The Russell Brunson Show - The Art of Instagram Reels Storytelling with Heather Parady

Episode Date: June 17, 2024

In this episode, I sit down with the incredibly talented Heather Parady, a master Instagram storyteller who has captivated me with her unique approach to creating engaging content with Instagram Reels. Heather shares her creative process, revealing how she weaves together compelling narratives in short formats. Heather's dedication to mastering the art of storytelling is truly inspiring, and she shares valuable insights on how to make content more relatable and engaging. Whether you're a marketer, content creator, or simply someone looking to improve your storytelling skills, this episode is packed with practical advice and inspiration. Join us as we geek out over storytelling techniques, the importance of empathy in content creation, and the fascinating ways to blend entertainment with marketing. Follow Heather Parady on Instagram: @heatherparady https://www.instagram.com/heatherparady Books and authors mentioned in this episode: "Big Magic" by Elizabeth Gilbert "The Creative Act" by Rick Rubin "Storyworthy" by Matthew Dicks "The 50th Law" by 50 Cent and Robert Greene Tune in and let’s make storytelling magic happen! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Clear your schedule for you time with a handcrafted espresso beverage from Starbucks. Savor the new small and mighty Cortado. Cozy up with the familiar flavors of pistachio. Or shake up your mood with an iced brown sugar oat shaken espresso. Whatever you choose, your espresso will be handcrafted with care at Starbucks. It sounds airy-fairy, but without fail, any time that I'm really convicted about a message where I'm like, this did something for me, that's the one that always does well. It's the ones that I try to formulate something too much because then it loses the spirit, the heart, I think.

And also to my energy and giving it, I think there's something in that. And again, I know that sounds wooey and weird, but if you really study, I love Rick Rubin and some of these creators who are teaching creative process, they all start there and then add structure versus trying to figure out how to breathe life into structure.

In the last decade, I went from being a startup entrepreneur to selling over a billion dollars in my own products and services online. This show is going to show you how to start, grow, and scale a business online. My name is Russell Brunson, and welcome to the Marketing Secrets Podcast. What's up, everybody? This is Russell Brunson.

Welcome back to the Marketing Secrets Show. Today, I have a super cool guest. We just finished the interview, and I want to tell you guys what you're going to learn because it was awesome. Her name is Heather Parody. I met Heather actually through Instagram. I was scrolling through one day, saw a video, hooked me in. I was like, this is some of the best short-form storytelling I've ever seen.

I started following her, and I've just been watching her for the last, man, almost a year now, what she's doing, how she's doing it. And so I wanted to bring her on because I'm trying to up my storytelling game. How do I do short-form, like 60-second,, 90 second stories in a way that are really, really powerful. And, uh, this interview was amazing for me because she was doing a lot of stuff. I didn't even realize she shows us our spreadsheets, how she's scripting her things, how she's pulling ideas to get like, it was one of the coolest things that I've, um, for me as a creator to see how she's doing it. Uh, I told her in an interview and she, uh, you know, probably a little awkward for her. I was like, you're the best short form storyteller I've ever seen. Like it was, she's that good. And she doesn't

even know it yet. And so it's really, really cool. But, uh, I'm just honored to have a chance to interview her and figure out what she's doing, how she's doing it. Um, and so if you guys want to tell a story, especially want to tell a story short form, like in a, in a real or for shorts or whatever that thing might be to grab new audiences who aren't necessarily like your tribe of people who already follow you, but going out and finding the masses and getting them to care about the thing that you actually care about. This interview is insane. It's so good. I think you're going to love it. With that said, I'm going to jump into the interview with Heather Parry. What's up, everybody? I'm here today with one of my new friends, someone I've been watching from

afar for a long time. And this is our first time actually having a face-to-face conversation. You guys get to listen in on. Her name is Heather Parody and I'm pumped to have you. How are you doing today? I am so excited to be here. I think I told you your book was one of the first like business personal development books. I'll lump those together that I've ever read. So it was so cool to actually get to meet you. Oh, so cool. Well, you just, so here's what happened. Like you randomly popped up in my feed one day. And so I watched a video from you and it was the video, the actual, um, it was the one here I can pull it up. It's pinned to the top of your thing right here. Um, Connor price, the Connor price one that one popped up, the Connor price one's got 1.8 million

views that popped into my feed and I watched it and like, and so here's, here's the compliment I give you ahead of time. Cause not only this one, but like, as I've been now watching you now for, I don't know, six months or something like that, I think you are the best short form storyteller I've ever seen. Um, 100%. And I watched that one. I was like, this is amazing. And then I started following you and it was cool because if on Instagram, I scrolled back to like the very beginning and, and, and it was, yeah, and you can see, you see, like you see a transition, like you were trying things, figuring these out. And then also like your style shifted and then like it started getting better and better. And then like, I love the way you tell

stories short form. And I've been trying to figure out how to model for myself. Cause I think you're so good at it. And so like, that's one big reason I want to hang out today. Just like pick your brain on that. Cause it's such a cool, a cool thing. Um, and I think you're one of the best I've ever seen. So there, there's the compliment. Hopefully that's not awkward for you, but, um, but it's really cool. So I let's start with like, like obviously you're publishing content in different places, but for the short form stuff, like when did you really start diving into that and trying to figure out your style? So I don't have a pretty story with this. I have like the messiest, like worst story because I feel like I fumble or I'm fumbling into figuring out what this is. I've put out hundreds of videos and I'm the type of gal that goes, goes, goes, goes, goes, fails, fails, fails, and then like tries well thought out and then executed. It's like I figure it out through executing. And so sounds sexier than what it is, because as you can see, if you scroll back, you're

just like, what are you doing, girl? Because I was doing like sketches because I really wish I was like in entertainment and comedy. I wish I was doing that. I just don't think I have that skill set, but I've tried trends. I tried a news thing at one point on TikTok. If y'all can find that, please don't let me know you found it. I mean, just like horrible, horrible, horrible stuff.

