Hello, and welcome to Storytelling for Business, the podcast that helps you build better customer relationships by telling stories your clients want to hear. I'm Katie Flamman. I'm a voiceover artist specialising in corporate storytelling. I've worked with clients like the NHS, Barclays Bank and Longleat Safari Park, helping them to share brand stories and business developments. But why is business storytelling important? What makes a great story? And how can storytelling create leads for businesses and build lasting client relationships?

I'm investigating these questions and loads more in this series, and I'm reporting back on what I find. Today's episode is about the importance of authentic storytelling and how being vulnerable can in fact be a strength. So let's go. Here we are today with the lovely Lizzy Parsons. Lizzy Parsons from Start Small Plan Big is queen of business organisation. She helps small business owners to plan for success. And Lizzy's clients are mostly stressed out moms who run service-based businesses. Lizzy's a mom too, so she totally gets how working parents can often feel pulled in loads of different directions and how stressful things happening at home can lead to stress at work and vice versa.

We never know what's around the corner, do we? And in recent months, at the same time as helping her clients with work-life struggles, Lizzy's been pushed to the limit with her own. But rather than making up a marketing fairy story that everything was fine, Lizzy believed and always believes that honesty is the best policy. So let's find out all about this story. Lizzy, welcome to the podcast.

Hello. That's probably the best intro I've ever had. I was like, "Oh my God." I know why you do this as a professional job now because it made me sound amazing. I love that.

You are amazing. So tell me about Start Small Plan Big. What is it and why did you start it?

Effectively, Start Small Plan Big, it's all about helping my clients go from feeling like their life is complete chaos, to having a sense of calm. When you're a mum, you have lots of things that are on your plate. But then you add a business to that and all of your business's demands, it's really, really hard to feel like you are actually getting it right, that you are delivering in all the right places, that everybody's cup is being filled. And what tends to happen is we go, "Okay, fill the kid's cup, fill the partner's cup, fill the parents' cup, fill the grandparents' cup, fill our friends' cups." And then our cup is empty and we're like, "Oh God, how did this happen?" For me, it's all about stepping into their business and helping them to take back a little bit of control, and just feel like this business is working for me rather than it's one more thing that I have to just survive through. So yeah, that's what I'm about.

A lot of people start their businesses because they're passionate about whatever it is. And you're right, it can become quickly overwhelming, especially if you're a really small business, if it's just you, or you and a bookkeeper, or you and a social media person. And then, you're right, that feeling of overwhelm can take away that joy that you had to start with, with starting your business.

Yeah, absolutely. And I talk to my clients about falling out of love with their business. Because the thing is, the thing that you're great at, the thing that you do most, is the thing that you will want to do most in your business. And then you have a strong tendency, because we're humans and we like the things that are joyful, you have a very strong tendency to avoid the things that feel maybe not as easy or not as straightforward or you don't feel as much confidence with that. And then what happens is you kind of get to a point and you're like, "Now what do I do? How do I take this business further?" But because you haven't got a lot of the foundations, because you've kind of done that strong avoidance thing, you're like, "Oh, what do I do with this now then?"

And for me, a lot of people, that's where they want me to step in and say, "Well, actually, Lizzy, do you know what? I don't enjoy this list of things. Can you do it?" And I'm like, "Yes, because I enjoy that list of things. This is perfect for me. I will take this." And so they get to work in their business while I work on their business. And then they just turn up and I go, "Oh, just by the way, I've written all of these documents and I've done all these things," and they're like, "Ah, yes."

And you talk a lot about filling your cup of joy. What fills up your cup of joy? Is it your business?

Yes. My business is a big part of the cup of joy for me, because I get to do in my business the thing that I love to do. It's just amazing for me. I wake up with energy. When it's a business day, I'm like, "Yes." Doing the business, it's awesome. The other things that fill up my cup of joy are musicals. So myself and my small human are very, very musical obsessed. We have already seen one show this year, so I was very excited. We went to Mamma Mia!

We're recording this not at the end of January quite. So are you aiming for one a month?

One a quarter at least. I've already got tickets for another two shows booked this year.

Awesome.

