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Danielle Cook: The Power of Owning Your Story · The Daily Writer

• 0:14
  SPEAKER_01: Hey there, my friend.
• 0:15
  SPEAKER_01: Welcome to the Saturday edition of the Daily Rider.
• 0:18
  SPEAKER_01: Each weekday, we bring you a short lesson that helps you live out the four practices of a great writer: creativity, consistency, courage, and connection.
• 0:26
  SPEAKER_01: Here on the weekend edition, we take a deeper dive into those topics through conversations with writers and teaching that helps us apply what we're learning.
• 0:33
  SPEAKER_01: For more, you can visit us at dailyriderlife.com.
• 0:38
  SPEAKER_01: As writers, we spend a lot of time focusing on helping other people tell their stories.
• 0:42
  SPEAKER_01: Maybe you do client work, you do coaching, you run a writing community as I do, or you interview other people for a podcast, which of course I do as well.
• 0:51
  SPEAKER_01: But even if you only write for yourself, much of your time is spent thinking about how you can help other people live and tell a better story.
• 0:59
  SPEAKER_01: Now, all that is important, of course, but don't forget about your own story as well.
• 1:04
  SPEAKER_01: Those are perhaps the easiest ones to neglect because we're so close to our own stories.
• 1:09
  SPEAKER_01: It's really easy to downplay or even disregard the value that you bring to the table and what other people can learn from your experiences.
• 1:17
  SPEAKER_01: That's why I'm so excited on this episode to feature a conversation with my good friend Danielle Cook.
• 1:22
  SPEAKER_01: Danielle is a writer and entrepreneur who has worked with over a hundred business owners, creatives, and thought leaders who are ready to break through the noise and speak to the heart of their ideal audience.
• 1:34
  SPEAKER_01: Whether it's crafting the book that you've been dreaming of, or writing a bio that strikes the perfect balance of passion and expertise, Danielle can take your ideas and visions that have been swirling around in your head and get them down on paper.
• 1:46
  SPEAKER_01: Danielle believes that the words we use transform our lives, our businesses, and ultimately the world.
• 1:53
  SPEAKER_01: And she is committed to helping anyone who is ready use their voice to break through the noise and speak to the heart.
• 1:59
  SPEAKER_01: So in this conversation today, Danielle shares her story and how she got involved in business and writing.
• 2:05
  SPEAKER_01: She shares what it means to own your story, and she also shares some actionable steps to writing an engaging bio that uses the magic of story to build the know, like, and trust factors that are so important in communication.
• 2:18
  SPEAKER_01: Now, before we get into this conversation, I want to give a really special shout out to my good friend Honore Corter, who runs the Empire Builders Mastermind.
• 2:25
  SPEAKER_01: Danielle and I are both part of Honore's Mastermind this year, which is where we met.
• 2:29
  SPEAKER_01: And I'm so grateful for the amazing connections that you can make when you participate in fantastic groups like EBM.
• 2:36
  SPEAKER_01: All right, with that said, let's get right to the conversation with my friend Danielle Cook.
• 2:41
  SPEAKER_01: Danielle, it is so great to have you on the Daily Writer Podcast.
• 2:43
  SPEAKER_01: Thanks for making time to be a guest.
• 2:45
  SPEAKER_01: I'm excited.
• 2:46
  SPEAKER_00: Thanks for having me, Kent.
• 2:48
  SPEAKER_00: I'm so excited to connect with you today and you know, talk all about getting your story out there and help some writers write their write their own bios and write their story.
• 2:58
  SPEAKER_01: Absolutely.
• 2:59
  SPEAKER_01: I think it is interesting.
• 3:01
  SPEAKER_01: So we are both part of a mastermind group led by Adam Rey Corter, who we both love and respect and who's impacted our lives in so many ways.
• 3:08
  SPEAKER_00: Yes, I'll talk right.
• 3:10
  SPEAKER_01: Absolutely.
• 3:11
  SPEAKER_01: So when we first started talking about this, I thought we were going to do kind of a straight a straightforward episode on how to write a good bio.
• 3:19
  SPEAKER_01: But as we talked, I realized that there's a lot more to this.
• 3:23
  SPEAKER_01: I'm so glad that you have suggested that we expand this topic because this goes far beyond just like writing a paragraph long bio for social media or for books or for whatever.
• 3:34
  SPEAKER_01: So let's start here.
• 3:36
  SPEAKER_01: Um, can you share some of your story and how you got into writing and business?
• 3:41
  SPEAKER_01: So I know, I know you've done a lot of different things over the years, um, but give us kind of in a nutshell, what led you down this path to being involved in in writing and business?
• 3:51
  SPEAKER_00: Yes.
• 3:52
  SPEAKER_00: So I am a professional copywriter and ghostwriter.
• 3:57
  SPEAKER_00: And but for the most of my career, I worked in the music industry.
• 4:02
  SPEAKER_00: So a little bit of a pivot.
• 4:04
  SPEAKER_00: My entire life, I've loved writing from you know, journaling as a kid to bad poetry in high school.
• 4:12
  SPEAKER_00: Even I remember when my college professors would give me a limit on the amount of pages I could turn in on an essay or a paper, and I would be like so upset.
• 4:21
  SPEAKER_00: Just because I loved writing my entire life.
• 4:25
  SPEAKER_00: Uh a couple years ago, before my daughter was born, I was specifically working in artist management.
• 4:32
  SPEAKER_00: And so working with musicians to help manage their career.
• 4:36
  SPEAKER_00: Um, and one of the things that I ended up doing quite a bit often for them was writing copy on their behalf, such as social media posts, emails, um, helping some first drafts of interview question answers, that type of thing.
