SPI 488: How to Get the Story That Connects, Serves, and Sells

SPI 488: How to Get the Story That Connects, Serves, and Sells

Announcer:
Welcome to the Smart Passive Income Podcast, where it’s all about working hard now, so you can sit back and reap the benefits later. And now your host – he actually starts crying when he sings a sad song on pitch – Pat Flynn!

Pat Flynn:
So this past week we spoke with PJ from the Jonas family. She is a mother of eight children and her husband, Jim, and her kids, Brett, Colter, Emery, Fletcher, Greyden, Hewitt, Indigo, and Jade. They run a business, a family business called Goat Milk Stuff. And if you haven’t heard this episode, I highly, highly recommend it, because it is one of the most wholesome and incredible success stories that has a lot of sacrifice in the beginning, and where they’re at now, it’s just incredible. And honestly, my wife April and I cannot stop talking about their business and I’m not paid to say this, GoatMilkStuff.com, legit products for sure. And yeah, it does come from goats.

So anyway, more of that story in episode 487, but I wanted to talk it today to you in this follow-up Friday episode, because the conversation with PJ reminded me of another conversation I had with another guest, or actually another couple, who had come on the show at one point. And I remember I just had the same feelings that I had after interviewing PJ that I had after interviewing Shane and Jocelyn Sams, where I knew that if people heard this story, it would inspire, it would motivate, and I knew that it was going to get out there. And even though this episode just published this past week, I know it’s going to be one that people are going to share. I know it’s going to be one that people are going to talk about in like episode 122 with Shane and Jocelyn Sams – 400 episodes later, still people are talking about it and it’s incredible.

It’s that much of an impact. I have those same feelings. And so to give you some perspective, I actually wanted to play a clip from that episode with Shane and Jocelyn. They were two teachers from Kentucky who had discovered the show, had taken action and had gotten some incredible results. And I wanted to play the minutes around the seven minute mark, where Shane starts talking about his experience, having found this podcast, Smart Passive Income Podcast, and the storytelling from there. And I have some lessons to share about that, but let’s go back in time to episode 122 with Shane and Jocelyn. This is Shane talking about the infamous lawnmower story. Here it is.

Shane:
So it was just totally random that I even stumbled across your podcast. So anyway, I get on the lawnmower, man, I’m driving around, just cutting my grass, listening to you talk about passive income and just about online business. I don’t remember exactly what episode it was, but you were talking about the Green Exam Academy stuff, like how you basically made this study guide for people taking this architecture test. And so I was like, oh my gosh, this is crazy. You mean, people are paying you to send them an email? And I was always like, Jocelyn always laughed at me because I would like drive around and like just like say crazy stuff in the car.

Jocelyn:
Yeah, he would always say like, if I could just get 50 people to give me a hundred dollars.

Shane:
That would be so much money. And I wouldn’t have to work for it if they would just send it to me. You know? So like when I was listening to your show man, I was like, this is it. This is how I’m going to get 50 people to send me a hundred dollars. I literally, man, I was in the middle of the yard, turned the lawnmower off, jumped off my lawnmower, and ran inside. I bust into the kitchen and Jocelyn’s just standing there. And you know, I’m, I’m a little excitable. I get a little fired up like some of the time. I’m really like, I’m rolling in like we just won a football game. I say, Jocelyn, you’ve got to listen to this. This is our destiny. We’re going to change our lives. This guy, Pat Flynn is talking about making money online and passive income. I don’t even know what that means, but it sounds great, and I’m just so fired up and I’m like, let’s do it.

Pat:
All right. I just love listening to that story, and it was told at FlynnCon on stage in 2019, Shane and Jocelyn came up on stage, they were two of my special guests at FlynnCon. And it’s just always great to hear that because it reminds me of who might be listening and you never know who’s listening. So there’s a couple of lessons come out of this. Number one, you never know who might be listening. They might have a story that needs your help and they need you to be a part of that story. They need you to be the guide in that story. And I had apparently become the guide for Shane and Jocelyn. Several people had heard this story and they have become the guide for them since then. And I know PJ and the Jonas family and the Goat Milk Stuff story is going to be a guide.

