November 10, 2025 • 45 mins
Most business owners are comfortable writing about their work, but freeze the moment the camera turns on. In this episode, Emmy-winning filmmaker and Brand Magnetic founder Mariana Henninger joins us to share how a single, well-crafted brand video can build the kind of trust that months of content often can’t. We talk about the emotional triggers that help people feel seen, safe, and ready to say yes.
Mariana shares a practical approach to building a brand video that lives across your homepage, social media, and email sequences—quietly doing the work of selling for you. You’ll hear tips on story structure, how to speak with confidence on camera, and how to tap into real buyer motivations without sounding scripted. If you’ve been camera-shy or unsure where to start with video, this episode will help you rethink what’s possible.
Yes Machine - built to make your copy instantly more magnetic, more human, and more likely to get that fast, confident “YES.”
- Show Notes
- Apply to be featured on My Weekly Marketing!
- Take the Marketing Clarity Quiz and get instant insights on your marketing strategy.
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Janice Hostager (00:04):
I'm Janice Hostager.
After three decades in themarketing business and many
years of being an entrepreneur,I've learned a thing or two
about marketing.
Join me as we talk aboutmarketing, small business, and
life in between.
Welcome to My Weekly Marketing.
Hey, welcome back to My WeeklyMarketing.
(00:31):
Today we're going to talk aboutsomething that secretly scares
a lot of small business owners,being on video.
I know this because 90% of myclients grimace when I ask them
to do a video.
And honestly, I completely getit.
I took a television productionclass way back when I was in
college, and I always wanted tobe behind the camera because I
(00:51):
was so critical of myself when Iwas in front of it.
And even since I've had my ownbusiness, it took me a long time
to be comfortable being onvideo.
I'm a lot more comfortable now,but I think it's because I'm a
recovering perfectionist, andtruthfully, I'd much rather
write something than explain iton video where I might mess up
or be embarrassed, right?
(01:13):
But if you have a website in abusiness, and you probably do,
creating a video to communicateyour brand wins hands down over
text alone, because our brainsare wired for visuals and for
storytelling.
Think about how much more wecan communicate in a video than
we can with a written word oreven just a picture.
We process it faster, rememberit longer, and we feel it more
(01:37):
deeply.
Video taps into emotion, tone,and body language in ways that
plain text just can't.
It doesn't just tell yourstory, it lets people experience
it.
And that's why it sticks, itspreads, and it sells.
That's why I'm excited about myguest today.
Mariana Henninger is an EmmyAward-winning filmmaker and the
(01:59):
founder of Brand Magnetic.
Known as the Queen of BrandVideos, she's worked with brands
like Microsoft, Hulu, and HP,and now she helps small business
owners craft short emotionalbrand videos that connect.
The kind that make people say,"Wow, I feel like I really know
you." Today we're breaking downwhat a brand video actually is,
(02:19):
why it's a secret weapon youdidn't know your business
needed.
And she's going to give us tipsabout how to make one that
builds trust and sells for you.
I'm telling you thisconversation is going to change
how you think about video.
So let's dive in.
So before we get into thehow-tos, because I have a lot of
how-to questions for you, canyou share first what drew you
(02:40):
into filmmaking and storytellingand why it's such a game
changer for a lot of businesses?
Mariana Henninger (02:46):
Yeah.
So I worked as a documentaryfilmmaker for about 15 years.
I was originally drawn todocumentaries because I watched
a documentary when I was incollege.
You know, they rolled that oldTV on wheels.
Maybe it was a substitute, youknow, a sub-teacher or
something.
And it was the firstdocumentary I watched.
(03:07):
It was about the ExxonMobilscandal.
And I forgot what that doc iscalled, the fantastic doc.
And I was blown away.
I was like, what?
I am so enthralled by thisstory.
I'm so moved.
I'm so connected.
I'm so inspired to do somethingabout this issue.
And I realized that's whatgreat documentaries are.
So not all documentariesaccomplish that, but the good
(03:29):
ones do.
And I realized, wow, there's away to tell a story that makes
me care.
Whereas previously, maybe Iwould have just not been
interested in it.
And it that's how I got intodocumentary storytelling.
So I had the really awesomeprivilege of traveling the
world.
I've been to Afghanistan,Haiti, Ukraine, Middle East, and
(03:50):
all these places everywhere.
And the two things that I tookaway from my time working for
the New York Times, Wall StreetJournal, Time Magazine, and then
finally NBC for about fiveyears.
The first one is that I neededto know which parts of this
person's story was going to makesomebody else care.
And so it was a lot aboutthinking on my feet and as I'm
(04:11):
meeting people, justunderstanding, okay, this part
is important for the story.
This part is interesting, butit's not really going to move
the needle in terms of gettingpeople to feel something.
The second thing that I learnedthrough my years of flipping
around the world with a camerawas that I didn't have a whole
lot of time to get people totrust me.
And so that to me is thebiggest skill set that I
(04:34):
learned, aside from thestorytelling, was just
understanding how to get peopleto trust me really fast.
Like, how can I show them thatI'm going to do their story
justice, that I'm not going totwist this or manipulate this in
any way?
I'm going to curate it, but I'mreally going to help them get
their story out and make otherpeople care.
(04:54):
And so those two skill setstook me along my journey.
I have an Emmy Award and twonominations back here somewhere.
And eventually I was doing somesoul searching at the time.
And I was really kind ofobsessed, like secretly very
inquisitive and obsessed withmarketing.
And I've always had thisentrepreneurial spirit in me
(05:15):
since I was a little kid.
Um, you know, everything fromlike cookies to bracelets to
whatever I needed to do.
I didn't have an allowance.
I was just like, "What can Isell?" And as an adult, I had a
pretty successful career, um,but always reliant on somebody
else's budget and somebodyelse's um, you know, approval
before I got to work on a story.
(05:35):
And I kind of got to thismoment, that 30 rock, and
everything was awesome until Iwas like, man, I could just ride
out this cushy life doing thisamazing thing that I get to do
and get paid really well for it.
I could also take the leap andjust start my own thing.
And I knew that in thatstarting my own thing, I didn't
(05:56):
know exactly what it would looklike, but I knew that I wanted
not only to build my ownbusiness and have that be part
of my life story, myentrepreneurship of my own, but
also help other entrepreneurs.
And I fell in love with theonline space, with this idea
that so many business owners,whether that's you, the listener
right now or not, but this ideathat people are building their
(06:19):
own businesses from scratch,right?
And they're like bootstrapping,they're not looking for
investors or VC money and allthat.
Like I actually worked in astartup for a while and I was
like, wow, this is sofascinating.
But I love seeing people whoare doing this without having to
respond to a board of directorsor a board of investors or and
just having to make that sale,right?
(06:40):
If you don't make a sale, youhave a hobby and your business
dies, right?
And so, and so that's those arethe people that I'm really
inspired to help because thething that we solve, so yes,
it's filmmaking in a way, likeit's kind of filmmaking
adjacent, if you will.
A lot of my students, they usetheir phone.
So we have we have a done foryou service that's more high-end
(07:00):
and we use like really awesomecinematographers.
And then I have a program whereI teach you how to do this on
your own.
And all those students are justusing their phone.
There's like, it's not fancy atall.
But the power here, what whatare we doing?
The power is being able to getsomebody who's checking you out.
So we all know what happens inthe online space where you're
(07:20):
intrigued by something, right?
Or see, I see Janice's namesomewhere, like on a Facebook
comment.
I'm like, "Oh, that'sinteresting.
Who's Janice?
Let me go check her out."Right?
And what am I doing?
I'm going on your website, I'mgoing checking you out on
socials, I'm assessing whether Iwant to pay attention to you.
That's like the first sale thatyou have to make is the sale of
(07:42):
my attention.
Like, are uh you closing me interms of like, do I want to pay
attention to you?
Do I want to follow you?
And then what happens, Janice,is like so many of us who are
marketing our businesses,regardless of what that business
is, we've been told and sort ofaccepted this slide that it
just takes a ton of volume.
It takes putting out so manypieces of content for months at
(08:06):
a time.
We have to be content machines.
In fact, I just heard somebodysay, do this identity shift with
her audience in the hundreds ofthousands, saying, don't see
yourself as a business owner.
You're a content creator.
And I'm like, wow, that'ssomething it's making me think.
But at the same time, it'slike, that is the only path that
we know that we've been told tocreate trust, to build trust
(08:28):
over time, that it takes thosesix to 12 months of being
consistent, showing up all thetime, of providing value, all of
those things we get told.
In when in fact it's beenstatistically proven, if you
capture somebody's heart andattention, that moment that
they're checking you out, whichI call the Instant Trust Window,
you have got it made.
(08:50):
What what you're doing, whatyou need to do there is
basically get them sold on you,make such a strong impression on
them, make them feel like theycan trust you so that when
you're ready to pitch orwherever they come across your
services, or maybe they then goand look for your services,
they're already sold on you.
You've already done all of thathard work up front.
(09:11):
And so that's what I help mystudents do.
I'm so sorry for the longanswer.
Janice Hostager (09:16):
No, yeah, that that is uh so perfect because I
think I- I work with a lot ofone-on-one clients that would do
as a fractional CMO.
I'll work with them.
And one of the first thingsI'll say is that you need to
make a video.
And they just sort of the colorwalks the comes out of their
face, right?
So they just like, oh, I hatedoing videos, you know.
And well, I don't know what itis about why it's so we get so
(09:41):
uncomfortable.
We're fine talking to somebodyin person, but as soon as a
video camera gets turned on,it's just like I I don't know.
I certainly have that effect.
It's like the the green lightkind of thing.
An episode episode of BradyBunch when I was a kid where
this like I think one of thecharacters they saw the light on
the camera and they just froze.
And that would we'd be totallyme.
(10:04):
Um, and I've gotten better overtime as you do it more often,
you know, you get morecomfortable with it.
But I don't, I don't know whatit is that makes us
uncomfortable about putting outvideos.
Mariana Henninger (10:13):
I think it's just a muscle that we need to
exercise.
Um, you know, so I don't reallyfocus on video content all of
it, right?
We focus on creating a specificvideo that is perfect for
people like you or other peoplewho struggle with being on
camera all the time.
And and what that does is likethis one video is going to pack
a punch.
(10:33):
It it's very, it takes a whileto create.
So it's not something that youdo overnight.
It's not something that, youknow, it's a reel that you shoot
very quickly and it's heretoday, gone tomorrow.
And hopefully somebody saw it.
It is something that everysingle person who comes into
your world should watch.
Um, but it does take a while tocreate.
So it's a bit of a, it's aninvestment in terms of your time
(10:54):
and resources, but it thenbecomes an evergreen asset that
works for years to come.
So that's what I focus on.
But we have a whole bonusmodule on camera confidence and
all of that, because it is astruggle for a lot of people.
We're not born with a phone infront of our faces all the time.
Um, I my my biggest sort ofquickest tip around that is
(11:16):
well, two things.
One is to kind of reframe yourmind around it, which is a lot
of folks struggle with thislike, oh, I don't look pretty,
or you know, to be honest,Janice, my hair is not looking
the best today.
Um I'm coming from an overnighttrip and I wish I had time to
wash my hair.
I didn't.
It doesn't look that great.
But I'm not a model, right?
I'm here to teach, I'm here toserve.
