Personal Brand Story and Social Media,
with Reme Mancera and Kim Morrison

 Hello, welcome to Intersection Chats. Uh, I am Reme Mancera, a personal brand story strategist, and today my guest is Kim. Hello Kim. Hello, everybody. Uh, my name’s Kim Morrison and I’m a marketing strategist and Canva Canvassador. And have been doing social media since I started my business about 14 years ago.

So about the time social media actually first started so amazing. So we are going to talk about that, like the intersection between social media and personal brand story and how they affect each other. Yeah. So let’s start by, um, sharing from your. Big experience, like how do you think personal brand story is connected to social media?

How do you think they affect each other? It’s imperative. I mean, if you want, the key thing with social media is that you’re trying to build those no, like and trust factors that is so important to winning new clients. And part of that is the no. They need to get to know you. And so therefore, sharing your brand, personal brand story absolutely dovetails perfectly into this, um, and is a really key, important part.

Hmm. Yeah, I totally agree on the, no, it’s also about the trust because I, I feel that using your story strategically, you will also, um, showcase like why you do the work that you do, why this is important, and then it will help you to build. Trust and to show how you are someone trustworthy and, and to be the connection between you and the audience.

So I agree. I feel that, uh, using personal brand storytelling is so powerful as a business because it’s like, it’s showing more than just the service or the benefit of the service or the offer that you have is about who are you as a person and also how, what, what is the unique. Approach that you have in social media.

The biggest problem that people, that I find with clients is that they need to get over themselves. They, they are very, very hesitant, and I, I confess to having done being the same myself, very hesitant to put themselves in front of the camera or on their social posts. Um, and yes, I do make the point that their social musician all be about them.

It does need to be about what the client’s looking for, but equally you can as you work so well with and your story connectors, it’s about using that story to illustrate what you do and why you do it. Uh, and that is really key and people relate to that and it’s really important. And they want to know you.

They want to see who they’re gonna work with. Uh, having a base. To name or the brand or whatever. And I know that takes a leap of confidence in lots of ways to actually do that because it’s very easy to hide behind, you know, faceless social media. And I was there, I held my hand up to it. I confessed to that.

But it just doesn’t work. It does. It’s so much. It does if you just want to build, sell a product. But if you’re actually selling a service, and I mainly work with cla, with coaches, therapists, and service providers. They need, you need to get out there and actually be yourself and be at the front of your brand.

’cause you are your brand in effect. Uh, you’re not a big organization. I did work for big organizations and I presented in front of like a thousand people. No problem at all. The day I went to my first networking event on my own company, I was like, oh my God, what am I doing? Why have I done this? And it felt so much more exposing.

And you just need to get over that feeling of exposure so you can move on and, and actually get people to understand why you do what you do. Yeah. Yeah. And I think going back to the idea of how, especially for service providers, because we don’t have something tangible to make pictures of or to share it.

Yeah. So it is about. How you convey this idea of what is the outcome that you provide and part of it you can use your storytelling for, like, illustrate that benefit and, and, and really make people understand what is, what you have with and why this is important. And I, I want to know your, your experience on this because I, I know that when I started my own business, I also worked.

Really concerned about the privacy in the sense of, I am really a private person, so I, everyone was telling you should be, uh, using storytelling, you should be vulnerable. And I was like, yeah, but I want to be like, I keep, I want to keep my privacy. Yeah. I am overwhelmed because I am not sure how to do this.

Mm-hmm. So I would like to know your, how was your experience when was about your own business? Um, I was, as I said, very hesitant to start this. Uh, but what I don’t do, I don’t expose huge amounts of my husband and my family. Um, ’cause. That’s not fair on there. Um, I, I haven’t got my horse anymore, but I used to include my horse ’cause that really attracted a certain number of people who love horses and I love horses.

Uh, but it’s, uh, it’s just getting, letting people know there’s little bits and pieces about you that make a big difference. And, and part of my whole brand story is that I actually. When I left the corporate world, and a lot of people I know who do that, I actually was thinking about completely retraining and becoming a therapist.

