The Robyn Graham Show - Success without Social - Life and Business Growth Strategies for Christian Women, Coaches and Service Providers - How to Use Storytelling to Create Deep Connections that Grow Your Business with Brittany McBean who Shares her Story of Transracial Adoption

How to Use Storytelling to Create Deep Connections that Grow Your Business with Brittany McBean who Shares her Story of Transracial Adoption

06/11/20 • 56 min

The Robyn Graham Show - Success without Social - Life and Business Growth Strategies for Christian Women, Coaches and Service Providers

About Brittany McBean

Brittany McBean realizes the deep connection of story telling.

She is a copywriter and marketing strategist helping online educators and creatives stand out with crystal clear messaging and a laser-focused strategy. Her focus is writing the words that get you seen by the right people so you can make a maximum impact and serve the people who need you the most. Brittany graduated with a degree in theatre, as an actor she came to appreciate the immense value and deep connection of storytelling, as well as the difficult work of self-promotion.

Trading the life of an actor for a more rooted, yet still flexible, job, she began her own business in social media marketing. After 5 years of experience and success in an oversaturated market, Brittany has begun to work with other brands and businesses to help them stand out in a sea of noise.

She lives in Richmond, VA with her husband and baby girl and can usually be found throwing family dance parties in the living room or watching The Office for the bajillionth time

Frist Phase

Brittany’s first phase was as a professional actor. From there Brittany moved to working as an admin for a theater company and then to becoming a social media marketing expert.

Understanding Social Media Marketing

She was in social media marketing for 5 years with a network marketing company. After a few months of spamming all of her friends, she got tired of getting lost in the noise of everyone saying the same thing to sell the same products.

As a result, she started finding ways to really use her unique voice and personality to stand out. Once she was successful with her own personal branding and marketing, she trained her team of hundreds of women to do the same.

The Burn Out

Eventually, she started feeling burned out and began a social media coaching business. She worked with client after client, and realized that she always came back to the same thing: messaging. As a result, she took her knack for the deep connection of storytelling through writing, smooshed it up with a ton of copywriting education, formulas, and persuasion psychology and got super nerdy about crafting messages. She began creating the exact messages that would help her client's websites, emails, and launches convert.

Her background in acting and her degree in Musical Theatre have enabled Brittany to switch voice and personality naturally. Where she used to be front and center on stage, now she just does it behind the screen with her words instead of wigs and tap shoes!

Finding the Right Words

It took Brittany a while to realize that there was a name for what she wanted to do. She loved the challenge of strategizing each individual brand's messaging and marketing and became absolutely obsessed with finding the right words to help people explain what they did, but it took a while for her to consider herself a writer.

A personal brand expert is the title Brittany gave herself at first, but she was really a messaging expert. Once she found the word "copywriter" and the whole world of direct response sales copy, she was hooked!

Second Phase

Brittany is now a conversion copywriter for online educators, course creators, and coaches. Basically, she writes the words that make people cash monies online. She helps entrepreneurs find their brand voice. This is accomplished by identifying what makes them unique, special, and interesting. Using the exact words their dream clients need to hear to make that connection, Brittany converts dream clients from browser, to stalker, to buyer.

Brittany spends hours and hours studying her client’s dream clients, excavating their questions, hopes, dreams, fears, and objections, as well as the words THEY use to describe their problems and then write the words that make them say "get out of my head!"

Deep Connection of Story Telling

Brittany’s ability to create effective messaging also has application to her personal life on a deeper level. Two years ago, after experiencing and suffering through infertility and miscarriages, she and her husband adopted a black baby. They are now navigating what it means to have a transracial family.

There is a level of bias and racism in each of us because of our life experiences. It’s important to admit them and face them or we can’t change them. Brittany is using her gift of words and deep connection of storytelling, to not only help herself manage this journey gracefully, but to help others navigate it too.

Robyn referenced episode 40 with Tayna Longino who also discusses bias and diversity and inclusion. Tayna’s interview is from the human resource perspective, but the interviews compliment each other.

Book Recommendations

About Brittany McBean

Brittany McBean realizes the deep connection of story telling.

