storytelling tips for your business

Discover simple storytelling techniques that engage your audience and boost your confidence in content creation. Stop overthinking and start posting with a clear, actionable plan for the next seven days. Tune in to transform your social media strategy and overcome the paralysis of perfectionism!

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Transcript

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Welcome to Designing Success from Study to Studio. I'm your host, Rhiannon Lee, founder of the Oleander Finch Design Studio. I've lived the transformation from study to studio and then stripped it bare and wrote down the framework so you don't have to overthink it. In this podcast, you could expect real talk with industry friends, community, connection, and actionable tips to help you conquer whatever's holding you back. Now let's get designing your own success. In one of the framework mentor sessions recently, actually, I think it was just last week, we got talking about Instagram and social media and the blockers of new designers when they're just feeling a bit like, I actually don't know what to write about this. It's the caption part that's really difficult. So sometimes designers are thinking, okay. I don't yet have really beautiful before and afters because my first or second project is a two year project. I haven't had it professionally photographed or maybe you haven't actually got any clients yet and you're just still creating little vignettes in your home and practicing on your friends and getting out there and doing everything you can to build your portfolio. But then it comes time to post something on, and I'm just using Instagram as An example of a social media platform because I feel like if you're at this early level, you're probably not also repurposing across multi platforms and channels. So let's just stick to Instagram. It comes time to put it on Instagram and you're thinking, Oh, what am I going to write about this? What? Do I have to say about this image? And it's a real blocker. It's a real problem that I see time and time again. People fiddle around with the caption, spend half a day writing it, doubt that it's any good, see someone else doing something better or cleverer, and they just actually get paralysis and never really go ahead and post it. And it's one of the main reasons we see inconsistency in social media use is just self doubt, not knowing what to write, not knowing how to do it. So today we are going to talk all about storytelling techniques that will actually captivate your audience and things that you can do to feel good about the content that you're sharing on your social media platforms. The very first piece of advice that I would give you is to try not to overcomplicate things. And I say this all the time, a marketing strategy. Is just the plan for what you're going to post for the next seven days. It doesn't have to be an advertising or marketing agency that you've employed and you've got these analytics and all of that stuff is important in time. But in the beginning, the word strategy can really freak you out. And. Thinking about it being very complicated can just make you reluctant to actually proceed and then nothing gets done. So if we've scrapped the word strategy and just think about, okay, I need to plan out the next week. I am going to want to post a few things. What am I going to post and what am I going to say about it? That's much easier. So if you haven't already, go and pause this, open a notes section in your phone take little notes as you go along, and then you can revisit it. If you are unaware, Apple, I certainly know Apple, I'm not sure about Spotify, now offers the transcriptions of every episode. So I make sure when I upload it that there is a link. A transcribed body of text there for you to grab this stuff anytime and a little cheat sheet from me if you ever hear a podcast where you're like mic drop, massive, like implementation tactics that I want to use in my business, grab the transcription. Throw it into chat GPT and ask for all the key takeaways in a dot point or in actionable form. It is a brilliant way to get a quick synopsis. And those are the sorts of ways that we should be using AI to work smarter, not harder, not to get AI to create our content. So that's not what I'm saying today. Today. I'm all about how can you craft storytelling content that engages your audience and makes you feel good about what you're posting. You may have heard this sort of buzzword all over social media anyway around storytelling as a skill for your business. It's brilliant for client engagement, powerful branding, you may have seen at the moment there is a trend of B roll, which is movement in the background. So B roll is where you set up a tripod and perhaps you see people walking around, brushing their teeth, doing mundane things in the background. And then the key message from that brand is over the top, overlaid in text. And you'll see at the moment there is a real trend for a story or a storytelling caption or In words, over the top of B roll, those sorts of reels are performing quite well, specifically when you have a really engaging story. So what is storytelling? It is, back to English class for us, understanding storytelling in the context of design. It's creating a narrative around the spaces that you transform, using really emotive language to paint the picture and to get your next potential client to be like, yeah, I'm there. I'm with you. And storytelling generally has a bit of an arc, there'll be a setting that you describe. There's characters, which would