Category: business storytelling

When you’re building a business, it’s easy to get caught up in the constant stream of new tactics and hyped up things in your newsfeed. Sometimes it’s hard to figure out who’s legit and who’s just full of hot air.

Which is why I’m a superfan of business books. To actually get a book deal, the idea needs to be proven and the writer needs to be a real, credible expert with an established platform.  And if it’s like the self-published books on this list, they’re scrappy books that are built on a proven process.

A business book is the most affordable training you’ll ever have – think of it as your Amazon MBA. So before you invest in another course or sign up for another freebie, check out these 13 must-read books for female entrepreneurs and freelancers:

Conquer Kit

Natalie’s just-released book tops the list. This is a business planning book unlike no other. It merges soul with selling and finance while encouraging you to play. My favorite part of this book is that it’s designed to be written in and provides you with practical exercises to dream and scheme your way to big things.

Rework

This is a classic from the creators of Basecamp. The book focuses on creating a simple approach to your business. It features short chapters and is an easy read that you’ll find yourself coming back to again and again.

Value Proposition Design

Don’t let the name of this book fool you. It’s actually kinda awesome! If you want to learn how to create products and services that customers want, this book is for you. Instead of putting your idea out on the market and hoping someone buys it, this book walks you through the process of research, testing and validating your idea so you know when you have a winner, and when you should walk away.

Influence

Running a business all boils down to one critical skill, persuasion. This book shares the core tenets of persuasion and the science to back it up, which will help you write and communicate better on a day-to-day basis. Consider yourself warned, once you learn the psychology of persuasion you may never look at marketing the same again.

First Break All the Rules

Released back in 1999, this book based on Gallup research is still incredibly relevant. (And fun fact, it was one of the first business books I ever read!) It looks at how the world’s best managers throw the rulebook out the window and manage to everyone’s strengths. Even if you have only one person on your team, this is guaranteed to change how you manage and think about skills development for yourself.

Everybody Writes

If you’re looking for a writing bible, this is it.  It’s my most favorite book on writing for the web. It’s packed full of tips designed to help make you a better writer, covering everything from easy grammar to 17 types of marketing content to writing credible copy. Plus, it’s an easy read that you can pick up and put down, and then use as a reference for your writing.

How the World Sees You

How do you fascinate? This book by Sally Hogshead examines the science of fascination and how you can become more of yourself. Learning about fascination has been a game changer for me and my business (and I use it with clients) and this book is the perfect place to start. (You can learn more about the Fascination Advantage System here.)

Why Not Me?

Mindy Kaling’s latest book isn’t a business book per se, but as a female business owner it has a strong message to share. If you struggle with feeling like a fraud or that you’re not good enough, this book asks the valid question of why you’re not the one who should be a huge success. Plus, it’s a blast to read.

Sacred Success

This book is a mashup of the practical, psychological and spiritual aspects of wealth and really looks at women’s relationship to power. It’s full of a-ha moments and exercises to help you gain control over your money while getting your head in check about what may be holding you back.

12 Week Year

Want to do more in less time? Or achieve big things instead of dreaming about them? The 12 Week Year brings the secrets of peak performance used by Olympic athletes to get improved results by working in 12 week chunks. I personally follow this book’s time management approach and it’s skyrocketed my productivity.

Get Rich, Lucky Bitch

Until I read this book I would have told you my relationship with money was fine. But newsflash – this book helped me realize I had some serious mindset issues and I needed to start to work through them. This book is a fun and illuminating read that I come back to time and time again.

Firestarter Sessions

Author Danielle LaPorte is better known for The Desire Map, but the Firestarter Sessions is chalk-full of goodness for the business owner. It helps you look at your passion and purpose, while delivering some serious truth about success and commonly held views about balance and skill.

Book Yourself Solid

If you’re struggling to find clients or book your calendar and run a service-based business, pick up this book immediately. Author Michael Port walks you through an entire system to, as the title implies, book yourself solid. It covers networking, follow-up, referrals and more that are relevant to every service-based business.

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There you have it, my top 13, and I’m sure there’s more I could share, but I’ll save that for another post. What’s your favorite business book? Share in the comments below.

Remember the E! True Hollywood Story?

Confession: This is one of my all-time favorite shows. What could be more enticing than the behind-the-scenes on a celebrity who seems like a mystery? (And if you don’t know this show, it’s a full hour on a celebrity’s backstory, including interviews with whomever they can dig up.)

