23: The Solopreneur’s Guide to Authentic Storytelling That Grows Your Brand

Feeling like you need to post more educational tips to grow on Instagram? Think again. In this episode of The Creative Bodega, I’m breaking down the real reason your audience connects—and it’s not your perfectly curated content. It’s your storytelling.

You’ll learn how to show up like a human (not just a business), say the things your audience is thinking but not saying, and repurpose your content without burning out. If you’re ready to create content that actually connects and converts, this one’s for you.

Let’s make your content feel more like you—and less like a checklist.

👉 Check out the full show notes for this episode.

What I cover inside the episode:
✨ Why posting more tips doesn’t build trust—storytelling does
✨ 3 ways to use storytelling to deepen audience connection
✨ How to repurpose your podcast to work smarter, not harder
✨ Why vulnerability builds brand loyalty (even if it scares you)
✨ The behind-the-scenes mindset shift I’m navigating while recording video

📌 Episode Resources
My Top 10 Most Commented on Storytelling Posts

Connect with me:
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🫶🏼 Join my 321 Create Newsletter for weekly content tips
🫶🏼 Check out The Content Coven Membership

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Transcript

0:00

The reason people feel like I'm their bestie isn't'cause I post daily can tips. Okay? It's'cause I show up like a human. I tell the truth and I say the quiet parts out loud and you can do the same. And when you do, people are gonna feel it. Welcome to the Creative Bodega, a podcast about content marketing, Instagram growth, and personal branding for female service-based solopreneurs who wanna grow their business without letting it take over their lives. I'm your host, EM Connors, and each week I'll share actionable tips, expert advice, and unfiltered truths to help you create engaging content, connect authentically with your audience and turn followers into loyal customers, all without the burnout. If you're ready to simplify your content creation, navigate the ever changing trends and build a business that works for you while staying sane in this. Crazy season of life, then you're in the right place. Hey guys, I'm here and today I wanna talk about storytelling. So just a little behind the scenes information. I'm actually recording this with video today, and I don't know if I'll use it on YouTube because. The thought of putting this on YouTube terrifies me. I don't know why. Hiding behind a mic and podcasting without actually looking at a screen and like analyzing myself and judging myself, which is a lot easier, but. I'm gonna try it because if I can work smarter, not harder, and literally just like use my podcast for YouTube, like that makes the most sense, right? Like why would I not? But we'll see. So I just wanna let you know if I sound weird today, it's probably'cause of that, but I'm not gonna even look at the screen as I'm talking. I'm gonna look at my notes because I mean, I wouldn't be able to stay on track otherwise. Okay. Storytelling to build connection and community. As a service based solopreneur, so everybody asks me all the time, how do I increase my engagement? How do I increase my story views? And all I want you to try this week is to tell a personable, relatable story. And I'm absolutely gonna give you some ideas to help maybe spark some ideas in you or some aha moments. Like, oh, like this happened to me a couple weeks ago, I could share about that, right? So if you've ever felt like your content is. Fine, but not quite connecting with your audience, or they're not replying to you. You know, they're not commenting on your post in your feed, or they're not replying to your stories in Instagram. I mean, or they're not. Like my audience dms me after listening to my podcast episode to say, I love this or loved it, da da, da. So if you're not getting that verbal confirmation that your audience is paying attention and they're listening to you and they're enjoying what you're talking about. Storytelling's, likely the missing piece. When I look at a student or a member inside the covens feed and I just see like teaching, teaching, teaching, teaching, and there's really no like. Pause, personal connection moment. No storytelling. It's the first thing I tell them to do. Some people are the opposite. It's actually too much. Storytelling, storytelling, storytelling. I have a friend that's like that and there's really no like tangible teaching moments or, you know what I mean? I'm like, well, you need some more education. Or the other person would need more personal storytelling moments. Okay. It sort of falls into the entertainment category if you're thinking about it like. Entertain, inspire, educate. Or it could fall into inspire, but it's just vital. And when I first started posting on social media, what I did was each week on Wednesday, I would just share a photo of myself and the value would be in the caption and I'd be storytelling. And I actually have a free resource. It's like my top 10 most replied to. Story-based captions, and I'll include that link in this show notes today. And if you do need any show notes, you're simply gonna go to the creative bodega.com/blog/ 23 for all the notes on