Crafting Simplicity and Empathy into the Fabric of Authentic Brand Storytelling

Have you ever felt the weight of your brand's story getting lost in a sea of overcomplicated marketing jargon? This episode, Ron Harvey sits down with the storytelling sage, Johnna Lacey from JM Lacey Communications, to discuss the art of authentic leadership narratives. Together, we untangle the complexities that many leaders face in their communication efforts and highlight the value of simplicity and empathy. Johnna brings to the table her expertise in refining brand messaging and shares how these clear-cut strategies can alleviate the heavy burden of stress that often plagues business leaders.

Our conversation also illuminates the pivotal role that storytelling plays in shaping a company's culture. I share snippets from my own expedition in sharing my brand's narrative, focusing on the elements of authenticity and empathy that foster deeper connections with one's audience. We delve into the nuances that set apart brand storytelling from generic marketing and examine how a well-crafted story can attract like-minded individuals to your organization, creating a sense of belonging and uniting employees under a shared purpose.

Wrapping up, we touch on the indispensable nature of support and connection within the realm of leadership. Through my personal reflections and the rallying cry of #DontDoItAlone, we encourage you to recognize the strength in seeking help and embracing the solidarity offered by others. Remember, whether you're facing tough times or simply looking to amplify your leadership capabilities, you're not alone. Join us for a dose of real-world leadership wisdom and practical advice that resonates with both your heart and your business acumen.

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Disclaimer:

The views and opinions expressed in this podcast are those of the speakers and guests and do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of any organization or entity. The information provided in this podcast is intended for educational and informational purposes only and should not be considered as professional advice. Listeners should consult with their own professional advisors before implementing any suggestions or recommendations made in this podcast. The speakers and guests are not responsible for any actions taken by listeners based on the information presented in this podcast. The podcast is not intended to be a substitute for professional advice or services. The speakers and guests make no representations or warranties of any kind, express or implied, about the completeness, accuracy, reliability, suitability or availability with respect to the information, products, services, or related graphics contained in this ...

Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:01

Welcome to Unpacked Podcasts with your host leadership consultant, Ron Harvey of Global Core Strategies and Consulting. Ron's delighted to have you join us as he unpacks and shares his leadership experience, designed to help you in your leadership journey. Ron believes that leadership is the fundamental driver towards making a difference. So now to find out more of what it means to unpack leadership, here's your host.

Speaker 2: 0:26

Ron Harvey. Good morning. I'm Ron Harvey, the vice president, the chief operating officer for Global Core Strategies and Consulting, and we're a leadership firm based out of Columbia, south Carolina, and most of our time we spend around helping organizations create a winning culture and we do that through the lens of a leader and development leaders internally for organizations to be much better at what they do, and understanding leadership to take care of people. We love it, we enjoy it and we love partnering with organizations. But what we do on this particular show is we pause once a week to do a podcast to let you behind the curtain. I invite guests from around the globe, from all industries, all backgrounds, all religions, anything you could think of. I want them to be on the show so you can hear from more than just what I think or what I've been through in my experiences, because there's a wealth of knowledge in our world. So I'm inviting world leaders to come on to the show. So I'm super excited.

Speaker 2: 1:18

I've been knowing this young lady for a while. I don't know if we've ever we've been in a room probably once in our lifetime together. If not, we've been on virtual platforms a lot. But John is with us today and I'm super happy that she said yes. So, john, can you introduce yourself and also tell people your business and what you do? So I want to use this so we get to know who we're talking to.

Speaker 3: 1:38

Okay, absolutely Thanks, Ron. It's good to see you again too. I'm excited.

Speaker 2: 1:42

Thank you. Thank you, I'm excited.

