July 10, 2025 • 38 mins
Struggling to stand out online? Pouring energy into content that barely moves the needle? You’re not alone — and the issue isn’t leads. It’s trust.
In this episode, I sit down with Emmy-winning filmmaker and founder of Brandmagnetic.com, Mariana Henninger, who helps online business owners build trust fast through emotionally resonant brand videos. Known as the queen of brand videos, Mariana reveals why the “long sales cycle” isn’t a law — it’s a myth — and how to use story, emotion, and psychology to convert cold traffic in 3 minutes or less.
We break down the exact system she’s installed for agencies scaling beyond 7-figures — one that shortens nurture sequences, strengthens brand trust, and creates assets that sell while you sleep. If you want to build trust fast without gimmicks, this episode shows you what to change, where to focus, and how to finally be unforgettable online.
⏱ Chapter Breakdown
- 00:00 — Intro: Why this conversation matters right now
- 00:52 — Meet Mariana: Emmy-winning filmmaker and founder of Brandmagnetic.com
- 01:26 — The hidden trust gap most marketing ignores
- 05:22 — Why standing out is harder than ever — and what to do about it
- 07:28 — The myth of the long nurture cycle (and how to collapse it)
- 08:35 — The 4 Trust Triggers that accelerate conversion
- 13:32 — How to meet cold leads during the “Instant Trust Window”
- 16:04 — Why brand videos outperform nurture sequences
- 21:55 — Turning story into system: emotional visuals and B-roll redefined
📚 Books Mentioned
- Everything is Figureoutable by Marie Forleo
- Trust by Dr. Henry Cloud
Want to see what this looks like in action? Watch Mariana’s personal brand video at Brandmagnetic.com/mariana. And if you're ready to rethink how you’re showing up at the top of your funnel, grab her free cheat sheet at Brandmagnetic.com/cheatsheet
Join Dr. William Attaway on the Catalytic Leadership podcast as he shares transformative insights to help high-performance entrepreneurs and agency owners achieve Clear-Minded Focus, Calm Control, and Confidence.
- Free 30-Minute Discovery Call:
Ready to elevate your business? Book a free 30-minute discovery call with Dr. William Attaway and start your journey to success.
- Special Offer:
Get your FREE copy of Catalytic Leadership: 12 Keys to Becoming an Intentional Leader Who Makes a Difference.
Connect with Dr. William Attaway:
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Dr. William Attaway (00:00):
I'm so excited today to have Mariana
Henninger on the podcast.
Mariana is an Emmy-winningfilmmaker and founder of
BrandMagneticcom, where shehelps online business owners
accelerate trust and increasesales by creating instant
connection with cold audiencesusing a single three-minute
(00:22):
brand video.
Known as the queen of brandvideos, she blends emotional
storytelling with strategy tocreate a forever asset that
makes you stand out and does theheavy lifting so you don't have
to.
She's also the host of theEmpire Secrets of Digital
Marketing podcast.
Marianne, I'm so glad you'rehere.
(00:44):
Thanks for being on the show.
Mariana Henninger (00:46):
Yay, william, always a treat to chat with you
I always enjoy ourconversations, and this will be
no exception.
Dr. William Attaway (00:52):
I know I'm excited.
Intro video (00:52):
I'm looking forward to sharing this one Yep.
Welcome to Catalytic Leadership, the podcast designed to help
leaders intentionally grow andthrive.
Here is your host author andleadership and executive coach,
dr.
Dr. William Attaway (01:12):
William Attaway, I would love to start
with you sharing a little bit ofyour story with our listeners
particularly around your journeyin your development as a leader
.
How did you get started?
Mariana Henninger (01:26):
Oh, that's wait, let's just address this
question your development as aleader.
That's so funny.
I don't see myself as a leaderbut, william, like being in your
world.
I'm like I think I should bemore of a leader.
Dr. William Attaway (01:38):
You are so thank you.
Mariana Henninger (01:39):
Thank you for phrasing the question that way
and I appreciate that my storyis wild.
So there's so many differentthings I could say about my
story To try to condense whatcould be a bigger book into just
a shorter answer for you.
I got started as a journalist.
As a photographer, I went fromundergrad to living in Bedouin
(02:03):
tents in the Middle East andpitching stories.
I lived in a hostel for 18months and pitched stories every
single day to editors hoping toget my photos bought, and it
really taught me how to pitchreally fast, how to look at
stories, even having beentrained as a journalist.
That was kind of how I gotstarted to.
(02:25):
You know, even having beentrained as a journalist, that
was kind of how I got startedand as I was doing more and more
storytelling at the timethrough photography, I learned
something very quickly which isin order to tell the best story
I needed to make people feel socomfortable with me.
I didn't have a whole lot oftime right Sometimes, even if
I'm fast forwarding probably 10,15 years, when I was at working
(02:47):
at NBC and I was flying allover the world you know,
afghanistan and Haiti andFinland and Ukraine and all over
the world telling peoplestories.
I didn't have unlimited budgetsright, so I needed to get people
to trust me very quickly, toknow that I was going to do
their story justice, and to beable to look at their story and
(03:07):
be able to pull out the mostimpactful parts of their story.
So that, and my biggest goal andthis is why I love documentary
filmmaking, which I ended upgraduating from photography into
documentary filmmaking thebiggest reason I love
documentaries is because theyput you in the shoes of somebody
whose life and whose story youwouldn't otherwise necessarily
(03:29):
care about, and when you're ableto do that, you're literally
taking a stranger to this person, a stranger to that story, to
that reality, and making themcare, making them feel something
At the end of watching.
At the time, I worked on a lotof short pieces and so getting
(03:50):
people to trust me really fastand then understanding how to
tell their story in a way thatreally packed that punch, that
emotional punch, and made peoplefeel something, made people
take action, eventually leadingto an Emmy.
As you mentioned, I actuallygot nominated for a second one
and yeah, so those are the twothings that I really learned in
(04:11):
15 years of traveling the world,first as a photographer, then
in video and working for the NewYork Times, the Wall Street
Journal, time Magazine and thenfinally NBC, before I realized I
was a closeted entrepreneur andI needed to do my own thing.
Dr. William Attaway (04:28):
I love that story.
You know, there is no suchthing as a wasted experience in
your life.
Mariana Henninger (04:32):
Oh my gosh, no yeah.
Dr. William Attaway (04:34):
Every bit of that has made you into the
leader, the entrepreneur, thebusiness owner that you are
today and helps you as you serveyour clients.
You're building, know, like andtrust right, just like anybody
else in the marketing world, butyou're accelerating the process
.
How?
Mariana Henninger (04:52):
do you do that?
Well, it all starts with anygood marketing, right?
So I'll just tell you reallyquick.
I think I need to bridge fromjournalism to what I do today,
which is, straight up, digitalmarketing and really
understanding how, as you said,to accelerate trust, how to make
you stand out, how to makepeople instantly feel connected
(05:14):
to you, so that you are not lostin the sea of sameness if
you're an agency owner, so youdon't blend in with everyone
else.
I actually heard a quote fromHermosi on his podcast just the
other day and he said buildingan agency is the lowest barrier
to entry.
All you need is a cell phoneand an internet connection.
(05:35):
And I'm like, oh man, truly, somany people can call themselves
digital agencies and might nothave the credentials, might not
have the credentials, might nothave the experience and
definitely, if they're comingfrom scratch, they don't have
what your listeners I'm surehave.
And yet they're flooding themarketplace, they're creating
(05:55):
more and more content.
We know that AI is spitting outcontent in so much volume right
now, and so how do not only dowe stand up, but we pierce
through that noise and createthat instant connection, the
moment that people coldaudiences land on our website,
land on our social page and notforget us like that.
(06:16):
That's the, that's the goal herewe don't want to be forgotten
and we want to create an instantconnection so that every time
we're showing up, every timethat we appear in their inbox if
, luckily, we've been able tograb their email, or we're
showing up on socials if,luckily you know they followed
us they're paying so much moreattention into the marketing
(06:45):
world because I'm obsessed withmarketing, I'm obsessed with
sales, I'm obsessed with, like,understanding how to get people
to feel something so that theycan take action faster on a
thing that you know, hopefully,will transform their lives.
I'm actually very picky aboutclients that I work with.
You know there has to bealignment of values, so I love
promoting businesses who reallyand truly bring something
incredible to their clients,right?
(07:06):
So, anyway, what was yourquestion?
So so like how do we do thatRight?