She lives in Richmond, VA with her husband and baby girl and can usually be found throwing family dance parties in the living room or watching The Office for the bajillionth time

Frist Phase

Brittany’s first phase was as a professional actor. From there Brittany moved to working as an admin for a theater company and then to becoming a social media marketing expert.

Understanding Social Media Marketing

The Burn Out

Finding the Right Words

Second Phase

Deep Connection of Story Telling

Book Recommendations

Previous Episode

How to create a career you love and hire accordingly all while maximizing diversity and inclusion.

The First Phase

She started her career in sales and her communication skills and ability to engage with people were critical for launching her career. She quickly learned that the secret to being happy at work is to have a career, not a job.

As she hired her team, she hired people that were engaging. She built teams that got great results and had high employee retention rates. As her sales statistics rose and her team was so successful, the human resource department started noticing her and her ability to put people in place who were motivated to do a great job. The were people enjoying a career, not a job.

Because making decisions can be challenging, as Tayna was trying to make her decision to transition to human resources she sought advice from her mother. Her mother’s advice was that when people want you or see something in you, you need to take advantage of it or at least explore it. So Tayna made a career change and started her career in Human Resources (HR).

Hiring Strategies

Using similar strategies to hiring sales teams, once in HR, Tayna worked to hire the right people for the right job. She was hiring in a way that she married the employee with the role so that they could have a career and not just a job, but also fulfill the needs of the company.

When you aren’t doing something that you are passionate about, you are more likely to leave or move on. Changing hiring models and even job postings, shifted from hiring transactional employees to people who wanted a career and wanted to meet goals. Therefore, really seeking out the right talent and competencies helps with employee retention and company success.

Likewise, listening and observing intentionally what people were experiencing in their job roles is how Tayna has been able to build successful teams. Doing so allows her to identify what people’s passions are today as she works with her clients in the second phase.

The Second Phase

Tayna now uses her HR skills to coach people who are looking for careers, not jobs.

With some intentional work, you can identify what people really want in a career. People no longer just have to take any job to pay the bills, they can have a career doing something that they are passionate about. Something that they love and fulfills them.

One job posting will have several hundred applications. It is important to write the job description to find the ideal candidate.

Tayna now coaches career seekers by helping them look at and identify their values, visions and passions so that they can find the right fit in employment. She also coaches them on interviewing and communicating their strengths and expertise.

How Interview Candidates Fail

There are three reasons that candidates fail in their interviews:

Unprepared – didn’t do research on the position and how they can effectively answer questions in the interview.
Unable to communicate – communicating and articulating experiences and value that they can bring to the company and hiring manager. The problems they can solve for the company or hiring manager.
Can’t connect, lack of confidence – Not connecting with the hiring manager because of a lack of confidence, not connected with the company, the competitors, or the needs of the company or hiring manager. The unknowns cause a lack of confidence.

The Personal Brand

In a nutshell, this is a personal brand. You have to be able to communicate your expertise, the problem you can solve, the value you can provide, and why you are the expert the company and hiring manager needs.

For that reason, Tayna helps her clients identify their stars and elevate the situations where they have really been able to shine and effectively share their success stories. She helps them present their personal brand and making experiences relevant to the specific pain points that company has. This is a differentiator for candidates for a successful interview.

It’s about crafting a story that completely resonates with the hiring manager and makes a connection. This makes a difference for career seeking vs. job seeking. As a career seeker, you are marketing yourself and leveraging your expertise.

Certainly if there are gaps in your experience, it’s important to sure them up so that you are more confident when interviewing. Be able to tell your story better than you’ve ever told it before.

Three Things People Can do to Interview Successfully

Discovery – identify the landscape where you want to be, where you want to play. Define your point of difference, what is special about you.
Differentiation – point of difference. It may seem pain staking, but it is critical.
Delivery – practice and prepare, work on delivery and become more confident in how you express yourself. It is not bragging it is articulating your messaging and point of value and uniqueness.