in this case, typically be the designer and the client. There's often conflict. So a design challenge, something that went wrong, something that needed to change, something that hadn't been addressed an issue that you had to address as the designer. So there's like a dramatic Part to the story and then there's the resolution. So we're thinking Hollywood here at the end, specifically American 23 minutes sitcoms. If you remember, I'm thinking back to the eighties, early nineties, every TV show that I watched was a. Great example of storytelling content because it would start, there would be an issue in the middle, and at the end it would all be resolved and there'd be a strong American moral to the story. But in this case, if we think about that every time you're writing a storytelling caption, it can make it easier for you to sketch it out because you're yep, I've got to set context, set the scene, introduce the characters, talk about what went wrong, and find a resolution. Principles of storytelling. We also need, some background knowledge into some writing techniques to actually make the most out of the story that you've sketched out. So if you've sketched out who are the characters, what happened, what was the challenge or problem and what was the resolution? Great. Pop that to the side. That's your story. Then we're going to look at our writing techniques. So having a hook starting really strong. We have to grab attention with a compelling opening line. or a massive hook. And this is just something that's unavoidable. The amount of conversations I've had with private coaching clients around how that changed the performance in my own social media offerings. So for a long time, I was really determined, doubled down, resolute. I don't need to be doing this trickery type hooks because my clients They know how to double tap if they like something, or I hated the hook and the call to action. They were two parts of marketing captions and things that we write that I was always hard up against because I did feel like you're over here on social media, you know, what to do. But then the thing is, and the thing that I've come to realize is your potential clients and your audience, your viewers of your content, they do know what to do, but they don't take that step unless you tell them what to do. So I have had to put this feeling of mine aside, which is that I don't want to do rah, look at me hook and then save and share or like this or comment that if you want this I'm sorry, I've had to just give in to that demon because it was a fight that I was not willing to hang my business hat on, or should I say it was a hill that I wasn't willing to drag my business up to die on. I was wrong. I am wrong. I will say that whenever I am wrong. I wish that I wasn't because I would really like to be able to just get on with the messaging and not feel like I had to create something that was like, wow, look at me and then tell people what to do. But that is just the nature of psychology of marketing and it's not going to change. And you really need to lean into it. So if you are someone who feels as I did, Oh, surely they're going to know To go to the bio or they can work out how to find my podcast. I don't need to tell them. If you are stubborn like that, like I was and had a bit of opposition or defiance please just let it go. I promise you now that I do it, the difference in the analytics are really obvious that people do actually need that instruction. And I like to think of it more of a helpful reminder than patronizing my clientele. I know. All of my ideal clients, emerging creative, service business owners, designers, people who are ready to scale, all of them, they know what to do, but it does help if I remind them, they will actually go, yeah, cool, I will save that for next time, or yes, I will share that with a business friend, or yes, I will DM the word framework, and I want to get more information about the upcoming intake, you just have to talk people through it. Okay, sorry about that tangent, that's a long way to say you need to start really strong with your story. You also need to use descriptive language, emotive language, you've probably heard me say these terms a few times before. Paint really vivid descriptions of the design changes, the things that you're doing, talk about the frustrations, like use emotional language when you're talking about the challenge, there's a really tricky wall that's Always been an eyesore that the homeowner has been embarrassed about that. We've never found the correct way to utilize it. It's not functional. It's in the way, really taking people on that journey to say, this is why the client came to me. This is the problem that they're having and really, paint that picture, show them what the problem is so that you can then. Take them through the journey to what you suggested. So in our initial in home consult, we threw around ideas. Do we put hooks on it? Do we make it a mudroom or a station for school bags? Is that going to feel too cluttered? Could we put joinery in front? Could we knock down the wall, talk about what you tried and then deliver them to the transformation? What we're also doing here is building a connection because most people reading the caption are going to be like, I have a space like that, or I see myself in that situation, or I would love a designer to be walking around my house and actually Coming up with ideas, brainstorming ways to improve it. You're also teaching them and educating them what the initial design consultation is like when you come over what happens. So it's really multi layered benefits. Now, if