Latest / The Starfish Storytellers / Season 2, Episode 5: Content Marketing - The Backbone of Corporate Storytelling w/ Becki Harrington-Davis

Transcript

Season 2, Episode 5: Content Marketing - The Backbone of Corporate Storytelling w/ Becki Harrington-Davis · The Starfish Storytellers

0:00
Welcome to the Starfish Storytellers, the podcast that makes a difference one story
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at a time by bringing storytelling to life.
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I woke up in a hospital bed with a strange red wrinkled little alien on my chest.
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She was making snorting sounds and my first words to my newborn baby were snort snort
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snort snort.
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I was on a heavy dose of drugs coming out of anesthesia and not quite conscious of what
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was happening around me.
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I had just come out of an emergency C-section due to a life-threatening pregnancy complication
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called HELP syndrome.
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The night before, I had woken up in horrible pain right around my diaphragm.
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Being 39 weeks in my first pregnancy, I thought it was labor, but instead of the pains coming
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every 5, 10, or 15 minutes, it was constant.
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I had spent all night doing all of the early labor techniques my doula told me to do.
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Turn the clots of water, take a bath, bounce on a birthing ball.
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None of it helped, and when sunlight broke and I called the hospital, they said to come
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straight to labor and delivery.
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It turned out that it was not labor, but in fact that my liver was so engorged it was
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about to burst.
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The cure for HELP syndrome is immediate delivery of the baby, and despite all of my natural
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birth preparation and hypnobirthing classes, I went in for an immediate C-supection under
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general anesthesia.
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Luckily, we both made it through.
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The baby was fine.
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I, however, was not fine.
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Not in my mind and not in my body.
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This birth story was nothing I had envisioned, nothing I had expected after years of reading
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and tearing up over joyful, natural birth stories on the internet.
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I had had it all planned out.
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I was going to be a natural birth superwoman.
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I was going to be strong and capable and empowered.
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Instead, I was stuck in a bed, unable to roll over, unable to pick out my screaming baby
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from the crib, machines beeping loudly in the ear, my head spinning from constant staff
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coming in and out of my room while I was hooked up to various tubes and devices and
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pumped full of anti-seizure drugs.
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At several points during my hospital stay, I started hyperventilating from panic.
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It's been seven years and I can still transport myself back to that place and time where I
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felt overwhelmed, helpless, and in shock.
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Becoming a parent is the most fundamental, life-altering change that most people ever
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experience.
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Birth stories are defining moments in a family's history.
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And this is not the way I thought that story would go.
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I thought that I had failed myself and my daughter by not giving her the triumphant
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tears of joy birth story I had planned.
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In fact, one of the first questions that I asked my doula in the hospital was, what am
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I going to tell my daughter about her birth?
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Because this story of pain and trauma was not the story I wanted to tell her.
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However, there, in the hospital, at the most difficult point in my entire life, I learned
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an important lesson, how to advocate for myself.
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In the midst of a panic attack, gasping for breath and in a tiny little voice like a mouse,
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I asked for drugs to help with my anxiety.
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The next day, I was desperate to take a shower and although I couldn't walk across the room
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on my own, I got a nurse to help me so I could feel slightly more human.
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And the next day after that, I asked for a schedule of when the nurses would be coming
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in and out of my room so I didn't feel so bombarded.
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A staff member put up a sign saying to leave us alone unless it was really necessary.
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Somehow, my spouse and I got through those five long stressful days in the hospital.
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After years of therapy and sharing my story with people over and over and over, it's
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never come out exactly right.
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I've never been able to fully capture the trauma I experienced and the incredible difficulty
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I had during the first year of parenting.
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But I do know this.
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My story has changed.
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I conquered a mountain, just not the one that I had trained for.
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Instead of breathing techniques and visualization exercises, I had to learn to set boundaries,
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to advocate for myself, and to accept that my story doesn't have to look like anyone
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else's.
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I learned that life and parenting are unpredictable and there are very few things that you can
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really control.
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That what seems easy for other people might still be hard for you.
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And when something is hard for you, you can ask for support.
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If you don't get what you need, you can ask someone else.
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Because you have not failed and you don't need to shoulder it alone.
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If there's one thing I want my daughter to know about her birth story, it's about digging
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deep into your internal strength to ask for what you need.
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Asking for help can feel scarier than doing it all alone.