Dr. William Attaway (07:15):
How do you do that Like yeah, like in trust
is is a long lead.
Typically you've got to reallywork to build that trust factor,
but you've figured out a way toshortcut that a little bit.
Mariana Henninger (07:28):
For sure.
That's actually the number onemyth that I love changing
people's perspectives around,like business owners'
perspectives around.
We have just bought thiscomplete myth that it takes six
to 12 months of having to showup consistently, of having to
put out all of that content,having to work so hard to
(07:49):
nurture people from cold all theway to, hopefully, a potential
client, and hopefully they don'tunsubscribe in the interim.
Hopefully the algorithm doesn'tturn on us and we don't show up
anymore.
Right, we've just bought that.
This is the way to do business.
We take somebody from cold, wehopefully try to grab their
emails with something really,really catchy, right at the top
(08:12):
of the funnel and then we hopethat they stick around long
enough over months and monthsand months in order to build
that trust with them, what Icall micro dosing.
We're micro dosing little bitsof ourselves, little bits of our
brand, so that they eventuallytrust us to be the person that
will bring that solution to them, and so that's what we believe.
(08:35):
That is the pain point of thereality of marketing in the
digital space that we've justaccepted.
How do we accelerate that?
Well, good old marketing startswith understanding your
audience really deeply andstarting with them first, right,
and so what I use is what Icall the four trust triggers.
We need to understand how tohit these four trust triggers so
(08:57):
that people can accelerate, sowe can accelerate that trust the
moment that people meet usonline.
So, before I talk about thefour trust triggers, I'm going
to explain something that'sgoing to sound so obvious when
you hear it, but we really don'tthink about it, and that is
when people first meet us,meaning they first land on our
(09:18):
socials or they first land onour website.
Typically it's going to be oneof those two, or they maybe even
hear about us from somebodyelse.
When that first connectionhappens, we're not typically
there, right, it's our websitespeaking for us, it's our social
speaking for us.
We're not necessarily, we'retypically not interacting with a
(09:38):
very cold audience the momentthey meet us and what's
happening is that that coldperson that cold they're not
even a lead yet, right?
But that cold person is whatare they doing, william?
They heard about us.
They went to check us out.
They went to figure out whatwe're about, right, they're
checking us out.
Actually, what's his name?
(09:59):
I have his book and I totallyblanked on his name.
There's an author that talksabout how people are checking us
out, in the privacy ofanonymity, in their own time and
space.
Dr. William Attaway (10:11):
That's good .
Mariana Henninger (10:11):
And so this is what I call the instant trust
window.
There's a window of time itmight be like 30 seconds, it
might be a minute if you'relucky where people are actively
looking at your stuff andwanting to know who you are.
And what they're trying toanswer is is it worth it for me
to pay attention to this person,to this brand right, or to this
(10:34):
business?
And what do we have, william?
What are we serving them with?
We're giving them an about mepage that, more often than not,
we kind of wrote it was atortured writer.
About me page, right?
We?
Write in this person.
We write it.
We wrote it 10 years ago when westarted our business.
Or whenever we start ourbusiness, we're like oh, I guess
(10:56):
I need an about me page.
Oh, what am I gonna write aboutmyself?
That doesn't sound tooself-glorifying.
Dr. William Attaway (11:02):
That sounds so true, and we never look at
it again, right.
That's right, because we don'twant to.
Mariana Henninger (11:08):
We don't want to right who wants to talk
about themselves.
We have learned that it's allabout our clients.
It's all about them.
It's all about and listen, I'mnot anti that messaging, and I
think Donald Miller did anamazing job of shifting our
perspective with the story brandconcept into making it all
about your customer, yourcustomers.
Yes, your customer is a hero.
However, your customer, the hero, wants to know who you are.
(11:31):
They want to know who you arebecause they want to know if
they can trust you to solve theproblem that you, with such
amazing copy and whatnot, you'resaying that you're great at and
you're saying that you cansolve for them.
Ultimately, they want to makethe decision about whether they
want to work with you versusanybody else, and what we're
doing is we're not payingattention to that message.
(11:53):
That truly shows them who weare, and so that About Me page
that we wrote and we forgotabout is typically and you know
the stat, I think we talkedabout this when we first met it
is the second most visited pageon any website.
It is or about us or meet ourteam, whatever you want to call
it 100%, it is.
Why?
Because people want to know,william, they want to know and
(12:14):
so, and then you know on yoursocials.
If you're lucky, you might beone of those people who realize
it's important to like pinsomething at the top that kind
of explains who you are Most.
Some people don't, somebusinesses don't do that.
And what?
When you don't do that?
Here's what happens.
(12:36):
Your cold audience person whomight've been a perfect client
for you next week, right, whomight've been so ready to work
with you, they are put into thisfunnel that we just assumed
this is how digital marketingworks.
They need to come into ournurture sequence.
That is going to take twomonths or whatever long.
However long our nurturesequence is because we're
treating them so gently.
We don't want to like oversell,we just want to like microdose.
(12:58):
It give them a ton of value,value, value, value.
That's right we don't want totalk about ourselves because God
forbid.
You know we make it about usand truly it's not.
It's not that you need to makeyour marketing about you.
You need to meet them in thatinstant trust window, that those
30 seconds, that one minutewhere they're actually out of
their own free will, trying tofigure out who you are, so that
(13:19):
they understand whether they payattention to you or not.
We need to meet them withsomething impactful and
something that's going to driveso much emotion that they can't
ever forget who we are.
And so what I've developed is,you know, with my background, in
like beautiful, intimatepersonal storytelling.
You know I had a documentarythat went on to play in Congress
(13:42):
in enacted law.
Like this is what I special,what I'm so passionate about, is
like how to squeeze youressence into like three minutes
so that your audience who wouldwatch your brand video on your
about me page pinned on yoursocials maybe it's in your email
signature, it's on your salespage, If they're landing cold on
a low ticket offer that youhave ads running to they need to
(14:07):
know immediately what you'reabout, what you stand for and
hit those trust triggers whichI'm gonna talk about.
So I wanted to just set thestage before I told you the how
of what.
Our myth is right.
We just believe this myth thatit's going to take months to
convert somebody, when, in fact,that is doing them a disservice
.
We are doing our best clients adisservice by delaying this
(14:31):
process, by accepting that it'sgoing to take months, accepting
that it's going to take monthswhen, in fact, once they know
who we are, all that needs tohappen next is they need to make
sure you're a fit, they need tomake sure those trust triggers
actually match them, and thenthey obviously need to know a
bit more about your offer, makesure a few other things are
aligned, but we can acceleratethat process so much by giving
(14:55):
them this asset that makes themfeel like they know us before
they ever get on a sales call.
Dr. William Attaway (15:01):
That's so good.
And that is exactly a myth thatI hear all the time.
Yeah, it's got a long salescycle you got to deal with you
know you got to.
You got to build this thingover time.
Don't sell.
Don't sell too early, don'tsell too fast, don't present
your offer.
Don't lean like value, valueexactly like you said.
Walking't sell too fast, don'tpresent your offer.
Mariana Henninger (15:19):
Don't lean like value.
Value, exactly, like you said,walking on eggshells and there's
a lot of truth to that.
Like what, I'm not what I'mwhat, I'm sorry.
I'm not saying that you shouldpush your offer very quickly.
What I'm saying is that we hidebehind providing value and
showing up as the expert, firstand foremost, versus showing up
as the human and the human.
Showing up as the human firstand foremost versus showing up
as the human and the humanshowing up as a human means.
(15:39):
This is what my value, this is.
This is why I do this.
This is why I'm passionateabout helping you, because this
is, you know, there's so manyhow, how long do we have?
I can go into right, but um,but I I do want to answer your
question of like, how?
Right, so I explained how thisworks.
But how do we actually createthat single brand story?
(16:03):
Like?
I work in brand videos becauseobviously video makes you come
more alive, a lot more.
There's a lot more impact invideo than in text.
We know that from science.
Nothing against text.
I love, I love that.
But so the way that we do thatis by hitting those four trust
triggers.
The first one is people need tofeel that you get them.
(16:26):
So it does start with youraudience.
It's honestly, your brand videois all about your audience.
It's how to connect with youraudience by using your story, so
you get them on a very deeplevel.
The second trust trigger thatthey need to feel in order to
trust you faster they need tofeel that you care about them
deeply, that it's not just aboutyou know, flashing a Stripe
(16:48):
screenshot and you know, oh mygosh, my a hundred K months, you
know all that marketing stuff.
