Ditch the Corporate Script
Make it stand out
Whatever it is, the way you tell your story online can make all the difference.
Alexander McCobin:
Welcome everyone to this Liberty Ventures webinar on flipping the OR giving up the corporate script for everyone who is new to the Liberty Ventures. Building the largest ecosystem of values, aligned business leaders, investors, executives and entrepreneurs who are committed to a free and prosperous future and not only facilitating abstract connections, but really seeking to form meaningful relationships for you to do business with one another and scale impactful. Businesses to scale your efforts in the. World and these webinars are an opportunity to share some of the best insights from leaders in the community, and I'm just absolutely thrilled to introduce a good friend, Kenley Schooland, who is co-founder of Viral Thoughts. Now Kenley has dedicated years to amplifying the message of freedom minded leaders and organizations and empowering them. To create long lasting impact across the globe and I am just so thrilled that she's taking the time to share her approach to storytelling, thought leadership and amplifying not only the message of liberty, but your message as business leaders to connect with the most important people possible. Ken Lee, thanks for everything you're doing and for joining this webinar today.
Kenli Schoolland:
Thank you for having me, Alexander. So hi guys. It's great to be here. Please excuse me if I'm a little bit nervous. I don't give many presentations because we are a small team. We work very closely with our clients and we spend a minimum of a year working together. So we're not really, we don't do outreach on a normal basis because we really have to like the people and like their values. But with that said, that's exactly why I'm so excited about what Alexander's doing. He's curating all the perfect people for us because. We're. Because of his message and the mission and. It's just such an amazing group. Every event I attend, I don't know if you guys have been able to go to some of the in person events, but everyone I've gone to, I've been blown away by the quality of the people that I meet. So knowing that I'm really excited to be here with all of you today. In today's session, I will be sharing with you first which platform you need to be focusing on. Why? If you have an unlimited marketing budget, there's a lot more you can do. There's a lot of big things you can do, but if you're trying to be as lean as and and effective as possible. There's a very clear focus that I'd like to suggest. Next, I'll be sharing the framework that I use with my clients to organically grow awareness for their brands and increase their leads. And what you can do today to start implementing these things into your practices to start growing your brand and attracting leads organically as well. So to begin a little bit about myself. I'm originally from Hawaii, but I left about 16 years ago. I couldn't wait to get out of paradise. I moved to England and in the time since I've lived in the UK in China, Chile, Panama and these days I spend the majority of my time in Mexico. And if you've ever been here in Mexico. You've most likely seen that everywhere you go, there's people that walk around that are trying to sell you things you know you'll be sitting in a cafe and people will come up. Sometimes it makes sense. It's a small souvenir or little trinket, but sometimes it can be as crazy as you know. A lot of people. Come around with full carpets. Carrying plants or even furniture. And at first I thought it was kind of funny. But over time I started to get kind of sad because I would see these people and they work so hard. They're walking around all day carrying heavy things, trying to sell, trying to make a living. But it's just not effective. It's just not the right time in the place. It's. Yes, that's a beautiful carpet that you have there, but I'm not in the market for a carpet. I'm here drinking coffee or I'm walking to the gym and I don't even know if that's going to fit in my place. I don't know who you are. If you know anything about. Carpets where you pick that carpet up from and. And even then I I don't want to take it and carry it and walk around with it. And so it just felt really sad to me to see all of this wasted energy all the time and I think. An alternative, if I was really in the market for a carpet, I would ask around and people could tell me no. Maybe you you want a carpet? Then you got to go to the carpet king like he knows everything. He's got every color and style. Every quality like he's got you covered and you go there and this guy will have his shop. And. The best part is that when people come to him, they already want what he's selling. They already they ideally have an idea of what they want their budget, and they're they're coming to him asking him, please sell me something. Please help me know how to sell my spend my money and so. That I could see is such a drastic difference. On one hand, you have a guy who's walking around 15 hours of the day maybe making one sale and. And if he's lucky, and if he's not lucky, then he gets to come home to his wife late and she's he knows she's going to be upset because he didn't make the sales, so they don't have money. And so he's tired and hungry and it and just unhappy versus someone else. This carpet king who has his place, he's built his reputation. People come to him, he can sell 203040 carpets in a day and still finish by 6:00 PM and go home to have dinner with his family.