Speaker 3: 1:45

I'm John Lacey and I am the owner and founder of JM Lacey Communications, and it's just a company where I empower individuals and companies and nonprofits to tell their brand, to tell their unique story, to increase their profits. So I really just help them to communicate their purpose by teaching them through a systematic process on how to find and tell their unique story to impact the world. And, of course, with brand storytelling, it helps to increase trust, build relationships, create connection and ultimately increase sales. So I do help them. I focus on the writing and the brand storytelling, training and coaching. My business itself was really built on empathy and the desire to eliminate frustration for business owners, leaders and nonprofits. I really seek ways to simplify what has been unnecessarily complicated, using proven systems to achieve results. Yeah, there's plenty of information out there, lots of people trying to tell you that this is how you do it and it just is conglomerate of mass. So I try to simplify all that.

Speaker 2: 2:59

And venture. The website and your team did a great job in connecting and I love the language. Unnecessarily complicated, Just like hashtags. So if you're listening and watching, how many times do we unnecessarily complicate things anyway? I mean, so can you unpack that for a second? What do you hope each other's face to build to hit? Let's talk about unnecessarily complicating the brand story. What do you mean by that?

Speaker 3: 3:22

Well, it doesn't take much to confuse me. So, to be honest, I have a tendency to become very overwhelmed and I want to do a lot of things at once. I learn so many things and just from my own experience when I've tried to do something, even from my own business you do have so many people out there. They're all experts. They're all telling you this is the way you do it, this worked for me, do it this way and it'll be fine, and I found that that's not true because I'm not them. I mean, great that it worked for them, but it's not like that for everybody. And there are so many systems. You know you have software for all kinds of things.

Speaker 3: 4:02

I won't even get into what I've been trying to do with my own business, but I have learned so many software programs lately and I feel like we are under so much stress as it is, and when you're trying to run a company, whether it's a for-profit or nonprofit, you're already strapped. You're probably doing multiple roles in your organization and To me it's as if somebody has one more thing added to their stress, and I don't like that. And so for me I look at it as how can I alleviate their stress. How can I not be that? One more thing that creates havoc and that creates stress and so that's how I really design my business and my programs too is looking at it in that sense that I personally don't have time for complication.

Speaker 3: 4:51

I don't even have 40 hours a week to work, so I get that so many people have other things that they're dealing with to not just work related, but maybe they're dealing with personal things at home, maybe they're caregivers, maybe they have their spouses just lost a job, or do you know? They're dealing with something that they don't need all of this and they don't have a lot of time, and so that's kind of how I built it is. I don't have that time either, and I don't have time to have, you know, these massive, in-depth, complicated systems to follow. I just don't have that. So that's what I looked at is how can I make it easier For my clients, and for other people too, that we can get through this together, so that my goal, ultimately, ron, is at the end of working with a client and hopefully it's long term, but at the end of doing something together, they sigh and relief and think I should have done this sooner. That's the impression that I I want to leave with them. That's my goal.

Speaker 2: 5:52

Yes, yes, phenomenal being able to make it less complicated and people feel like there's a sigh of relief at the end of it. You spoke a lot. You know I did the research in your team, sent information over. You know, one of the things I want to be able to tie together. You know people want to tell their story and then people say be authentic. Can you really be in telling your story?

Speaker 3: 6:14

There are. Yes, I'm glad. I glad that you brought that out, and it's kind of interesting because you probably noticed too, even on social media, on a LinkedIn, right that's supposed to be the business kind of social media where people are kind of bearing their soul a whole lot deeper. Maybe they should and I'm not saying you have to keep everything to yourself. I mean, obviously, mental health, emotional health, psychological strain we're all dealing with. All of us have something. You know, all of us have baggage, all of us are dealing with something, but how much of it do you express? And I think that's kind of interesting. And when it comes to our authentic story, you're trying to create a story where you can connect with people, but then you have to look at what is my audience and am I connecting with right people? So the simple answer to how authentic and real should your story be?

Speaker 3: 7:06

The first thing I would say is avoid giving people that ick feeling. You know, don't, don't tell them too much. You know, don't give so much detail, anything that makes people squirm when they read it or they hear it. Those are the things that you really want to avoid. And if you want to know, is this getting to, you know, really up and somebody ask somebody and I don't mean a friend or family member, because they know you, but maybe another colleague or something say hey, how does this make you feel when you read this or you hear this and let them give you their honest answer if you really need to know.