this episode. But you should download that'cause. I basically hyperlink each of these posts that got me the most replies, right? And they're, they're storytelling. It's just a photo of me. So clearly when you see a photo of someone, you're like, well, the values in the caption. Let's see what this caption's all about. And I would just try to tell a story. Why?'cause listen, I could give Canva and content creation tips tell blue in the face. But like sometimes you gotta pause and just be like, what's up? This is me. I am M, this is something I experienced. This is something I went through. Can you relate to this? That's where people feel that connection piece. And I'm telling you, it has been the biggest difference maker in my business to build it to what it is today. You know, a multi six figure business on track to hit a million dollars in revenue this year. And that's from my last three and a half years of being in business. That is not any year. I'm not one of those, you know, success stories, but I'm really proud of what I've built. And my gosh, the fact that I'm gonna hit a million dollars. In this thing that I just built in my fourth spare bedroom is, is something to celebrate. So, and storytelling really is, or sharing parts of my life is, is really at the, the beast of that. So when I say storytelling, like, what do I mean? I mean, my husband thinks I load the dishwasher the wrong way. I saw a hummingbird outside my window and it made me think of my grandfather. I have a kid who is incredibly anxious and having issues falling asleep at night. What would you do? So it's, it's really inviting people into your story where they can then say, me too, or I have an idea for that, or my husband thinks the same. Like, it's just getting people to relate to you on a human level. Right. And it's so important. Okay, so this episode's gonna be your roadmap. So what we're gonna dive into today, why storytelling's the most underrated strategy for growth? How to start, even if you think your stories are boring, which is something I hear all the time. Oh, I have nothing to talk about. My life is so boring, false. So, um, I wanna share some simple ways that I share stories that build that trust and connection. Okay, so let's just get into it. This is why storytelling works, even if you don't think you're a good storyteller. There's one thing I've learned from my business on Instagram and in my emails and on my podcasts and in the dms, it's that people don't buy from people they admire. Okay. They buy from people that they feel the closest to the most comfortable with. How are you gonna get someone to feel close to you as a human being? By telling stories, not by showing that you know the most, there are so many experts out there that know more than me. I'm the first to admit that I don't pretend like I know anything. And when somebody calls me out and is like, there's a better way to do that, I'm like. Awesome. Thank you. Now I'm gonna update that reel and do it better next time. I don't pretend I know it all, but. I absolutely help people feel close to me by being vulnerable and by sharing parts of my life that I'm comfortable sharing. I'm not forcing this and I'll explain kind of how I approach it in a little bit, but you know, a Canva tip here or there, content creation ideas or streamlining it, like that'll get saved. Absolutely. But when I share something, like I almost didn't record this episode because I felt. Off today because I'm about to get my period, or you know, it gets like all these replies, like, oh, same like, oh, you know, oh my God, thank you for saying this. I thought I was crazy. Or literally me today. Like I, I get flooded with those types of replies and that's what you want. That's connection. That's community building. It's not just visibility, it's not just growth. It's community building, so how to start even if your life feels boring. Okay, so I just reviewed why it's important and I think I've hit that home pretty well. Why storytelling works. How to start, even if you feel like your life is boring. Do what I said I did in the beginning. Yeah. I don't do it anymore and I could, I could bring it back easily. But I just, I'm sort of to the point where I don't necessarily need to, and I'm really storytelling and nurturing my audience in places other than my feed. So what I told you in the beginning is when I first started, and for the first three years of my business, every Wednesday was just a simple photo of me with a story in the caption. Something relatable, something that didn't always have to do with business. Sometimes it did, but a lot of times it didn't. And it would be something like. One of my most commented was three truths and one Lie where I literally shared three true things about me, and there was a lie in there. And my audience had to pick which one was the lie that let my audience get to know things about me, but they, they didn't maybe know before. Like I attended three colleges. Uh, my grandfather invented the TV dinner. Gosh, I forget the other true ones that I, I did, but, and then I threw a lie in there. If you don't know what to say, ask Chacha. Bt go to Chacha bt and say, these are three truths I wanna tell my audience. Can you come up, help me come up with some good lies that I could include? Right? I talk about my