you have your initial sketched out story, and then you've thought about how you're going to implement some writing techniques, like strong starts. empathetic storyline emotional language or emotive words, all of that sort of thing. The next thing you want to be looking at is QC or quality check. This is a big one for me. If you finish the story, sketching it out and you're like, snooze verse, this is so beige, then don't post it. It's going to be just as beige for your reader as it is for you to put it forward. So think to yourself is this massively long? Would I stick around and read this? Always going back to almost a quality check of Hollywood script. Is it good enough? Who would you cast in it? Is it something you could make into a movie? Is it a story? Or is it just a, then we did this, and then she didn't really like mud rooms, so then I suggested doors, but doors wasn't really something she liked. No. Go back and think how can I inject a bit of interest in this and what would spark my curiosity if I were the reader. Always be the reader and the writer. Write it first, then go at it from the point of view of the reader, so that if you were to put those words over b roll to share as a reel, it wouldn't be a problem. Is it engaging? Maybe you've blown it out because you can't help yourself with words and you've made this epic massive story. Throw it into chat GPT or Grammarly or another place where you can improve it and you can select the entire thing and say, can you turn this into something using the same tone language and tone? pieces from this larger piece of writing. Give it to me in 250 words and make it really engaging and emotive. Tell it what you want to do and play around chopping and changing. This is your own work. You're not asking ChatGPT to write your captions. So if you're putting it in there and you're working with ChatGPT to improve it, that is also something that's going to save you some time. Word of warning, if you do that, you're probably going to have to go back and insert more of your tone back on another layer over the top, because sometimes chat TPT can really strip out the essence of your voice. Before I go, I just want to talk to you about one other writing technique that I personally, for my ideal client, find really effective. And certainly as an interior designer, you're a professional, you're a qualified interior designer, you should be thinking about the writing technique of positioning and thought leadership. So something around the language that you use that establishes authority. So you want to use really specific languages and references that position yourself as an expert. Here's an example of a post that I wrote ages ago that used the writing technique of positioning. It was a post about a private coaching client of mine who. Voice memoed me in our private app at 8 a. m. One morning just horrifically like, Oh my God, I've been hacked. My Instagram is gone. I can't get it back. I don't have the verification tick. I don't know what to do. And then I wrote the story from the position of the coach of what we did next, what we considered, what were the action points? What did I advise her to do? What was my stance on it? What were the opportunities? What did we actually do? and that positioned me as the thought leader, I guess I hate that term, but I can't think of another one to use, but it positioned me as the coach. It put me in the driver's seat from the storytelling perspective to say, Hey, I'm a professional. I know what I'm doing. This is what happens. If you Vox me at 8 AM and say, you've lost your Instagram account. This is what we'll do for the rest of the day. And this will be the outcome. And from your perspective as a interior designer or creative in any way. Any industry who might be listening to this podcast, you would think about the challenges and the. I'm just going to use the example of the tricky wall or the weird space, and then you would position yourself in the writing to say, in design school, we've learned to look at this, that, and the other. These are the things I like to consider in my process when I'm working with families with X amount of young children, blah, blah, blah. You're coming at it from the position, that's why it's called positioning, of authority. So I always like to do a little check over my stuff, does that sound like, you know, You know, I'm telling you the story from the perspective of a professional designer so that you can immediately identify, I could hire this person potentially for an upcoming project because I have faith that she knows what she's doing. This sort of technique is also really good in your Instagram stories where you might weave in sort of your own unique insights, your experiences, little storytelling is great in stories go figure. So you could jump on and tell a story from start to finish and. Double check before you get on that you know what was the issue, how did I overcome it, and tell it in your own voice. That's a great way to position yourself as an expert. It's also good place in your stories to present innovative ideas or innovative approaches. Specific methodologies that you use in your business that you don't see everywhere. That reflects leadership in design. Talking about new trends, talking about what you're seeing, what you're into. Those are all wonderful topics for sharing in your stories because they are what makes you different to me and different to other designers. That is exactly why somebody reaches out to work with your brand is because they're watching your stories over and it totally resonates with them. You So here's some practical