Welcome to the Telling of Story podcast. I’m your host, Storyteller Jewels, and along with my guests, it’s my endeavor to explore the art and science of storytelling to attract, engage, and retain a business audience, and to unpack why it works for some and not for the many that try.
Listen in as John talks about where his determination comes from.
John: About the age of nine, I developed a stutter. I remember lining up at the tuck shop for a feed at age 11 at an all boys Catholic school on Auckland’s North shore. And I plan out what I get to say, and I’d be surrounded by all these prepubescent boys, and I get to the front of the queue and I’d go, Could, could, could, could have a m m m m m meat pie and a d d doughnut.
And I remember my mother saying to me, John, perhaps this whole broadcasting thing isn’t for you. But I was determined, and that’s where it kind of came from. Because everybody said to me, What are you going to do, John? You’re going to follow in your father’s footsteps? I was like, hell yeah, that’s what I’m going to do.
Jewels: In this episode, I have the pleasure of talking with John Maybury. John is a third generation New Zealand radio broadcaster who followed his father and grandfather’s footsteps into radio, where he worked for 10 years as a host, voice artist and newsreader. He worked as an actor, MC and TV presenter through this time as well, honing his communication skills.
He then moved to Australia for 15 years and worked in media, marketing and advertising agencies, helping big brands tell stories, Through brand experiences. Now he combines his marketing and presentation skills to help founders make an impact on stage or video using storytelling. John, welcome to the show.
John: Oh, so good to be here Jewels.
Jewels: John, I’ve been looking forward to this one because this podcast is the telling of story after [00:02:00] all and you are by definition a storyteller as a long time storyteller. Take me back to growing up in a family of storytellers. You say your father and your grandfather were all in radio.
What was it like way back then and growing up in an environment like that?
John: When I was growing up, I remember my mother saying to me, she said, Just you call me John, because my father’s name is John, right? My grandfather’s name was Jack, and it was just like, growing up, I was just like, Eventually, I was John, and Dad was Dad.
When the phone would ring, and it’s like, Okay, who’s it for? John? John? So it was very confusing, right? So many Johns in the household. He eventually became a Dad, and then I was nicknamed a Junior. But the story of the Jack Mabry started back in 1939 in Christchurch. And back in those days, we’re talking the wireless.
And he was an early pioneer of doing quiz shows on the radio, much like, and I can mention a few [00:03:00] Australian names like Jack Davey and Bob Dyer. And, uh, Jack was, did his shows that were sponsored by, is it the Lever Brothers? So, we’re talking 19, probably 39, to about 19, late 40s. So, through those war years, well obviously the war years, and then those quiz show years.
And it was, they would tour around, just like Jack Davy and Bob Dyer would, going to JCs and doing those. They would procure an audience and they’d do the live taping for the radio show. And some of his shows, well, Lux Money, go around, leave a hit parade. And so it was quite enthralling for me growing up having my father, my grandfather died in 1960, just before the advent of TV.
And he actually went to Australia in 1951 because he was offered 10, 000 a year. 10, 000 a year was the Alan Jones kind of figure back in the day. So it was, you know, we had this [00:04:00] heritage. And then my father continued his father’s footsteps. I got into radio in 1951 and it was just in the blood, right? So the Mayberry history and radio is kind of storied.
That’s where it comes from is just, we had that gift of the gab. We like to tell some stories. We like to entertain. We like to have people have a good time. And for me at those very early years, and I think back other than those monotonous things like dad and John, who is it, but it was quite a privilege, right?
It’s like I would say, are you in a relation to John Mayberry? It became quite embarrassing. It became quite embarrassing, but you got used to it. I wish that would happen now, but it’s clearly it doesn’t. But it was a privilege to be able to hear the stories my father told or, and I remember doing for my early days of radio, I did a documentary on my grandfather and I went into the studio.
Interviewed a whole bunch of his friends that were still alive and obviously [00:05:00] told that story. And it was, I think that’s wonderful about story and history, right? It’s just, they just go together. And I really enjoyed that history element of finding out about my grandfather and finding some old reel to reel tapes, playing them back and that lovely.
English sounded when you buy Colgate Pomolive, tell them Jack sent you. And it was just, you could see them on stage. You could just picture that experience in front of an audience holding for the moment. So yeah, it was great being a John jr. And I was probably in awe of my predecessors, but did it put me in good stead for what I do now?
Yeah.
Jewels: Did you have a choice to think about doing anything else other than radio in the early days? Was that always?
