A couple of summers ago, my husband and I were out on our friend's boat, and he wanted to try wakesurfing. And after a few failed attempts, he asked our friend how to do it. Their reply? "You just stand up!" And we always laugh about this because it was literally the least helpful response ever.

This has probably happened to you before; maybe a friend or a colleague makes something look or sound so easy, but in reality, you have no idea how to do it yourself. And in the world of online business, this makes me think of when people tell us to incorporate storytelling in our content. Megan Wisdom is here today to talk all about why storytelling is so important in our marketing and ways that we can use storytelling on our podcasts and in our email marketing.

After listening, tag Megan and me on Instagram to let us know that you are listening! You can find Megan @meganwisdomwrites and me @podcastingforeducators.

⭐️ Resources Mentioned:

• Megan's freebie, 5 Storytelling Prompts for TPT Sellers
• Follow me on Instagram @podcastingforeducators 

🔗 Connect with Megan: 

• Listen to her podcast, Copy That Converts
• Check out her website
• Follow her on Instagram @meganwisdomwrites

🎤 Recommended Podcasting Resources:

• Hosting: Captivate.fm (Get a free 7-day trial!)
• Transcription: Otter.ai
• Project Management: ClickUp
• Private Podcasting: Hello Audio
• Podcast Playlist Toolkit
• Launch Your Podcast: Free Podcast Launch Guide & Podcasting for Educators Prep School
• Level Up Your Podcast: Podcast Like You Mean It
• Leverage Podcast Guesting: Free Guesting Planning Guide & Guesting for Educators Mini-Course

Show Notes: https://podcastingforeducators.com/episode147

Some links mentioned are affiliate links. This helps to support this podcast at no additional cost to you. 

Topics in this episode: tips for podcasters, educational strategies, marketing tips for TPT sellers, online educator tips

Sara Whittaker 0:00

Megan Wisdom 3:11

Yeah, thanks for having me.

Sara Whittaker 3:12

Absolutely. So we're gonna be talking about storytelling today. And I'm excited for this. Because I feel like it's advice that we hear a lot like, tell stories and your emails, tell stories on your podcast. But it's hard. It's easier said than done. And like, what does that actually look like? And what does that mean? So we're going to be getting into that today. Because this is something you do really well, you have a podcast that I listen to, and you do this really, really well. So I'm excited for you to fill us in today. But let's kind of start at square one, by telling us just like why is storytelling so important in our marketing in the first place? Yeah,

Megan Wisdom 3:52

for sure. So, you know, the principles of advertising or copywriting, marketing, in general have to do with dealing with people's emotions. When we make decisions, we make a decision first, emotionally and second logically. So storytelling really helps to connect to those emotions that we feel it makes information also more engaging. And it really just sticks in your brain. And there's lots of science around this around why storytelling actually sticks. But like, for example, most of us can probably are more likely to remember a story that a teacher told us in class rather than a bunch of facts. For example, if I gave you a bunch of facts and figures about the American Revolution, I mean, you might remember some of them. But if I tell you a story about George Washington, getting in the trenches with his soldiers, and you know, surviving the harsh winter and going across the Delaware excetera, you're probably going to remember that a lot more than the dates of you know, the Battle of Trenton or something like that. So storytelling really does stick. It makes things memorable. And you as a professional are going to want people to remember your brand and your message and so so Storytelling is going to help you do that. So it also helps build trust and credibility with our audience. So genuine stories that are really authentic life stories especially can do that it builds a bridge between us and our clients, because not only can you empathize with their situation or their problem, the problem that you were trying to solve for them, but it also just helps you become a more relatable person. And so if you become that to your audience, then of course, you're going to be top of mind whenever they think of, I've got this problem that needs solving, who can I turn to? So storytelling can't really help with all of those things?

Sara Whittaker 5:38

Yeah, for sure. I think about myself as a consumer. And like when I've really felt connected to what someone is saying, and in turn what they're selling. And it always starts with a story that they've told me through their email or, or through their podcast, because I am such an avid podcast listener. And since we're talking about podcasts, I'd love to know like, what are some ways that we can as podcasters use storytelling in our episodes, because this is really hard for a lot of people listening as educators like, this is something I'm trying to encourage people to do. Because we're just our go to is to just teach, teach, teach, and like, get to the point, which is great. And I think that there definitely should be a lot of that too. But how can we go about incorporating storytelling into our episodes?

