2301 - Crafting Compelling Narratives By Making Your Brand’s “Why” Shine with A Good Reputation's Renee Frojo

0:04Well, hey, Thoughtful Leader. Welcome to the Thoughtful Entrepreneur. On this show, I interview purpose-driven founders, experts, and change makers who are making a real impact in the world. Want to be a guest? Simple. Go to upmyinfluence.com and click podcast. I'd love to promote your story to our audience of over 100 ,000 and across over 2 ,300 daily episodes and counting. Want to get booked on other great shows like this? Simple. Go to podverified.com and get your free guest authority score. Thousands of hosts are looking for high quality guests and Podverified connects you the right way. Now let's dive into today's episode.

0:58With us right now, it's Rene Froyo. Renee, you are a brand storyteller, you're a content strategist, and you're the founder and CEO of A Good Reputation. You are found on the web at ReneeLynnFroyo.com. We have that direct link in the show notes for this podcast episode. Well, Renee, it's great to have you. It's great to be here. Thanks, Josh. You are in the Bay Area, and we were talking beforehand, and I was going to ask you, what do you do when you're not working? And obviously you're in a beautiful part of the country and you have so much around you to do. But what have you been geeking out on?

1:38What are you doing for fun? What do you do to decompress, unwind? Well, I've literally not been working for the past two months. I've taken the complete summer off, which has been my dream since starting my business. My partner is a teacher, so he gets summers off always. And I always wanted to be right there with him. We travel a lot and I was always there with my laptop and tropical locations. And this year I really got to take it off. And I have a little house in Costa Rica that I bought last year at Airbnb when I can't use it. And then finally got to really spend some significant amount of time there this summer.

2:15So I've been not working, just listening, reading books on the hammock and falling asleep to the wind and seeing the monkeys above me and surfing every day. It was, I, I've, I have never felt so re-energized and recharged to really come back to my work. Yeah. Well, that's, I, I really wanted to, I mean, that sounds divine. And, and, you know, I'm thinking of, you know, both my wife and I work virtually and I think, you know, and that we have our, our, our youngest is in his sophomore year in college. So we're kind of, you know, getting, starting to make plans around that. So do you mind maybe just sharing a little bit more about that decision to actually take that long of a break?

2:59And it's an investment to do so. And just share maybe a little bit more about the return on that investment. Yeah. Well, I've always said from the start, I want to build a very intentional business that's aligned with how I work and how I want to live my life. And the problem that I faced in my first couple of years, and I saw so many people, other B2B service providers like myself or consultants, fractionals, freelancers, small business owners that start to have more of that flexibility and freedom, end up just building themselves another job, right? That you have, you're working more hours than if you were checking in, punching a card and, you know, punching out at a corporate workspace.

3:40workspace. I really wanted to be intentional about that. And that really took focusing on what business models would allow me to do something like this. And it took building my brand and reputation, right? Like really building some momentum, getting my name out there so that it could continue to work for me if I took a small break, right? Because two months really in the grand scheme of things isn't that long if you're set up for it. So I actually just kind of filled my pipeline early on and then didn't take any clients for the summer and had clients lined up to start in September, which I really like hit the ground running.

4:16So I felt like I had this padding on both sides or I could really take this time off. And because I focused so much on brand building and reputation building, going on podcasts, building my social media following, creating an engaged newsletter with subscribers. You got to do a lot of deep work. It's a lot of deep work and it's definitely, it's, it's a long game. And I realized, and, and it paid off, you know, after, after three years. So it's like, it was just, just like how you build in revenue goals, right. Or, um, growth goals. Like I built in seasonal breaks, right. So I wanted my, my goal is two months in the summer and three weeks during the holidays when things are slow anyway, for the most part.

5:00So I, I, it's not like I didn't do any work. I kind of did like some of that thoughtful, more deeper planning work, you know, really working on the business instead of in the business. Um, so a little bit of that, but I felt like I had a lot of creative space and freedom to do it and truly, truly taking a break is people say it all the time. You hear really successful, uh, business owners say that, you know, rest, like real rest in play is probably the most critical thing you can do for your business, right? To keep your momentum up, to have it be sustainable, to, you know, just keep from burning out, which you hear so often is, is, it's kind of the main affliction of business, right?