Speaker 3: 7:40

And another thing too is avoiding exploitation, whether that's of yourself or Somebody else. You know that can kind of come up, especially with nonprofits. We see the commercials on TV. I have certain feeling was a something that I see on TV and I think, boy you, just really to me it's exploitation. But you know, I guess maybe it works for them.

Speaker 3: 8:03

But even exploiting yourself, you know again, if you're being honest about something, it depends on what it is, whatever your platform is. But you still have to be very balanced with how you do that. So you just want to avoid totally exposing yourself. You can still be honest. Just be careful with how much you're exposing. So, really, when you're trying to be authentic, that is when you share the why and that's my favorite word is the why, it's your personal story. With balance you talk about what you do, who you do it, for which audience, why it's going to be important to them how they benefit from your story and how it's going to help them, or what you do, how that's going to help them. It's okay to talk about your mistakes and your missteps and your journey. That's kind of interesting for us because then we say, okay, that's a human being you know, we do need that.

Speaker 3: 8:54

We want somebody that we can relate to. But when you share that, talk about what prevented you from doing what you knew needed to be solved and the hurdles that you had to overcome. Also, was there an aha moment. I love that, that aha moment, that moment of truth that led you to a decision for your business. But also talk about your solution to whether it's a podcast or other things that I've read. All they do, they decide they're going to spill the beans, but then they leave it, and that is that ick feeling and I'm like, okay, now what?

Speaker 2: 9:25

Yes, absolutely.

Speaker 3: 9:28

So you know you need to talk about the solution. You want to talk about what made you realize your solution and how does your audience again fit into that solution. So it's good to share the answers that you discovered and that's what's going to make you unique, because your answer isn't going to be the same as your competition.

Speaker 2: 9:47

Yeah, absolutely yes, yes.

Speaker 3: 9:49

You being you, you being authentic, what you went through, your struggles and the solution you came up with. Nobody else has that, just you. So that's how you can be authentic.

Speaker 2: 9:58

Awesome, awesome, phenomenal information of how do you do it in an effective manner that's working for the people you're trying to reach. Over the years, things have changed. You've shifted and you had to figure out your story. Can you share where people can get it? And I think that you know sometimes we make it look easier than it is the struggle of really trying to figure out what is your story and how do you really put it together where it resonates with you and it resonates with the people that you're talking about. What are some challenges that you're trying to get your story right?

Speaker 3: 10:27

Sure, I go back to that why you know, and also your passion and your purpose. So what I like to look at and I had to do this with myself, too, because I'm starting to tell my brand story now and I'm doing an increments on LinkedIn and through my newsletter too, because you know, if I'm trying to help people to do this for them I said you, man, I need to do this as well, and so it helped me to realize, you know, take some bravery to do that, and you know a lot of courage, but do it in a way, too, that you want it to resonate with people, you want them to see you as authentic and a human being, but that you overcame things, and I think that's kind of the biggest thing. So I'm trying to show people that my business is about empathy and that I can relate to them and I want them to see that, but I have to show them that with the story. So when I help others to recognize their brand story is I ask them to think about their passion, why they started their company, their business, their nonprofit, in the first place.

Speaker 3: 11:32

That's always the key starting point, because you had a deep desire to change something. So what was that? What was that desire, what was the need that you recognize? So reflect on why and how you started, first of all, and then think about why. Are you the right person to bring about the change? What is it that you can offer other people? And so sometimes that stems from personal experience. We'll tell people about that experience and, again, as we mentioned, be balanced, of course, but share the experience to highlight why you're the right person, why you got involved in that change or position, to be able to provide something of need in the first place.

Speaker 3: 12:14

Some people start their company or products because they recognize there is a need for something that didn't exist or that through their research and trial and error, they made it better. Right, and a lot of us will do that. They'll say we're not me, I'm not that good, but I think about that show. I love that on the History Channel. The Food that Built America, the Brands that Built America those are just some of my favorite documentaries, but it's always interesting because these geniuses will see something and say you know what? I can make that better and this is how.