It's not about that.
They're not a number to you.
They are human whose businessyou are passionate about helping
and accelerating right, andyou're passionate because you
truly, truly care about them.
So that's trust trigger numbertwo that has to come through in
that video or that, whateveryou're doing to meet them at
(17:11):
that trust window.
The second they connect withyou.
The third one is that's wherethe expertise comes in.
So to me, expertise comes third,which is like you have got them
, and it's expertise in thesense of you've done this a lot,
you know what you're doing.
You can provide relief for yourclients that they're in the
(17:31):
best of hands.
So your expertise is not evenabout you.
It's about giving them thesense of relief that they don't
have to worry when they'reworking with you.
And then the fourth trusttrigger is that we vibe right,
our personalities match Like.
You can have all three you getme, you care about me, you're
the expert, but I might notactually like you as a person,
(17:51):
right?
Or we might have differentstyles and maybe that would mean
it's not a match right stylesand maybe that would mean it's
not a match right, and you'renot everybody's person and
that's okay.
And so, learning how to workfrom your audience to understand
what, what their, what theirfears are, their desires, their,
all these things that you know,I'm sure your audience knows
about because they do marketing,so understanding them deeply
(18:14):
and then understanding reverseengineering from that into your
story to understand which storyand which parts of your story
are going to hit them where theyneed to be hit, in the sense of
hitting those trust triggersfor them, for your ideal client.
Dr. William Attaway (18:32):
I love this .
I love the simplicity of this.
I love the depth of this.
I love this.
I love the simplicity of this.
I love the depth of this.
This hits all manner ofrelational touch points as
you're building a relationship.
(18:54):
I mean, I think about this,care right, I get you.
I understand you.
You know, the niche that Iprimarily work in is agency
world right, and the reason forthat is because I'm a third
generation entrepreneur.
My dad started a traditional adagency back in the 70s and ran
it for 40 plus years.
I know that world, I know thelanguage, I know what it's like
(19:17):
from both sides and it gives methe ability to create a
relationship with people,because I know that.
Mariana Henninger (19:27):
I would even say I would even go deeper.
William Knowing can also be sosuperficial, right?
Chad GPD knows.
That's true.
That's true.
You get them.
That's true.
You experience that.
Get them, that's true.
You experience that with themthere's a level of empathy that
comes from like feeling the samethings they feel, having been
through that.
Dr. William Attaway (19:47):
The pain, right the pain points.
As you go through that journey.
I watched my dad struggle.
I watched him think more hoursis going to equal more
effectiveness.
And I watched what happens whenyou sacrifice your marriage on
the altar of potential successwith your business.
I watched what happens when youdon't make the turn when the
(20:11):
industry changes.
Mariana Henninger (20:13):
Can I challenge you again?
Not only did you watch it, youfelt it right.
Yes 100%.
Dr. William Attaway (20:18):
You experienced that within your own
family and I'm sure you watchedit, but there was a lot of
emotional journey there for you100%, and these were catalysts
that help me now with my clients, to help them avoid some of
those ditches, to help them say,hey, you know what?
Do you know where this roadgoes that you're on?
(20:40):
Because I do.
Let me throw up a few warningsigns for you that are going to
help you avoid this ditch.
Let me help you go farther thanmaybe you even think you're
capable of and get there faster,because you don't have to learn
some of this stuff the hard way.
That's a catalyst inside of me.
(21:02):
Yeah Right, but what you'redescribing is like how do you
take that?
How do you take that story?
How do you take it and presentthat in such a way that people
feel like you get them?
Yeah.
Right, they feel seen, they feelheard.
You get it, you understand andyou care enough to want to help
me overcome it.
(21:22):
Right, this is so powerful andyou do this in three minutes.
Mariana Henninger (21:26):
I know.
So that is the challenge, right, I keep forgetting.
There's somebody famous that itcan be quoted.
I don't know if it wasHemingway or I really can't
remember who it was who said Iwrote you a letter If I had had
more time it would have been aparagraph.
You know what I mean.
So, it takes so much skill tomake something shorter and more
(21:48):
impactful.
I tell the story sometimes ofthe documentary that I made that
won the Emmy.
My first cut was 45 minutes andI was so proud of that cut.
I'm like, oh my gosh, this isamazing.
This I didn't even, you know.
At the time I didn't even knowwe were going to submit it or
whatever, and my boss turnedaround and said it needs to be
(22:09):
10 minutes and I was like, oh,the way that I describe it,
William like going back to theediting floor and being like I'm
going to cut out so much goodstuff.
I remember that it felt like myheart was bleeding on the
office floor.
I think in visuals a lot andthat was the one that, like this
is how it felt.
(22:29):
It felt so painful to go backand cut so much out and, who
knows, I don't know if it wouldhave won as a 40 minute doc and
yet as a 10 minute doc it's likepunch to the gut and so it
takes a lot of knowing what tokeep and what to leave out,
knowing what to film.
There's a lot of what I call Idon't even call it B-roll, I
(22:50):
call it emotional visuals,because your visuals are a
character in this piece.
They're also pushing forwardthe emotions that you want to
trigger in your audience.
That's actually the mostimportant question you want to
ask is what is the emotion thatI want my audience to have after
watching this?
That's really good.
And then to something that yousaid earlier.
You know I have clients who nowhave a brand video installed,
(23:13):
Like I call it a system.
You really install the systemthroughout your funnels,
throughout your business, andthey say things.
Like you know, we skipped thefour or five emails back and
forth now and people are comingto the sales call.
All they need to know is allthey're asking about are like
what are the details of my offer?
They don't need to be sold onme.
They feel like they know mealready, and these are people
(23:33):
who you know had previously notspent those months and months
being nurtured by them.
It was just feeling like theyknew you, as if so the way that
I describe it is, it's as ifthey had had this intimate
coffee chat with, like a bestfriend, and that's the feeling
that you want to have in yourbrand video, which is very I
(23:54):
mean, in a way, the word, thewords brand video don't really
do it justice, in that there'sall sorts of brand videos out
there and I feel like thebiggest mistake that most folks
make is that they're just likenot deep enough in that
storytelling, in those veryintentional emotional visuals,
and you need to be veryintentional to be able to do
(24:15):
that in three and a half minutes, four minutes, and pack a punch
.
Dr. William Attaway (24:20):
And that's how I would describe it.
I mean watching yours, right,watching yours, that you did for
you.
I was struck by the richnessand by the depth and by the
impact, and that's really whatit feels like.
You feel the impact of thevideo as you're watching it,
like, oh man, this is hitting somany different places
internally.
Wow, this is powerful.
(24:42):
And that takes a very specialskill set and really the hands
of a surgeon to know where tocut.
You know, and I think that'swhat you bring, the expertise
that you bring to your clients.
Mariana Henninger (24:56):
Thanks, william.
I really appreciate it, andsometimes if I'm on a podcast
I'll do something really crazy,which is pause just for a quick
second.
Come right back, but you canwatch my brand video at
brandmagneticcom slash Mariana.
Oh I love that, yeah, but ithelps to watch it, I think.
First of all, again, thank youso much for sharing that,
because it really makes my heartso happy when people express
(25:20):
the results that I want toachieve with these brand videos.
But in addition to that, it'sjust kind of like describing a
movie.
Right, you can describe it inso many words.
You could talk about how itimpacted you, how you cried, all
of it, how it changed your life, but watching it for yourself
and actually feeling it is thebiggest testament to how this
works, and so I appreciate yousaying that so much.
Dr. William Attaway (25:45):
Well, we'll have a link to that in the show
notes so people can go watchthis and experience it, because
that's really what it is.
It is an experience.
It's not just something thatyou watch while you're doing
something else.
I'm going to encourage thelisteners to actually pay
attention, like take threeminutes and see what happens.
So good, mariana, I want totalk about you for a minute.
(26:07):
You know you are leading, andyou are leading at a different
level today than you were three,four, five years ago, and that
same thing is going to be truethree, four, five years from now
.
How do you stay on top of yourgame?
How do you level up with newleadership skills that you are
(26:28):
going to need to have in ordernot to be the lid or the cap on
your business's growth for theyears to come?
Mariana Henninger (26:36):
I hang around people like you, william, I'm
not even joking.
People like you, william, I'mnot even joking, I think you
know I I'm not.
My business is on the youngerside.
I haven't been around for 10years doing this business of.
You know, I have 15 plus yearsof experience as a documentary
filmmaker.