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But being scared and doing it anyway is bravery.
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And that's the strength I want to pass down to her from this story.
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That advocating for yourself, no matter how difficult the circumstances might be, is your
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superpower.
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Hello.
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My name is Leanna Henry and welcome to the Starfish Storytellers.
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I'm the CEO of the Black Dog Group, a Markham and project management firm headquartered on
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the east coast of the US in quaint colonial Bedford, Massachusetts.
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I'm your host and passionate about storytelling.
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I'm actually on a mission to raise up the next generation of storytellers.
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We've named ourselves the Starfish Storytellers after the Starfish Story.
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The moral of the Starfish Story is based on the power of one.
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No matter how big the challenge, each action we take makes a difference and has an impact.
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One step, one starfish or one story at a time.
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Every episode, we welcome a new storyteller who will share their story meant to inspire
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and connect with you.
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Then we'll break it down and offer tips for any listeners who are ready to tell their
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own stories.
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So thanks for tuning in.
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Now let's get started.
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Today's episode is about content marketing, which is the backbone of corporate storytelling.
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And here with me today is Becky Harrington Davis.
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She's a brand storyteller, executive ghostwriter, corporate comms professional and soon to be
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mental health professionals.
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So thank you so much for being our guest.
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I'm so excited I get to talk shop today.
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So welcome, welcome, welcome.
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Thank you so much.
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I'm so excited to be here.
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So we usually get started by having our guests introduce themselves.
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Would you mind maybe telling our listeners a little bit about you?
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Absolutely.
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So in addition to what you just said, I have been in journalism, communications and marketing
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for almost 17 years.
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And I am a current clinical mental health counseling student.
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I'm also a mom, wife, no owner of two cats, and I live in LeMister, Massachusetts.
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Nice, nice.
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Thank you so much for sharing that story.
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It was, it was just a story of like triumph.
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You know, you said it, you did climb the mountain.
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It just wasn't the mountain that you trained for.
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And I think so often personal stories, although sometimes they really, you know, hit us in
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the gut.
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They really have the power to really connect someone else.
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I think by sharing that story, in essence, you could help another woman who might have
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gone through that, who has suffered in silence and, you know, in essence, you're giving her
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permission to use her voice to help herself.
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Thank you.
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I really hope so.
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And I've been, I've spent so many years telling other people's stories, brands stories, and
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I haven't really told my own story before.
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So I really appreciate the opportunity.
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That's good.
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So today we're going to talk about storytelling and content marketing.
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As you know, being a content marketer, this storytelling method is an effective way for
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businesses to engage emotionally with their target audience.
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Through storytelling, brands can create a more memorable customer experience.
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As a type of digital marketing, content marketing storytelling is pretty effective because it
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makes the brand story become part of the narrative.
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Customers will remember while they're using a product or a service.
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Content marketing is not advertising per se because it's a pull strategy, not a push strategy.
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Advertising is a push strategy because it's about promoting where content marketing is
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a pull strategy because it's about attracting.
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You know, what are your thoughts about content marketing in general?
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I think that content is the basis of nearly all marketing strategy.
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And I think it can be used in both push and pull strategies.
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A pull strategy would be SEO, search engine optimization.
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You have blog posts that are keyword optimized and they're pulling people in while they're
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searching on Google for some kind of information.
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You can also use content in advertising.
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You can use content in sponsored media.
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Then, you know, that would be a push strategy.
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But I think content across the board is really necessary in all kinds of campaigns.
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Yeah, absolutely.
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Yeah, also, sorry, I wanted to add the sales collateral is another area I've spent a lot
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of time developing content for.
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And that would be to help move prospects along the sales funnel.
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So that's another grease as well.
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Yeah.
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And I think, obviously, the type of content that you use in your sales collateral might
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be different than what you might use on social media if it's organic per se.
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Maybe not paid, but organic.
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You know, it might be, might have a different look and feel to it.
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Absolutely.
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And a lot of organic content, a lot of on social media companies use organic content
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to promote not just their products, but themselves as a company to as a recruitment strategy.
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They want to talk about themselves as an employer, their employer reputation as well.
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So that's a whole other aspect.
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Yeah, absolutely.
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Yeah.
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So you and I met when we were editors for Gatehouse Media.
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You were the Littleton editor.
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I was the Bill Rickett editor.
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And I know that my journalism skills have been critical in my journey into marketing.