It’s the exact same reason that I adore celebrity gossip blind items, VH-1 Behind the Music, A&E Biography, pithy articles in Vanity Fair and the Startup or Serial podcasts.

The idea of getting behind-the-scenes on pretty much anything is completely irresistible to me. Especially when it comes to business. Which is why I’m going to give you the nitty gritty on what went down in my business, and a bit of my life, in 2015.

The real-life what’s-working-now is how I tend to learn, and I appreciate transparency in a world of ever evolving hyped up success stories, unrealistic claims and really ridiculous marketing tactics.

So, here we go…

What Worked This Year

A lot of things worked this year, so I’ll spare you a detailed accounting, but here are some of the highlights that helped grow my business.

1. Creating Space

My word of the year was space, and honestly, I had no idea exactly what that would look like, but I knew it needed to happen.

At the beginning of the year, I was running two businesses on top of this one: a training business for teachers/demonstrators in the papercrafting industry, and a business teaching papercrafting and selling supplies.  Both came out of my inability to stay still for very long which meant I  turned my hobby into a successful business, and then seeing even more opportunity.

Even though I loved those businesses wholeheartedly, something had to give. The number of hours I was working was ever increasing, and I need to give myself space, so I handed over the training business to my trusty partner and then wrapped up my other business.

Not going to lie, this was a hard decision. I was walking away from a passion project that was profitable, along with a business partner and literally hundreds of customers I adored.

Much ugly crying and planning later, by mid-year, I was wrapped up. The hard decision was the right decision and this was the first time in a long time that I didn’t work all Summer, and my brain wasn’t on hyperdrive.

2. One Big Launch + Program

My name is Maggie and I have a launching problem. Before this year, I was perpetually launching.

Why? I’m all about new ideas. My primary Fascination advantage is Innovation, so I sort of can’t help it. Ideas flow easily and quickly all. the. time.

But when I started this year, my team and I committed to one program launch in September. My coach Natalie MacNeil held me to that all year long.

As a result, we were able to launch without a major meltdown or burn out. The worst thing that happened during the launch was a cart close email with the wrong subject line, but that was truly it. We were able to pull it off with lots of planning and preparation starting in February.

Along with the launch was creating the program itself (hello, nothing passive about this, I probably spent over 100 hours writing/recording course content) and then running it. In this first round we had 23 students, and I was seriously blown away by seeing them in the program, doing the work and making small wins every week.

Now, a lot of the work is done and when we open up the doors to the Inside Scoop Academy in January, we can focus on making the launch even better and most of all, taking care of our students in a big way.

3. Doubling Up Our Team + Revenue

When I basically started this business fresh in 2014, I had no idea what was going to happen, just that I was going to make my vision work.

Nearly two full years later, that vision has resulted in significant growth. Growth in our team going from a team of 4 of us in early 2015, to a team of 9 now in December. As client needs have emerged, we’ve been able to strategically add to our team and hire the right contractors to help me grow.

Back in 2014, if you told me the team would be 9 people I would have laughed my ass off. But here we are! 2016 is going to be a year of optimizing our existing team, adding some full-time hires and shifting my role so I’m not the chief cook and bottlewasher on all client accounts.

As the team has doubled, so has year-over-year revenue. We’re more than double last year’s revenue and that’s without year end numbers. It’s the biggest year in my business ever.  Think of it as an overnight success story that has been in the making for over 10 years.

That’s not to say my take-home is doubling…because growth requires investment, and that’s a strategic choice I’m making now for the future. It may not be the best choice for every business, but it’s the right one to help fuel the future.

4. Marketing Growth

A lot of what we started in 2014 was status quo this year with the podcast and the blog, newsletters and list building.

To support this, we focused more and more on social media this year which has been way more consistent, and we’ve focused increasingly on LinkedIn, Pinterest and Instagram. So far, Pinterest is driving quality traffic to the site that convert well (outpacing Twitter and often Facebook), while Instagram is one big experiment at this point.  LinkedIn isn’t driving traffic at all to my site, but it is driving opt-ins as we’ve been publishing original content on the platform, and more than 50% of our posts have been featured on the site’s Pulse section.

Facebook ads were a big win this year, especially the Launch Tools and Tech opt-in that we ran this Fall. We were able to add over 1500 subscribers in two months with this checklist. This is definitely the direct product of the willingness to experiment and what could only be termed as a complete shit show over the Summer including: very expensive mistakes, a pixel that was behaving badly, a Leadpage that was utterly possessed and much more.

