Turn Your Story Into Strategy: The Thought Leader’s Edge with Sara Lohse

Want to elevate your business and stand out as a thought leader? In this episode, Sara Lohse shares how to power up your brand using authentic storytelling that builds connection, trust, and influence.

What’s Covered in This Episode:

• Why authentic storytelling is a game-changer for thought leadership.
• How to craft and share your personal story to connect deeply with your audience.
• Sara’s tips for using storytelling to inspire action and grow your business.
• The powerful impact of vulnerability and honesty in your messaging.
• Practical steps to make your story resonate and stand out in a crowded market.

Sara Lohse is a storyteller, marketer, and brand architect with a knack for turning narratives into connections. Through Favorite Daughter Media, Sara uses her passion and talent to help mission-driven brands amplify their impact, proving that authentic storytelling and strategic marketing go hand in hand.

📚 Get a copy of Sara's debut book:
Open This Book: The Art Of Storytelling For Aspiring Thought Leaders by Sara Lohse 

🤝 Connect with Sara
https://www.linkedin.com/in/saralohse/

💛Share with a friend who would enjoy this conversation.

Thank you for listening in! See you next week.

Transcript

Sara: [00:00:00] And I pitch him as, he is an expert in all of these financial things. He's been doing this for 20 years. All of these different designation certifications. And the host looks at me and says, Yeah, that's great. I don't want someone that's an expert. I want someone with a cool story. 

It's time to reinvent.

Priscilla: Welcome to the lessons of entrepreneurship, the journey of reinvention. As always, I have a special guest for you today. I have Sarah Losey a storyteller, marketer and brand architect. , Sarah. Please tell us who you are and what's your mission.

Sara: Thank you so much for having me. I am Sarah Locey. President of Favorite Daughter Media, and I love helping people in businesses tell their stories and use those stories to build their brands.

Priscilla: I just realized that you've [00:01:00] got the pink earphones. You've got the pink mic pink crown. And then when you said. Daughter it just all says the same thing. 

Sara: Is pink. My keyboard's pink. Everything in my life is pink. Always stay on brand.

Priscilla: You are branded. That's awesome. Our audience is christian entrepreneurs and today people have Personal brands. And you may feel like how much of yourself do you put into that personal brand and how much of it is okay for the market.

Let's start with how we define a personal brand. Let's start this, what are they even talking about? It's let's build it up.

Sara: Sure. I feel like in marketing, everything means something different to everybody. For me, a personal brand is someone who wants to turn their skills and their passions into a business. And to build your personal brand, you're almost turning yourself into that business. Because you are everything that you're putting forward.

There's a lot of misconceptions with a brand because people associate a brand with things like a logo and a tagline [00:02:00] and everything like that. But you really have to look past that logo and into who you are and what you're trying to do in order to really become an actionable and impactful brand.

Priscilla: I like that. We often think about Brand colors, logos and you think about company, the traditional idea of the company when you think about branding. It's important that it has to do with making that first impression, .

It's funny that I just noticed right now, five minutes later, that you're everything pink. And that's the first impression that I have. I won't forget that now. For all audiences listening. And they're thinking I have lived a very ordinary life. I don't think that there's anything particularly interesting that I can share about my personal life, but I do have a skill that I want to turn into a business and if personal branding, you can tell me if this is correct or not, if personal branding is the best way to do it as a person starting out in business and I didn't have much of a story or anything really exciting to tell, what do I do?

Sara: Stop thinking that you don't [00:03:00] have a story to tell. That is the biggest thing and that's the biggest mistake. I think people make just when it comes to not starting and not Really going after thought leadership not putting their ideas out there Is people think that they don't have a story?

I get told that all the time I work with people one on one to help them craft their story Every single time, the first thing they say is I don't have a story. What they're really saying is my story doesn't have value. And that's so untrue. My mission at this point is just getting people to realize that every single person has a story and everyone's story is worth telling.

I started down this road with a really just stupid story that I only would ever tell in a bar to get a laugh and the way that I was actually walked through telling the same story on a massive platform found all of these little key pieces of value. [00:04:00] So I learned really quickly that any story can have value if you tell it well. So it's not that you don't have a story, you just don't know how to tell it.

Priscilla: now I'm really intrigued now to know how it is that you got started and what is this joke that got you to a massive platform? 

Sara: I got a really embarrassing tattoo. When I was in my early twenties I was at a podcast conference years later, it already had it covered up and I was trying to get the host of a podcast I was producing on this really big finance podcast.