So yeah, we love musicals and musical theatre.

And I must ask you, why did you start your business?

I started my business because I looked at what I was doing at my part-time job, and I was like, "This is not filling my cup. This is not bringing me all of the joy." I felt with my job I was really stuck, and I was really stuck in doing all the things that I don't enjoy doing. But I've got bills to pay and I've got responsibilities, so I can't just go, "I'll not do that today." So I started my business and I was like, "You know what? Because this is my game, I get to make the rules and I get to do exactly what I want to do and not what I don't want to do."

So I've really created a business around myself that brings consistent joy and just lets me really live my values. And really it just feeds my kind of creativity, because other people who I would describe as artists, like yourself, you are able to do your thing and really express yourself. I express myself in spreadsheets, that's where I express myself. And other people find that completely bonkers. But I'm okay with that. I'm okay with being bonkers.

I mean, yes, I take that, that crazy comment. But also I think you express yourself in your marketing and your colour schemes and your Friday Feeling newsletter. And you always sign off by saying, "May your tea be hot." Every parent just wants to drink their tea when it's hot. And so I think I get it that you do love a spreadsheet, Lizzy, you strange human. But I think you said you can put your creativity into your business, and I think it really reflects who you are, not just in what you do, but how you present that.

I hope so. When I started my business, I had a really bland colour palette for my business. Everything was very corporate. And I'd convinced myself it was very professional. And I got to a point and I was like, "This doesn't feel like me. It doesn't feel right. Something's kind of off here." And then I just thought, "If I could do anything, if I could choose any colour, what would that colour be?" This colour, funny old me, is the colour.

Tell the people listening what the colour is.

The colour is a bright, sunny yellow. And I love this colour because... And this is again a reminder to my grandparents. My grandparents, my grampy especially, used to always sing. He was a constant singer, which I've inherited, and so is my small human, which I think is wonderful. But this colour reminds me of the song You Are My Sunshine. So whenever I see that, that's the feeling that I get. And I just said to myself, that's the feeling that I want to have. When I see my own content out in the universe that's the feeling I want to have. And that's the feeling I want other people to have. So I thought, "Yeah, let's do it." So I've got this super bright yellow and I've got super bright pink. And they feel like me. They feel like the person that people meet. Whereas I had somebody comment, she said, "Lizzy, the way your business looks is not you at all. That's really very calm, just sort of professional, very kind of boxy. Whereas this is like, pow."

So that comment was from before, before you went with these new colours?

Yeah, yeah, yeah. And then when she saw the new colour palette, she was like, "Yes, this feels like you." When you turn up to stuff, this is the version of you that I see. And I thought, perfect, this is exactly what I wanted.

This podcast is about storytelling for business, and I think we tell stories in a lot of different ways. And the impression I get with you is that the story that you are telling through your bright and vibrant and sunny colour palette, that is Lizzy through and through. And the comment from your friend reinforces that. And I would hazard a guess that all your clients would agree, literally what you see is what you get.

Yeah. I'll be honest, it's really when people present themselves online, I've had some really not great experiences with that, in that people have presented themselves in a way that I thought, "Oh, this person's really great. They're super nice, they're really personable." And then you are in their actual company and you are just like, "You are an actress. That is the only thing I can say. Because the person you are online and the person you are in real life are not the same person at all." And I suppose that experience made me more wary and more aware. And that's something that I talk to clients about all the time, because it's really easy to get online and pretend to be anybody, literally anybody.

And then when people meet you, they're disappointed. And I just think there's only so long you can keep that up. So for me, it's all about, "This is me. I'm doing the very best I can. I'm just a human." And it's easier to just be me because I don't have to remember stuff. I don't have to remember a lie I told or a thing I said to somebody. I can just be like, "Well, this is where we're at, friends." And for me, that just works. To me, it's just way easier.

That's brave, isn't it? Because you had a really tough time towards the end of last year. And you showed up to your newsletter clients and your social media and you said, "I'm having a really tough time here," and you were vulnerable. And that takes a lot of courage, I think.

I hadn't really intended that. Does that make sense? I literally, because for context's sake, I suppose-

Yeah, can you explain what happened?

