How to use story telling in live streaming with Christoph Trappe

Your Dream Business

English - June 07, 2021 00:00 - 36 minutes - 33.4 MB - ★★★★★ - 34 ratings
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Today’s episode of the podcast is an interview with Christoph Trappe who is a digital based brand strategist. Christoph has been named as a top content creator, digital marketer and thought leader. Christoph is a journalistic story teller and we talk all about live streaming – how to tell a story and have confidence!

KEY TAKEAWAYS COVERED IN THE PODCAST

Journalistic story telling is telling the story around what people need to know in an engaging style – so people want to read it!Think about what you stand for and what is unique about you – this is what you need to focus on when you tell a story.If you are going to go live you have to be realistic and accept that things do and may go wrong!Before going live - think about what you are going to talk about and how you are going to talk about that topic.Aim for around 40 minutes for your live stream.Decide how often you will go live and commit to it.You have to get used to the idea that people may not show up.If you are streaming into a platform you use a lot, someone will most likely show up!You can stream in multiple places at one time.Try to do a solo episode if you are just starting so you can get used to it, then move on to interviews.It is a lot easier and more fun when you have guests!Going live is not as much prep work for you if you have less time.

THE ONE THING YOU NEED TO REMEMBER ABOVE ALL ELSE…

Don’t overthink it, don’t feel bad and just keep pushing forward.

HIGHLIGHTS YOU SIMPLY CAN’T MISS

An Introduction to Christoph 02:25What is journalistic story telling? 03:31How to tell stories for your business 05:52Going Live Book 09:42Things that could go wrong 11:34Getting started with live streaming 19:05What if people don’t show up? 22:47Should you go live in multiple locations? 25:29Solo vs interview 30:15

CHECK CHRISTOPH OUT:

RESOURCES MENTIONED

Transcript Below

Hello and a really warm welcome to this week's episode of the podcast. How are you doing? So as I'm recording this, the sun is shining. My windows are open and the birds are singing. How very grateful I am for a lovely sunny day. Because honestly I just miss the sun so much. If you're not in the UK, then. And you don't know what our weather is like, we do, you know, we have nice summers, but it's not as nice as California, which obviously it's sunny all the time.

And because haven't been to chapel we've had, what's felt like a really long winter. Anyway, also that was such a precious thing to do. Talk about the weather. I'm not here to give you a weather rundown. So this week I've got a podcast interview for you. I'm interviewing Christoph Trappe who is a US based digital brand strategist.

KEY TAKEAWAYS COVERED IN THE PODCAST

THE ONE THING YOU NEED TO REMEMBER ABOVE ALL ELSE…

Don’t overthink it, don’t feel bad and just keep pushing forward.

HIGHLIGHTS YOU SIMPLY CAN’T MISS

CHECK CHRISTOPH OUT:

RESOURCES MENTIONED

Transcript Below

He has been picked as one of the top 14 content marketers and a top 24 digital marketers. And then top 100 CX thought leaders. He's a journalistic storyteller and we talk all about Livestreaming. And we go into the kind of conversations around how easy is it to be a storyteller and what sort of things you needs to do as well as some of the confidence in livestreaming.

So I think this should be a really good one. I am a big fan of telling stories. If you receive my emails, you will know I am. Uh, I like to explain things in a story because I think you understand them better. Anyway, I'm just going to let you dive straight in. I feel like I should intro more, but I think we're good.

I'm going to link off to everything in the show notes, if you want it. And otherwise enjoy. I am really excited that today I get to welcome to the podcast the very lovely Christoph Trappe. Christoph how are you doing?

Christoph: Doing great. Hey, thanks for having me really appreciate it.

Teresa: No problem at all. So Christoph, we always start the conversation about who are you and how you got to do the thing that you're doing today. So if you can enlighten my audience, that would be lovely.

An Introduction to Christoph

Christoph: So I, uh, I actually started as a journalist, uh, wrote for newspapers back in the day when, when they was mostly printed, we were just making the transition into digital. And then slowly but surely made the move into digital, mostly digital, digital content marketing um, for companies and of course those things continue to evolve. You know, I started as a writer, writing still matters. It's still, it's not dead. Seriously. The written word still matters, but now we have podcasting. Now we have live streaming. Virtual reality will be next. It's already here in some industries.

What is journalistic story telling?

Christoph: So things always continue to evolve. And you know, I'm very interested in how do we use the new technologies, time into our existing strategy, time into our current implementations and really throw our content to parade. So journalists had hard journalistic storyteller, um, on the company side.

Teresa: I like it. So how much of that kind of journalism. Is it, is it basically the same, but performing it or, cause I always thought journalism was a very different skill set to maybe content creation. I know they are both a level of content, but are there more similarities than I imagine?

Christoph: Well, they are pretty similar when you, when you, when you do it well with a company.