And the host he's one of the biggest podcasters in that space. He's an amazing person. I stalked him for three days trying to get him alone because he's a celebrity there. you can't find this man without a just flock of people. So I finally get to meet him. And I pitch the host of my show to him to be a guest.

And I pitch him as, he is an expert in all of these financial [00:05:00] things. He's been doing this for 20 years. All of these different designation certifications. And the host looks at me and says, Yeah, that's great. I don't want someone that's an expert. I want someone with a cool story. I didn't know what to say at that point.

I just Came out with, do you want to hear an embarrassing story about a tattoo? And he said yes. I told him that story. He looked at me and said, you're on the show. Which was not the intention. Now I have this just embarrassing tattoo story that got the tattoo on a bar crawl in Ireland on a solo trip.

And he has to find the money story in it because he has a money podcast so he had to Basically guide me to tell the story in a way that would pull out these money Lines in it and pull out these lessons that I learned that I didn't even realize I learned He was so genius about the way [00:06:00] he guided me through this story That it changed the way that i'll tell it And it changed the way that I've told stories from that point on.

Priscilla: That's amazing. It's interesting that he wasn't after expertise, which when you think about thought leadership, , coming out of, working a traditional job, you think what you should put forward is that you're an expert, or at least when you think what will distinguish you from other people, right?

That value prop is going to be that you are an expert. But it's about the story. Let's dive into the idea of telling. the story. How would somebody start? Like I said, somebody saying, Oh I've got nothing unique. And you're like, no, you actually have something really valuable, but you've got to know how to tell it.

And how would I know how to tell it when I already didn't think I had a story? 

Sara: , the first step is just figuring out what is you're trying to say. When you're coming up on this journey of thought leadership and you're wanting to put these ideas out, [00:07:00] why? Figure out what your why is. And when you figure out that why and what your message is, what it is you're trying to change people's minds about, what it is you're trying to tell people, you're going to have this one key lesson, basically, that you learned and that you're trying to help others learn.

Your story is just how you learned it. Every story just comes down to our experiences. That's it. When it comes to storytelling, the reason that we tell stories is because we're trying to connect with other people. And humans crave those connections. Storytelling dates back to before language, when the cavemen were drawing pictures on the walls.

Those were their way of telling stories. These stories are what connect us and our brains are wired to really take in a story and connect with it. Even when you hear a story, the way that your brain fires neurons is the same way as the person that experienced the story itself. So our [00:08:00] brains really just are created for stories.

When you tell your experiences, there's so many people in this world that have gone through similar things. And when they hear you talk about an experience that they have been through in some way, they feel connected to you because they've shared that experience. So people, when they say I don't have a story, it's really because we live in this 24 7 news cycle, and we think that stories have to be headline worthy.

They have to be dramatic, traumatic, or sensational. But really, we just have to have a story that we learn something from. Or can have value and sometimes honestly that value can just be making somebody laugh And that's all the value. I thought my story had to begin with was just able to find more but when you look at it not from a What is going to make a headline?

But you look at it as what is going to connect with these people that i'm talking [00:09:00] to It's going to be a lot easier to hone in on what that story is

Priscilla: Maybe you'll have to speak to this a little bit. When you're online. And people are sharing their story how can you make sure that it doesn't become like me talking about what's happening in my life all the time.

And actually connecting that with marketing myself as a thought leader and I've got a business and I'm trying to get clients. And it's not just me talking about happened today. And then. So tomorrow I'm telling you what happened tomorrow people are lost in the okay, where is this going?

Sara: There is a mistake that some people make where they want to turn thought leadership into a 24 hour reality show about them. And that's really not the goal. I think the personal stories are supposed to have a purpose. For some people, those everyday get ready with me stories and a day in the life stories, [00:10:00] those do serve a purpose.

People who are online influencers who really sell their image. Those kind of stories are going to be great. But when it comes to more of a business purpose, we don't need to know what you had for breakfast. We want to know what you do that impacts the world. Your career and that impacts what you do, and that does prove that expertise.

So in those instances, we want to lean into more of the professional stories. We want to lean into things like case studies and the insight stories about what you've accomplished for a client or for yourself. What you've learned if you've gone to conferences lately what you took away from them things that really do hone in on the business purpose But then you do want to have some personal in there because people don't want to interact with the business They want to interact with a person So when I tell a story that's personal, [00:11:00] I always make sure that there's a reason that I'm telling it And that it ties to a lesson that I'm trying to teach that relates to the mission of my company.

So I'll tell the story of what happened when my dad and I moved me down to Texas. And that's just a story that I like to tell because I like to talk about my dad. He's my favorite person. But when I look at it, that's also the story that helped me decide on my company name. So you're able to make those connections.