Last October, my foster dad was diagnosed with cancer, and that cancer was exceptionally aggressive. And from diagnosis to him passing away was probably about 10 days. So that was really tough. And then my foster mum, she doesn't have many other people, so I was trying to act as the leaning post for my siblings and then trying to act as the leaning post for my foster mother, trying to organise the funeral. And then a couple of days before the funeral, she said to me, "Obviously, I need you to read the obituary."

And I was like, "Oh my God," because I don't enjoy public speaking at the best of times. And I remember walking up there, and I remember starting, and my voice cracked. And I had to really centre myself at that point because I just thought, "I am going to just burst into tears." And I managed to get through it, and I managed to make a couple of jokes that I knew that he would find funny. He had a really dark sense of humour and he was very sweary, so I couldn't repeat a lot of the things that he would've said because we were standing in church. But everybody knew what I meant. Everybody knew what I was getting at. And I took some time off from my business and I just thought to myself, "You know what? If I turn up and pretend, how does that benefit anybody? Because it doesn't benefit me and it doesn't benefit anybody else either."

And for me, putting that information out there was about trying to be gentle with myself and trying to encourage other people in my part of the internet to also be gentle with themselves. Because having a bereavement and running a business, it's an experience that unless you've had it, you don't don't know what it feels like. And one of the things that was really surprising to me was that I just didn't feel like creating anything. I just didn't feel like it.

And that's never happened before. I actually sat down to write my newsletter and I was like, "I've got nothing to say right now." And so rather than writing some dribble or just going, "Oh, everything's great here, we're having the best time ever," I just said where I was at, and I was really candid about that. And I had some really lovely messages back from people who've been in a similar position and also people who are, not in a negative way, but just thinking, "My parents are elderly, this might be me soon."

And that feeling is quite... Sometimes that's quite stark. And it's that reminder that things can change really quickly. And actually, when you have a business to deliver into, sometimes you just need to take a break, and sometimes that is the best thing for you, rather than trying to keep wheeling stuff out and keep pushing through. For me, I'm a muscle through person and I'll muscle through most things. But that knocked me, it properly knocked me. And that was really nice to share that with people and then start to move on. And for me, that was really positive. Doing that was really positive.

Taking that decision to own this time that you deserve for yourself, to heal and come back to yourself almost.

Yeah, absolutely. Because I sort of felt like I was on 2% battery at that time. And I had to look after myself because, yes, I've got the business and that's mega-important to me and where I see my future, but also I've still got responsibilities. I've still got a family, I've still got a household.

It's not just you and the business.

Yeah. And all of those things need time, effort and energy. So taking that kind of break from the business was really nice because it just gave me a lot of space to look after myself and just try and get myself, not on track because it's kind of not the same. Does that make sense? I feel like I'm slightly different now. And that's okay. That's okay.

Of course, because things have happened to change you. It's really interesting because there's ever such a lot of talk and actually information and resources about mental health support in the workplace for companies, how you can support your staff and things. But if you are a one-person business, the only mental health support that you can access is you, objectively talking to your manager, you, about how you are feeling. And then going to HR, you, and saying, "I need some time out here." And you don't have to go as far as getting a doctor's note to present to yourself, but I think it's really brave.

It made me think about Brené Brown talking about vulnerability. And she says that people that wade into discomfort and vulnerability and tell the truth about their stories are real badasses. And vulnerability is not a weakness, it's our greatest measure of courage. And I think on the two things you did, you took time out for yourself. That's brave, when you're running your own business to say, "I need some space."

That's really tough.

Because that's scary. But also to tell people why, that's also brave. I think you said in your newsletter, you don't usually talk about personal stuff on social media, and that must've been quite a big decision as well.

I pressed publish and then I was like, "Oh my God, what have I done? What have I done?" But then I was like, no, this is okay. Because fundamentally I see people turn up on social media and celebrate all of those life milestones that everybody wants to celebrate along with you: graduation, getting engaged, getting married, having a child, becoming grandparents. We see these things play out on social media all of the time. But the reality is, part of that life cycle is the end of it.

