117: Telling Your Story
This podcast is sponsored by Pet Sitters Associates. Pet Sitter Confessional listeners can get a discount when joining by clicking membership Pet Sitter Confessional discount code Confessional at check-out to get $10 off today. Check out the benefits of membership and insurance at petsitllc.com.
Summary:
What does telling your story mean? We hear it all the time, but how to do you actually do that and what does it look like? In this episode we talk about why your story is so important and how it connects with your clients. Natasha O'Banion answers, "How do I set myself apart?"
Topics on this episode:
Knowing yourself
Why tell your story?
Where do you tell your story?
How do you tell your story?
What makes a good story?
Staying organized
Adding value to your clients
Ask a Pet Biz Coach with Natasha O’Banion.
Main take away? Tell your story! It needs to be told and will help your clients get to know you. Remember, you CAN be public figure with a private life.
Links:
It’s Breast Cancer Awareness Month! Donate today.
Episode 109 - Who is your client?
Episode 99 - Marketing with Jane Harrell
Check out Start. Scale. Sail. and use PSC20 for 15% off.
You can support us directly on Patreon here.
Give us a call! (636) 364-8260
Follow us on: Instagram, Facebook, Twitter
Subscribe on iTunes, Spotify, Google, Stitcher, & TuneIn
Email us at: feedback@petsitterconfessional.com
A VERY ROUGH TRANSCRIPT OF THE EPISODE
Provided by otter.ai
SUMMARY KEYWORDS
story, pet, people, business, clients, pet sitter, potential clients, connect, talk, ideas, care provider, week, services, sharing, sitters, social media, problem, Meghan, experiences, care
SPEAKERS
Meghan, Collin, Natasha
Collin 00:17
I'm calling
Meghan 00:18
and I'm Megan. And this is pet sitter confessional, and open and honest discussion about life as a pet sitter. Hello, everyone. Welcome to Episode 117. Hello. Today we're going to talk about telling your story and adding value to clients. Before we do that, we wanted to give a shout out to our sponsor, pet sitters associates. And thank you so much to our Patreon who are supporting us every month with the price of a cup of coffee. So if you would like to do that as well, you can go to pet sitter confessional comm slash support, we hope that you guys have been getting busier even with everything going on and fall and winter coming upon us. We have been extremely busy the past couple weeks, especially this past week, like Wednesday through Saturday was just nuts. Yeah, I don't know if there was something special about this past weekend or what but everybody wanted to go away. Yeah,
Collin 01:14
yeah. And but we do know that there are places that are beginning to shut down again, I know very recently Spain came out and said that they are going back into declared a national emergency because of a second wave of COVID. And so there are things like that going on. But we would love to hear how you're doing and what the status is with your business. So please let us know
Meghan 01:34
you can find us on social media or email us call our phone number. We just want to hear from you. Yeah. So let's dive into today's topic about telling your story and adding value to clients. First, in order to tell your story you have to know yourself. And it sounds really silly. But you know your journey better than anyone else. So figure out the why behind it. Why did you become a pet care provider? Why did you choose the services that you did? Why do you specialize in a certain breed or size or location of service, you must also know your audience, your clients and your potential clients. We talked a lot about this in Episode 109 with finding your ideal client. But I found this awesome quote, it said a great brand story sits at the intersection of who you are and what your audience craves. This is so true,
Collin 02:24
especially when we consider that our businesses are so personal that that we become the brand. I know that sounds a little a little weird. But it is us that people get connected to our story, our relationship with them. And so that's why we wanted to have this conversation today and talk about telling your story because it is so important. It drives a lot of connections and a lot of things in our businesses.
Meghan 02:50
And that leads us into talking about why you should be telling your story, right? It helps clients get to know you, it becomes personal, like you just said people buy from people, we've all heard that same but it's true. The more you allow people to share in your journey, the more that they are going to trust you. And the more that they will see that this is the company that they want to take care of their pet is better for you because it gets you more business,
Collin 03:18
especially with millennials and even Gen Z back in Episode 99. We had Jane Harrell on to talk about marketing in 2020. And everything that was revolved around that. And she pointed out that the younger generations really love to get connected with a cause that they really love to get connected with something that they can personally get invested in and understand the why behind the business that it becomes much more than just a simple transaction, like many of us are used to, it really does become part of them voting with their dollars about which businesses they would like to see succeed because they're the businesses that they personally believe in. And so when we are able to connect our story with our clients, we get a better connection with them a stronger connection with them, that will really be beneficial for us. So once we figure out why we're doing this, and why we are pet sitters and remembering back to that, there comes a time where we need to figure out where we're going to tell our story and what that looks like.