• 4:53
  SPEAKER_00: And I just always really enjoyed it.
• 4:56
  SPEAKER_00: Four years ago, my daughter was born, and it just became very evident that going back to work for the artist and manager that I was working with wasn't going to be a good fit long term for a couple of different reasons.
• 5:08
  SPEAKER_00: And so I was sort of unexpectedly became a stay-at-home mom and very quickly was craving a little bit of work and some um experiences with adult people during the day.
• 5:22
  SPEAKER_01: So which I'm sure was nice.
• 5:24
  SPEAKER_00: Yes, absolutely.
• 5:25
  SPEAKER_00: Just to be able to have a full conversation with somebody.
• 5:29
  SPEAKER_00: And I initially just started um writing copy for small business for other small business owners on the side.
• 5:38
  SPEAKER_00: A couple of my friends referred me.
• 5:40
  SPEAKER_00: They were looking for a little bit of website copy.
• 5:42
  SPEAKER_00: And actually, my first professional experience as a copywriter was writing a bio for a local photographer here in Nashville.
• 5:50
  SPEAKER_00: She had worked with another copywriter and was very unhappy with the result that she got back of her bio for her website.
• 5:58
  SPEAKER_00: And so this was round two for her.
• 6:00
  SPEAKER_00: And um, I was able to uh write a bio that she absolutely loved that she was thrilled to put on her website.
• 6:08
  SPEAKER_00: And the rest is history.
• 6:10
  SPEAKER_00: It just sort of took off from there.
• 6:12
  SPEAKER_00: I thought that copywriting and now ghostwriting would just be something I could do on the side until I could go back to work, quote unquote, full time after my daughter went to school.
• 6:22
  SPEAKER_00: But the business just kept growing and expanding, and I love every second of it.
• 6:27
  SPEAKER_01: Now, let me take a little bit of a side word here for just a second.
• 6:31
  SPEAKER_01: Uh, for listeners who are not familiar with some of the nuances of writing copy or copywriting, can you explain what is the difference between something like copywriting and something like writing a blog post or writing a social media post?
• 6:46
  SPEAKER_01: Because there's all those all those things are designed to do different things, but give us kind of a nutshell definition of what is writing copy or what is copywriting.
• 6:54
  SPEAKER_00: So, writing copy or copywriting, I would probably summarize it as developing a piece of content that is going to achieve a purpose in your business.
• 7:07
  SPEAKER_00: Okay.
• 7:08
  SPEAKER_00: So whether that is a website copy that will convert it somebody who comes to your website as a fault to a being a follower or a client, or maybe it's a blog post that educates people on your approach when it comes to like your business or um getting them to download a lead magnet.
• 7:26
  SPEAKER_00: So I think that's probably the best way to sum it up is copywriting is um writing a piece of uh content that really has to move the needle.
• 7:36
  SPEAKER_00: It has to move the person who's reading the copy forward in a direction that you want them to go to.
• 7:42
  SPEAKER_01: Okay.
• 7:42
  SPEAKER_01: And I think that's a that's a really good distinction.
• 7:44
  SPEAKER_01: And I appreciate you sharing that because so many times, and I think all of us have been here, we just we have this impulse to write, and we may be doing blog posts or I mean some of us, myself included, sometimes write whole books without knowing what our purpose is, you know, and but that's that's just part of the journey.
• 8:01
  SPEAKER_01: But I love the idea of copywriting where you have a specific goal in mind that you want the reader to do, and the copy is going to move them along that that journey.
• 8:08
  SPEAKER_01: So I think that's really, really fascinating.
• 8:11
  SPEAKER_01: And I think I need to do a lot more stuff on this podcast about copywriting because all of us are doing copywriting.
• 8:16
  SPEAKER_01: Maybe we should, you know, all of us are writing for an for an intent or for a purpose for our readers, but we could, I'm sure, be doing it a lot better, most of us.
• 8:24
  SPEAKER_00: So yeah, and something that oh, sorry.
• 8:27
  SPEAKER_01: No, I so I just I really respect what you do as a copywriter.
• 8:31
  SPEAKER_01: And I know those those skills in copywriting can really help you with ghostwriting too.
• 8:36
  SPEAKER_01: So you're kind of already a leg up on on, you know, many of the rest of us who don't really have any formal copywriting training and could probably learn a lot from what you're doing.
• 8:45
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, I well, thank you so much for saying that.
• 8:48
  SPEAKER_00: And I think that, you know, sometimes the goal isn't maybe necessarily to get them to purchase a book or to sign up for the an email newsletter, which are great call to actions to have.
• 9:01
  SPEAKER_00: Sometimes the purpose of a piece of content like a blog can just be to build the like, know, and trust factor.
• 9:08
  SPEAKER_00: And so something to kind of you know take the pressure off uh is you know, you're you're wanting to take people on a journey with you with every single piece, just like you would with a book.
• 9:19
  SPEAKER_00: So every single piece of piece of website copy, every email, every blog should take them on some sort of journey.
• 9:26
  SPEAKER_00: And one way to kind of clarify that is just at the pop top of your blank, you know, paper on your website or sorry, um, in your browser on or on Word is just to put like what is the intention or goal of what you're writing before you start.
• 9:41
  SPEAKER_01: That's good.
• 9:41
  unknown: That's it.
• 9:42
  SPEAKER_00: And just kind of like note it at the top.
• 9:44
  SPEAKER_00: Like, is it to build the like, know, and trust factor?
• 9:46
  SPEAKER_00: Is it to get them to sign up for the email newsletter?