Megan Wisdom 6:28

Okay, this is a great question. But I think teachers also have the advantage because we've all had that moment, that student that's looking at you with confusion. And you're like, Okay, how do I get through to them, and you usually turn to a story or an analogy, to help them better understand something. And so we want this to be the same with our podcast audience, when we're trying to explain a concept, add an analogy, add a personal anecdote. So where did those come from? That's the harder part. We'll talk about that in a bit. But I would say a really good way to do this in your podcast is to start with a story or an anecdote, an analogy of some sort, because that's going to really hook them and get them interested in wanting to hear the rest of the episode. So if you can start from the top with a story or analogy, that's a great hook, you know, think about the best essays, the best articles, always start with a hook, something that really gets you interested and makes you want to know more. And so I feel like that's a great place to use stories are anytime that you need to explain something that may be a hard concept, or just to give people a different picture of what you're trying to teach them. Use a story. Second, the way we should be using this as podcasters is in our email marketing. A lot of people get very tense about this, because they think storytelling, they think of a novel, right? Like their I don't want to read a novel, people don't want to read a novel, people don't want to read anything. And they get very defensive about this. But I'm telling you that it's even more important to use it. If you're a podcaster, who's promoting your episodes, because here's the thing, I work with a client that I have in mind that had really dismal open rates, because her emails were just basically podcast permission, emails, which is fine. We want our people to know when we dropped a new episode, but those people are likely going to be following you and Apple iTunes already, they don't necessarily need a reminder because it's downloading to their phone. So then what do we do about these emails? If you can get they're not going to open them? In that case? Like, they're just gonna go? Oh, yeah, that's an email reminder about the podcast episode, like this

Sara Whittaker 8:32

subject line is the same every time like,

Megan Wisdom 8:36

yeah, like, why would I open that. But if you give them something else, in addition to that, and actually entice them in a different way to want to listen, because sometimes, you know, people fall in and off of listening to podcasts, what can you do to entice them a little bit more. So adding just a little sprinkle of a antidote from your life or tying it into an event, maybe that's just recently happened, something in pop culture, even anything that's going to entice them to open and read more, that is important. I will tell you like a story of someone so the client that I have, that I have in mind, her open rates were dismal, like 12%. So we shifted, she actually post multiple podcast episodes a week. And so you know, they were just getting lost in the inboxes. Nobody was opening, so we changed it to more of a newsletter format. Once a week, we send out a newsletter and we we have all of those links to the podcast episodes for the week included. But what we do is we look at the podcast episodes for the week and find a unifying theme. What can we pull out of each of those episodes that tie together? Or how can I tell a story that I can suddenly include hyperlinks to the episodes just by hyperlinking words not like you know button Call to Action download, listen now. And so in the text of the story, so usually what happens is this I will find the theme I will go to my client and say, Tell me about a time when fill in the blank, and it goes along with that theme. And then I listen to the story that she tells. And I've looked for opportunities to put those episodes in there. So whether it's the text, what the text inside the story kind of aligns with what the podcast episode is about, then we will hyperlink those words to the podcast episode, not click here for episode 32. You know, hopefully, we can tie in all the episodes within the story itself. If not, there's occasionally a time when you've got like some kind of weird one off podcast, that doesn't really make sense with a theme. And you're like, What do I do with this, we just put it in the PS like PS, if you're interested, blah, blah, blah. But the story is really what gets people opening, and they may already have listened to all the episodes for the week, no problem, you're still nurturing them through storytelling. And our open rates have gone up to almost like 46%, from 12% to 46%, just by that one thing. And they also know that this is like we identify it in the preview line as like the weekly newsletter. So they know we're not it's not a sales email, like we're just here to have some fun, do something like or encourage you in some way. So they look forward to that email instead of like, oh, okay, the podcast is out for this week. So we use storytelling in order to promote our podcasts in a different way, while also providing them the value of that nurture email and warming them up building credibility, building a relationship with them.

I love this tip. I've never thought to like hyperlink that kind of, in your actual words, versus saying like, this is the episode, click here to listen, I think that that's absolutely brilliant. Can I you can say no, but can I put you on the spot? Can you give us like? Do you have an example in your mind that you can give us some like what that might sound like? Like a little just snippet of a story that might connect to an episode. So