Meghan 04:22
Well, now, in the technology age, this is so easy. The first one is social media. They have just made it very simple to do pictures, videos, the written word, just get your story out there on social media. It's couldn't be more simpler these days. Also your email newsletters, the ones you send out to clients and potential clients that you have their emails every week or every month. It's a great way to let them in on what's going on in your business and maybe even your personal life as well. Another one is your blog if you have one, and we need to get better at this, because it's a great way to boost your SEO, you can turn your knowledge into a few paragraphs of text, and then allow your client a window into how to be a better pet parent.
Collin 05:16
Yeah, pull stories from your experiences as a pet sitter, things that went right things wrong. Tell funny stories, tell sad stories tell stories. Again, these stories are so powerful because they're coming from you and your experiences.
Meghan 05:28
And with those stories, if you are not necessarily a writer, you can use a podcast, hey, if you prefer the spoken word over the written word, there is no better way to connect with and engage in your community than for people to hear your voice every week or every other week.
Collin 05:47
Yeah, it really is super easy. The social media aspect makes it really easy to just click on Go Live and talk about an experience that you just had, or maybe something that you realized all of a sudden, and then you can turn that into a longer format blog, put it in your newsletter, or turn it into, as you said, Megan, a podcast to let it sit there people hear your actual voice tell it
Meghan 06:07
podcasting is not as scary as it sounds,
Collin 06:09
just us. But I know, when we start talking about these stories, it gets a little confusing, because we might not know exactly what to talk about. What do you mean, when you say tell my story? What is that?
Meghan 06:23
Well, it can mean a lot of different things. It can mean your journey as a pet care provider, from when you first started off to your years in the business or your months in the business depending on where you are. And then where you are now how you have developed your skills, how you have learned new things. And then also another part is who your team is, if you have a team, you can introduce them. tell their stories, tell how they have become a dog walker or a pet sitter for you and what they enjoy doing.
Collin 06:56
And then that big question, that big thing that keeps coming up that is so foundational, why you do what you do. That's a story that never grows old. Because it's a reminder to Yes, your you but also to your clients about why you're in the business. And why you stick through it even through those bad days.
Meghan 07:14
Or even through a pandemic,
Collin 07:15
right. Those bad year,
Meghan 07:17
why you are still here, because you are dedicated to the pets because you are dedicated to your clients, you are people you want to serve and how you want to deliver the best possible care, even when it's challenging.
Collin 07:32
Yeah, well on that, you know, you could talk about even the services that you offer, which may sound really boring of just like, Oh gosh, what am I going to say, Oh, I do talk walks or Oh, I do petsitting. Don't just talk about what you offer. But add a spin to it, add how you offer it, add how you make it unique and different, because that's how you do it and nobody else is going to do that.
Meghan 07:52
Right? A big part of telling your story is putting the you in it. So you are a unique pet care provider. And yes, there may be 1000 others in your city of Seattle or Dallas or wherever you are. But your story is unique because it's about you,
Collin 08:09
which can be really scary whenever we aren't sure maybe even who we are or what we want to be sharing about ourselves. That takes some time. And that does take some thinking and planning on our part. But it is just it's I know he said this word a couple times it is so powerful tool to connect with your clients at that level.
Meghan 08:27
And then you can also explain and tell them about your pet care knowledge. So maybe you are a vet tech and you have extensive knowledge in geriatric pets, use that knowledge to give value to pet parents, there is so much knowledge that you can give them because you have lived these experiences and they may not have. And it could be that you only grew up with and have Great Danes currently, so you know the risks of bloat, and you enjoy caring for Great Dane so you can give the knowledge to Great Dane pet parents about the things that you've seen the
Collin 09:02
you know, the problems that you've had to overcome. And some of the things that you've learned about that. I know for Megan and I, that example is toxins. We both grew up with toxins, we experienced the back problems that they had with them. So when we encounter another pet owner with toxins, we can tell those stories, we can tell them how we overcame those, how we dealt with physical therapy with our dioxins and how that helped us get to in build us up into our pet sitting business. So we're able to make that connection with them because we're able to tell those stories,
Meghan 09:35
right? get people to know you why oh, you establish a personal connection. Yes, you are a company. You are a business but you are also a person. And that sounds silly to say but allow your potential clients to see the face behind the name.
Collin 09:53
But remember here, it's your business, your personal life, so you get to decide how personal Private, you want to make it that that control lies within you?
