Mastering Storytelling for Small Business: Boosting Your Social Media Presence

Storytelling is one of the most powerful tools for small businesses to stand out on social media. I recently had a live stream with my friend Jeff Sieh, diving into how the art of storytelling can elevate your brand and deepen your connection with your audience. Here are some key takeaways and ideas to help craft impactful stories and boost your social media presence. Here are some key takeaways and ideas we explored that will help you craft your brand stories and connect on a deeper level with your audience.

Takeaways

• Storytelling is essential for small businesses to connect with their audience.
• Visuals enhance storytelling and create emotional connections.
• Every good story has relatable characters and surprising elements.
• Pixar's storytelling techniques can be applied to small business marketing.
• Crafting a brand story involves understanding your unique journey.
• Real-life examples of storytelling can inspire small business owners.
• Behind-the-scenes content is valuable for engaging audiences.
• Using trending music can enhance the impact of your stories.
• Consistency in storytelling helps build a loyal audience.
• Small business owners should capture ideas and stories as they happen.

Why Storytelling Matters for Small Businesses

Jeff explained that storytelling isn't just about sharing information—it's about making your audience feel something. He said, “People remember how you make them feel, not just what you say.” This is especially true for small businesses, where creating that emotional bond can be your secret weapon. We both agree that when people connect emotionally with your brand, they're far more likely to remember you, support you, and share your story with others. Jeff shared how, as a preacher's kid, he learned early on how the right story can draw people in and make them pay attention.

Make It Relatable and Specific

One thing that stood out was Jeff's point about Pixar's storytelling. He explained that Pixar stories are relatable but also deeply specific. Think about that famous scene in Up where Carl and Ellie share their life together in a series of touching moments—it's emotional and specific, but the feeling is something everyone can understand. Your story doesn’t have to be a grand adventure for your small business. It could be why you started making jewelry, your passion for the perfect cup of coffee, or the journey that led you to open your bakery. Simple, real stories resonate the most.

Incorporate Visuals and Behind-the-Scenes Content

Visual storytelling was another big theme. Jeff and I are both huge fans of behind-the-scenes content. Showing your workspace, how you make your products, or even the challenges you face—like a bee invasion at a snow cone shop—is an incredible way to let people in. Jeff told a great story about a local snow cone shop that would post pictures of the last ice cream cone of the day with a sad kid's face, letting everyone know they sold out. He mentioned, “It’s all about making people feel like they’re part of the experience—even if it’s just a simple post about the last snow cone.” It was charming, funny, and so shareable—and it made people want to be there before they ran out next time.

Tools to Enhance Your Storytelling

We also talked about the tools we use to make storytelling a bit easier. Canva is a favorite for creating beautiful visuals, while CapCut is fantastic for simple video edits. I love using Canva to design custom stickers, like the ones I included with my book shipments—little touches that tell a story and make my audience feel valued. Jeff mentioned Ecamm for live video, and it’s such a great way to get comfortable sharing stories in real-time.

Finding the Right Story for Your Brand

One of my favorite moments was when Jeff shared how small businesses can use storytelling to humanize their brand. I emphasized, “Your story doesn’t have to be perfect—it just has to be real and uniquely yours.” He encouraged everyone to ask, why did you start your business? What gets you out of bed every morning? For some, it might be continuing a family tradition—and that's powerful. Your story doesn’t need to be flashy; it just needs to be yours. I loved Jeff's tip of using simple storytelling frameworks like “Once upon a time” or “One day, everything changed…” to help kickstart your ideas.

The Power of Practice

Lastly, storytelling takes practice. You won’t get it perfect right away, and that’s okay. Jeff reminded us that even Pixar scraps stories and starts over sometimes. Start with your “why” and build from there—practice sharing small moments, capture behind-the-scenes clips, and share what makes you unique.

We wrapped things up with some big love for Disney, Mr. Rogers, and how nostalgia plays such a powerful role in creating emotional connections. Whether you're crafting an Instagram Reel, sharing a customer story, or recording a podcast, bringing people into your story makes them feel like they're part of your journey—and that’s the magic.

TRANSCRIPT:

Peg Fitzpatrick (00:03.317)
Hello everybody, I am Peg Fitzpatrick and this is my friend Jeff Sieh and we are going to talk about storytelling for small businesses. This is the pop-up social media success series that I've been doing. I think this is number six. I have one more to go. So, hello Jeff, thank you for coming to my pop-up.

Jeff Sieh (00:25.432)
Thank you. This is so much fun. I'm excited to be here. You're like doing this whirlwind tour for your book. I'm so excited to be a part of it.

Peg Fitzpatrick (00:32.251)
man, it feels like it's been going on forever and then today is just like, what today feels like extra stressful. Here's the book everybody. If you haven't seen it yet.

Jeff Sieh (00:40.984)
And I was so, I was so blown away, because you sent me a copy that came yesterday, and I did not know that you mentioned me in the, I mean, not in the four of the acknowledgements. I appreciate that. I did not, was not expecting that, but you highlighted my name and that was really cool. Thank you for doing that. I'm very honored. I showed it off to Jody last night, going, look what she did. So it was really cool.

Peg Fitzpatrick (00:54.261)
You are welcome.

Peg Fitzpatrick (01:04.607)
You're welcome. Well, you listen to me talk about it way back in the little baby stages when it wasn't when it wasn't even I was like, should I write it? Shouldn't I write? I'm going to write it. Well, no, I'm going to not. I put it on pose. I'm working on my novel. No, I did a screenplay. I've done like a lot of things in the middle here, but this was, know, I really did want to get this out into the world and I do thank you for your help and for listening and I do like to highlight and show people it's in there because everybody doesn't always read the acknowledgments.

Jeff Sieh (01:19.275)
That's right.

Jeff Sieh (01:33.346)
It was, I mean, it was a good idea. thought it was, I thought you just sent me the marker because it's like, cool, mark it up. And I thought that was fun. And then I opened it up and I saw that you had done that. And also all the cool stickers that came with it. So that was really fun. And Jodi even looked at it and went, my gosh, that's really thick. I'm like, yeah, it's big. She knows how to write. Yeah. That's cool. Very cool.

Peg Fitzpatrick (01:43.755)
Mm-hmm. Did you like?

Peg Fitzpatrick (01:48.979)
yeah, I made it in Canva and I printed those in Canva too, by the way. And did you like the little Canva sticker?