John: I don’t know, but I frame a little bit of my story. So, I’d say when I was growing up, I was surrounded by these really interesting people with good stories to tell. And they were like actors and radio announcers and quiz show hosts and magicians and show people who just [00:06:00] love life and wanted to have fun.
I remember as a six year old, that just sounded really cool. I wanted to love life and have fun too. And then about the age of nine, I developed a stutter and I say, I developed a stutter. We can get into how I developed a stutter after the story, but I remember lining up at the tuck shop for a feed at age 11 at an all boys Catholic school on Auckland’s North Shore.
And I plan out what I get to say, and I’d be surrounded by all these prepubescent boys and I get to the front of the queue and I’d go, could, could, could, could, could, could donut. Yet the food choices haven’t really changed much. And I remember my mother saying to me, John, perhaps this whole broadcasting thing isn’t for you.
But I was determined. And that’s where it came from. Because everybody said to me, what are you going to do, John? You’re going to follow in your father’s footsteps. I was like, hell yeah, that’s what I’m going to do. That’s what I’m going to do. And I was determined. So that’s when I met a lady called Carol, and she put me on a stage in front of an audience to give me confidence in front of people.
And then I met [00:07:00] Meredith. Oh, golly, geez, she spoke beautifully, you know, speech teachers, monothongs, diphthongs, neutral vowels, things you’ll never ever remember again, but she taught me to use this instrument, right? This instrument here. And then I did a whole bunch of work in movement and, and that kind of space.
And then age 21, I didn’t have my stutter and went to work in broadcasting for 10 years. And for me, it’s like, there’s a, I can just see myself. At that tuck shop and I can see myself in that moment going, I wanted to follow those footsteps. Was there any pressure? I didn’t, but it’s just something that it was natural for me to do.
So, yeah, for me that kind of really frames my why is if I can get past a stutter, then you can tell a story or you can get in front of, uh, speak on a stage or speak on video. It took a long time for me. It’s just that empathy piece. I really understand what it’s like to be in that moment of [00:08:00] you’ve lost the power to speak.
And I think. I probably put too much pressure on myself and I’ll get emotional because I can, I just want to beat that silly nine year old and because it just held me back, I had to go through this, but I think it was important to go through that training. I think if most broadcasters had to do some work on your diction.
And your vocal intensity, so that would have had to been done anyway, but yet the pressure I put on myself to be as good as must have been how my father felt. I met my father telling me the story of, and it’s like, it’s mind you, but comparable to what you read on social media and the trolls and what people say about other people, it’s pales and insignificance.
But. Some guy came up to dad and said, you’ll never be as good as your father back in the fifties.
Jewels: One line that can have devastating effects, right?
John: Yeah. So did I put some pressure on myself to perform?
Jewels: Yeah.
John: But then you soon work out that I’m not my [00:09:00] father.
Jewels: Yes.
John: I am my own being own thoughts. Yes. I can take that pedigree.
I can take that training and bring it into the now. But yeah, it’s, I can see the pressure that people can be under to perform or follow and be as good as. The people that they respect and love
Jewels: taking that train of thought a little bit, you talk a little bit, you spoke about using your instrument better, your voice and you have a lovely voice for radio, which is obviously a good face for a good face for radio as well, which clearly you’ve had some training in the past.
How important is it? A lot of people today, if we are faced with the prospect of getting on a podcast, for example, or in front of a video camera, a lot of people’s first reaction, particularly when they see or hear themselves in the early days, when you’ve not practiced at [00:10:00] it is, I hate my voice. I don’t like the way I sound.
It sounds weird. It’s not how I picture it in my head. All that, all those excuses, how important. Is a good voice slash diction when we’re talking about video and audio, or is it more about the words and the storytelling? Tell me what are your thoughts around that?
John: Look, I believe that the story can carry the production, right?
If you practice the storytelling, it will carry how it’s delivered, how it’s delivered makes it more impactful. So to answer your question, it’s like, I have like a video offer at the moment where I help people get in front of a camera, and I say to people, almost like, we’ve done the whole recording piece, and it’s time to show them their videos, and of course, I know that, I have a little disclaimer, and I say, If it was you, Jules, we’ve recorded you.
I think you are authentic. But if you’ve never heard yourself, you are going to hate [00:11:00] everything that you hear and see about yourself. But this is good, because it’s a start point. Because once you hear yourself, Just, even if I would say to people, if you’re reviewing for the first time, turn off the vision and just listen to yourself, right?