Meghan 10:04
Right? Maybe you don't want people to know about embarrassing relationships or stories from freshman year of college, that's fine. They probably don't want to hear that either. I want to forget though, you can choose what you put out there on social media, in especially in your newsletters, you control what you put out there, you can still be a public person with a private life.
Collin 10:26
I love that phrase so much, there is still a way to make that balance of being seen in public, but have a private life that you retain and don't have to share everything with everybody. But your story still needs to be authentic. Don't exaggerate, because people buy from people, they'll be able to see that you don't need to pull up Brian Williams here, you need to be transparent, open and honest. And people are going to be able to connect with that be as transparent as possible. Because again, they tell through half truths just as well as they'll be able to see through full long lies. And this also means that you should get in front of the camera, which is really scary. For most of us, I know, I absolutely hate having to turn on the camera, and go, go live or do a video shoot or things like that. But it is such a great connection when people are able to make eye contact with you to be able to see your emotions, watch your face and your expressions. It is just a much better connection.
Meghan 11:20
Use pictures and videos when telling your story. So how do you tell your story? Well, use your phone. Many people aren't comfortable being in front of video, including us. But these days, it's really a necessary part of running a business and being on social media, you need to get your face out there. And if you really are nervous, and you just can't do it, consider hiring a social media coordinator if you are a solopreneur. Or if you have a team, maybe one of your walkers or sitters is a natural in front of the camera, they love it, they enjoy getting to be creative in that way. So have them be your company spokesperson have them be kind of the face of the company, per se, have a picture of you and your team if you have them on your website homepage, as well as on your About Me page. And we're even wanting to do a welcome video on our homepage so that potential clients can really get to know our voices and our mannerisms before they even meet us.
Collin 12:24
Right. So on our about page, we're still working on this, but on our about page will be an embedded private YouTube video that's only there. So when you go to look at up about Megan and I as pet sitters, there'll be a short video about us saying hi, a little bit about ourselves. And then text below it that explains a little more, but trying to make that instant connection with people so they know who we are, then recognize our voices. And hopefully we can put them at ease.
Meghan 12:48
Yeah, and your story should be engaging. That video component is typically really engaging for people, especially in the first like three seconds, you know, capture the people's attention. And don't take this to mean that every story has to be crazy, exciting or earth shattering. Now, storytelling is all about taking people through a journey,
Collin 13:10
right? I've written stories about lessons that we've learned from our kids, or just thoughts we've had on customer service from the mechanic working on our car, they don't have to be insanely profound. They're just stories that we experience, and that we want to help share to others. So however you choose to tell your story, be consistent. consistency is key in life and most other things, including this. So not only with your actual storytelling, but how it's told as well. Your pet sitting business is changing all the time, from the clients you take on to the services you offer to the team that you have in the turnover that you have there. So let people in on that process. That's a great story. To tell that clients in potential clients get a peek behind the curtain and see how quote this the sausage is made, so to speak. So they can have an idea of all the hard work and everything you have going on. Behind the scenes. Find your voice in your writing style. This is so important. Not everybody is going to write the same, not everybody is going to speak the same. And that's Oh, okay. takes practice. It takes time and you're never going to please everyone. But this becomes part of your brand in how you tell your stories. Don't shy away from how you talk. If you have an accent if you don't have an accent. If you say certain words differently than anybody else. Don't, don't be afraid of that. Embrace that because that's who you are, and that's okay and people are going to want to connect with that.
Meghan 14:39
We would like to take a brief moment and thank our sponsor pet sitters associates. As pet care professionals, your clients trust you to care for their furry family members, pet sitters associates is here to help for over 20 years they have provided thousands of members with quality pet care insurance. If you work in the pet care industry, and you do because you're listening to this podcast Hello or you want to make your Passion for pets into a profession. You can take your career to the next level with flexible coverage options, client connections and complete freedom and running your business. Learn why pet sitters associates is the perfect fit for you and get a free quote today. At pets@llc.com you can get a discount when joining by clicking membership pet sitter confessional and use the discount code confessional at checkout to get $10 off today. Check out the benefits of membership and insurance once again at petsfit llc.com.
Collin 15:27
I think we need to point out that during that ad read when Megan says perfect fit. She's not trying to think of how to say that word. It's written with p u r r r PR as in cat.
Meghan 15:38
I thought that was obvious. And I negotiated extensively the PR on perfect. I just
Collin 15:43
wanted to make sure people understood that you know how to say the word perfect without saying Perfect, perfect.