And that’s why I really enjoy helping therapists, um, because that’s what I wanted to be. And when I realized actually I needed to earn money more quickly than that, um, than do a re than spend more money on training and doing, and we can use what I knew already to actually help those people find their clients.

And so that’s why I. That’s what my angle is. Sounds angle sounds too manipulative. It’s very genuine and that’s the whole point. Your story and your personal brand story is very, should be gen, very genuine, very authentic, and very much about why you do what you do. Yeah, because everyone has that and loads of people I know, particularly therapists and coaches go into that kind of business because they’ve had a really good experience themselves.

So they have a good experience with that therapy or that coaching program and they’ve become that pers the person who promotes that now because it was so valuable to them and they just feel it has something to offer everybody else. So once you’ve got that feeling that it’s con that you can offer something to everybody else, then you need to do that.

And part of that is letting them know why you’re doing what your results were. And I know that can feel very exposing, but it is that, as I said earlier on, you just have to get over yourself. Yeah. And, and just do it and, and bite that bullet. Pull up those ladies expression, those big girl knickers, and uh, and go and, and that’s what you need to do.

Yeah, and you get all over all the time, but just some photos really make a difference. Mm-hmm. And something that I always recommend to the people that I work with is like, you are the one in control deciding which is the level of details that you want to share, which are some areas that you don’t want to go there and it’s totally fine.

You don’t need to, so is your own business, you are the one deciding what are the sharing. Um, and I always like to, to highlight the difference between personal and private because you can keep your story private and your details private. Yeah. And it’s still showing. Who, who you are as a professional, as someone that is serving them.

Yes. So there is this line where, um, and also something that you can do, if you want the same story, you can share it in different ways and you can decide the level of detail maybe in a more exposed, um, a scenario. You are just be more just briefly mentioning, but then. Maybe in your email marketing you feel like this is my, uh, safer space.

Yes. I’ll be sharing a bit more. And then even I have seen how people are in their onboarding process. Mm-hmm. They are, they are sharing a bit more as a way to like show their clients that this is a safe space where they can share their, the vulner so you can decide which is the level that you can use.

Um, how, yeah. Go on. Sorry. Your experience. You can make people comfortable.

I’m told, I don’t almost feel confident, but I’m told I come across very confidently. Um, people don’t think I ever had that, you know, judiciary nerve part and saying that I did and that’s okay is very reassuring. When you’re onboarding new clients, it’s like, okay, we can get away around it. You don’t have to expose your whole family.

I know a lot of people will not put their children on Facebook or Instagram, and I completely understand that. ’cause you wanna keep them safe. Yes. Um, but you can, um, Facebook and Instagram for all the criticism of them. And there’s a lot, um, also actually have options where you can choose who sees what post.

You have to make the efforts to go into the settings to do that. But you can have a group of close friends or you can have a public group and you can swap between those two. You have to remember to do that in terms of what gets shared. Um, so if you want to keep part of your private life private and still be on a Facebook or Instagram, you can do that.

You just have to tag the right people. Takes a bit more effort, but it is worth it. Yeah. Yeah. And you decide, uh, like. As you said, like you are deciding who is in which of the groups and what are you sharing with them and all of that. And of course about the children and the social media. There are are a whole other conversation there.

Exactly, yes. Um, but yes, it’s like the things that you decide and, and what I was um, just going to mention is how for any story related to you or related to your family or anyone is like deciding. Uh, sharing the, the, the lessons that you get from that moment. Yeah. The emotions that you leave, that’s going to connect with people.

You don’t need to go into the details Yeah. To ha to create that connection. So you can still, uh, share moments that, and keep it like super briefly and still showing that that interaction, that that human connection. And, and it does make a difference. Again, sharing your story. I I, I’ve only just closed the brand down, but it’s still part of my brand is be your own graphic designer.

I’ve now merged that with my more marketing business. ’cause running two business is just a really big headache. Um, so I’ve now merged that and, and I do still do the Canva Canva training. But for me, one of the big things is, and one of the things people relate to is I say, I literally cannot draw a straight line.

