Transform Your Business with Storytelling: Solving, Not Selling

What if you could transform your business content strategy by focusing not on selling, but on solving? This episode promises to redefine how you approach content creation, with a central theme of solving your audience's problems through compelling storytelling. Host Angela McKay navigates this journey, revealing not just the 'how' but the 'why' of connecting emotionally with your audience, turning content creation from a daunting task into a powerful tool for engagement and growth.

Angela shares a personal narrative of overcoming mom guilt, illustrating how storytelling can resonate deeply with an audience's pain points, and position entrepreneurship as a solution for mothers balancing family and career. By weaving empathy into her content, Angela shows how personal stories can bridge the gap between emotional struggles and practical solutions, inviting collaboration and shared experiences. This approach transforms typical business incentives into meaningful conversations, leading to authentic connections.

To ensure these connections are not just temporary sparks but enduring relationships, Angela emphasizes the importance of active engagement beyond just posting content. This episode offers practical strategies for brainstorming pain points and crafting authentic messages that resonate. Simplifying social media marketing is key, with Angela highlighting how a well-crafted plan unlocks success without needing complex metrics. Join Angela next week in the Laundry Room Diaries as she continues to share insights on systems and strategies for achieving the success you deserve.

Chapters

• 1:30 Content Creation Made Simple
• 11:12 Transformative Story-Based Content Creation
• 17:26 Effective Content Creation Strategies
• 27:33 Simplify Your Social Media Marketing

Transcript

Speaker 1: 1:30

Hey friends, welcome back to the Laundry Room Diaries. This is Angela McKay, your host, and today I'm deep diving in on a topic that most people struggle with in business. Yes, content creation. Oh my goodness, I can hear the sighs right now Sighs of struggle, confusion and just not knowing what to do but hoping you're doing it right. And so today my goal is to give you some strategy, create a system for you that's helped me get off the struggle bus and really show you how you can simplify this part of your business and it doesn't have to be a stress anymore.

Speaker 1: 2:09

Now, if that sounds good, grab a pen and paper, because we're going to dive in. You're going to definitely want to take some notes on this one and, more importantly, I guarantee you, by the end of this episode, your feeling when I say content creation might feel exciting again, it might feel a little bit lighter and hopefully, you might even be a little inspired. So let me ask you a question Can you guess what 80% of your content should be? Now, this doesn't mean you have to be a network marketer or digital marketer like myself. It can be in any business niche, but this question applies to everyone who is creating content online. Can you guess what 80% of your content focus should be on? Now, I know some of you are probably like oh, I know, I know, I bet it's about giving tips, giving helpful tips to my audience, giving those tricks that have gotten you to go from point A to point B. And I'm going to say, no, friend, that's not it. And then I can imagine a few of you are probably saying you know, I bet my audience wants to know the results, the outcomes of my ideal client, like this is what's going to happen when you work with me, when you use my product or service. This is what life looks like on the other side. And I'm going to say, friend, that's not what they want, that's not what they want, that's not what they want. And then you might, there's going to be a group of people out there that are saying, no, no, no, I know, maybe it's how to educate. I want to educate, I want to be the expertise. I teach from experience. So I'm going to educate my audience, I'm going to teach them everything I know, and that's exactly what they're going to want to hear. And I'm going to say, sorry, friend, three strikes you're out, because that is not what your audience wants and, in fact, 80% of your content ideas should be focused on drumroll problems, right, the problems your audience is having.

Speaker 1: 4:17

Now. Your ideal client has problems. You know, for me, my ideal client is a mom that's busy, that also wants to have a career. But the problem is she doesn't want to give up her mom life to go and have the career she wants to have the best of both worlds. And so her problem is is like how can I make money but not sacrifice and miss field trips or dinner with my family? How can I wear both hats the mom has and the boss hat? And so the way I approached my business was showcasing my business opportunity as that solution. Right, here's her problem, here's her pain point. I need more money for my family. I need to be able to help provide. Sometimes it's a single mom that they need that. Right that they are the provider and I don't know how to do it all and I come in and I show the solution to that problem.