And I don't know if you feel this way, but just sometimes like this nudge where you're like, I am not going to give this up. I really want to figure out my voice in this. And there are so many different ways you can do content, but there's something about short form that I think with my ADHD personality, that's all over the place. I'm just really drawn to. And so I was just trying all these different series ideas and full transparency. I kind of got at like a really frustrated point. It was last summer. And I'm like, why is nothing I'm trying seem to work? Why am I not figuring out my voice

on here? And I heard all the tips, you know, like start with the hook and then do the three things and then have, you know, this and that. And I'm like, I knew this stuff and I was doing what Gary V talks about showing up, showing up, showing up. And I'm like, after hundreds of videos, do I just need to be like, yo, I suck. I need to give this up, you know? So when I ended up doing no lie is there's a chair behind me and I just, I was sitting right here and I'm just like, you know what? I am going to plant my butt in this chair and I'm not going to allow myself to get up until I figure out what I'm trying to say. I literally had that thought cross my mind. The first video that I put out, it wasn't like a viral hit or anything like that, but it was Heather being Heather for the first time. Cause if you hang out with me, I'm

always making these connections and it's like this and that, and that's the way my brain works. And the response I got that was like a genuine response, people DMing me and saying, this is one of the best pieces I think you've ever put out. I was like, okay, God, there's a sign there. And so I just haven't stopped. We're, I think we're right at a hundred videos now. And I was going to stop at a hundred and reevaluate. And I did, and I'm going to do another hundred. Um, cause I still have so much more to learn. Yeah. That's amazing. Um, so when you, what was the, I want people to understand this. Cause again, I think everyone sees somebody like you or me or whatever. It's like, Oh, this person's overnight success. And they don't realize the time prior. Like how

much time were you publishing this before you had the first one that was like you with your voice? I mean, I've been publishing consistent short form content, definitely at pandemic and mildly before pandemic. So years. Yeah. Is that four that four years ago three it's all such a blur for me everything i know exactly exactly exactly i don't know a long a long long time long time to find your voice i always talked about in my traffic secrets book i talk about how important it is for like for us to keep publishing because like first off it takes enough time for you to find your own voice and then by the time you start finding voices, it's about time your audience starts finding you and they start showing up.

Right. Most people are like, they're like, I can't publish because I don't have an audience. Or they're like, you know, I'm no good, so I can't publish. It's like all these things are answered by just starting and doing it consistently long enough until the cross section of you becoming good enough and your audience having a chance to find you becomes the thing where it starts to grow. You said you did 100 on this on this model so um uh what's what's the cadence once a day once a week like what like the 100 videos you've done so far in since you kind of shifted this transition how long has that been it's been i've been two or three a week. And there's part of me that's really wanted to go heavier or do more.

But I'm editing all the videos myself. I write everything myself. And it's very intentional. I don't want to outsource anything because for me, it's a storytelling process and I'm learning story. I'm learning how to edit, like retention editing. I'm learning, you know, script writing. I'm looking really heavily at the entertainment space, not just the marketing space to figure out like what makes something compelling. And so it's really slow.

And so it's been like two or three a week. And I mean, I'm the type of gal and I want to, but I'm trying to make quality over quantity right now. However, that being said, now that this 100 is out of the way, we're doing our first. We are doing our first. It's me and myself. I'm doing my first real heavy batch of videos this weekend

where I'm putting out 15 and getting it ahead. And that's taken a lot of time to really craft those well. But I think of this next 100, I'm stepping on the gas. I'm going to do more. So I want to ask you, because I saw a video video you post I can't remember if it was on Instagram or YouTube video but you were showing your content creation process you showed an excel sheet and you showed like how you're telling your stories how you're finding ideas and stuff like that

um actually actually before we even jump that um Alyssa are you cool if I show a couple of them just so people can see what we're talking about before we dive too deep in here we'll re-edit this on top of the podcast so i'm gonna play this first one here this is the connor price one i'm gonna play this one and then we'll talk about it i'm probably pay two or three of these that way um that way they have some context and we're gonna dive deeper into like uh how you're crafting creating these so here's the one from uh from connor price content has been blowing up earning him millions of dollars as an independent artist in less than two years. His secret? His marketing manager.

Her secret? Well, this is something you could do. Connor Price and his wife Brianna were just regular creative folks doing what creative folks do, grinding their butt off. Brianna was in marketing and Connor was an actor who loved rap. Brianna eventually decided to take her marketing genius and apply it to the business of Connornors Music. And he's like, Kris Jenner the s*** out of him. And this is what she did to change the game. How can we hook someone in? How can we tell a story? And the biggest moment for us was creating a series. Let's review Hook. All right, I'm going to spin this globe and wherever my finger lands, I'm going to find an artist from that country to collaborate with Brianna. Story. I started researching some up and coming artists and one guy really stood out.