I am. So I’ve got, I am, I’m full of ideas. I’m very creative idea wise. Cannot get those done on paper. And Canvas made, allowed me to do that, which is a really good way of just a, again, breaking the ice and just saying, you know, you can do these things. It’s easy. It is easy to do them once, you know, and I literally, I’m not an artist or graphic designer in any way, shape, or form, but you learn and you can teach yourself, and you learn more of these things as you go along.

Yeah. So yes. So those kind of things and that kind of story just does help. So mine, I literally, I often used to put in posts. I cannot draw a straight line. I’m hopeless at this. But having said that, I’m kind of investor, I have nearly a 6,000 following on YouTube and you know, it’s like you can treat, teach people.

So I keep very short tips, very simple trainings so that people can work their way through it easily. Hmm. And I love, uh, that you can use your own storytelling to show how you were in their shoes, so you really understand, um, their concern or what they are going through. So that’s a, a great way to use, uh, one of your, uh, the moments of your story.

Um, so, and. I would love to also go into the how you can use, um, your stories or any other ideas how you can use social media for your business. I have heard for people and I have, uh, been, uh, using that, uh, three pillars and I would like to know your opinion, how you can use social media for being in front of new audiences.

For nurturing that relationship and for selling your, your, your services or what you offer. So how do you think in those moments will be interesting to use storytelling, um, and not just showing the, the features of your offer. Well, the, the good thing in terms of your stories, I mean, it’s just on, in particularly on Instagram and a lot of coaches and therapists are on Instagram.

Um, one of the things you can do is actually pin your story to the top post. So you can just pick up one, a good post that’s about your story, about why you’re doing what you’re doing with a. Ideally a video, but that could be a step too far. I can I, which I completely appreciate. Um, but you could have a video with a, I’m gonna say hook, but that’s very techie.

Um, with a postle, just, just has to say, put some type on it that says my story or why I do what I do. Um, and on the cover of your video or on your post, uh, with a picture of you or just. And it can be what’s also, this sounds also techy B roll. So you don’t actually have to be doing something, you don’t have to be talking to the camera.

You could just be you, I dunno, uh, moving like reach around and move the picture of my force or do something else. Or just doing something around the house or walking, just filming yourself, walking around. I’ve got a great one I’m about to put out with me walking along the beach. Uh, ’cause I live right on the coast and it’s lovely.

Um, and those kind of things just, it helps people see who you are, where you’re at, and then you can just actually go on and tell your story in the post. And as I said, pinning that means that that’s the first thing that people, people will see when they go to your. ’cause you have an option of pinning three posts at the top of your Instagram profile, or that’s what they’ll see when they go to your profile.

Hmm. Yeah. And, uh, other ideas for, for doing the, the B roll is just when you are working. If, let’s say you are, even if you are working on the computer, um, you can put just, uh, your phone and recording yourself. Just when you do, let’s say if you are doing a session. Yeah, so you just can record yourself just, and then use it as the image, and then you can do a voiceover, uh, within your story there, or even using pictures and combining that so you have so many options.

Of course, don’t get overwhelmed. Keep it simple. Yes, simple. If just a simple photo is gonna work with just the look, with just the wording, why I do what I do. That would be great ’cause that will catch attention. Yeah. So, and then all the information about how used your story and why you’re doing it can be in the caption.

Yeah. And also because it is not that you share ones and it’s done. No. So you can share real concern about social media. So the good place, the really good place to sell is of course stories. So the story is that when, because it’s, I’m gonna say really good real estate or, or pro or land, because it’s right at the top of your, of your posts or your streams.

You get reminded of them on Instagram. You see them on Facebook as soon as you go on. So it’s a really good place to actually sell. Mm-hmm. Um, and because they disappear in 24 hours, you don’t have to feel like, oh God, I’m being too tacky, or I’m being too pushy, or any of those things. Any of those things that we just get overwhelmed with and think, oh, we shouldn’t do that.

But it’s really easy to do that. So, so that’s one way, another way of actually selling. Yeah. You B roll, whatever really works well on that. Hmm. Yeah. This is like, uh, how to make it easier. And we doing this, uh, chats we already have. Talk about that topic of, uh, how you work. And just analyze what works best for you.