15:49
Perfect.
15:52
Anyway.
Meghan 15:55
So what should your story do? There are really four main components to telling your story. And the first one is kind of solving a problem. So which problem do you solve? Maybe it's that you looked around your area and you couldn't find a pet care provider that was up to your standards, or that provided the exact kind of care that your pet needed. Again, let's go back to the dachshund example. We have grown up with toxins we we both experienced them having back surgeries rehabilitation. Now we have a dachshund of our own. And we currently watch a doxon who has back problems, and we watch her for daycare and have to help her go to the bathroom. That client really needs us to have that Doc's and knowledge in order to be able to care for her.
Collin 16:38
Yeah, absolutely. And you know that first example you gave of looking around the area and not finding a pet provider that meets your standards. That's a really common one that we hear all the time of, well, I used to be a client and I didn't like how people were caring for my pet. So I decided to start my own company. That's awesome. Talk about that more talk about what that process was like and what you've learned along the way,
Meghan 17:00
well, and how you do things differently. You don't need to bash other pet care providers. But you can still accentuate the things that you do in your business that is different than anyone else in your area.
Collin 17:10
Another component is what insight sparked the start of your business, or maybe the pivoting of your business to something different. Maybe it was an interaction with somebody else, or a reflection you had while spending time with friends and family. Again, getting back to, you know, if you changed businesses, if you started adding a different service this year, because of COVID or any other reason, tell that story. That's a wonderful component add. As we continue to move through the story arc, you've you've identified a problem. You've talked about the idea that sparked the business. And now you can move into what are you doing now, to fix the problem that you started, you know, providing outstanding care and customer service, hiring people with exact expertise, taking specific trainings, expanding your service area, all sorts of things. And then finally, ending up with what your mission is as a business and for your personal life, to serve the clients in your area with excellence, professionalism, and the care that you want for your pet, or whatever that mission looks like or pans out in your life. Tell your clients that take them through this whole arc problem, solution, mission. And you can do that over and over and over again to connect each story that you tell back to your mission and back to things you want to be seeing done in your business.
Meghan 18:30
telling your story can sometimes be really overwhelming when you don't know where to start, or you don't know exactly what story to tell. But staying organized and getting good ideas is helpful. It's really overwhelming to sit down and stare at a blank page or a blinking cursor or a blank draft on Instagram. That is not when you want to be coming up with your ideas. Spend time every day, jotting down some quick ideas about your experiences, reminders of things that happen to you. You can even use the Notes app in your phone and really build up a bank of ideas to use when you need to pull from them. It's kind of the same thing with social media content. Everyone says plan out your content. There are coaches who sell year long social media content planners, this is really the same thing sitting down or just even going about your day writing down little notes, things that come up in your head reminders about, oh, this neat experience happened today with a client, I should tell that story or something similar to that.
Collin 19:29
Yeah. Or if you have employees, have them share about their day, all of those funny things that you come across or that you find unique or interesting throughout the day. jot those down really quickly into a Notes app or in a text to send off to somebody to save for later. That way when it comes time to make that social media post or jump on Instagram Live and start talking about a story you'll have to pull from something out of nowhere. You've got this bank of Swords that you can tell and that you can start plugging and placing these stories. has certain situations arise so that you can fit a story with a particular example or lesson that you want to get across.
Meghan 20:07
Ultimately, this is about adding value to your clients and connecting with them on a personal level, and your potential clients too, so that they get to know you, they want to do business with you, they trust you, they trust you with the care of their pet, they trust you with their home, whatever service you're providing, when you put these things together, your clients get something out of it. It's not just a I mean, it could just be a funny random story. But intersperse things that they're going to connect with that they're going to feel emotional about. And it doesn't have to be a sad emotion, it can be a happy emotion, or a or just something funny,
Collin 20:44
right? No matter how big or how loud, or how little or insignificant, you may feel like the thing that you're sharing is know that the clients that it's going to connect with, it's going to connect with. And that's awesome. That's what you want, they get to learn something, but most of the time, it's that they get to learn something about you. As you mentioned, Megan, they're building you're building trust. Yeah, even before that they've connected with services, many people will actually stalk you. so to speak, before booking, they're going to check out your social media, they're going to check out your website, they're going to read your blog, they're going to check out all these things to see if they can get to know who you are and who they're dealing with,
Meghan 21:23
to see if you would be a good fit for their pet.