And it’s going to light a fire for many people, I know, especially those who might be struggling because PJ talked a lot about the sacrifices they had to make and how they were just living off of, you know, bread for a while to make ends meet and make things work, and now they’re just exploding and doing extremely well, which is really, really cool. Perseverance is a part of the equation here to persevere and perseverance and grit for sure.

But more than that, if you do any sort of interviewing, if you have a podcast or a YouTube channel, especially, any sort of multimedia, and this could mean social media as well, you got to tell stories. Stories are the most powerful form of connection. We are, as human beings, programmed from birth, essentially, to listen to stories. When we are little infants, our parents are reading us stories.

When we’re in school, stories are being read to us. When we’re sitting at the movie theater, what are we watching? We’re watching a story, and stories are everywhere. And stories are an easy way to teach, to provide context, to create relatable experiences, or to paint a picture for what a future might look like for somebody. And I didn’t know it at the time in episode 122, but Shane was just such a great guest, as well as Jocelyn, in the way that they told stories. And I was very fortunate, because it could have simply been just a question and answer session, but I’m very grateful for them because they told great stories.

And so now in the future, or here we are, I try like with the episode with PJ to pull out the story as much as possible. And PJ was also very generous with storytelling and giving us an insight on what it might be like to live on the goat farm and what it might’ve been like as the kids were young.

And now they’re a lot older and more additional family members are coming into play and kids are getting married and having grandkids. It’s just incredible. I really do feel like I was there with them and I resonate with that, I connect, and connection is key here online. So tell more stories and get more stories out of those who you’re interviewing. I’d once heard from Alex Bloomberg, the top strategy for getting a story out of somebody, it’s very simple. You simply just ask this question or you tee it up, in fact. You say, tell me about a time when blank. That’s not a question, it’s a blank, but this allows for the person who you’re speaking to, to have permission to literally just go and tell the story. And then your job is just to listen. And that’s a hard thing to do as well, because especially as podcasters, we want to poke in and comment and go different directions.

But if a person’s telling a story, keep the story going. If a person ends the story because they’re being conscious about how much they’re speaking, they don’t want to be rude. If you, as the listener or representative of the audience, feel like there’s maybe more to it than what was shared, then you got to go dig for it. Well, what happened next? Or, how did you feel in that moment? Or, what do you wish you had done differently or what happened next? Or is it just simply asking this very, very famous question? Why? Why? Why? Why? Why? Why? That was from a meme if in case you didn’t know, but it’s also from a bunch of kids who say why all the time, so much that it annoys us adults sometimes. But it’s interesting, because what is the kid actually doing when he’s asking why, or she’s asking why? They’re curious. They want to know what’s going on.

So if you want to be a great interviewer, if you want to get stories like the story with Shane and Jocelyn, if you want to get the stories like the stories with PJ and Goat Milk Stuff, keep asking why and what happened and what happened next. So hopefully this encourages you to take your interview game just a little bit further, because I know you can go deeper. And I know on the surface it might feel like a little bit rude or that maybe it’s none of your business, but for the sake of your audience and for the sake of actually creating content, valuable content at that, and for the sake of having this person realize that this isn’t just like the normal interview they would do that they can get anywhere, this is a unique one because you go deep. So go deep if you can and pull out that gold and that’ll create the connections.

And I hope that if you have not listened to the episode with PJ yet, you go and do that. Because it is incredible, absolutely incredible. And Shane and Jocelyn Sams, again, two of my favorite people in the world. Thank you so much for continuing that ripple effect as we all are a part of, and we’ve all experienced. So thank you so much for this follow-up Friday episode. Hope this encourages you. I appreciate you. And I look forward to serving you in next week’s interview and follow-up Friday.

Thanks so much, peace out, and as always, Team Flynn for the win.

Thanks for listening to the Smart Passive Income Podcast at SmartPassiveIncome.com. I’m your host, Pat Flynn. Sound design and editing by Paul Grigoras. Our senior producer is Sara Jane Hess, our series producer is David Grabowski, and our executive producer is Matt Gartland. The Smart Passive Income Podcast is a production of SPI Media. We’ll catch you in the next session.