Jeff Sieh (02:00.748)
Yeah, I thought they were cool. really liked the, something about, it was the marketing thing that it was like marketing is not an option kind of a, I thought that was really clever. So I liked that.

Peg Fitzpatrick (02:07.946)
Yeah.

Yeah, thank you. Okay, so now back to what we're here for you guys. I sound echoey. Does it sound echoey to you? Maybe it's just my mic. I'm not gonna touch my mic. I'm using my Yeti mic, which everyone advises against, but here I am using my Yeti mic. My uncool Yeti mic, even though I have a Shure mic, but the Shure mic is so long, it does not like fit in front of my computer, so I don't ever use that one.

Jeff Sieh (02:17.656)
Sounds good to me.

Jeff Sieh (02:26.456)
It sounds good to me. Hopefully it sounds good to everybody.

Jeff Sieh (02:35.259)
You need an arm like this, you can have it right. Yeah.

Peg Fitzpatrick (02:36.897)
I do need an arm, but then I was like, do I really? I don't think I do. So, so we're going to get on to our topic here, which is storytelling for social success, crafting visual stories that connect. So Jeff, you are a master of storytelling and visual marketing. What drew you to this creative approach for connecting with audiences?

Jeff Sieh (02:45.39)
Mm.

Jeff Sieh (02:58.542)
I think I'll start it, you both and I are theater nerds and kids. so, I think it all started when we started doing stuff when I did it in junior high and high school is that I realized people don't just remember facts, they remember how you make them feel. So I always loved a good story, whether it's a campfire tale my dad would spin when we'd go camping or a funny meme with a punchline that makes you kind of, you

Peg Fitzpatrick (03:04.075)
Totally.

Peg Fitzpatrick (03:14.613)
Mm-hmm.

Jeff Sieh (03:25.26)
Maybe laugh, snort your coffee in the morning if you see something going through. In fact, that's what my kids, most of our conversations is like funny dog and cat videos that they send back and forth. I think storytelling and visuals work, you what did you used to say? Like peanut butter and jelly on social media? Yeah, yeah. Yeah, so it's almost like peanut butter and chocolate, like I love Reese's. So.

Peg Fitzpatrick (03:35.189)
Mm-hmm.

Peg Fitzpatrick (03:42.985)
Yeah, for Google+. I used to say Pinterest and Google +, were like peanut butter and jelly because they went…

Jeff Sieh (03:51.414)
It's delicious on their own, but magic when you put them together. I think it's the secret sauce for everything, for getting people not just to see your content, but feel connected to it. And I think it's one of the things that brands kind of, or small businesses kind of go, I'm just gonna put stuff out there and they don't really think about the visual and the storytelling aspect to it.

Peg Fitzpatrick (03:54.881)
So good.

Peg Fitzpatrick (04:11.933)
Mm-hmm. It is. It's a challenge. So who are your some of your favorite storytellers and how have they influenced your perspective?

Jeff Sieh (04:21.336)
So I would say Walt Disney hands down because I mean, you think about one of the most creative companies out there, because he didn't just talk about stories, he built entire worlds and then Pixar, which was separate from that, but now is owned by Disney. Those people can make you cry over a lamp. Remember their lamp that they first did, that little lamp that jumped in.

Peg Fitzpatrick (04:23.233)
Mm-hmm.

Peg Fitzpatrick (04:39.753)
Yeah. Yep. Pixar's little lamb. So cute. And who, who wasn't when we were growing up every Sunday, everybody watched the wild, the wild, wide, wide, wide world, wide world of Disney. Yeah. mean, the little Tinkerbell came out and

Jeff Sieh (04:47.596)
Yeah, Disney.

Wide World of Disney, yeah, yeah. Yeah, and did that. I loved this. I mean, you did, was like, gathered around the TV and you watched that and then talked about it and that kind of thing. So I loved, I loved what he did. He also was really, wanted to hear from his audience, like how it affected them and he would learn from them. You know, it's all about emotion, you know, a little heartbreak, you know, Disney's famous for like, for Bambi, you know.

Peg Fitzpatrick (05:16.321)
God, is, Disney is like, is like, your mom's gonna die if you're out of Disney.

Jeff Sieh (05:21.186)
Yeah, that's right. And same with Spielberg movies. some of the other ones like Donald Miller, he's a really great storyteller. There's some other people that I really enjoy learning from the stories. But I tell you, one of my favorite books still is Creativity, Inc., which is the story of how Pixar was founded. So I think those kind of people. And then my dad, as a great storyteller, he was a preacher for over 36 years.

Peg Fitzpatrick (05:26.369)
Yeah.

Peg Fitzpatrick (05:30.91)
Mm-hmm.

Peg Fitzpatrick (05:37.409)
Mm-hmm.

Peg Fitzpatrick (05:48.513)
I think this is the first time you're admitting that you're a PK live. Jeff is a PK everybody.

Jeff Sieh (05:51.51)
No, I've talked about before. I've done it before because I because when he would get, I would watch him ever since I was in church every time the doors were open, but he wouldn't just like hammer home just scripture from the Bible, but he would talk about like stories and he'd weave that in and he'd use humor with that. And I thought, I think that really influenced me a lot as well.

Peg Fitzpatrick (05:59.722)
Mm-hmm.

Peg Fitzpatrick (06:14.977)
Yeah, you know, I would say when two of my favorite storytellers, visual storytellers, Wes Anderson is so amazing. And I don't know if you've I've ever talked about Wes Anderson movies, but you cannot top him individually. Everything in his whole. yeah, he's.

Jeff Sieh (06:21.87)
Mm-hmm.

Jeff Sieh (06:29.582)
You know of it has movies by just looking at it. You can see a couple frames of it and you'd be like, that's Wes Anderson. So.

Peg Fitzpatrick (06:34.237)
Mm-hmm, and he's not necessarily recognized reward wise for what he does, but he has a cult following He always uses the same actors. It's really cool And then another one of my favorites is John Choo who has wicked coming out this week But I love crazy rich Asians and in the Heights both of those were Stunning that the wedding scene in crazy rich Asians. Did you ever watch that movie?

Jeff Sieh (06:47.926)
yeah.

Jeff Sieh (06:58.498)
Yeah, my one that stands out from him was the pool scene. Was that it? Yeah.

Peg Fitzpatrick (07:03.135)
Yeah, the pool scene and in the heights when they're it was like, it's crazy. So.