Listen to you tell the story, right? And then turn off the audio and just watch yourself without the speaking piece. Can we improve upon your voice and your visual appearance? Yes, we can. But I think it’s, you’ve got a, you know, I remember coaching a guy to do a podcast and I said, Oh, he’s recorded it. And I said, have you listened back to it?
He says, Oh, not yet. What? Yes, I’ve listened back to it. And I said, how’d you sound? He said, I thought my voice was deeper. It’s just gold, but it’s, it gives you a standpoint. I didn’t have this voice 10 years ago, even 20 years ago, because I’ve worked on my voice as you have, right? Once you listen to yourself with these lovely headphones, then you’re able to, cool, [00:12:00] I’ve got a yardstick.
Are there tools and tricks that you can improve your voice? Yes, you can. So, yeah, it’s, I’d say to people, certainly from a video standpoint, or no, like I give a note to more experienced people on camera, it’s like, I’ll use the example of the typical Australian, right? They tend to get a mate, how you going?
It’s always an upward inflection at the end of it, every sentence, right? Which if you’re a business owner, or you’re trying to get a message across that is. Important and on brand, then it’s not particularly authoritative, right? So how can we, if you think of any great newsreader, New Zealand or Australia, they have a neutral inflection or a downward inflection, right?
I can’t give that note to people who are just beginning because they just don’t understand it. They can’t hear that change. So, there was lots of questions in there, is, can, are the words important? Well, the words are important, but remember that, what, is it [00:13:00] 75 percent of communication is non verbal? So, is it about the words?
No. But if we’re using story, if you have a good structure to your story, if it naturally flows in the order a story should flow, then I say the production or the story is important. How you speak it is just going to improve it.
Jewels: So you’ve moved on from radio quite a while back and moved into advertising.
Got gray hair now, got gray hair now. A little bit more gray and you moved into agency world for a little bit and have since moved to solo, if I’m correct, in a coaching sort of context. Tell me a little bit about those two areas and particularly around the coaching part, because. Now the listeners typically, I think we have a broad range of listeners and I do believe there is a lot of business owners out there.
And one other thing, one area that I’d really like to get into. Is what and why is it [00:14:00] important for a business owner to get out there and actually start using some of these tools as part of the arsenal in a business context, we are inundated with content these days from every angle, a lot of it is.
Entertainment value, if you can call it that in some instances, but a lot of it is distracting. A lot of it is falls on deaf ears. Why would a business owner, and I’ve sort of scooted forward a little bit in the questioning here. So apologies for that, but why does a business owner, why should a business owner care?
about being on camera or being visible in a market when it’s, which is already full of a lot of noise.
John: So look, I think at the end of the day, business owners need more visibility, right? They need to be showing up and showing up, sharing their voice right now. Their voice can just be a written story. It [00:15:00] can be a written, but, and the reason why they need to show up is that AI Cannot tell your personal story.
Cannot tell your client’s story. There we go. There was a big pause there for a very good reason. Yeah, got your attention there. AI can’t replicate your personal stories and all these, there’s a lot of content and people can put things into AI, but they can’t replicate the story. So therefore we need to be better at collecting our stories.
I teach maybe six or seven short form stories designed to have different impact for clients. I generally work with founders, I don’t work with employees, I tend to work with founders to help them find their voice, to connect with their client, to sell more of their stuff, but in order to do that, we need to be better at capturing the stories that happen with our existing clients, so then we can create those story [00:16:00]banks and then be able to get better at telling those stories, right?
It’s the first thing is we’ve got to collect the stories, right? And once we do that, then we can, we’ve got a whole bunch of experiences and then we can package a structure around that and tell those stories. And I generally teach people to do three different types of stories, right? The personal story, I love the personal story because it’s just so connecting.
It’s just, it’s all here. It’s all heart. The client success story, customer story, but it’s not a, it’s not a your story. It’s a client story. And then an educational story, which is talking about problems that you solve an example through a story of how you, how have you overcome that to demonstrate that you know what you’re talking about.
So there’s three different types of stories, and we’re on LinkedIn a lot, right, and a lot of people on social media, they say, well, this is the business channel, we can’t talk about personal things, right, but people by people. So that’s where it’s important. It’s so important to share these personal [00:17:00] stories or insights about ourselves so people can look at and go, oh yeah, he’s one of my people, or she’s good.
I’m with her. I can see her. All right. It’s all values, right? It’s all values. So to coming back, that’s why we need to tell more stories. And all I do is help people capture those stories. It could be. I don’t know, you’re reading a bedtime story to your young son in bed, right? And that’s the story, right?