As long as the story that you're telling connects in some way to a point, basically, , there is a point to me telling this, then go ahead and tell it.

Priscilla: Now I want to hear the story about your dad taking you to texas Because i've heard the company name and I just want to connect. Okay. What does this? look like when it's being done correctly, sometimes you're like do I share this?

Do I not share this? And then how does it connect? Will it be obvious to the people who are reading , where the connection is and all that kind of stuff. 

Sara: I never thought I was going to start a business. That [00:12:00] was never in the cards, it was not on my bingo sheet. Did not ever plan on doing this. So when I did decide I think this is something I want to do, I had to pick a name. I did not know how to do that, because I'd never done it. So I googled how to name a business.

There was blogs and all of this stuff about how to name a business and they said to ask the people in your life three adjectives to describe you and think about your childhood nicknames and all of these different things that you can do. I did all of them. My childhood nickname is Bub. It's not a good business name.

I'm sorry if anyone out there is Bub LLC, but wasn't for me. I asked people to describe me and It definitely was a mood booster. People had nice things to say, but none of them really resonated with what I was going for. Instead, I thought about the things that were most important to me. My brain kept going to my dad.

Yes, he's one of my favorite people in the world, [00:13:00] but he also is the person that has supported me exactly the way that I needed him to my entire life. When I say that, I mean, I am very impatient. I am very, just, don't think about it, just do it. Ask for forgiveness, not permission kind of person.

And I had decided when I was 23 that I was going to quit my job up and leave and move to Texas. I didn't care that I'd never been here. I didn't know anybody. I didn't have a job. I had job security in Maryland where I was, but none of that mattered to me. I was just like, Hey, dad. I'm gonna move to Texas and I think this was April of 2019 I tell him I'm gonna move to Texas I'm gonna be living there by August 1st, and he says no you are not Because that is not a good idea.

You have job security. You have all of this lined up You have a lease on your apartment. Everything is set for you where you are There's [00:14:00] nothing there. You don't have a job. You're not walking into anything. You don't know anybody. If you find a job there and you have it set up that you have the same support and everything that you have in Maryland, you find it in Texas.

I will drive the moving truck. So he didn't say no. He made me slow down and he made me do it in a way that would have me be more safe because I've never been one for safety. take risks. I take solo trips where I get lost in the middle of a country I've never been to. That's fun for me, which terrifies them, but he slowed me down and made sure that I did things in a way that set me up for success.

and set me up for comfort and for safety. And on July 25th he and I got in my car, had everything packed up and we drove for three days to Texas. I was here on the 29th. I beat my deadline by two days and I started my job a week [00:15:00] later.

Priscilla: That's amazing. He didn't instruct you. He helped you to instruct yourself.

Sara: He has long since stopped trying to convince himself he can tell me what to do, but he does put a lot of effort into making sure. that what I tell him I'm going to do works out the way I want it to.

So when I had to come up with a name for my company,, I called it favorite daughter, but it's really not named for me. It's because I named it for my favorite relationship, which is with my dad. 

Priscilla: That's a beautiful relationship. You're very lucky.

Sara: I know.

Priscilla: Thank you for sharing that with us, because I think , get it now. For the people that are listening, Storytelling, building a brand, you can share something that's authentic, that's trustworthy and still get your business message across.

Sara: absolutely. And I love that you said authentic. Authenticity has to be at the forefront. 

Priscilla: Sarah, go on a deep dive with us. For those who are [00:16:00] coaches, who are trying to build personal brand, thought leadership, brand identity in this world where it almost seems like everybody's a coach. I like that you led us with how to find your story.

Maybe you can give us some more exercises that will help somebody to think through how to really set apart their brand. I hate actually to say brand because I think for some people it becomes this big thing. But anyway, I'll let you go into that.

Sara: No, it is a brand. I almost use my brand name and my name interchangeably at this point. I mean, I refer to myself as the favorite daughter. My clients refer to me as favorite daughter. When I bring in a new client, I welcome them to the family. If you look at the testimonials on my website, it's love notes from happy parents.

, I am my brand and that's what you want. You don't want to have a separation if you are the person representing it. , if it's a big company where there's other people involved, you have partners, you have employees, , then there is going to be some separation that's necessary.[00:17:00]

But in cases like entrepreneurship and solopreneurship. You are your brand and that's okay because you want people to want to work with You don't want people who just want to work with a logo that's how you're gonna get the clients that become friends that become lifelong clients that refer other people to you.