recipe. Skew dog blitz. He's a pit bull. He's completely neurotic, but I love him and he's my shadow and people can relate to that. And I talk about how my daughter is very anxious and how, you know, she struggles with going to bed at night. I can't even tell you the amount of feedback I got from that. Post. That was actually a story, just people being like, try this, try this. Have you tried this? And it was really helpful. Okay, so why does this work? Because it's the stuff that people feel connected to and maybe they just don't say out loud, but they instantly recognize it. Right? It doesn't have to be profound. It doesn't have to be anything like earth shadowing. You just need to be specific and honest with your audience. So here's a really simple framework to start with. This happened and here's what it reminded me of, or if there's any way for you to pull your audience in. This happened. What would you guys do? What would you try? What has worked for you? The second your audience feels needed and important and valued, they're gonna chime in, trust me. Okay, so examples Again, I've had thermostat wars with my husband before. I've had dishwasher wars, anything husband related gets a lot of replies. Anything kid related gets a lot of replies. Anything about my rescue dog gets a lot of replies. Anything about just like home stuff in general. And again, here's what it reminded me of. Like we all have ways of doing certain things and you can relate it back to your business if you want. Like my dishwasher drama with my husband, he thinks, I dunno how to load it. Here's what it reminded me of. We all have our own way of doing things. And business is no different. So you can tie it back to business if you want, if that feels more legit to you. And sometimes I'm not lying. I go into chat, GBT, I say, I'm thinking of sharing this story, and I wanna relate it back to being a business owner. What, what ideas do you have for me? And if my brain just doesn't make those connections, which it often doesn't, okay. But now it's relatable, it's helpful, and it sticks. So how do I do this in my own content? There isn't a perfect mapped out content calendar strategy for me. Honestly. I really do follow my intuition. I do a lot of this in my stories. I do a lot of this on my podcast. I do a lot of this in the intro to my newsletter that I send every week, but sometimes I wake up and think, let's talk about Canva and how to make your content look like this, you know, big brand with a little tiny effort. And other days I'm like. I just need to tell you what happened to me today. And it's messy and maybe you can relate, right? And I do both in my stories, no question. I'm, I'm teaching sometimes, and other times I'm just like, you guys aren't gonna believe what happened. So how do I make this feel really natural? I don't have coworkers anymore. And honest to God, if you're one of my past coworkers, you know. I, I've stayed in touch with all my past coworkers, the ones that I made relationships with. I, I adore them. I, I got involved in their lives. I knew their lives. I knew their kids. I knew their dynamics with their husbands. I, I knew their job struggles. Like we would talk every morning before the big boss came in. We would sit with our coffee and we would chat and we would tell stories. What happened last night? You're not gonna believe this. Oh, have you guys tried this new makeup product? You're gonna love it. I'm loving it. Like those daily little gems of stories or information that make you relatable. So I honest to God, sit and I pretend. What would I say to my coworkers this morning if, you know, if they were sitting here next to me and that helps me so much. It's just that honest, relaxed coffee breath conversation before the boss comes in. Okay. And that tone builds so much trust with your audience. It's not like, come look at me. It's more like, come sit with me, come hang out, let's have a conversation. And honestly, one of the best compliments I get in my dms is like. When you're talking, I feel like I'm sitting across from you having coffee, and I'm like, that's phenomenal. That's the energy that I want in my business. I want you to feel like you could be my friend in real life. So in my audience, in the content coven. Everywhere I hang out. That's really how I attract people who don't just follow me. They stay and they end up buying because there is this relatability factor. Okay, so I just actually wanna review with you some of my most replied most viewed stories. I looked up my most viewed stories in the last three months, and let me just run through what they are real quick. Top 180 500 views. It is me walking to my car, not looking, the camera's not looking at me, the camera's looking out at my car, and my son is inside playing the recorder. And in third grade, you start playing the recorder where I live. And he was playing it nonstop, in fact. To the point that we were going somewhere in the car and he brought it in the car and I was like, I'm going to be noise canceling headphones. So relatable. Anyone who has a kid who ever had the recorder like fully agreed. Okay, next one. It's me sitting at my son's soccer game again, not the camera looking at me. In fact, none of these are the camera looking at me talking. It's all me facing out or reels that I