And I don't want to just turn up and say, "Today's a great day. We've been great. Everything's gone fine." I just want people to understand that when you turn up as the best version of yourself, some days that requires you to just say, "Do you know what? I'm going to be gentle with myself today because I need it." And that's okay. Getting into the habit of doing that is really important, I think, as a solo business owner. Because it's easy to neglect yourself, so easy to neglect yourself. And if you get into the habit of that, you'll really find yourself pretty unwell pretty quickly.

Because you've got nothing left to give. If you're constantly giving to everybody else, you can't neglect yourself. Yeah. Well, I'm pleased that now you are making a conscious effort to look after yourself and fill your cup and go to musicals and things. So let's circle back to that. You talked about your grandparents and getting your singing voice from them and your love of musicals. So, well, I've got to ask, are you going to sing for us, Lizzy?

My morning song normally with my small human is Singing in the Rain because she loves that musical, it's one of her absolute favourites. So let's go with that then.

Let's.

Now, my lovely listener, I've got a bit of bad news. I'm allowed to enjoy Lizzy's incredible singing, but unfortunately I can't share it with you for extremely annoying copyright reasons. But believe me, it was excellent, as you can hear from my reaction when Lizzy finished her song.

Whoo. Love it. That is awesome.

Hopefully that’s ok

That was incredible. Thank you. Nobody else has sung on this podcast, Lizzy. You're the first.

Well, you got to do what you got to do. But yeah, that's my favourite.

That's beautiful, beautiful. Thank you so much. And that's actually a really good song to pick because of what we've been talking about as well. Ready for love, singing in the rain, getting on with it and taking it as it comes.

Just making the best of it. Just making the best of it.

Definitely. Well, I think we've nearly come to the end of our chat, but I want to ask you, what do you think your story holds for the next, I don't know, three years, five years? Where's your story going to take you?

Do you know what? Because right now, everything is super busy. I have a special needs child and we're kind of going through the tribunal and trying to get her into special needs placement. And so because that feels so big at the moment, I'm not massively focused on the future. But in an ideal world, my daughter will be in a lovely school setting. She will be thriving. My business will be going from strength to strength.

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And what I really want to do is I want to do more of this, more collaborating with other business owners. I want to push myself into those places that I know I feel massive levels of discomfort, like public speaking and presenting and things like that. So yeah, I feel like that's kind of the track that I'm on over the next couple of years. Fingers crossed.

Fingers crossed indeed. And you could also be a West End singer, so there's a lot of scope in there too. Well, Lizzy Parsons, thank you so much for being on the podcast. It's been such a pleasure talking to you.

It's been amazing. This is my first ever podcast, unless you didn't realise, so I'm super excited. This morning, I was like, oh, just full of beans. And yeah, I'm just massively grateful to you for the opportunity. I really appreciate it.

Right back at you. Thank you so much. So what did we learn from Lizzy? Here are my key takeaways. One, the brand colours you choose for your business are really important. They need to feel like you and reflect your personality because they give clues to your ideal clients about what they can expect from working with you. Two, if you feel comfortable about it, sharing stories about difficulties or bad times can be extremely effective in building relationships with your clients. Showing vulnerability is a huge demonstration of courage, and they're going to respect that and remember it. Our next episode is about using radio to drive engagement.

She said, "Which station do you work for?" And I said, "BBC London." And she said, "Oh my God, not surprised. That is the most boring radio station I've ever heard." And I'm sitting next to the managing editor. And she talked about how you engage with people.

That's Ally Lang from Maple Street Creative, my expert guest for Episode six of Storytelling for Business, Intimacy, the Art of Radio. And it's ready right now, so if you're binge listening, enjoy. But this episode is all done. Once again, huge thanks to Lizzy Parsons from Start Small Plan Big. If parts of your business are in a bit of chaos and you're longing for calm, Lizzy can help.

Please get in touch with her and she'll be happy to work her sunny yellow magic. Lizzy's contact details are in the show notes. And if you'd like a trustworthy voice to tell your business story, I'm only a phone call away, so do give me a ring or drop me an email if you'd like a chat. I'm Katie Flamman and this is Storytelling for Business. Until next time, goodbye.