5:45And freelancers specifically. So. And burnout is, is it's not, it's not difficult. And I, I feel like, you know, culturally it's almost like the inevitable path if we really kind of buy into that and we're not consciously like you know and i'll just speak for myself i don't know that that's the case for everybody but it absolutely is for me you know i obviously my work is rewarding and and obviously i love doing it but uh how valuable that is thank you so much for inspiring you know someone that's contemplating taking a longer sabbatical and, you know, what that might mean for them. Well, Renee, and I know that, you know, I'm so excited to talk about your superpowers.

6:29Do you mind sharing a bit more about the work you do at A Good Reputation? So I started my career in journalism and telling other people's stories. So I was primarily a business journalist and I reported on small business stories. and I had all the fun beats. I had hospitality and retail and philanthropy and nonprofits and travel. So I really, food, I really, I really had a fun group of business owners and entrepreneurs who constantly inspired me and had interesting stories. And they just were constantly looking for people to tell it. And when I was coming into journalism, it was the time when the industry was really starting to shift.

7:12I mean, it was really starting to break. And I think people could see what was happening, but not everybody was ready. So legacy media institutions were kind of starting to be affected by social media. But what I noticed is that you didn't need a legacy media brand to tell your story. Anybody could be their own little media empire, right? And really successful brands were doing this effectively. And then you saw the rise of the creator economy and all these people doing it individually. So now with all the tools and the internet, we can all tell our story, but people don't know how to do it. So I basically took all the fundamentals and basics and things I understood and sort of intuitively knew about telling a good story and getting attention and retaining attention and transform that into a framework and a series of steps that any business owner or brand could take to truly capture and keep that attention to get new customers and clients and build their business without relying on earned media opportunities necessarily.

8:25Like I think you need both still, you know, you need to get in the news and it helps to be in the paper and be on podcasts, but you can even get so many of those opportunities organically inbound have the media coming to you if you create your own buzz, right? So that's essentially what I do. Go ahead, I'm sorry. I was just going to add that I really like to work with truly purpose-driven, mission-driven businesses, because honestly, it's just their stories are the easiest to tell, right? There are a couple of things that you say on your website, and I really want you to kind of maybe expound on this a little bit.

9:03You say you could just convince someone to buy your thing, or you could get them to believe in it. And another line you say is like, when you tell more stories, you can rely on selling less. I don't know about you, Renee, but I don't like selling. Like I don't enjoy it. Like I recognize that that's a very natural part of like what we do. And it's nice when it happens unconsciously. Right. But, you know, to me, it's like, if I feel like I'm coming to work today and my job is to sell me, I don't care for that. Like I love doing business with people. I love building relationships. And I certainly love doing relationships with people who I can really, really help.

9:45But, but you talk about it's you know, it's like, if people can get to know your values, your mission, your purpose, like, you know, your backstory, why you're doing this, you're, you know, what you are out here creating in the world. I agree with you. I think that, you know, if you win that, you know, with somebody, it's like the rest kind of, you just kind of figure that out. Absolutely. I've met very few people that I think actually enjoy selling and, and in telling your story and really getting people to believe in the movement that you're creating or the vision of the future that you have for why you're selling this thing now in this moment of time and why it's valuable or why it's relevant or what problem it solves, then you're much more likely to have, you're not going to convince anybody to buy something that they don't necessarily know they need the immediate pain in the moment relieved, right?

10:43Like if someone has a headache, like they're going to buy Advil, right? They already have a solution now, which brand though, they're going to choose on the shelf of all the aspirins. That's all the branding work, right? And maybe that's a bad example, but I'm working with a client right now. He sells cookies. He makes cookies. How many people make cookies? A million people make cookies. The cookies are really good. There's lots of really great cookies in the world, right? So why, why, why build, why buy these cookies? Why go to his website and subscribe to his cookie service, right? Like why buy these for someone else's party?

11:21Like you have to build a reputation around these cookies. Locally in the Bay Area, it's like Suzy Cakes, you know, there's a million cake shops and then Suzy Cakes came along. And now that's the one that everyone sees and everybody wants. And it starts with a good product, but then really it's it sticks with a good story and this this guy's this guy he uh you know he's a first first generation immigrant kid and he uh grew up working in his mom's local cafe um you know really getting a sense for the food world and seeing what what you know what people liked what you enjoyed and the cookies were always the afterthought the cookies were always like pre-ordered from some you know mass manufacturer and like people never bought the cookies then this guy through a series of bad luck and some bad decisions um ended up in trouble and then found himself in halfway home so amongst criminals and former addicts and has really just been rebuilding his life and he realized while he was there everyone needs a job and he decided to be in the kitchen that no matter their differences no matter their backgrounds no matter how like difficult maybe it was to go along with other people in this halfway home you know, who are clearly troubled and trying to rebuild their lives, everyone could come together over a good meal.