And a lot of times I know, um, content creation companies has turned away from journalistic storytelling, and that's not always the right way to go in my opinion. Sometimes it is. Um, but sometimes what it means is, you know, we're really watering everything down and, you know, it's like, it goes through approval, hell of 59 steps where people want to change a word because they'd like it better.

Or they have a childhood memory or whatever, I'm overdramatizing this a little bit, but, you know. And journalistic storytelling really just tells the story around, um, what people need to know in an engaging style. Um, and that doesn't mean we have to tell all the bad stuff or tell, you know, everything.

Um, but we want to, we want to tell that story differently in a way that people actually want to read it. And sometimes, you know, when you look at corporate marketing gobbledygook, quite frankly, nobody wants to read it. And then we wonder why our content isn't performing. So what I found is, you know, when you use some of those journalistic storytelling, um, strategies, you, you can, um, you can change that. And I think about what we're doing right here. Like, you know, 15 years ago. I was on TV. It wasn't any different from what I'm doing here. I got a camera in front of me. I got a light looking at me. I got a microphone in front of me. Only difference is that I'm a lot more casual sitting in today. If you're listening on the podcast, right.

I got a, I got a hat on, you know, I, I I'm relatively well dressed, but I'm not in a suit, you know. So, but at the end of the day, what we're doing here is very similar to, you know, going on TV except it's more conversational.

Teresa: Okay. So I've got you know, I'm thinking of my, my listener, listen to this and anybody's thinking, but I don't know how to tell stories.

Like, it feels like that is a real skill to be able to. Because you know, you're trained journalist. That's, you know, you learn to do that thing. So, so if I'm, uh, you know, solo business owner or somebody starting a business, like how do I start to try and create just the emphasis of story, regardless of my media. How do I do that?

How to tell stories for your business

Christoph: Well, you got to figure out what you stand for. What's different about you. What's unique about you. And I think a lot of businesses fail at that because, you know, you asked them, "What's your goal?" And everybody says, I want to make money. And for the millionth time, I've never heard anybody say, oh, "I don't want to make any money."

That's not your end. That's not the thing that will differentiate you. Everybody says that. What's different about you. How can you help people? What are you trying to do? I'll give you an example.

Going Live Book

Christoph: So the latest book I wrote Going Live, you know, I wrote it because I saw a market problem. And the market problem is, all these companies are starting podcasts, which I think is actually a good idea to do a podcast. But the problem with podcasting, especially for companies, when they just start newest, it's a new channel. They're building it from the ground up. Right? So what I determined is, well, you can grow that. I get it, but you can also maximize it by live streaming your podcasts and by live streaming more because those are existing networks.

So my storytelling differentiator currently is how do you do that? How do you use the technology? What do you need? And so companies need to figure that out. What's unique about you and it can't just be, "Oh, this one little widget is slightly better than the competition."

Teresa: Yeah. Yeah. So would you say that in terms of storytelling that it's not just necessarily the product, but it could be them? Their, you know? Cause one of the things that I joke about all the time is, you know, that I like gin and, and when I say joke, I'm not joking. I really do like gin. But like, so I included it, it's on my website. It says on my home page, you know, uh, on my about page, I think it is that says, you know, I'm from England and yes, that means tea by tea I mean, gin. You know, and, and it's part of my, my character, my story almost. So can that be something personal to them as well?

Christoph: Yeah. And I think you kind of have to do that quite frankly, to, you know, get yourself out there and, and be part of the brand, especially as the founder or, or really anybody at, at a company. It doesn't just have to be the executives, but yeah, absolutely.

Get out there, share your story, stand for something, you know, and, and people will say, well, but who cares about it? I'm like, well, Then who cares about your product? I'm just saying, you know, there's so. Think about it this way. So I got a camera in front of me, 4k camera, you know, how many 4k cameras are out there.

It's unbelievable. You know, how do those companies find a way to stand out? So, absolutely that's one way to stand out by kind of inserting that personality and continuously sharing those stories that, that potentially have an impact.

Teresa: Yeah. Yeah. Okay. So let's talk, uh, before we get, we're going to get on the live livestream.

We're going to talk about live streaming and why as a business owner, you should look at it and think about it and do it. And we'll talk about some of these fears. But before we do, let's just address the book because you're talking about an industry that is so fast moving. So in the book, are you telling me the, the kind of tactics or are you telling me the kind of, you know, premise or basics around it? Because it's funny because obviously even podcast episodes, even blogs, the minute you write them in this industry, the potential outdate. So how do you go and write a book about an industry that's so fascinating?

Christoph: Well, so first of all, you want to have some content that doesn't change, right? So evergreen content that's always important. And the evergreen part of going live is what are the strategies? What are you going to do? How are you going to talk about it? How do you invite guests? What's your workflow? What do you talk about?