(11:38):
And when you really come fromthat position of, I'm here to
serve my audience, um, you know,yes, you don't show up like a
slop, but you reframe the factthat you don't need to look
perfect.
You don't need to, you know,and and the more you do it, and
that's so the the second pieceof advice is comfort, you know,
getting comfortable with itcomes from doing it over and
(12:00):
over and over again.
Janice Hostager (12:01):
Yeah.
I can speak to that as well.
Yeah, right.
Yeah.
And I think for me, what Istarted doing was just
videotaping myself, doing thingsaround the house or talking to
the camera and just for myself,you know.
And once I got used to theprocess and I think I was kind
of embarrassed about it too, youknow, once I get over it, you
(12:21):
know, yeah, it got a whole loteasier.
Mariana Henninger (12:23):
It really becomes no big deal, right?
It becomes a very natural partof doing business.
That's maybe the third reframethat I would encourage folks is
that, you know, if you are superself-conscious pulling your
phone out in the middle of thestreet and talking to your
phone, A, just make people thinkit's FaceTime, right?
You're FaceTiming your mom.
You're so that's that's kind ofbecome a normal part of culture
(12:43):
thanks to thanks to Apple.
But the second thing is I just,if I ever have any hesitation,
I just remember I'm a businessowner.
This is for my business.
Like I'm making money.
It's okay.
Like who cares what otherpeople think?
It's really not about them.
It's just about you as abusiness owner doing what you
need to do for your business,right?
(13:04):
And um not making it aboutyourself.
Janice Hostager (13:07):
Totally, totally.
Mariana Henninger (13:08):
I do a lot of tough love with my students
around that.
Janice Hostager (13:10):
Oh, but you know, sometimes we all need
that, right?
Mariana Henninger (13:14):
Yeah. Like, do you want to make money or
not?
Do you want to serve people?
Do you want to impact?
Do you want to do the thingthat you've been dreaming of?
You know?
Janice Hostager (13:21):
Yeah, yeah.
This is so funny because this abrand video is actually on my
list for the week because Idon't have one on my website.
So not for the week, but it'slike it's on my list.
And so we'll have to talkafterwards because you know, I
didn't know where to start.
But anyway, um, so this reallybecomes sort of a video like.
So tell me a little more aboutthis kind of brand video.
Is this sort of a sales letter,or is it sort of like, here I
(13:44):
am, this is what I do, this ishow I can help you, this is how
I address your problems.
Mariana Henninger (13:48):
Right, right.
Janice Hostager (13:48):
Or all of above.
Mariana Henninger (13:50):
For sure.
So brand video is unlike anyother video you've ever watched
before because what you justdescribed there, VSL's, video
sales letters, uh, marketingvideo, right?
And then the second sometimespeople are like, is it like an
explainer?
Um, and then the second one youdescribed is more of an about
me video.
So it might seem confusing thatI'm saying your brand video is
not an about me video or a salesvideo.
(14:13):
And the reason is because itreally is a different way of
looking at your story.
First off, we don't really, Imean, the story is the medium,
but the focus is this onequestion.
How do we want your idealclient that's coming to you for
the first time?
How do we want them to feel atthe end of watching this video?
(14:33):
And it and this can vary alittle bit from person to
person, from business owner tobusiness owner.
This didn't come to meovernight, but I've created a
framework from helping a ton ofstudents.
I was like, oh my gosh, theseare the commonalities that I'm
seeing over and over again.
And I call them the "trusttriggers".
So, what we want at the end ofthat video is trust, however
that looks like for each person,the specificity of that answer,
(14:55):
what's going to dictate, youkind of reverse engineer back
into your story.
So I'll go over that in asecond.
But the four trust triggers arethese.
Most people coming to a brandor a business, they need to feel
four things in order to makethat connection, to feel that
really big jump in trust fromfeeling like you're a stranger.
(15:16):
Oh, like what are what are theyselling?
What am I going to be sold on?
Or like, is this gonna bespammy?
You know, depending on whatniche you're in.
There's a lot more, especiallywith AI nowadays.
Oh my gosh, don't get mestarted.
There's like so muchforward-facing AI that we're
like, we don't know what's real.
But are we chatting with a bot?
Is awful.
Yeah.
But anyway, so the four trusttriggers are they need to feel
(15:38):
that you first of all get themon a very deep level, right?
So it's very, it's a lot deeperthan your run-of-the-mill
demographics.
So if you're if you knowanything about marketing, which
I'm sure you do because youlisten to Janice every week,
it's it's really aboutunderstanding very deeply what
is it like the fifth layer deepthat they want.
What is the thing that theyreally fear?
(15:58):
What are they moving away from?
What are they moving towards?
How can we get deeper thanlike, oh, they want freedom, or
they want their taxes done, orthey want, you know, that that
sort of surface level result.
How can we go way deeper thanthat?
Typically, it's time, right?
It's some, it usually goes backto like, I just want to own my
time.
(16:19):
I want to be, I don't, I want,I don't want my time to be taken
up by something that wouldnormally take me more time to
resolve.
So how can I get it done fasterso that I can go and spend time
with my family?
And a lot of that revolvesaround their values.
So when you get them, thatmeans you understand what's
valuable for them.
Trust trigger number two isthat you care about them.
(16:39):
You're not just out to makemoney off of them.
You're not just treating themlike a prospect with a number
attached to their name on aspreadsheet.
Uh, you're not just sendingbots to convert them, right?
You really truly care aboutthat individual who is looking
for a solution for their problemand ultimately that deeper
(17:00):
thing that they want.
And so, how can we show that wecare about you or I care about
you, or Dennis cares about herclients or future clients?
Um, that they're more than justa number on a I I always use
this analogy that your peopleare more than just a number on
their stripes screenshot, right?
Screenshot of their stripeaccount.
Oh, right, yeah, yeah.
(17:20):
Because you see a lot of thosefloating online.
I don't want to be a number onyour screenshot of your stripe
account.
I'm Mariana and I have my ownneeds and I want to be treated
like a human.
And if I'm gonna pay you forsomething, that's what I want in
return.
Number three, so you get them,you care about them.
Trust trigger number three isthat this is where the expertise
comes in.
So a lot of folks aremarketing, if they are
(17:42):
expert-based businesses, maybesomebody in your audience sort
of fits into that category.
Or, you know, typically if youhave a business where your
knowledge means something,right?
Where you develop somethingdifferent than your competitor,
you're still an expert-basedbusiness in that sense.
So that's where thatcredibility piece comes in.
That's where that happens.
(18:02):
So you might notice I put thatin number three for a reason.
A lot of businesses will leadwith that in order to build
trust.
That's also where your casestudies and your testimonials
that all falls into categorythree.
Like, how can I sort of proofaround the fact that I've that I
can handle this and I can do itreally well?
The way to know if you'rehitting trust trigger number
(18:25):
three is really awesome.
It's like the most sort ofvisceral reaction of a sigh.
Can this person feel like oncethey invest in me, they can just
sigh, a sigh of relief, likeI'm in good hands.
We know that feeling when we'veinvested in somebody that we've
loved and has come through forus.
So that's the feeling that wewant to trigger as soon as
people meet us.
(18:45):
So, how can we do that?
Um, number four is the fourthtrust trigger is that we vibe.
So this is where thepersonality piece comes in.
This is where the like in nolike and trust, which we often
forget about.
So people do care about yourpersonality.
They, this is where the valuesfit in as well.
You know, do I resonate withthe values of the person behind
(19:07):
the brand, right?
A lot so much more consumerdecisions are now revolving
around the values of the brand.
And so the values of thefounder, the values of it's
usually uh we work a lot withfounder stories.
So we look at those four trusttriggers, and those are the sort
of end results that we want interms of that feeling that we
(19:27):
want to generate.
And then we, as I mentionedbefore, we reverse engineer into
the founder story to not lookat the big milestones of their
lives.
Or sometimes it can be why theystarted their business,
sometimes it's not.
Sometimes the business is justthe end of the story, what we
call the pivot to the mission.
So we we look at how to tellthat story by understanding
(19:49):
which parts of the founder storyare relevant to get those
feelings surfaced.
Janice Hostager (19:54):
Okay.
I want to get to that in asecond.
Mariana Henninger (19:56):
Yeah.
Janice Hostager (19:56):
That sounds great.
So I just want to repeat theseto make sure that that I have
them all because I have mylittle sticky note here.
Sure.
So you want them to get you ona deep level.
You want them to know that oryou care about them.
You want to show that you haveenough expertise that they would
have a sigh of relief.
And you want them to like youand understand your values,
(20:16):
right?
Mariana Henninger (20:17):
Right.
Yeah.
I mean, I guess I guess youwant them to like you.
And it's it's less aboutgetting them to like you and
more about like, how can I showmy personality?
And if there's a (inaudible)there, then they like me, you
know, just as a naturalconsequence of that.
But yeah.
Janice Hostager (20:30):
Yeah.
Yeah.
And I think sometimes that'swhere people get stuck, is that
they want everybody to likethem.
You know, it's like-
Yeah, you might have thatextreme and then the other
extreme where people are like,where it's it's not about me.
I don't, you know, they're kindof hiding behind um, you know,
it's just about my customer.
I don't want to talk aboutmyself.
I was like, dude, yourcustomers want to know who you
(20:51):
are.
They want actually uh yourabout me page or about us page
is the second most visited pageon any website.
Yes.
People care about about theabout.
And the story behind it for sure.
Mariana Henninger (21:04):
Exactly.
Janice Hostager (21:04):
Yeah, yeah.
So, okay, so I'm sorry tointerrupt you because you were
about to go into um, I thinkwhich was my next question is
like, where do where do we startwhen we're putting something
like this together?
Mariana Henninger (21:13):
Right.
I think it's it we startedgetting to know our audience
really deeply.
People I'm talking to when theywere like, "Well, it's not
about me." And I was like,you're correct.
It's not about you.
So even your brand video, we'reusing your story, but it's not
about you.
It's a marketing tool.
It's a tool, it's a trustacceleration tool.
And so the idea is again, howcan we take somebody from really
(21:34):
cold to really hot as quicklyas possible and doing it in one
single fell swoop, watching onevideo?
And so it's understanding thefirst trust trigger, which I get
deeply.
So you could spend a lot oftime and energy just on that
first trigger.
The other ones are a bit moreplug and play, if you will, in
the sense that it's moreinternal that way.
(21:55):
How can I show you that I care?
How can I show you that I'm theexpert?
Lots of people do that all thetime.
So that's a little bit moreeasy to identify.
Like, what are the things thatwe know are gonna make people
see you as the expert?
And then the personality traitsthat they value.
So I'll give you, I'll give youand your listeners a really
awesome tip that I teach all ofmy students, my clients, and
(22:19):
it's this one really valuablegolden question that you need to
ask.
So it's not just the question,but it's when you ask it.
So what happens is that we do,we tend to do a lot of market
research either with people whodon't know or vaguely know our
brands.
In fact, years ago, I was hiredto film some focus groups for
(22:39):
American Express.
And I thought it was sofascinating.
And like everyone knowsAmerican Express.
So there's a lot of brandfamiliarity, but they are not
people who are necessarily likeabout to buy from you or
anything like that.
And then the other type ofmarket research that we might do
is with our current customers,our current clients.
We might ask them things.
And both are valuable, right?