Series. Part two. All right, we're back. Part three. All right, we're back. Part four. And it worked. Building a loyal fan base, views turned into streams, which now earns them over $200,000

a month. And this unique strategy does not just work for music. We can do this too, y'all. But here's a bonus tip. Really important. Always listen to your wife. Okay. So that was the first one I saw from you. Great storytelling, but also like your personality pops in there. So, so fun as well. Like it's the reason I saw that I was like, who's Heather? She's amazing. And I followed you. And then, you know, like, so talk about like that

one, like what was the idea behind that? How did it come out and how that affects everything? I know you love Connor too. I heard that somewhere else. I just, I've been really obsessed with their model. I love the whole independent vibe. It's very entrepreneurial in the artist space. And, um, I listened to that interview on my first million. I'm like, that is gold. That is a piece. And I think that's where I'm trying so hard to start with, with any of the videos is that instinct of where, man, I got, I know it's so simple, but it's so easy to forget because sometimes my mind goes to what's going to work versus what is really resonating with me and landing with me. And that clip of her, I got so much

value from. And so I started there, but this is where the challenges come in with these pieces is just because they move Heather parody. how do I frame it in a way where other people care, right? And then how do I keep their attention? So this is kind of the first piece where I really learned the importance of visual example. Like me adding in, I could have just been like Cook's story series and just said that really quick without bringing in his familiar pieces, which we all know and love. And I think that, um, that was a big learning point for me because I think a lot of times we default to filler content, like B roll and stuff like that. If, you know, Hey, I got this on art list and this is a cool little thing and it doesn't add to the story at all. Um, so with,

with his, I hate to say it, but I didn't really script that out, that one that much. I executed on it and then kind of found the story in the edit, which is a little bit backwards. But that gave me a good model moving forward with some of my other pieces. Like the reels before then did well, but that one really popped. And I'm like, oh, this is what this is. I think it's powerful, powerful to the fact that you led with the thing that like moved you. And all the times I'll sit with my team and we're like at a blank board. Like I will, which we talk about today. It's like, uh, versus like, oh my gosh,

this weekend I was consuming this or I read this book or I had this thing and like, here's the epiphany I had, like, let's create something off of like the thing that, that you felt, which was, was, uh, such a cool way to kind of start with it. You know what I mean? It sounds airy-fairy, but without fail, any time that I'm really convicted about a message where I'm like, this did something for me, that's the one that always does well. It's the ones that I try to formulate something too much because then it loses the spirit, the heart, I think. And also, too, my energy and giving it, I think there's something in that. And again, I know that sounds wooey and weird, but if you

really study, and I love Rick Rubin and some of these creators who are teaching creative process, they all start there and then add structure versus trying to figure out how to breathe life into structure. Does that make sense? yeah yeah that's actually fascinating for me because um i've noticed off my own stuff where i i'm given an idea and i create something on it and i feel like i'm giving it on my all and doing the thing but then you can see the results later and yeah uh and then the ones where it's like i'm really excited just i don't know if it's like what it is differently but like um i can tell when you watch it back. And then also like the audience responds way differently.

So that's really fascinating. The one I did with my money don't jingle, jingle, it folds. That guy, I don't remember his name, Louis, Louis Thoreau, I think. Is that the first one that's pinned or the second one? It's one of these. Yeah, I think it's the second one. Should we watch it real quick so we know what we're talking about? Sure, sure, sure.

Okay, here we go. Let's set this up. Honey, don't jiggle, jiggle. It folds. I'd like to see you wiggle, wiggle for sure. Sorry. The song was a huge hit last year. Millions of views, downloads.

You know you love it. But where it came from is wild. 20 years ago, a British journalist named Louis Thoreau had a show called Weird Weekends. On one particular episode, he was studying gangster rap and was challenged to write and perform his own song. Riding in my fiat, you really have to see it. Guess what happened after that? Nothing. Now fast forward 20 years later, during an interview, he was reminiscing about his rap days. I did a Weird Weekends episode about rap.

Can you remember any of the rap that you did? After that interview, a DJ duo decided to remix the song and randomly some college students decided to do a dance to it. Jiggle, jiggle, it falls. And it was randomly a huge viral hit. 20-year-old TV show, random conversation in an interview, random remix, random dance, randomly successful. Now, although Louis, I don't think, was trying to become a rap star,

there's such an important lesson in this. Timing. It took over 30 years for It's a Wonderful Life to not be considered a failure. It was over a decade before Hocus Pocus became a hit. And even in his book, The Alchemist, Paulo Coelho said it was 25 years before anyone noticed his book. But he says he never lost faith. Why?

Because it was me in there. Heart and soul. Talking about timing and even luck is not sexy, y'all. That's why it's so important to have so much freaking fun in what you make and add a little wiggle wiggle show to it. I'm sorry, I'm a mess. Okay, way too long. So good. What I was going to say in that is, so I got a bunch of crap for it because people were calling me like, hey, yo, your audio is off because there's something, you know, I'm doing all this myself.

I'm learning like literally in the mud trying to figure out how to produce these things. And I had two different takes of that same one. I did it one day and I did it the second day. The first day, I'm kind of like, you know, man, rough day with my kids, tired, whatever. I delivered the lines. The next day, I was just feeling Heather. I was kind of feeling up and decided to rerecord it. And even though the sound was a little bit off and from a technical standpoint, it was less perfect.

I went with the one that, um, that personality came through way more because I knew that's what captured was going to capture people. And it did. I mean mean that was one of my more viral videos yeah so cool I love also like because like I'm a book nerd I don't know if you know or not like I've bought like 18,000 books last couple years you're more than me hey I'm also how do I tell these books stories and stuff I love like just that video alone like you took you took um you know a rap thing and then you took the alchemist and like weaved in the lesson from two different things I'm like oh like because I've noticed like when I've tried to do videos, like, let me tell you the cool thing I got from this book. Like it dies where you're coming with like a really good hook, really cool story. And then bringing in this other piece, like,

it's like, you're bringing in different modalities, different things to illustrate the same point, which then hits it from different angles and like connects with, at least for me, connects with different parts of who I am. You know what I mean? Which I think is really interesting. So yeah. Yeah. That's intentional. Like I'm my, I always think of like my content. I want to be a bridge. That's my whole mission is I want to bridge, uh, what people are searching for and what they're interested in and hopefully be a, it's my long-term goal, at least a touch point into personal development and spirituality, because it, I mean, I'm like everybody in your world, it changes our lives. It's so it's, it's game changing. Um, but it's not sexy. People

aren't on Instagram being like, yo, tell me what Dale Carnegie said. You know what I mean? Like they're wanting to be entertained. And so how can we as leaders and content creators, people who have this message and figure out how do I package it in a way that's more mainstream and interesting with the intent of not just quote going viral, but helping more people because the world needs these messages. That's interesting. All right, funnel hackers needs these messages. That's interesting.