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Can you talk a little bit about how journalism has helped you on your professional journey?
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Absolutely.
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It's really so fundamental to me.
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And I was only a journalist for three years, but it feels like my alma mater.
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And it was, it was just so fundamental.
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Some of the skills that I learned as a reporter, as an editor were interviewing skills, relationship
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building, just helping me come out of my shell, meet people, talk to people, being able to
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interact with a wide variety of people, curiosity, asking the right questions to identify key
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information, and then of course writing skills, brevity to come up with the right headline.
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That's been very useful to me.
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Making a story understandable and relatable, writing for different audiences, and putting
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myself in the reader's shoes.
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And then the, while you are gathering information as a reporter, you're also learning about
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many different topics and absorbing information quickly.
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And so these are skills that I've used very frequently in my entire career.
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Yeah.
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And I would imagine, obviously, I know for me, like moving from one company to another
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company, learning the new products, learning the new brand, that sense of curiosity that
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comes as a journalist is key, I think, to help you get up to speed quickly when you're
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working for a new company.
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For sure.
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And coming up with different story angles.
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So for, you know, in journalism, you may be covering the same topic or a pretty similar
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topic over a long period of time.
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Week after week, you might be revisiting this topic and it's the same with content marketing.
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You have this, you know, you have this product or set of products and you need to keep coming
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up with new angles and different things to talk about that are related to that product.
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So it's very translatable.
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Yes, definitely.
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So I just recently came back from a business trip where our agency, Black Dog Marcom, was
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the marketing partner for a user tech conference.
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And it was a great experience, gave us a lot of exposure.
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It was a really wonderful opportunity.
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And one of the programs that we spearheaded was a sponsor testimonials video campaign.
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This campaign gave the sponsors who were investing in participating in the event of
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voice while we got the opportunity to capture a lot of positive commentary about the organization
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that was my client.
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So I noticed on your LinkedIn that you've launched a customer advocacy program through
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a multimedia customer story collection and distribution platform.
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So I'm not sure if that's the product for the company that you were working for, if
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this was something special, but could you tell us a little bit about that process and the
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target audience that you were aiming for?
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And then just maybe tie in some other answers around, so was the platform for clients?
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Was it a repository for, like, say, your case studies?
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And then, so what was the bigger outcome after you did this project?
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Thank you for asking.
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So this is really one of my favorite types of marketing to do is customer testimonials.
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I think they are so relevant to my journalism experience, you know, getting interviews from
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customers and I think they're one of the most compelling forms of marketing.
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So for this project, I was working at Lexia, which is an educational technology company
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focused on literacy.
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I was hired primarily to write case studies.
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And my first year there, I was writing these case studies and putting them together, gathering
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them up, finding the customers to talk to me, gathering the data for them.
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And I was able to produce 10 case studies in a year.
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And they, that seemed very slow, you know, these case studies took months to develop
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because of all of the permissions you had to get, all of the different aspects involved.
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And so, you know, at the end of the year, I had 10 and I said, there must be some better
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process.
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There must be some way to speed this up.
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It's such a valuable, you know, content piece.
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I found a platform called Slap 5.
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I'm a big fan.
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And the Slap 5 platform allows you to gather video testimonials and your customers can
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upload them remotely or you can do an interview on Zoom like we're doing here and cut up clips
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that you can then use in different marketing materials.
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And the platform helps you organize all of these materials along with the customer that
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it's attached to.
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And so, I implemented this at Lexia.
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And so, instead of those 10 case studies in a year with the system, I was able to get
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150 video clips in a year.
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So I was extremely proud of that.
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And the target audience for Lexia was administrators at schools and districts who had the power
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to purchase technology and curriculum.
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And so, the sales team at Lexia loved it.
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This was the outcomes.
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Really the sales team loved it.
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They were able to use it in their sales conversations.
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They were able to take a customer, a prospect that they were talking to, and match a very
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similar story from a very similar type of school or someone in the same state or someone
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in a similar job title position so they could really match them up and share that with their
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prospects.
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So they're sharing a very relevant story that's going to resonate with them.
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So that was very helpful.
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Sales team loved that.
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And we were also able to use these clips in various emails, social media campaigns and
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things like that.
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We also were able to use it as a repository of customer advocates who then we could tap
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for opportunities like speaking opportunities or media interviews where we needed a customer
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and we had all of this information organized.
