Introducing the I.S.T.C. Formula! Use This ALL Content + Copy!

10/14/2019

Hey friend!

I want to help you create that will grow your engagement, entice your readers, and excite your community. I think that storytelling and messaging is one of the most important pieces to your success as an entrepreneur. It's not only our ability to relate but to show up authentically. It's basically everything.

Having stellar copy isn't so easy though, is it? I have sat staring blankly at the screen more times than I'd like to admit... After struggling to story-tell and find my voice, I finally figured out a system I like to call the I.S.T.C Formula to help me map out copy and captions effectively.

Inside today's episode, I will take you through my system: I - introduce, S - , T - teach and train, and finally, C - captivate and call to action. But, I'll do you one better - I will ALSO give you specific and tangible examples of how I use this and how this can work for you and your mission.

This simple formula can be used as a guide ANYTIME you are creating copy, recording a podcast, going live, etc. This is my personal system and I figured if it helps me, it will help you too. You're welcome, sis. XO. Enjoy.

Love and light,
Stef

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Full transcription available at the bottom of this blog post.

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FULL EPISODE TRANSCRIPTION:

Hey girl, welcome to another episode of the show. This is episode number 104. How to use the I S T C formula for all content and copyright. I get it. We're sitting there ready to ride out that amazing Instagram caption and we just stare at it. Or we're sitting behind the microphone ready to record an episode and we're not sure what's the layout. How can I best resonate with my audience? This simple formula is going to transform the way that you create copyright. You can use this formula for your Instagram captions for your Facebook live videos for your YouTube videos, for your podcast, for your blog posts. Actually, I highly recommend that you use this formula any time you're corresponding and creating. It's going to change

What's up. Mama boss. Welcome back to The Mompreneur Mastermind Show. I'm Stefanie Gass, success strategist and passive income queen creator. If you're ready to step into your God led potential, create profit from your passions and capture the success that is already yours. This podcast was made for you as always. You can find out more and connect with me over@stephaniegas.com. So grab that cup of coffee or fill up that glass of wine and let's dig in to today's show.

Before we dig in this episode is five star review left over on iTunes. The woman you need to hear five stars by H U T H IQ seven eight, nine. I have many God winks happened to me and I try hard to pay attention when he nudges me. So I can be led to what he wants for me. That wink came in the form of Steph's message through her podcast, relatable, reliable, funny, and business savvy. Steph has inspired me to continue chipping away at the podcast world. This is a must listen and share. I hope to have her on my show one day so we can support the twinning with our wingding hair. I love that you guys winging hairs in like, can we just bring it back? Like we brought back mom jeans. Let's make wingding hair, like a thing. Okay. Those of you that don't know what I'm talking about.

You're not watching my Instagram stories. So be sure that you go and be my friend on Insta and follow my stories because I am a mess. I am seriously such a mess. Okay, boss, and be sure if you are not on my email list, I want you there. I want you to subscribe because I send you love notes twice a week. I also gift you guys giveaways. I offer you sometimes amazing deals on my products and services that nobody else knows about. So don't miss out. Be sure you are on my insider list. You can get there. Any of my opt-ins will get you there. But my favorite is that Stephanie gas.com/quizzes. Take a quiz, learn about yourself, sister, and then get on the list. All right, you ready for this form? You less sister, are you ready for this? Okay. I'm going to introduce to you two day.

The I S T C formula. This formula is something that I want you to use every time you create content. Why? Because we can't just content out anymore. Everybody's doing it. Everyone puts the meme and the cute little quote. It's not going to do it anymore. It's not resonating. It's not converting. It's not scaling it. Doesn't drive engagement. The thing that's really working now is almost like mini blogging on Instagram. It's podcasting, which is what storytelling teaching inspiring. Motivating Facebook live is still in the picture. And that's authentic storytelling because hello, we can't edit that out. Blogging. I believe will never go away. People will always be reading and scouring Pinterest. So we have to become master storytellers that serve and solve. That was good. I need to write that down. Storytellers that serve and solve. How can you become a storyteller that both serves and solves?

Step one, before I teach you the formula, you have to be clear on your avatar. You've heard me talk about the avatar bajillion times, but in case you're new here, the avatar is your ideal customer or your ideal human being. Who do you serve? I want you to give that person a name, personality traits. I want you to know this person so clearly like, okay, my person's name is Lola. Hey Lola, that's you sister listening right now. You're a Lola. Okay. Watch him. Any of these things you have going on. So Lola, she's a Christian mama. She's got three boys and she has a job, but she's also trying to launch this online soap business. She knows that she has this crazy passion and call for organic skincare products. And she has a passion for creating her own line. She's ready to do it, but she's so stuck.