And so that is to me just the tremendous power of taking the time to build. And your reputation and focusing your energy in marketing effectively because we all have the same 24 hours in the day, but depending on where we focus our energy, you can get completely different results. And so I this is an extreme example, but I see very similar things. Happened with regular business owners. And there's different three main levels in building leads for your business and a lot of people start off obviously going to events, getting cold leads and there you go walk into an event and even if it's a networking event and everyone knows that, that's what they're there for, it's still. Tough you you walk up to someone which is uncomfortable as it is and you have to. See you right away. Are you a right fit? It's A50. 50 You know, maybe they're relevant. Maybe they're completely. Have nothing to do with what you do and so it's there's a huge chance that you'll waste your your time. And also you have to be pitching. You have to be. You have to be convincing them in the matter of one minute that you're worth talking to, that you're interesting, that you have authority, you have experience. And can solve their problems. So even if they're the right target client, you're just in a week. And it's just very difficult. Then to get to the next level. Ideally, you start to know people at events, or you join a network like the Liberty Ventures network and you start to get warm introductions. You can be introduced and there you have a huge advantage because you already get credibility from the relationship and a warm introduction so people are not like. Ohh, who are you? What are you selling? Me but willing to talk and give you more than just one minute to prove your.
Alexander McCobin:
So.
Kenli Schoolland:
And so that's a huge step up, but it's still a lot of work. You still have to be responsible for pitching. You have to be the one going out there, putting yourself out there. And but then the ideal the goal is to get to the top level at any event where you get invited to speak, to speak online or in person, and there all at once you have an opportunity to Share your story, to share your authority, to share what you do. Without necessarily selling, you can just share and then. If you do it well enough, when you come off the stage, people come straight to you and they say I love what you're doing. Can you please work with me? I want more of that. And that changes the whole dynamic because from being sort of below and needy, you were above and can allow people to come to you. And I saw this very powerfully recently at a conference and marketing conference and after this one guy spoke. He was pitching without pitching, just talking about what he's done for his clients and when he came off before coming off, he said. If you're interested, I have a few programs you can talk to my assistant in the back and the programs were anywhere between 1 to $15,000 and as soon as he came off the stage, there was a line there was like. People load who are running to that assistant to try to sign up, and that was just so beautiful to me. T
hese people, rather than begging people for their their business by shifting the switch, by being in the right place, suddenly people were begging him. Please take my money. And so that's so that is the power of being at the top level. And again, we all have the same 24 hours of the. Me. But if you want to be able to enjoy your life and you know, get the results that you want while still enjoying your life, having a good home environment and all of that, the smart thing is to dedicate as much time and energy and focus as you can to getting to the top level. And So what if there was a way to get there faster? The short answer is that there is and it's LinkedIn. Because. You can go to events and that's amazing. If you get that amazing. But for the average person who's not there yet. LinkedIn is the one platform that's always on. You don't have to wait for a certain event to to be able to get on stage. You don't have to wait to be picked by the conference organizers. It is an open platform that anyone can take. And yes, there's a lot of different. Social media platform. So why LinkedIn is because that's where the people are most serious. That's where they're actually looking to engage.
They're it's like going to a networking event to talk about business versus going to a bar. Instagram, and in many ways Twitter is like a bar which can work if you're willing to spend the time hanging out. Build your reputation and just be there all the time they work. They can work. But what I'm talking about is the most effective, least amount of energy for the maximum results. You will find that. And. Then and so I'm sure a lot of you actually, I checked all of your profiles before this call just to see just to get a feel for who would be here. And it's clear that all of you are using LinkedIn moderately, but there's just so much more that you can be doing to use it. Effectively and with this goal of in mind of getting you to that top level. And.