I always like to ask, okay, if you are someone that naturally you go and you take your phone and send audio messages, use that voice. Use your voice and see how you can use that. Or if you are more like a writing person, yeah, go in that direction and use that as the base. And then you maybe read it, but you start with the writing.

So yeah, use what makes more sense for you, what is easier for you and is about sharing. Uh, what it makes you unique. What is your approach? And so we want to repeat that message, uh, so use it in different format as well. So do you have any, um, uh, advice that you give to your clients about how to share the same thing in different ways?

But one of the things I say is be consistent. Whatever you’re doing and sharing the same thing isn’t a problem. And you could, because social media is apart from the pin posts we just talked about is so fleeting, people don’t see it that much. So you don’t have to agonize about the fact, oh, you know, they’ll all seen this zillion times before, you know, if another month or a couple months later you want share the same thing, there’s no problem with that.

It’ll be fine and it’ll actually just serve to reinforce because people.

Delicately just designing or whatever this, or recording this post. It’ll be so brief in people’s other people’s lives that, you know, they, they won’t probably remember it. So don’t, don’t be offended by that, but just be realistic about it. Um, and you can, so you can reshare some of the things that you’ve already used and repeat them again.

It’s not a problem, uh, not every week. But, uh, but a, a couple of weeks later, or a slightly different angle on, on something, uh, is, is an easy way to do it. Or just changing a photo, doing something different. ’cause the captions, you can keep the same if you wanted to. Yeah. Yeah. Use something. Yeah. It’s a way, especially if, uh, you are a solo business owner or you have a really small, uh, team, it is like you have limited capacity.

Yes. So how to, to share the, the, to reinforce the message in a way that you are not starting from scratch every time. So also, also is, is to be consistent, but don’t post 24 7, you don’t have to post every day. It’s, it’s, uh, I think it’s, it’s, it’s been fed to us by all the gurus that you must post every day.

And I have to say, if I was doing a launch or doing something special, I would post every day going up to a launch or even a couple times a day. But my normal posting is usually three, three times a week. And I don’t think you need to be on social media all the time. And that’s one of the things that a lot of my cha lot of my clients find very challenging because they haven’t got the time.

They want to do what they, they didn’t want, they didn’t go to their business to become a marketing expert or spend all the time on social media. They want to actually do what they trained to do. Uh, so not being around that all the time means that you will still attract to clients. I mean, I had a very quiet phase of hardly appearing at all at the beginning of this year because lots of things going on for me personally.

But had occasional posts, just occasionally things. And since then I’ve actually learned that actually doing things three times a week is absolutely fine. Don’t go mad. Um, and I still picked up some very nice clients in the, in the type scale. It’s fine. They Googled me on things I always talk about people doing is actually posting on their Google business.

Most people don’t bother to do that. And it’s such a valuable piece that Google loves new content. So you know, so posting on your go and you can put posts just photos on your Google profile, it’s one of the things I think is very underused and, and hugely beneficial and they. Asking because I have no idea and I haven’t used it myself.

So, uh, do you have the option, I know that you can upload images. Mm-hmm. Do you have the option to also upload like the captions there as well? Yes. Yep. Okay. Nice. Uh, with a button that actually says book now, buy, learn more. Mm-hmm. All those kind of things. So you can choose the options and some of the, um.

The social media schedulers, not all of them, but some of them do allow you to post directly to when you’re posting to Facebook and everything else do allow you to schedule to Google business, your Google Business program too. Nice. Yeah. Which again, saves so much time. Yes, yes, we would save them. Um, so yeah.

And also because in Google, uh, the business, you have the reviews. Yes. And you can go in the other way around and bring in the reviews to your social media. Right? Exactly. Yes. So you can go both ways around. And actually more recently, it was actually getting a, this year, or end of last year, I can’t remember when, but you can, you never used to be able to put all your social media links on your Google business profile, but now you can.

So people can find you from there and go to your social media very easily. Nice, nice. There’s all those kind of things that just help make it easier. People want to find you, they want to know more about you, so that’s quite important that they can. Yeah. And, um, what about other ways that, um, for social proof?