Collin 21:26
Right. And that's good. That's okay, that's what you want, because you want to be working with people that are a good fit for you. So an example of putting this all together an example of how this process can work, just give you an idea. I write ideas down all the time. On the Notes app on my phone, I use the Notes app on the iPhone, and they also use an app called draft. And there's tons of ideas in there that I'm constantly writing down. Well, one week it went out, it came down to the wire to send out the weekly newsletter that we send out. And I didn't have anything off the top of my head. So I pulled up my draft ideas. And in that was a story of the kids riding their bikes, I really liked the way that this story could line out. Because the episodes that we had that week, this is for our podcast episodes that we had that week, were kind of about being stronger than we realized and branching out of our comfort zone. And I was like, Oh my goodness, watching our kids ride their bikes, and crashing and falling and struggling is exactly like running a business in that every time a business our businesses stumble, or something bad happens or we get a success, it seems small or insignificant at the time. But over the course of years, it builds up to the point where, you know, we don't even notice that we might not even notice those changes in ourselves. But people on the outside see that our customers see that other business owners see that. So too, whenever our kids are riding their bikes, they are so much better riding their bikes now, after weeks and weeks and weeks of riding their bikes around the blocks. But they don't notice it. They have no idea. They're just out having fun. But we see that from the outside. And so I thought that this story really connected with everything else that we were trying to tell that week. And so I was able to pull from that, write it up really quickly, and then send it out
Meghan 23:08
for our personal business, we just rebranded our entire business because next year, we are wanting to make some pretty big changes to it. And so we're basically starting from zero with sharing our story. We're sharing why we started being pet sitters, some stories of pets we've watched over the nine years we've been in business how we can help pet parents solve issues like high energy dogs or pets with special needs. It's about them the community, getting to know Collin and I getting to know our family, getting to know what we do, why we do it. And being a face in the community, right. If you have had trouble sharing your story, or if you have already shared your story, let us know some lessons that you've learned from that how you've gone about sharing your story. And if there's been any feedback from your clients, we would love to hear it. You can connect with us on social media at pet sitter confessional, or our website pet sitter confessional.com. This week, we have Natasha opionion pet business coach on to talk about standing out
Collin 24:09
in a crowded field. I am having trouble standing out from others in my area. What should I do?
Natasha 24:15
You should do events. I swear to God, events is like amazing. I grew my business in six months just on events. Again, everybody's a dog walker, everyone's a pet sitter. But now if you're offering value to the customer have a place to kind of connect to find other pet business owners to maybe have a beer or why and while we're doing so, to say like, Hey, I know where I'm taking my dog this afternoon. I know where I'm taking my dog on Thursday afternoon or Saturday evening. When you bring events into your platform. It really upped the ante for referrals. Now let's talk about referrals. In that sense, people are like oh my God, have you just been to the pet confessionally event that they do every year. It's how People love hype. hype is a sales strategy that works every single time. But there's people are craving places to take their dogs and to do stuff with them together. And even if they're not buying your product right now, it's a great place to network. And if you sell merchandise, it's an even better place to start talking about some stuff, you offer a T shirt, a koozie, whatever you sell, and it's like, you got everybody in one place now and the rest is endless. So I would definitely say put events I know a lot of us are introverted, and we don't want to do it. But if you don't want to do it, just hire an event planner, they'll do it for you. Put events in your, in your process for sure. And people look forward to that meeting. You know, it's like you having a best friend that you talk to online, but you really look forward to spending that one on one time with them that is really valuable to people. I mean, that's the thing about our business. It's like we have clients who know us, but are you a household name. You know, most of us are not a household name, not because we can't be but because we're not doing enough in our community to make sure people know what we do everyone in your cell phone every single person on your contact list should know what you do. Every single person in your email list. You know what you do every single person on your Facebook and Instagram should know what you do. Too many of us are like Oh yeah, I do. I do pet sitting You know, every now and then. And I you know, don't whisper about it. Tell the world. Tell them what you do. Show it on your sleeves. Do you practice shit, okay? And you need to call me. And they're like, we love it. We know who to go to. We know if we need something we have our person and don't forget word of mouth is so powerful. They will refer and mentioned Oh my friend does this. I know a guy that does this. I know a girl that does this. Tell everybody
Collin 26:44
if you'd like Natasha to be your personal pet business coach, you can head on over to start scale sale.com and check out her services and when you're ready to checkout use the code PSC 20 for 15% off.
Meghan 26:55
We thank you so much for taking your most valuable asset your time and listening to us today. We so greatly appreciate it. Thank you again to our patrons and pet sitters associates for making this show possible. We hope you guys join us next time.
Collin 27:08
Thank you
