people start relating to you, like Alison uses the crazy cat lady, but she also talks about the fact that her son is high energy or, you know, post pictures with him and stuff like that, because honestly, he's adorable. You have your daughter and her male, right, going to the mailbox that like went viral, right? Because that was a thing. And you know, and that's a real quality of, of who you are, you know, in life and stuff like that. Those kinds of things do matter. And I think storytelling,

Jenny Midgley 37:37
it's like kids actually have names. Because they've been hashtagged for

Jennie Wright 37:42
forever. That's how I knew. That's the only way I knew their names for a long time. And I learned your son's hash tag before I learned your daughter's now. I don't see your son online as much. But I think he's he's kind of getting older. And he's like,

Jenny Midgley 37:53
Yeah, he doesn't say so. Well, you know, and he's usually out fishing. He rides his bike to the pond, and he's never there. He goes fishing. And he comes home. There's a story there. You know. But you know what it is, though, too. It's so funny because I you know, I'm not one because of the way that I grow my business. You know, people ask me Does it work and I direct them to the accounts where they were, my process works. I don't necessarily talk to them about my own. I'm like, you can look at my stuff. But that's not how I grow my business. I grow my business relationally. And people confirm what they know about me by finding me on the social media channels. Right? They may get a snippet and then but my business I mean, if I practice what I preach, I probably would be scaling to the point that I can't handle. Right? So I do it strategically, originally.

Alyson Lex 38:54
And that was the is this sounds all a little intimidating and overwhelming. Yes, it does. You want me to have four to five personal posts plus my business pose plus actually do my thing plus, like, Huh, huh. So how I mean, I know we're going to wrap up in a minute, but can you give me like an overview of how the heck I can manage some of this?

Jenny Midgley 39:18
Yeah. So again, it goes back to Who are you talking to? Where are they? And that will dictate what you need to put out there. And then you start it in manageable pieces. And then once you start with getting control of one platform of like the most ideal platform where your people are, then once you have that down and systematized and automated you can move on to the next thing batch content, y'all. batch content is your friend. Oh, you him Yeah, create batch content in a way that is still authentic, and is still you and you can still talk about tacos. Today and create batch content, right? Like there's no, like it's not inauthentic, right? To create batch content, it's still you. But it's again, being strategic and intentional with your time people ask, like, I get asked at least once a week, I see you everywhere, like, do you sleep? And I'm like, I do I actually read, I go out with my girlfriends, I, you know, spend time with my family, I waste away hours, you know, binge watching, whatever, sometimes, because sometimes I just need a break. And the reason is, because I time blocked my schedule. I manage because I time block. And if that block isn't filled by appointments, if it's not filled by whatever, like, okay, I do something else, right? Like I don't. It's about being intentional and strategic, and using the time that you have in the most effective way. So you get the best ROI. Right. So, yeah,

Jennie Wright 41:05
I got a I got an in being intentional and strategic is, you know, really watching your time, and what you're doing and stuff, which I totally agree with, as soon as, like, there's two ways of doing this, you can either be in business, or you can play it being in business. And if you want to play it being in business, then you're going to find it really hard to finish all this stuff. And if you want to be in business, then you're going to schedule it. You know, this is not, we really got to look at these things is the fact that you were the CEO, he believed that he believed to have your business. And you have to run it as such, right. And so that becomes like, we've got to schedule this out, we got to, you know, you know, buy new tools. Are you going to use Asana? Are you going to use Trello? Or like, how are you going to create your content boards? What are you going to do, right? And there's, there's, we didn't really we talked more about the the mentality of it, and the feeling of it, and how to sort of wrap our heads around it today, we didn't really get into the like, I create a Trello board. And every Monday at nine o'clock, I feel my Trello board for the week, and I have a

Unknown Speaker 42:04
search for that. Right?

Jennie Wright 42:06
I have a course for that. And that leads me to my next question, which is where can people find Jenny mentally? And how can they connect with you? Because if there's a course for that, where do they find it?