I have fewer years as abusiness owner and a marketer
(26:59):
and you know, as with everybusiness, you're typically
wearing more hats than you wouldlike in the beginning.
I've kind of passed that, thatlevel now where I have, you know
, people in place that are thatassist in all sorts of ways.
But I've also I think wechatted about this I have been
blessed with team members who,for a good amount of their work,
(27:22):
kind of self-lead, where it'svery collaborative, and I think
it was really meeting you andI'm not just saying this because
I'm on your podcast, butmeeting you brought to my
attention that this is not askill set that I can just wing
and I need to be a lot moreintentional about growing and we
talked about this when you wereon my podcast where leading
(27:44):
yourself is the most difficulttask.
You are the most difficultperson to lead.
I think it's about being aroundpeople who are doing it right.
It's a lot about, yes, readingthe right books or doing the
right trainings, but ultimately,being around people who are
doing it right and watchingtheir example experience.
(28:05):
Again, less watching and morelike feeling, like getting the
feeling from them of what itmeans, like what, what does that
nuance look like to navigatedifficult situations with your
team and and decisions forgrowth?
You know, wearing less of theimplementer hat and more of the
CEO hat.
That's kind of the stage whereI am right now, and so I, you
(28:26):
know, have me on the podcast ayear from now.
I'll probably give you likefive other places, but for now,
I really enjoy your podcast, Ireally enjoy your work.
So looking forward to hearingyou at the Commitment Summit and
hopefully this is not this isgoing to be played beforehand,
I'm not sure, but it willAbsolutely.
Okay and yeah, so that would be.
That's what I'm doing right now.
Dr. William Attaway (28:48):
You know.
I love that you share that.
I'm humbled that you would,that you would find it useful.
The things that were put out,that's awesome.
I love that you talk about thecommunity, and I think this is
something that a lot ofentrepreneurs lack.
They don't have a group ofpeople that they are growing
with.
Growing alongside learning fromsharpening each other,
(29:10):
challenging each other, growingand learning together.
That is critical for long-termsuccess.
The entrepreneurial road can beincredibly lonely if you try to
do it all by yourself, but wewere never intended to do that.
Finding your people, your tribe, your community that then you
can go forward with helps you totruly go farther and get there
(29:33):
faster.
I'm so glad you brought that up.
Mariana Henninger (29:35):
For sure.
I'll add two things to that One, and they're kind of
interconnected.
One thing that I was praying alot about at the end of last
year was exactly that I feltlike I had these sort of shallow
really nice, you know, shallowrelationships with folks in my
industry, peers in differentgroups, that I'm in different
(29:57):
masterminds, but I really,really missed having deeper
connections and having like mygo-to group of gals, and I was
praying to God.
I was like God, I really wantthis, like I hear people you
know what you just described Iwas like that sounds so good.
It feels like I don't reallyhave that, that go-to pod that I
(30:17):
can come to um with, to toreally mastermind together,
right, and I think I think I hadgreat other people that I could
sort of high levelconversations with, but and God
really fulfilled that dream Um,it was, um, initially it was
like three of us and it wasn'tvery active.
It was like a private boxergroup and now, uh, we invited a
(30:39):
couple people, a couple of keypeople, and now we're like six
of us and I the way that Idescribe it, it's kind of like
sex in the city where, likewe're, we're just like joined at
the hip and it all sort ofevolved over January.
And you know this is going tosound very girly, but we talk
about like stuff that happens towomen over their forties.
We talk about motherhood, wetalk about, and then we talk
(31:02):
about a lot about business and Ilove about life.
a hundred percent, that's whatit is.
Being able to have that, thatpeer group where you're like
really, um, there there's notopic that's off off the table
is has been a game changer.
And then the second thing I'llsay is that maybe this answers
(31:22):
your question about leadershiptoo.
Is that one shift that I'vemade since the beginning of my
business?
I would say, like the firstyear in business this was not
the case for me, and then Ireally decided like this is
going to change and it's goingto change like today, and that
is that God's my CEO.
And I know that can sound likeif you don't have a relationship
with God, that can be like whatthe heck is she talking about.
(31:45):
But really what I mean is thatI'm not bothered by the ups and
downs of my business.
I'm not.
You know, I just told youbefore we hit record, I had this
massive opportunity that waspreviously a yes become a no,
and I was just like, okay,that's all right, god's going to
open some other doors over here, and just relying on God for
(32:08):
that stability of spirit hasbeen a game changer, and I truly
believe that maybe that's whatI'm bringing to the table to my
team as well is just thateverything is figureoutable.
Thank you, marie Forleo.
You know there's nothing, thatthere's no circumstance that's
going to affect how I feel, andit doesn't.
(32:35):
Quite the opposite.
I'm so passionate about mybusiness, I'm so invested in my
business, I'm invested in myclients and I do a lot of work
for my business.
I, you know, I'm constantlystudying.
I'm, you know, I'm constantlystudying, I'm constantly
learning, I'm constantly growingand implementing new systems.
All that good stuff.
But the most important thing is, like I'm hoping, like the way
that I look at my business, isthat I'm helping bring to the
(32:56):
surface who you are as a human,and as a human you were created
by God and that's, you know.
I think there's like such anawesome connection there.
So, anyway, so that's anotherreally awesome, like important
layer of my business.
I love that.
Dr. William Attaway (33:10):
I think you know you have found your people
, your mastermind group, whenyou can bring all of yourself
into it, not just the highlightreel, not just the front facing
or client facing you, but all ofyou, and that's what you're
describing.
You're bringing all of you intothis setting, including your
(33:34):
faith, and far too manyentrepreneurs who are people of
faith feel like they have tosegment or wall off that part of
their lives and not bring thatpart of them into their business
, and I think it's so muchhealthier to understand that you
are one person and to live alife of integrity means that you
are living a life whereeverything integrates together
where everything touches andyou're not trying to wall off or
(33:57):
separate one part of your lifefrom the rest of it.
That's healthy, that's awesome.
So kudos to you.
Mariana Henninger (34:01):
That's encouraging life from the rest
of it.
That's healthy, that's awesome.
So kudos to you.
That's encouraging to even domore of that.
Dr. William Attaway (34:07):
I love that You've mentioned that you're a
learner.
You're a continual learner.
You are learning all the time.
You're watching, you'relistening, you're reading.
I'm always looking for the nextgood book.
Is there a book that you wouldrecommend, that you've read,
that you think, oh man, this onemade a big difference in my
journey?
I'd love to recommend this tothe other leaders who are
listening.
Mariana Henninger (34:27):
That's a great question.
I do a lot of selectivelearning and what that means is
so I'm looking at across mytable.
I have like six books on mytable right now.
And I've literally read specificchapters of each book, which is
not how I recommend readingevery book, but I am intentional
about not spending time.
(34:49):
Well, what is it calledJust-in-time learning, right?
So what is the thing that Ineed to focus on right now and
what are the very specificresources that are going to get
me to that next step in thatthing that I need to evolve in?
I'm going to give a shout out toyou again because that book
(35:09):
Trust that you recommended to meis phenomenal, and it's also
the word that I want to be knownfor, and so everything that
says trust, I'm like I'm goingto read that, I'm going to learn
that.
I think you know, I'm going tolearn that.
I think you know, just from aquick branding BTS of my
business here, that in thebeginning I did a lot of my
messaging around brand videosand I think that was a lesson
(35:31):
that I learned that when peoplehear brand videos, they think,
oh, it's content, oh, that'snice, you know, that's's nice to
have.
And I think I'm hoping thatafter listening to our chat,
folks can see that the video isjust a tool that you use to
accelerate trust in that veryspecific moment when people are
(35:52):
meeting you for the first time.
All of the people who willbecome future best clients for
you are going to, at one onepoint, meet you for the first
time, and it's acceleratingtrust at that point.
And so, anyway, so all of this,to say that in the beginning I
used to talk so much more aboutbrand videos and now I talk all
(36:12):
about trust and I feel like thatreally just owning that word is
so important for me and mybranding and that's something
that I encourage everyone tohave the one word or the maximum
, like two words that they'reknown for, so that when people
think of that word, they thinkof you.
Leadership William Chas.
(36:33):
Arianna, you know it'simportant to have that Like what
is the one thing that you bringthat's different from everyone
else?
Dr. William Attaway (36:41):
So good as always.
Every time we talk I feel likewe could go for another hour.