applications for using storytelling inside of your interior design business. In your proposals, we use storytelling to outline potential transformations in client proposals. So when you get a brief after the initial consultation, you've been to the in home and you want to put forward your scope of work, your fee proposal. And perhaps I always have a digital design deck that I can talk you through that in another episode, because not everybody does that, but I certainly do. If you wanted to, you could take their client brief and put forward a little storytelling element that would talk about what you've considered, what your ideas are, and it would reassure them that you're picking up what they're putting down and you're both on the same page. Outlining potential transformations for them in a story is a really great way for people to go, Oh, I understand that I'm not intimidated by all the designer language and the things that say section 2. 1 procurement and procurement fee and things that your everyday client is just like, can we just, can you just tell me that it's all going to be beautiful and okay. And I'm happy to work with you, but just put it for me simply, that's where you can use storytelling to outlay that transformation in a proposal. The other place which is where I've mainly focused in this episode is in your marketing. So weaving stories into all of your marketing materials. This is something that I intend to teach a certain pocket of an upcoming day that we have be in the room where it happens, which is a Melbourne based day. I will. Come and talk to you about that later if you're interested in it go and check out my instagram It is a full day of photography high res images to take home do it yourself b roll Do it yourself photos in a massive beautiful high end furniture showroom. It's happening on the 2nd of june That's everything you need to know. Anyway, come over to Instagram. You'll find heaps of information at Oleander underscore and underscore Finch, but during that day, I'm doing a 1. 5 hour marketing session. And the reason I'm doing it at the beginning is to make sure that the girls that attend are fully prepared to film all the things that they're going to need and that they understand what is B roll, how to create it. What is effective B roll? What sort of stories do we put over the top? Where should we use these images? How should we use these images? There will definitely be an element of talking about these sorts of techniques in our marketing because marketing is, for me, one of the major practical applications of storytelling. You'll notice people who do good marketing. Hello, Taytay, I did get the tortured poet's department like minutes after it was released. She is an amazing person to look to for marketing along with Beyonce and others, and are they not the storytellers of our generation when it comes to lyrics? Yes, storytelling. It is a core marketing principle that will always pay off. And the last practical application is probably client testimonials. Just encouraging clients to maybe provide their feedback in a more storytelling form. And the way we do that is often with storytelling. survey. So asking them open ended questions. So the answers give us the beginning, the middle, and the end of the story. And then we can piece it together as a testimonial that flows like, I have never really felt comfortable in my home. It never flowed well. It never had cohesion. I was always embarrassed to invite friends over for, we certainly didn't entertain in the outdoor space. Then I engaged Sarah. Sarah came over. She was so respectful. Responsive. She had so many ideas. Blah, blah, blah, blah. And then the outcome. I have been hosting all the parties. I'm absolutely loving it We couldn't be more thrilled with what Sarah did with our home So see how that testimonial becomes a story just based on breaking it up into three questions Will get you a better outcome that you can use more regularly across your marketing materials and your social media Don't be afraid to ask for your testimonials as a video testimonial. I hear everybody out there panicking immediately Oh my God, no, I would never ask or I would never do that. But the way to do it and to do it effectively is just to say, Hey, I'm going to jump on a styling zoom session with you. you just at the end for five minutes. Do you mind if I ask you a few questions about the process? Then I have a few questions. This is for me and my business as a designer. Obviously at the very end, I'm like, okay, thanks, Georgia. I've absolutely loved it. The room looks incredible about those questions. There's only three or four. Do you mind if we just go through them now on the zoom call so that I can pull out of that a testimonial and those. Yeah, sure. You're already an hour in, you're comfortable. You just say, where did you find Oleander and Finch? Was it easy to come across my brand? And what made you decide to hire me? It's such good Intel for learning who are your audience? What is their purchase path all the way into buying from you. I do it with absolutely everybody that comes across my brand. If I'm certainly because I'm zooming with everyone all of the time, Hey, can you hang around for an extra five minutes? Can I ask you a few questions? It's such a great way to capture snippets of video to reuse. Obviously you want to be getting a release form or asking permission, but video testimonials, I think are an incredible an underrated. Or maybe even just under captured area within the design industry, because a lot of them that I see are ones where you've hired external videographers, or you've