What's your style? And there's all kinds of different styles for shows. You know, people have segments, other people have a conversation, other people, a little bit more scripted, which I wouldn't recommend necessarily. So I talk about all those different things, how to get started. That's pretty high level.

And I don't think that's going to be outdated anytime soon. Then I also dive into some of the technology things. Here's how you do it. Here's how you schedule it. Some of those things will probably be outdated at some point, some will evolve. Sometimes the screenshots will change just a little bit.

Um, but the, the context, the content will still work. Um, and then, you know, so, so there is a good mix. And then the other thing that's probably going to be evergreen for, for quite a while. I really talk about every mistake I've ever made, you know. So unmuting the wrong guests, doing this, doing that and all that's in there.

And, you know, you might still make some of the same mistakes, but at least you can think about them. And here's the other thing. You will make mistakes. It happens. It's life, you know, so just kind of roll with it and figure out, um, figure out how to move forward.

Teresa: I think that's so good. And that's, that's something that, you know, we wanted to talk about staying in, tends to live cause I think that's what holds so many people back. Because they are terrified of looking a fool showing up wrong, saying the wrong thing, the tech not working. But I think we just have to look to like real live TV. Like these are production companies that are putting on the stuff and they still make mistakes.

So if you, with your iPhone in your house, you know, we're going to go live. You've got to just be realistic about the fact that I guess these things are going to happen. Aren't they?

Christoph: I mean, things are going to happen. And Jason falls, you know, who of course is a fantastic live stream. He always says there was like 47 dominoes that have to fall and we don't control most of them. Right? I mean, the only one I control is that I'm showing up and looking at the camera quite frankly. And then everything else, you know, it's mic, camera, the internet. I don't run the internet here. Right. The internet has to work. It ships it from here to you, to somewhere else, so then somewhere else. And it's all these different dominoes, so something will happen.

No doubt. And you just kind of roll with it, you know? And even when something happens just to acknowledge it on air and that that's, you know, I've actually, I've lost, um, a live stream guests live on air and I lost him. I actually, I lost his video. So I said, well, I think I lost your video. So why don't you just leave the room and come back and I'll keep talking until you come back, you know?

And he did, and his video never came back. We don't know why. So all we did is we just put up, I just, I was on the screen. I put my logo on the screen, split screen. And on the top, I just said voice of Ryan Carruthers. You know, the master, whatever it was, mastermind, membership something. And it worked, nobody emailed with some angry emails saying, "Oh my goodness, I can't believe it was just you on screen."

You know, like, oh, well, some may have thought that looking at me, but.

Teresa: Yeah you know, but that's up to them isn't it? But you're right. It. So I have a classic, the other week, uh, one of my members came to me and had launched a product. And she was like, what can I do to really get this out here? And we were brainstorming ideas and I said, you could go live.

Let's do like a launch event, go live on your Instagram, which was her biggest following. Um, talk about your product. Maybe do a prize, maybe get some Q and A's beforehand, like create it into a bit of an event. Anyway so she was really nervous. So I said to her, I'll tell you what I'll come on with you, right?

I'll interview you or I'll prep the questions, cause I'm not afraid of, you know, go in live and look, and shoot, but I've managed to do that most days, that's fine. Like, you know, so anyway, I said, I'll come on. And she was really nervous, but you know what happens? What I've got odd. She invited me into the Instagram live.

Something happened to my phone, which again, don't know what or why, but basically my face got really zoomed in.

Part of the live. You can literally just see like the top of my, like, literally like the square was full of my face and everyone's like paying a message of "Faces of I think Teresa is like." "Oh I don't know." like completely owned it.

I was like, I don't know what's going on here. Let me have a look. You know, we were making a joke a bit and of course, but the girl that was on, I was doing the live with like, she completely relaxed. Cause it was like, if someone messed up, Teresa has done it. Thanks so much. But like. Anyway, I messed with the settings or something.

I managed to change something and it was fine and it went back to normal, but you just, you know, you, haven't got a choice just own up to it. It's happening live and you're human and we're humans and things happen. And like you said, lots of them aren't in our control. So you just have to go with it. But it was just, you know, and I just laughed about it and we had a bit of a giggle.

Things that could go

Teresa: It was fine. And that's great. And yeah. But I think that's what people are concerned about. And the truth is it's probably more likely something will go wrong than not. Like, do you not think like how many times have you done lives, where it has literally been slick the whole way through?

Christoph: So it also depends on what your definition of slick is.

Right? So there is. Um, I, I do have a relatively high tolerance for something that being perfect, um, because it's not going to be, and, and you have to think about it. So for example, if I'm doing a live show, if I'm the host, I'm producing it, I'm directing it. I'm the technical person and I'm also the host.

So I have to do all those things, including I have to listen to the guest and then I have to have a conversation with them. In a TV studio, that's like five...