There's so much wisdom andinsight you have brought into
this conversation, so muchexpertise that you bring to this
topic, and I'm so grateful toyou for being willing to share
that so generously today.
Thank you.
Mariana Henninger (37:00):
Thanks, William.
Dr. William Attaway (37:02):
I know people are going to want to stay
connected to you and continueto learn more about you and
Brand Magnetic.
What is the best way for themto do that?
Mariana Henninger (37:11):
Yeah for sure .
So if you listen to thisconversation and you're like I
don't think I'm doing a goodenough job as soon as people
meet me to really make thatconnection, really make people
feel something and really becomesticky, and if you're looking
at your marketing and you'rethinking I think I can do better
at this point of the funnel,then I've got a great resource.
(37:32):
That's a bit more practicalthan the conversation we had
today.
So really to dive into how tocreate a story, a brand story,
that converts, you can grab thatcheat sheet at brandmagneticcom
slash cheat sheet.
And I'm on socials.
Brand Magnetic connect with mein all the places where you
would find people.
(37:52):
But that's a great cheat sheetto get you started on this
process of like how to thinkabout my story in a way that is
going to really move the needleand connect with people the
moment that they meet me.
Dr. William Attaway (38:03):
So good and so generous again, thank you
for that, my pleasure.
I'm so excited today to have Mariana
Henninger on the podcast.
Mariana is an Emmy-winningfilmmaker and founder of
BrandMagneticcom, where shehelps online business owners
accelerate trust and increasesales by creating instant
connection with cold audiencesusing a single three-minute
(00:22):
brand video.
Known as the queen of brandvideos, she blends emotional
storytelling with strategy tocreate a forever asset that
makes you stand out and does theheavy lifting so you don't have
to.
She's also the host of theEmpire Secrets of Digital
Marketing podcast.
Marianne, I'm so glad you'rehere.
(00:44):
Thanks for being on the show.
Mariana Henninger (00:46):
Yay, william, always a treat to chat with you
I always enjoy ourconversations, and this will be
no exception.
Dr. William Attaway (00:52):
I know I'm excited.
Intro video (00:52):
I'm looking forward to sharing this one Yep.
Welcome to Catalytic Leadership, the podcast designed to help
leaders intentionally grow andthrive.
Here is your host author andleadership and executive coach,
dr.
Dr. William Attaway (01:12):
William Attaway, I would love to start
with you sharing a little bit ofyour story with our listeners
particularly around your journeyin your development as a leader
.
How did you get started?
Mariana Henninger (01:26):
Oh, that's wait, let's just address this
question your development as aleader.
That's so funny.
I don't see myself as a leaderbut, william, like being in your
world.
I'm like I think I should bemore of a leader.
Dr. William Attaway (01:38):
You are so thank you.
Mariana Henninger (01:39):
Thank you for phrasing the question that way
and I appreciate that my storyis wild.
So there's so many differentthings I could say about my
story To try to condense whatcould be a bigger book into just
a shorter answer for you.
I got started as a journalist.
As a photographer, I went fromundergrad to living in Bedouin
(02:03):
tents in the Middle East andpitching stories.
I lived in a hostel for 18months and pitched stories every
single day to editors hoping toget my photos bought, and it
really taught me how to pitchreally fast, how to look at
stories, even having beentrained as a journalist.
That was kind of how I gotstarted to.
(02:25):
You know, even having beentrained as a journalist, that
was kind of how I got startedand as I was doing more and more
storytelling at the timethrough photography, I learned
something very quickly which isin order to tell the best story
I needed to make people feel socomfortable with me.
I didn't have a whole lot oftime right Sometimes, even if
I'm fast forwarding probably 10,15 years, when I was at working
(02:47):
at NBC and I was flying allover the world you know,
afghanistan and Haiti andFinland and Ukraine and all over
the world telling peoplestories.
I didn't have unlimited budgetsright, so I needed to get people
to trust me very quickly, toknow that I was going to do
their story justice, and to beable to look at their story and
(03:07):
be able to pull out the mostimpactful parts of their story.
So that, and my biggest goal andthis is why I love documentary
filmmaking, which I ended upgraduating from photography into
documentary filmmaking thebiggest reason I love
documentaries is because theyput you in the shoes of somebody
whose life and whose story youwouldn't otherwise necessarily
(03:29):
care about, and when you're ableto do that, you're literally
taking a stranger to this person, a stranger to that story, to
that reality, and making themcare, making them feel something
At the end of watching.
At the time, I worked on a lotof short pieces and so getting
(03:50):
people to trust me really fastand then understanding how to
tell their story in a way thatreally packed that punch, that
emotional punch, and made peoplefeel something, made people
take action, eventually leadingto an Emmy.
As you mentioned, I actuallygot nominated for a second one
and yeah, so those are the twothings that I really learned in
(04:11):
15 years of traveling the world,first as a photographer, then
in video and working for the NewYork Times, the Wall Street
Journal, time Magazine and thenfinally NBC, before I realized I
was a closeted entrepreneur andI needed to do my own thing.
Dr. William Attaway (04:28):
I love that story.
You know, there is no suchthing as a wasted experience in
your life.
Mariana Henninger (04:32):
Oh my gosh, no yeah.
Dr. William Attaway (04:34):
Every bit of that has made you into the
leader, the entrepreneur, thebusiness owner that you are
today and helps you as you serveyour clients.
You're building, know, like andtrust right, just like anybody
else in the marketing world, butyou're accelerating the process
.
How?
Mariana Henninger (04:52):
do you do that?
Well, it all starts with anygood marketing, right?
So I'll just tell you reallyquick.
I think I need to bridge fromjournalism to what I do today,
which is, straight up, digitalmarketing and really
understanding how, as you said,to accelerate trust, how to make
you stand out, how to makepeople instantly feel connected
(05:14):
to you, so that you are not lostin the sea of sameness if
you're an agency owner, so youdon't blend in with everyone
else.
I actually heard a quote fromHermosi on his podcast just the
other day and he said buildingan agency is the lowest barrier
to entry.
All you need is a cell phoneand an internet connection.
(05:35):
And I'm like, oh man, truly, somany people can call themselves
digital agencies and might nothave the credentials, might not
have the credentials, might nothave the experience and
definitely, if they're comingfrom scratch, they don't have
what your listeners I'm surehave.
And yet they're flooding themarketplace, they're creating
(05:55):
more and more content.
We know that AI is spitting outcontent in so much volume right
now, and so how do not only dowe stand up, but we pierce
through that noise and createthat instant connection, the
moment that people coldaudiences land on our website,
land on our social page and notforget us like that.
(06:16):
That's the, that's the goal herewe don't want to be forgotten
and we want to create an instantconnection so that every time
we're showing up, every timethat we appear in their inbox if
, luckily, we've been able tograb their email, or we're
showing up on socials if,luckily you know they followed
us they're paying so much moreattention into the marketing
(06:45):
world because I'm obsessed withmarketing, I'm obsessed with
sales, I'm obsessed with, like,understanding how to get people
to feel something so that theycan take action faster on a
thing that you know, hopefully,will transform their lives.
I'm actually very picky aboutclients that I work with.
You know there has to bealignment of values, so I love
promoting businesses who reallyand truly bring something
incredible to their clients,right?
(07:06):
So, anyway, what was yourquestion?
So so like how do we do thatRight?
Dr. William Attaway (07:15):
How do you do that Like yeah, like in trust
is is a long lead.
Typically you've got to reallywork to build that trust factor,
but you've figured out a way toshortcut that a little bit.
Mariana Henninger (07:28):
For sure.
That's actually the number onemyth that I love changing
people's perspectives around,like business owners'
perspectives around.
We have just bought thiscomplete myth that it takes six
to 12 months of having to showup consistently, of having to
put out all of that content,having to work so hard to
(07:49):
nurture people from cold all theway to, hopefully, a potential
client, and hopefully they don'tunsubscribe in the interim.
Hopefully the algorithm doesn'tturn on us and we don't show up
anymore.
Right, we've just bought that.
This is the way to do business.
We take somebody from cold, wehopefully try to grab their
emails with something really,really catchy, right at the top
(08:12):
of the funnel and then we hopethat they stick around long
enough over months and monthsand months in order to build
that trust with them, what Icall micro dosing.
We're micro dosing little bitsof ourselves, little bits of our
brand, so that they eventuallytrust us to be the person that
will bring that solution to them, and so that's what we believe.
(08:35):
That is the pain point of thereality of marketing in the
digital space that we've justaccepted.
How do we accelerate that?