Speaker 1: 5:17

Now I really want to dig into this, because it's not that just cut and dry. There is some psychology here and, honestly, guys, this is where you're creating a deeper emotional connection with your ideal client. They're going to sit there with your ideal client. They're going to sit there and if you're talking to them and you're sharing, like their current experience and you're positioning a solution in front of the problem that they have, they're going to be like, wow, she gets me. I'm exactly like that and because of that you're going to have this emotional connection and they're going to go I want what she has or I like her, I'm going to work with her, and so when you jump right to the solution mode or the outcomes, you're kind of breaking that connection. So you want to position that in part of your content, but you want to position it from an I place that story, that personal experience, that journey of what you went through to get there right, like that moment where they see themselves in you and so often people just want to go like here's the product, here's the result, buy now, and they don't take time to really be a human being and have the story selling element of the business. And so story selling content is something I teach and train all of the people that I coach with my network marketing teams and I really think that it gets overseen a lot of times because we want the fast results. We want to get in, we want to create that quick content and, excuse me, and it's like here's this, get that, here's this, get that. Join now, be that. And it's this quick, curated world and it doesn't lack the emotional connection.

Speaker 1: 7:12

Now I know when I talk about psychology of sales from that standpoint, people are more invested in paying for something to avoid pain than to actually have pleasure. Like people will spend money to avoid pain. So if they're like gosh, I need to start making some income or I'm not going to be able to. You know, let my son sign up for soccer, right, like a mom could be like that, like we just don't have the money, what am I going to do? Excuse me and honestly, guys, that's really kind of where the pain is. It's like I don't want to tell my child they can't do something they enjoy no-transcript. See, when I'm talking to a mom and I'm sitting there trying to find those pain points that are relatable, showing that there's a solution, there's a vehicle to get her out of that state, the reality is she's more opted to look into this, to start it, to try it and even to show up and get the results, because there's an emotional connection to why she actually began.

Speaker 1: 8:25

And so often you'll hear like network marketing leaders say you know it starts with a why or your why needs to make you cry. Or one of my favorite books of all time was Simon Sinek and it starts with a why. It's the book that I actually opened up about six months into my network marketing career and I was like holy cow, why didn't I see it from this perspective and like everything changed. And six months later I was actually able to go full time in network marketing because I had that emotional connection to the pain point of my life. And if you know my story, you know that you've heard that story and if you haven't, go to listen to episode one, where that's at.

Speaker 1: 9:06

But for the sake of today, I want you to understand when you're telling your story you're starting from a pain point. You're starting from a place where it wasn't so great. There was pain, something had to change. You needed a result, whether it be product driven or income driven. There was a reason why you said yes and made that investment. There's a reason why you said yes and started that business. There was a reason why and it's because someone positioned an emotional connection, because they didn't just go into sales mode, they went into story selling and they connect on a personal level.

Speaker 1: 9:46

And I guarantee you right now, if I push pause and ask you to think about that moment when you decided to do whatever it is you're doing, whether it's a business opportunity or someone shared something with you I guarantee you one. If you've done it, you're going to identify the fact that they hit that pain point. You had that moment where you're like to identify the fact that they hit that pain point. You had that moment where you're like I see I can do this, I need this, I need these results. But it was the emotional connection from the story selling element that made it happen. If you've already said yes, that has happened. Someone has done that to some level in your business exposure. That has happened. Someone has done that into some level in your business exposure. Now, if you haven't said yes, excuse me. If you haven't said yes, they've probably given you some facts, they've probably given you a sample. They probably put you on a really cool call with a leader. They probably even had you like, look at some analytical stuff like a comp plan or something about their hero product. It felt more informational and not emotional, and so informational selling is slow, it's not emotional, and they're presenting from the point of advantage, right and not pain. They're saying, do this and you're going to get this, but they're not connecting at the pain point.