Jeff Sieh (07:07.532)
So I want another one I didn't mention and it's kind of weird for visual storytelling, but you can't have one without the other. And there's a really great documentary that just came out about this person over on Disney Plus and it's John Williams. I loved his music and it was really cool because Spielberg said, when I hear Johnny's music, I look at my movies in a different way. He influences me. Yeah, and so I'm like, and he was making the point like Jaws would not be what it would be without that.

Peg Fitzpatrick (07:13.919)
Mm-hmm.

Peg Fitzpatrick (07:20.732)
Mm. Mm-hmm.

Peg Fitzpatrick (07:31.861)
So do we.

Jeff Sieh (07:37.506)
And it's a fascinating way of, he tells stories with music. He has those themes that like weave through it and I love his stuff. So that's, if you haven't checked that one out, it's on Disney Plus, it's a John Williams documentary. It's so good. It's really good.

Peg Fitzpatrick (07:43.104)
Yeah.

Peg Fitzpatrick (07:52.905)
I haven't checked that out, I will check it out.

It that reminds me just that little piece that you're saying reminds me of another movie and visual storyteller they love which is Nancy Meyers and the holiday when he's explaining the movie and the music because one of the characters is a composer and he says name these two notes and it's done and then if you're into the scariest movie ever and he talks about right how the music fits the people and the characters and but Nancy Meyers is another one because her her story her visual storytelling is so different

Jeff Sieh (08:14.038)
Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.

Peg Fitzpatrick (08:25.372)
because she's a woman and like every single thing in her set is like the room has to do with a character and like the house looks like the character and the holiday especially like Kate Winslet's in the little cottage and then Cameron Diaz is in the big Hollywood you know LA home and just like how different the houses are represent them and it's it does really like

Jeff Sieh (08:45.252)
It's really cool.

Peg Fitzpatrick (08:47.955)
inform a lot of the things that you do. And I saw some behind the scenes things from Wicked where like every single thing in the scenes it's like labeled. has, and he did that in In the Heights too, like In the Heights when they're in the salon, all the products are labeled and you know, they make it like you're really in this other world. So you can imagine as an actor, I mean, Hollywood missed out on Jeff and I being in their movies, but.

Jeff Sieh (09:10.446)
Yes. Yeah, but we learned a lot from our stuff. Yeah. Yes, they seem to be, they seem to be. Yes.

Peg Fitzpatrick (09:13.057)
They're doing okay without us, I don't know how. So yeah, I mean it's really interesting how storytelling is really visual and auditory, like there's a lot of aspects to it. So what do you feel makes a good story? What are the key ingredients that captivate audiences and keep them engaged?

Jeff Sieh (09:32.174)
So I think a good story has to be number one, relatable, and it's gotta be surprising. And it has to be, I think it has to be emotional as well. So you think about every Pixar movie starts with this kind of ordinary character that you root for. then, mean, it's the story, the famous storytelling journey, know, then it goes into extraordinary circumstances, takes you along for the ride, you have tension. I like to lean into the humor stuff because I think humor is something that we all want and it's something that…

Peg Fitzpatrick (09:36.705)
Mm.

Peg Fitzpatrick (09:49.217)
Mm-hmm.

Jeff Sieh (10:00.61)
kind of gives empathy to the audience. And then you have this ending and then, you know, if you can do all those things, even in short form, we're talking about for small businesses, you know, sometimes you have to move things around and maybe have the hook at the beginning that really captures them. But if you think of the stuff you're putting out for your small business as a part of your story, I think that will help a lot. And then if you can sneak in a talking dog or a cowboy with abandonment issues, that's even better, so.

Peg Fitzpatrick (10:14.177)
Mm-hmm.

Peg Fitzpatrick (10:27.508)
Cowboy. Just random cowboys.

Jeff Sieh (10:29.814)
Yeah, just throw a cowboy in. Don't call him, know, call him not Woody, him something else like Bob.

Peg Fitzpatrick (10:35.777)
So we have already mentioned Pixar, but they are definitely known for their incredible storytelling. What lessons can small business owners learn from them for their own marketing?

Jeff Sieh (10:48.066)
So I think they have, if I can remember from the book, they have rules of storytelling, make it personal, show the real messy human side of your brand. And I also think, you gotta remember, Pixar is big, but this was a big deal. They were taking on classical animation. They were poo-pooed by everybody. And I think there's a place, I love classical animation, I love all those old ones, but they didn't play it safe. They didn't become where they are now because this was totally new technology. took forever to render those scenes.

Peg Fitzpatrick (10:52.001)
Mm.

Peg Fitzpatrick (11:17.28)
Yeah.

Jeff Sieh (11:18.424)
Their stories work because they're very nostalgic and universal, but they're also deeply specific. You got a guy who floats his house with balloons and goes on this adventure, but has maybe probably the most emotional part of the movie where you're seeing that montage of his wife living life with him and then passing away. mean, that one, you still hear that piano music that is so famous and you're just like, you know, yeah.

Peg Fitzpatrick (11:42.559)
Yeah, that movie is that movie just yeah that that one does grab you.

Jeff Sieh (11:47.756)
And I think that small business need to figure out what their little tagline is too, because you think about Pixar, especially Toy Story, it's infinity and beyond. Everybody knows that. And so what is your tagline that would work, that could tell, encapsulate what you are about your story as the small business in a little like tagline or something. And that takes some work to figure that out.

Peg Fitzpatrick (11:56.811)
Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm.

Peg Fitzpatrick (12:10.753)
Yeah, it definitely does to get before you can get your story. You really have to get down like kind of what your brand voice is and all those things. But the story of your brand doesn't always have to be so so deep for a small business. It can be really like why you started making the jewelry that you make, you know, or it can be like, you know, the story of like how you got started. I was thinking about my daughter's just going to beauty school and she's going to she's going to start working on her personal brand. So I was like pre-think

Jeff Sieh (12:28.866)
Mm-hmm.