It's because They're working with Sarah. It's not because they're working with a company called Favorite Daughter Media so starting there that is the first thing is just don't feel like you have to separate that out One of the first things that I really encourage people to do, I said before, find your why and figure out what that why is, but also go through the same type of branding steps that a big company would go through.

There's eight components to a brand that I usually focus on. The most important one when you're building a personal brand is your brand values. What are the things that really mean a lot to you? And when you [00:18:00] have those brand values set, they're going to lead to you being able to go into what you're doing with a purpose.

And that purpose is what's going to set you apart. 

Priscilla: You've really shifted the way that I, cause I've said, Oh gosh, I hate using the word Brandon. I'm glad you came at me with that, because that really changed how I thought about it, because I don't think I've seen it done so well. I think that's the problem. Now speaking to you and seeing how you move, first impression, you get that, and then you get the story of how the company started and then you get your energy it's all aligned.

Sometimes you don't get it because things are not really, working together. Maybe you can speak to the common mistakes people make. Like I said, I haven't seen it done so well. I also needed to have that mind shift about it.

I'm so glad you're here, Sarah. Because you're helping me and I hope the audience too. So thanks for that.

Sara: That's what I'm here for. One of the biggest mistakes I'll [00:19:00] say is that people focus on the wrong things. All of the energy, all of the thought goes into the logo and making sure that the colors are right and the website is perfect and we put all of this money into building a really great website.

Those things are necessary But you have to lay the foundation first. My logo was, I want to say, 12. 99 on Etsy, that I just found a designer that did 12 logos, and said, make it something pretty. That was it. Because I didn't care, because I got the name that really resonated with me, and the name of my business makes me happy every single day.

And every time I get to tell the story behind it, it makes me happy. That was what mattered to me. The logo is just a logo. And the logos are the things that change the most often. When people rebrand, they change their logo. Don't put all of [00:20:00] that focus on those external factors. Focus on yourself. Make sure that you know who you are and what it is that you want to do and why it is you want to do it.

And then also make sure that you know who you're doing it for. You need to know who your audience is. If you say your audience is everybody, then your audience is going to be nobody. You have to niche. They say like the riches are in the niches, which I hate that saying just because I say niche and I hate having to say niche, but it really is true.

You have to hone down on a specific audience So that you can speak their language and you can put forward what they want and what they're looking for Because if you try to be everything to everybody it's not going to resonate with anyone 

Priscilla: , immediately when you said that, I got it. I got why I haven't seen it done well, and I get why I haven't done it well either, because I realized that, coming from traditional work, there's a part of you that tries to blend in, a part of you that tries to be [00:21:00] acceptable to

everyone, because in a traditional work environment, you're trying to be whatever the company culture is, right? So you're trying to be acceptable to everyone. And so you're not really yourself. And then to go into personal brand, can't be authentic if you're not really being yourself. And then in order to be yourself, you have to be able to narrow down like who it is, because you can't be yourself to everybody.

You end up trying to shape yourself in certain ways that doesn't connect. But that's a scary thing. 

Sara: Just the vulnerability piece of it. Like you were saying it's scary to actually put yourself out. I worked in finance before I launched my company and I am not a financial professional. I loved the job. I still work with them. They're one of my clients.

I adore the people. I love what I do with them. But every day for two years, I was surrounded by khaki [00:22:00] pants and tucked in polo shirts in neutral tones on casual Friday. If I dyed my hair pink just because I felt like it, I got reprimanded. And I was expected to conduct myself a certain way and not speak the way that I speak.

And I was speaking at a conference and was asked if I'm going to cover up my tattoos. It was just day after day of being expected to be somebody that I wasn't. And it's like the square pegs don't fit in round holes, so I was trying to shave down the corners to make myself fit. And it just never worked.

And I finally realized it. That it was a losing game, basically. I'm never going to be this financial professional. I am a financial professional in that I'm an accredited financial counselor. And I know finance. I can teach you finance. I can handle your finances. Whatever it is, I got it. But I'm not built for that industry.

So when I made the decision to leave, [00:23:00] I did it to give myself permission to be myself again. It was terrifying, but also the most freeing feeling I've ever had. I went all in, because I had been surrounded by the blues and greens that every financial company has for their brand colors. So now, like you said, everything is pink. Everything. I am in my Barbie era, and I am never getting out of it. Everything is pink. Everything is written in my voice. My book just came out in April and people asked me did you make a conscious decision to write it in the voice you wrote it in? Because everyone that reads it tells me, I can hear you telling your stories.