Speaker 3: 12:48

I'm gonna do it. So that's really with anything that you can do is you just recognize, okay, there is a need here. But I can take that several steps further. This is why and even with a nonprofit too a lot of times people start a nonprofit because there's a great need for something specific in their community that isn't yet there. So everybody wants to share that story by being personal, by being authentic, because that's who people are drawn to. They're drawn to the real person. They need to see themselves in your story.

Speaker 3: 13:17

So, as you're telling your story whether it's on your website, social media content marketing, your newsletter, anything like that you're kind of doing it in snippets according to that audience. But knowing your own story is going to give you options and clarity as to what you should share and where. But something interesting I've noticed and I want to point this out to, because I have noticed that when it comes to brand storytelling and storytelling, that the lines are blurring. There's actually a difference between the two, and so I just want to make sure that when I talk about brand storytelling and people hear that they understand what that is and what the difference is. And so, just in really bullet point nutshell here, brand storytelling is identity. It's related to an organization's values, their mission, their vision. And even if it's an individual say, an author, an author brand story, it's still related to your identity, to your values, and that's something that doesn't change. Your values don't change.

Speaker 3: 14:25

So brand storytelling is interesting because it's really long-term, it's long-term engagement, it's building trust and brand storytelling, especially in an organization, does involve leadership, because they are representative of the story of the organization, so they have to be involved and it's about personalizing your connection with your audience recognition.

Speaker 3: 14:51

And when you think about it in the concept of building a story, as you would as a writer, brand storytelling is more about the theme, which is your overall arc, rather than the plot, which is really involving characters and what they do. Now, storytelling is similar because it's an offshoot of your brand. You are telling stories about your brand, but it is the act of communicating your messages. It's more marketing. It's related to an event or a program specifically, as opposed to the overall business. And where brand storytelling is long-term, storytelling is more short-term because, again, it's marketing and it's related to something specific and it can change, whereas, as I said, the values do not change. So there is a difference with those two the brand storytelling is long-term identity building, trust building, engagement and then, the storytelling is the very specific programs, the events that you have, things like that within your organization.

Speaker 3: 15:58

So I just want to make sure that people are clear on the difference between the two. Yes, yes.

Speaker 2: 16:03

It actually helped me be clear on it as well. When you look at storytelling and company culture, how does storytelling impact the culture of a company?

Speaker 3: 16:12

Absolutely good question because my heart is still in internal communications I just really feel for the people who help run an organization. It's all the staff, it's everybody. And if you tell your brand story, well, it should be done in such a way that the right people are trying to get in, yes, that they want to work with you, that they believe in what you're doing. And that can be not just nonprofit but that can also be for commercial businesses as well. People can see themselves and see a future with you because they absolutely believe in your business, not just the product, because the products can change and in fact the people in the business can change. But what is the business represent, what is the identity of that business? And so that helps to draw the people that you need to represent you in that business. And so that's really something to think about. Is you're just creating, in a way, you're just kind of creating that safe space and you're building that culture based on that.

Speaker 3: 17:21

And I've seen that, and I know you have too, ron where you've been in certain organizations, small and large, and you can tell by the attitude of the people who work there what that business is all about, just based on them. And so if you have employees who are upbeat, they're productive, they're in a good mood, they enjoy coming into work, then and you can tell they get along right, there's no cattiness, everybody's getting along and everything's great. I mean, everything's going to have its challenges too, but how are they dealt with? You know, if they're dealt with very diplomatically and they're dealt with well, you really have a culture of people that represent who you are, that really represent your brand, and that's what you're looking for. So you know, if you have an organization where people are clashing and there's a lot of problems, well, first and foremost it's communication, I always say, and second it's leadership.

Speaker 3: 18:19

You have to look at what's going on. So that's why I said earlier that your brand story really involves leadership. If you have a company where the C-suite executives or the board of directors, if they're not in, you know, if they don't see the importance of this and they're not supporting it, then other people are going to just follow them, you know, and they're not going to feel like it's worth supporting either and that it's not important. So it really is. That's how serious that is is. If you really want your business to thrive, then you need to make sure that your leadership supports that and supports who you are in your brand and your culture.