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And so I'm very proud that the system that I set up is still in place four years later.
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Nice.
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Nice.
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Now, you're no longer with Lexia, correct?
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I'm no longer with Lexia.
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The system outlived me.
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Yeah, yeah, yeah.
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So, but they still have it in place.
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That's great.
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Thank you.
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Great, and to be able to create that much content and so often with clips like that,
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I mean, pull out some transcripts.
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You're going to have social posts, blog posts.
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I mean, it's like the best.
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I love video content.
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So it's the most versatile type of content because you can take that video content.
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You can use the video clips.
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You can put the video clips together and mishmash them in different ways to focus on a certain
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topic, which we did.
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Or you can use them in text quotes.
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You could grab a quote and use it in your press release or use it in your blog and just mix
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and match them in all sorts of different ways.
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Yeah, it's really, really great, great medium, great tool.
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So as you know, as a content market, our video production is important.
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We have to be skilled in that.
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And one of the other videos that you had created was a video tribute for retiring executive.
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So I just was curious, how was that for you?
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I noticed when I watched it, there were a lot of subjects in that video.
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So I was curious, was it challenging to coordinate?
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And maybe you could talk to us a little bit about that content build or storytelling process
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for that project.
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Thank you for asking that.
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This was one of my favorite projects.
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I'm very proud of it.
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And the context was, I was working at Cambridge Community Foundation.
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There was an executive director was retiring after 21 years of service.
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He was very well-beloved in Cambridge.
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And at the foundation, what they did is they gave grants out to many, many nonprofit organizations.
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In the city.
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And so when he was retiring, I came up with the idea to create this video, thanking him
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from all of these various nonprofits in the city who, you know, the foundation had impacted
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and, you know, the great work that they were doing.
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And so I reached out to them.
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I reached out to our list of all of these nonprofits.
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I think I did, I think I had about a month to put this all together.
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Wow.
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And I was having a retirement party.
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And so I reached out to those and I gathered many, many of the organizations, send them
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into me.
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They emailed the videos into me.
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Some of them I went on site and took the video.
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And some of them we went on site to a city council meeting and we interviewed some of
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the city councilors.
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So you know, there was a mix of how we gathered up these videos.
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And I really just asked them to give a thank you to Bob Hurlbet who is retiring.
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They all knew him and loved him very much.
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And you know, to say something about the impact that he has made in the city.
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And we got back all sorts of different thank yous, very heartfelt.
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And some of them were even singing tributes because they were things like a community
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choir and they sang him a little song.
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And it was really adorable.
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And so I put all of these together.
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I had this, you know, I had over 50 stories.
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I think I counted 56 organizations that had contributed to this and it turned into a six
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minute video.
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So, you know, I cut down a lot.
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I think it was something like maybe two or three hours of content and I cut it down to
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six minutes.
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So I really think I counted, was it like 21 people or something?
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Or was it?
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I counted 56.
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Oh, so you had 56 in the six minutes?
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Yes.
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Oh my goodness.
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I know.
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Amazing.
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Yeah.
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Amazing.
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Yeah.
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Some people were just...
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Magic of editing.
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Yes.
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So it was a lot and I really enjoyed it and all of the, I think all of the love, the love
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for Bob really shines through and the love for the foundation and all of the great work
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that is being done in the community, you know, with the help of the foundation.
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So I edited that all together and I presented it on screen at his retirement party and it
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was very well received.
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He must have loved it.
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He did.
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He did.
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And I was very proud of that.
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Everybody enjoyed it.
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Now where does it live?
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Is it, is it on YouTube?
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It's on YouTube.
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It is on YouTube.
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That's right.
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I can't say it right side.
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Yeah.
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So it's easily accessible.
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Absolutely.
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So nice.
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Nice.
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So, you know, you have to, I've worn a lot of hats in my career and you sort of have to
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as a marketer.
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You have to be, have a lot of different skill sets.
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But I noticed that you got a chance to be a development officer.
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So for our listeners who may not know, a development officer is the Strategist for Fundraising
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and Coordinating Donor Programs.
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So when it comes to fundraising campaigns, as you know, storytelling is critical.
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So in your experience, how important is storytelling when seeking donors for an organization and
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what types of stories did you end up developing for the campaigns?
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It is extremely important.
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Absolutely.