(23:00):
But the most valuable moment tospeak to your market, if you
will, to your customer is themoment that they buy from you.
And the reason that's like sucha golden moment is because
they've just come through thisjourney, this buyer's journey of
building that trust, right?
So all they know is yourforward-facing messaging, what
(23:23):
you've shown the world, right?
What you've published, whatyou've put out there.
They don't know what it's liketo work with you.
Maybe they've heard it fromother people, but again, that's
just from the outside.
That is the moment that is likethe source of the best gold
possible because they have notyet been tainted, if you will,
by the trust that's built whenthey do start working with you.
So when you ask them or whenyou talk to them at that very
(23:46):
moment, I actually do recommendthat you have somebody else do
this interview just becausethey're seeing you as the
service provider and the expertthey're paying for, or again,
depends on what kind of businessyou have.
But you might be the persondelivering the thing they paid
for.
And so it's helpful to havesomebody else either on your
team or an outside person.
We we do this for our clientswhere we have this interview on
(24:07):
their behalf, in part because itmakes them super comfortable to
share anything, in part becauseit's not as awkward where
they've just bought from you andnow you're asking them
something.
Anyway, most people are fine.
So the thing to ask them is whydid you buy from us
specifically?
That's like a golden question.
Janice Hostager (24:25):
Love it.
Because what you want to fleshout, and by the way, that first
answer is probably not gonna bethe right one, the one that you
really want.
You're gonna want to go deeperand deeper.
We we teach this in ourprogram, like how to how to go
past that surface level.
But what you really are lookingfor is identifying the parts of
that journey up to the pointwhere they said yes, up to the
(24:47):
point where they clicked by,right?
And what stuck with them?
What so what what were thethings that like moved the
needle towards yes?
You know?
And so I do this every timesomebody joins my program.
I send them an email and a ifnot like actually getting them
on the phone or on a Zoom call.
I ask them that and have gottensuch amazing answers to really
(25:08):
pinpoint what was it about me,my story, my marketing, like
what part of my messaging isreally landing for my ideal
client.
Um, and then sometimes whatI'll do is once I've started
working with them, I'll filterthrough that lens and identify
like, oh my gosh, these are realdream clients.
So these are the people that Iwant to attract more of.
And then I look back at theiranswers, like, okay, this moved
(25:30):
the needle for them.
So yeah, I just wanted to giveyou that really awesome
marketing tip.
That's a great place to getstarted.
I love that.
Part of what I teach in mycourse too is that the sale is
not the end of it either.
And I think a lot of timespeople think that it's like, oh,
I sold one.
Okay, it's all good then.
Mariana Henninger (25:46):
On to the next.
Janice Hostager (25:48):
Yeah. Right, yeah.
But getting that information sosoon after they bought, I think
that is brilliant.
So I love that.
I might just steal that fromyou.
Mariana Henninger (25:56):
Do it, please.
Janice Hostager (25:57):
Yeah, all right.
Okay, so you have all thesepieces and you have more to go
to, right?
Mariana Henninger (26:03):
If you if you've gotten that far, you've
you've got a lot of work aheadof you to do it right.
I really emphasize in myprogram that it's not a quick
process.
It's not something that youwere gonna do overnight or even
in a week.
And part of that, part of that,the beauty of that really is
that you get time to digest andcome back to it with fresh eyes
and kind of really do some soulsearching around what you want
(26:26):
to be known for, but also morethis is something that's uh a
little deeper, Janice, which isum you're not really creating
this video that's yourautobiography.
You're creating a marketingtool that's like really ninja
and really in-depth.
And what that means is thatyou're not gonna pack it with
the parts of your story that areimportant to you.
(26:47):
We we talked about that, youknow, a few minutes ago.
It's more about that specificcurated part of your story and
how to tell it in youraudience's language or using as
much of their own language aspossible.
Janice Hostager (27:02):
Brilliant.
Yeah.
Mariana Henninger (27:03):
And, you know, it's funny because I
always say this because in myhead, that would be an objection
that I would have or a questionthat I would have.
I have actually never gottenthis question from anyone, but I
do like to explain that youmight be, well, this is strange,
you know, like it's my story,but I don't get to tell this
part of it, or I don't get toemphasize that thing that's
(27:24):
really important to me.
It's like you have all the restof your marketing.
You have, you know, a million,you can create a million posts
around any of these other partsof your story, right?
You can tell them in youremails, you can tell them on
stage, whatever, you know,whatever you want.
But it's I'm not, I'm nottelling you to stick to this one
story for the rest of yourbusiness.
But this is just the the againcurated part of your story
(27:47):
that's going to make the biggestimpact the moment that cold
audiences meet you for the firsttime.
And by the way, they're like,this is a video that you can use
for pitching media.
You can use it to land stages,you can use it to land podcasts.
Like it's the video that goesbefore you to make that warm
environment of like, now we'vegotten to know each other.
(28:08):
You know, so it's incrediblyversatile, is like the biggest
ROI that you're ever gonna getin a video.
Um, and now we're in theprocess of A-B testing different
funnels to just like be able toshow and quantify that that
conversion uh metric around thebrand video.
Janice Hostager (28:26):
That is so cool.
Mariana Henninger (28:27):
Yeah.
Janice Hostager (28:27):
So what I hear you saying is that what what you
really need to do is startreally putting things down on
paper, um, kind of going throughyour story in your head, maybe,
or figuring out what part ofyour story to tell.
Mariana Henninger (28:39):
Yeah.
So I would say again, startwith your audience.
Start talking to them themoment they buy from you.
And then once they'veidentified the things about you
that they love, right?
What was it about you that madethem say yes?
Um, what what specific parts ofyour expertise were needle
movers for them?
What specific parts of um yourmessaging?
(28:59):
Yeah, what what really stuckwith them?
That's what you want.
That's the gold.
And then you're gonna look atyour story.
And, you know, there are twotypes of stories.
So there's like an overcomestory and there's a passion
story.
And everybody's story fallsinto one or the other.
I don't care who you are.
I've never met anyone whosestory is not one or the other.
And typically service providerstend to fall around the passion
(29:21):
story.
And obviously, everyone shouldbe passionate about their
business.
So sometimes my students are abit confused, like, do I have a
passion story overcome?
It's like you're passionate.
However, if you have a storythat we simplify the hero's
journey to a ridiculous level ofsimplicity, which is you've got
a life before, you've got aturning point moment, and then
(29:42):
you've got life after.
And then the fourth part of thestory is very unique to us.
We we call it the pivot to yourmission.
So this is kind of like Icouldn't help but start this
business, right?
And so if you have a before andafter type story, you have an
overcome story.
If you don't really have thatif you are maybe a designer or
an accountant and you helppeople with a thing that you're
(30:05):
obsessed about, because pleasebe obsessed about what you do.
Right.
Two people you want to workwith, right?
And so hopefully you'reobsessed about what you do.
That's that falls into more ofa passion story.
The framework for the passionstory is a little more flexible.
And typically, what we want tofind is how are ways that we can
demonstrate that passion.
So I'll give you an example.
One of my students, she'sJulia, she's the podcast
(30:28):
teacher, is her kind of brandedname.
And but when we met, she didnot have a podcast.
So her entire business isaround helping people create
their podcast.
Uh and she didn't have apodcast at the time.
Now she does.
She was kind of like, Brianna,how the heck do I tell my story?
Like, I'm not somebody whodidn't have a podcast and like
learned how to do it.
Now I'm I'm obsessed with it.
(30:48):
And I, and so we did the work,right?
So we started by understanding,okay, so how what do your
people love about you?
And she's like, I know thatthey love that I simplify things
like step by step, you know,little by little.
I we we take chaos and likeconfusion and like overwhelm.
And I just like simplify it.
I used to be an elementaryteacher and I I used to teach
(31:11):
kids, and that's what I love todo.
And so that's what we did.
So we found the story.
So in her case, you sprinkle instories a little bit more than
the sort of overcome story arcthat we talked about.
And so in her case, is how whenshe was a little girl, she
worked at the library and sheloved putting the books in, or
no, we start with like the storyof her as a little girl with uh
(31:31):
putting the markers, markers inrainbow order and then working
the library and putting thebooks all neatly.
And then the story of her beinga teacher as well, kind of
dipped into that really quickly.
And then the other sort ofreally important visual, because
we don't do b-roll, we doemotional visuals.
Your visual should be a realcharacter in your story to
really drive the emotions.
So you turn chaos and confusioninto something orderly and
(31:55):
beautiful and simple and makesense.
And I was like, okay, so whatare your hobbies?
So that's another place that wecan look for visual
opportunities.
In her case, she was like, Ilove working with nature
personally.
Like, I love exploring nature'svisuals.
Uh, and she was like, Mariana,I'm not an outdoorsy girl at
all, but I love jigsaw puzzles.
And she kind of threw it outthere.
(32:15):
And I was like, ah, perfect.
What is a jigsaw puzzle?
Aside from something that'schaotic and messy and all over
the place when you start, butyou have a roadmap and it
becomes something beautiful andyou have her piece of art.
And so that's one visual thatwe use to illustrate that idea
that she loves taking thingsthat are messy and just making
(32:36):
them simple and beautiful.
And obviously, we tied in thepodcasting through there, but I
am talking so much, Janice.
Oh my gosh, you're asking meone question.
I'm like, here's a whole book.
Janice Hostager (32:45):
No, I am so glad you're doing this because
all of these things that you'resaying are questions on my notes
here.
So this is all perfect.
So you said you don't useB-roll.
So how do you pull somethinglike that in?
Like to stop it from being justa talking head video.
Mariana Henninger (32:59):
Oh, no, for sure.
I mean, it's traditionallycalled B-roll.
We just intentionally call itemotional visuals because we
want it to be very intentional,right?
So B-roll can be just any sortof visual coverage, right?
It can be me at work, and thenyou see me prototyping on a
laptop, right?
And instead, we want to focuson what are the emotional states
of every part of my story.
Like what are the emotions thatI want to pull and make people
(33:22):
feel?
So there's something callednarrative transportation.
And it's basically when youtake people on an journey
emotionally with you.
There's so much neurosciencearound this.
They actually put two people inMRI machines and one of them
told a really good story.
And the other listener, thatperson's brain waves actually
matched the storyteller'sbrainwave.
(33:43):
This does not work with a badstory, by the way.
So you can literally kind ofmind control somebody through
story, right?
You can really elicit emotionand be very intentional about
how you're doing it and whichemotions, depending on the story
that you tell.
And so we do that with visualsas well, where it's like a
narrative transportation.
You're really transported intothat story through the visuals
(34:05):
and the audio as well as likethe words that you're hearing.
Janice Hostager (34:09):
Wow, that is super powerful.
I mean, I'm stuck, I'm stillstuck on what how do you figure
out which story you're gonnatell?
Because um, it it just is itsomething that has an emotional
hook to it or a problem orillustrates what you are.
Mariana Henninger (34:22):
Do you want to- let's do it with you,
Janice.
So tell me about your people.
Janice Hostager (34:26):
Okay.
Mariana Henninger (34:26):
Tell me about who you help.
If you could only attract onekind of client.
Janice Hostager (34:30):
Right.
Her name is Jennifer, and sheis 50 years old, and she has
just started her business, andshe is kind of overwhelmed by
what to do, and she doesn'treally know where to start.