Alexander McCobin:
Yes.
Kenli Schoolland:
And the beautiful thing is, you don't even need to be the very, very top. It's the whole process of getting there that has a lot of benefits because as you start to talk, as you start to share your message, to share what you're doing, you can attract not only customers but also investors and other kinds of opportunities. And sometimes you have. You don't even. You can't even expect it. So the more that you can just be there sharing what you do, the more you open the doors to all of these opportunities. And so. Yes, and so. If you if you show up consistently with a strong message before you know it, you will have your own platform that's on 24/7 that you don't have to wait for a specific date or permission to to be able to share your message, and you'll be at the top.
So my main suggestion here. So the main thing that I would want you to take away from this. Is to take LinkedIn seriously. Don't leave it to the. Especially without context, because that is wasting one of the biggest opportunities that we have so. What to do instead? Here, let me share with you the main framework that I use with that we use with our clients. And so as you can tell from the title of this talk, it all comes down to telling stories. So going back to that company post that you that everyone tends to reshare. On LinkedIn. That's not bad in and of itself. Your company is doing great things. You want to show that you're related, but give me some context please. Why should I care about what your company is doing? Why is this a big deal? What does this new development for your company mean for the world and especially me because? At the end of the day, if something is not relevant to me, or if I if it's too much information to process names, I don't know facts I don't care about. My brain will just completely. Block it out, I will just scroll past and so the goal is to tell me a story.
So that's like the basic basic most basic thing that you can do when you're interacting on LinkedIn or re sharing something is to just tell the context of it. Tell me a story about why this should matter to me. And so stories in general are important for a number of reasons, but I'll go through three key reasons here. So the first is that human brains, we need stories to retain information. Our brains are complex computer processors that are trying to save us as much energy as possible, and so when we come across very complex data or anything. That seems like it's going to take a lot of energy to process our brains, protect us from that threat, and just block it out.
And that's why if you're scrolling or you see something that's a huge block of text or a lot of complicated things. You just. Your brain stops and so sometimes yes. If you're studying and you you're intentionally trying to challenge your brain, you can. You can work through complicated texts, but if you're just on social media, you're just scrolling. You're just looking for something light. If you if someone sees something scary and by scary I mean just a lot of text or something unfamiliar that will looks like it's going to take time to process. We just skip it, we block it out completely and so and the same with data information. A lot of people like to talk about their companies and say, like, share a lot of big facts and numbers that mean a lot to them, but If these numbers don't have context.
Then my brain will just filter it out so I can say for example a string of data like yellow, blue Monkey 24, house banana. And I'm sure you've already forgotten those bits of information that I shared with you. But if I tie it in through a story, I say, well, there was a yellow and blue monkey that went to 24 Lincoln St. into the house to find a. Anna, that has a lot more chance to to. Stick with you. And so a lot of people, they give data about, oh, we have. We've, you know, we have 45 stores or something like that or we do this and that's maybe great to you. But for the average person you don't know is that a lot? Is that a little? Is that a big deal? Is, you know, what does that mean for me?
And so that's why every little piece of data, everything that you share needs to come with stories so that people can understand it and they can understand the relevance to them. And so to give you an example, one of our clients. And yeah, so for example, one of our clients does the service. It's a HubSpot implementation and that's something that you would always tell when he goes to events. And I I could overhear. And they would just say, yeah, we do HubSpot implementation and unless you were very interested in the field and you knew about it, most people would just say, like, OK, cool. Because they didn't see how it connected to them. And he had a podcast. Actually, that's how he first started working with us on a pod for post production for his podcast. And so we were working with them, and it was gaining traction, but not necessarily converting into leads. And so one day, I said to. Him like? No. Let's talk. Just sit down with me. Talk to me. Tell me what it is. What's the story behind this? What exactly do you do? How do you help? Why? Why do people come to you? And after digging out all the information, we were able to craft some stories about what they do. How they changed people's lives. And I remember from the first week the 1st. In the first week of posts, one post brought in seven perfectly hot leads, like the exact target client, because he just directly said this is what we do and this is how it will help you.