Just capture the moment. Can we make that story, make it into a business insight? Yeah, of course we can. But it’s those personal stories packaged as a business insight are really important. So, but yeah, we need to be better at capturing those stories. Capturing those experiences, those client results, so then we can tell those stories and keep telling them because they never get old.
Everyone’s all hardwired for story. So that’s what I teach short form storytelling. I’m in awe of those to those people on LinkedIn, like those ghost [00:18:00] writers or copywriters, and they just have this. An amazing way with words. Well, most people don’t have an amazing way with words, and they don’t know that the simple structure of telling a client’s story using an ABS or an Anbutso, you know, I love working with left brain thinkers.
Yeah, I’m right brain. So left brain thinkers. That’s the accountants and the financial people and Those analyst people, because they’ve got so many great stories to tell, but they just don’t know how to tell them.
Jewels: Tell me a little bit about that process that you mentioned there, where you’re connecting personal story to a business insight.
Why is that important, and how do you do that?
John: I think we’ve only got 40 minutes here, Jules, so A brief version Look, I think it’s I’ll throw it back to you. You opened the show by talking to me about your daughter, right? Are you okay to share that story?
Jewels: Yeah,
John: absolutely. So what’s your daughter? Tell me, just set the scene about your daughter.
Jewels: Daughter has just finished her HSC, which is a high school certificate here in [00:19:00]Australia. And she is, it’s only a week or so ago that it was completed. And she’s in that sort of no man’s land where she’s no longer has to get up at seven o’clock in the morning to be get ready for school. So she. Just literally asked me a couple of hours ago, what day is it?
And what’s the problem? What’s the conflict in
John: the story
Jewels: that you’re telling? I was, the, the conflict, well, to me, it was a, could be the conflict. Yeah, there was an amusing anecdote in more than anything is like when you don’t have any structure around you, things just tend to blend into the one thing. So her, her moment of not remembering what day it was just reminded me that, wow, you’ve really don’t have any structure around you right now.
So.
John: And how can you relate that structure to a business sense of having a client meeting or doing a piece of work?
Jewels: Right. So being unstructured in your day and in your approach to any, if it’s a [00:20:00] formal engagement and you’re looking to progress them in a sale, for example, going in sort of off the cuff is probably not the best idea.
You probably should have a little bit more structure, a little bit more planning going into it. So. There’s my connection.
John: Beautiful. There you go, right? You’re using a personal experience and relating that insight, that key takeaway and relating that back to a business sense.
Jewels: Perfect.
John: That’s the short version.
Yep. The challenge for people is saying too much. It’s, right, just saying too much. Yeah. Words are not the answer. The structure and the simplicity of story is the answer.
Jewels: I’m a big proponent on short stories. I don’t know if you follow me at all, but I’m a bit of a prolific writer as well. I do like writing my little short blogs and thoughts.
And mainly it’s really um, a bunch of ideas or thoughts or something that’s going on in, in my world at that moment in time. And so I like capturing that in as few [00:21:00] words as possible. If you read my blogs, they’re like a hundred words or less, right? They’re very short, one point to make and hopefully ties back to something that’s relatable and that you could potentially use in your own life.
So that’s the idea. I mean, I do it selfishly because it’s a way of it’s, uh, fondant. Like meditation almost it’s a way to get an idea or a thought down and then I can do whatever I like with it at that point I can dismiss it, move on from it or I can come back to it later and sort of explore a little bit on that.
John: Yeah you mentioned a key point that shorter is better and I think this is a lot of people will come back to business owners and content as they feel as though they need to put more words in to add more context or to sell. Right? To say everything in one go. When in fact, I say to you a little statement of, I went to Mount Everest.
Right? The natural thing is, where did you go in Mount Everest? Right? There’s a natural inquisitive response that [00:22:00] most people, if they’re interested, They will say, tell me more. And that’s about giving people, that’s the story piece, right? We don’t need to give all the information in one go. There needs to be some intrigue.
We think of every movie, every book that we’ve read, that’s got a great story. And I can probably say to my mother, but what happened? But what happened next? But what happened next? And that’s the secret of applying that principle that I learned way back when I was 21 years of age, of that little principle of less is more.
Jewels: It’s a beautiful segue into a question I’d like to ask you around attention. I find that, I mean people talk about it a lot, that the attention spans are getting shorter. I don’t necessarily agree with that 100%. I think the distractions are getting bigger and more frequent. And therefore getting my attention and keeping my attention is harder because there’s so many other things, so many other things in the way.