• 9:49
  SPEAKER_00: Is it to get them to download the lead magnet and just keeping that front and center can really help um organize the arc of your piece of content?
• 9:59
  SPEAKER_01: That's good.
• 9:59
  SPEAKER_01: That's really really good.
• 10:00
  SPEAKER_01: I've never done that before with my own stuff in terms of well, I mean, I guess I have, but I know I could be way more intentional with it of anything that I write, just thinking, why am I writing this?
• 10:11
  SPEAKER_01: What do I want the reader to do at the end of this?
• 10:14
  SPEAKER_01: And that's really, really good.
• 10:15
  SPEAKER_01: I love that.
• 10:16
  SPEAKER_01: That's genius.
• 10:17
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 10:18
  SPEAKER_00: So something everybody can take away today is just start with like what's the intention of this piece at the top of the paper.
• 10:24
  SPEAKER_01: Well, where I'd love to go with this conversation is uh obviously we're going to talk about some actionable steps for writing a good bio for ourselves, but but I think some background is really good here.
• 10:35
  SPEAKER_01: And I love this idea of owning your story.
• 10:38
  SPEAKER_01: And you're the one that actually initially come up with this idea for this conversation.
• 10:42
  SPEAKER_01: And I really, really love this idea.
• 10:44
  SPEAKER_01: What is really this concept all about of owning your story?
• 10:50
  SPEAKER_00: So let me back up and say that a lot of my clientele, when they come to me, they know they have the end in mind, like they know what they want the reader to do, or the people person who visits the website to do, or the person who reads the content to do, uh, or the goal, they have it in mind, but they don't know how to get there and they don't know what they want to sound like when they get there.
• 11:19
  SPEAKER_00: And so um a lot of owning your story, I would say, is sort of that middle piece of identifying identifying what is your unique voice, what is your unique value proposition, and to stop looking at what the competition is doing or what your peers and colleagues are doing and trying to mold that into fitting into your brand, your business, your website, or your book even.
• 11:52
  SPEAKER_01: Man, that's that opens up a whole can of worms in a sense, because I was just talking with somebody this morning about this exact issue of you know, especially when you're getting started as a writer or when you're building a business, you look to other people for inspiration, but it's really, really easy to look at somebody else and think, oh, what they're doing is working.
• 12:13
  SPEAKER_01: I should be doing that exact same thing in my business.
• 12:15
  SPEAKER_01: But the problem is that a lot, I think most of us, if not all of us, we don't just follow one person.
• 12:21
  SPEAKER_01: We we maybe closely follow a half dozen people.
• 12:24
  SPEAKER_01: The problem is once you start trying to do that and trying to imitate everybody else, then you just become so overwhelmed and paralyzed, you're like, I don't know what to do anymore because person A, I love what they're doing, but what they're doing is different than what person B is doing.
• 12:37
  SPEAKER_01: And I want to do both of those things.
• 12:38
  SPEAKER_01: And so at some point you just kind of have to own your own story and be yourself.
• 12:42
  SPEAKER_00: Yes, it's owning your own story, it's believing that what you have to bring to the table is enough, but also it is exactly what somebody out there needs.
• 12:54
  SPEAKER_00: They don't need what, you know, what you know, Barbara J on this other website is saying, or they don't need what John D in this book is saying.
• 13:03
  SPEAKER_00: They need exactly what you have to offer.
• 13:06
  SPEAKER_00: And when you try to diminish yourself or wash over your voice or your content with somebody else's voice or style, you are taking away from that person who's who doesn't know it yet, but they need you.
• 13:22
  SPEAKER_01: Why do you think so many people struggle with this habit of diminishing ourselves?
• 13:28
  SPEAKER_01: You know, we we we bring an important story to the table.
• 13:32
  SPEAKER_01: Why is it that so many people they just say, Well, I don't have a story to tell.
• 13:35
  SPEAKER_01: I don't have anything important to share.
• 13:37
  SPEAKER_01: Why would anybody want to listen to me?
• 13:38
  SPEAKER_01: Why would anybody want to read a book that I write?
• 13:40
  SPEAKER_01: That seems to be really, really extremely common.
• 13:44
  SPEAKER_00: Oh my goodness, so common.
• 13:46
  SPEAKER_01: I know this is a whole can of worms, probably, but that's okay.
• 13:50
  SPEAKER_00: There's a couple, there's a couple reasons why.
• 13:52
  SPEAKER_00: One is we all have a, I like to call her Aunt Sally in our in our head.
• 13:58
  SPEAKER_01: Are she related to Karen?
• 13:59
  SPEAKER_01: Like Aunt Karen.
• 14:00
  SPEAKER_00: Probably, but you probably do see her in real life at Thanksgiving, whoever your Aunt Sally is, and you know there's a party of you that just knows that she's gonna bring up what you posted on Facebook, she's gonna bring up what you posted and have something critical to say.
• 14:16
  SPEAKER_00: And it's really important to remember that Aunt Sally is not your client.
• 14:20
  SPEAKER_00: Aunt Sally is not gonna purchase your book.
• 14:23
  SPEAKER_00: Um, sometimes people are afraid of making other people look bad.
• 14:28
  SPEAKER_00: And in that quick case, I always like to quote Anne Lamont, and you have to uh forgive me for paraphrasing, but she says, Well, they should have been nicer to you in real life if they didn't want to be written about.
• 14:40
  SPEAKER_00: Um and then I think that there's a a couple other like big pieces.
• 14:45
  SPEAKER_00: One is that you're have you ever run across somebody and they haven't seen your kid for six months, and they go, Wow, oh my goodness, look at how big your kid has grown.