And so she's tried Facebookmarketing, she's tried
Instagram, she's not gettingtraction there.
She's got a website, butnothing's really happening.
Mariana Henninger (34:50):
Yeah.
Janice Hostager (34:50):
She doesn't really understand SEO kind of
the right there.
You know.
Mariana Henninger (34:53):
And what does she want to build online?
Janice Hostager (34:56):
She wants to build a successful business so
she can spend more time with herkids or that who are now at the
house and her and hergrandchildren who are coming,
you know.
So yeah.
Mariana Henninger (35:05):
I know the avatar really well, but it does
she have a dream kind ofbusiness in mind that she wants
to build?
Janice Hostager (35:12):
So my avatar is a consultant.
Mariana Henninger (35:14):
Okay.
So she has some sort ofexpertise that she wants to
bring into the online space,maybe do a one-to-many, or at
least be able to build a brand,maybe a personal brand in which
she helps people.
She's a consultant.
Okay, gotcha.
And how are you helping herexactly, or what part of that
journey are you helping herwith?
All of it or..
Janice Hostager (35:32):
Yes.
So what I do, I have aframework I use to call the
Trail to the Sale.
It starts out getting to knowyour ideal customer and moving
from there into messaging andthen the awareness, and then
consider, compare, evaluate,sell, supersized serve, and
send.
So it's like the whole gamut.
Mariana Henninger (35:50):
Oh wow. Two nuts.
Awesome.
Janice Hostager (35:51):
The whole thing. Yeah.
Mariana Henninger (35:52):
So essentially they're coming to
Janice and they want to"Huh, thank God.
Thank God I found you." Right?
Like they I feel like you'regonna handhold them through the
whole thing.
Um, and so tell me a little bitabout you.
Like if you were just, do youhave an overcome story in that
you figured this out yourself,or have you always kind of been
a business nut your whole life?
And this is just sort of anatural progression of that.
Janice Hostager (36:14):
Kind of both.
Like I've always been inmarketing and I had a design
agency for a number of yearswhen we lived in Wisconsin and
then we moved to Texas.
And so I really felt though inthe process of working with an
in my design agency, I'd workwith a lot of small businesses
who I would do a website for,and they didn't really know what
to do from there, you know.
So I felt like, okay, I need tofigure this out for myself too,
(36:37):
because at that age, at thattime, social media was kind of
new.
So I had to like, and it'shonestly, it's still shifting.
Everything is shifting all thetime in marketing.
Mariana Henn (36:46):
All the time, yes.
Janice Hostager (36:47):
So I think there is no cut and dry thing.
So that's where I had to turnto the customer and really know
their customer journey in orderto understand how to help them
communicate to their customer.
So sort of similar to you.
Mariana Henninger (37:02):
Okay.
So in this case, though, I'mnoticing a few things that I
would probably shy away from.
So the design part of yourexperience is probably less
relevant.
And I'm just I'm literallygonna throw a spaghetti at the
wall.
So take it with a huge grain ofsalt, because I'm working with
a little bit of information andnot everything I would want.
But if I am Jennifer, the factthat you were in a design
(37:24):
business is probably lessrelevant for me than your
marketing background.
So even if in your mind, itsounds like a lot of your growth
and a lot of like your eyesopen to what business owners
needed, which is a lot, um,happened during your time in the
design business.
When I'm in Jennifer's shoes,it's in again, I'm not in
(37:44):
Jennifer's shoes.
I have worked with people whoare.
And in my understanding, theywant that rock star person,
right?
And it's almost like sometimeswhat we think is gonna be a
really relatable story mightactually do us a little bit of a
disservice in positioning us.
We want to be relatable, butwe're not their peers, right?
And so, in a way, I want tounderstand a little bit more
(38:08):
about your marketing background.
Um, you know, I guess previousto the the design firm, and what
drew you to marketing.
So a lot of the answers arekind of around there, like
that's sometimes where we findlike the best nuggets of the
story.
So what in the what made youchoose marketing?
Janice Hostager (38:22):
Um, I just, you know, I was in college and I
took some marketing classes,some advertising classes.
Mariana Henninger (38:28):
But what made you decide to choose those
classes?
You could have taken, like,Japanese, right?
Janice Hostager (38:33):
Yeah, I I don't know.
I I really can't even tell you.
I loved, I think initially Iwas a double major in college.
It was writing and then art.
So I wanted a place where theycould meet creativity and the
psychology of marketing.
I just love those together.
But um, what made me decide totake them?
I'm not sure.
Mariana Henninger (38:53):
Yeah, so maybe some soul searching around
that.
You know, it wouldn't be thebulk of your story, but it's
nice.
Like I think people love toknow what drove you to do
something, right?
Like that that that piece isreally important because there's
something in them telling themto do that as well.
And if we can identify somecommonality there where we're
like, oh, we're both kind ofobsessed with this thing.
(39:14):
And it's because of XYZ, right?
And because we love it so muchbecause of XYZ.
Janice Hostager (39:18):
Um and then-
Mariana Henninger (39:20):
Yeah, go ahead.
Janice Hostager (39:21):
I think one thing that you mentioned early
on that that I picked up on wasthat I always known I'm gonna be
a small business owner.
M (39:28):
Oh, okay. That's great. Yeah.
Janice Hostager (39:28):
Like even when I was working for agencies and
corporate.
It's like that small businessthing kept nagging at me.
I would always say, "Okay, I'mgonna remember this when I have
my own business, kind of."
Mariana Henninger (39:37):
Yeah.
So I think that that's great.
There you go.
You've probably found like thestrongest connection point that
would make them hear your storyand be like, "Oh my gosh, she
gets me.
She she gets me," which istrigger number one, right?
Okay, gotcha. So it's all good.
Um and so, yeah, so maybe if wetalk about the transition out
of the corporate world, out ofyou know, being somebody else's
business, like what made youbranch out to do your own thing?
Janice Hostager (40:00):
Well, actually, that was a move to a college
town where they had, I wasworking for an agency in
Minneapolis, a larger city, andthen we moved to a smaller
college town in Wisconsin wherethere were no agencies.
So I had, if I wanted to staydoing what I was doing, I had to
start my own business anyway.
Mariana Henninger (40:17):
So interestingly, that might be the
case.
That those might be the factsof the story, right?
Right.
We can take a little bit ofcreative this so this is where
we're not lying, obviously,would never do that.
But the idea is that we'recurating the story, right?
We're essentially what piecescan we take out of this that
don't put us in a situationwhere like, well, there's an
that was it.
No, that was my only choice.
We don't want it to be our onlychoice.
(40:37):
We want it to be like, I wasborn to do this thing.
I love it so much.
Life just happened to kind oftake me in this way.
But instead of focusing onthat, we're gonna focus on your
dream of one day having this,right?
And maybe not paint the pictureof like that was the only
option, and maybe just focus onlike this is what I wanted.
(40:59):
I wanted the freedom to to bein my kids' ball games.
I wanted the freedom to nothave to take phone calls in the
middle of the night or weekendsor whatever.
I wanted to not do those thingsthat these women are also
choosing not to do.
Um, but I knew I needed XYZ,right?
And then, and this is wheregetting their language comes in
super importantly because you'regonna have those commonalities
(41:21):
in your story.
You basically have an overcomestory where yes, you had some
background in marketing and thathelped you a lot.
So the expertise piece is goingto weave its way into your
story.
We don't leave it for the end.
The force trick trust triggeris not like in order.
They're weaved in throughout.
And so we're gonna weave inyour marketing background.
So we're like, oh my gosh,right out of the gate, she's an
(41:42):
expert, right?
Right out of the gate, she knewwhat she was doing, even before
she started her business.
But when she built herbusiness, she realized all of
these other pieces that neededto happen.
And um, you know, I'm I'm I'mstaying kind of surface level,
but that's how I would struckher structure your story.
Janice Hostager (41:58):
Oh, I love that.
I really yeah, and you'reabsolutely right about it
because when I became a smallbusiness owner who had to do my
own marketing, that was when Ihad to overcome the issues and
kind of get to it.
So right, we got this workedout.
So, how can people find outmore about you or your course or
or anything else that you havefor sure.
Mariana Henninger (42:19):
I'm super accessible on Instagram
at @brandmagnetic.
So feel free to follow methere.
I have a few free resources onmy website, brandmagnetic.com.
And if you're ready, take onesmall financial investment leap.
I came out with a tool that'sblowing people's minds because
they're writing me every singleday.
I'm getting an amazingtestimonial about this tool.
(42:41):
It's a GPT, it's like an AItool.
And ironically, what it does isthat it takes content, takes
words and makes them emotionallylike really impactful.
And so it was built to help youcreate that instant, that first
impression that doesn't fallflat, that really makes you
stick out.
So it works with words.
(43:02):
Obviously, it's not a videomaking machine, but it's the
idea that you need to grabpeople the moment they meet you
and you need to be memorablethrough words as well as through
your brand video.
And so it was designed forthat.
However, my clients andeveryone who was buying this
tool started just throwing allof their text at it.
So it was designed for yourAbout Me page or your intro,
(43:24):
your bio.
And now they're throwing salespages and their captions and
their emails at it, and they'relike, this is a messaging tool.
This is amazing.
Um I've used it a ton of timesalready.
It's only about two weeks oldat the time of recording.
But uh anyway, it's called theInstant Yes Machine.
It's 27 bucks, which I'm like,this could be an AI tool that's
(43:45):
a subscription, that's a wholelike SaaS thing.
And I'm like, nope, I just wantit to be super accessible.
So I'm thrilled to havesomething that gets people, you
know.
This is this is me opening thecurtains and kind of telling you
behind the scenes.
I'm thrilled to have somethingthat gets people in my world
with a very, you know, easyinvestment.
And they get to see myframeworks at work.
(44:06):
So it's all it's it's trainedon my Emmy winning storytelling
frameworks.
It's trained on the trusttriggers frameworks, and it's
trained on the best conversioncopywriter in the world, Eugene
Schwartz.
Um, a lot of people call himthat.
So it's trained on these threethings, and it really helps
level up all your copy.
So you can take a look at thatif you like it.
(44:27):
It's linked in my Instagram.
It's one of the top linksthere, or you can go to
brandmagnetic.com slash yesmachine.
Janice Hostager (44:34):
We will put the link in the show notes as well.
Mariana Henninger (44:36):
Yeah.
Janice Hostager (44:37):
All right.
Well, thank you so much,Mariana.
This was awesome.
I think you just gave me somuch to think about, and I think
my listeners will feel the sameway too.
So thanks so much for beinghere today.
Mariana Henninger (44:47):
My pleasure.
It was so much fun.
Thanks, Janice.
Janice Hostager (44:49):
Okay, so here's the thing I want you to take
away.
Your brand story is the fastestway to build trust and make
your audience feel something.
And when they feel something,they remember you.
So this week I want tochallenge you to start thinking
about the moment that changedeverything in your business, the
why behind what you do, andstart thinking about how you can
communicate that in a video.
(45:09):
So to learn more about Marianaor anything we talked about in
today's episode, visitmyweeklymarketing.com forward
slash one thirty three.
Thank you so much for joiningme today.
I'll see you next time.
Bye for now.
I'm Janice Hostager.
After three decades in themarketing business and many
years of being an entrepreneur,I've learned a thing or two
about marketing.