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wait, protect your privacy, build your brand and set up your business in just 10 clicks in 10 minutes. Head to Northwest registered agent today and start building something amazing. So this has been the question I started asking earlier. Let's jump back to that. So I watched the video where you were showing in your spreadsheet how you're pulling in ideas. And for each idea, you're pulling in multiple different storylines to be able to tell the story.

We walked through that process, how you actually put that together and execute on it. This is where we're going to get nerdy. Yeah, let's nerd out. So excited. Let's do it. You said spreadsheet. I'mdy yeah let's nerd out so let's do it you said spreadsheet i'm like let's go so you know i'm sure everybody listening to this you're just consuming so much

content and you listen to this this piece from you know russell's podcast or this cool reel that you watch and there's just these these really great pieces that are standalone. And what I've been working on doing is just capturing ideas. And that's been one of the hardest disciplines for me to learn because usually I hear something and I'm like, oh, that's good. That's profound. And then I move on and I completely forget about it. So it started off with me just putting a basic spreadsheet together. And in the mornings when I read, if there's a really good quote, I'll underline it. And I'll come back later, usually on Sundays. That's my spreadsheet day.

Doesn't that sound fun? And I'll just capture these ideas. I'll take screenshots. But I want to put them all in one central place. And this is just Heather being OCD and type A. But when I go to write, what I'm looking for is again, back to bridges. This makes me think of this. So fascinated with the creative process. I think it's the cool, I think it's so spiritual. I think it's so annoying too, because sometimes you want to put

out an idea and it's not ready just yet. So when I have all these ideas, it's like they're little, um, little pieces of the puzzle. And I visit those pieces of the puzzle on this spreadsheet. And I'm thinking what sparks, uh, when I read this, is there another idea that sparks from that? And so then there's two, my goal is to always have kind of three sparks with something. Now there have been videos that i've had two two sparks uh but usually i feel like it's a more formulated idea when there are three different perspectives so the sources are podcasts books other reels that i've seen i mean i don't know about you but constantly i'm listening to something right that's the beginning of the process i'll stop there that part like that's fascinating can we is it easy it's nerdy and weird we can see it i don't know if that's possible like

do you want to do it now you need to screen share it yeah if we can that'd be just so people can see um to see it like totally it's funny i saw that your spreadsheet i said my whole team like look at this like this is how she's doing it. Like, cause for me, it was like, she writing these stories. Like, she just like knows everything and pops it out. And as soon as I saw that, I was like, Oh, this is how she's, she's gathering these things. So then she can create later. And I'm the same way. Like I, I, it drives me crazy. I'll listen to her. I'll read something. I'm like, this is the greatest thing I've ever read. This will change my life forever. And you turn the page and keep reading and then you forget the thing. I'm the same way. Like

if you look at my, um, my motivators, my number one motivators roi which i always thought meant money but it doesn't means like anything i do i have to have i if i can't see like the return on investment in the situation i never want to do it right like right that's why i struggled in school because like i couldn't see the return on investment but like for me like reading a book is hard unless i'm sharing something i learned from it then there's an roi like, Oh, this is beneficial because it's going to help other people. So by like seeing how you were doing, I was like, this gives me like where everything I'm learning now, which I enjoy anyway, cause I get the, I get the internal ROI, but now like it gives me an easier path to like start sharing the ahas I'm having with more people. And that, that amplifies ROI,

which then makes it way more valuable for me to read or listen to podcasts than just what it does for me internally. Exactly. And for me, it's been training my brain to have an opinion on something and take something a little further. Because if I get one concept from a book or a podcast, my standalone, that's great value. But if I can start practicing building bridges of what that reminds me of, the context of what's being said in both worlds goes a little bit deeper and so i learn it a little bit better but i also extend it because i'm forming an opinion and an interpretation from it um okay so my spelling is not the best your girl was homeschooled no judging and i struggled in school really bad so y'all have to forgive me on this but let's just be vulnerable here.

So do you see my spreadsheet? Yep, we see it. Okay, cool. It literally says real ideas. And so if it's in green, I've used it. And here's something that I recently started doing. I used to just take, like, let's say I used Ed Sheeran here. It says hard work over talent.

Let's say I use this in a clip. I used to just delete it. And then a friend of mine was like, why would you ever do that? Keep all of your ideas. You can reuse them. So very, very messy. As you can see, this is literally a Heather brain dump, but I have the person who said it, the link. And then when I'm doing good, when I'm doing right, I usually have the timestamp unless it's a short. And then I try to word it like what this is like Steve Jobs here. This whole thing was about asking more. Bruce Springsteen, the third thing you don't understand. Neil Gaiman, you have to be so vulnerable. It's just little cues. Oh yeah, I remember that. Oh yeah. And when I'm going through here, I just did it this morning.

If there's a topic on my mind, I can either search for it and see if there's some keywords here that will bridge, you know, be a bridge between what I'm looking for and a clip. Or if it's just going to just need to spark some creative ideas. But this is where I keep everything. I have books here. So I just finished reading a psycho, psycho, psycho cybernetics. Oh,

maximum wallets are the best. I love it. Dude, the book was so good. It was so, so, so good. So this is it.