Speaker 2: 19:03

Yes, yes, I mean, if you're going to change it down, how do you get leadership to buy in and be able to advocate for it? So, when you think of brand storytelling, what is an effective way to do it and what are some of the ineffective ways to do it?

Speaker 3: 19:14

if you will, Well, aside from some of the other things I mentioned, where there's a bit of a crossover there is that you know they have to understand that telling the stories of their program, for example, that's not their brand. So those are some things. Some other things too, though, when it comes to, you know, good storytelling versus poor brand. Storytelling is not your logo, it's not your website design and it is not a sales pitch.

Speaker 2: 19:41

So you just made everybody change their story. Johnna, it's not your website, it's not your logo, those things that you could put together. It's not those things.

Speaker 1: 19:50

So what is?

Speaker 2: 19:50

it.

Speaker 3: 19:52

Yeah, well, good brand storytelling sets expectations, it clarifies your message, it highlights your vision, it emphasizes your motives and it also motivates your audience to support you and to give you your business. So I said, it's not a sales pitch, but you are able to bring in loyal supporters and to increase profits because of your story. You know people just want to do this or compelled and good brands storytelling is about your audience. It's showing them that you're interested in solving their problem because you get them, you understand their problems and I had mentioned earlier, you're taking your audience on a journey. You know you want them. It's as if you're walking on a trail with them if you like hiking and you're pointing out all the beautiful things around you and you're talking about it and you're relaxed and You're both eager to get to the end of the trail to see what's there.

Speaker 3: 20:50

That's the kind of anticipation you're building with your audience on this journey, so you're focusing on something that's meaningful to them and You're showing them that you're making them a promise but you're also capable of fulfilling it. So that's a big part of our story too, and so the call to action, if you will, is a whole lot easier because, as I said, it is not a sales pitch. You're really inviting them to do something. You're inviting them to Sign up for your newsletter, to visit your website, to set up a call and then, of course, you're promising them something. Maybe it is a special offer if they accept your invitation.

Speaker 3: 21:31

So any sales in that would be very soft. But again, the story of your company and what's going to draw people to them is the uniqueness of your story that you're showing them. So it's really a compliment to your long-term trust engagement that you're trying to build with your brand, and so people trust your brand, which takes time, right, you can't trust somebody overnight. That's why I said it's a journey, but the people are gonna learn to trust you and your storytelling really is the icing on the cake that entices them to indulge. That was good.

Speaker 2: 22:10

Record. It's recorded, so we get to come.

Speaker 2: 22:12

As we come to close, really on here one of three things that you leave, or tips for people to get better at their storytelling, or brand storytelling, either, or which you know. A lot of entrepreneurs listen to the show and they're figuring out how to get their messaging out or the image out or what they do out. One of three tips that you can entice them with, just to get something started to be better at the storytelling for their companies. Yeah, well, again, I always go back to that. Why, why did you?

Speaker 3: 22:37

start this story. I always go back to that why, why did you start this in the first place? What is your passion? And I bring that up because I think over time we forget that. You know, we get so involved in the day-to-day activities of running our business that why kind of gets pushed to the side and it's normal. So revisit that Front time to time and look at that. First of all, why did you start your business? What is your passion? What are the challenges that you've personally overcome that you are now in a really good position to say, hey, this is a solution We've come up with and I know it can help you, because it's helped me, it's helped my family, it's helped my friends, you know, whatever that might be. And to, speaking from experience, you know we get very passionate about our own stories. We can go off on the tangent and we're very easily can talk about ourselves, but you have to pull back and say, but what is it about my audience and people that I'm trying to reach? What is it they're interested in?