• 14:57
  SPEAKER_00: But you've seen your kid every single day.
• 14:59
  SPEAKER_00: So you probably don't notice the changes or how you know, um, or how drastic, you know, um the growth spurt is because you see it every single day.
• 15:08
  SPEAKER_00: So our stories are like that a little bit in the sense that we can kind of see them every day, we're living them every day.
• 15:14
  SPEAKER_00: So we don't necessarily understand uh or have a good perspective, I should say, of how um powerful they are.
• 15:22
  SPEAKER_00: But also a lot of my clients come from a faith-based background, and most of them grew up with some sort of messaging of who I am is nothing, or that we must decrease in order for um for God to be um to be glorified.
• 15:41
  SPEAKER_00: And a lot of that plays into our messaging.
• 15:44
  SPEAKER_00: You know, it sinks down inside of us because we hear it over and over again for years.
• 15:48
  SPEAKER_00: So when you go to sit down to write your bio and tell somebody like, hey, I've got something to offer you your entire life.
• 15:54
  SPEAKER_00: You've been told you have nothing to offer worthy of value.
• 15:58
  SPEAKER_00: And and now you've got to fight that as you're writing your bio or as you're writing your message or as you're trying to tell your story.
• 16:05
  SPEAKER_00: So, especially for women, as we grow into adulthood and enter um marriage and motherhood, our lives continue to revolve around other people and supporting other people's stories, supporting our husbands' careers, supporting our children's academic pursuits or um sports pursuits.
• 16:24
  SPEAKER_00: And so we further and further get pushed to the back burner.
• 16:28
  SPEAKER_00: And so it can feel very uncomfortable and even very scary to put ourselves front and center again and to really own our story and share it without fear.
• 16:38
  SPEAKER_01: Man, that's a lot to unpack.
• 16:42
  SPEAKER_00: Sorry, a couple, a couple of little things I see, and then a couple big ones.
• 16:46
  SPEAKER_01: No, you're you're absolutely right.
• 16:48
  SPEAKER_01: Just and I I have to be, I'll I'll just gonna be told, so I don't work here anymore.
• 16:53
  SPEAKER_01: I don't work there anymore.
• 16:54
  SPEAKER_01: So I can I feel like I can be really honest.
• 16:56
  SPEAKER_01: So one of the one of the things that really, really bothered me about uh working in a Christian college, and I'm not talking about the place where I worked specifically, I'm saying as a whole, is there's kind of this idea of let's recruit female students under sort of the the guise of you know you can go like make a difference for Christ, that kind of a thing.
• 17:16
  SPEAKER_01: I'm not saying that you can't, but I'm saying I do think over the years I had increasingly an ethical problem with kind of our our efforts to recruit female students, while sort of at least in our sort of branch of the evangelical church, there were really very limited opportunities for women to go into paid ministry roles, you know.
• 17:37
  SPEAKER_01: And the message that I think a lot of girls took away from that is you know, come to college and if you're lucky, you might marry a pastor.
• 17:44
  SPEAKER_01: And like that was the best you could hope for.
• 17:45
  SPEAKER_01: Or you could be a missionary or you might be a music person, but in reality, very few churches hire female worship leaders.
• 17:51
  SPEAKER_01: I mean, that's just the reality that I saw for many, many years.
• 17:55
  SPEAKER_01: And I know being in the Christian music industry, you dealt with that as well, many of those dynamics.
• 18:00
  SPEAKER_01: And I I just I just kind of wonder how what we can do to address this?
• 18:04
  SPEAKER_01: How can and what we do as writers and helping writers, how can we help this situation where so many women feel like, man, I just am beat down, I don't have opportunities.
• 18:16
  SPEAKER_01: Sometimes people look at me as a second-class citizen.
• 18:18
  SPEAKER_01: Again, I know this is a whole can of worms, but but I sort of feel like what what we're doing in the evangelical world is not really good enough uh in terms of helping women share their stories and be who God created them to be.
• 18:30
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, especially when you add to the top on top of that, let's say you've got a low-paying job, whether it's in the Christian music industry or in the church, and then kids come along and expenses pile it up, pile up, and you have to choose like, is it worth spending my time away from my child, who I'm taught on Sunday morning, day after day, and every single Mother's Day is my greatest ministry.
• 18:54
  unknown: Yeah.
• 18:55
  SPEAKER_00: In order to go, you know, work at the church office, you know, 40 hours a week and be underpaid.
• 19:01
  SPEAKER_00: So when you have those two dynamics, it gets very easy.
• 19:05
  SPEAKER_00: It becomes clear that my best option is to exit the system that I've been a part of because it is going to take away from what I've been told is my true mission and calling in life.
• 19:17
  SPEAKER_00: And as a mother, I can say, like, absolutely, like my daughter is my pride and my joy.
• 19:23
  SPEAKER_00: But I would say I've created a world where I get to have the best of both.
• 19:30
  SPEAKER_00: I created a world where I get to be present for my daughter and um do fun things like go to the zoo in the middle of the day on Friday.
• 19:39
  SPEAKER_00: And I've also created a world where I get to really do what I feel like I've been put on this earth to do and help people share their stories.
• 19:47
  SPEAKER_00: And for any woman out there who's feeling like the system is not serving them, I would say it's not serving you.
• 19:55
  SPEAKER_00: It was never meant to serve you.
• 19:57
  SPEAKER_00: So don't be afraid to exit it and create your own system.
• 20:02
  SPEAKER_00: Create your own world.
• 20:04
  SPEAKER_00: You can have the best of both worlds, you just have to stop asking for permission to have it.
• 20:09
  SPEAKER_00: Oh my gosh, wait for somebody else to give it to you.