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And what's really important is you're, you're asking to, you're trying to move people to
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donate out of, you know, the goodness of their own heart.
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And, and so you're really looking to inspire them.
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And so one of the stories I did was in the annual fund brochure, we used a donor story
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and it was a story about a Holocaust survivor and she had moved to Cambridge in the 1940s.
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She went on to run a local business and she was inspired after many years to give back
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to the community.
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And she started something called the Peer Counselors Fund through the foundation that
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it supports students at Cambridge-Ringerton Latin School.
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And so it was just a really touching story and something that, you know, we were able
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to include in the brochure as, as some inspiration and something as an example of the good work
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the foundation is doing.
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Yeah, what a great place to use that story, you know, right, right in the brochure.
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So that was, that was really smart.
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So I, I follow a number of storytellers on social, I'm sure you do too.
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And I recently read an interesting article from one of them.
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She had been, she, she, she wrote a storytelling book, a brand storytelling book, she does
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a lot of brand storytelling and, and she had made a post about how just by adding an executive
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summary, conversational language, pull quotes, photographs and some updated fonts isn't going
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to automatically turn a case study into a story.
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And that how a story is different is that it will offer, give you an opportunity to offer
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unique touching human perspective.
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And you know, when you have a case study, so often there's formatting that has to be
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considered and sometimes the formatting is based on wherever you're working.
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They, you know, obviously the case study has to be formatted a certain, certain way.
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But a story can really bring that messaging alive.
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So I guess my question for you then is, have you had either the leeway or the opportunity
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to be able to format some case studies in very interesting or unique ways?
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And were you allowed to sort of incorporate storytelling throughout?
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Definitely, something that I have read about marketing that I really think rings true is
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that people decide emotionally and they justify it logically.
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And so you need to have that emotional piece.
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And that's what the case study allows when you have the authentic human voice who's telling
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you, same with the testimonials, you know, that authentic human voice who is telling
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you about this product or service.
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So in terms of formatting, yes, I had, I did experiment with formatting with different
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case studies.
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I always made sure, I always have made sure to incorporate a lot of quotes, a lot of
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the humanity, because to me that's, you know, that is the real critical thing.
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And then you have the data points in there, but I like to put the humanity as prominently
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as I can, because I think that is what grabs people.
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I have done your traditional case studies, which like a two page document with a lot
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of text and some bullet points and some data points and some quotes, maybe some graphs.
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I've also done snapshots, something we called snapshots to success.
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And instead of a whole case study, that was more like an extended testimonial from one
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person's point of view.
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And what I would do is interview the person and then write, I would write them, I would
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summarize what they had to say in their interview into a testimonial and then run it back to
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them and say, this is the essence of what you said, do you agree with this?
27:23
And they said yes.
27:24
So I would publish that, you know, as like, like a one page document that was really telling
27:29
their personal story of using the product.
27:33
And the other really interesting formatting I did is video case studies where you have
27:39
the video clips and the video clips have the question on them and you click on it and then
27:46
it, the video flips around and it gives you the answer to the question.
27:49
So it's this interactive video case study.
27:52
And so those were, those were some of my favorites because people just love hearing it in their
27:56
own voice, seeing the face, seeing the, you know, hearing the voice of the actual user.
28:01
So those are some of my favorite formats.
28:04
And then one case study I'd love to tell you about them.
28:07
One of my favorites is in terms of, you know, remembering the humanity is for lexia, they
28:16
have a product called lexia power up literacy.
28:18
And this is a program to teach adolescents who are strongly readers.
28:25
And one case study I did was with incarcerated youth with a correctional program.
28:31
And they were the teachers at this, you know, correctional school were telling me about
28:39
how important, how important the literacy is to these young people because they need
28:45
to live, they need to be adults, functional adults when they get out of incarceration.
28:50
So they need to be able to read all their litical documents, all of their core documents.
28:55
They need to be able to get jobs and read job applications, you know.
29:00
And the kids in this program, you know, really the teenagers they use in this program were
29:06
often had very fragmented education and they were 18 years old, but they really couldn't
29:11
read that they might be at a second grade level.
29:14
And so just highlighting the importance of, you know, this program to people's lives.
29:21
So that one really resonated with me.
29:24
You know, the hero of the story is never the company.
29:30
It's the client, it's the customer.
29:34
And I was doing a storytelling workshop one day with the company and in a room, it was
29:41
a product management storytelling seminar.