Peg Fitzpatrick (12:40.787)
like what her story would be you know for her to because it's very hard to stand out in the beauty industry online obviously there's a lot of people and a lot of hairdressers already you know they're already on there so how do you like get people to you know be interested in what you're doing and part of the storytelling in the beauty industry is people love to see things from beginning to end like someone getting haircut someone getting they like the before and after like this is what the hair was before

This is what the hair is after or like makeup tutorials like the get ready with me makeup things are so popular because people are just Fascinated watching like from the beginning of end to things There's a there's a show that my husband likes to watch that's called how it's made. Have you ever seen that show? God, he's obsessed with that show But you know if we go back to mr. Rogers We loved watching when he would take us to the factory and we saw how Crayola crayons were made like that was really cool like

Jeff Sieh (13:22.67)
Mm-hmm.

Jeff Sieh (13:28.309)
yeah, I love it. It's a great joke.

Jeff Sieh (13:35.054)
That's right.

Peg Fitzpatrick (13:40.637)
Mr. Rogers was really great at storytelling and he again like he did the opposite of what what everything else was on TV. He was like I'm gonna slow it down. I'm gonna have some nice jazz music. I'm gonna have I'm gonna use some puppets and there's gonna be a little try like it was very simple and the the basic elements of his show never changed. You know he always yeah.

Jeff Sieh (13:42.478)
He knew what doing, yeah. He was.

Jeff Sieh (13:53.582)
Right, and play the piano, yeah.

Jeff Sieh (14:04.364)
Right. And it connected with people. They loved it.

Peg Fitzpatrick (14:08.693)
Yeah, mean still, like still, it's like, he's so good. So some of that, like that you can work in, like, you know, for your small business, you don't have to recreate the wheel every time. You can just create a thing and that can kind of be your thing. Like it doesn't have to be crazy, rethinking everything.

Jeff Sieh (14:27.244)
Yeah, I think one of the ways that the brands can like connect more and deeper with their audience. I think it's you share stories that people can see themselves in. So I've talked about them before and they're still going and they're still growing here in my local town of Longview. It's this place called Shivers and they sell snow cones and they are going gangbusters. But she does such a good job of taking you along in their journey. Like, for example, I never thought about this, but it makes perfect sense.

Peg Fitzpatrick (14:36.609)
Mm-hmm.

Peg Fitzpatrick (14:42.805)
Mm-hmm.

Peg Fitzpatrick (14:50.965)
Mm-hmm.

Jeff Sieh (14:54.082)
they used to sell out of an Airstream trailer. They now have that Airstream trailer, but also a building where people can go in and eat and stuff. Because it's snow cones, they were attacked by bees, like swarming bees around everywhere, which, know, it's sugar waters, like that makes sense. And so she was telling the stories of how she's trying to get rid of them. She's called beekeepers in. And so please don't go in here that we made this space for you. And so she was sharing her struggles and you could empathize with that. Like I would have never,

Peg Fitzpatrick (15:05.345)
you

Peg Fitzpatrick (15:09.6)
Yeah.

Jeff Sieh (15:23.978)
I raised bees, but I never thought of like, if I had a business, I have to be careful of this time of year. Cause she says every year at this time, this happens. And this was the worst year ever because we didn't have any rain and they were kind of starving. So that draw drew you in. Yes, we need bees.

Peg Fitzpatrick (15:34.13)
Yeah. And also bees, need them. But if it's if it's if it's crushing your small business, you got to come up with a solution. Yeah.

Jeff Sieh (15:40.94)
Yeah figure out figure it out. But also she did another great thing where they just got able to show they have these things called shiver sticks, which are these little little things that they they put in there they were able to sell these now at home gains at the dallas cowboy stadium, which is huge and so she was like she did a little reveal of something special and she brought you along on that journey and you were rooting for this company because you were like this is great. This is really cool. So I think those kind of things if you

Peg Fitzpatrick (15:56.021)
Wow. Yeah.

Peg Fitzpatrick (16:04.053)
Mm-hmm. Yeah.

Jeff Sieh (16:10.028)
talk about challenges you faced and customers you've helped and wins that you've had. People do not connect with logos. They connect with people telling their story. I think behind the scenes, stuff you were talking about too, introducing your team, don't be scared to share a mistake or two. I mean, I've had to do that a lot of times too. But I think that realness is really, really huge for companies and small businesses.

Peg Fitzpatrick (16:14.497)
Mm-hmm.

Peg Fitzpatrick (16:26.677)
Mm-hmm.

Peg Fitzpatrick (16:33.269)
Yeah.

I definitely think it is too and you know small business owners have such a unique journey for their business because it's something that was like their idea they came up with a whole concept obviously they're super passionate about it so story stories coming right from the person whose idea it was even going back to Canva and the beginning of Canva I mean they still talk about their beginning journey because they they're not a small business anymore but at the beginning they were a very small business and there was like three founders and you know they found

it in Melanie's mom's living room and you know the whole you know basically this this a very similar story to like Google starting in the garage in Silicon Valley you know humble beginnings can can be you know really a great place to start so I love small business owner stories and and I think everybody loves seeing their local people and learning it a little bit about that you know

Jeff Sieh (17:13.902)
Right, right.

Peg Fitzpatrick (17:32.853)
who they are. So how can small business owners use storytelling to humanize their brand and connect more deeply? So what part would you think would help them? The verbal part or the visual part? Like what do you think?

Jeff Sieh (17:48.386)
I mean, verbal is good if you can do it. I think the visual is maybe a little bit easier. So I think it's anything that sparks like emotion. So like something that gives a good laugh. I'll go back to Shivers again. What got me interested in their brand is they every year in front of their Airstream, they would sell out every day because they have special, like it's natural stuff and it's kind of that, yeah, it's hot in Texas. But they'd sell out and they would always have on their Instagram post,

Peg Fitzpatrick (17:52.769)
Mm-hmm.

Peg Fitzpatrick (18:12.233)
It's hot in Texas all the time, so.

Jeff Sieh (18:17.794)
They would always have a little kid with the last ice cream cone looking sad and saying sold out. And I just thought that was so clever. That was funny. It was nostalgic because it was like ice cream, know, or it's no cones and stuff. And it was funny because the kids would make face. And of course all the parents and everybody who knew that kid would share it on their profile. So, I mean, it was brilliant how it resonated. So I think those stories, you know, or even stories like, you know, we talked about the B thing, overcoming adversity.

Peg Fitzpatrick (18:21.823)
Hahaha

Mm-hmm.

Peg Fitzpatrick (18:29.002)
Yeah.