I mean, it's messy and it's imperfect, but it's been so helpful to keep everything right here. And then I can like, let it go. So I'm in the gym and Dan Levy says this thing. and I'm like, man, that could make a great video. I don't have to come up with a video idea right then. It may be, and it usually is like weeks later, but if I know I stored it, then I feel safe to kind of let that idea go. So when you're in the gym, you pause your

podcast and jump over on your phone and drop it right then or do it later? Like is're in the gym, you pause your podcast and jump over on your phone and drop it right then? Or do you do it later? Like, is it in the moment it happens you try to remember? Yes, that or I drop it in Slack and I have my VA drop it in. And I just like, hey, you know, and I'll just tell her what it is real quick and she'll do it. Yeah. So cool. All right. And then so you build out the thing. And then from there, like walk us through your process.

So each week you're coming in trying to figure out, okay, based on these things, what's going to be the next story I'm excited to tell or how does it work? This has been another – I'm going to tell you like all the struggles. My ego, Heather, wants to come in and say what's going to pop right now? What can I do that's going to work? And I'm really, really resisting that and letting go of some things because they're not ready I have some really great ideas for some videos but I don't want to put them out prematurely and this is coming from I've been studying a lot of screenwriters like interviewing them and stuff like that and learning about storytelling and

there's so much of it where you will dump and then you leave and you let it sit for a while and then you come back to it. So consistently I'm showing up every week where I spend several hours. It's usually on Friday afternoons and then Sunday where I will go through my spreadsheet and I'll just see where those two spark ideas or those three ideas, and I'll put them into another document. Let me show it to you. Let's be nerdy. I'll show you the next one. But here's my structure.

So I have a hook. I have a clip. And then I have that staple in their book. Right. So sometimes I'll have one clip. Sometimes I'll have two. This is what the format that I've mostly done right here. I've been playing with this next batch having just one clip and we'll see how those go.

But I'll just drop the clips here. So persistence pays off. I have Billie Eilish a clip here and then I think this one. Yeah. Ed Sheeran again. So I'll drop the clips here and then I'll watch those clips over again, and I'll try to see the natural bridge between those two. Should I lead with Billie first, or should I lead with Ed? I try to find what is the core message here. So this core message for persistence pays off is you have to do something so many times before you get it right. It's an unbelievable amount of times.

We were just talking about that. So when I'm trying to bridge these ideas together, I'm trying to make it cohesive. Where am I always coming back to this main takeaway? takeaway. This is one thing that I've really failed at and figured out the hard way is I'm passionate about X topic, but if I can't distill it down into one main core idea, then the video is not going to be as effective because people get overwhelmed. So trying to make it as simple as possible. Then from there, when I have the main idea, the bridge, then I go to the hook. I don't start with the hook first.

I go to the hook usually last, and the book is usually done around the time of the hook too. The book I don't normally do first. It's usually in support of the clips that I saw. Okay. So cool. And you're filming 12 of these this weekend. You ready for that? A hundred percent. Yeah. I'm ready. I'm ready. Cause it's so much work. It is. It's a lot of work and I'm nowhere near where I want to be with it. I'm going to keep putting in the work to get really good at these. I haven't, I really don't feel

like I've started yet because I'm figuring out what this is just now. Um, and the work to get really good at these. I haven't, I really don't feel like I've started yet because I'm figuring out what this is just now. And I want to get ahead so I can get a little bit more into the weeds of the micro. You know, conceptually I've figured out what this is. Now I need to get into the fine tweaking and more into the analytics and take it to the next level. For yours, do you try to focus on a time limit or just you know, or just however long it takes to tell the stories,

what is most important? Oh man. So as you can see the wiggle wiggle one, uh, I was just like, I just need to fit all this into 90 seconds. Cause that's all IG will give you. And my mindset's changed on that a little bit, or now that I'm understanding that, you know, retention affects reach and the longer that it is, the less likely, you know, people will finish all of it, no matter how good it is, we're just bored. So now I've been trying to get it under 60 seconds. It's been really difficult because telling a story in 60 seconds that has a lot of components, you know, that whole cut your darlings thing, man, there's some things I've cut out and I literally just want to cry. I'm like,

that's such a good point. But the, the creative restriction, um, which I'm really big on that right now, creative restriction, 60 seconds has been a good challenge for me as a storyteller. You can also make like a director's cut where it's like you pay extra and you get the director's cut. It has all the, you know, the clips that you had to cut out for Instagram are all live inside of the members there. I don't know. I so talking to russell brunson right now like how we make more analysis stuff you cut out that's the best part yeah that's that's great okay i'm gonna pull another clip we're gonna watch it and talk about just the the application of the process you're kind of as you're doing this uh based on one so i'm scrolling through your feed right now just to pick one

randomly and i see wal Walter White in his underwear. You cool if we show that one? Yeah. All right. We're gonna watch this one and then we'll talk about the hooks and the stories and stuff you wanted to weave for this one right here.

I played Walter White in Breaking Bad so that if you get discouraged while following your dream. I got a lucky break at age 40 and was cast in Malcolm in the Middle. At 50, I got an even bigger break when I was cast as Walter White. It doesn't work on your timetable.