And so tell me a [00:23:00] bit about storytelling and attention. And if you believe that is an important thing, and how do you do that? Like what, how do you get somebody’s attention and then not just get it because there’s a lot of stuff that will. Get in the way and clickbait you if you like, get your attention really quickly, but pales into insignificant because it’s worthless.
How do you get somebody’s attention? I’m talking more in a business context here. So if I’m trying to engage with somebody, if I’m trying to attract somebody, hopefully trying to sell to somebody, how do I get somebody and keep somebody’s attention with stories? What’s your view?
John: Well, you will know that when you’re writing your blog, if you were to post your blog or to put it out there to the public, there’s going to be some sort of structure, so this is not rocket science, but you need to start with the hook.
Now, obviously from a, this isn’t just storytelling, but this is writing posts on social media, it’s like you need to hook them in with a, I’m not saying clickbait, just a little bit of a short couple of [00:24:00]words that’s going to go, Oh my God, you’re beautiful. Just something that is authentically you. That’s the other piece of the story.
So it’s have a hook and be authentic, right? Now that’s a challenge for a lot of business owners. It’s like, and again, I’m on LinkedIn. I can talk about business. I got to talk about the function of what I do. But people don’t connect with what you do. Yeah, it’s important. Yeah. But it’s not the main thing.
So, I remember when I first started on LinkedIn, I’ve got maybe 20 stories that I’m going to share. 20 stories. And some of the stories, a little bit, I wish I probably didn’t share some of those stories. But in some respects, I was true to my heart. So how do we get attention? We share something of ourselves.
Now it doesn’t have to be, one of my stories is that I spent six days in a county jail in America for my 50th birthday. That’s probably not the story you want to tell on [00:25:00] LinkedIn, but I always take a positive out of it. But you know, that’s a story for another day. But it’s personal insights, like what you’ve said about your daughter reading some bedtime stories, that sort of stuff.
It’s of a personal nature and then relating that to business. How do you get attention? Is you just be honest. You tell authentic stories.
Jewels: The other thing I hear quite a lot is, oh Jules, I don’t have any stories to tell or I don’t have any good stories to tell is another objection.
John: What’s a good story?
Jewels: Yeah, I thought the same. A good
John: story is anything told from the heart.
Jewels: Right, I thought the same thing when I started writing the blog, it’s like, how many stories do I really have in me? Is there more than half a dozen, right? And I think I just published 561, I think it is. So I’ve been going for a little while and so the stories just seem to keep coming out of me.
Coming out of you, right? Yeah. What’s your response to somebody goes I don’t have any interesting stories to tell
John: well that’s because I don’t think they’re very good at capturing them right so there’s experiences that we have with our clients without team [00:26:00] members without fellow directors or colleagues or suppliers that can relate to people want to see the behind the scenes.
They don’t want to just get the sell all the time. They want to see what’s behind. How does it work? Who is this person behind the business? I think people want to see that. Not everybody needs to see that, but that comes down to documenting the journey of being in business. And I’m going to say that again.
Documenting the journey, and I got that from Gary Vaynerchuk, right? Gary Vaynerchuk, out of America, even 10 years ago, 8 years ago, he said, if you don’t know what to create, just document your journey, right? Every single day, something happens. So write it down. And just share it. So it’s, it’s your journey. If you don’t have any good stories to tell or you don’t have any good experiences to tell, then go and meet more people.
Just go and talk to more people. And I get it if you’re left brain thinking, I’m an introvert, I don’t really want to go and talk to people. Got that. But if you’ve got a [00:27:00] business and you’re an introvert, then you’re going to need to learn and just work that muscle, right? That muscle’s got to be worked somehow.
You can keep running ads and do that kind of thing, but people want to know who is this person behind the business and that’s where your personal stories, personal insights and capturing the documenting your journey.
Jewels: Okay. So you’ve captured my attention and anybody who’s out there going, all right, I’ve heard enough.
I need to start doing this. I’m not doing it at all, or I’m not doing it very well. Where do you start? Where does one start? So let’s pretend I’m a business owner, business founder, perhaps been in business for a little while. I don’t have a massive team. Like I don’t have a huge marketing budget or a massive team to support me.
Where would you suggest somebody starts? And where do they go from there?
John: Well, as I said, it’s capturing those story banks or capturing those experience. So that’s the first thing is just write down, create a little blog. One thing that happened [00:28:00] that day that was interesting to you, to you, whether it’s interesting to clients, we’ll get to that in the next level.