Because one of the things that I, um, testimonials is the other one. Yes, yes. That’s what other people say about you. If you’ve got video testimonials, brilliant. But I accept those are quite hard to get, but you can just take it said your Google profile. Reviews or ones that have been given to you directly and put them onto a post.

Very easy posting to do, uh, make, make it look pretty in Canva. There’s lots of lovely templates you can use. And, um, and then, uh, and then post that on your social media. And that’s one of your three posts a week. You know, and that’s what someone else is saying about you that’s so important. And why they found you important is ’cause people are usually very generous.

Again, another thing that my clients really struggle with is actually asking for testimonials. Uh, I’ve actually almost had to twist their arm to get them to do it. They’re like, oh, I don’t want to do it. I don’t want to do it. I’m like, honestly, people will be happy to do it. And I remember one client, he was like.

I sent out 12, he said, and they all came back. I was so pleased. And I, I remember doing this early on in my days of doing LinkedIn profiles, and I got, and in those days it was from people I’d worked with, um, rather than just, and I, they were so good. They were so nice. I was actually really moved in terms of how beneficial that people had found working with me, which was, or working for me in those days.

In, in terms of the, um. But it was, I was building towards my business, which just gave, I suppose even if it was a business profile and you’re new to your business, you could ask people who worked with you or for you there, because it still proves the kind of person you are. Yeah, a hundred percent. I. Yeah, because I have a lot of people that they, maybe they are starting or they are pivoting because I work a lot with people that they are pivoting in their business.

It’s like, okay, I don’t have testimonials for the new offering. It’s like, okay, what are the skills that you are using in those, uh, offers that you have already used for other clients in different offers? Because you can bring those. Pieces of those testimonials there. Um, and it’s not, you don’t need to, to make up the, their testimonial.

It’s just choosing the part that they are talking about. That specific part. Yeah. Right. Yeah. And also how, when you want to highlight, let’s say, a skill, let’s say a specific factor, benefit of your offer, I always, uh, invite people to, okay, you have a testimonial, you have the benefit. Think about. Also a story, a meaningful moment where that skill was relevant, not just as now here in this, uh, work with your clients, but in a different scenario.

I love when clients go with stories that they are working in a different, uh, like different industry or if they are using the skill with family. So bring that, because that’s. Showing how this is natural to you and is valuable for your clients. Yes. So it gives more context about how this is something that, for you it came natural, but for them it’s super valuable.

Yeah. So use your story for that and it makes such a difference because that’s where people really start to get to know you and, and, and then you start to get the business, which is fabulous. Yeah. And as you say, we are using. Uh, who we are, we are not, uh, going, uh, with this idea of the being manipulative because I, I know that for some people when you say strategy, they might think, uh, of something manipulative.

I like to invite people to think about intentional. Yes. When you are doing something with the strategy, you are putting the intention, okay, what is the goal? What is the plan to go closer to that goal? I know that you do a lot of strategy for your clients. Yeah. So it is like, uh, having that changing how you see.

Market, uh, strategy and marketing in general? Market in particular? Yeah, marketing in general. Most people, I mean, I have clients or I’ve had clients who, when before they came to me, just felt it was like the last thing they ever wanted to do in their life. They just hated the whole idea of marketing. So making it easier for them has been, you know, real turnaround for their business.

Um, because they knew they didn’t want to get into the whole marketing bit, but they knew they had to because they wanted to grow their business. Yeah, there was no choice. So it was like, okay, you’re just gonna have to do it. Yeah. So, and for some people it is like, okay, this like another totally another work that I need to do because I want to do my business and then I have this, that to promote my offers or my services and I know how can be overwhelming.

So that’s why. Try to get as things as simple as possible, as you were saying, and try to, to make things work in your, um, favor. So analyze what works for you, try to repurpose things and, and try to, to help make things easier for you and your business. Yeah. ’cause you can easily take, and this is where I, where I would use AI as well.