• 20:12
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 20:13
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 20:14
  SPEAKER_01: And this is why I'm sure you have these conversations all the time where sometimes you just want to say, just start your own business, you know, like stop trying to wait for validation from the traditional male hierarchy circles.
• 20:27
  SPEAKER_01: I mean, I'm I wouldn't describe myself as like some big liberal person, but I'm just having been around the block for many years in the Christian evangelical world, in the Christian college, you know, space.
• 20:37
  SPEAKER_01: Um, we don't give women the opportunities they deserve by a long shot for the vast majority of the time.
• 20:43
  SPEAKER_01: So I just feel like, hey, we've got the technology, you have the ability to build your own platform, just bypass that whole system and start impacting people.
• 20:51
  SPEAKER_01: Write books, do a blog, do podcast.
• 20:53
  SPEAKER_01: You can impact way, way more people by um by many multiples more by doing a podcast than you can by just focusing your efforts on one local church.
• 21:02
  SPEAKER_01: Now I'm sure that will set badly with some people, but yeah, it's just the truth.
• 21:06
  SPEAKER_01: I don't know how else to say it except it's just the truth.
• 21:09
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, absolutely.
• 21:10
  SPEAKER_00: It's okay to find you don't necessarily have to lean in or stay home.
• 21:15
  SPEAKER_00: You can find whatever balance of that is best for you that resonates inside of your soul.
• 21:22
  SPEAKER_01: Absolutely.
• 21:23
  SPEAKER_01: Absolutely, I couldn't agree more.
• 21:26
  SPEAKER_01: Um man, there's a lot of directions we can go with that.
• 21:29
  SPEAKER_01: So this kind of stuff has been kind of bothering me for many, many years.
• 21:33
  SPEAKER_01: But now that I don't work for a Christian organization, I kind of feel more free to just kind of say what I think about this stuff.
• 21:38
  SPEAKER_01: I'm sure that'll turn some of my listeners off, but that's okay.
• 21:41
  SPEAKER_01: Um so when when you are working, particularly with females, um, what are some of the ways that you try to help them gain confidence and gain clarity about their story and some ways to share that story?
• 21:56
  SPEAKER_01: That that feels like a very sort of open ended question, I guess, but but I'm wondering, okay.
• 22:00
  SPEAKER_01: There are some real legit major problems here, particularly in the evangelical world.
• 22:05
  SPEAKER_01: What are some things that you would suggest that, particularly, females could do to get their story out there more or develop the confidence to do that?
• 22:13
  SPEAKER_00: I would say there's a couple different things that you can do just right off the bat to kind of get your story out there and to um get some confidence around it.
• 22:24
  SPEAKER_00: Um, one is really identifying what is your voice.
• 22:30
  SPEAKER_00: And I usually like to give people two prompts, two writing prompts to get them started and get them thinking in that direction.
• 22:38
  SPEAKER_01: Okay, this sounds great.
• 22:39
  SPEAKER_01: I'm now now my ears have perked up.
• 22:41
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 22:42
  SPEAKER_00: So the first writing prompt is write a story of a time you were brave.
• 22:49
  SPEAKER_00: Now don't think about it too much.
• 22:51
  SPEAKER_00: Even set a timer for like five minutes.
• 22:53
  SPEAKER_00: Don't edit as you go.
• 22:55
  SPEAKER_00: Just write of a time that you were absolutely fearless or courageous.
• 23:00
  SPEAKER_00: And if you were like, I have no clue where that came from, or maybe it was a I have to do this, so I'm gonna do it scared, whatever the situation was, just write a story of a time you were brave.
• 23:13
  SPEAKER_00: And then uh after five minutes, take a step back, take a sip of water, because you will feel emotionally drained after those five minutes, and look at the voice with what you wrote in and find five adjectives that just describe it.
• 23:30
  SPEAKER_00: So strong, purposeful, um, curious, you name it, just five adjectives that describe your voice in that moment.
• 23:41
  SPEAKER_00: And then once you've done that, your next writing prompt is you are going to close your eyes and pretend your best friends have shown up at a restaurant for your birthday dinner.
• 23:55
  SPEAKER_00: And each of them is standing up to give you a toast.
• 23:59
  SPEAKER_00: What are they saying about you?
• 24:03
  SPEAKER_00: And even like write down the three names of your best friends, or if you're if you're married, think back to your wedding when your maid of honor or your best man stood up and gave a toast about you.
• 24:15
  SPEAKER_00: What were some of the things that person said?
• 24:18
  SPEAKER_00: Because that person sees all the best sides of you that you're afraid to recognize in yourself.
• 24:26
  SPEAKER_00: And then write down some of the adjectives that your friends would describe you as like kind, courageous, inquisitive.
• 24:36
  SPEAKER_00: Now you've got five adjectives from prompt one and five adjectives from prompt two.
• 24:42
  SPEAKER_00: And I would say pick three from each that you feel like are the strongest.
• 24:48
  SPEAKER_00: And those three, those six words are gonna be essentially be your voice and tone.
• 24:54
  SPEAKER_00: Write those six adjectives on a piece of paper and pin it up somewhere where you draft, like where you can read them all the time.
• 25:02
  SPEAKER_00: And I would even copy and paste them at the top of your document on your computer every time you go to draft something new, because it's going to spring to your mind that what that voice and that tone and that feeling of the moment you were brave, and also how it made you feel when your friends or kind ones were the kind words that they would say about you.
• 25:25
  SPEAKER_00: And um, and it's really going to help you focus your voice and focus your tone, your tone to one that is uniquely yours.