Well, good old marketing startswith understanding your
audience really deeply andstarting with them first, right,
and so what I use is what Icall the four trust triggers.
We need to understand how tohit these four trust triggers so
(08:57):
that people can accelerate, sowe can accelerate that trust the
moment that people meet usonline.
So, before I talk about thefour trust triggers, I'm going
to explain something that'sgoing to sound so obvious when
you hear it, but we really don'tthink about it, and that is
when people first meet us,meaning they first land on our
(09:18):
socials or they first land onour website.
Typically it's going to be oneof those two, or they maybe even
hear about us from somebodyelse.
When that first connectionhappens, we're not typically
there, right, it's our websitespeaking for us, it's our social
speaking for us.
We're not necessarily, we'retypically not interacting with a
(09:38):
very cold audience the momentthey meet us and what's
happening is that that coldperson that cold they're not
even a lead yet, right?
But that cold person is whatare they doing, william?
They heard about us.
They went to check us out.
They went to figure out whatwe're about, right, they're
checking us out.
Actually, what's his name?
(09:59):
I have his book and I totallyblanked on his name.
There's an author that talksabout how people are checking us
out, in the privacy ofanonymity, in their own time and
space.
Dr. William Attaway (10:11):
That's good .
Mariana Henninger (10:11):
And so this is what I call the instant trust
window.
There's a window of time itmight be like 30 seconds, it
might be a minute if you'relucky where people are actively
looking at your stuff andwanting to know who you are.
And what they're trying toanswer is is it worth it for me
to pay attention to this person,to this brand right, or to this
(10:34):
business?
And what do we have, william?
What are we serving them with?
We're giving them an about mepage that, more often than not,
we kind of wrote it was atortured writer.
About me page, right?
We?
Write in this person.
We write it.
We wrote it 10 years ago when westarted our business.
Or whenever we start ourbusiness, we're like oh, I guess
(10:56):
I need an about me page.
Oh, what am I gonna write aboutmyself?
That doesn't sound tooself-glorifying.
Dr. William Attaway (11:02):
That sounds so true, and we never look at
it again, right.
That's right, because we don'twant to.
Mariana Henninger (11:08):
We don't want to right who wants to talk
about themselves.
We have learned that it's allabout our clients.
It's all about them.
It's all about and listen, I'mnot anti that messaging, and I
think Donald Miller did anamazing job of shifting our
perspective with the story brandconcept into making it all
about your customer, yourcustomers.
Yes, your customer is a hero.
However, your customer, the hero, wants to know who you are.
(11:31):
They want to know who you arebecause they want to know if
they can trust you to solve theproblem that you, with such
amazing copy and whatnot, you'resaying that you're great at and
you're saying that you cansolve for them.
Ultimately, they want to makethe decision about whether they
want to work with you versusanybody else, and what we're
doing is we're not payingattention to that message.
(11:53):
That truly shows them who weare, and so that About Me page
that we wrote and we forgotabout is typically and you know
the stat, I think we talkedabout this when we first met it
is the second most visited pageon any website.
It is or about us or meet ourteam, whatever you want to call
it 100%, it is.
Why?
Because people want to know,william, they want to know and
(12:14):
so, and then you know on yoursocials.
If you're lucky, you might beone of those people who realize
it's important to like pinsomething at the top that kind
of explains who you are Most.
Some people don't, somebusinesses don't do that.
And what?
When you don't do that?
Here's what happens.
(12:36):
Your cold audience person whomight've been a perfect client
for you next week, right, whomight've been so ready to work
with you, they are put into thisfunnel that we just assumed
this is how digital marketingworks.
They need to come into ournurture sequence.
That is going to take twomonths or whatever long.
However long our nurturesequence is because we're
treating them so gently.
We don't want to like oversell,we just want to like microdose.
(12:58):
It give them a ton of value,value, value, value.
That's right we don't want totalk about ourselves because God
forbid.
You know we make it about usand truly it's not.
It's not that you need to makeyour marketing about you.
You need to meet them in thatinstant trust window, that those
30 seconds, that one minutewhere they're actually out of
their own free will, trying tofigure out who you are, so that
(13:19):
they understand whether they payattention to you or not.
We need to meet them withsomething impactful and
something that's going to driveso much emotion that they can't
ever forget who we are.
And so what I've developed is,you know, with my background, in
like beautiful, intimatepersonal storytelling.
You know I had a documentarythat went on to play in Congress
(13:42):
in enacted law.
Like this is what I special,what I'm so passionate about, is
like how to squeeze youressence into like three minutes
so that your audience who wouldwatch your brand video on your
about me page pinned on yoursocials maybe it's in your email
signature, it's on your salespage, If they're landing cold on
a low ticket offer that youhave ads running to they need to
(14:07):
know immediately what you'reabout, what you stand for and
hit those trust triggers whichI'm gonna talk about.
So I wanted to just set thestage before I told you the how
of what.
Our myth is right.
We just believe this myth thatit's going to take months to
convert somebody, when, in fact,that is doing them a disservice
.
We are doing our best clients adisservice by delaying this
(14:31):
process, by accepting that it'sgoing to take months, accepting
that it's going to take monthswhen, in fact, once they know
who we are, all that needs tohappen next is they need to make
sure you're a fit, they need tomake sure those trust triggers
actually match them, and thenthey obviously need to know a
bit more about your offer, makesure a few other things are
aligned, but we can acceleratethat process so much by giving
(14:55):
them this asset that makes themfeel like they know us before
they ever get on a sales call.
Dr. William Attaway (15:01):
That's so good.
And that is exactly a myth thatI hear all the time.
Yeah, it's got a long salescycle you got to deal with you
know you got to.
You got to build this thingover time.
Don't sell.
Don't sell too early, don'tsell too fast, don't present
your offer.
Don't lean like value, valueexactly like you said.
Walking't sell too fast, don'tpresent your offer.
Mariana Henninger (15:19):
Don't lean like value.
Value, exactly, like you said,walking on eggshells and there's
a lot of truth to that.
Like what, I'm not what I'mwhat, I'm sorry.
I'm not saying that you shouldpush your offer very quickly.
What I'm saying is that we hidebehind providing value and
showing up as the expert, firstand foremost, versus showing up
as the human and the human.
Showing up as the human firstand foremost versus showing up
as the human and the humanshowing up as a human means.
(15:39):
This is what my value, this is.
This is why I do this.
This is why I'm passionateabout helping you, because this
is, you know, there's so manyhow, how long do we have?
I can go into right, but um,but I I do want to answer your
question of like, how?
Right, so I explained how thisworks.
But how do we actually createthat single brand story?
(16:03):
Like?
I work in brand videos becauseobviously video makes you come
more alive, a lot more.
There's a lot more impact invideo than in text.
We know that from science.
Nothing against text.
I love, I love that.
But so the way that we do thatis by hitting those four trust
triggers.
The first one is people need tofeel that you get them.
(16:26):
So it does start with youraudience.
It's honestly, your brand videois all about your audience.
It's how to connect with youraudience by using your story, so
you get them on a very deeplevel.
The second trust trigger thatthey need to feel in order to
trust you faster they need tofeel that you care about them
deeply, that it's not just aboutyou know, flashing a Stripe
(16:48):
screenshot and you know, oh mygosh, my a hundred K months, you
know all that marketing stuff.
It's not about that.
They're not a number to you.
They are human whose businessyou are passionate about helping
and accelerating right, andyou're passionate because you
truly, truly care about them.
So that's trust trigger numbertwo that has to come through in
that video or that, whateveryou're doing to meet them at
(17:11):
that trust window.
The second they connect withyou.
The third one is that's wherethe expertise comes in.
So to me, expertise comes third,which is like you have got them
, and it's expertise in thesense of you've done this a lot,
you know what you're doing.
You can provide relief for yourclients that they're in the
(17:31):
best of hands.
So your expertise is not evenabout you.
It's about giving them thesense of relief that they don't
have to worry when they'reworking with you.
And then the fourth trusttrigger is that we vibe right,
our personalities match Like.
You can have all three you getme, you care about me, you're
the expert, but I might notactually like you as a person,
(17:51):
right?
Or we might have differentstyles and maybe that would mean
it's not a match right stylesand maybe that would mean it's
not a match right, and you'renot everybody's person and
that's okay.