Like I can hear you in the pages because I wrote it exactly the way I'd say it. And no, it wasn't a conscious decision. It would have had to be a conscious decision to do it any other way. I did it the way I know it. Now that I've done this and I've gone all in and [00:24:00] I've basically had my reintroduction into the world, there's no going back, which is a little scary.

Like I can't close Pandora's box. This is me. I'm here, but I have found. the audience that resonates with me and I have found the clients that do become my friends and I found the business partners that I want to work with And I have found the audiences that aren't for me I found the rooms that make me feel that I don't belong in it and that I need to be someone different to belong in this room Or I need to fight for a seat at a table that isn't going to listen to me anyway it took a while to figure out that there are a lot of rooms And there are a lot of tables I'm just gonna go find one that I feel comfortable in and that I feel like I could be myself in.

I don't need to be in that room.

Priscilla: I love everything you said because. Many people hate their jobs they feel like for five days a week, eight hours or more A day they have [00:25:00] to pretend to be someone else and They are dying for the weekend where they get to be themselves

I love that you not only found the rooms you created the table And we're here enjoying all the bobbyness about you and It's awesome to experience, for my audience that is listening.

That's like is just, everything is in alignment. Okay. They're like, this is working for myself. I'm going to think through how to make a story. Methods of crafting personal stories for thought leadership? Because I'm really thinking of those who are coaches . And we'd really like the audience to know that Sarah Lohse gave them some coaching on this particular thing that they can go and make sure that their thought leadership And brand identity begins to align 

Sara: I would say, beware of forced vulnerability. When people start saying, okay I'm gonna start telling stories, for some reason, they [00:26:00] automatically go to, I don't want to say like sob story, but they always go to that place. They go to the worst thing that's happened to them, or the underdog part of their story and they want to Have this big profound impact that makes everybody cry and We all have something like that.

We've all been through something difficult But what I see so often is people tell these very vulnerable stories and then they Connect it to the lesson at the end and it does not connect It just feels so disjointed and okay, you told me this really personal really tear inducing story But why? What you're trying to get me to understand has nothing to do with it And I see it happen every single day. It always makes me think of like american idol I know you're not in america, but i'm sure you've heard of it

[00:27:00] Every single contestant has a sob story.

I can know you're a great singer without knowing about it. But the reason that they do it is because they're trying to connect. They have to stand out. They want to tug at those heartstrings so that you vote for them. But when you're in a conference room, when you're in an office, you don't need that.

You can rely on the stories that aren't that. You can go with the stories that are the case studies. You can talk about your experiences at your job. You can talk about the struggles that you had professionally. What is the worst thing that happened to you in your career? It doesn't have to be in your childhood.

That also makes it easier, it makes it less scary, because the most scary part of the idea of thought leadership and telling your story is feeling like you have to open yourself up to the world and tell things that you've only ever told a therapist, or you probably should tell a therapist.

[00:28:00] And you, it have to be like that. You don't have to go to that place. Talk about your biggest successes. Talk about the wins. Talk about your favorite clients and what you've done for them. Talk about the events that you've gone to and what you learned from an internship that you've really honed in on and use in your career.

Talk about the things that matter make sure that it has that connection. And like I said before, when you think about what that message is. All you really need to do is think about how you learned that lesson. What was the circumstances around you figuring out this thing you want other people to know?

Because that's your story right there.

Priscilla: Thank you so much sarah losi, , I read some things online and , I feel like I shouldn't have because you don't know what to say after that. Someone just told you something deeply personal and you don't know them in that way.

And don't want them to know even that I saw [00:29:00] that

Sara: We want to connect, we don't have to trauma bond.

Priscilla: yes

Sara: Yes, we don't need to trauma bond, and that is okay.

Priscilla: So well said Sarah. 

If there's one message you want people to remember from Sarah Losey storyteller marketer brand architect What is it?

Sara: You do have a story, and your story matters.

Priscilla: Thank you for that. Tell audience if you could please go to www. openthisbook. com. Sarah, please tell them what's there.

Sara: Yeah OpenThisBook. com, that is where you'll find my book. It is called Open This Book, The Art of Storytelling for Aspiring Thought Leaders. And if you go to OpenThisJournal. com, I have a free journal. It is all of the writing exercises that are in my book, that those I give away for free, so it's all journal prompts, writing and thinking exercises that will help you figure out what your story is and how you can tell it.

Priscilla: Beautiful. couldn't get any better than this. Thank you so much, Sarah. And to the audience, please [00:30:00]make use of that and make sure that you do stand out for your unique story that's gonna help you get the message that you're trying to get out there. Thank you, Sarah.

Sara: Thank you for having me.