Brand Messaging Strategist Helps Businesses and Brands Distill Their Complex Work Into Stories

In this episode, we Ryan Holck, a speaker, author, marketer, and brand messaging strategist. Ryan is the creator of the Distill Your Story framework that guides brands to tell their story clearly so that they are memorable and referable.

He mention the tension in nonprofits between having many stories to tell but not always focusing attention well.

The conversation highlights the importance of focusing on the outcomes provided by a business rather than just the tasks performed.

Website: Distill Your Story
Facebook: Ryan Holck
LinkedIn: Ryan Holck

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Full Interview:

Transcription:

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Ryan Holck Teaser 00:00

And so my process, when in its entirety starts with Zoom call. What are we, who are we trying to reach? Where are we trying to go? What, at the end of the day, is the goals of this business or this nonprofit? What do we want to accomplish? Okay. How do we talk about the fifty things we do in ways that are clear? And how do we share that story in a compact way so that it's portable enough that others could take it with them?

Intro 00:29

Are you ready to hear business stories and learn effective ways to build relationships, generate sales, and level up your business from awesome CEOs, entrepreneurs, and founders without listening to a long, long, long interview? If so, you've come to the right place. Gresh values your time and is ready to share with you the valuable info you're in search of. This is the I AM CEO Podcast.

Gresham Harkless 00:56

Hello. Hello. Hello. This is Gresh from the I AM CEO Podcast, and I have a very special guest on the show today. I have Ryan Holck. Ryan, excited to have you on the show.

Ryan Holck 01:04

Hey. Super excited to be here. Thanks for the chance.

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Gresham Harkless 01:07

Yeah, absolutely. You're doing so many phenomenal things. So super excited to talk with you and hear so much and learn so much as well too. And, of course, before we jump into the interview, I want to read a little bit more about Ryan so you can hear about some of those awesome things. And Ryan is a speaker, author, marketer, and brand messaging strategist. As the creator of the Distill Your Story framework, he guides brands to tell their story clearly so that they are memorable and referable. He specializes in helping brands identify their unique story, simplifying their messaging, and delivering it strategically, both in person and online.

Ryan combines storytelling principles with marketing principles to help brands be more memorable and referable. And he has helped personal brands, coaches, small family brick run brick and mortar businesses, multi million dollar green energy firms, and statewide statewide nonprofits as well too. And, one of the things that really stuck with me is I was reading a little bit more about Ryan and and hear about all the awesome things that he was doing. He had over 17 years of nonprofit work, and I think he went to a conference. And at that conference, one of the questions that really stuck with him is he said, what if you put fear in the trunk and take it for a ride? And that's what I think planted one of those seeds for him to do all the awesome things that he's doing.

And one of the things that really stuck with me is he says “Success doesn't come down to the size of the business or the solution it provides. It comes down to how simply they can explain the complex work that they do”. So Ryan, excited to have you on the show. Are you ready to speak to the I AM CEO Community? So let's get it started then. So to kick everything off, since I know you're the guru at all this, let's rewind the clock, hear a little bit more on how you got started, what I call your CEO story.

Ryan Holck 02:45

Yeah. So, as you already mentioned, I started in nonprofit space. I actually had this, like, crossroad moment going into college of going, do I do marketing and design, or do I do music? Because both have a creative bent. Both give me a direction to have a creative outlet and really to do some exciting things. So I chose at that moment to do music because that's where I had the most experience at the moment. And I got into that and realized I really enjoyed it, but there was  like, something missing in terms of a gap for us as a family, and we were getting ready to start a family.

And I realized, if I'm ever gonna make a change, now is my opportunity. And so I jumped into in while I was doing music, I was I ended up taking on a lot of marketing roles in the positions that I was doing. And so I ended up making a transition into nonprofit because someone contacted me and said, we saw you do something for another organization. Could you come and do it for us? We'll hire you just to do the marketing. You don't have to do the rest.

Gresham Harkless 03:56

Right.

Ryan Holck 03:56

And it opened a door for me to, like, really get in and go, hey. This is what I probably should have done to start with. And so now I've spent the last twenty years doing marketing all kind of because there was this pivotal moment in my life where it was like, hey. I think there's a door open. Now is the time to to walk through it. And so as you said, I started in nonprofit. My first ten years of marketing experience were all in nonprofit. I had spent seven years prior to that and some of college doing part time and full time work in the nonprofit space. And so there was this culmination for me of, I think I could impact a lot of organizations. I think I could help more than the one I'm sitting at the desk of every day.