Jeff Sieh (18:45.378)
things that you were like aha moments, something special where you can show off a client, like going the extra mile for them, like if you're a flower shop, going the extra mile for their wedding, because they're out of these certain roses, so we did this instead to make it special for the bride, all that kind of thing. Being able to tell those stories of what you do, not just like, offer these services, I have these flowers, I do weddings, but telling stories around those, I think is what's really key.

Peg Fitzpatrick (19:10.911)
Right.

So what type of stories resonate the most? think you just kind of covered that and how they can incorporate those. So basically, you know, everything that Jeff just says, kind of translated to your small business. So it could be a situation where you kind of brainstorm for a little bit and just sit down and say, okay, like even just looking up the basic story elements and then how to relate those. And then you can use trends that are current trends. Trending music is very good to like add.

Jeff Sieh (19:40.824)
yeah.

Peg Fitzpatrick (19:41.808)
as an overlay to your story. It's good to kind of work ahead a little bit and create things and then you could do the music at the last bit. Do you do that with yours?

Jeff Sieh (19:51.906)
Sometimes, so I was gonna ask you, Peg, when you talk about trending story, I mean trending music, because it's different on different platforms. Let's say TikTok versus Instagram. Where do you go to find that? And I know it's in the book, but where do you go to find that music that's trending? Like some people may not know.

Peg Fitzpatrick (19:57.279)
Mm-hmm.

Peg Fitzpatrick (20:02.758)
Hahaha

Peg Fitzpatrick (20:06.973)
I usually do, I usually go on Instagram. So on Instagram, there's a little section, I don't know if it'll pull up if I, I don't know if you'll be able to see if I do it, but there's a little section when you're going to post, actually I think it was even in my professional dashboard this morning when I was in here.

Jeff Sieh (20:10.423)
Okay.

Peg Fitzpatrick (20:24.833)
Okay, so in your professional dashboard, so you should have, if you're a business, you have a professional account and it says professional dashboard and then you scroll in there and then at the bottom in the tips and resources, see where it says trending audio? So you can just click on that and then it shows you all the things that are trending right now. So what I like to do is I just kind of give them a listen. If I like it, I just save it. I just save a bunch in there. If I have something that like today I posted

Jeff Sieh (20:29.997)
Mm-hmm.

Jeff Sieh (20:38.764)
Yeah. Okay, cool.

Peg Fitzpatrick (20:54.89)
one.

for my book and I had done I created that actually like a couple weeks ago, but I was like I love this but it was like a friend's meme so that one didn't need extra music on it. It already had the sound so sometimes your things have the sound so for Instagram specifically I like to go in and I just look at the trending music in there and it has them listed sometimes if you hear the song like if you're scrolling through and you hear the song a second time in your feed you're like, okay, that's trending so you can just click on the Instagram post

Jeff Sieh (21:06.062)
Gotcha.

Jeff Sieh (21:24.05)
Yeah, right.

Peg Fitzpatrick (21:25.691)
story itself and save it from there. So I kind of like gather things up as I go and then I the trending audio is only going to trend for like a week ish. So if you're going to use those you can use them right away. And if you're creating something on that day like say today I had not I didn't have sound but I was going to use you know I created my video and I just had it in drafts and then I would go in and I could add the music today to get something that's like

in the top three of trending. Because the trending music really does still help. And in the same in TikTok, you can find trending music in there. And also in the CapCut app, you can see trending memes and things in there too. So there's a couple different plays depending on where you do it. It's a little bit weird because you pick what's trending and that doesn't…

Jeff Sieh (22:04.621)
Okay, yeah.

Peg Fitzpatrick (22:15.379)
Instagram and tik-tok don't always have they don't have the same trends because obviously they're two separate things but a lot of people are cross posting content between those so They could be similar But yeah, that's what I usually do is either I'm working on the video and cap cut or I mean I create things in a bunch of different places I have like a

Jeff Sieh (22:19.138)
Right. Right.

Jeff Sieh (22:39.17)
Mm-hmm. Right.

Peg Fitzpatrick (22:39.675)
not exactly streamline workflow sometimes because sometimes you start working on it and then you can't really do what you want. Sometimes I'm working on them in Canva and like a little template in there, but then I don't do my music in Canva because you could do your music in Canva that would just have like nice background music, but you won't have that trending music. So sometimes I'll just save it and upload it. And then I do my music actually in the apps because all the platforms love you to use their apps to create stuff.

Jeff Sieh (23:09.24)
Yeah.

Peg Fitzpatrick (23:09.859)
never make the full thing in Instagram anymore because I've had situations where I've seen I mean I'm lucky that draft was there today, knock on wood and also I've had things where I scheduled in it in Instagram and then it didn't it didn't post it got frozen and I couldn't do anything with it so it's always dicey when you're trying to

Jeff Sieh (23:18.158)
you

Jeff Sieh (23:26.542)
Yeah, you have to delete it.

Jeff Sieh (23:31.734)
Yeah, I think that's a good strategy because you are using part of the platform when you tell it it's gonna you want to use this trending audio so you're using that and then but you also have the backup that you're creating it on someplace else where you can save it such as Canva which is really yeah never know

Peg Fitzpatrick (23:38.259)
Mm-hmm.

Peg Fitzpatrick (23:43.829)
just in case, yeah, if I need to like, because I had to do that a couple times and thankfully I had the text outside of there. So sadly, I don't really trust, do you ever make the whole thing in there?

Jeff Sieh (23:53.812)
No, and I actually, if it's a long text post for a client or something, I actually will copy it on, I never type it all on the phone. I always copy and paste it for somewhere else, just because, yeah, it'll go, yeah, and then it'll also just go away, and you're like, I just wrote that whole thing and it's gone, so.

Peg Fitzpatrick (24:03.361)
Right? Because you don't want to have eight typos in it.

Peg Fitzpatrick (24:10.891)
Yeah. And then you got to cry and you're like, I can't even, it was like the best thing you ever wrote disappeared. I'm always like, it was so, this is perfect. And then, and you're like, wait, yeah, we've all been burned a little bit. okay. So for someone just starting out, what's one actionable step that they can take to tell better stories.

Jeff Sieh (24:13.216)
I know. Right, exactly, exactly.

Jeff Sieh (24:19.618)
Yep, it's gone. Exactly.

Jeff Sieh (24:32.312)
So I think it'd be starting with your story, like your story. Why did you start your business? What makes you, know, why was this small business attractive to you? It may have been something like you think is not exciting, like I inherited it from my father. Well, tell his story, like how he started it or his grandfather. He's been in our business for, in our family for 30 years or whatever, but, and then what gets you out of bed in the morning, besides coffee, of course, but what gets you out of bed? Why do you do what you do? And write it down and then share it.