this episode itself, like if I'm a business coach, the episode itself might be about overcoming fear. When you want to scale your business. What can I do with that? Well, I might think, and then maybe there's another podcast episode for the week about how to get more clients. Okay, those things seem unrelated, right? But I'm gonna go with the fear theme. And we're going to workshop that. So it asked the question, tell me about a time when you felt really scared to do something, and really reluctant. But you found your courage, and then it ended up like you were so glad you did it. That can be anything, it doesn't have to be jumping out of an airplane kind of exciting story. It can be trying a new restaurant in your town looks like some kind of type of food that you've never tried before, like octopus or something. You know, it seems really scary. Yeah, that's relatable. Everybody's done something that they have had fear and had to overcome fear. It can be serious, it can be lighthearted. But that that is the unifying theme there. And then I might just tell the story about like how I went to my husband wanted to try, waterskiing. And I was like terrified of drowning in me dragged across the lake, but like, I wanted to hang out with him this weekend. So we went to the lake, and I tried waterskiing. And lo and behold, I didn't die. Lots of fun. And you know, now I want to go all the time. And then I would shift that transition. Now, what does that mean for the audience? Because every email that you write, should always answer the question, what's in it for me, for the reader, because I mean, it doesn't matter what you want, no matter what they want, or they're not going to open it and read it. So what's in it for me and that story, then I would transition it to, when you find the courage to overcome your fears in business, you will find just taking that step taking that messy action, doing the thing that you are dreading the most might actually turn out to be like a huge blessing for you. And then I would just hyperlink like, overcoming fear, or some words like that to go to the episode instead of like saying, Episode 30. Now, I still might have a button at the very bottom of the email that has like Episode 30, how to overcome fear about scaling your business and have the actual title, but I would not put it in the story itself. I would just link what is related to the story, if that makes

sense. Yeah, it makes total sense. And that's such a good example. So we'll use still Will you say in the email anywhere, like this is what I talked about in this week's episode four? Well, you kind of you just leave that out.

Most of the time I leave it out unless I'm hitting on the points of I don't really draw attention to the episodes at all. Yeah, I just talked about, I might talk about some of the things that are addressed in that as like bullet points or something. But I'm not going to be like in this week's episode, you'll learn that you'll you'll just be relaying that information. It's like showing without telling ya.

It's just like on social media. When we see posts like that we just skim right past,

right? So it's a very subtle form of encouraging you to click to listen to do all the things. But it's in a different way. Just our brains react in a different way to storytelling than just strict information facts. Always say facts, tell stories sell is a common thing. And I really feel like it's true. You can sell me for the emotional story of waterskiing more, so then you can just say, Hey, are you scared about taking the next steps in your business? Like, you know what I mean? Like, yeah, it just gets us a little bit more excited about the opportunity to do that. Yeah, for

sure. And I would imagine that also lends itself more opportunity to encourage people to like reply to your emails and share about their experiences.

Yeah, for sure. There's lots of times when we've had the last line is like, tell me more about whatever, like, this is related to the story. And it is a really great way to engage your audience for sure.

Yeah. No, I love this. This is I'm excited to try this. Do you typically write your emails first, and then do your subject lines? I

do. I like to let things settle for a little bit. Yeah. And oftentimes, I will do my subject lines at a later date, because I have to really think I feel like the subject line is one of the most important things. I mean, it's the most read part of your email.

Yeah, it's like your episode title for your podcast. Yes. Class,

the subject line, if they don't, if you're not intrigued by the subject line, then it doesn't matter how amazing your email is inside, because they're never gonna see it. Right. So that really takes some thought. And a lot of times I wrestle with how much of the subject line needs to be about the story versus the content. And we just kind of have to play with that. We look a lot at the data and Recents and all that good stuff. A lot of times the subject lines that go with the story, do better than like the topic itself. So you just kind of have to play around with it. But yeah, I always do my subject lines after I write the story, because you never know what's going to come up. Yes.

Yeah. Same. I mean, I feel like that's kind of what we were taught when when we were growing up with like writing a story. I remember teachers telling me write the story first, and then you can create the

title later. Yeah, for sure. Brain down, and all that stuff. Yeah. And let

it simmer. Let it sit for a little bit. I do that with podcast episode titles all the time. Because it's it's tricky, because like you said, it's the reason why somebody's going to click or somebody's going to listen. And if they don't ever open that email or push play on that episode, they're not going to hear your content. Yep. So are there any other tips that you wanted to add about adding storytelling to email marketing? Or podcasting?