Speaker 1: 11:12

The pain point connection is in the story. The pain point connection is in the story. The story of where I said I was standing in my laundry room. The story, the story of where I said I was standing in my laundry room looking at a basket of mismatched socks, ugly crying on a January morning with a coffee stain t-shirt and a messy bun and just having a hard time, because all of a sudden I felt like something was missing in my life and I had mom guilt, because I wanted to be a stay-at-home mom to my seven kids, but I also wanted to be able to help pay for the diapers and the things that our family needed, and I didn't have a solution. I didn't know how to do both, and so I was in the space where a lot of moms stand sitting there saying I've got to choose to either be the stay at home mom or the work out of home mom which misses moments, and either one has pain points. And when I talk to moms, they get that and they understand. They may have not sat in their laundry room crying, you know, over missing socks although I feel like they probably could, because we all have them but the reality is that they get the pain. They've been in that moment where they felt the pull, the mom guilt, the undeciding of do I go back to work? I'm a new mom, I just had a baby. When do I go back? Do I want to leave the baby with a babysitter? Do I want to go out and work and miss those mom moments? To go out and work and miss those mom moments.

Speaker 1: 12:48

Guys, my story is an example of story selling that takes someone to the pain point as a mom but positions the solution of hiring themselves and starting a business that's low risk with high uptick of getting results. And that's where my business went, from me in a laundry room to me building a seven figure income from my laundry room. You know, like taking that story out and saying I didn't lead with comp plans. I didn't lead with ingredients on products. I didn't lead with you can take fancy trips or drive, earn a car program. I didn't lead with. You can take fancy trips or drive or earn a car program. I didn't lead with what most people lead with in this industry. I led with my personal story, a connection, an emotional connection that got results, and that's the content you want to create.

Speaker 1: 13:41

You want to create that story-based content that takes them into a transformative space in their life where they say I have pain, I need to solve pain. It's worth investing in the solution because I don't want to be in this situation anymore. I'm going to make a decision and in fact, I'm going to make a decision faster because we want to get out of pain faster than ever. Right? So the psychology is really it's. It's where you're going to see people take the investment and actually seek the result faster. Now, when you're sharing the struggle and what's been missing from, like past attempts at the business and things like that, you really want to make sure that you're solving their problem.

Speaker 1: 14:30

Sometimes, when we get into our story, we forget who we're talking to, and so you have to really take time to ask the right questions and to present that in a way that feels like they're being heard and that connection can be. So what would an example of that look like? Well, for me, let's say I'm talking to another mom, another mom, let's say there's a mom I ran into and we're at a kid's school function, right, and I always say sorry guys, I have a little tick in my throat this week, but this is good, so we're just going to roll with it, we're live and unedited, because that's how I roll. What I would say to that mom at that function is something like this If there is a position around like a summer break, I would say, oh gosh, you know, I can't believe it's almost summer. You know what? What big plans do you guys have this summer? And sometimes they'll say, oh, my gosh, you've got all this, you know, awesome.

Speaker 1: 15:31

But oftentimes, especially recently, they say, oh well, you know, I don't know, I think we're sticking around this summer, we're not going to take the family vacation. And you can feel the pain. You can feel the pain and I'll sit there and I'll say, oh yeah, I know, I've been there. I have been there, so I'm understanding her because I have been there. I used to be like we can't take a family vacation with nine of us with a struggling brick mortar business. You know, I get that how that feels. It kind of stinks, and so you feel their pain and you understand that. And what's what? What happens there is you can say you know, I get that. I felt like that too. But what I can also do there is start to connect with her, and I use my own discernment there as to how fast that conversation goes.