This has how it works and so that's why now we refuse to work on podcasts or any other kinds of content. Without just working on your written content 1st and getting your story straight because everything else you can do, you can spend a lot of money to create all kinds of other marketing content, but it means nothing if you're not just direct and strong on your core message and stories. So that's, that's the first reason why stories are important is to help people understand and to retain the information.
Next is to show your heart. There's a great quote from John Maxwell, a famous author and and teacher on leadership who says people don't care what you know until they know what you how much you care. And this one I we see, I think this is the main reason why I love this group, why I love the Liberty ventures and principled business group because. Everyone here comes with a mission. They're not just. You know, doing whatever it was to make money, they're here to change the world and that's This is why this is your superpower, that you need to tap into as much as possible. And so a great example of this I found is at the principle business summit on Necker Island earlier this year. One of the guys gave a presentation, Mark Bailey, in case anyone knows with the original Pancake house. And nice guy. But then I saw that he was going to speak and I was like, OK, pancakes. Like, how interesting can that be? Right? But he comes on to stage. And he starts talking about. This it's it's a franchise of pancakes like think, IHOP and. But he starts talking about their mission and how they're really changing things and how. And maybe it's not changing the world, but he's changing his community by making it a place. His goal is to make his restaurants one of the best places to work in Dallas and. That focus was in everything, he said.
Our goal is to make this a place that you would be happy to know that your mom is working there. And so immediately you start to feel that connection like, wow, OK, this is not just pancakes. It's pancakes with a mission. And then on top of that, he he shared that a lot of people come a lot of people would come to us and say, do you have a mix? Can I buy your mix to make pancakes at home? And he said no, we can't because it's a 5 day process. We actually make pancakes the old way that your grandma would make with sourdough and fermenting it. So. It's all made from scratch, so you can't just make this at home and those things those. Key tiny things change this product pancakes. In a completely different way, it made me want to fly right there and try them. And and the beautiful thing note is that I'm able to tell you his stories because they were shared as a story rather than the average LinkedIn post or thing that you see where it just says buy our pancakes made with the freshest ingredients you know. And even if you say 5 day fermentation fermentation process. That doesn't mean anything to me, but told in the form of a story. It sticks and best of all, it made me feel because if you really want people to connect with a story that you tell. You need to tap into some kind of emotion because that I mean you think about the memories that you have from your life, your childhood, almost all of them. Actually, I'd say every single one of them is. Connected to some kind of core emotion, whether it's happiness or fear or loss, sadness. We that's the combination that we need. We need stories and we need emotion to be able to remember things for it to be chosen and accepted by our brain to be filled into it. And so this is this is also really clear clear here with this movement.
You know, a movement promoting to advance capitalism by capitalist wouldn't work with anyone else except for Alexander, in my opinion, because. Because it it works because it's clear the kind of a person that he is that he cares and that it's it's not just about making money, not that that is a bad thing, but that, but it's just natural that we want to know that there's something deeper. And then the third main reason why stories are so important is to bring people into your worldview. So I first. Got started in this world. Writing for a company that. Educated people on internationalization options, so very wordy, but basically just helping people get second passports or set up bank accounts abroad or get residency in other countries and. And so this. Wasn't something that the average American was looking into because most Americans think that life is pretty good. You know, things are stable, the economy is doing pretty well. And so it's not something that was on their mind. And this whole business was built up on just sharing. Facts about the US government and the world and the banking system and things like that to make people see that it's not as perfect as it looks from the outside. And so then when people finally could, when people bought into that idea and they shared this idea that, wow. Things could happen like you could have an economic crisis even in the US.