Passions

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undefined - Do you ever feel overwhelmed and like you can't take another minute? You can survive if you take it 15 Minutes At A Time With Mary Fran Bontempo

Do you ever feel overwhelmed and like you can't take another minute? You can survive if you take it 15 Minutes At A Time With Mary Fran Bontempo

About Mary Fran Bontempo

Mary Fran Bontempo is an award-winning 2-time TEDx speaker, author, humorist and podcast host who teaches audiences to uncover their brilliance and resilience 15 minutes at a time.

A sought-after presenter for corporate and association events, Mary Fran is author of The 15 Minute Master and The Woman’s Book of Dirty Words and co-founder of the podcast 4 Chicks Chatting.

Mary Fran proves small changes can create life-altering transformations, allowing individuals to be positive and successful in a rapidly changing world. A Huffington Post, Thrive Global contributor and columnist for numerous websites, Mary Fran created a life-affirming brand of wisdom and wit after meeting the challenge of her son’s heroin addiction. She is a frequent media guest and speaker, audiences of all ages delight in her empowering and entertaining message.

First Phase

Mary Fran's first phase was fairly typical--married, had three kids, church singer, youth minister, substitute teacher, and worked in the family recruiting business with her husband. She also wrote a humorous local newspaper column.

The Day the Rug was Pulled Out from Under Her

On Mother’s Day 2010 Mary Fran that her son was a heroin addict. The suspicions were there, but as a mom, it was easy to deny them. As a mom of an adult child, her hands were somewhat tied. Both are common emotions in such circumstances.

The two companions, not friends, of crisis are denial and distraction.

An addict will get high, then there will be a period that is like a train wreck and you are ready to do something, and then they pull back. Almost as though they know you are ready to intervene.

Mary Fran suggests that if you feel in your gut that something is wrong, it is. Address it. Don’t deny it. And don’t let yourself be distracted.

First Steps for Crisis Management

The first steps for crisis management are:

Research - find resources.
Talk to other for outside help.
Remember - There is no shame in this. Everyone knows someone who is affected by this. The odds are that if you were not doing drugs with your child, you weren’t lighting up a joint with them, you didn’t cause the addiction.

The three C’s of addiction:

1st C - You didn’t cause it

2nd C - You can’t control it

3rd C - You can’t cure it

Getting a child into recovery is the best feeling ever. You can finally sleep. Your child is finally with people who can help him/her and he/she is safe.

It’s a very dark time, but getting treatment is the beginning of the light.

The Second Phase

The 15 Minute Master

People often say to take life one day at a time. But with an addict, you often have to take life in 15-minute increments. You can get through anything in a 15-minute time frame. It’s about taking one action at a time.

The experience of living 15 minutes at a time led Mary Fran to write her book, The 15-Minute Master. She now applies this principle to every aspect of her life. Mary Fran also speaks on it and leads workshops to teach others how to survive and thrive 15-minutes at a time.

The 15 Minute Master is broken down to 15 minutes, three main questions, one action step.

Three questions are:

What can I do about this? The question is not: what do I want to do. The outcome is the main goal, but what are the resources?
The next question is: What should I do? Should I act or not?
And the third question is: What am I going to do about this? Do I need courage? Do I do nothing and let it evolve? Do I need to take a step back and let someone else handle it?

Who Are You Going to Call?

If you can’t solve the problem, call in the experts. Don’t be afraid to ask for help, but first, identify that you do indeed need the help.

Sometimes you need to surrender. That doesn’t mean to give up. It means to give yourself time to process what’s happening and allow yourself the grace to let someone else help. Turn things over to God, or your higher power.

Be gentle with yourself and give yourself time to heal. There will be PTSD. Trust has been broken and has to be rebuilt. You may forgive, but you’ll never forget. The relationship has been destructed and must be rebuilt. It is a process. There must be grace all around it.

Mary Fran’s Two Other Books:

Not Ready for Granny Panties

The Women’s Book of Dirty Words

Mary Fran’s favorite dirty word is, relax. Just relax really means shut up and leave me alone. If told to relax, Mary Fran has learned to do just that.

Change is another dirty word. But look at change as opportunity not a threat....