got something and they're very robotic. There's something very natural about asking people a question face to face, and then getting in a conversation with them and then going off and throwing that into your editing suite or software and just pulling out snippets and sentences where they were really comfortable, really confident. The software that I use allows me to remove all of the ums and ahs. So it's the same podcasting, editing tools that I use. And so I could just get them and then use that two sentences where they're like, nothing has been a greater investment for me and my business than joining the framework. I feel supported every week. I can grab that information and. And tweak it a little bit, not edit it like a reality TV. And it's their their contestants, but certainly being able to make the person feel really confident and comfortable with what they've given me. Cause a lot of the major challenges that I see is people don't want to do video testimonial because they're like, Oh, I'm feeling, I'm a bit shy. I don't show up face to camera very much. I'm not going to show up. Good at it. I'm not dressed for it. I'm not ready. Progress over perfection. You're never going to be ready. Just do the thing, put the thing out there. People forget all your things within 24 hours. It's okay. So I'm going to wrap up there with some actionable tips to get started today. A simple exercise to start practicing your storytelling is to go back to the start of this. Grab the transcription. If you can pop it into chat, GPT and ask chat GPT to create an exercise To help you practice this form of storytelling or draft the story. Just get writing, draft the story of your latest project. Using the technique and system that I have shared today, just go and write, okay, what was the house like before I got there? What were the challenges? What did I have to think about and consider when I worked with them? And what was the outcome? And then the next step, you go back to that story that you've written and gone, how can I insert personality and emotional words in there? How can I position myself more of an authority? And you might change. Some of the, tweak some of the sentences to be more confident and to start with, you might take out words like, I think that, or look at the language. So instead of saying It was important to the client that we, and you just start the sentence with, we needed to do this, just really look at your confidence levels and try to objectively edit. If you jump into the show notes now, I am actually putting a link in there to a notion checklist. Obviously those that Have followed me for a while, know that Notion is life for me. All you need to do is either duplicate it into your own Notion or sign up for Notion, it's free. And go to the top right hand corner, there's three dots. Click on that, click on duplicate and the whole checklist will drop into your Notion. And you can use that over and over when it comes to following a framework to write storytelling content. Please remember it's all trial and error and it's all practice and so your storytelling content will evolve and it will get better and better as you go. So at the start, we're not writing publishable novels here. Keep it small. Just keep it in that framework and make sure it has that story arc. But it could be one sentence per part of that. What did they need? What did I come up with? What did we consider? And what was the outcome? And just lastly, back to the hook and the CTA stuff that I mentioned before, just make sure after you've written your story, ask an open ended question at the end that encourages people to give you their similar stories. If they've had a similar experience or their opinion on something that you've written about that is going to drive all the engagement. And that's exactly what we want on social media. So finishing the story with, Oh my God, what would you do if your Instagram got hacked? Going back to the story example I gave you earlier. So that's it from me today. Join me on Thursday I am going to be releasing an interview with Anya from Zephyr and Stone, a account I have long long long time crush on. I love everything that Zephyr and Stone do. It was such a good chat I was like I needed to get my own notebook out. So I will save that for when I edit it and I will take my notes and I hope that you will too. And until then, have an amazing week and come and find me over on the gram if you need anything at all, or come and show me your stories. Tag me in your post if you change the way you write your captions so that I can be the first person to engage with your story and and have a read because I cannot wait to see how this works for you. And if you do see some increased metrics when you're looking around those captions that are stories, come and tell me. I want to share the win with you too. That wraps up another episode of Designing Success from Study to Studio. Thanks for lending me your ears. Remember, progress over perfection is the key. If you found value in today's episode, go ahead and hit subscribe or share it with a friend. Your feedback means so much to me and it helps me improve, but it also helps this podcast reach more emerging and evolving designers. For your daily dose of design business tips and to get a closer look at what goes on behind the scenes, follow at oleander underscore and underscore finch on Instagram. You'll find tons of resources available at www. oleanderandfinch. com to support you on your journey. Remember, this is your path, your vision, your future, and your business. Now let's get out there and start designing your success.