Speaker 1: 16:26

But I'm pretty quick to say to the friend and say listen, I don't know if you're open to an opportunity that can maybe provide you the ability to take that vacation, but if you are, I would love to talk to you about this. Okay, so what I just showed her was she has pain. I understood it, I empathized with it. But, more importantly, I'm now saying I could probably help you with that pain if you're open. Because when they say yes, I'm open, that's half of the decision making right there, that's half of the work right there is getting them to say, yes, I'll listen. And I want you to understand that, because a lot of people get so scared to ask that they, they almost they get to this point right before asking, and then they either ghost out, they just like, oh, maybe she'll ask me. No, she won't, she's not going to ask you. No, she won't, she's not going to ask you, you know.

Speaker 1: 17:27

And so in your content, when you're talking to people, you literally still have to ask them A lot of times. People, if you're standing with someone, you need to ask them are you open? I'm talking to you, right? Well, if you're online creating content, you also have to singly ask people who raise their hand, the people who like your posts, the people who engage and answer in the comments, the people who share them, the people that maybe DM you because you wrote something that really got to them and connected to them. When you have those people virtually engaging, like they're standing by you, you still have to ask and see, that's what a lot of people don't understand when they're creating content online. They might have learned it from the sales perspective in the room, but they have not taken that application and put it online.

Speaker 1: 18:31

And so you know, a lot of times people say well, you know, I don't know, like, what to do, how to ask, and I say that's why I don't care, I don't sweat the followers. I built a very successful business and income with under 2000 followers on Instagram, because it's not about who's looking, it's about who you're talking to, it's about who you're asking. And, like I always say, my friend Rita Davenport said once girl, you got to get your asking gear. You have to get that ask going, because if you don't, they're never going to take action.

Speaker 1: 19:07

And so when you create your content, you can start to see wow, maybe I've been just kind of positioning random facts, maybe I'm just putting up bottles of my super potion and like you've got to buy my super potion, my cool hero product, and it's just bottle picture, bottle picture, bottle, picture, bottle picture, and you look like an infomercial and you're not connecting with anyone. You're getting crickets Guess what guys? It's because you're missing the story selling element. You're missing that emotional connection where you're positioning your content to speak to the problem. Each and every time, each and every time you're going out there, you're speaking to your audience's problem, and so you might be like I don't even know what my audience problems are. Well, that's why branding is so key. That's why I help people build brands, because once you get your brand in position, it makes the content creation element so much more simpler.

Speaker 1: 20:09

When I took the time to understand who I was, what my offers were and who I was talking to, I could identify the problem and it was like content, content, content all day long. This was easy. There was no more looking over here saying, oh, she's doing something super cool over here, or, oh, this is what's trending now on, you know, tiktok or Instagram. I got to go do this. You don't have to go into the whole I got to do everything mode. You can literally stay within your brand and start to get results, because you know who you're talking to, what you offer, what their problem is and why they should be looking at your offer as their decision. It's going to be a game changer for you, and so I want to.

Speaker 1: 20:55

I really want to end with this, and this is just like a little tip of the iceberg kind of exercise. When you work one-on-one with me or if you're in my network marketing team, you just get access to this for free, but when you work with me, either way, we're going to deep dive into your brand, right? If you hire me to help you with a brand, I can do that. If you work with me in my business as a network marketer or digital creator, guess what? I'm going to take you through the whole branding scope, because when you do this, you're going to start to get really great at getting sales and new signups. You're going to start attracting the right kind of conversations that say yes, because you've hit those marking points that they need to hear in order to make an informed decision.

Speaker 1: 21:44

And I'm going to tell you, friend, the best and the fastest way is to do a little brain dump today and just brainstorm about 30 pain points of who you were before you started your business. Why did you start? What was it that you, what was the pain that you had? And I say you because you're like thinking like, well, what about my audience? Your audience is a mere reflection of you. You are your ideal client. Okay, everything about you is what's going to be attracting to you.