If you’re going to focus on ads, be prepared to lose money as you figure it all out. Or get help. Don’t be a DIYer like I was as you learn the ropes.

Most of all, a big win with marketing was an upleveling in overall branding with our designer, Amanda Genther, as well as getting everything we do super systematized and consistent.

What Didn’t Work

This gig isn’t for the weak. Failure is part of the game, and every single time you fail it’s a great lesson for the future. Here are some of my fails this year:

1. The Trademark Debacle

We started planning the Inside Scoop Academy in February, so you’d think by the time we started branding in May that we would have everything squared away with the name in time.

Nope. The day before I needed to finalize the name for the logo design, I had a short list. I ended up going with the No B.S. Marketing School. Which was right on brand, but I missed a super important step for a course with this level of brand investment and intellectual property involved – filing the trademark.

We went ahead and I was in blissful ignorance as we launched. Once things settled down and the course started, I got in touch with a Trademark Attorney.

After an exhaustive trademark search, the amazing Patrice Perkins told me I really shouldn’t use No B.S. Marketing as it was registered and not something that I would likely be able to secure.

This was literally on week two of my program. Branding and launch completed. So I had to hustle to find a new name. The first few of which weren’t going to cut it, so we finally settled on Inside Scoop Academy.

But, this meant time and money had to be sunk into redoing existing worksheets, video intros and more while the program was running. Then we had to move the site to a new domain. (Props to my team for making this SO much simpler, even if it was annoying as all get out!)

Lesson learned. First step is the name then the trademark before you do anything else.

Rookie mistake and won’t happen again. And don’t assume anything. Learn how trademarks work before you get too far in and have built brand equity in your product or service.

2. Monthly Behind-the-Scenes Posts

In March I had the big idea to do a monthly post on a behind-the-scenes in my marketing called the Lab Report.

Amazing idea. But I did exactly one lab report.

Why? They were WAY more work than I realized going in. Screenshots, videos, how-tos and more were needed to back up what I was talking about.

It bothered me not to execute on something I’d publicly declared and it’s been nagging at me since May. But, I’m going to consider this as an idea that was put on pause and that we can look at bringing back in 2016.

3. Client Experience

If you run a services-based business with any type of volume, there are going to be situations where a client isn’t 100% happy.

It happens to all of us. I wanted to share this as I did have a couple of these situations in 2015, and all you can do is choose to learn from it.

I do pride myself on trying to make the situation right by being fair and honest. But sometimes, it’s not going to matter what you do. Things are going to go off the rails to the point where you need to walk away and practice kind, but firm, boundaries.

I pride myself on client experience, so when these rare instances do happen, this hurts my heart. My business is personal, so I take it personally. Which means it crushes my confidence in more ways than I can possibly count, but I also know that if I let these situations define me or my business, then I’m not going to be able to help the 99.9% of clients that are delighted.

All you can do it make it right. Be fair and act with integrity. That’s it. Because in the words of Dr. Phil, “you can’t win against crazy.” Sometimes you’re going to need to agree to disagree and move on.

(Whoa, that was hard to write, but it helps you think about how you can better handle these situations, and to not let them break you.)

My question every single time these situations arise is how can we improve on what we’re doing to make things better. To stop SNAFUs before they can happen.

The lesson for me? A number of my services will be restructured with more specific timelines and deliverables, as well as setting clearer client expectations in writing. I’m thankful for the not-so-great moments, because I think these packages and how they are structured are going to be amazing.

What’s Next?

Well, I’m glad you asked. A fresh new year is about to begin, so of course, there’s awesome things brewing. Some big, some little, but all amazingly good.

1. Introducing Scoop Industries

But let’s start with the big one. My business is changing, and I couldn’t be more excited. As of January 5th, all my services (and products) will be offered through a new agency called Scoop Industries.

I’ve teamed up with my friend and Operations Director for the past 2 years, Brittany Becher, to co-found this new company. It’s literally been in the works for 11 months as we carefully planned and plotted every week.

Both of us come from an agency background, and we realized that for us to scale our respective businesses, we needed a different type of structure, and quite frankly, we didn’t want to build something bigger flying solo.

Scoop will focus on digital marketing for small businesses. We’ll be continuing to offer strategy, content/copy, tech and other services, and more products like Inside Scoop Academy will be developed over time.