29:45
And the one piece that I needed to drive home over and over and over again is please remember
29:51
that the hero of the story is your customer, is your client, not your product.
29:58
And I think, you know, I know like certain, you know, case studies have certain formatting,
30:03
but I always advocate for making sure, A, that you have that piece that you like you
30:07
just talked about.
30:09
And as much as you can move it to the top of the story, as much as you can move it to
30:13
the top of the case study, you want to get that emotional response as early as possible
30:21
because then you can keep them engaged with the rest of the data that's going to follow.
30:27
So yes, I couldn't agree more.
30:30
And I love your point about the customer being the hero because I've also found that
30:36
it's very compelling for the customers in terms of their relationship, their continued
30:40
relationship with the company.
30:42
They love to be the hero.
30:43
They're very honored to be the hero.
30:45
And so when you can give your customers these opportunities and you can connect them with
30:50
the media interview who wants to talk to them about, you know, how they're using this product
30:54
or what accomplishments they're having with this thing, you know, they also in turn feel
31:00
better and more robust in their relationship with you, the company.
31:04
So it's a wonderful opportunity all around.
31:07
That's a win-win, definitely.
31:08
Yes.
31:09
For sure.
31:10
Yeah.
31:11
Yeah.
31:12
Let's talk about AI, shall we?
31:16
Absolutely.
31:17
Everybody wants, everybody in content marketing wants to talk about AI.
31:20
These days.
31:22
So AI is one of the hottest topics in content marketing.
31:25
You know, I think initially at the sort of the beginning of 2023, that was like, like
31:31
everybody was having the freak out.
31:34
But I want to believe that some of the novelty, sort of that initial fear has subsided and
31:39
content marketers are pretty much finding ways to responsibly incorporate AI into their
31:45
daily work.
31:46
So I noticed that you have experience with chat GPT.
31:50
I had just, prior to starting Black Dog Marcoma, I was at an AI startup that incorporated chat
31:59
GPT into their technology.
32:01
So I was exposed to it.
32:04
Can you talk to us about your opinions about AI?
32:09
Maybe how experienced you are in using it and are you using it or have you used it incorporating
32:15
it into your work and how so?
32:18
Yes.
32:19
So I like how you said, responsibly using it because I fully agree with that.
32:24
And I think there are many ways to responsibly use AI that are ethical and very helpful and
32:32
to use it like a tool similar to something like Grammarly, something like Spellcheck.
32:39
Like writers have been using lots and lots of technology tools and chat GPT can be like
32:44
that.
32:45
It can be just a tool.
32:48
And it worries me.
32:51
There are many, very scary ways of using AI in terms of things like fake news, especially
32:57
when it comes to the AI generated pictures, right?
33:02
Or people think it's real photos and things like that.
33:05
That's very scary.
33:07
But in terms of my work, I use it, I do like to use chat GPT in a limited way as a tool
33:16
to help me.
33:17
One of the main things I like to use it for is to transform content from one form into
33:22
another.
33:23
So much like when you work with freelancers, I found the more information you can give
33:28
them upfront, the better result you're going to have, right?
33:33
And when I feed something, if I feed a press release into chat GPT, I copy and paste in
33:39
my whole press release and I say, chat GPT, please write me some tweets based on this
33:44
press release.
33:45
And it will do that.
33:46
And they'll be just fine.
33:47
They'll be a very good draft.
33:49
I'll tweet them, of course, but they'll be a good summary.
33:54
Or if you just ask it, you copy and paste some kind of article in and you ask for a summary.
34:00
But GPT does a good job with summarizing, I find.
34:04
So for things like that, it can be very useful.
34:07
It can also be useful to me for things like help me create an outline.
34:11
Like I'm doing a webinar on this topic.
34:15
Here's some information about it.
34:16
Here's the description of the webinar.
34:18
I need to come up with what I'm going to talk about, what are the questions I'm going to
34:22
ask the guests in the webinar.
34:24
Give me an outline.
34:26
And it'll give me a pretty good start.
34:27
And as a writer, as a content producer, it can just help you to kind of get going to
34:33
kind of jumpstart your engines and come up with some initial brainstorming ideas.
34:39
So I have found it really helpful for those things.
34:42
I find that I, you know, Grammarly is a really good tool.
34:49
And it's a really good tool for when you've gotten content to double check for plagiarism
34:56
because so often, you know, sort of the AI goes out and it grabs from so many different
35:02
places.