That’s the first thing, capturing those moments. And then work with the story coach, Jules or John will do,
Jewels: there’s two at least
John: we know, work with the story coach to be able to show you how to package that information. You want to have 20, 20 different experiences along the way. Then work with a coach to help you package that information.
It’s I would say a hook is Here’s a story. That’s enough of a hook, right? There’s your hook. Now get into the setting, talk about the problem or the conflict, talk about the outcome or the resolution, and then have a call to action. If, you know, doesn’t have to be there. But that’s it, right? I’ve been, in my video package, I help, I coach people to tell stories as part of that video presentation.
And the biggest thing that amazes me is so many people just don’t know even what [00:29:00] problems they solve for their clients. It amazes, it’s incredible. So, really work out what are the problems that you solve for your customers. And they need to be as a problem. There was a pause there again, for good reason as a problem.
So if you’re an accountant, you hear that, Oh, cashflow is a problem. It’s like, no, that’s not a problem. I don’t have enough money to pay my staff. Is a problem. Cashflow potentially is the solution, right? It’s part of that. So identify what are those six problems that you solve and then tell stories around those problems that you’ve solved for clients.
So let’s capture the story banks and then work with a coach to be able to give you the structure in which to put your words into. And you need to put a set some parameters. It’s not 400 words. It’s a LinkedIn post 200 words and it’s a day in the life of me or it’s my best client experience and then obviously work with a coach to give you the structure [00:30:00] and then just put it out there, just put it out there and this is the hard bit, right?
It’s the hardest bit. I was talking to one of my clients and they went through the entire process. They recorded all their videos. And then the moment of truth is when you need to upload it into LinkedIn and then press that little blue button. Oh, we’re going to press the blue button. They’ve got to give up all of those fears.
I was talking, I, this is an Australian podcast. I should be okay. I should be safe. It was one of my clients. Oh, it’s kind of global, but one of the global, global, we’re a global audience.
Jewels: We have a goal.
John: It was a particular client of mine. Who did some videos and he was amazing and but his wife did the posting and I you know They posted one of their stories one of their videos and then there was this big gap and I said to her So why haven’t you posted any more videos?
You said oh, oh, it’s just so I’m putting myself I just I just you know, just big fear and I be But it’s not even you in the video, it’s your husband. So you can hear that that’s what a husband and wife [00:31:00]team would be dealing with, right? They’ve got to give up that concern or fear or that thing that they’ve been saying, Oh, we can’t put ourselves out there to want to be a tall poppy, all that kind of stuff.
Just do it, right? So I get it. It’s really hard to do that, right? Document, learn some structure, write it down, and then put it out there, right? And it is harder for being a woman. I’ve never been trolled on LinkedIn, but I’ve had a few interesting conversations, which is so fine. But it is hard for certain people to put yourself out there.
But I want to come back to that thing is, why we’re doing it is AI, why people go, oh, I’ll just choose an AI option. But that’s not authentically you right? Stories are authentically you. If they’re your own stories and own experiences, then people will relate to that and AI can’t copy it. Well they can but You know, it’s not going to be you.
Jewels: Take me back a little bit through your years [00:32:00] and just share some experiences. Perhaps. I mean, you talked about spending some time in a county jail, which might not be enough time for that story, but take me back through some of those backstories. I guess that. Allowed you or gives you permission to use those stories in your day to day work like how far back can we go?
Where do we find inspiration for these stories? It doesn’t have to be day to day. Does it have to be client related?
John: No Look as I said when I first started my business what I did is I helped people tell personal stories on video It was more of a done for you video service. It was less about the production more around the storytelling Yeah, and it’s just like just as you said take me back to your grandfather your father One of my favorite questions is, what was the greatest lesson your father taught you?
Now, for a lot of, for a lot of people, they’ll just burst into tears, and cool, that’s the story we want to see, right? And if you’ve communicated that emotion before, then wipe away the tears, and just write. Just start writing. [00:33:00] So, some of those things, I’ve shared stories, like my stutter, I’ve told my story about, The fears of growing up as a John Jr.
wear your things, and what did that teach you, right? Ultimately, it’s like people want to see that you’ve come through. People don’t want to hear you sharing from the wound, you want to share from the scar. So it’s, I’ve come out the other side. I’m not a victim. I’m not, Oh my God, I’m still dealing with this issue.
So people would just go, well, this is not really, I don’t really see that as being a good business relationship. So, but it’s just, what did it teach you? So those past experiences, I had told one of my stories, which I was absolutely petrified about telling. And this was probably, I don’t know, about four years ago.
