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