Yeah, for sure. So I would say, A, don't be intimidated by the word storytelling. If you need to just shift your thinking about it. Maybe change it to like adding a little personality to your emails, that that feels a little lighter than storytelling, especially if you have like some English class trauma in your background. You don't have to be an amazing ride or anything like that. Like it's just about sharing, relatable, little antidote. So the way you do that is you always want to start with a theme. When you're struggling to figure out how to do this. Just think about a theme. What is the thing that I want people to walk away from it? You've already done that if you've if you're promoting a podcast episode, you already have a theme. Yeah. So how can I then illustrate the same is part two, just think about a time when if you were trying to tell a kid because our children or students or whatever, we often use stories, or we say, for example, what is that example that you want to illustrate this thing? So start with a theme figure out what you're trying to illustrate. A very practical way of doing this for me is there's oftentimes I will see something in my everyday life that I think this would make a good story. But I don't know exactly why I think that. And so I keep notes on my phone, where I will just collect this happened. Or I see something that is interesting on TV, that I'm like, Wait, there's something there. And I just don't know it yet. And I just file it away. So I have a Notes app for this. I also have a Google Doc. And I really would recommend starting a story catalog for yourself where you just make a simple table with a theme section. So if you know what the theme is of the story, you can just drop it in. And maybe you're not using that theme right now. Maybe it's not your podcast episode is not about that. Just save it because someday it might be. And then you have your little story like, basically summarize what the story is, or even write it all out. And so it's there for later for the days when you don't feel creative, or you don't have any great ideas. But a story catalog is really good. And then you can also have a part of that chart should have when you use it because that doesn't mean it's one and done. That's what a lot of people are like us. It's a lot of work and mental energy. And then it's like, poof, it's gone. But you can reuse stories very easily either on social media as a real of some sort. Were like a smaller 15 Second type story. But you can also reuse those stories in, especially automations sale sequences later on. And you can just switch it up a little bit to go along with whatever you're using at that time, without feeling like, oh my gosh, I just wasted all this time and energy on this one thing, it took me an hour to write this email. And now it's just lost to the winds, you can always repurpose for sure. But basically, having that story bank is going to help you, one come up with ideas, but to, it'll be there for you on the days when you're not feeling so creative. The other tip I would have is just to make sure that you're being consistent with your emails, when you get people anticipating a certain type of email on a certain day. And they know that you're going to deliver quality content that's engaging, entertaining, encouraging, etc. And not just sales are not just facts, then they're going to actually look forward to it. A lot of us use our phones for escape, it's just a way of life and emails are, believe it or not, not just tiktoks not just Instagram, they're a form of escape for people or if you have a promise that if I open this email, I'm probably gonna laugh or, or feel good or feel encouraged, then people are going to do that. And that's going to help improve your open rates over time. So consistency, storytelling, use a story catalog, those are some practical things to help Zaza, your emails, if you will,

yes, no, I love the story catalogue idea. I've never thought to do that. I was actually because that happens to me all the time, something will happen. And I think like, we must probably all think of this as business owners like, Oh, I could use that somehow. We were at a comedy show this past week. And I'm listening to like these comedians tell these stories. And I'm like, Man, these are just like everyday things that have happened to them. And they've turned them into this huge story. And they're, we're in this stadium with 1000s of people, and they're just telling these simple stories. And that's what, that's what we need to be doing as business owners to. So I love the idea of keeping a catalogue of that. That's absolutely brilliant.

Yeah, it's like, Jerry Seinfeld had a whole TV show about nothing. Yeah, everyday life stuff. Yes. Like the things that we can all relate to like folding laundry is everyday life stuff for most of the world, or going to the grocery store, or having a toddler that has a meltdown in the grip and target. Like these are everyday life, things that we connect, that we may not have the exact same experience. But we all can empathize and like understand. So we can use those as ways to connect and then turn it into a moral or, you know, some kind of lesson learned. That goes along with whatever we're trying to share as a business owner, then I think it's gonna hit so much better than just plain Jane kind of stuff.

Yes, for sure. I mean, think about like Instagram, when you're on your Instagram stories. When are you getting the most replies to your stories? It's when you're posting about, like, what you had for lunch, or, or something that your kids doing? Nothing related to business. So if we can link the two, that's the ideal place to be for sure. Awesome. Well, these are great tips. And I'm really excited to try these. I feel like you just you're making this feel really doable. This is like one of the number one questions I get asked by podcasters all the time is about how to definitely how to promote their episodes in their emails in a way that people are actually going to read and click and open and all of that. So thank you so so much, and you have a podcast. So tell us a little bit about your podcast, and also just where people can find you online.

Yeah, for sure. My podcast is called copy that converts. We do talk a lot about storytelling, because I believe that's one of the main ways that we get copy that converts. So you can find me there. You can also find me on Instagram at Megan wisdom writes or online at Meghan wisdom.com. And I also have, I'll drop a link in the show notes for you. It's actually for TPT sellers, but it probably could be used for anybody that has, you know, struggles with storytelling. It has five storytelling prompts for TPT sellers. And it gives not only the prompts, but examples of how you can implement that in different ways. So

I'll share that with you as well. Perfect. Yes, we will put all of that in the show notes for you. And definitely check out Megan's podcast. I was telling her before we jumped on that I love her episode so much because the content is good, but she delivers it so quickly. Her episodes are nice and bite sized every time which is great because I can always get through them no matter what. So thank you so much for being here. This is really fun. Yeah.

Thank you for having me. Appreciate it.

Absolutely. Thanks so much for listening to today's episode. To keep this conversation going connect with me on Instagram at podcasting for educators. I'm always looking for an excuse to talk about podcasting. If you're looking for support and launching, managing or growing your podcast, check out my URL Online course the podcasting for educators prep school at podcasting for educators.com/prep School I'll see you here next time