So, what does this mean for you, my clients and community of listeners and readers?  Here’s a rundown:

The Marketing Moxie show will continue in 2016 and I’ve committed to another season focused on What’s Working Now of at least 12 episodes.

This blog will continue with two blog posts a month focused on a mix of business and more with a personal twist. Less tips and tricks, more deep thoughts, snark, sass and business goodness. It will become a little showcase for what I’m thinking and seeing in the industry called Maggie, Unlimited.

Scoop will have a twice weekly blog completely jam-packed with digital marketing, behind-the-scenes on what we’re learning from our clients and more. Plus, we’ll be adding a podcast in the first half of the year.

As for newsletters, you’ll still get The Scoop on Thursdays in your inbox curating ALL of this content, as well as things we’re diggin’, smart articles and much more.

2. Working my Ass Off for a Book + Publishing Deal  

My big push project for this quarter has been writing a book proposal for my digital marketing focused book for female entrepreneurs.

This is one scary mofo project.

Even writing about this here on the blog scares the ever lovin’ shit out of me. The goal to get a book traditionally published is the stuff my little 8 year-old Maggie dreamt of and pushing towards it is alternately exhilarating and terrifying. (Excuse me while I curb the urge to vomit as I write this.)

Right now, I’m in the process of pitching agents to find representation for this book. I’ve had some rejections and some agents quickly respond to take the proposal, but this is a long way from done. Which is why I’m putting this as a key goal for the coming year to get the agent lined up, a publishing deal and then the book written.

Ambitious? Completely. But if I’m in, I’m ALL in. (And if you happen to be an literary agent representing non-fiction writers reading this, I’d be happy to send you my proposal – it’s kinda awesome.)

I’ll keep you posted. Because any way you slice it, this is going to happen no matter what. Done deal. Coming to your local book store soon.

3. Family + Personal Time

2016 is going to be a year of expansive growth personally and professionally, so I’m making a renewed, conscious effort to focus on having a life.

That may make you laugh, or you may feel me 100%. But when you’re working so hard, it’s easy to let having a life slide.

And remember the theme for the year being space? Things at home have lined up completely magically with shift changes for my husband and more free time than ever before. (That’s a full blog post for the new year!)

This concludes my very own business edition of the E! True Hollywood Story, Maggie style.

If you’ve read this far, thank you. This is is the longest post I’ve ever written but I hope you’ve found a nugget or something in here that’s useful for your journey. Wishing you all the best for 2016.

When you’re starting a business, nothing can fully prepare you for the sheer amount of learning you need to take on.

Sure, you’re good at what you do, but there are so many other functional areas from finance to hiring to legal that you need to learn the ins and outs of. Acquiring the knowledge and skills you need to actually run a business can quickly be a full-time job.

This is especially true when it comes to marketing. The sheer number of possible strategies and tactics is mindboggling. Then add on a layer of marketing speak and it’s too damn much. To the point where it’s hard for someone who actually works in marketing to stay on top of all of it.

It’s no wonder that all the copy and content-related terms get so muddled up. One of the biggest points of confusion I encounter is the difference between messaging and storytelling.

What is Messaging?

Think of messaging as the “facts” of your brand. Your messaging includes your values, personality and vision. It should also include your benefits and differentiators.

Typically, your message is one-way communication that’s focused on the organization. While your message is critical to shaping your brand, it’s only part of the picture.

The problem with only having a message is that it’s focused on you and your brand and it fails to answer the #1 thing prospective clients want to know from you: “What’s in it for me?”

Facts don’t cut it when it comes to standing out online. Even if you have the most compelling and interesting messaging on the planet. (Hate to break it to you special snowflake, I can assure you that even your most creative and original idea has probably been “done” in some form.)

The popular mantra, “facts tell, stories sell” is well-known in sales circles and extends to all of our marketing efforts.

Why Stories Sell

Stories help us create an emotional connection with our audience, but they also create context for our message.

Storytelling helps to consider our message through the eyes of our customer and provides the deeper meaning to why we do what we do, how we do it and the results or benefits we provide.

Messages are often carefully controlled, while a story makes you and your brand much more honest and human.

The role of stories is to bring the message to life and make the message appealing and relatable for our audience.

To understand stories, we automatically associate what we’re hearing with our own experiences.  Neuroscientists have identified what’s called neural coupling where the storyteller and the listener have similar brain activity patterns. In the study, when communication was broken, the coupling vanishes.