She's not sure. How does she balance her kids, her job, this new passion project. Where does she sell from? Should she use Etsy, her own website? Should she have an affiliate product or like license out her products? What's an email sequence. How does she get people on her list? What should she price her products at? Where does she invest first? What does she mean? How does she scale? How does she go from the same four people that buy every single week to 400 people that will buy? Should she start a podcast? Should she have courses, guys? I feel you. Is this, you it's that you, how many of you raise your hand? I can see you. I am a mom. I can totally see you. Lola is my human so much so that I know what she looks like. I have a picture of her right here on my desktop.

I have clarity. She's my best. Like I know her so clearly. So you need to do that exercise. You may be like rolling your eyes. Like I don't need to do that. My avatar is like a chick she's 20 and she's a go getter. Not good enough. Take the time to get to know your human wide. Because when I teach you this formula, you're going to be doing this formula. But speaking directly to your Lola, every time you show up, you're having a one-on-one conversation. The number one confirmation I get that I am doing the right thing is when you guys review me, 90% of those reviews say, it's like, I'm talking to my best friend. It's because I'm talking to Lola, talking to you, like I'm joking about our crazy wingding hair. I'm joking about the fact that I need to pluck my eyebrows, that I'm in my mom, clothes, braless, and flawless like that.

I'm sitting behind the mic makeup, listen free. Like you get me because you are me. And I've been where you are, which is trying to scale and grow an online business. That's in line with the calling you have on your heart and I've been there and I've been through the struggle of trying to figure it out. So you need to do that same exercise and you need to go so deep with your Lola. So I'm going to step off that soapbox, but it's the first step. Okay. Step two is to use the formula. I S T C, let me go through each of these letters with you. So I is introduce, we're going to use the example of an Instagram caption. Let's say that you want to do a post about how amazing your weight loss transformation has been. And the reason you're doing this post is to inspire and motivate others, to take action on their fitness, to really figure out what fitness and exercise regime is right for their personality type and then to not give up on it.

So the first thing is to introduce, when you introduce, this is your first sentence of your caption or of your podcast, this is the heavy hitter. So I think what you want to pull out of your copyright is the most controversial or the biggest question or the most hard hitting evidence. Like for example, I was 220 pounds dot, dot dot. What, like you're introducing this story and you have two seconds to grab Lola's attention that just grabbed her attention. She's like you, you sister, with that fit little booty, doing the workout videos on your Instastories every day, you were 220 pounds. I'm going to keep reading. So you're introducing and you're intriguing. They actually may replace that with the word intriguing. Cause that is so much better than introduce. Let's use that in tree gang is step one. That's the eye number two, step two of your caption is the S storytell.

Here's where you have the opportunity to get really vulnerable and raw with your reader or listener. I was 220 pounds dot, dot dot. You just intrigued them right now. We're going to storytell. It all started in college. When I was eating pizzas, drinking too much beer, trying to find happiness by partying with that boy at 2:00 AM. And I just really lost myself. I lost my fitness goals and I wanted to discover who I was again, as I, you know, brew into my late twenties, I started playing with different workouts. I tried the home workouts. I tried the gym workouts. I went running and really, I finally found that the biggest secret for me was aligning my fitness with my personality type. Okay. So did you hear that? Like I took that person on a journey of pain points that that person maybe has experienced. And then I use storytelling to draw them into the next thing.

So you've got to paint the picture and really hear, pull from your experiences, your life experiences pull from the pain points of your Lola. Like if I'm doing this, you guys, I'm talking to you about struggling to grow a following, struggling when you're not making income yet struggling with understanding of what the call is, how to grow when you have zero, you're starting at ground zero. Should you do video? Should you do podcasting? Like I'm going to pull from those pain points and then storytell back to you from phases of my life that I was sitting in that spot, sitting in that dark moment, sitting in that question, sitting in that life struggle. That's what your storytelling is going to be. And that's just a paragraph next step. And depending on what you're doing. Okay. So if you're doing a caption, it's a paragraph. If you're doing a podcast episode, this is going to be 30% of the show like you're going to storytell and then the next step is you're going to go to T so we've got intrigued storytell now the next one is T tangible tips.