This is a lifetime. A lifetime? It's a relationship. It's not a fling. Committing to something for the rest of your life. When I interviewed Sean Cannell from Think Media, he said that creators will be absolutely miserable if they chasing fame or views or virality,

wrong things to chase. Those things should be byproducts of a purpose-driven, intentional life, not the main pursuit. Here's the crazy part. In his book, The Power of Intention, Wayne Dyer says that if you find yourself in this perpetual state of striving, you eliminate the possibility of ever arriving. And ironically, when you stop needing more, more of what you desire seems to arrive in your life. Let go and let God. That's what the Lord said. Somebody said. I love it because you got Walter White clip,

then you got a podcast clip, then you got the book, and then you got your personality weaved in the end. And anyway, was that 60, was that 90 seconds, you think? Oh, that was, I would say one minute and 12, 15 seconds would be my guess i love you know exactly the second all right talked about like the creative process on that one and the pieces you weaved in and all and you can remember so here's when a challenge for me as a podcast host is everybody hates clips right they're like whatever i don't want to see this like clip of the best thing somebody said in an interview and you, you know, um, but sometimes I've just had these really, I mean, every show host, like I want to promote the show. How do I get people? How do I use social

media to promote it? And so since I'm doing these chair reels, the idea occurred to me, I'm like, yo, you're having all these awesome conversations with people, these clips, why not start bringing those in as that third little piece? And I don't always have that. But that's been really intentional to help promote, you know, the show there. So another tab on that spreadsheet, I have podcast interviews. And another thing my VA does is when we produce the show, we, you know, pull out the clips like everyone does. We label those with keywords too, you know, like Sean there was talking about, you know, going viral and authenticity and doing things for the right

reasons. So we'll label it in the spreadsheet the same way. So when I'm going through my ideas, I can also flip over to podcast clips and see if there's a way I can weave in what I'm doing into that reel. So there's just that element. Now, bringing it back to Walter White, which I just love that dude. I love that show. You know, saying the name at the top of the person has been game changing. And not everybody is a celebrity that I cover. So I have to be really intentional. Like I'm doing,

um, JJ Abrams film director, you know, in this next batch. And I'm thinking if I say JJ Abrams, not everyone is going to know who JJ Abrams is unless you're in that world. But if I say, you know, this dude who was involved in Star Wars and Star Trek and so forth, those key terms, Star Trek, Star Wars, I know what that is. And so that's kind of the mentality there. That's why I usually lead with that anchor about, again, being the bridge. What do people care about? They don't care about my book, my love for books. They don't care about my podcast. They don't care who Heather Parody is. They care about Breaking Bad and something interesting they can learn about that. They care about Connor Price making, I didn't say Connor Price at the

beginning, did I? Because people don't know who Connor Price is, but they did hear millions of dollars in streams and that's something they care about. So that's at the top. Then through storytelling, bridge it to the stuff that I'm really passionate about. That's so cool. Man, I love that. I'm glad you think it is because most people, what? I geek out over this. It's been so fun. It's been a blast.

Yeah. Well, it's interesting because like, I look at my stuff, like I've got my world of people who love the marketing stuff, you know, and it's a pond of people who love, so I can like put stuff and create stuff and those people love it, but it doesn't grow externally outside of that, that world very easily. And it's funny, of people who love it. So I can like put stuff and create stuff and those people love it,

but it doesn't grow externally outside of that world very easily. And it's funny, I was watching Gary Vee and like one thing he does interesting is he's bringing in pop culture people to all these things. You know, he's got rappers and this and that. And I've never done that because I'm like, first of all, I don't care about the rapper. I don't care about these kinds of things. But it's like, I don't think, I don't know if he maybe does care about it,

but the reality is like it brings, like you said, brings it to like what people actually care about and then brings those people back into his world where now they care about him. And I think this is a fascinating way that you're doing it where you're able to like literally every one of these is leveraging a different social icon or idea or concept or something to grab a segment, bring them in. And yeah, it's really fascinating. Yeah. Fascinating. Hey, funnel yeah, it's really fascinating. Yeah. Fascinating.

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There's been some kind of, I don't know. I don't want to be the gal who does covers pop culture. Cause I don't spend my time researching celebrity stuff. I'm always listening to like deep, long interviews and so forth like that. So I'm very intentional with the celebrities that I cover, you know, like it's not going to be just because there's some popular people out there I'm not going to cover just cause they're not aligned with my values and so forth but i do think it's strategic and even generous to think about how do i make this interesting for someone else even if it's not super interesting to me and a hook for me i'd be hooked on your napoleon hill stuff i love napoleon hill but if I'm not into that world,

we have to get empathetic into people's shoes and maybe Billie Eilish is the way into Napoleon Hill. How would you do that? If you were to make a video like that tonight, if you were me, just kidding. Well, I would, you know, so you have these concepts like something with, you know, Hill. Like one of the things that we,

I think I did a video on was the board of directors. I love that concept. That was super interesting. I think it was thinking girl rich where he talked about how he goes and he consults with, um, yeah, yeah. That's so wild. So thinking about, okay, if I have this concept from this book, where, what is, what is an idea next to the idea? So I learned this from, who was that? This was Matthew Dix. He wrote a book called Storyworthy. He's a professional storyteller, gets on stages and he was talking about ideation. So you have this one liner that you really want to get in, this one piece of an idea and you go around the edges of the idea. So this makes me think of that. And then when you can kind of come up with some parallel ideas next to the big idea, then it can start getting broader where you can find, you know, pieces of either pop culture or

something relatable that is on the edge of that idea. So board of directors, that's not mainstream interesting, and people would think it's weird. But what is next to that idea is that sometimes you're at a complete loss and there's no one to consult. And what happens when you don't have a big network and you're just starting off and you don't have, you know, you can't talk to Russell Brunson off the bat, you know what I mean? That's relatable.

We've all felt that way. So then how do I embed that idea that's more relatable in something either visual or in pop culture where I can bring people over to the idea of board of directors? So we're loosening that idea a little bit, getting into more of the commonality. And then I think when you do that the muse god whatever it's weird how these images will start popping in i love how your brain works this is really cool huh i like want to sit down in the script with you for like two days and just think about a million different ideas because i i very much look at things i'm the same way like i look at

or not me that's me i look at that like Like the Napoleon Hill concept of the principle that for me, I can see like, ah, but it's that trying to get anyone else to care. Like even I look at it from as small as like my own kids. Like I can't get my kids to care about this kind of stuff. Right. And there was no day, but it's funny. Cause like one ideas or one thing that's been interesting. My son, uh, he actually graduated last night.