Peg Fitzpatrick (24:40.609)
Mm-hmm.

Jeff Sieh (25:00.866)
you with your audience. Like think of some ways. It doesn't have to be, you don't have to make it perfect and all this, you know, write all this flowery prose. Just tell them why you do it and take them along with you on the ride. So write it down, share it with your audience. There's, I think this is another Pixar thing. You can start with like once upon a time for a prompt, like once upon a time I did this or every day I blank, one day blank, you know, one day in the life because of what I did, this happens. Like we talked about the flower shop earlier, like,

Peg Fitzpatrick (25:10.177)
Mm-hmm.

Peg Fitzpatrick (25:19.915)
Mm.

Peg Fitzpatrick (25:23.681)
Mm-hmm.

Jeff Sieh (25:30.86)
the red flowers, there was a shortage, we didn't have enough, so we did this instead. And then until finally, like until finally this happened, we were able to do this. Like until finally we were able to clean up the bees and now we have this space just for you guys to come in out of the heat and have your snow cone. So those kind of little frameworks kind of to prompt you to be thinking about it. And the cool thing is, I know small business owners are the most busiest people in the world, right? They're trying to do a gazillion things, their own marketing department usually.

Peg Fitzpatrick (25:35.723)
Mm-hmm.

Peg Fitzpatrick (25:50.613)
Mm-hmm.

Jeff Sieh (26:00.034)
their own service department, all this stuff that the bookkeeping's all them. So I know you guys are stretched for time, but use tools like just like voice memos in your iPhone. Like if you have an idea when you're making a delivery or you're doing some packaging stuff or whatever, capture it. You gotta capture it, because it'll go away and you'll forget how great of an idea it was. And now with this new iPhone stuff that actually will transcribe that, it's just really great for capturing ideas. So throughout your day, just try to be mindful of

Peg Fitzpatrick (26:09.663)
Mm-hmm.

Peg Fitzpatrick (26:19.423)
Yeah.

Jeff Sieh (26:29.708)
Okay, how can I tell this story? Or this might be a good story to tell, or this customer story, she came in and said this, and we will do this. That would be something I could talk about for 20 seconds on a vertical video and start just thinking proactively on how you can do that.

Peg Fitzpatrick (26:42.655)
and also wired.

going through your day, just take photos and take short little videos and just create this little bank of stuff. And then later you can stitch them together. You don't need long videos and it doesn't have to be your face all the time. But behind the scenes stuff is so great. Like behind the scenes jewelry, like where someone has, I saw this girl, she makes like beautiful stuff. She has this beautiful studio. Like it's so great to see people's workspaces. Again, we're a little bit nosy and we like to see people's, you know, where do they make that or how do

Jeff Sieh (26:57.07)
Mm-hmm.

Jeff Sieh (27:12.109)
Right.

Peg Fitzpatrick (27:14.275)
they make that so just take some time to like just do little videos. It's a little feels awkward at first to try to create your own. It's called B-roll to create your own B-roll for things, but there's a lot of tutorials that on YouTube and on TikTok for how to create just some really easy B-roll and then you could just put text over it or you could just add, you know, add a little phrase over it. It's really easy to just create a little bank. If you created a little bank and have like

10 or 15 things and you're you can remix those a ton of different ways Nobody's gonna say didn't I already see that because they're not gonna remember even if you use the same exact clip You know two weeks later. No one's gonna know so and if you feel like you're just like you really can't do it yourself Have someone help you either you know someone in your family or someone that you know works with you to just help you film a couple of those things and just have them to work with and you can use them in CapCut or

Jeff Sieh (27:52.014)
Right.

Peg Fitzpatrick (28:14.195)
you know, even in Canva wherever you like to edit your videos. Canva is just so easy to keep all your stuff in there. I really like it. You know, just load all the videos and photos and put them in a file full in. You create a little folder in there and then just pull them out whenever you're making something. So you don't have to like think, okay, I need to post something today. I need to take a photo. I need to do this. You know, authors always have tons of photos of their books, you know, bookshelves, know, which just I'm like looking across the room thinking I

or even took a picture of that bookshelf. You like those, like you get into the habit of like, of doing it and then it gets easier. So.

Jeff Sieh (28:46.483)
Right,

Jeff Sieh (28:52.226)
Yeah, and you don't have to, I mean, you don't have to think about voiceover or whatever, just even if it's a simple like video of, you know, a product, try to get at least 10 seconds, just hold it there for 10 seconds, so you'll have enough space to do stuff later with. I just kind of get in the habit, I always try to like, even if I click on my record button, that I at least let it go for 10 seconds, just because I don't know how I'll use it later. So having that length kind of can save you some agony later.

Peg Fitzpatrick (28:59.381)
Mm-hmm.

Peg Fitzpatrick (29:05.547)
faith.

Peg Fitzpatrick (29:17.703)
It seems weird to 10 seconds when you're recording seems like about two minutes. And then when you go back to edit, you're like, why is that so short?

Jeff Sieh (29:22.717)
Yeah, it really does.

Right, yeah, it's great to switch between doing product stuff or product shots or try to, even if, so if later on with a video editor you can give them and they'll love you for that, having a little bit more time. So just try to hold it for 10 seconds and kind of do a little bit of movement and that will really help you later on.

Peg Fitzpatrick (29:31.112)
Mm-hmm.

Peg Fitzpatrick (29:38.005)
Mm-hmm.

Peg Fitzpatrick (29:44.159)
And you can definitely do it all on your phone too. mean, it used to be that businesses had to have everything like perfect and photos had to be perfect. And now it's really kind of like the on the go, you know, there's the trend of the blurry photos, you know, people are taking like using a traditional camera and the photos have a little blur to them. so it's definitely Gen Z definitely likes the real time content.

Jeff Sieh (29:46.829)
Mm-hmm.

Jeff Sieh (29:55.316)
Right. They love it.

Jeff Sieh (30:02.83)
Mm-hmm.