You can easily take. A blog you’ve written or a email you’ve written and ask whatever chat gpt or whatever to convert it into some, uh, social media posts for you. Yeah, make your life easy. I’m very much into simplifying your life and making it easy as you can to actually achieve what you’re trying to do, um, and not spend your whole life.

Doing your marketing because yeah, that’s not what you went into your business for. So, and I’m very into, you know, living by the city, living by you in a beautiful place. I, I don’t wanna spend all my life working. I, I want to work life balance. Yeah. So, so that’s really important to me. Love helping people and love working with them.

But I do have a life beyond that. Yeah. Yeah. And, and this is the beauty, like you can invest time of your life in helping others, but then also time of your life to be doing other things that will, uh, bring your creativity and you will have, uh, your mind will be help, uh, more helpful for them because it will be ready for be more creative for helping them in different things.

So, absolutely agree on that. Um, something that I. Invite people is to how you can repurpose things that you have already. Yes. Done. Like as you say, if you have blog posts, if you have been invited to a podcast, uh, for example as a guest, yes. How you can use that pieces to repurpose them and use it on social media is beneficial for you because you are creating content on, um, and sharing your point of view.

It’s also beneficial for you. Uh, for the host that is inviting you because it’s another opportunity for more people to know about their show and so on. So. First, maybe make a list of all the things that you already have done in the past. Because I, I know for sure that there are content that we have done or even uh, resources when we do a class in somewhere else, community and things like that.

And it’s like you get to forget sometimes when you have done so, you do check what you have done. Yeah. Particularly when you get very busy. But I mean, I’ll be taking, I’ll be taking this, uh, recording and I’ll be using it and probably cutting out some of the bits, probably cutting you outta some of them normally.

Don’t take it the wrong way. Um, and using some odd bits and pieces of, of, of what we’ve been talking about as posts that I can use just in my social media and, you know, getting just to, to cut them and it’s. I know it sounds very techy, but it is actually quite, there are lots of fantastic tools. Yes. And that I tend to help a lot of my clients with is finding some really simple tools that either free or reason, very reasonably priced to actually, you know, do this and make it easier for them to, to cut out the bits.

But people don’t mind if you make mistakes or, um, and are, it’s part of your natural speech. It’s not a problem. Yeah. The whole thing is you might need to cut a bit out. Uh, I know I, my biggest problem is that I will speak very fast. But a lot of that is just my natural enthusiasm, so I struggle to think that slower but funny.

She speak so fast anyway. It doesn’t matter anyway. That’s absolutely,

absolutely. Um, so yeah, so, um. Yeah, use, uh, use the, that, the, that, uh, you have done and repurpose it and try to things make, uh, as easy as possible. Uh, that will be like my, my final thoughts. So on the topic, I would love to know if you have any other takeaways or insights that you would like to share before we, we finish our conversation.

Uh, just take takeaway is you don’t have to go viral to get clients. You don’t have to have huge numbers and don’t think you’ve got to sit there and do your TikTok dance or whatever it is. Don’t go there. Um, and the other thing I suppose, I mean, you asked me for three words and I suppose I’m just gonna steal the Nike slogan or just do it.

Yeah. I love that. Yeah. 

For me, if I had to summarize the, the combination of, uh, personal brand story and social media, I would, in one word, I would say nurturing because I feel that they nurture each other and they make it like more powerful. Yes. So, yeah, that’s just very nurturing, as I said, and it dovetails perfectly, so it’s very important.

Mm. Yeah. To get that across. Yeah. So thank you so much for this conversation. It was lovely. And, and yeah, and if, uh, anyone that is, uh, listening or watching, they want to learn more about you, uh, that there are the links out there. And also if they have any question about the specific tool that they can use or anything like that, feel free to write in the comments and we will be suggesting our options.

So, absolutely. Yeah. So thank you so much, Kim. Okay. And I’m gonna go off and now repurpose this video. Yeah, we’re gonna do, they can see like how we are going to do it. Thank they can like, and, and do the same. Of course. Absolutely. So thank you so much, um, and thank you to everyone that has joined. Um, see you next time.

Okay. Hope to do this again. Okay then. Take care.