• 25:32
  SPEAKER_01: That's good.
• 25:33
  SPEAKER_01: That's really, really good.
• 25:34
  SPEAKER_01: I love that.
• 25:36
  SPEAKER_01: I love that.
• 25:38
  SPEAKER_01: So I would say if anybody, well, not if anybody, whoever's listening to this, if you want to really put these into practice, go back and listen to the last five minutes over again and and do this exercise because you you gave so much great nuance and detail.
• 25:51
  SPEAKER_01: I love that.
• 25:52
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 25:52
  SPEAKER_01: It's great.
• 25:53
  SPEAKER_00: And as you're writing either your bio or telling your story, I would say don't be afraid to talk about what is your unique approach to either your subject matter or your um or whatever your business is focusing in, because chances are you started your business or you started sharing your message because you realized that there was a gap that no one was talking about or nobody was tackling.
• 26:17
  SPEAKER_00: And so make sure to talk about that unique approach in your bio and don't be afraid to share your aha moment, that moment where you went, I'm going for it, or the moment maybe you quit your job, or the moment you said, Yeah, I'll just, you know, do this here on the side until my daughter goes to school full time and then I'll go get a full-time job.
• 26:39
  SPEAKER_00: Whatever is that moment where you said, I'm going for it.
• 26:42
  SPEAKER_00: Always share your aha moment.
• 26:45
  SPEAKER_01: Hey, that's great.
• 26:46
  SPEAKER_01: And I'm sure you would, I'm sure you you would agree with this, but I do want to reiterate this is great for men and for women because uh it doesn't matter how old you are or how young you are or what your gender is or anything else, sometimes we all feel scared, we all feel intimidated and we shrink back from the things that life is calling us to do.
• 27:07
  SPEAKER_01: So the exercises like this are really, really good.
• 27:10
  SPEAKER_01: Have you ever thought about doing like a whole journal of these kinds of prompts or something like that?
• 27:14
  SPEAKER_00: I have not, but maybe I will definitely have to look into that.
• 27:18
  SPEAKER_01: Like seriously, if you if if there was something like this on, and I'm I can't exactly envision what that would look like or what shape it would take, but this would make a great product.
• 27:28
  SPEAKER_01: I mean, because you're talking about owning your story.
• 27:32
  SPEAKER_01: Um, in fact, here's an idea have an owning your story journal with some writing props that help you own your story.
• 27:38
  SPEAKER_01: I would buy that right now.
• 27:39
  SPEAKER_01: In fact, I would buy probably 25 and I would mail them to a bunch of friends.
• 27:43
  SPEAKER_00: All right, let me get to work then.
• 27:45
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, yeah, seriously, that would be a really cool product, I think.
• 27:48
  SPEAKER_00: Absolutely.
• 27:49
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, I uh love that idea.
• 27:51
  SPEAKER_00: And there are some also like really just wonderful resources out there too for anybody who um is looking for some encouragement on how to own your story.
• 28:03
  SPEAKER_00: But also I would say read, well, one, two things.
• 28:08
  SPEAKER_00: One, just kind of what you said earlier, uh, Kent, about how you know you know you're probably upsetting some some people with what you're saying, but chances are there's a good portion of people who need to hear this.
• 28:20
  SPEAKER_00: I always say piss off five people so you can connect with five thousand.
• 28:25
  SPEAKER_00: So figure out who are the five people you're gonna piss off and piss them off in your copy because you're gonna connect with five thousand more people who need to hear what you have to say.
• 28:35
  SPEAKER_01: That's great.
• 28:37
  SPEAKER_01: Well, the thing about the the um, I guess going back to this, the thing about the the female leadership, like in even or not female leadership necessarily, but um but women not having as many opportunities as men in the evangelical world is I've never really understood that because the women who the people who have impacted me most in my life have been females.
• 29:00
  SPEAKER_01: You know, a teacher in middle school was the one who first encouraged me to write.
• 29:04
  SPEAKER_01: My wife, obviously, she's an impacted me in so many ways.
• 29:07
  SPEAKER_01: My mom has been a cre a crazy important encouragement in my life.
• 29:11
  SPEAKER_01: So many female teachers.
• 29:12
  SPEAKER_01: Now lots of men have as well.
• 29:14
  SPEAKER_01: But I I've never understood this idea of kind of wanting to you know hold back females because we're losing so much creativity, leadership, ingenuity, ideas.
• 29:27
  SPEAKER_01: We're losing so much by basically not giving half of our population, you know, the opportunities and and the voice that they need.
• 29:35
  SPEAKER_01: I've just never understood that at all.
• 29:37
  SPEAKER_01: But that's just me.
• 29:39
  SPEAKER_00: I don't understand it either.
• 29:41
  SPEAKER_00: It's my life story.
• 29:43
  SPEAKER_00: I think the only question I have to come to is, you know, especially if you're a man or a woman listening to this and you're trying to examine maybe biases in your workplace or in your content or whatnot, maybe saying, you know, who stands to benefit from this policy?
• 30:00
  SPEAKER_00: Who stands to benefit from this way of thinking?
• 30:04
  SPEAKER_00: And then figure out, okay, how can we how can we flip the script?
• 30:09
  SPEAKER_00: How can we pivot to ensure that everybody benefits?
• 30:13
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 30:14
  SPEAKER_01: Man, that that is a great idea.
• 30:16
  SPEAKER_01: Who benefits and who does not benefit from this particular thing?
• 30:19
  SPEAKER_01: So now to kind of uh head into the home stretch here, let's talk about some actionable steps to write an engaging bio uh that uses the magic of your story.