Yay. Which we weren't sure it was going to happen. So we're pumped about that. Um, but anyway, he's a big rap dude. And I try to get him like, it's like, I'm trying to figure out how to get him to like care about personal development, but he doesn't, he just wants to listen to rap all day. But then there's, um, um, uh, there's the fit, the book 50th law by 50 cent where, um, uh, which is, you know, a rapper, but it's personal development. If you read, I don't know if you read that book, it's actually shocking. Robert Greenene. Yeah, Robert Greene. Robert Greene wrote it.

Yeah. It's shockingly good. I thought it was a joke when my friends recommended it. And I read it. I was like, this is actually insanely good. But my son was like, I'm like, dude, do you know that 50 Cent wrote a book on personal development? He's like, what?

What are you talking about? And then I'm like, yeah, dude, you should read it. So we started talking back and forth. He's like, all right, dad, give me the book. I'll read it. And that was the introduction where he's actually willing now to read something about personal development, which opens a gate now where it's exactly, we'll see if it will see if he reads it or not.

But like, that was enough to open a gate to now we can, if you read that now we have conversations and now it creates a context and desire for the rest of the world of stuff. And it's like, that's what we're trying to do in these videos is like, it's casting these nets, creating context and desire for something that,

that where you can go deeper with them. Right. And kind of pull people back into the rest of the stuff that, that yeah, it's moving from like the surface level things to like, to where we go deep with somebody. It's really cool. What's your,

so for you and your business, I don't, I don't know. What's your end goal with these right now besides creating, creating them? Is it, are you bringing people into something that is their backend or like, what's your,

what's your model? What's your thought process right now? I've been, it's honestly been disruptive. I started doing it because I enjoyed doing it. And it was an outlet for me. It was fun. I was trying to figure out, you know, what's my creative voice here? I have my separate business, which is a service-based business.

We do operational work with service-based businesses. I've been doing that for a few years. I'm good at it. It has nothing to do with this. Now, what's been interesting, what's been so fascinating is the doors that have been opening up from people. I've signed several clients from just them seeing my reels. I'm like, I want to work with that girl. I don't know what you do, but can I hire you? Take my money, please. Yeah. That's been neat. But it's also been making me kind of rethink what I'm doing. That's a whole nother conversation, but I feel very, very drawn to the storytelling element and I see a gap and you tell me, I feel like there's a lot of people in our space who are trying to make interesting content that funnels into something, but they're doing it

the way all other marketing people do it. And they're not looking at the entertainment space and storytelling and what the artists and the creatives know from that side and bringing it more in. And I think that there is really a spot for that. So I got hired from a couple, you know, some people in the entertainment space to come in and help with structuring some things for their content. It's gone well. And I think there may be something more down the road for me there. You caught me in an early stage, but hit me back up in a year. And yeah, well, I'll be your first client. I want to hire you just to help me brainstorm an idea. Cause that's my thing is like, I'm going to, when we have a process in place to replicate it, but right now I've been watching

your stuff now for, I don't know how many months, five or six or a year maybe. But it's just like, I keep seeing it. I was like, God, it's so cool the way you're doing it. And getting into that rhythm of being able to pull in the three or four different points and make something really cool. So sign me up as your first client, whatever that's going to look like, and we'll figure it out if you want. But I think there's something there that's powerful because you're right. I think most marketers, me included, we do things to get attention and push to something

versus putting in the time to tell the stories, which, you know, it's tough because there's like you get the initial hit of like the fast other ones. But it's like it comes and goes versus like what you're doing is like I feel like it compounds and like the stories get better and people get better and it starts growing. Then when you do have the ask, you know, you can see what on the backside of what happens. Like I watched, um, Mark Rober, I don't know if you follow him on YouTube, but Mark's, uh, he's like the engineer, he does stuff and his videos are amazing. Like they're anyway, but he never sold anything. He did, he did videos for five or six years, engineering, like squirrel traps and a Christmas present bombs, some stills or Christmas, I make bomb blows up in the glitter bomb in their face. And like, Oh, he's like engineering videos. Right. And it's like, my kids are obsessed. time mark robert video comes even my older kids like we're

sitting down we watch it and i watched him do these videos that were just like like what's the point of any of this and then one day he launched this thing where it was like uh these like engineering kits that you can sign up for and we signed up for and i found out later i can't remember the numbers it was insane like i can't remember like 40 50 million dollars in sales from one video like just insane but it was like he built up that relationship rapport and demand and when the thing happened it was there versus you know just these quick like you know transactional like hopefully some people watch this video and come by my thing and so it's it's an interesting blend I think there's there's value in both of those but like having more of the story side is so fascinating to get you you

bring new people into your world versus just kind of selling to the people who are existing in your universe already. A hundred percent. And my goals, I'm naturally super interested in story. Like I will talk to a screenwriter. I talked to a cinematographer the other day and I don't know hardly anything about cameras. I talked to him for like an hour and a half and I was just fascinated with how the camera moves and how that tells the story. And so for me, my objective right now, whether it's good or bad, I don't know. I want to be excellent at telling story. I know I'm good right now. I want to be great at it. And so again, back to letting something mature. I think this, I know this will turn into something. I'm confident of

that. I also know in my gut that I have a hundred more of these to do, and I'm going to be way different place in a hundred than I was, you know, last July when I started. Last July, so that hasn't even been a year yet. That's, that's, that's pretty cool. It's pretty cool. What are your feelings personally? Do you like long-form storytelling versus short-form? Do you do long-form as well? Do you like it better or worse? Where do you land on that? I think long-term goal, I want to get into that.