And so I got to a point, and I love that you found that story of what if you put fear in the trunk because I really was at this moment where it's like, what on earth do I do next? I've been doing this ten years, and I enjoy what I do, but I think there's something more. I think that I could help more than a single organization. I could come up with products and services that would allow me to have impact into a host of organizations or a host of small businesses even. And so I decided we're gonna launch an agency and really work at how can we help tell people's story better.

So the the nonprofits I worked in always had this tension of we have a lot of stories to tell, but we don't always focus our attention well. And so it really started for me an opportunity to figure out my sweet spot isn't in design. My sweet spot now I can do it, and I can do web development, and I do a lot of it. But my sweet spot is figuring out how do you tell someone's story so it's repeatable. And once you figure out how to tell a story, then we figure out what marketing principles to tag onto it.

Gresham Harkless 05:55

Nice. I definitely appreciate you telling your story and your journey. It is so funny that I feel they say the worst pain is the pain of regret. And I love that you went down that marketing or that music route first, but it sounds like you were saying you were dabbling and taking on different opportunities. It was always like that magnet pulling you back. And sometimes, if you don't know what you should be doing, sometimes if you don't do what you're doing, it ends up drawing you back to where you should be anyways.

Ryan Holck 06:19

Very much so. Very much so. And it got to the point where, like, my girls didn't even know I was a musician. They're like, dad does marketing, you do what? You wait. It was funny because I swung so far once I got into that position. So it is interesting how things have progressed over the last twenty years.

Gresham Harkless 06:38

Yeah. So I wanted to drill down a little bit more. I know we touched on it a little bit, of course. And in here, how you work with and and serve your clients. Could you take us through a little bit more on what that process looks like and how you're making that impact for the clients you work with?

Ryan Holck 06:51

Yeah. So it looks like a couple things. The biggest piece is that I find that a lot of really, nonprofits have this, but I'm finding it more and more with the small businesses that I'm helping too, is that we need something done now. So we have a I just gotta have an email go out or I gotta have a social media ad or something. And I call it the ready, fire, aim principle, and it's just we're just shooting kind of marketing stuff all over and hoping something hits a target and that it works. And instead of starting with a whiteboard and what are we really trying to accomplish. And if we can work towards that goal, we're taking steps towards it, but it also means we could take repeated attempts to hit the same goal because we're hitting we're going for the same the same direction every time.

And so my process, when it's in its entirety, really starts with Zoom call, whiteboard. What are we who are we trying to reach? Where are we trying to go? What, at the end of the day, is the goals of this business or this nonprofit? What is what do we want to accomplish? Okay. How do we talk about the fifty things we do in ways that are clear? And how do we share that story in a compact way so that it's portable enough that others could take it with them? That if I repeat it to you and you hear it once or maybe a second time, you have enough of an idea of what we do as a business that you could go. If somebody said, I need this product or service, you could think, hey. I just talked to somebody about that. And for so many businesses, we're so close to what we do every day, and we spend so much time focusing on the day to day details.

We don't always realize that we're complicated the way we talk about our products and services. We're talking about the way we solve issues for people at higher levels than they're ready to understand in a first immediate conversation. And so helping a business figure out, it's not that I wanna water down what we talk about. I just we just need to focus it so that those first conversations, especially where impressions are made or broken, are ones where people go, hey. This person understands me. They have a product or service that can help me. I wanna have a better conversation. I wanna find out how could they serve us well. That's the part I love, and that starts with a whiteboard and figuring out where are we going and then what story do we need to tell, and how are we gonna tell it super simply, and then how are we gonna apply a strategic approach to getting that story out for people.

Gresham Harkless 09:41

Nice. I love that first step. So what would you consider to be what I like to call your secret sauce? You might have already touched on this, could be for yourself, the business, or a combination of both. But what do you feel sets you apart and makes you unique?

Ryan Holck 09:52

I think the thing that sets me apart is the strategy first approach. For so many years, I had a I can I'd pick up the phone, someone would say, I need this? Okay. I can do that for you. The the deliverables are great, but deliverables without a plan don't always move you towards the goal. And so what really sets me apart in kind of the process and the framework that I run through is that we start with the strategic of where are we going. We map it out before we start spending money on deliverables so that we can focus all of our marketing attention and dollars at things that are actually gonna help us reach that goal in the long run.

Gresham Harkless 10:41

Nice. I love it. And I wanted to switch gears a little bit, and I wanted to ask you for what I call a CEO hack. So it could be like an Apple book or even a habit that you have, but what's something that makes you more effective and efficient?