Speaker 1: 22:16

So your pain that you had before you found your solution. Write them down and don't stop until you get 30, right, 30 pain points down. It could be lack of time, lack of money, lack of energy, lack of focus, lack of purpose, you know. Disorganization, no ways to make money, saying no to things I wanted to do with my family and creating more mom moments, not being able to take a family vacation, not being able to pay the bills every month, having stress in your marriage because of finances, feeling unhealthy and tired and sluggish, being overweight. I'm just throwing out stuff that I know like products would cover, like you know, like complexion was bad and you had low self-confidence, like I'm trying to touch major points of things.

Speaker 1: 23:15

But reality is is, what were the pain points that got you to do what you're doing now or what you're going to do that opportunity? You're looking at what are the pain points you have? Why are you going to do it? What is going to make you, make you going to show up on a Wednesday halfway through the week when you're tired and you don't want to show up? What is it going to be? You know, and write those 30 things down, because guys guess what?

Speaker 1: 23:40

Those 30 things, each one of those pain points then becomes at least one piece of content, if not multiple pieces of content, and this exercise can really make life easier because you're able to know where you're going with your. With your content. You're going to start seeing conversions happen because you're speaking to the pain point and you're talking about that in a story selling kind of format. Now, when I do my coaching clients with this exercise again, I like, really like to help them connect and be emotional with their audience and we really we go through a major exercise where we're really digging into their audience, members talking. We actually I help them formulate these questions, this content, this roadmap. And it's really amazing because what it does is it doesn't make you look at a screen every day that's blank staring at you, where you're feeling uncertain, not confident, not connecting, frustrated, burnout, overwhelmed, disconnecting, frustrated, burnout, overwhelmed, not getting the results, wondering if this dang thing's even going to work to getting those results right. And that's the beauty of creating content that converts with using the problem focus formula.

Speaker 1: 25:02

Now, I don't know about you, but that was a nice 20 some minute training to get you a head start. It should get you moving. You could have 30 days of content in the next 30 minutes if you brain dump this. So take my 30 and 30 method 30 ideas on the pain points and 30 minutes 30 and 30, on the pain points in 30 minutes 30 and 30, and you've got a month of certainty and you've got a plan. Now, if you really want to go more into the formula, then get into my insider group where I'm going to be talking to you and walking you through one-on-one how to really build your business, build your brand, position your offer, teach you how to activate your teams, with systems and all the things, and get the results that you deserve, because, at the end of the day, you don't want to be living on the scroll.

Speaker 1: 26:02

It's a tool. I always say social media is the best tool out there. But it's not your business plan and it's not the roadmap to freedom. If you're always looking down, as a mom especially, you want to be looking up and capturing those moments that you started your business with. So get into my insider circle, if you haven't already and if you're wanting to know where to find more information, simply just reach out to me at askangelakmckay, at outlookcom, and I'll be happy to give you a 15 minute discovery call, and you can also join me on my website at angelakmckaycom, where you can see kind of the ways we can work together.

Speaker 1: 26:46

I know, friend, that this is the most busy time of the year In real time. We're in quarter four, we're getting ready to go into the holidays, which is also the most lucrative time of the year in business, but it's also the most expensive time of the year with all the spending, and so whether you're looking for income or whether you're looking, you know. And so whether you're looking for income or whether you're looking you know to, to make money and sell to and really level up and exercise this, this opportunity that you have right now, but you're not getting results. Getting inside my inside circle is going to help you get those results, so I hope to see you inside the inner circle of the CIS club, I hope to see you inside the inner circle of the SIS club and I hope today's episode really did help you kind of have that light bulb moment that wow.

Speaker 1: 27:33

Content doesn't have to be hard, social selling doesn't have to be hard, you don't have to have hype metrics to get real results. And in fact, you were really just a couple steps away from really falling in love with the best tool out there, which is your social media market plan. All right, guys, so that's what I've got for you. Have a blessed day. I will see you next week inside the Laundrom Diaries, where we'll take another deep dive into how to simplify your business with systems strategy so that you can get the success that you deserve. Take care.