Jeff Sieh (30:07.25)
yeah. And you're right about it. So there's a new thing, and Ecamm gave me one at Creator Camp, they're like those disposable cameras that we used to have for, we would use, but they're rechargeable and you can download them digitally. My daughter stole mine because she loves it. She loves taking those pictures because you can't see it until you download it and put it in there. And it has this really cool like film effect on it. so, you know, use what you got. Give those out to your

your customers or your clients or your workers in your in your t-shirt shop or whatever and have them take pictures and have them use it so it's really it's a really great idea.

Peg Fitzpatrick (30:44.065)
Yeah, I saw an article yesterday that was saying that EGC is going to be the new thing for 2025 the employee generated content. So getting asking your employees to help me and if I could do that with a company that I refer to, I would be I would be so happy if I have one person that sends me photos out of 22 or 23. Yeah. So yeah, having people help.

Jeff Sieh (30:59.067)
Yeah, it'd be great. You would love it. Yeah.

Jeff Sieh (31:08.941)
That's cool.

Peg Fitzpatrick (31:12.129)
You have employees do it. There's a lot of different ways to create and just create a folder and keep them all in there and just keep reusing them. Not right out day after day, but just spread them out and.

Jeff Sieh (31:22.838)
And I would even incentivize them in some way. Like, hey, we're having a contest. You can do this. You'll get a bonus or a free gift card or Starbucks, whatever. But incentivize them to do that, make it a contest like you were saying. I think that would be a great way to get them doing it. And also make sure, and I know Peg's big on this, make sure you have all the rights and releases that you need for whatever you do. Yeah.

Peg Fitzpatrick (31:25.365)
Yeah, employees for sure.

Peg Fitzpatrick (31:31.593)
Mm-hmm.

Peg Fitzpatrick (31:36.577)
Mm-hmm.

Peg Fitzpatrick (31:41.097)
Yeah, for employees. Yeah, because even though they work for you, they still you're still asking them for the rights to if they're in the video, if they're in the video. I mean, and there has been cases where employees have have done like TikTok things and a lot of times they've gotten fired. Sherwin Williams guy. Yeah.

Jeff Sieh (31:47.853)
Mm-hmm.

Yeah, yeah.

Jeff Sieh (31:58.912)
Remember that it was a couple years ago. Yeah, the paint, the paint guy and he blew up and then they shut him down and then everybody was like, that was the dumbest thing you've ever done because he was big and you look like jerks. So yeah.

Peg Fitzpatrick (32:09.353)
Yeah. Yeah, yeah. The guy liked his job at the paint shop. So if Walt Disney were creating content on Instagram today, what do you think his strategy would look like?

Jeff Sieh (32:16.118)
He did. He did.

Jeff Sieh (32:24.076)
Walt Disney on Instagram. one, he's super visual. I think he'd be all in. I think he would have a killer mix, because he's got so much content. Like even if you just stayed at his classic stuff, like Bambi through like the rescuers and all that. So I think it would be a killer mix of carousels for storytelling. I think he would show behind the scenes because he loved that. You remember in the wonderful world of Disney, when he was like building, I still watch the things when he was like building Epcot, was showing what they were going to do.

Peg Fitzpatrick (32:28.245)
haha

Peg Fitzpatrick (32:32.245)
Hahaha

Peg Fitzpatrick (32:37.432)
The rescuers.

Peg Fitzpatrick (32:44.032)
Mm-hmm.

Peg Fitzpatrick (32:52.282)
Or he'd say, hey, this is Mary. She's one of the animators at Disney. And she'd go, hi. And he'd go, show us what you're working on today. And she'd be like, I'm drawing.

Jeff Sieh (32:55.478)
Yeah, yeah, yeah, it was so fun.

Yeah, there's a real famous one where he was talking about the haunted mansion when he was putting that together. And so I think he would be like, you know, I love stop motion that I see on Instagram. I think he'd probably have a stop motion series. You know, I think he would. think he'd also be commenting people because he's always asked. He was always in the park. He would sit down with employees and ask him, like, what could they do better? He would pick up trash himself. He'd see a piece of like a gum wrapper or something. He'd go and pick it up. I mean, so I think he would be.

active on Instagram, I think he'd do the DM stuff. I just think he'd make his audience feel like they're part of something magical, is what I think.

Peg Fitzpatrick (33:33.217)
You

Peg Fitzpatrick (33:38.389)
He did do a great job of really roping you in. mean, his weekly show was the biggest advertisement. Families were dying to go to Disney World.

Jeff Sieh (33:46.235)
I know. He was genius. And the thing is, know, like I…

Peg Fitzpatrick (33:50.757)
This was when everybody didn't go FYI. was before families went on vacations across the country with your whole family.

Jeff Sieh (33:53.421)
Right.

Jeff Sieh (33:57.102)
Big trips, yeah. And the genius thing, this is a little repurposing thing for small businesses. He got, he did it for the World's Fair first. So like the, it's a small world ride and some of the dinosaurs were for a, I think it was a GM, one of the big cars places. But he, he took all, he had, they had to pay to build it and he put it to the World's Fair and they were sponsors. But then he took it. He took it back and he used it and then like even the Carousel Project, Progress, which was still there.

Peg Fitzpatrick (34:24.481)
progress.

Jeff Sieh (34:27.049)
He took it from the World's Fair and made it an attraction. the company bought it and paid for it and he took it back. He even took like the sluices where the water goes through for, it's a small world. I mean, he repurposed everything. He was genius in that way. So I really like Walt for that.

Peg Fitzpatrick (34:40.213)
Yeah, he had a lot of really great skills. What tools or techniques do you recommend for creating visuals that enhance storytelling?

Jeff Sieh (34:50.104)
So I like tools like Canva, which you mentioned, Adobe Express is great, because I think that can help you create some really great scroll stopping visuals, even if you're not a designer. So that's a big thing. I think Canva is in most small businesses toolkits right now. I just really think it is. I'm a big fan of Ecamm for live video. I think it's storytelling in real time, just kind of like what Peg and I are doing here. We are bouncing stuff on, I have an idea, and we talk together. We talk over each other.

I think it's really organic and I think people really like that and I think it's gonna grow because of the advent of AI and people wanna see and really know their brands and people. So I think it's gonna be really cool. But also don't underestimate the power of AI. I really like mid-journey dollies baked into ChatGPT if you're using that. So you can make unique images that stand out. So I think whatever tool you're using,

The key is to make your visual support the story you're telling, not just to look pretty. Don't just make a flashy piece of artwork. You wanna have it be part of the story that you're telling.