That coupling is what makes people willing to read, watch or listen, and ultimately that’s what drives them to actually do business with you, as they feel they can trust you.

In short, a story persuades people in way that facts simply can’t. Which is why you need more stories in your business if you’re going to be able to market and grow your business.

If you’re not sure where to start, here are a few types of stories that sell:

• The Before/After: Share your before and after, or even better, your customer’s before and after to showcase results of working together.
• Universal Experiences: Tell stories about shared experiences. If it’s way too outside your audience’s experience they won’t pay attention in the same way.
• Happily Ever After: We’re all conditioned to love a happy ending. Keep your stories positive and productive with a memorable happy ending.

Start using stories to support your messaging in all of your marketing. From webinars to interviews to blog posts, stories help you sell your message and your products and services.

If you want help getting started and need a pro on the case, I can help you with the Story Distillery. This is my signature 1:1 services and limited spots are available. Click here to get the details.

The year was 1995. I was down to my last $2.00 and was two weeks away from having my student loan clear the bank.

After scavenging around the house for loose change to do a load of laundry, I headed to the laundromat to wash my clothes. The only hiccup was that I didn’t have enough to dry them so I hauled the wet clothes home in a hockey bag through the February ice and snow.

As I walked home from the laundromat,  trekking uphill with my furry boots slipping on the ice, I made a decision that would change my life. Never again would I have only $2.00 to my name. The stress, shame and uncertainty wasn’t something I ever wanted to feel and not how I wanted to live my life.

The experience of being a broke student fueled my future. But what does that have to do with storytelling?

It’s simple. That story is personal. And definitely on the more depressing side of things. You may relate to it, but if you don’t have a story of that nature, you may be feeling you can’t tell stories in your business.

So much of the storytelling we see out there shares adversity, struggle and how we’ve gotten through it. And while this type of storytelling is valid, it’s not the only game in town.

Sometimes when it comes to telling a story in your business, it doesn’t need to be that deep. Sometimes things just aren’t and it’s totally okay for you to tell a story that’s lighthearted, quirky or so funny your audience will snort.

My Story Just Isn’t That Interesting

So many times I hear my clients or community say that their story “isn’t that interesting” and nothing could be further from the truth. The problem is they think that their story isn’t good enough because it’s not dramatic or involves overcoming something against great odds.

If you grew up like I did in an average middle class family, went to college, got a job and then got married (aka following the checklist) you’re bound to feel that way when it comes to sharing your stories. Because you didn’t necessarily have a major plot twist or a moment that’s going to be featured in an Oscar winning film.

Great storytelling isn’t about the big moments. It’s about understanding the purpose of storytelling as part of your message and brand. Stories help make your message more engaging and emotionally connect with your audience.

(Click here to get the Storytelling Shortcut and get on your way to telling engaging stories.)

The emotion you set out to evoke is up to you.

You may choose to get your audience to feel joy or laugh out loud. Maybe you want them to feel excited, ecstatic or elated.

Storytelling doesn’t have to always be inspirational or aspirational. The goal is to create a message that resonates because the reader, listener or viewer can relate to and remember it.

That’s where the know, like and trust factor starts and gets strengthened over time.

Telling YOUR Best Stories

What kind of stories should you tell? That’s up to you.

Your approach to storytelling can be whatever you want it to be. Maybe it’s a mix of quirky and plain comical, or it’s sweet and salty as you share the good, bad and ugly sides of building your business.

The real secret is to make it yours and not to worry about what your “competitor” or the “big name” in your industry is doing.  After all, you’re so much better than a sad knockoff, recycled, rags to rich story that doesn’t quite land.

If they all zig, you can totally zag. Because that’s what makes you stand out and makes your stories completely irresistible.

As Sally Hogshead, the creator of the Fascination Advantage says, “Different is better than better.” So don’t be better with your storytelling. Be different.

You can be the coach with yet another tired “how I quit my job story”, or the one with a knack for short, hilarious and completely out-there stories about your real life and how that relates to business.

Choose your stories wisely because the biggest threat to your business is never the competition. It’s you not doing what it takes to escape obscurity.

Do what it takes to bring all your wonderful weirdness to your storytelling and let the notions of what your story “should” be, go.

Sometimes it’s just not that deep and that’s okay.

Let your stories be more and explore how you can up your fun factor.  I promise you, you’ll have more fun and your tribe will appreciate that you bring a little bit of light and levity to their day.