In this episode, I’m sharing the importance of storytelling in connecting with audiences and building trust in business. I share how storytelling has played a part in my business and why vulnerability and authenticity can lead to deeper connections and ultimately drive sales. 

And with that, you’re officially invited to Selling with Stories: a 3-hour workshop teaching you how to use your stories to sell your programs. 

If you’ve ever felt stuck on how to sell your offers without feeling “salesy,” my workshop Selling with Stories is exactly what you need.

It’s happening January 31st at 10am PST for just $27.

Here’s what you’ll get when you join:

• 3-Hour Workshop giving you a full breakdown on how to tell stories, what stories to share, and how to create that connection with your audience
• A workbook to help you craft your stories.
• 100 story ideas every coach, creator, and business owner can use.
• 10 ChatGPT prompts for creating short-form videos and copy.

Click here to register and secure your ticket.

Your stories—yes, the imperfect, last-minute, charcuterie-board ones—are what connect you to your audience. Let me show you how to sell with them.

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Learn more about Show Up Real, my Content Marketing Group Program.

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Learn more at catdelcarmen.com.

Transcript:

Hello and welcome back to the Show Up Real podcast. How are you doing this week? It’s a little cray cray, you know, president. I don’t want to call him president. I’ll just call him DT. Donald Trump was sworn into office, which, you know, compared to last time.
Yeah. Yeah. I just give less fucks. I mean, to be [00:02:00] honest, I’m just like, whatever, I’m going to do my part to put my impact into the world. And that’s what I’m going to do. And that mother could do whatever he wants to do, but I need to stay focused on my people, my community, my lane. I do want to stay informed as triggering as it is, but I really, really, really want to take these opportunities where like old cat would have been like pissed and whatever, which is valid.
Right. But I really want to focus on my community and like, let’s focus on making. Ourselves. So like being our full fucking self that alone has so much more impact than whoever is in the fricking white house for those in the United States. Let’s get into today’s episode. [00:03:00] I’m very excited.
I have an invitation for you today. So today we’re diving into one of the most game-changing strategies that you could use to connect with your audience, to build trust with your audience, and to sign clients faster. To sign clients faster. And that is storytelling. I have been thinking so, so, so much about this the last probably month now, maybe even two months.
It really stemmed from me reviewing a lot of content inside of Show Up Real, my program, and doing that, reading my client’s copy, looking at all that and seeing. Exactly what is missing and what I’ve noticed with my clients is that they are even here’s the thing there’s there’s work to do with the storytelling and what I find is that they’re breezing through their story and getting straight to the main point of what [00:04:00] they’re trying to say and I think There is so much more to do there when it comes to copywriting, when it comes to creating content, even if it’s short form.
Look, I should do an episode on like my 2025 prediction predictions, but to be honest, I just think that content is at a point where people are really sick of the, here’s what you should do. And this is what you need to be doing. If you want to do this and dah, dah, dah, dah, dah, dah, dah. And here’s the thing as a coach.
So much of our work is sharing our wisdom, is giving people advice, right? Like that’s our literal, all of our marketing should, should consist of that in some way, shape or form. But there is a way to do it, to connect with your people. And that’s what I want to talk about today. Okay. That’s what I want to talk about today.
I want to talk about storytelling and I want to talk about the importance of storytelling in your copy, [00:05:00] in your content. And I want to help you really understand why it’s so important. Not just like telling you you should do. But why, like why, how is it really going to help you? How is it really going to help your community, your audience and how is it going to help you grow your business and sign more clients and get more sales calls right at the end of the day?
So I’m not just talking about like fluffy made up stories or stories that are like your transformation best big stories. Those are great and those are needed. But what I really, really want to challenge you to think is like, how do I, how can I How, how are there daily stories that I can tell purely based off of my own growth, purely based off of my work that I’m doing in my business to help my clients?
How can I use these stories to make more of a connection? In the content [00:06:00] I’m creating, storytelling makes content creation simpler and more important. It allows you to show up authentically, which you know, you might know is a huge value of mine and likely a value of yours because you’re here. When you share your story, when you get comfortable sharing your stories, it’s not about the being perfect.
It’s not about the doing things the right way. It really is about you being real and creating this trust with you and your audience. And Another thing I did so much of in the last couple months is look at my content throughout the years and really see like which content did the best, which content connects to people and the content where I’m telling stories, the content where I’m really getting a little bit nitty-gritty when it comes to helping my [00:07:00] people, when it comes to giving you the lesson, it had stories.
So this is why I’m talking about it today. And this is why I am putting together an entire workshop where I’m talking about this, which I’ll tell you a little bit about later. Okay. So first I want to start by telling a story of how my business even came about. I still remember the first time I shared an on my Instagram stories that it took me 10 years to finish college, 10 years, 10 years to finish college.
And I was on academic probation most of the time. When I first told that story on Instagram, I remember feeling so conflicted. I remember thinking like, okay, this is too vulnerable. People are going to like feel bad for me. People are going to think I’m not smart. People are going to think like all these things about me.
[00:08:00] And I was very, I was very, I was just very unsure. Like I was like, I don’t know if this is the right direction. Do I really need to be sharing these stories? La la la. Here’s the thing. Like, and I’ll just give you this example for this story. The reason it was so important for me to share this story was one, I really wanted people to have a full picture of me.
Like it is very hard for me to sell myself when I feel like I’m hiding things and that’s just a me thing. It doesn’t need to be you, but it was so important for me to share this specific thing about me because once I knew that once I put this out there, I would feel like it was safer for me to be in my business.
It was safer for me to just be myself in my content because I already shared all these things about me that are like, not very, I don’t know what’s the word that aren’t very popular or not aren’t very likable, for [00:09:00] example. So I remember when I posted this on my Instagram stories and I pressed post, I felt so conflicted and a part of me was so proud of myself for finally owning like my truth and my story.
