Mariah MacInnes
Content Queen
Ever opened a blank caption, typed three words, deleted them and decided you’d deal with it tomorrow?
Then tomorrow arrives, and you’re still staring at those three words. Throw in a cold coffee and seventeen other things that need doing, and suddenly posting drops to the bottom of the list. Again.
Our latest GWIB Lunch & Learn with Mariah MacInnes from Content Queen gave us a fresh way to approach that blank page.
On Thursday 5 November, Mariah joined us for Transform Your Marketing with Storytelling, exploring how the experiences we already have can become stories that help people connect with our businesses.
Which is welcome news if you’ve ever thought, I’ve got absolutely nothing interesting to say.
Your business story doesn’t end with “and then I started a business”
How you got started is a great story to share. But there’s plenty happening after that opening chapter.
There’s the lesson you learned the expensive way. The customer question you could practically answer in your sleep. The small win that had you texting someone, “Guess what!”
Mariah explored four types of stories we can draw on: our own experiences, stories we’ve been told, stories from history and hypothetical scenarios.
That gives us a much bigger pool of ideas than the occasional introduction post.
You might share something that changed how you work, or use an imagined customer scenario to explain a problem you help solve. There’s room to be curious, thoughtful, funny or practical — whatever suits the story and the people you’re talking to.
Give people something they can picture
We know our businesses inside out. Sometimes so well that we forget other people don’t have all that background information.
We say we offer support, save time or make life easier. But what does that actually look like?
Mariah highlighted client success stories and case studies as ways to bring those explanations to life.
Think about a customer who came to you with a problem. What were they struggling with? What did you do together? What changed?
Those details help someone reading your content picture how you could help them, too.
And you don’t need to turn every client success into a grand production. A clear, specific example can give you plenty to work with.
Before you scrap that post, look for the story
Here’s a useful idea from the session to keep beside your keyboard: look at the content you’re already creating and consider where a story could fit.
Writing a helpful tip? Think about the experience that taught you that lesson.
Sharing a finished project? Take people through how it came together.
Explaining a service? Give an example of when someone might need it.
Mariah also explored bringing storytelling into your visuals and your wider marketing plan, with stories playing a role from someone first discovering your business through to becoming a returning customer.
It’s something you can build into the work you’re already doing. That feels manageable, doesn’t it?
“Life is content”
This simple reminder from Mariah’s presentation deserves a little space of its own.
When you’re busy running a business, everyday experiences can feel far too ordinary to share. You were there. You know what happened. Surely everyone else knows this stuff?
They don’t.
Something you’ve explained a hundred times might be exactly what someone needs to hear for the first time. A lesson you nearly brushed past might help another business owner feel a little less alone.
Try keeping a note on your phone for those moments. A question, an observation, a small breakthrough. You can come back to it when the blank caption strikes again.
Future you, cold coffee in hand, will appreciate it.
Put the kettle on and catch up
A big thank you to Mariah for sharing her experiences and ideas, and to everyone who made time in their day to join us.
Missed the session? Watch the recording below. Bring your lunch, grab a notebook or settle in with that coffee while it’s still hot.
And if you’d like to keep the conversation going, Mariah will be joining us as one of four panellists at Beyond the Scroll on Thursday 19 November at the Morwell Innovation Centre.
We’d love to see you there. Head to our upcoming events for details and tickets.