I E train. So we've gone from, I was 220 pounds. We told the story. Did you know that there's a fitness style that will work best for your personality? Here are four tips to help you uncover how to align your fitness goals with your personality so that you can finally have success with exercise. Number one. And I really love having like linear training where I'm like, guys, step one, step two, step three. And I don't start off with that because you're like, barring, like, I want to hear about your hot mess life. First stuff, I hear you I'm with you. Like I love when somebody first gives me the raw and juicy draws me in, and then they teach me the how it just makes for a better listening experience. The consumption is going to be much higher and they're going to stay on your episode or read your caption longer because they do want to ultimately get to the teach me how, but they want it delivered in a juicy way.

So when you go into T, which is tangible tips slash train, this is really for me, like, step one, a B, C. So for this example, you could say, step one, uncover your personality type. We recommend the Enneagram test, or we recommend Myers-Briggs step two, based on your type. You're going to fit into one of three categories. And then you would map out those categories. Like, for example, if you're a three on the Enneagram, you're going to do best in a fitness class because it's high competition. You have a lot of accountability. You're able to show up for others and really push yourself in like a competitive environment. So you can kind of like map out for them the step based on their personality style, right? And then maybe like step three is to find a plan for commitment or find an accountability group. And then the last piece of this formula is C call to action.

Could you have guessed that one, everything you do has a call to action, and it can be as simple as double tap this. If you loved it, it can be as simple as comment below with your Enneagram type and what fitness plan would be best for you share this post. If you know someone else struggling with exercise, those are some simple engagement driving call to actions that you can use. But ultimately, what do we want to do? We want to provide solutions and cultivate relationships. And the best way that we can do that is by driving people to our email list, we control that we can nurture that we can grow, that we can pour into our email list. And if Instagram was gone tomorrow, I challenge you to think about where are those thousand people following you on Instagram to go poof, bye-bye cause you don't remember all of them.

So my favorite thing to do is drive people to my list. And this could be something like if you guys love these tips, head on over to Bobby jones.fitness/quiz and take my fitness assessment quiz, right? Like anything that you set up should be solution driving and help your Lola get the results that they want. That's also why it's key for you to fully understand her pain points. Because if you have a freebie on meal planning, but yet your focus is exercise based on personality type. You're not in the wheelhouse and she's not going to go claim that freebie. So make sure the stuff that's getting high focus and attention in your micro niche. And you can see what's getting the most likes, which podcast episodes are being downloaded. The most, which videos have the highest view count. That's what people want. Pull your audience. What do you want to see more for me?

Anyway? That's a sidebar free tip for you. So here we go. Let's rewind back and have a recap of this number one. Okay. What am I doing? You guys? Or what am I doing right now? Huh? I story told, I told you all the ways I failed by making captions that had a cute little quote. Also what's really difficult for people is talking in circles. They don't get to the point or they just storytell with no call to action. Or they just do tip one, two, three, by like boring. You have to combine and be a master storyteller that serves and solve. Think I'm going to title this episode. That that is so good. [inaudible] writing down anyway. How do we do it? Step one, we are going to understand our avatar, take a minute, take 30 minutes and type or write out your avatar based on your niche, your zone of genius, what you do or what you aim to do.

Step two, every time you sit down to do a Instagram caption, to do a podcast episode, a blog, a video, I want you to create a rough outline based on the I S T C formula, which is intrigued. Storytell tangible tips and train and call to action. Every time I create something it's in that format and that format has never steered me wrong since I've began using it. I never realized that it had letters to it. There you go. Copyright. Stephanie asked 2019. That is the formula I've been using for this show for all of my Instagram posts, the ones that go crazy. And it's a winner winner chicken dinner. So I challenge you to go test this out, let me know your results. I hope that this was helpful for you when it comes to copyright to really crafting the art and honing in on the art of becoming a great copywriter and a great storyteller.

Because as this online world continues to grow and expand as more and more people show up on video and on audio, we have to stand out, but more than stand out, we have to solve and we have to solve in an engaging fun way that keeps people coming back over and over again and all the things, okay, that's it for today, guys. I want to pray over you now that you find all of the motivation and inspiration to head out into your day and create ripples in your life. I pray that you have a servant giving heart today. I pray that your business is open for improvements that the right mentors will flow in that the right opportunities will flow into you. And you will be able to take from that, whatever you need to expand in the capacity that God has called you to expand. I pray that you have courage and resistance and resilience as you head out there. I pray that you are surrounded in warring angels and will protect you and keep you safe. And that, you know, you are worthy of your call. Get after it. Girl, I'm cheering for you as always. Love and light.