• 30:29
  SPEAKER_01: And I know ultimately the goal is that we want our clients and customers and others to know, like, and trust us.
• 30:35
  SPEAKER_01: That's those three things have been battered around in the business world probably for decades, but they're so true.
• 30:40
  SPEAKER_01: We want people to know, like, and trust us.
• 30:43
  SPEAKER_01: Um, is there any steps that you can share with us to write a great bio that will help accomplish that?
• 30:49
  SPEAKER_00: Yes, couple of go-to things that I always like to make sure is included in every bio is make sure you say your name in your bio.
• 31:03
  SPEAKER_00: I cannot tell you how many websites I've gone to, especially if your company or your brand is not your name, make sure to introduce yourself.
• 31:13
  SPEAKER_00: Hi, I'm Danielle Cook at the top of your bio.
• 31:16
  SPEAKER_00: Um, and even if the the content, even if your website is your name, making sure that you have an introduction available at the top.
• 31:26
  SPEAKER_00: Um then I would also, like I said earlier, make sure to work in that unique approach, but also what that unique approach results in.
• 31:36
  SPEAKER_00: What are the results that that unique approach delivers that nobody else can deliver or that you're not seeing delivered?
• 31:44
  SPEAKER_00: Um and then I would also share some sort, some like some sort of personal antidote.
• 31:50
  SPEAKER_00: You know, do you like to take your dogs on walks in the dog park?
• 31:55
  SPEAKER_00: Um, do you um like to travel?
• 31:59
  SPEAKER_00: Are you a crunchy peanut butter person or a smooth peanut butter person?
• 32:05
  SPEAKER_01: Crunchy for sure.
• 32:07
  SPEAKER_01: I'm just gonna put my vote out there.
• 32:09
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, absolutely.
• 32:10
  SPEAKER_00: And you know what?
• 32:11
  SPEAKER_00: You're gonna piss off five people by being a crunchy peanut butter person if that's okay.
• 32:15
  SPEAKER_00: Because now all your crunchy peanut butter followers will follow you into battle.
• 32:20
  SPEAKER_00: Um, but seriously, these sort of um little um personalizations really just add color to who you are and make people feel like they truly can get to know you, that you're a real person, um, and not just somebody with a big fancy website and three bestsellers under their book that feels unapproachable.
• 32:41
  SPEAKER_00: Um and then I would say make sure to include something in your bio that helps people identify that you are that um that person is your ideal audience or is your ideal client.
• 32:55
  SPEAKER_00: So um are you targeting um, let's say, uh let's uh let's take for instance, I have a photographer who I work with quite a bit, and she only works with other female business owners to take branding photos of them.
• 33:11
  SPEAKER_00: And part of what she does is it's not just a photo for their website, it's a source of encouragement and empowerment when they see that when these women see themselves looking polished and professional, and they feel really great because now they have a headshot to send out that looks that looks on par, sparkling, and elegant.
• 33:30
  SPEAKER_00: So we make sure to include that in her website copy that she wants people to see, she wants her clients to be seen by the world the way she sees her clients, confident, radiant, and full of fire.
• 33:42
  SPEAKER_00: Oh, that's good.
• 33:44
  SPEAKER_00: Thank you.
• 33:46
  SPEAKER_00: So that is part of, you know, I would say include that in your bio as well.
• 33:50
  SPEAKER_00: And especially if you're if it's on your website about page, include a call to action at the bottom.
• 33:56
  SPEAKER_01: Man, lots of really good tips here.
• 33:58
  SPEAKER_01: I'm gonna have to go back and listen to this again when we're done because you've listed off like four or five things that I all of which I need to do myself.
• 34:05
  SPEAKER_01: My bios did a lot of work.
• 34:07
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, I everything on my website needs tons of work, uh, bios, all that stuff.
• 34:12
  SPEAKER_01: So, really my secret ploy is I have people on my podcast to who give me coaching on the stuff.
• 34:19
  SPEAKER_01: They they just don't know they're giving me coaching.
• 34:20
  SPEAKER_01: I do it under the guise of having podcast guests.
• 34:23
  SPEAKER_01: So I'm only sort of just kidding.
• 34:25
  SPEAKER_01: There is there is an element to where I have guests on the show who I want to learn from.
• 34:29
  SPEAKER_01: I think that's the kind of one of the points of having a podcast, is I want to learn as the host.
• 34:34
  SPEAKER_01: So you've given me some really, really good stuff, and I appreciate it.
• 34:37
  SPEAKER_01: This is awesome.
• 34:38
  SPEAKER_00: Oh, thanks for letting me come on and share, Ken.
• 34:40
  SPEAKER_00: I appreciate it more than words.
• 34:43
  SPEAKER_01: So let's wrap this up by if you can share.
• 34:46
  SPEAKER_01: I know all podcasts do this, and it's it's kind of cheesy and whatever, but I think it is really important.
• 34:52
  SPEAKER_01: Uh, can you share where can listeners find you?
• 34:55
  SPEAKER_01: Um, what kind of services you can offer, really anything that you would want to share with our listeners.
• 35:00
  SPEAKER_00: Yes.
• 35:01
  SPEAKER_00: So listeners can find me at daniellecook.co.
• 35:05
  SPEAKER_00: That's C O.
• 35:06
  SPEAKER_00: There's no M at the end.
• 35:08
  SPEAKER_00: And as well as on Instagram um at Danielle Christine.c.
• 35:16
  SPEAKER_00: And I would say if you're looking to really hone in on your brand messaging or project messaging, like let's work together.
• 35:24
  SPEAKER_00: Let's uh get your taglines laser focused, let's get your client avatar on point, your content themes handled hammered out.