Peg Fitzpatrick (35:52.961)
Very good. You have, do you have podcasts? You have other shows on AI too, right? So if people want to check out more on visuals for AI. Is your class, are you working on your class for that?

Jeff Sieh (35:58.754)
Mm-hmm. I talk about, yeah. Yeah, we talk about…

Yes, I have the Descript courses in beta that people still sign up for to help with repurposing and it's AI based. I also have free using AI to create pens for Pinterest. That's a free course that you can sign up for. I think it's at jeffsy.com. But yeah, and there's another one coming. I'm gonna be speaking on it next year a lot, so I'm gonna have another little course on AI.

Peg Fitzpatrick (36:09.867)
Mm-hmm.

Peg Fitzpatrick (36:15.103)
Mmm.

Peg Fitzpatrick (36:25.001)
Awesome. Cool. I think people definitely need that. I started out like when you did, I'm creating images and things and then I totally stopped. I created some things that I really liked, but it's still isn't there for like.

Jeff Sieh (36:38.488)
But you still, yeah, but you still create a lot of cool stuff. mean, even your Instagram and your branding and stuff that you have for that. Yeah, yeah.

Peg Fitzpatrick (36:43.691)
But I hardly ever use the AI stuff anymore. So I would like to back in there. Because I had an idea and I was using it, another writing idea. I was working on a children's book idea and I created this really great teddy bear character that's like, yeah, but then I don't know how to make it do the same one all the time. I don't want to animate my whole book with it, even though I know people have done that. But I just kind of want to have the storyboard for it, you know?

Jeff Sieh (36:57.662)
I remember that, we worked on it a little bit together. Yeah. there's some cool stuff now.

Jeff Sieh (37:09.368)
We'll talk after, because there's now a character reference you can put in mid-journey, and it will keep that character reference throughout whatever you're prompting it. So it's pretty cool. Yeah, it's my favorite, too.

Peg Fitzpatrick (37:17.182)
Mid Journey was my favorite. That was the one that I liked the most. I like to go in there. I go in there with my grandson and make characters for the game that he likes. he like make me a guy and I'll like make him guys that look like a guy. He likes obscure characters.

Jeff Sieh (37:25.23)
that's a good idea. Mm-hmm.

Jeff Sieh (37:32.322)
Mm-hmm. Well, you know what you should do is now make that character and then do a face swap and have his face be in that character.

Peg Fitzpatrick (37:38.867)
you

They don't actually have faces. They're Pikmin. I don't know if you know the Pikmin game. They're just little plant, they're little solid color guys with like plant heads. So someone was creative that day. There are some people in the game, but that's what he likes about. So what's one piece of advice you'd give to small business owners looking to improve their skills right now? Like what would you say? Okay, they listen to this and they're like, yes, I definitely want to do that. So what would you suggest?

Jeff Sieh (37:42.716)
Okay, no, I don't know.

Jeff Sieh (37:48.832)
Right.

That's today where.

Jeff Sieh (38:09.08)
Practice. So just like riding a bike or mastering, know, me barbecuing the perfect brisket, know, storytelling, it gets better with time. It's it's gonna, you're gonna have to start small. Say you're gonna do it once a week, right? And it's gonna stink the first time you do it. You're gonna be embarrassed and it's gonna be, you're gonna look back on it later and go, this is awful. But try it and be consistent and see how your audience reacts. Do they really like the behind the scenes stuff? They're like, I didn't know you did that. Or so.

Peg Fitzpatrick (38:10.112)
Mm.

Peg Fitzpatrick (38:15.137)
you

Peg Fitzpatrick (38:21.867)
Mm-hmm.

Peg Fitzpatrick (38:27.061)
Mm-hmm

Jeff Sieh (38:35.756)
You want to really pay attention to what resonates and then you kind of want to tweak your approach and then keep experimenting. And then, you know, every good story has trial and error. I guarantee you Pixar has done stuff and they scrapped entire stories because they didn't think it resonated or was good as they want. I think there's a famous one. I can't remember which story it was, but they scrapped and like deleted all the rendering that they had done so far on it because when they got together as a group, they talked about it and it was like,

Peg Fitzpatrick (38:39.713)
Mm-hmm.

Jeff Sieh (39:05.4)
this isn't that good. And they went back and cost a lot more money, but they did it right. But every good story takes a little bit of trial and error. And I think that's how the best ones are actually made.

Peg Fitzpatrick (39:06.827)
Mm-hmm.

Mm-hmm.

Peg Fitzpatrick (39:16.127)
And also when you are coming up with like your main hero story for your business, obviously you're not going to be recreating that. That's going to be like your main thing. And then you would just retell that in different ways. So once you nail down your main brand story, that's going to stick. And then you're just building little stories to go around that. So I hope people really got a lot from this. I thought this was amazing. And obviously I like talking to you, Josh. So this was super fun. So next week I have Christina Barker.

Jeff Sieh (39:34.286)
Exactly.

Jeff Sieh (39:41.902)
It's just fun. Thank you for having me.

Peg Fitzpatrick (39:46.091)
told and we're going to be talking about community. She is amazing. So I'm excited to have her on and that will be the last one in my pop-up series. So I'll be sharing more from these and I'll be sharing obviously clips from this and creating a blog post and a podcast and other things from this live video. So thank you so much to everybody who is watching. I'm going to go back and try to catch the comments which I didn't see a way to catch them in Riverside. So thank you very much Jeff.

Jeff Sieh (40:13.688)
We'll see. Thank you, thanks for having me. This has been a lot of fun. And thank you for your book, it's amazing. Yes.

Peg Fitzpatrick (40:18.047)
Yeah, you just reminded me. And if you are watching till the very end, my book is available now anywhere that you like to get books. If you waited till it was live, which a lot of people do, people don't really like pre-orders. They like getting it right when they can get it in their hands. So if you order it now, you'll get it very soon. And this will help you with how to market your small business online. So thank you.

Jeff Sieh (40:40.654)
It's amazing. It's amazing book. It's not a thin book either. It's a thick book. It's got a lot of great contents and there's a great little in the back where you can like references and all sorts of stuff. So it's really, really good book. So if you're a small business, you need this book. You really do.

Peg Fitzpatrick (40:44.767)
No, it's pretty good.

Peg Fitzpatrick (40:54.987)
Thank you. Thank you for watching. Bye.

Jeff Sieh (40:57.87)
Bye, everybody.