Join me as we talk aboutmarketing, small business, and
life in between.
Welcome to My Weekly Marketing.
Hey, welcome back to My WeeklyMarketing.
(00:31):
Today we're going to talk aboutsomething that secretly scares
a lot of small business owners,being on video.
I know this because 90% of myclients grimace when I ask them
to do a video.
And honestly, I completely getit.
I took a television productionclass way back when I was in
college, and I always wanted tobe behind the camera because I
(00:51):
was so critical of myself when Iwas in front of it.
And even since I've had my ownbusiness, it took me a long time
to be comfortable being onvideo.
I'm a lot more comfortable now,but I think it's because I'm a
recovering perfectionist, andtruthfully, I'd much rather
write something than explain iton video where I might mess up
or be embarrassed, right?
(01:13):
But if you have a website in abusiness, and you probably do,
creating a video to communicateyour brand wins hands down over
text alone, because our brainsare wired for visuals and for
storytelling.
Think about how much more wecan communicate in a video than
we can with a written word oreven just a picture.
We process it faster, rememberit longer, and we feel it more
(01:37):
deeply.
Video taps into emotion, tone,and body language in ways that
plain text just can't.
It doesn't just tell yourstory, it lets people experience
it.
And that's why it sticks, itspreads, and it sells.
That's why I'm excited about myguest today.
Mariana Henninger is an EmmyAward-winning filmmaker and the
(01:59):
founder of Brand Magnetic.
Known as the Queen of BrandVideos, she's worked with brands
like Microsoft, Hulu, and HP,and now she helps small business
owners craft short emotionalbrand videos that connect.
The kind that make people say,"Wow, I feel like I really know
you." Today we're breaking downwhat a brand video actually is,
(02:19):
why it's a secret weapon youdidn't know your business
needed.
And she's going to give us tipsabout how to make one that
builds trust and sells for you.
I'm telling you thisconversation is going to change
how you think about video.
So let's dive in.
So before we get into thehow-tos, because I have a lot of
how-to questions for you, canyou share first what drew you
(02:40):
into filmmaking and storytellingand why it's such a game
changer for a lot of businesses?
Mariana Henninger (02:46):
Yeah.
So I worked as a documentaryfilmmaker for about 15 years.
I was originally drawn todocumentaries because I watched
a documentary when I was incollege.
You know, they rolled that oldTV on wheels.
Maybe it was a substitute, youknow, a sub-teacher or
something.
And it was the firstdocumentary I watched.
(03:07):
It was about the ExxonMobilscandal.
And I forgot what that doc iscalled, the fantastic doc.
And I was blown away.
I was like, what?
I am so enthralled by thisstory.
I'm so moved.
I'm so connected.
I'm so inspired to do somethingabout this issue.
And I realized that's whatgreat documentaries are.
So not all documentariesaccomplish that, but the good
(03:29):
ones do.
And I realized, wow, there's away to tell a story that makes
me care.
Whereas previously, maybe Iwould have just not been
interested in it.
And it that's how I got intodocumentary storytelling.
So I had the really awesomeprivilege of traveling the
world.
I've been to Afghanistan,Haiti, Ukraine, Middle East, and
(03:50):
all these places everywhere.
And the two things that I tookaway from my time working for
the New York Times, Wall StreetJournal, Time Magazine, and then
finally NBC for about fiveyears.
The first one is that I neededto know which parts of this
person's story was going to makesomebody else care.
And so it was a lot aboutthinking on my feet and as I'm
(04:11):
meeting people, justunderstanding, okay, this part
is important for the story.
This part is interesting, butit's not really going to move
the needle in terms of gettingpeople to feel something.
The second thing that I learnedthrough my years of flipping
around the world with a camerawas that I didn't have a whole
lot of time to get people totrust me.
And so that to me is thebiggest skill set that I
(04:34):
learned, aside from thestorytelling, was just
understanding how to get peopleto trust me really fast.
Like, how can I show them thatI'm going to do their story
justice, that I'm not going totwist this or manipulate this in
any way?
I'm going to curate it, but I'mreally going to help them get
their story out and make otherpeople care.
(04:54):
And so those two skill setstook me along my journey.
I have an Emmy Award and twonominations back here somewhere.
And eventually I was doing somesoul searching at the time.
And I was really kind ofobsessed, like secretly very
inquisitive and obsessed withmarketing.
And I've always had thisentrepreneurial spirit in me
(05:15):
since I was a little kid.
Um, you know, everything fromlike cookies to bracelets to
whatever I needed to do.
I didn't have an allowance.
I was just like, "What can Isell?" And as an adult, I had a
pretty successful career, um,but always reliant on somebody
else's budget and somebodyelse's um, you know, approval
before I got to work on a story.
(05:35):
And I kind of got to thismoment, that 30 rock, and
everything was awesome until Iwas like, man, I could just ride
out this cushy life doing thisamazing thing that I get to do
and get paid really well for it.
I could also take the leap andjust start my own thing.
And I knew that in thatstarting my own thing, I didn't
(05:56):
know exactly what it would looklike, but I knew that I wanted
not only to build my ownbusiness and have that be part
of my life story, myentrepreneurship of my own, but
also help other entrepreneurs.
And I fell in love with theonline space, with this idea
that so many business owners,whether that's you, the listener
right now or not, but this ideathat people are building their
(06:19):
own businesses from scratch,right?
And they're like bootstrapping,they're not looking for
investors or VC money and allthat.
Like I actually worked in astartup for a while and I was
like, wow, this is sofascinating.
But I love seeing people whoare doing this without having to
respond to a board of directorsor a board of investors or and
just having to make that sale,right?
(06:40):
If you don't make a sale, youhave a hobby and your business
dies, right?
And so, and so that's those arethe people that I'm really
inspired to help because thething that we solve, so yes,
it's filmmaking in a way, likeit's kind of filmmaking
adjacent, if you will.
A lot of my students, they usetheir phone.
So we have we have a done foryou service that's more high-end
(07:00):
and we use like really awesomecinematographers.
And then I have a program whereI teach you how to do this on
your own.
And all those students are justusing their phone.
There's like, it's not fancy atall.
But the power here, what whatare we doing?
The power is being able to getsomebody who's checking you out.
So we all know what happens inthe online space where you're
(07:20):
intrigued by something, right?
Or see, I see Janice's namesomewhere, like on a Facebook
comment.
I'm like, "Oh, that'sinteresting.
Who's Janice?
Let me go check her out."Right?
And what am I doing?
I'm going on your website, I'mgoing checking you out on
socials, I'm assessing whether Iwant to pay attention to you.
That's like the first sale thatyou have to make is the sale of
(07:42):
my attention.
Like, are uh you closing me interms of like, do I want to pay
attention to you?
Do I want to follow you?
And then what happens, Janice,is like so many of us who are
marketing our businesses,regardless of what that business
is, we've been told and sort ofaccepted this slide that it
just takes a ton of volume.
It takes putting out so manypieces of content for months at
(08:06):
a time.
We have to be content machines.
In fact, I just heard somebodysay, do this identity shift with
her audience in the hundreds ofthousands, saying, don't see
yourself as a business owner.
You're a content creator.
And I'm like, wow, that'ssomething it's making me think.
But at the same time, it'slike, that is the only path that
we know that we've been told tocreate trust, to build trust
(08:28):
over time, that it takes thosesix to 12 months of being
consistent, showing up all thetime, of providing value, all of
those things we get told.
In when in fact it's beenstatistically proven, if you
capture somebody's heart andattention, that moment that
they're checking you out, whichI call the Instant Trust Window,
you have got it made.
(08:50):
What what you're doing, whatyou need to do there is
basically get them sold on you,make such a strong impression on
them, make them feel like theycan trust you so that when
you're ready to pitch orwherever they come across your
services, or maybe they then goand look for your services,
they're already sold on you.
You've already done all of thathard work up front.
(09:11):
And so that's what I help mystudents do.
I'm so sorry for the longanswer.
Janice Hostager (09:16):
No, yeah, that that is uh so perfect because I
think I- I work with a lot ofone-on-one clients that would do
as a fractional CMO.
I'll work with them.
And one of the first thingsI'll say is that you need to
make a video.
And they just sort of the colorwalks the comes out of their
face, right?
So they just like, oh, I hatedoing videos, you know.
And well, I don't know what itis about why it's so we get so
(09:41):
uncomfortable.
We're fine talking to somebodyin person, but as soon as a
video camera gets turned on,it's just like I I don't know.
I certainly have that effect.
It's like the the green lightkind of thing.
An episode episode of BradyBunch when I was a kid where
this like I think one of thecharacters they saw the light on
the camera and they just froze.
And that would we'd be totallyme.
(10:04):
Um, and I've gotten better overtime as you do it more often,
you know, you get morecomfortable with it.
But I don't, I don't know whatit is that makes us
uncomfortable about putting outvideos.
Mariana Henninger (10:13):
I think it's just a muscle that we need to
exercise.
Um, you know, so I don't reallyfocus on video content all of
it, right?
We focus on creating a specificvideo that is perfect for
people like you or other peoplewho struggle with being on
camera all the time.
And and what that does is likethis one video is going to pack
a punch.
(10:33):
It it's very, it takes a whileto create.
So it's not something that youdo overnight.
It's not something that, youknow, it's a reel that you shoot
very quickly and it's heretoday, gone tomorrow.
And hopefully somebody saw it.
It is something that everysingle person who comes into
your world should watch.
Um, but it does take a while tocreate.
So it's a bit of a, it's aninvestment in terms of your time
(10:54):
and resources, but it thenbecomes an evergreen asset that
works for years to come.
So that's what I focus on.
But we have a whole bonusmodule on camera confidence and
all of that, because it is astruggle for a lot of people.
We're not born with a phone infront of our faces all the time.
Um, I my my biggest sort ofquickest tip around that is
(11:16):
well, two things.
One is to kind of reframe yourmind around it, which is a lot
of folks struggle with thislike, oh, I don't look pretty,
or you know, to be honest,Janice, my hair is not looking
the best today.
Um I'm coming from an overnighttrip and I wish I had time to
wash my hair.
I didn't.
It doesn't look that great.
But I'm not a model, right?
I'm here to teach, I'm here toserve.
(11:38):
And when you really come fromthat position of, I'm here to
serve my audience, um, you know,yes, you don't show up like a
slop, but you reframe the factthat you don't need to look
perfect.
You don't need to, you know,and and the more you do it, and
that's so the the second pieceof advice is comfort, you know,
getting comfortable with itcomes from doing it over and
(12:00):
over and over again.
Janice Hostager (12:01):
Yeah.
I can speak to that as well.
Yeah, right.
Yeah.
And I think for me, what Istarted doing was just
videotaping myself, doing thingsaround the house or talking to
the camera and just for myself,you know.
And once I got used to theprocess and I think I was kind
of embarrassed about it too, youknow, once I get over it, you
(12:21):
know, yeah, it got a whole loteasier.
Mariana Henninger (12:23):
It really becomes no big deal, right?
It becomes a very natural partof doing business.
That's maybe the third reframethat I would encourage folks is
that, you know, if you are superself-conscious pulling your
phone out in the middle of thestreet and talking to your
phone, A, just make people thinkit's FaceTime, right?
You're FaceTiming your mom.
You're so that's that's kind ofbecome a normal part of culture
(12:43):
thanks to thanks to Apple.