12:42And if not the meal, definitely the dessert, right? So cookies became sort of his mission to not just make the best cookie, but really have a treat that we could come together and share over connection. So this is sort of what we're building is the, it's the background of the story. Like I'm already so much more invested in this cookie brand because he's a story of hope, you know, and inspiration and second chances and like rebuilding after hitting rock bottom. And like the cookie is just, it's so much more than a cookie now, you know? Um, so that's kind of sort of the story and that we're, that we're using to really build a brand, um, around a commodity product.

13:22Right. So, yeah. And, and, and this has always been something that has been very, very critical to successful marketing. But I think even generationally, and we just have a few minutes left. I don't know if you just want to touch on that briefly, that my understanding is that today, and maybe I don't know if this has always been the case, but more of your Gen Zs and millennials kind of expect it. You know, they're like, yeah, cool, but what do you stand for? And if you don't stand for anything, then it's like, you're just kind of a boring corporate faceless kind of thing. And it's not very interesting to me.

14:01I don't know if you just want to like editorialize on that for just a second. What I really, because we only have about three, four minutes left. I really wanted to have you share your super, like how you work with your clients. Like, what does that look like? Yeah. Well, I'll just, I'll just agree with you. Yes, absolutely. Yes. The younger generation, There's tons of research and data points on this, but yes, absolutely. They buy with values, but historically forever, since the beginning of time, people have bought because of an emotional connection, right? You make a decision first through feeling and then you justify it with logic.

14:38So stories have historically always been sort of the secret sauce to influence anyone to do anything, right? Right. But more than ever for brands, yes, it's important to have a mission and a set of values and a promise that you keep. So, yeah, absolutely. As for my process of how are my secrets asked, it's essentially that it's getting very clear on your why and why now and what's happening in culture right now and where you fit into what's happening in culture. What sort of tension are you addressing? And what's the big idea here? What's the big ideal for your brand? And then we dig into the backstory and stories that can help you make that argument or help you tell that story from a variety of different angles.

15:34But ultimately, it's like we're building a case for you, building a case for why anyone should care, right? Why anyone should care, why anyone should listen, why anyone should subscribe, why anyone should buy. So it's, you know, a series of workshops that we go through, a series of interviews, depending on how big the team is. I interview everybody on the team. People rarely talk to sales and customer success who are constantly, you know, on the phone with customers, knowing what's going on, knowing what issues are coming up, knowing, you know, what things they're feeling ultimately. And we come up with a strategic set of content ideas, messaging that all supports that big idea.

16:21Renee, your website is ReneeLynFroyo.com. That's Froyo with a J, which again, we've got that link in the show notes. So Renee, when somebody goes to your website, what would you recommend they do if they either want to kind of dig into your resources or potentially connect with you? Well, if you want to dig into my resources, my newsletter comes out weekly and I talk about building a good brand reputation there every week. But the best is just to reach out with where you're at, what you're looking for and where you would like to be. I love it. Okay, reneelinfroyot.com is the website. Grab the newsletter.

17:03There's a button on every page that says work with me as well, if you want to connect with Renee. Renee, it's been a great conversation. Thank you so much for sharing your story. Again, you are the founder and CEO of a good reputation. Renee, thank you for joining us.

17:22If you've enjoyed this conversation, I'd love to invite you to share your message with the world at podverified.com, where thousands of podcast hosts and thoughtful guests are connecting the right way. Podverified helps match you with the right stages for your level of authority. No more wasting time on brand new shows that just aren't a fit. Your guest authority score is free. And so are your first two podcast matches. Come hang out with me there. I'd love to learn more about your business, support your mission, and help promote you far and wide. Just head to www.podverified.com to get started.

18:05And of course, if you'd like to be a guest right here on The Thoughtful Entrepreneur, just go to upmyinfluence.com and click on podcast. Thanks for being a part of this movement. We rise by lifting others.

18:23Thank you.