I currently live in Brooklyn with my three little boys and husband. What can I say, I’m the unofficial -but official - Queen in my house. I love weird combinations of food (more on that later), going out (MOMS CAN DANCE TOO), and seeing the "A-HA" look on a founder's face when they unleash the story that has been buried in them and their business for way too long.
In My World
I had a talk yesterday with a mentor and one of the smartest women I know in business and especially the online space.
I said to her, “I’m working so much to the point where I think I’m doing something wrong most weeks. Do you think other online business founders are lying when they say they work 10 hours a week and make a $hit ton of money?” (half joking)
To my surprise she said?
“YES.”
Why is that not my everyday summer reality?! And I Live in Europe now DAMMIT
She went on to tell me MULTIPLE stories of people in this space (some you might even know) who have gone on their socials and stated blatant lies.
How does she know?
Because she was working with some of them.
She was in high level Masterminds with them.
She had a first-row seat to their businesses.
And when she sometimes pointed out the discrepancies to these people she heard more often than not, “it doesn’t matter.”
I say this not to be gossipy.
But to remind you that building a meaningful business with integrity and something that makes you proud is a lot of hard work.
Building products that actually do what they say requires constant iteration and being available to your customers.
The people who sell their programs solely on the backs of “work 10 hours a week and make a ton of money” are doing that because that pitch DOES work but it’s also low-hanging fruit and you leave more people in your wake than in front of it.
You need to then shout that message even louder to fill the offer up faster than you are losing people. (it’s actually exhausting which is the irony of it all.)
Quality is not the aim here.
It’s quantity.
And at any cost (and the cost is usually yours.)
Just like the MLM (multi-level marketing) world is built on mostly false promises (except for the elite, connected, financially spouse supported few), it’s the same for this online world.
So if you, too, are working more than you’d like this summer and wish you were doing more of this:
I see you.
But I also know that I am building something sustainable.
Building programs that walk the walk.
Teaching someone how to tell better stories is not an overnight fix or a get-rich quick scheme.
But it’s meaningful and longer-lasting and I know I will get to a stage in my business where I am able to do more of the above more….but that season is not this one.
A Story Audit
Reminder, you can use me for free coaching if we select your submission.
I take submissions each week and will audit anything you send from a storytelling and marketing perspective.
This week’s submission is a woman after my OWN CITY MOMMING heart.
Her name is Emily and she’s the founder of this Instagram account.
In another life and in one of my “failed” experiments, I ran a site called, “Citykin” which was all about raising kids in cities. (which is why I loved this submission.)
I LOVED running this platform (SO MUCH WORK though) but had no business strategy and was not running online programs, courses or masterminds at this stage… so I truly didn’t have the online monetary vision.
I couldn’t keep this up as a hobby so I reluctantly stopped.
Which brings me to my first order of business with Emily’s account in general –you must change up your bio. More on my analysis below
Emily submitted a specific post which is a video she made with broll, voice over and a script (a woman after my own heart again.)
What works:
What needs work:
Why This Works:
I get messages like this almost every single day.
And no I’m not trying to pat my own back but to use this to inspire you to….TELL MORE STORIES.
It’s a noisy world out there.
We like short cuts.
The easy way outs (did you read the intro to this note?)
But at the end of the day, we need more stories because humans want to feel connected to something.
Your audience WANTS to know who you are and when you share with them, you become more memorable.
When you become more memorable people will recall your business more frequently.
Guess what that means? You will sell more of your product and services.
And you don’t need to go on a false rampage of “work negative 9 hours and make six figures” marketing campaign to sell your products or services.
Your stories will do the selling for you. Which brings me to a resource that I have been building behind the scenes for a few months now…. (drum roll!!)
Real Resources
Ladies and gents…I have cloned myself.
HA! In the interest of sounding creepy… I will go right ahead and be creepy.
I get how hard it is to tell your own stories (have I mentioned it took me THREE YEARS to do this for myself despite telling my clients day after day that they needed to share more about themselves.) I feel like this is my confessional guilt.
I made a video story about that right here….
I LOVE Claude and use Claude and ChatGPT all the time in my business, but for helping me tell more personal stories… MEH.
It’s not that great and only when I continually finesse, tweak, train and revise do I MAYBE get stuff I could use.
And I do this storytelling stuff for a living!?!?
So I thought, “I need to build something custom that is trained only on my frameworks, storytelling methodologies and systems to make this easier for people to show up and share stories.”
Welcome to the StoryPro AI Bot. It’s like having me in your pocket (in the most non creepy of ways.)
It’s like your storytelling sidekick to help you turn mundane moments into social posts that captivate through story.
UM HELLO!!! HOW AWESOME IS THAT!?!?
I’D LOVE for you to try it out (for free). For 3 days to be exact (no credit card needed.)
My Mastermind students are loving it so now it’s your turn.
And if you hate it please let me know.
But if you love it please let me know!!
Much of this is early phases and I am really bullish on the power of AI in helping you show up more authentically in your marketing. I know it sounds counterintuitive but it’s not! Exciting times.
Inspire That Founder’s Fire
It’s that time of year again…. I’m getting into mode for selecting my next Fall Class for Founder’s Fire. Cohort No. 5! (the 12 week program where you work intimately with me and my team and we bring your BIG WHY story to life in an amazing piece of video)
I know not everyone who reads my weekly email is interested so I won’t bombard you but if you do want to hear about the program that will launch in October and how it will change your business, then make sure you put your name on this list.
AI is amazing but because of AI is why YOUR VOICE as a founder is even more necessary and needed. YOUR founder stories.
And in my corner of the Internet, we only use AI in the most emotionally intelligent way and ONLY if it helps us tell more authentic stories.
So on that note, this is your FINAL reminder that if you want your FREE ticket to the AI Summit that I’m teaching at that will literally cover all aspects of running a business online, this is the last week to get it free.
You can also pay $67 for a lifetime pass to have the week of trainings forever (I bought this last year and the summit was life-changing)