And it was an anniversary, a certain medic, medic, medical issue. And I was like, how do I make this about business, right? How do I see the lesson inside of this? And it was just like, it was, it just worked, right? So I, it was [00:34:00] my 20 year anniversary of being diagnosed HIV positive. So it’s, how do I make that a post on LinkedIn?
And I just told the story. I just told it like it was. And everybody who knew me, anyone who didn’t let me just went, Oh my God, you’re so courageous. Right? Talk about those challenges you have, like mental health. It’s a really good one, because a lot of people are dealing with it. If you’re a woman, talk about the, the challenges of putting yourself out there or being a woman in the 2020s.
Those stories where you build your tribe will get you, you’ll obviously connect with those people. Right? So, yeah, it’s all, for me, it just all sits in the personal story space, because that drives engagement. I mean, if you think about social media, right, there’ll be some people who won’t like it. That’s also, you need to be taking that into account.
But it’s like, you can’t reach out to people on LinkedIn if they don’t press that little like button, or they don’t comment, it’s just, you’ve got no measure, and [00:35:00] personal content does that, yes, we’re not talking about post personal content all the time, but it’s, we need some few educational things, we need a few proof stories, a few little insights, a little bit of, You know, it’s World Mental Health Day.
I’m going to post about this. I’m really a supporter of this person. He just, they’re all a range of buckets or pillars of things that we can talk about. And you can inject stories into each of those buckets if you like. So it is, I think the, probably the mistake I’ve made is I’ve just built my personal brand around who I am as an individual.
Like, I feel as though this need to tell, These stories and then forgetting about, hang on here. What am I doing? I’m on LinkedIn. That’s right. I’m running a business. I’m trying to sell a coaching program or I’ve got this video program, right? So it’s a two way street that yeah, I understand it. A lot of people put all the information.
I just want to educate us when I demonstrate that I’m an expertise, but then [00:36:00] get no engagement. You need to have that balance. You’ve got to have little giveaway, something of you and it’s social. It’s not media, it’s social media, even LinkedIn, social media. So share the social things about you to build a residence around who you are as a human being, to talk about your values and to show why you’re a person that other people should trust.
Jewels: To me, one of the keywords you used there was connection. And when you have, when you form connection is when you’re more likely to get that engagement, right? And I think we’ve come a long way where customers and clients don’t Just care about what you do. They also care deeply about who they’re dealing with.
John: Yeah, look, I, there was a guy who was new to my BNI. You’ve got BNI and lovely Australia. And he was a painter and he came in and he just talked about painting. I talked about painting and I just pulled him aside after two meetings. I said, stop the painting. We’ll get that. We know that. We can see that.
You’re [00:37:00] wearing a Dulux T shirt and you’ve got paint on your hands. It’s okay! We’re not stupid! Bring your personality. Show us some He was just really creative. So just be creative. Go left field and people will just warm to you. So you can see that there’s an element of Obviously the storytelling is one piece, but personalities need to put the story and the personality together.
And one, um, you’ve got, you’ve got connection and that’s ultimately what business owners want is they’ve got to have the connection or that conversation first. So you’re going to have the connection where the trust is there. They have a conversation, then it’s trust and then it’s business or move forward to the next one.
Jewels: Yep. So, okay. You’ve got my attention. We’ve started to think about actually getting online. We’ve started to pull these stories together. What’s your view on format and or medium that you would use particularly around business and also tell [00:38:00] me a bit about the importance or lack of importance if it goes there around consistency and volume of content.
John: We’re moving away from storytelling but this is, it’s okay, the, I’ve just learned how it works for me, right, choose a channel, just choose one channel, and then replicate it, just copy it in all the other channels, right, just choose one channel, go all in on that channel. It is the quality versus quantity number.
If you’re struggling with what to say, then don’t say anything at all. Apply that less of more, less is more, right? Depends on where you are in your business. If you’re a solo and you’re just starting out, or you’re, you know, you’re kind of two years in, three posts a week is fine, right? Three posts a week is fine.
You can go do more. I do maybe one a day. Sometimes I do two a day, but that just takes time, right? You gotta plan it, not just take a snap and go, This is interesting. You need to think about, what does your customer want? Oh, another big pause. What does your customer need? What do they need from [00:39:00] you? So that’s when it comes back to knowing, who are you talking to?
If you’re just talking to anybody, So, you said about format, I think there’s a, a framework for writing posts on LinkedIn these days, I’ve been told off by this by people who have said, John, this is the wrong way, we were taught to write paragraphs, so you should write in paragraphs, well, unfortunately, our customers LinkedIn.