Ryan Holck 10:53

The most effective thing that I have done year over year in the last ten years is be a part of masterminds with other people who are who have similar goals, whether they're in the same space or not, but who you are shoulder to shoulder moving forward and who, when you hit a bump as a business leader, as a business owner, and you call them and they know enough of your story and context to speak into your situation really quickly. And that has been I started I got into one of those in the first six weeks of starting my own business, and I've done three or four different ones over the last ten years of working for myself. And it has been the life changer. It's opened doors for me in terms of contacts. It's given me accessibility to others. It's given me accountability.

And if there was anything I would say, man, find a way to be with peers. That's the way. Don't be afraid to have others in doing something similar in that room as well. The fear is to isolate ourselves. I don't want anybody who maybe does marketing adjacent or does website adjacent. But sometimes the best pushing I've got has been from people who are doing similar things, not identical, but similar things to me who are like, I think you're looking at this wrong. What if you look at it and all of a sudden they go, oh, I just solved the three problems that were in front of me because I changed my perspective?

Gresham Harkless 12:31

Yeah. So what would you consider to be a little bit more of what I call a CEO nugget? So this could be a little bit more word of wisdom or piece of advice. I like to say it might be something you would tell your absolute favorite client, or if you hopped into a time machine, you might tell your younger business self.

Ryan Holck 12:46

So this is gonna seem maybe a little odd, but the absence of a clear story allows someone else to write the narrative for you. And I did it in my business for a number of years that I wasn't clear about who I was best to serve, what ways I was best to serve them. Because it was a, quote, unquote, agency, there was lots of things we could do with for marketing, and we didn't focus on what was the best things for us to do for people and the way we could have the most impact.

And I see that with a lot of other businesses is that we've gotta find a way to be super clear on the story of who we are, how we serve others, and we've gotta keep repeating that. Because if we don't, the people outside start guessing at what we do, and the story becomes a story very different than what we actually want to share publicly.

Gresham Harkless 13:46

Yeah. Love that. I want to ask you now my absolute favorite question, which is definition of what it means to be a CEO. And our goal is to have different quote unquote CEOs on the show. So, Ryan, what does being a CEO mean to you?

Ryan Holck 13:56

For me, I got into this because I wanted impact. Impact beyond one organization. And for me, being a CEO has meant the opportunity to dream and have a wider impact in the world as a whole, to see more people's lives changed as a result of some worker action that I could sit at a desk and move towards each day.

Gresham Harkless 14:23

Nice. I love that. So, Ryan, truly appreciate that definition. And, of course, I appreciate your time even more. So what I want to do now is pass you the mic, so to speak, just to see if there's anything additional that you can let our readers and listeners know and, of course, how best people can get a hold of you, find out about all the awesome things that you're working on.

Ryan Holck 14:40

Ok. So just last idea, big idea, is that your competitive advantage isn't the tasks you do. It's the outcomes you provide. And that is what's going to set you apart as a business, as a brand, is when you can find a way in your marketing, your messaging to talk about the wins that you provide for people, not just the tasks you do in the day to day because we tend to sell the tasks rather than the outcomes. The website is distillyourstory.com. That's the best place to find information about connecting with me about the work, about the process. You can see examples there of past projects. There is a opt in for a website audit that would help you if you are thinking about your business and looking at your website and going, I don't feel like we're getting the traffic we're looking for.

There seems to be a gap in people's understanding of our products and services online. It's a ten minute DIY for you to assess, are we clearly talking about our business? Are we clearly talking about how we solve problems for the world? And give you an idea of what's next, how you can do that in ten minutes. So that's a great way for you to even just check out a freebie from me. So those are really the best ways. You can follow me on social at I’m Ryan Holck at Facebook, and that's probably the best way to find me.

Gresham Harkless 16:12

Awesome. Awesome. Awesome. Thank you so much again, Ryan. We'll definitely have the links and information in the show notes as well too so that everybody can follow-up with you. So thank you so much for doing that, my friend, and I hope you have a phenomenal rest of the day.

Ryan Holck 16:23

Hey. You as well. Thanks again for the opportunity.

Outro 16:26

Thank you for listening to the I AM CEO Podcast powered by CBNation and Blue16 Media. Tune in next time and visit us at iamceo.co. I AM CEO is not just a phrase. It's a community. Don't forget to schedule your complimentary digital marketing consultation at Blue16Media.com. This has been the I AM CEO Podcast with Gresham Harkless, Jr. Thank you for listening.

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