But the second thing is I just,if I ever have any hesitation,
I just remember I'm a businessowner.
This is for my business.
Like I'm making money.
It's okay.
Like who cares what otherpeople think?
It's really not about them.
It's just about you as abusiness owner doing what you
need to do for your business,right?
(13:04):
And um not making it aboutyourself.
Janice Hostager (13:07):
Totally, totally.
Mariana Henninger (13:08):
I do a lot of tough love with my students
around that.
Janice Hostager (13:10):
Oh, but you know, sometimes we all need
that, right?
Mariana Henninger (13:14):
Yeah. Like, do you want to make money or
not?
Do you want to serve people?
Do you want to impact?
Do you want to do the thingthat you've been dreaming of?
You know?
Janice Hostager (13:21):
Yeah, yeah.
This is so funny because this abrand video is actually on my
list for the week because Idon't have one on my website.
So not for the week, but it'slike it's on my list.
And so we'll have to talkafterwards because you know, I
didn't know where to start.
But anyway, um, so this reallybecomes sort of a video like.
So tell me a little more aboutthis kind of brand video.
Is this sort of a sales letter,or is it sort of like, here I
(13:44):
am, this is what I do, this ishow I can help you, this is how
I address your problems.
Mariana Henninger (13:48):
Right, right.
Janice Hostager (13:48):
Or all of above.
Mariana Henninger (13:50):
For sure.
So brand video is unlike anyother video you've ever watched
before because what you justdescribed there, VSL's, video
sales letters, uh, marketingvideo, right?
And then the second sometimespeople are like, is it like an
explainer?
Um, and then the second one youdescribed is more of an about
me video.
So it might seem confusing thatI'm saying your brand video is
not an about me video or a salesvideo.
(14:13):
And the reason is because itreally is a different way of
looking at your story.
First off, we don't really, Imean, the story is the medium,
but the focus is this onequestion.
How do we want your idealclient that's coming to you for
the first time?
How do we want them to feel atthe end of watching this video?
(14:33):
And it and this can vary alittle bit from person to
person, from business owner tobusiness owner.
This didn't come to meovernight, but I've created a
framework from helping a ton ofstudents.
I was like, oh my gosh, theseare the commonalities that I'm
seeing over and over again.
And I call them the "trusttriggers".
So, what we want at the end ofthat video is trust, however
that looks like for each person,the specificity of that answer,
(14:55):
what's going to dictate, youkind of reverse engineer back
into your story.
So I'll go over that in asecond.
But the four trust triggers arethese.
Most people coming to a brandor a business, they need to feel
four things in order to makethat connection, to feel that
really big jump in trust fromfeeling like you're a stranger.
(15:16):
Oh, like what are what are theyselling?
What am I going to be sold on?
Or like, is this gonna bespammy?
You know, depending on whatniche you're in.
There's a lot more, especiallywith AI nowadays.
Oh my gosh, don't get mestarted.
There's like so muchforward-facing AI that we're
like, we don't know what's real.
But are we chatting with a bot?
Is awful.
Yeah.
But anyway, so the four trusttriggers are they need to feel
(15:38):
that you first of all get themon a very deep level, right?
So it's very, it's a lot deeperthan your run-of-the-mill
demographics.
So if you're if you knowanything about marketing, which
I'm sure you do because youlisten to Janice every week,
it's it's really aboutunderstanding very deeply what
is it like the fifth layer deepthat they want.
What is the thing that theyreally fear?
(15:58):
What are they moving away from?
What are they moving towards?
How can we get deeper thanlike, oh, they want freedom, or
they want their taxes done, orthey want, you know, that that
sort of surface level result.
How can we go way deeper thanthat?
Typically, it's time, right?
It's some, it usually goes backto like, I just want to own my
time.
(16:19):
I want to be, I don't, I want,I don't want my time to be taken
up by something that wouldnormally take me more time to
resolve.
So how can I get it done fasterso that I can go and spend time
with my family?
And a lot of that revolvesaround their values.
So when you get them, thatmeans you understand what's
valuable for them.
Trust trigger number two isthat you care about them.
(16:39):
You're not just out to makemoney off of them.
You're not just treating themlike a prospect with a number
attached to their name on aspreadsheet.
Uh, you're not just sendingbots to convert them, right?
You really truly care aboutthat individual who is looking
for a solution for their problemand ultimately that deeper
(17:00):
thing that they want.
And so, how can we show that wecare about you or I care about
you, or Dennis cares about herclients or future clients?
Um, that they're more than justa number on a I I always use
this analogy that your peopleare more than just a number on
their stripes screenshot, right?
Screenshot of their stripeaccount.
Oh, right, yeah, yeah.
(17:20):
Because you see a lot of thosefloating online.
I don't want to be a number onyour screenshot of your stripe
account.
I'm Mariana and I have my ownneeds and I want to be treated
like a human.
And if I'm gonna pay you forsomething, that's what I want in
return.
Number three, so you get them,you care about them.
Trust trigger number three isthat this is where the expertise
comes in.
So a lot of folks aremarketing, if they are
(17:42):
expert-based businesses, maybesomebody in your audience sort
of fits into that category.
Or, you know, typically if youhave a business where your
knowledge means something,right?
Where you develop somethingdifferent than your competitor,
you're still an expert-basedbusiness in that sense.
So that's where thatcredibility piece comes in.
That's where that happens.
(18:02):
So you might notice I put thatin number three for a reason.
A lot of businesses will leadwith that in order to build
trust.
That's also where your casestudies and your testimonials
that all falls into categorythree.
Like, how can I sort of proofaround the fact that I've that I
can handle this and I can do itreally well?
The way to know if you'rehitting trust trigger number
(18:25):
three is really awesome.
It's like the most sort ofvisceral reaction of a sigh.
Can this person feel like oncethey invest in me, they can just
sigh, a sigh of relief, likeI'm in good hands.
We know that feeling when we'veinvested in somebody that we've
loved and has come through forus.
So that's the feeling that wewant to trigger as soon as
people meet us.
(18:45):
So, how can we do that?
Um, number four is the fourthtrust trigger is that we vibe.
So this is where thepersonality piece comes in.
This is where the like in nolike and trust, which we often
forget about.
So people do care about yourpersonality.
They, this is where the valuesfit in as well.
You know, do I resonate withthe values of the person behind
(19:07):
the brand, right?
A lot so much more consumerdecisions are now revolving
around the values of the brand.
And so the values of thefounder, the values of it's
usually uh we work a lot withfounder stories.
So we look at those four trusttriggers, and those are the sort
of end results that we want interms of that feeling that we
(19:27):
want to generate.
And then we, as I mentionedbefore, we reverse engineer into
the founder story to not lookat the big milestones of their
lives.
Or sometimes it can be why theystarted their business,
sometimes it's not.
Sometimes the business is justthe end of the story, what we
call the pivot to the mission.
So we we look at how to tellthat story by understanding
(19:49):
which parts of the founder storyare relevant to get those
feelings surfaced.
Janice Hostager (19:54):
Okay.
I want to get to that in asecond.
Mariana Henninger (19:56):
Yeah.
Janice Hostager (19:56):
That sounds great.
So I just want to repeat theseto make sure that that I have
them all because I have mylittle sticky note here.
Sure.
So you want them to get you ona deep level.
You want them to know that oryou care about them.
You want to show that you haveenough expertise that they would
have a sigh of relief.
And you want them to like youand understand your values,
(20:16):
right?
Mariana Henninger (20:17):
Right.
Yeah.
I mean, I guess I guess youwant them to like you.
And it's it's less aboutgetting them to like you and
more about like, how can I showmy personality?
And if there's a (inaudible)there, then they like me, you
know, just as a naturalconsequence of that.
But yeah.
Janice Hostager (20:30):
Yeah.
Yeah.
And I think sometimes that'swhere people get stuck, is that
they want everybody to likethem.
You know, it's like-
Yeah, you might have thatextreme and then the other
extreme where people are like,where it's it's not about me.
I don't, you know, they're kindof hiding behind um, you know,
it's just about my customer.
I don't want to talk aboutmyself.
I was like, dude, yourcustomers want to know who you
(20:51):
are.
They want actually uh yourabout me page or about us page
is the second most visited pageon any website.
Yes.
People care about about theabout.
And the story behind it for sure.
Mariana Henninger (21:04):
Exactly.
Janice Hostager (21:04):
Yeah, yeah.
So, okay, so I'm sorry tointerrupt you because you were
about to go into um, I thinkwhich was my next question is
like, where do where do we startwhen we're putting something
like this together?
Mariana Henninger (21:13):
Right.
I think it's it we startedgetting to know our audience
really deeply.
People I'm talking to when theywere like, "Well, it's not
about me." And I was like,you're correct.
It's not about you.
So even your brand video, we'reusing your story, but it's not
about you.
It's a marketing tool.
It's a tool, it's a trustacceleration tool.
And so the idea is again, howcan we take somebody from really
(21:34):
cold to really hot as quicklyas possible and doing it in one
single fell swoop, watching onevideo?
And so it's understanding thefirst trust trigger, which I get
deeply.
So you could spend a lot oftime and energy just on that
first trigger.
The other ones are a bit moreplug and play, if you will, in
the sense that it's moreinternal that way.
(21:55):
How can I show you that I care?
How can I show you that I'm theexpert?
Lots of people do that all thetime.
So that's a little bit moreeasy to identify.
Like, what are the things thatwe know are gonna make people
see you as the expert?
And then the personality traitsthat they value.
So I'll give you, I'll give youand your listeners a really
awesome tip that I teach all ofmy students, my clients, and
(22:19):
it's this one really valuablegolden question that you need to
ask.
So it's not just the question,but it's when you ask it.
So what happens is that we do,we tend to do a lot of market
research either with people whodon't know or vaguely know our
brands.
In fact, years ago, I was hiredto film some focus groups for
(22:39):
American Express.
And I thought it was sofascinating.
And like everyone knowsAmerican Express.
So there's a lot of brandfamiliarity, but they are not
people who are necessarily likeabout to buy from you or
anything like that.
And then the other type ofmarket research that we might do
is with our current customers,our current clients.
We might ask them things.
And both are valuable, right?
(23:00):
But the most valuable moment tospeak to your market, if you
will, to your customer is themoment that they buy from you.
And the reason that's like sucha golden moment is because
they've just come through thisjourney, this buyer's journey of
building that trust, right?
So all they know is yourforward-facing messaging, what
(23:23):
you've shown the world, right?
What you've published, whatyou've put out there.
They don't know what it's liketo work with you.
Maybe they've heard it fromother people, but again, that's
just from the outside.
That is the moment that is likethe source of the best gold
possible because they have notyet been tainted, if you will,
by the trust that's built whenthey do start working with you.
So when you ask them or whenyou talk to them at that very
(23:46):
moment, I actually do recommendthat you have somebody else do
this interview just becausethey're seeing you as the
service provider and the expertthey're paying for, or again,
depends on what kind of businessyou have.
But you might be the persondelivering the thing they paid
for.
And so it's helpful to havesomebody else either on your
team or an outside person.
We we do this for our clientswhere we have this interview on
(24:07):
their behalf, in part because itmakes them super comfortable to
share anything, in part becauseit's not as awkward where
they've just bought from you andnow you're asking them
something.
Anyway, most people are fine.