And so, learning how to workfrom your audience to understand
what, what their, what theirfears are, their desires, their,
all these things that you know,I'm sure your audience knows
about because they do marketing,so understanding them deeply
(18:14):
and then understanding reverseengineering from that into your
story to understand which storyand which parts of your story
are going to hit them where theyneed to be hit, in the sense of
hitting those trust triggersfor them, for your ideal client.
Dr. William Attaway (18:32):
I love this .
I love the simplicity of this.
I love the depth of this.
I love this.
I love the simplicity of this.
I love the depth of this.
This hits all manner ofrelational touch points as
you're building a relationship.
(18:54):
I mean, I think about this,care right, I get you.
I understand you.
You know, the niche that Iprimarily work in is agency
world right, and the reason forthat is because I'm a third
generation entrepreneur.
My dad started a traditional adagency back in the 70s and ran
it for 40 plus years.
I know that world, I know thelanguage, I know what it's like
(19:17):
from both sides and it gives methe ability to create a
relationship with people,because I know that.
Mariana Henninger (19:27):
I would even say I would even go deeper.
William Knowing can also be sosuperficial, right?
Chad GPD knows.
That's true.
That's true.
You get them.
That's true.
You experience that.
Get them, that's true.
You experience that with themthere's a level of empathy that
comes from like feeling the samethings they feel, having been
through that.
Dr. William Attaway (19:47):
The pain, right the pain points.
As you go through that journey.
I watched my dad struggle.
I watched him think more hoursis going to equal more
effectiveness.
And I watched what happens whenyou sacrifice your marriage on
the altar of potential successwith your business.
I watched what happens when youdon't make the turn when the
(20:11):
industry changes.
Mariana Henninger (20:13):
Can I challenge you again?
Not only did you watch it, youfelt it right.
Yes 100%.
Dr. William Attaway (20:18):
You experienced that within your own
family and I'm sure you watchedit, but there was a lot of
emotional journey there for you100%, and these were catalysts
that help me now with my clients, to help them avoid some of
those ditches, to help them say,hey, you know what?
Do you know where this roadgoes that you're on?
(20:40):
Because I do.
Let me throw up a few warningsigns for you that are going to
help you avoid this ditch.
Let me help you go farther thanmaybe you even think you're
capable of and get there faster,because you don't have to learn
some of this stuff the hard way.
That's a catalyst inside of me.
(21:02):
Yeah Right, but what you'redescribing is like how do you
take that?
How do you take that story?
How do you take it and presentthat in such a way that people
feel like you get them?
Yeah.
Right, they feel seen, they feelheard.
You get it, you understand andyou care enough to want to help
me overcome it.
(21:22):
Right, this is so powerful andyou do this in three minutes.
Mariana Henninger (21:26):
I know.
So that is the challenge, right, I keep forgetting.
There's somebody famous that itcan be quoted.
I don't know if it wasHemingway or I really can't
remember who it was who said Iwrote you a letter If I had had
more time it would have been aparagraph.
You know what I mean.
So, it takes so much skill tomake something shorter and more
(21:48):
impactful.
I tell the story sometimes ofthe documentary that I made that
won the Emmy.
My first cut was 45 minutes andI was so proud of that cut.
I'm like, oh my gosh, this isamazing.
This I didn't even, you know.
At the time I didn't even knowwe were going to submit it or
whatever, and my boss turnedaround and said it needs to be
(22:09):
10 minutes and I was like, oh,the way that I describe it,
William like going back to theediting floor and being like I'm
going to cut out so much goodstuff.
I remember that it felt like myheart was bleeding on the
office floor.
I think in visuals a lot andthat was the one that, like this
is how it felt.
(22:29):
It felt so painful to go backand cut so much out and, who
knows, I don't know if it wouldhave won as a 40 minute doc and
yet as a 10 minute doc it's likepunch to the gut and so it
takes a lot of knowing what tokeep and what to leave out,
knowing what to film.
There's a lot of what I call Idon't even call it B-roll, I
(22:50):
call it emotional visuals,because your visuals are a
character in this piece.
They're also pushing forwardthe emotions that you want to
trigger in your audience.
That's actually the mostimportant question you want to
ask is what is the emotion thatI want my audience to have after
watching this?
That's really good.
And then to something that yousaid earlier.
You know I have clients who nowhave a brand video installed,
(23:13):
Like I call it a system.
You really install the systemthroughout your funnels,
throughout your business, andthey say things.
Like you know, we skipped thefour or five emails back and
forth now and people are comingto the sales call.
All they need to know is allthey're asking about are like
what are the details of my offer?
They don't need to be sold onme.
They feel like they know mealready, and these are people
(23:33):
who you know had previously notspent those months and months
being nurtured by them.
It was just feeling like theyknew you, as if so the way that
I describe it is, it's as ifthey had had this intimate
coffee chat with, like a bestfriend, and that's the feeling
that you want to have in yourbrand video, which is very I
(23:54):
mean, in a way, the word, thewords brand video don't really
do it justice, in that there'sall sorts of brand videos out
there and I feel like thebiggest mistake that most folks
make is that they're just likenot deep enough in that
storytelling, in those veryintentional emotional visuals,
and you need to be veryintentional to be able to do
(24:15):
that in three and a half minutes, four minutes, and pack a punch
.
Dr. William Attaway (24:20):
And that's how I would describe it.
I mean watching yours, right,watching yours, that you did for
you.
I was struck by the richnessand by the depth and by the
impact, and that's really whatit feels like.
You feel the impact of thevideo as you're watching it,
like, oh man, this is hitting somany different places
internally.
Wow, this is powerful.
(24:42):
And that takes a very specialskill set and really the hands
of a surgeon to know where tocut.
You know, and I think that'swhat you bring, the expertise
that you bring to your clients.
Mariana Henninger (24:56):
Thanks, william.
I really appreciate it, andsometimes if I'm on a podcast
I'll do something really crazy,which is pause just for a quick
second.
Come right back, but you canwatch my brand video at
brandmagneticcom slash Mariana.
Oh I love that, yeah, but ithelps to watch it, I think.
First of all, again, thank youso much for sharing that,
because it really makes my heartso happy when people express
(25:20):
the results that I want toachieve with these brand videos.
But in addition to that, it'sjust kind of like describing a
movie.
Right, you can describe it inso many words.
You could talk about how itimpacted you, how you cried, all
of it, how it changed your life, but watching it for yourself
and actually feeling it is thebiggest testament to how this
works, and so I appreciate yousaying that so much.
Dr. William Attaway (25:45):
Well, we'll have a link to that in the show
notes so people can go watchthis and experience it, because
that's really what it is.
It is an experience.
It's not just something thatyou watch while you're doing
something else.
I'm going to encourage thelisteners to actually pay
attention, like take threeminutes and see what happens.
So good, mariana, I want totalk about you for a minute.
(26:07):
You know you are leading, andyou are leading at a different
level today than you were three,four, five years ago, and that
same thing is going to be truethree, four, five years from now
.
How do you stay on top of yourgame?
How do you level up with newleadership skills that you are
(26:28):
going to need to have in ordernot to be the lid or the cap on
your business's growth for theyears to come?
Mariana Henninger (26:36):
I hang around people like you, william, I'm
not even joking.
People like you, william, I'mnot even joking, I think you
know I I'm not.
My business is on the youngerside.
I haven't been around for 10years doing this business of.
You know, I have 15 plus yearsof experience as a documentary
filmmaker.
I have fewer years as abusiness owner and a marketer
(26:59):
and you know, as with everybusiness, you're typically
wearing more hats than you wouldlike in the beginning.
I've kind of passed that, thatlevel now where I have, you know
, people in place that are thatassist in all sorts of ways.
But I've also I think wechatted about this I have been
blessed with team members who,for a good amount of their work,
(27:22):
kind of self-lead, where it'svery collaborative, and I think
it was really meeting you andI'm not just saying this because
I'm on your podcast, butmeeting you brought to my
attention that this is not askill set that I can just wing
and I need to be a lot moreintentional about growing and we
talked about this when you wereon my podcast where leading
(27:44):
yourself is the most difficulttask.
You are the most difficultperson to lead.
I think it's about being aroundpeople who are doing it right.
It's a lot about, yes, readingthe right books or doing the
right trainings, but ultimately,being around people who are
doing it right and watchingtheir example experience.
(28:05):
Again, less watching and morelike feeling, like getting the
feeling from them of what itmeans, like what, what does that
nuance look like to navigatedifficult situations with your
team and and decisions forgrowth?
You know, wearing less of theimplementer hat and more of the
CEO hat.