shared. This one, my daughter is decorating my medical shoe with dandelions because I had recently had surgery on my foot. Don't even ask me why that's the most viewed. The next one is a reel that I shared. So a really great way to start out doing this is by finding reels that make you laugh, that feel so relatable and just are funny. So this one is somebody trying to put a duvet cover on. And it makes me laugh just looking at it. They got completely stuck inside of it and someone's videoing laughing so hard and it just made me cackle and I was like, my audience is gonna think this is funny. Fourth one with 4,500 views is me a picture of my kids visiting my grandparents' grave. My grandparents were like the most important people in my entire world. They both passed away. I took my kids to finally see their grave. And I don't know, that's, I guess just, you know, that human connection life, death kids. Um, the next one is, oh, a funny reel that somebody posted about dishwasher loading literally 2,400 views. Uh, the next one's actually my daughter's birthday. I just, it's a picture of her with a cake in front of her with candles. Happy birthday to my sweet 8-year-old girl. Lots of views. I don't know. Relatable. The next one, which is the seventh highest in the last three months is what email subject line would you click if you got this email in your inbox, like which subject? And people, again, you feel valuable. I'm asking you for your opinion. I'm going to use what you select. People love that. Next one, a reel that I shared about somebody like replying to dms. Like I'm screaming, I'm literally crying. I'm dead. Like can't breathe. And it's actually a picture of this guy just like looking at his phone with like a smirk and it says mean reality, which just made me laugh because it's kind of me. I'm like, oh my God. It's funniest thing I've seen all day and I like actually didn't laugh. But anyways. And then the last one is me and my kids at a lacrosse tournament like. I don't know. So do you see the theme here? It's literally like reels that made me laugh. That help share my sense of humor. And if you relate, you're gonna laugh at it too. Or if you have a similar personality or you have a similar sense of humor, you're gonna laugh. And then it's. Funny, personal kid stuff like, and listen, I'm not saying you have to show your kids if you don't wanna share your kids, that's fine. I always ask my kids before I share anything online, do you mind if I share this? My daughter's typically all about it. My son doesn't love it, so I don't share him a lot. He doesn not wanna be on video. He's too shy and I don't care. I'm not gonna make him do it. Reese, on the other hand, my daughter, she kind of likes the limelight, so. She doesn't mind, but she's gotta prove it first. Like I will always show her this is what it looks like. Is that okay? So my kids are old enough. They're eight and nine now. Had to think about that. They just had birthdays so they can say yay or nay. All right, so here's what breaks the trust post in like a robot. Showing up like you're always on. Like that's just not real. It's such a turnoff to me. I'm not gonna throw some big names out there that show up like this, but it's a little nauseating to me, and you probably know who I'm talking about. But just always, hi. Like, like chill, chill. Be normal. Be real. Like I cannot relate to that, like over the top energy. I want out asap. And last thing, hiding your humanness because you think it's unprofessional, it's not. If you are a solopreneur, building a personal brand, that human side of you is what is gonna get people to relate and connect and feel that trust between you and somebody else who doesn't do this, right? So what are your next steps? Simple, simple homework. This week I want you to share a story that feels small but honest. Use this prompt. This happened today. It reminded me that, or this happened today. What would you do? And tie it into something you know, your audience would feel as well. Don't overthink it. Don't polish it. Just share it. And if you're thinking, is this actually gonna work? Let me just say this. The reason people feel like I'm their bestie isn't'cause I post daily canid tips. Okay? It's'cause I show up like a human. I tell the truth and I say the quiet parts out loud and you can do the same. And when you do, people are gonna feel it. So do me a favor. Post something this week in your feed or hop in your stories and share a true story and let people feel that human side of you. You don't need more hooks, you just need honesty. All right, give it a shot. Let me know how it goes, and I will see you on the next episode. Thanks so much for hanging out with me on the Creative Bodega Podcast. If you love this episode, please be sure to share it with a fellow solopreneur. Who could use a little content creation inspiration. And hey, don't forget to check out the show notes for any resources I mentioned on the episode to help you create content that feels easy and actually gets you results. If you want even more Canva and content tips, head over to my website, the creative bodega.com, or find me on Instagram under the same name. Until next time, keep creating, keep showing up, and most importantly, try and have a little fun with your content. I'll see you on the next episode.