Once you people shared that worldview, then they were open to buying a solution to that problem, right? And we see this very commonly with elections. For example, you have the different candidates. They're not necessarily promoting or the strongest marketing isn't promoting. Oh, Trump has done this, this, this and this. No, he's promoting the problem he's sharing. This is the world that I see. And if you buy into that world that he sees, he must be the right person. Right. And that's why there's a bit of a divide because. There's. Like 2 completely different ways that people are seeing the world. And that's that can be, that's an issue for another topic, but
Kenli Schoolland:
You know, capitalism is under fire. We're being attacked. We need to fight and all that. And maybe you'll see some of that in the future. But that's not the focus. We don't want to be focused on fear. And so the goal is we've built out the Liberty ventures and principal business brands have been to focus on. How entrepreneurs are the heroes entrepreneurs are the ones that are solving people's problems and that capitalism is freedom and freedom brings prosperity. And this is key because if you believe. That then you're open to the idea that supporting capitalist capitalism and entrepreneurs is the way to make the world better. Versus if your worldview is that capitalism is a system of oppression, then you're more open to saying no. Why would I want to help? Helpless, we should be hurt. We should make it as difficult as possible for them. We need to put regulations and we need to put higher taxes and so. That's why it's so key to get people to to create content regularly, to get people into your worldview. Because as a business leader that just naturally makes the solutions that you provide clear to them and and that can work with anything, not just these big lofty subjects, but even going back to Mark's. Pancake business. You could go into the worldview that people aren't eating real food anymore. People are most of the food that we're consuming is coming out of a plastic box or or with ingredients that we can't read. So we need to come back to eating food. That's like what our grandma used to make. And so when you have that worldview. You start to think Ohh do I want to eat a protein bar for lunch or do I want to go sit down at the original pancake house instead for a meal? And so these are the key three types.
So these are the key 3 reasons why stories are important. And so to get started, I'd say the best way to do things is. To tell these three types of stories, so first. You can start taking action now by first telling stories that clearly explain what you do and who it's for. It sounds so obvious, but almost no one does this on. A regular basis. And the key is not to just tell people what you do, but show them what you do. Obviously case studies, but also just telling stories about. What you're doing? How this solves problems for different kinds of people. The next is content. Start telling stories to show your heart and your values. Because when you share not just what you do but why you do. It.
You have so much more opportunity to create brand loyalty, to draw people to your brand because they can get excited not just because you may not get excited about pancakes or or bank accounts, but if you get excited that oh, this person is trying to save the world or they're trying to help people. You can get excited about almost anything. And then the third is to tell stories to bring people into your worldview. This can be this is definitely a longer term vision. It will take time, but it's an incredible investment because if people. Share your worldview and they know that you are a leader in it. They are happy to subscribe to any solutions that you suggest. So in summary, tell your story. In summary, tell your story often and tell it well and the right people and the right opportunities will come to you. Thank you.
Alexander McCobin:
And Kenley, thank you so much for that amazing presentation. And there were so many incredible insights there that even for me, having worked with you for so long, I was taking away there, like, making, like, even just the point that this each of our stories is the opportunity for us to introduce ourselves to everyone who's new, whether it's warm or for all someone who's cold or someone we've known for a. Long time and to use that as the top line to go. I love this line from needy to needed and why I think you should be working to develop your own story to be needed by all of your stakeholders and by those who don't even know you yet to engage you. Unfortunately we are out of time so we're not able to get to any of the questions. But I'll tell you what. If you did have a question and didn't get to ask, kindly send it over to us and we will send it right on to her or Kelly are. You willing to share your e-mail with that?
Kenli Schoolland:
Can I drop? Yeah. Yeah, cool. Yeah. Shoot me an e-mail. Be happy to chat and yeah.
Alexander McCobin:
Fantastic. Kindly thank you so much and thank you to everyone for joining us. Look forward to seeing you on next week's Liberty Ventures webinar.
Kenli Schoolland:
Thanks, bye.
Alexander McCobin:
Take care everyone.