But the other part of me was. Really like lightweight embarrassed and I really wondered like what are people gonna think like are people not gonna work with me because of this like What is actually you know, I’m not even sure I was selling anything at this point, but I, I just, I felt conflicted, but here’s what happened.
What happened was I got so many DMs. I got flooded with DMs telling me how they related or how they felt like this in another way of their life and all of these things. And what also happened, like, and I later on, I started telling the story more and more. And what also happened is when I would tell these stories, those are the moments where the people that were I was [00:10:00] getting DM from DMs from, they would later book a sales call with me.
They would later tell me like, you’re on my vision board. You’re like on my vision board. I want to work with you this year. Right. I’ll do it. My comment section were, were, were flooded with people that are like, thank you for sharing this. And this really hit home for me in the moment. My perspective really shifted.
It really shifted. I realized that people aren’t looking for perfection. They are looking for connection. And when you share your story, even the parts of you that are hesitant about it, but when you open the door for people to see themselves inside of your journey, that’s exactly why storytelling is so powerful in your content and selling your story.
That’s why it is so powerful. So here’s the [00:11:00] thing. Here’s the thing. I want to get clear on like why storytelling helps you sign clients faster. Like I want to just be specific about this. Here’s the thing. When people buy from people they trust, like that is how people buy. People buy from people they trust.
And when you share your story, you’re showing your audience who you are. a couple of things. Number one, you’re showing them who you are and why you’re passionate about what you do. Number two, what you’ve been through, you’re sharing that you’re sharing with your audience, what you’ve been through, which humanizes you and makes you, I want to say relatable.
There’s probably a better word, but it humanizes you and also makes you this person that they can confide in. And that was willing. And to be honest, like I think all of this It really shows the leader you are because leaders are the people who are willing to be vulnerable. [00:12:00] And then number three, it shows your audience how you can help them because they see you’ve navigated similar challenges.
Like it’s telling them who you are, why you do what you do. It’s also when you’re telling stories right in your content, you’re also humanizing the business and brand. It’s not just a business. It’s an actual human who knows things who can help me specifically for coaches or service providers or people who use personal development to like, you know, that has to do with their offer.
And then lastly, it. It shows them how you can help them. They see themselves in your story and they see how far you’ve come along. Storytelling simplifies content creation for you because you’re not consistently trying to sell. [00:13:00] Instead, you’re connecting through shared experiences and that connection builds trust.
And when they build trust, that’s what leads to sales. Sales is all about trust. Sales is all about trust. So here’s the thing. I’m creating a special offer just for folks who know that they want to tell more stories, one, but two that know that like their content feels salesy. Like if you are creating content and it just feels like you’re creating salesy content, salesy content, salesy content, salesy content, you, you need to come to my workshop.
You need to come to my workshop. So if you’re ready to learn how to use storytelling to connect with your audience and sign coaching clients faster, I want to invite you to my workshop that I’m calling Selling with Stories. It’s a [00:14:00] three hour workshop where I’ll teach you how to one, use storytelling to create deeper connections with your audience to simplify your content creation process.
So it feels less like a chore and more like a natural conversation. Three, position yourself as an expert while staying authentic. And you, and then four, write stories that not only resonate, but also lead to sales. And what you’ll get is this, a step by step framework, my step by step framework to craft compelling stories for your coaching business, for your creator business, for your programs, your offers, your courses, whatever it is, but you’ll get my storytelling framework, which make it easier for you to create content to real life examples of stories that sell and why they work.
And you’ll actually get a hundred storytelling, what am I calling these storytelling prompts where [00:15:00] it’s basically a hundred ideas of stories that you can share with your audience. three, you’ll get 10 templates for chat GPT for you to repurpose your content and just make storytelling easier, regardless if you’re repurposing from copy to reels and like some type of script or from reels to copy for your email or for captions or anything like that.
And then a clear understanding on how to use storytelling across platforms like Instagram, email, sales pages, et cetera. The Selling with Stories workshop is happening January 31st. It is three hours long, and this is going to be on Zoom. Those of you who join will absolutely get the replay along with the Selling with Stories workbook with the 100 storytelling content ideas, the chat [00:16:00] GPT prompts to help make this process easier.
and very, very authentic. I used to hate ChatGPT for the way it created content, but I’ve used it enough now where I feel like I could really use it in a way where it comes off very authentic. And it’s because I give very, very clear instructions. The investment for this offer is $27. I’m so excited about this because this is the first time I’ve offered a webinar.
One, it’s the first time I’ve offered a paid webinar, but two, I’m really treating this like its own offer. And I really want to pour a lot into this. I want this to be the best $27 you’ve ever freaking spent. Okay. Now here’s why this workshop will change your business by the end of this workshop.
You’ll, you’re going to know exactly how to create content that doesn’t just get likes, but actually drives connection and conversation. [00:17:00] You’ll have tools to connect with your audience in a way that feels genuine and easy all while positioning yourself as a coach that they need to get the result. So you are fully invited.
Click here to register for Selling with Stories.
I want to leave you with this. Your story matters. Your stories matter and your people want to hear them.
The challenges that you’ve overcome, the lessons you’ve learned, those are all the things that make you uniquely qualified to coach your clients. Don’t shy away from them, lean into them. And if you’re ready to take your storytelling game to the next level, or your content game to the [00:18:00] next level. Come to my workshop.
Now, I also want to be clear. This workshop is completely free to my clients inside Show Up Real and my private one on one clients. So you’ll, you’ve already gotten the invite if you haven’t seen it already. So don’t purchase it through everyone else. But for everyone else, if you are serious about about upping your content game and really starting to own your stories, then come join us.
Keep showing up.