So the thing to ask them is whydid you buy from us
specifically?
That's like a golden question.
Janice Hostager (24:25):
Love it.
Because what you want to fleshout, and by the way, that first
answer is probably not gonna bethe right one, the one that you
really want.
You're gonna want to go deeperand deeper.
We we teach this in ourprogram, like how to how to go
past that surface level.
But what you really are lookingfor is identifying the parts of
that journey up to the pointwhere they said yes, up to the
(24:47):
point where they clicked by,right?
And what stuck with them?
What so what what were thethings that like moved the
needle towards yes?
You know?
And so I do this every timesomebody joins my program.
I send them an email and a ifnot like actually getting them
on the phone or on a Zoom call.
I ask them that and have gottensuch amazing answers to really
(25:08):
pinpoint what was it about me,my story, my marketing, like
what part of my messaging isreally landing for my ideal
client.
Um, and then sometimes whatI'll do is once I've started
working with them, I'll filterthrough that lens and identify
like, oh my gosh, these are realdream clients.
So these are the people that Iwant to attract more of.
And then I look back at theiranswers, like, okay, this moved
(25:30):
the needle for them.
So yeah, I just wanted to giveyou that really awesome
marketing tip.
That's a great place to getstarted.
I love that.
Part of what I teach in mycourse too is that the sale is
not the end of it either.
And I think a lot of timespeople think that it's like, oh,
I sold one.
Okay, it's all good then.
Mariana Henninger (25:46):
On to the next.
Janice Hostager (25:48):
Yeah. Right, yeah.
But getting that information sosoon after they bought, I think
that is brilliant.
So I love that.
I might just steal that fromyou.
Mariana Henninger (25:56):
Do it, please.
Janice Hostager (25:57):
Yeah, all right.
Okay, so you have all thesepieces and you have more to go
to, right?
Mariana Henninger (26:03):
If you if you've gotten that far, you've
you've got a lot of work aheadof you to do it right.
I really emphasize in myprogram that it's not a quick
process.
It's not something that youwere gonna do overnight or even
in a week.
And part of that, part of that,the beauty of that really is
that you get time to digest andcome back to it with fresh eyes
and kind of really do some soulsearching around what you want
(26:26):
to be known for, but also morethis is something that's uh a
little deeper, Janice, which isum you're not really creating
this video that's yourautobiography.
You're creating a marketingtool that's like really ninja
and really in-depth.
And what that means is thatyou're not gonna pack it with
the parts of your story that areimportant to you.
(26:47):
We we talked about that, youknow, a few minutes ago.
It's more about that specificcurated part of your story and
how to tell it in youraudience's language or using as
much of their own language aspossible.
Janice Hostager (27:02):
Brilliant.
Yeah.
Mariana Henninger (27:03):
And, you know, it's funny because I
always say this because in myhead, that would be an objection
that I would have or a questionthat I would have.
I have actually never gottenthis question from anyone, but I
do like to explain that youmight be, well, this is strange,
you know, like it's my story,but I don't get to tell this
part of it, or I don't get toemphasize that thing that's
(27:24):
really important to me.
It's like you have all the restof your marketing.
You have, you know, a million,you can create a million posts
around any of these other partsof your story, right?
You can tell them in youremails, you can tell them on
stage, whatever, you know,whatever you want.
But it's I'm not, I'm nottelling you to stick to this one
story for the rest of yourbusiness.
But this is just the the againcurated part of your story
(27:47):
that's going to make the biggestimpact the moment that cold
audiences meet you for the firsttime.
And by the way, they're like,this is a video that you can use
for pitching media.
You can use it to land stages,you can use it to land podcasts.
Like it's the video that goesbefore you to make that warm
environment of like, now we'vegotten to know each other.
(28:08):
You know, so it's incrediblyversatile, is like the biggest
ROI that you're ever gonna getin a video.
Um, and now we're in theprocess of A-B testing different
funnels to just like be able toshow and quantify that that
conversion uh metric around thebrand video.
Janice Hostager (28:26):
That is so cool.
Mariana Henninger (28:27):
Yeah.
Janice Hostager (28:27):
So what I hear you saying is that what what you
really need to do is startreally putting things down on
paper, um, kind of going throughyour story in your head, maybe,
or figuring out what part ofyour story to tell.
Mariana Henninger (28:39):
Yeah.
So I would say again, startwith your audience.
Start talking to them themoment they buy from you.
And then once they'veidentified the things about you
that they love, right?
What was it about you that madethem say yes?
Um, what what specific parts ofyour expertise were needle
movers for them?
What specific parts of um yourmessaging?
(28:59):
Yeah, what what really stuckwith them?
That's what you want.
That's the gold.
And then you're gonna look atyour story.
And, you know, there are twotypes of stories.
So there's like an overcomestory and there's a passion
story.
And everybody's story fallsinto one or the other.
I don't care who you are.
I've never met anyone whosestory is not one or the other.
And typically service providerstend to fall around the passion
(29:21):
story.
And obviously, everyone shouldbe passionate about their
business.
So sometimes my students are abit confused, like, do I have a
passion story overcome?
It's like you're passionate.
However, if you have a storythat we simplify the hero's
journey to a ridiculous level ofsimplicity, which is you've got
a life before, you've got aturning point moment, and then
(29:42):
you've got life after.
And then the fourth part of thestory is very unique to us.
We we call it the pivot to yourmission.
So this is kind of like Icouldn't help but start this
business, right?
And so if you have a before andafter type story, you have an
overcome story.
If you don't really have thatif you are maybe a designer or
an accountant and you helppeople with a thing that you're
(30:05):
obsessed about, because pleasebe obsessed about what you do.
Right.
Two people you want to workwith, right?
And so hopefully you'reobsessed about what you do.
That's that falls into more ofa passion story.
The framework for the passionstory is a little more flexible.
And typically, what we want tofind is how are ways that we can
demonstrate that passion.
So I'll give you an example.
One of my students, she'sJulia, she's the podcast
(30:28):
teacher, is her kind of brandedname.
And but when we met, she didnot have a podcast.
So her entire business isaround helping people create
their podcast.
Uh and she didn't have apodcast at the time.
Now she does.
She was kind of like, Brianna,how the heck do I tell my story?
Like, I'm not somebody whodidn't have a podcast and like
learned how to do it.
Now I'm I'm obsessed with it.
(30:48):
And I, and so we did the work,right?
So we started by understanding,okay, so how what do your
people love about you?
And she's like, I know thatthey love that I simplify things
like step by step, you know,little by little.
I we we take chaos and likeconfusion and like overwhelm.
And I just like simplify it.
I used to be an elementaryteacher and I I used to teach
(31:11):
kids, and that's what I love todo.
And so that's what we did.
So we found the story.
So in her case, you sprinkle instories a little bit more than
the sort of overcome story arcthat we talked about.
And so in her case, is how whenshe was a little girl, she
worked at the library and sheloved putting the books in, or
no, we start with like the storyof her as a little girl with uh
(31:31):
putting the markers, markers inrainbow order and then working
the library and putting thebooks all neatly.
And then the story of her beinga teacher as well, kind of
dipped into that really quickly.
And then the other sort ofreally important visual, because
we don't do b-roll, we doemotional visuals.
Your visual should be a realcharacter in your story to
really drive the emotions.
So you turn chaos and confusioninto something orderly and
(31:55):
beautiful and simple and makesense.
And I was like, okay, so whatare your hobbies?
So that's another place that wecan look for visual
opportunities.
In her case, she was like, Ilove working with nature
personally.
Like, I love exploring nature'svisuals.
Uh, and she was like, Mariana,I'm not an outdoorsy girl at
all, but I love jigsaw puzzles.
And she kind of threw it outthere.
(32:15):
And I was like, ah, perfect.
What is a jigsaw puzzle?
Aside from something that'schaotic and messy and all over
the place when you start, butyou have a roadmap and it
becomes something beautiful andyou have her piece of art.
And so that's one visual thatwe use to illustrate that idea
that she loves taking thingsthat are messy and just making
(32:36):
them simple and beautiful.
And obviously, we tied in thepodcasting through there, but I
am talking so much, Janice.
Oh my gosh, you're asking meone question.
I'm like, here's a whole book.
Janice Hostager (32:45):
No, I am so glad you're doing this because
all of these things that you'resaying are questions on my notes
here.
So this is all perfect.
So you said you don't useB-roll.
So how do you pull somethinglike that in?
Like to stop it from being justa talking head video.
Mariana Henninger (32:59):
Oh, no, for sure.
I mean, it's traditionallycalled B-roll.
We just intentionally call itemotional visuals because we
want it to be very intentional,right?
So B-roll can be just any sortof visual coverage, right?
It can be me at work, and thenyou see me prototyping on a
laptop, right?
And instead, we want to focuson what are the emotional states
of every part of my story.
Like what are the emotions thatI want to pull and make people
(33:22):
feel?
So there's something callednarrative transportation.
And it's basically when youtake people on an journey
emotionally with you.
There's so much neurosciencearound this.
They actually put two people inMRI machines and one of them
told a really good story.
And the other listener, thatperson's brain waves actually
matched the storyteller'sbrainwave.
(33:43):
This does not work with a badstory, by the way.
So you can literally kind ofmind control somebody through
story, right?
You can really elicit emotionand be very intentional about
how you're doing it and whichemotions, depending on the story
that you tell.
And so we do that with visualsas well, where it's like a
narrative transportation.
You're really transported intothat story through the visuals
(34:05):
and the audio as well as likethe words that you're hearing.
Janice Hostager (34:09):
Wow, that is super powerful.
I mean, I'm stuck, I'm stillstuck on what how do you figure
out which story you're gonnatell?
Because um, it it just is itsomething that has an emotional
hook to it or a problem orillustrates what you are.
Mariana Henninger (34:22):
Do you want to- let's do it with you,
Janice.
So tell me about your people.
Janice Hostager (34:26):
Okay.
Mariana Henninger (34:26):
Tell me about who you help.
If you could only attract onekind of client.
Janice Hostager (34:30):
Right.
Her name is Jennifer, and sheis 50 years old, and she has
just started her business, andshe is kind of overwhelmed by
what to do, and she doesn'treally know where to start.
And so she's tried Facebookmarketing, she's tried
Instagram, she's not gettingtraction there.
She's got a website, butnothing's really happening.
Mariana Henninger (34:50):
Yeah.
Janice Hostager (34:50):
She doesn't really understand SEO kind of
the right there.
You know.
Mariana Henninger (34:53):
And what does she want to build online?
Janice Hostager (34:56):
She wants to build a successful business so
she can spend more time with herkids or that who are now at the
house and her and hergrandchildren who are coming,
you know.
So yeah.
Mariana Henninger (35:05):
I know the avatar really well, but it does
she have a dream kind ofbusiness in mind that she wants
to build?
Janice Hostager (35:12):
So my avatar is a consultant.
Mariana Henninger (35:14):
Okay.
So she has some sort ofexpertise that she wants to
bring into the online space,maybe do a one-to-many, or at
least be able to build a brand,maybe a personal brand in which
she helps people.
She's a consultant.
Okay, gotcha.
And how are you helping herexactly, or what part of that
journey are you helping herwith?
All of it or..
Janice Hostager (35:32):
Yes.
So what I do, I have aframework I use to call the
Trail to the Sale.