Jenny Midgley 42:16
Yeah. So I do I teach a course called stories and strategy. And it's, it's really like, it starts with a bit. And I also it's one on one program, but I converted it into an online course as well. And, you know, you can find me on any social media platform, it's just getting naturally. And, you know, I have a link tree, that strangely I have,

Jennie Wright 42:41
as Jenny study, eventually, it's Jenny, spelled differently for me looks like yeah, Jenny with a Y, mid g. LEY. Right. So go and check that out at midnight calm and the Facebook group called content and strategy.

Jenny Midgley 42:57
You can just Facebook slash groups, content and strategy. Like it's really awesome. But that's where, you know, we really dig deep into like, what like, first of all proving to yourself that you have stories to share, because that's the biggest hurdle. Once you understand that you have stories to share, right? Whether it be through photos, which we do, we do talk about how to capture those stories. And if you want a really good example of somebody who have a client of mine that does a fantastic job of infusing both the personal selfies, all the personal photos with professional, go on Instagram to Jamie cells rally. And you will see because I grant editing rights with all of my packages, because my clients need to be able to make it look on brand for them. And literally it's seamless, right? Like you can I mean, you can tell which ones are the professional ones, but gotcha, yep, you put the same filters on all of them. Right? Right. So but it's a really great example of somebody who understands how sharing all of those bits of her life, like that's how she grew her business before it was cool to grow your business on social media. She moved to a new location and is literally like within months was in the top 20 of realtors on social media in North Carolina.

Unknown Speaker 44:30
Within months,

Unknown Speaker 44:31
yeah, that's a sign

Jenny Midgley 44:32
print results, right? Because she she gets it. Right. So it's about using the stories to tell the picture, using the pictures, tell a story using a copy to also show that story and asking for engagement and ask people questions. Yes, I want to share with you their opinion. Thank you.

Jennie Wright 44:51
Thank you, Jenny eventually for coming back. I this is our second time having you back on System to THRIVE. And there was obviously a reason

Alyson Lex 44:59
why we want have you back?

Yes. Thank you so much for coming back and joining us.

Jenny Midgley 45:04
Oh, I'm so thrilled to be here. Y'all know, anytime love hanging out with you. Yeah, we should do like a sub special of like, just like email and copy and photos and do like a sub series. Oh, I

Jennie Wright 45:19
would totally, absolutely do that. Because I keep you keep talking, you know, the couple things that you said today really resonated, which is post, you know, post more often things like that. But my see my quandary My issue is, What image do I put with it? Because I am not a I don't take selfies. I don't you know what I mean? So I have all this great content that I would post but I have no image to go with it. So I ended up getting something and figuring it out. But it would be helpful. This is why I need to have and like our last conversation. This is why I need to have those lifestyle shots done. And how you help people actually do that as well. So if you haven't listened to that episode, I believe it's Episode 31. If I'm correct, and so people should go and check that out. So you can actually is it 30? Yeah, it's Episode 31. So Episode 31 is where Jennie actually talks about into brand building and headshots and why you need them. So go and check that episode out if you haven't already. And if you haven't yet, please do subscribe to the podcast, we would love to have you not miss an episode. Mondays, we do really great quick tips. We'll drop those every single Monday. And then on Wednesdays, we usually your Tuesday. Sometimes we drop some extra bonus episodes with some really cool experts. And then we drop our regular Thursday episodes every single week. So please do check those out and subscribe. So we've got you, you know, and you don't miss a thing, which would be great. Thank you so much for being here, Jenny.

Unknown Speaker 46:41
We had a really great time to see you. Yeah,

Alyson Lex 46:44
thank you. Well,

Jennie Wright 46:44
we appreciate you. And we really appreciate it very much that you're here. Please go check it out at Jennie midgley.com. Thanks so much for listening. And we'll be back again very soon. Answering another big question.