Yeah. Don’t like big paragraphs on a very small mobile phone. You’ve got to give them short, sharp, little short sentences, put some emojis in there and go, Oh my God, and space that out. It’s easier to read. So that’s the format of how do you write a post, but it’s not a big deal. Hard and fast, but big rule.
Just be yourself, right? It’s about putting it out there. First and foremost, telling the stories, then you can learn how to improve the presentation of that. And then I think it’s whether it’s Facebook, Instagram, et cetera, it’s photos, right? It’s photos [00:40:00] of you, right? I really don’t want to talk to people who just put out content.
If they can’t post a photo of you, they’re never going to do a video. It’s just not going to happen. So, I know it’s just really easy to talk about, we’re at a pub so I’ll show a picture of a pub. No. Why are we posting on social media? We’re posting on social media so people can read our content or read our stories and build resonance around who we are.
So, pictures of you. They can be happy snaps, you with the kids, it’s just like you mowing the lawns, you on the street, you out shopping, anything. It doesn’t have to be the professional photography ones, but those work as well. So, it’s I get my photographer to go and take 50 photos. Just send me all the photos.
And some of the good, some of the great, some of the not so good, but I post them right because I’m building my brand. I am the brand and okay. It’s different if you’re a business, right? You’re a corporate. But, you know, talk to your comms people and find out how [00:41:00] can I build my personal brand within this business, but still retaining my opinions, et cetera.
So, but it’s photos of you, people go, okay, well that’s, Jules wrote that story. I’m looking at Jules, I’m cool, right? And the more people see you, the more trust is built with that brand, right? With that personal brand. So does that cover up everything? You got format and layout and structure and timing quality.
The list is in it and the consistency, right? So I’m just so glad I was consistent. Right. Initially when I started, I did three videos a week. Golly, that was a lot. That was a lot of filming. That was a lot of mistakes. Right. But again, it taught me structure. Right. So how do we do a video? It doesn’t need to be a 60 second long video.
30 seconds is just fine. Right. Even just saying. Jules, thank you so much for being on your podcast. It just made me connect, right? There’s a five second video. It’s fine for reels. It’s fine for a [00:42:00]LinkedIn post. And then you get to talk about your experience of being on the podcast and what it taught you.
There’s a post right there, but short content. Look, there’s so many learnings from the last five, six years. And I like to give a little bit of that back to some of my students. But at the end of the day, it’s. They’ll just learn it eventually. You can’t, you can’t give all that information, right? They come to me for structure or storytelling, writing scripts or writing stories for video.
And how do we include stories when we speak? I just, I can’t help with everything. So I just help with that piece. And then if they, There’s going to be learnings, and you can step them through that next phase, right? John, I feel like
Jewels: there’s hundreds of hours of content that’s possible.
John: There are some good stories, but one thing that taught me about going to jail in America for my 50th birthday was All they said to me is, Oh, my God, your accent is just so funny.
Can you keep on talking, please? [00:43:00] Is that why you stayed for five or six days? Well, no, I was wearing orange. I did get bailed out. But yet I tell that story to New Zealanders, Australians, and they go, Oh, my God. Oh, wow. Because we’ve never been in the back of a police car or been in a drunk tank. Whereas all these, all the Americans, like a rite of passage, everybody’s been, well, not everybody, but.
Yeah, it’s just interesting how, if I tell that to Americans, they’re like, yeah, whatever, and then New Zealand and Australians, they’re like, what a good story, because they’ve never experienced that before.
Jewels: Well, I’ll have to have you back to tell me that entirety of the story. But in the meantime, thank you so much for being part of the show.
Tell me just quickly a little bit about your practice. You said you’ve got a package on offer at the moment. How do people find you? And why would they come looking?
John: Oh, they’d find me on LinkedIn and they’d come looking because they want to tell short stories to make more money [00:44:00] for in their business, right?
That’s it, right? I work with founders to help them make more money by telling more stories. And then those mediums tend to be where you can post those stories. You can put them on video and you can speak them on a stage. Yeah. And yeah, you find me on LinkedIn or my name johnmaybury. com
Jewels: Fabulous, John.
Thank you so much. I really do appreciate your time. Thank you very much. Cheers, Jules. Cheers, John. What a lovely rich history of storytelling in John’s family. John shared a lot of storytelling gold with a standout comment from me. AI can’t replicate your story. Much love. Chat soon.