It starts out getting to knowyour ideal customer and moving
from there into messaging andthen the awareness, and then
consider, compare, evaluate,sell, supersized serve, and
send.
So it's like the whole gamut.
Mariana Henninger (35:50):
Oh wow. Two nuts.
Awesome.
Janice Hostager (35:51):
The whole thing. Yeah.
Mariana Henninger (35:52):
So essentially they're coming to
Janice and they want to"Huh, thank God.
Thank God I found you." Right?
Like they I feel like you'regonna handhold them through the
whole thing.
Um, and so tell me a little bitabout you.
Like if you were just, do youhave an overcome story in that
you figured this out yourself,or have you always kind of been
a business nut your whole life?
And this is just sort of anatural progression of that.
Janice Hostager (36:14):
Kind of both.
Like I've always been inmarketing and I had a design
agency for a number of yearswhen we lived in Wisconsin and
then we moved to Texas.
And so I really felt though inthe process of working with an
in my design agency, I'd workwith a lot of small businesses
who I would do a website for,and they didn't really know what
to do from there, you know.
So I felt like, okay, I need tofigure this out for myself too,
(36:37):
because at that age, at thattime, social media was kind of
new.
So I had to like, and it'shonestly, it's still shifting.
Everything is shifting all thetime in marketing.
Mariana Henn (36:46):
All the time, yes.
Janice Hostager (36:47):
So I think there is no cut and dry thing.
So that's where I had to turnto the customer and really know
their customer journey in orderto understand how to help them
communicate to their customer.
So sort of similar to you.
Mariana Henninger (37:02):
Okay.
So in this case, though, I'mnoticing a few things that I
would probably shy away from.
So the design part of yourexperience is probably less
relevant.
And I'm just I'm literallygonna throw a spaghetti at the
wall.
So take it with a huge grain ofsalt, because I'm working with
a little bit of information andnot everything I would want.
But if I am Jennifer, the factthat you were in a design
(37:24):
business is probably lessrelevant for me than your
marketing background.
So even if in your mind, itsounds like a lot of your growth
and a lot of like your eyesopen to what business owners
needed, which is a lot, um,happened during your time in the
design business.
When I'm in Jennifer's shoes,it's in again, I'm not in
(37:44):
Jennifer's shoes.
I have worked with people whoare.
And in my understanding, theywant that rock star person,
right?
And it's almost like sometimeswhat we think is gonna be a
really relatable story mightactually do us a little bit of a
disservice in positioning us.
We want to be relatable, butwe're not their peers, right?
And so, in a way, I want tounderstand a little bit more
(38:08):
about your marketing background.
Um, you know, I guess previousto the the design firm, and what
drew you to marketing.
So a lot of the answers arekind of around there, like
that's sometimes where we findlike the best nuggets of the
story.
So what in the what made youchoose marketing?
Janice Hostager (38:22):
Um, I just, you know, I was in college and I
took some marketing classes,some advertising classes.
Mariana Henninger (38:28):
But what made you decide to choose those
classes?
You could have taken, like,Japanese, right?
Janice Hostager (38:33):
Yeah, I I don't know.
I I really can't even tell you.
I loved, I think initially Iwas a double major in college.
It was writing and then art.
So I wanted a place where theycould meet creativity and the
psychology of marketing.
I just love those together.
But um, what made me decide totake them?
I'm not sure.
Mariana Henninger (38:53):
Yeah, so maybe some soul searching around
that.
You know, it wouldn't be thebulk of your story, but it's
nice.
Like I think people love toknow what drove you to do
something, right?
Like that that that piece isreally important because there's
something in them telling themto do that as well.
And if we can identify somecommonality there where we're
like, oh, we're both kind ofobsessed with this thing.
(39:14):
And it's because of XYZ, right?
And because we love it so muchbecause of XYZ.
Janice Hostager (39:18):
Um and then-
Mariana Henninger (39:20):
Yeah, go ahead.
Janice Hostager (39:21):
I think one thing that you mentioned early
on that that I picked up on wasthat I always known I'm gonna be
a small business owner.
M (39:28):
Oh, okay. That's great. Yeah.
Janice Hostager (39:28):
Like even when I was working for agencies and
corporate.
It's like that small businessthing kept nagging at me.
I would always say, "Okay, I'mgonna remember this when I have
my own business, kind of."
Mariana Henninger (39:37):
Yeah.
So I think that that's great.
There you go.
You've probably found like thestrongest connection point that
would make them hear your storyand be like, "Oh my gosh, she
gets me.
She she gets me," which istrigger number one, right?
Okay, gotcha. So it's all good.
Um and so, yeah, so maybe if wetalk about the transition out
of the corporate world, out ofyou know, being somebody else's
business, like what made youbranch out to do your own thing?
Janice Hostager (40:00):
Well, actually, that was a move to a college
town where they had, I wasworking for an agency in
Minneapolis, a larger city, andthen we moved to a smaller
college town in Wisconsin wherethere were no agencies.
So I had, if I wanted to staydoing what I was doing, I had to
start my own business anyway.
Mariana Henninger (40:17):
So interestingly, that might be the
case.
That those might be the factsof the story, right?
Right.
We can take a little bit ofcreative this so this is where
we're not lying, obviously,would never do that.
But the idea is that we'recurating the story, right?
We're essentially what piecescan we take out of this that
don't put us in a situationwhere like, well, there's an
that was it.
No, that was my only choice.
We don't want it to be our onlychoice.
(40:37):
We want it to be like, I wasborn to do this thing.
I love it so much.
Life just happened to kind oftake me in this way.
But instead of focusing onthat, we're gonna focus on your
dream of one day having this,right?
And maybe not paint the pictureof like that was the only
option, and maybe just focus onlike this is what I wanted.
(40:59):
I wanted the freedom to to bein my kids' ball games.
I wanted the freedom to nothave to take phone calls in the
middle of the night or weekendsor whatever.
I wanted to not do those thingsthat these women are also
choosing not to do.
Um, but I knew I needed XYZ,right?
And then, and this is wheregetting their language comes in
super importantly because you'regonna have those commonalities
(41:21):
in your story.
You basically have an overcomestory where yes, you had some
background in marketing and thathelped you a lot.
So the expertise piece is goingto weave its way into your
story.
We don't leave it for the end.
The force trick trust triggeris not like in order.
They're weaved in throughout.
And so we're gonna weave inyour marketing background.
So we're like, oh my gosh,right out of the gate, she's an
(41:42):
expert, right?
Right out of the gate, she knewwhat she was doing, even before
she started her business.
But when she built herbusiness, she realized all of
these other pieces that neededto happen.
And um, you know, I'm I'm I'mstaying kind of surface level,
but that's how I would struckher structure your story.
Janice Hostager (41:58):
Oh, I love that.
I really yeah, and you'reabsolutely right about it
because when I became a smallbusiness owner who had to do my
own marketing, that was when Ihad to overcome the issues and
kind of get to it.
So right, we got this workedout.
So, how can people find outmore about you or your course or
or anything else that you havefor sure.
Mariana Henninger (42:19):
I'm super accessible on Instagram
at @brandmagnetic.
So feel free to follow methere.
I have a few free resources onmy website, brandmagnetic.com.
And if you're ready, take onesmall financial investment leap.
I came out with a tool that'sblowing people's minds because
they're writing me every singleday.
I'm getting an amazingtestimonial about this tool.
(42:41):
It's a GPT, it's like an AItool.
And ironically, what it does isthat it takes content, takes
words and makes them emotionallylike really impactful.
And so it was built to help youcreate that instant, that first
impression that doesn't fallflat, that really makes you
stick out.
So it works with words.
(43:02):
Obviously, it's not a videomaking machine, but it's the
idea that you need to grabpeople the moment they meet you
and you need to be memorablethrough words as well as through
your brand video.
And so it was designed forthat.
However, my clients andeveryone who was buying this
tool started just throwing allof their text at it.
So it was designed for yourAbout Me page or your intro,
(43:24):
your bio.
And now they're throwing salespages and their captions and
their emails at it, and they'relike, this is a messaging tool.
This is amazing.
Um I've used it a ton of timesalready.
It's only about two weeks oldat the time of recording.
But uh anyway, it's called theInstant Yes Machine.
It's 27 bucks, which I'm like,this could be an AI tool that's
(43:45):
a subscription, that's a wholelike SaaS thing.
And I'm like, nope, I just wantit to be super accessible.
So I'm thrilled to havesomething that gets people, you
know.
This is this is me opening thecurtains and kind of telling you
behind the scenes.
I'm thrilled to have somethingthat gets people in my world
with a very, you know, easyinvestment.
And they get to see myframeworks at work.
(44:06):
So it's all it's it's trainedon my Emmy winning storytelling
frameworks.
It's trained on the trusttriggers frameworks, and it's
trained on the best conversioncopywriter in the world, Eugene
Schwartz.
Um, a lot of people call himthat.
So it's trained on these threethings, and it really helps
level up all your copy.
So you can take a look at thatif you like it.
(44:27):
It's linked in my Instagram.
It's one of the top linksthere, or you can go to
brandmagnetic.com slash yesmachine.
Janice Hostager (44:34):
We will put the link in the show notes as well.
Mariana Henninger (44:36):
Yeah.
Janice Hostager (44:37):
All right.
Well, thank you so much,Mariana.
This was awesome.
I think you just gave me somuch to think about, and I think
my listeners will feel the sameway too.
So thanks so much for beinghere today.
Mariana Henninger (44:47):
My pleasure.
It was so much fun.
Thanks, Janice.
Janice Hostager (44:49):
Okay, so here's the thing I want you to take
away.
Your brand story is the fastestway to build trust and make
your audience feel something.
And when they feel something,they remember you.
So this week I want tochallenge you to start thinking
about the moment that changedeverything in your business, the
why behind what you do, andstart thinking about how you can
communicate that in a video.
(45:09):
So to learn more about Marianaor anything we talked about in
today's episode, visitmyweeklymarketing.com forward
slash one thirty three.
Thank you so much for joiningme today.
I'll see you next time.
Bye for now.
Popular Podcasts
Stuff You Should Know
If you've ever wanted to know about champagne, satanism, the Stonewall Uprising, chaos theory, LSD, El Nino, true crime and Rosa Parks, then look no further. Josh and Chuck have you covered.
Las Culturistas with Matt Rogers and Bowen Yang
Ding dong! Join your culture consultants, Matt Rogers and Bowen Yang, on an unforgettable journey into the beating heart of CULTURE. Alongside sizzling special guests, they GET INTO the hottest pop-culture moments of the day and the formative cultural experiences that turned them into Culturistas. Produced by the Big Money Players Network and iHeartRadio.
Crime Junkie
Does hearing about a true crime case always leave you scouring the internet for the truth behind the story? Dive into your next mystery with Crime Junkie. Every Monday, join your host Ashley Flowers as she unravels all the details of infamous and underreported true crime cases with her best friend Brit Prawat. From cold cases to missing persons and heroes in our community who seek justice, Crime Junkie is your destination for theories and stories you won’t hear anywhere else. Whether you're a seasoned true crime enthusiast or new to the genre, you'll find yourself on the edge of your seat awaiting a new episode every Monday. If you can never get enough true crime... Congratulations, you’ve found your people. Follow to join a community of Crime Junkies! Crime Junkie is presented by audiochuck Media Company.