That's kind of the stage whereI am right now, and so I, you
(28:26):
know, have me on the podcast ayear from now.
I'll probably give you likefive other places, but for now,
I really enjoy your podcast, Ireally enjoy your work.
So looking forward to hearingyou at the Commitment Summit and
hopefully this is not this isgoing to be played beforehand,
I'm not sure, but it willAbsolutely.
Okay and yeah, so that would be.
That's what I'm doing right now.
Dr. William Attaway (28:48):
You know.
I love that you share that.
I'm humbled that you would,that you would find it useful.
The things that were put out,that's awesome.
I love that you talk about thecommunity, and I think this is
something that a lot ofentrepreneurs lack.
They don't have a group ofpeople that they are growing
with.
Growing alongside learning fromsharpening each other,
(29:10):
challenging each other, growingand learning together.
That is critical for long-termsuccess.
The entrepreneurial road can beincredibly lonely if you try to
do it all by yourself, but wewere never intended to do that.
Finding your people, your tribe, your community that then you
can go forward with helps you totruly go farther and get there
(29:33):
faster.
I'm so glad you brought that up.
Mariana Henninger (29:35):
For sure.
I'll add two things to that One, and they're kind of
interconnected.
One thing that I was praying alot about at the end of last
year was exactly that I feltlike I had these sort of shallow
really nice, you know, shallowrelationships with folks in my
industry, peers in differentgroups, that I'm in different
(29:57):
masterminds, but I really,really missed having deeper
connections and having like mygo-to group of gals, and I was
praying to God.
I was like God, I really wantthis, like I hear people you
know what you just described Iwas like that sounds so good.
It feels like I don't reallyhave that, that go-to pod that I
(30:17):
can come to um with, to toreally mastermind together,
right, and I think I think I hadgreat other people that I could
sort of high levelconversations with, but and God
really fulfilled that dream Um,it was, um, initially it was
like three of us and it wasn'tvery active.
It was like a private boxergroup and now, uh, we invited a
(30:39):
couple people, a couple of keypeople, and now we're like six
of us and I the way that Idescribe it, it's kind of like
sex in the city where, likewe're, we're just like joined at
the hip and it all sort ofevolved over January.
And you know this is going tosound very girly, but we talk
about like stuff that happens towomen over their forties.
We talk about motherhood, wetalk about, and then we talk
(31:02):
about a lot about business and Ilove about life.
a hundred percent, that's whatit is.
Being able to have that, thatpeer group where you're like
really, um, there there's notopic that's off off the table
is has been a game changer.
And then the second thing I'llsay is that maybe this answers
(31:22):
your question about leadershiptoo.
Is that one shift that I'vemade since the beginning of my
business?
I would say, like the firstyear in business this was not
the case for me, and then Ireally decided like this is
going to change and it's goingto change like today, and that
is that God's my CEO.
And I know that can sound likeif you don't have a relationship
with God, that can be like whatthe heck is she talking about.
(31:45):
But really what I mean is thatI'm not bothered by the ups and
downs of my business.
I'm not.
You know, I just told youbefore we hit record, I had this
massive opportunity that waspreviously a yes become a no,
and I was just like, okay,that's all right, god's going to
open some other doors over here, and just relying on God for
(32:08):
that stability of spirit hasbeen a game changer, and I truly
believe that maybe that's whatI'm bringing to the table to my
team as well is just thateverything is figureoutable.
Thank you, marie Forleo.
You know there's nothing, thatthere's no circumstance that's
going to affect how I feel, andit doesn't.
(32:35):
Quite the opposite.
I'm so passionate about mybusiness, I'm so invested in my
business, I'm invested in myclients and I do a lot of work
for my business.
I, you know, I'm constantlystudying.
I'm, you know, I'm constantlystudying, I'm constantly
learning, I'm constantly growingand implementing new systems.
All that good stuff.
But the most important thing is, like I'm hoping, like the way
that I look at my business, isthat I'm helping bring to the
(32:56):
surface who you are as a human,and as a human you were created
by God and that's, you know.
I think there's like such anawesome connection there.
So, anyway, so that's anotherreally awesome, like important
layer of my business.
I love that.
Dr. William Attaway (33:10):
I think you know you have found your people
, your mastermind group, whenyou can bring all of yourself
into it, not just the highlightreel, not just the front facing
or client facing you, but all ofyou, and that's what you're
describing.
You're bringing all of you intothis setting, including your
(33:34):
faith, and far too manyentrepreneurs who are people of
faith feel like they have tosegment or wall off that part of
their lives and not bring thatpart of them into their business
, and I think it's so muchhealthier to understand that you
are one person and to live alife of integrity means that you
are living a life whereeverything integrates together
where everything touches andyou're not trying to wall off or
(33:57):
separate one part of your lifefrom the rest of it.
That's healthy, that's awesome.
So kudos to you.
Mariana Henninger (34:01):
That's encouraging life from the rest
of it.
That's healthy, that's awesome.
So kudos to you.
That's encouraging to even domore of that.
Dr. William Attaway (34:07):
I love that You've mentioned that you're a
learner.
You're a continual learner.
You are learning all the time.
You're watching, you'relistening, you're reading.
I'm always looking for the nextgood book.
Is there a book that you wouldrecommend, that you've read,
that you think, oh man, this onemade a big difference in my
journey?
I'd love to recommend this tothe other leaders who are
listening.
Mariana Henninger (34:27):
That's a great question.
I do a lot of selectivelearning and what that means is
so I'm looking at across mytable.
I have like six books on mytable right now.
And I've literally read specificchapters of each book, which is
not how I recommend readingevery book, but I am intentional
about not spending time.
(34:49):
Well, what is it calledJust-in-time learning, right?
So what is the thing that Ineed to focus on right now and
what are the very specificresources that are going to get
me to that next step in thatthing that I need to evolve in?
I'm going to give a shout out toyou again because that book
(35:09):
Trust that you recommended to meis phenomenal, and it's also
the word that I want to be knownfor, and so everything that
says trust, I'm like I'm goingto read that, I'm going to learn
that.
I think you know, I'm going tolearn that.
I think you know, just from aquick branding BTS of my
business here, that in thebeginning I did a lot of my
messaging around brand videosand I think that was a lesson
(35:31):
that I learned that when peoplehear brand videos, they think,
oh, it's content, oh, that'snice, you know, that's's nice to
have.
And I think I'm hoping thatafter listening to our chat,
folks can see that the video isjust a tool that you use to
accelerate trust in that veryspecific moment when people are
(35:52):
meeting you for the first time.
All of the people who willbecome future best clients for
you are going to, at one onepoint, meet you for the first
time, and it's acceleratingtrust at that point.
And so, anyway, so all of this,to say that in the beginning I
used to talk so much more aboutbrand videos and now I talk all
(36:12):
about trust and I feel like thatreally just owning that word is
so important for me and mybranding and that's something
that I encourage everyone tohave the one word or the maximum
, like two words that they'reknown for, so that when people
think of that word, they thinkof you.
Leadership William Chas.
(36:33):
Arianna, you know it'simportant to have that Like what
is the one thing that you bringthat's different from everyone
else?
Dr. William Attaway (36:41):
So good as always.
Every time we talk I feel likewe could go for another hour.
There's so much wisdom andinsight you have brought into
this conversation, so muchexpertise that you bring to this
topic, and I'm so grateful toyou for being willing to share
that so generously today.
Thank you.
Mariana Henninger (37:00):
Thanks, William.
Dr. William Attaway (37:02):
I know people are going to want to stay
connected to you and continueto learn more about you and
Brand Magnetic.
What is the best way for themto do that?
Mariana Henninger (37:11):
Yeah for sure .
So if you listen to thisconversation and you're like I
don't think I'm doing a goodenough job as soon as people
meet me to really make thatconnection, really make people
feel something and really becomesticky, and if you're looking
at your marketing and you'rethinking I think I can do better
at this point of the funnel,then I've got a great resource.
(37:32):
That's a bit more practicalthan the conversation we had
today.
So really to dive into how tocreate a story, a brand story,
that converts, you can grab thatcheat sheet at brandmagneticcom
slash cheat sheet.
And I'm on socials.
Brand Magnetic connect with mein all the places where you
would find people.
(37:52):
But that's a great cheat sheetto get you started on this
process of like how to thinkabout my story in a way that is
going to really move the needleand connect with people the
moment that they meet me.
Dr. William Attaway (38:03):
So good and so generous again, thank you
for that, my pleasure.
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