Speaker 3: 23:35

What is important to them Because, again, you're trying to build trust. So you know you don't want to be in a position where you're overpowering people, you're sounding condescending Maybe you have to be very, very balanced with that or arrogant or pretentious those turn me off personally. So you know you have to be. That's not nice. You came up with the solution, but talk about that and talk about your mistakes, you know. I mean maybe it took you 10 years to develop this because of you know some of the missteps that you took. So think about those things. But definitely your passion, your why and the hurdles that you had to overcome and who your audience is.

Speaker 2: 24:16

Yes, yes, phenomenal tips. Thank you, john. If people wanted to reach out to you. What's the most effective way for them to make contact with you? How do people reach you?

Speaker 3: 24:26

My website would be the first one that I'd send people to at jmlacycom. All the information is on there about what I do and my programs and a way to contact me. They're more than welcome to email me as well. That should be on there. Sign up for my newsletter. I try to keep people posted on you know, all things related to writing and storytelling and as a bonus, this is brand new. Let's put it up about a week ago, but there's a free download if you sign up for my newsletter 10 questions that you should be asking to come up with your brand story. So that is yeah, I'm very proud of it.

Speaker 2: 25:03

There's some giveaways.

Speaker 3: 25:04

Yeah, people love giveaways, so and I don't do cheap, ron. I put a lot of time and effort into this one, so it's very nice and you can even do it on your computer. You don't even have to print it if you don't want to. It's set up like a form.

Speaker 3: 25:17

So I would encourage that and also reach out to me on LinkedIn. I'm very active on LinkedIn and if you want to connect, reach out to me there at JMLAC somewhere. I'm on LinkedIn, but my website has a link. My website has a link, so you can certainly do it that way.

Speaker 2: 25:31

Yes, yes, if you can't find the there, reach out to me. I'll be happy to put you in touch with her. You know I know how to find her. I have contact information.

Speaker 2: 25:39

Thank you, john LaPorte, for coming on the show. Thank you for sharing, thank you for the insight, and to see a female in business and the challenges that you go through and still stand in the game is what I call it. And you continue to put your helmet on and you show up on the field and you play. So thank you for being a good supporter but also a friend in this phase of entrepreneurship, because it gets lonely as an entrepreneur. For those of you that are thinking about entrepreneurship, if you're doing it because you don't want to work for anybody, get rid of that mindset. You're going to be working for a lot of people. Yeah, that thing of not working for anybody is not real about entrepreneurship. Someone's misled you. But thank you for joining us on Unpack with Ron Harvey.

Speaker 2: 26:15

We release every single Monday a new episode. We get ready to turn it to 60. I think we have at 57 right now. So, people, there's a lot of content out there on our website, a lot on our stream yard, phenomenal guests that have came on and shared a lot. Go back and check out the podcast. Go to the site and pull up it, whatever one you want. Reach out to those people, ask me questions, but we're going to wrap it up here. Ron Harvey, the vice president, chief operating officer for global core strategies and consulting a leadership firm, everything around leadership and people and supervisors. We love it, we enjoy doing it and we want to be a partner with you. So feel free to reach out to us on LinkedIn or on our website.

Speaker 2: 26:53

So thank you all for joining Lacey, john and I. I call her Lacey, sometimes then I call her John, so it depends on how we're feeling that day, but thank you for being with us. Thank you for sharing so much information and for everyone that's out there, find someone that you can connect with to help you keep going and when you lose your ability sometimes, let someone else give you energy until you get yours back. If you lose your confidence, let someone else give you confidence until you get yours back. If you're not believing, find someone that believes in you until you get it back to. Everybody goes through something. It's just a matter of what we're going through and what time we're going through it. As you said, john, we all are dealing with something and that's the true statement. So please hashtag, don't do it alone. Find someone to help you out. Again, we're signing off and thank you all for joining us for this podcast of Unpacked with Ron Harvey.

Speaker 1: 27:39

Well, we hope you enjoy this edition of Unpacked Podcasts with leadership consultant Ron Harvey. Remember to join us every Monday as Ron Unpacked's sound advice, providing real answers for real leadership challenges. Until next time, remember to add value and make a difference where you are or the people you serve, because people always matter.