I'm working on my first short script. Not short, not Instagram short, like short film short. It's a 15, 20-minute, and my goal is to have that film next year. So I've been, you know, reading the books, trying to figure out structure with that. For me, for me personally, this is not a blanket statement. I want to be able to tell a really good story in 20 seconds and then slowly build from that and not push it too much right now. The editing has been really a learning curve for me. I didn't know Adobe, like how to, you know, anything like that. I've been taking courses.

I joined a mastermind group from sound engineers, like so over my head. And I think it's important, again, my personal goals goals I want to learn all the different aspects of it to be able to do it really well I see long form in the future for me I'm just not there yet yeah I think yeah I think long form is harder and harder I look at my I have a nine-year-old and uh we she won't like watch a Disney movie with now because like she's so used to reels and shorts and stuff like that. If it's more than a couple minutes, she's bored. I think the generation is moving further and further away from longer form. So I think being able to tell a story in 20, 40, 60 seconds, 90,

it's such an interesting, powerful, powerful thing. One last question I want to ask you, and then we can relate it to this. It's just from the editing standpoint like obviously like telling the story is one part but getting editing in a way that captures people and pulls them through like what are the biggest things you've learned as you've been experimenting and learning that whole part of the process cut out cut out cut out cut out cut out everything like just cut it get it out everything, like just cut it, get it out. It's been, um, does this serve the story or is this filler? Does this push the story forward?

Or is this Heather's ego that I just want to make this statement? That's been really hard to decipher between it. But I like that Walter White video that you just had. There was another sentence that I said in it before I cut to his clip. But I've just been asking myself, every single word, is this necessary? And can I get to the point faster? So there's that piece. Retention editing has been really interesting for me, like when to zoom in, when to zoom out. I know my audience is a little bit more on the mature side. So folks who follow me are in their 30s primarily into 40s. I think the gap is I want to say 30 to 45 is my highest.

So that audience I know doesn't necessarily my daughter. I have an 11 year old and hers is like, I need cuts and clips and all this stuff. And I watch it. I'm like, man, my anxiety is like through the roof with this. That's not my audience. It's folks more along my age. So the slower zooms and the retention can be a little bit more smooth. I think that goes into knowing your audience. Um, and then I try to have something different every three seconds. So whether, whether it's a transition from me to a video clip or add, and I'm very against, I don't like B roll at all. Every time I have to use B roll, I want to punch myself. Like I hate it. It just feels so, it takes away from it, you know. But every three seconds, there has to be something.

Versus text, versus new swipe, versus just also. Yeah, and even sometimes, like, I'll go from 100% to 105, and it's such a slow zoom that you don't even know that there is a transition. But I know subconsciously that there is some kind of, you know, dopamine there. There's something small and subtle. Well, thank you for making all these, like they're fascinating to me. I love watching them, love hearing the stories. It inspires me just trying to figure out how to, how to tell my stories a lot better. Okay. My last, my real last question is just as a book nerd, what are some of your favorites that I may not have read that I'm missing out on?

I highly doubt you haven't read them i've seen your book stash um my goodness i love big magic elizabeth gilbert i don't know if you've read that one a creative act by rick rubin was game tell me you have you read that one i'm reading this weekend though so i'm excited for that now it's you know who rick rubin is yeah yeah so good all weird creative process stuff um you've already known steven pressfield he's normally went i know story worthy by matthew dicks i mentioned him earlier that's one of the most tactical storytelling books that i've ever read um He breaks, now his is from a performative storytelling piece, but I really want to encourage folks,

learn from people outside of your industry who are doing storytelling, because it's amazing what you'll learn. I've been reading like acting books and comedy. I've been interested in that, because even though I'm not going to do that with my life, there's so many principles in it. So Storyworthy is a fantastic book.

Very cool. I do agree with you, like learning from other industries. When I first got into the marketing world, I studied copywriting. I really get copywriting. But then we started meeting these sketch comedy writers. In fact, we worked the Harmon Brothers initially. And the Harmon Brothers, we did, I think,

we went to five or six videos with them. And we go on these writing retreats with them. And none of their writers are direct response writers they're all sketch comedy writers who weave in direct response and it's like and it's crazy because like a copywriter you pay 25 grand for copywriter sketch comedy writer you pay him 300 bucks and write you a killer script it's like oh that was way better than these other right you know it's like learning from the different uh like similar similar skill set like writing but different genres of the writing is just like a fascinating, uh, way to look at things differently. Um, which is, well, I think the intention's different and I could be, this is a blanket statement, but if you think

about from a entertainment standpoint, their goal is to entertain you, you know, and, uh, make you interested versus there being an intention of I'm trying to get you to do something. And energetically, we can feel the difference. Well, I appreciate your time today. I had a blast and I love the way your brain works. And this was just super fascinating and cool. So I'm going to work on creating one video, following your process as close as I can. I'm going to send it to you, get your feedback.

And then my team and I have been talking. I want to start weaving these into like what we're doing anyway. I just wanted to understand a little deeper. And this was just, yeah, for me, for me, it was really cool. So thank you for an honor to meet you. Thanks for having me. Yeah. Hopefully hang out in person someday. You can come, we can come, uh, share library stories and show off books and stuff. That'd be cool. That'd be cool. Awesome. Okay. so everyone who's listening right now, if you're not right now, go to Instagram and follow Heather Parady, H-E-A-T-H-E-R-P-A-R-A-D-Y, so they can find you.

Anywhere else that's like best place for people to follow you and see all the stuff you're doing in real time? I would love Instagram. That's the best spot. Cool. Yeah, go watch it. Start following the stories.

Start watching what she's doing. And then I encourage everyone to try this, like getting your storytelling ability and strengthening it and like figuring out how to like weave multiple stories together to prove one really powerful point. Anyway, I'm pumped to do it. So thank you for being here. Thanks for all you do. You're amazing. Thank you. Appreciate it. Yep. All right. Talk soon.