• 35:33
  SPEAKER_00: Um let's work together on your brand messaging.
• 35:36
  SPEAKER_00: And then if you're ready to take the next step and maybe it's a book proposal or you're ready to go uh full force and you would like some help writing your book, I'd love to help help you ghostwrite your next project.
• 35:47
  SPEAKER_01: What kind of um ideal clients are you looking for for ghostwriting?
• 35:52
  SPEAKER_01: Would you say?
• 35:53
  SPEAKER_00: So I love telling the stories of the underdogs.
• 35:57
  SPEAKER_00: So the hopeless optimists who refuse to get up, give up even when they had no cards left to play.
• 36:04
  SPEAKER_00: So um, and then also thought leaders and industry disruptors.
• 36:08
  SPEAKER_00: Um, you know, I have say on my website, troublemakers welcome.
• 36:12
  SPEAKER_00: So if you've always been that troublemaker, if you've always been the bee in somebody's bonnet and you're wanting to, you know, bring change to an industry, an organization, or um a change in the way people think, then you're probably an ideal person to work with me.
• 36:30
  SPEAKER_01: Cool.
• 36:31
  SPEAKER_01: I love that.
• 36:31
  SPEAKER_01: I love that.
• 36:32
  SPEAKER_01: Well, Danielle, thanks again so much.
• 36:34
  SPEAKER_01: This has been an absolute blast.
• 36:35
  SPEAKER_01: I appreciate your friendship and your expertise and also reminding us why it is so important to not just own our own our stories, but also tell them.
• 36:43
  SPEAKER_01: Thanks for the tips on writing bios.
• 36:46
  SPEAKER_01: That is great stuff.
• 36:47
  SPEAKER_01: Uh, this has been really, really a phenomenal episode.
• 36:50
  SPEAKER_01: So I appreciate you making time to do this.
• 36:51
  SPEAKER_00: Oh, thanks for having me, Kent.
• 36:53
  SPEAKER_00: I appreciate the opportunity.
• 36:55
  SPEAKER_01: My pleasure.
• 36:56
  SPEAKER_01: Thanks so much.
• 36:57
  SPEAKER_01: Hey, I hope you enjoyed my conversation with Danielle.
• 37:00
  SPEAKER_01: I certainly learned a ton from her in this conversation and not just about the things that apply to business, but but I've got to be honest, sometimes I tend to downplay my own story.
• 37:10
  SPEAKER_01: And uh I'm guessing since you're listening to this and since you're human, you probably tend to do the same thing as well because I think it's something we all tend to do.
• 37:18
  SPEAKER_01: So I've been a full-time writer now for not quite a year, been full-time in my own business, but I've been podcasting and writing and uh doing client work for a number of years now.
• 37:28
  SPEAKER_01: And, you know, I've got a decent amount of experience under my belt at this writing thing.
• 37:33
  SPEAKER_01: However, I also I also tend to downplay my own story, just like all of us do.
• 37:38
  SPEAKER_01: And so it was really great to hear her uh to hear her remind us all that we all have things to teach, that we all have things to share, and that our story is important, and we've got to own it.
• 37:48
  SPEAKER_01: So no matter what your past is, no matter what your experience level is, whether it's a lot or a little bit, no matter if you have trauma in your past or whether you have success in your past, and probably we all have both, whatever our past is, we have some really valuable things to share, and we've got to own that story.
• 38:03
  SPEAKER_01: We've got things that we can put out there into the world through writing and podcasting and speaking and serving clients and all kinds of other ways.
• 38:10
  SPEAKER_01: We've got things that can make a big, huge difference.
• 38:12
  SPEAKER_01: So I want to thank Danielle for being a guest on this episode and impacting not just me, but you as well, uh, obviously because you're listening to this episode, and I'm so grateful that I get to have a platform where I can have really awesome guests like Danielle and so many of the other people that I'm able to feature on this podcast.
• 38:29
  SPEAKER_01: It really is a huge blessing.
• 38:31
  SPEAKER_01: Well, I want to encourage you to connect with Danielle at her website, DanielleCook.co, as well as connect with her on Instagram and LinkedIn, and all those links will, of course, be in the show notes.
• 38:42
  SPEAKER_01: So, hey, thanks so much for listening.
• 38:43
  SPEAKER_01: I never ever take it for granted that you listen to this podcast.
• 38:46
  SPEAKER_01: There's gobs of other podcasts you could be listening to, but I'm so grateful that you've taken the time to listen to this episode.
• 38:52
  SPEAKER_01: So thanks again, and also a big shout out to Danielle for taking the time to be a guest.
• 38:56
  SPEAKER_01: Uh it was so much fun, and thanks to Honore Corter for introducing us.
• 39:02
  SPEAKER_01: Thanks so much for listening to today's episode.
• 39:04
  SPEAKER_01: I want to take a moment to let you know about our Daily Writer membership community.
• 39:08
  SPEAKER_01: You know, one of the very best ways to develop better habits and impact more people's lives with your writing is to spend time around other successful writers.
• 39:17
  SPEAKER_01: So if you're tired of feeling isolated and chasing success on your own, then I know you're gonna love the Daily Writer community.
• 39:25
  SPEAKER_01: For years, I searched for the kind of writing community that I would want to join, but I can never find what I wanted, so I created my own.
• 39:32
  SPEAKER_01: Some of the features include weekly writing sprints, monthly community calls, book discussions, calls with guest experts, and much more.
• 39:40
  SPEAKER_01: For more info, you can visit dailywriterlife.comslash community.
• 39:45
  SPEAKER_01: Thanks, and I'll see you tomorrow.