35:05
You want to make sure that it's what you have is more unique, obviously, and not being plagiarized.
35:16
The other thing I think of when I think of AI and when I read up a lot, especially like
35:21
through places like CMI or talking a lot about speed.
35:28
And you know, you talked about the jumpstart.
35:30
And when you have 15 blogs to write, because I've had to in one project, to just get a
35:42
jumpstart on some of that typing.
35:46
And like you said, I will always go in and infuse it with the proper voice.
35:56
But like you said, even to just get the foundation, it just makes it faster.
36:03
So it does.
36:05
It helps you get a lot of the bones in there.
36:07
It's not going to capture the voice.
36:09
I haven't figured out how to, you know, I haven't gotten it to ever get quite the right
36:13
voice that I'm looking for.
36:15
But I do find it's very helpful for getting the formula in there to help with things like
36:19
the outline, you know, or help with things like give me, you know, brainstorming, like
36:25
give me 15 webinar ideas on these topics.
36:28
And it'll start coming up with some of them.
36:30
And I won't use them all, but I might use half.
36:32
And they're decent, you know, and that'll help me to start thinking of the rest of them.
36:35
So yeah, it can be very helpful for those sorts of things.
36:39
Yeah.
36:40
Yeah.
36:41
Yeah.
36:42
So pivoting here from a content marketing, I understand from what you said earlier, you're
36:51
in a season of transition and you're going to look at going from, from where you are
36:56
to a career as a clinical mental health counselor, which is super exciting.
37:02
You know, I remember in my previous life, BC BMJ before my marketing and journalism,
37:10
before my master's in journalism.
37:12
I have a BS in social work and my first job out of college was that of a social services
37:17
case manager.
37:20
I found that, you know, I had to do a lot of interviewing of families.
37:25
They were families that were, they were abuse and neglect cases.
37:29
And I had to do a lot of interviewing and I was trained as an interviewer.
37:36
And so when I pivoted to a whole new career journey or a path, I found that those interviewing
37:44
skills definitely translated when I became a journalist.
37:49
So can you share with our listeners how and why you chose this new path and how are you
37:55
going to use your background to succeed with this new sort of trajectory and where are
38:01
you going to be in sort of incorporating that storytelling?
38:06
Oh, thank you.
38:10
How and why I chose this path really comes from my birth story that I shared and that
38:18
is, that was the beginning of a lot of self-discovery for me.
38:25
I mean, going back to when I was a kid, I was always the person who my friends would
38:31
come to for advice and to listen to their problems and things like that.
38:34
So I think that those, those bones have always been there for sure.
38:39
But you know, more recently after I had my daughter, it did open up a lot of, a lot of
38:46
discovery for me.
38:48
And more recently with the pandemic, there's, you know, switching to working from home,
38:53
a big upheaval in everybody's lives.
38:58
And I gave me some different perspective to think about what I really wanted to be doing
39:06
and what I want, what I want to be doing with, with my life, with the rest of my career.
39:10
I have many years ahead in my career and I thought I wanted to really use my, my natural
39:16
skills more often.
39:18
And I, you know, through some self-discovery, I identified that some of my natural skills
39:26
are listening and empathy and one-on-one relationships.
39:32
And these things are, you know, very well suited for a counselor.
39:36
And so that's, that's how I decided to pursue this path.
39:41
I absolutely think my journalism background is going to be applicable and translatable
39:49
into this new career.
39:51
Many of the skills we talked about earlier, such as interviewing one-on-one conversations,
39:59
listening, listening for information, probing, right, asking questions.
40:05
Many of these skills that we learned in journalism are very applicable to the skills that I'm
40:10
currently learning in counseling.
40:12
So I'm very excited about that.
40:14
And when it comes to storytelling, counseling is giving your clients an opportunity to share
40:23
their stories.
40:24
And many of these things, they, they may be sharing for the first time.
40:28
And as they're sharing their stories and we as counselors are, you know, helping enable
40:34
that, we're also helping them to reframe their stories.
40:38
And much like I talked about with my birth story, this was something that was very distressing
40:42
for me.
40:45
And I was stuck on for a long time saying my birth story is not what I wanted it to be.
40:49
And I was very, you know, I was very distressed by that.
40:52
And it took me some time to be able to reframe it and to see the larger narrative.
40:58
And so I think in counseling, that's what I will help people to do through their storytelling
41:03
and re retelling of stories to reframe, you know, some of their stories, their trauma
41:10
in order to better serve them going forward.
41:14
I am halfway through a certification class right now for guided autobiography.
41:22
And because I'm going to become a certified guided autobiography trainer, instructor,
41:30
facilitator.
41:31
And you know, I certainly was taught sort of that empathetic feedback process as a social
41:41
worker got away from some of that, I think, you know, getting into corporate America.
41:49
And it's been good to sort of come back to those skills and practice them and, you know,
41:58
mirroring part of the process of the class is we're given sensitizing questions.
42:04
We pick one, we write a thousand word essay, and then we get into reading circles the following
42:10
week, small groups, and we have, we each read our story and then everybody comments and
42:16
gives feedback.
42:17
And, you know, it's a powerful experience to share your story and to sort of have some
42:25
of that mirroring and echoing and just encouragement and empathy shared back to you.
42:35
Because I think, like you said, the reframing is 100 percent, you know, somebody who tells
42:41
you their story and then you give them that sort of that empathetic feedback.
42:47
They may see things that they just didn't see because of how they had written their
42:53
story or told their story.
42:56
So it's really, it's really a gift that you give them, I think, as therapists, as a counselor.
43:04
Thank you.
43:05
I'm really excited about it.
43:07
And I love your class.
43:08
That sounds like a great class.
43:09
So I'm glad you're doing that.
43:11
Something that I have enjoyed in my communications career is telling, helping to tell other people's
43:21
stories, you know, through ghost writing.
43:25
And like I mentioned with the customer, I've also done this a bunch with executives and
43:30
where I'm writing a blog or giving a quote or, you know, answering questions, things
43:36
like that on behalf of the executives.
43:40
And part of doing that is being able to listen because I need to be able to capture their
43:45
voice.
43:47
And so, you know, my most recent CEO gave me one of the greatest compliments I've ever
43:52
received, which was Becky, you know my voice so well.
43:58
And I was just so proud of that because, you know, I captured it from listening to her,
44:05
listening to recordings of her from her podcasts and different talks she had given and things
44:10
like that and being able to really hear that and then, you know, spit that back out, right?
44:18
Something to have GPT can't do.
44:20
You know, and that's a skill.
44:23
You know, I'll be honest, I have had to write for executives and that was something I struggled
44:31
with.
44:32
So the fact that you are talking about how you were able to get that compliment because
44:36
you did that, that's huge.
44:39
You know, I think as a brand storyteller, it's challenging sometimes when, and I've
44:45
said this in other podcasts too, when you are working with an executive, they are the
44:51
face of the brand many times.
44:55
And as a brand storyteller, I believe in elevating their voice and sometimes they want to put
45:03
stuff out there that isn't elevated.
45:09
And you know, it sometimes requires conversations around sort of what are the intent, what are
45:13
the goals here, you know.
45:17
And so I think it's wonderful that you had that opportunity to be able to do that and
45:22
be able to really elevate and capture, you know, your executive's voice.
45:29
Thank you.
45:30
Yeah, it's one of my favorite things to do really and I think it does tie back to what
45:35
I've been doing really throughout my life with that listening and that empathy.
45:39
So I really enjoyed that.
45:42
Onward and upward with that for sure.
45:44
Absolutely.
45:45
Yeah.
45:46
Is there anything else you want to add before we wrap up?
45:52
Well, I'd just like to say thank you, Leana, so much for inviting me.
45:56
This has been wonderful.
45:57
I really enjoyed it.
45:58
I really appreciate the opportunities to share my story and share about my career past,
46:03
present and future.
46:04
So thank you so much.
46:05
No, thank you for being here.
46:07
And you know, it's just great to be able to talk shop with another content marketer and
46:14
just to hear all of the great ways that, you know, you've been telling other people's stories,
46:21
you know, on this journey.
46:22
So I appreciate you sharing it.
46:24
So thank you.
46:26
Thank you.
46:29
And to our listeners, whether you hear us locally from the BTV studios in Bedford,
46:33
Massachusetts or across the globe on such podcast channels as Spotify, Apple Podcasts
46:39
or Amazon Prime, thanks for listening.
46:42
We hope you enjoyed this episode and we'll see you next time.
46:46
Be storytelling.