33: Amanda Mouttaki: How to Share Your Story Online

If you struggle with sharing your story online, with being more personable, with your online presence and with generally not knowing how to feel like you on your social media, then this is a conversation you need to hear..

Today I am joined by Amanda Mouttaki. Amanda has a really interesting story. She got married at 19, moved to Morocco and started a tour company with her husband with just $50 in the pocket. She has grown her business into something really incredible, using a lot of unique methods that not many other tour companies or travel agents are using and we’re going to go into all of that. Amanda is the founder of MarocMama (@marocmama), a website that focuses on multicultural life, travels to Morocco, food, a little bit of everything. She has a second business called Marrakech Food Tours, a culinary tourism in Morocco. And she helps entrepreneurs and travelers tell their stories and build their brands using storytelling.

 “I think that you can still not show those pieces that you’re not comfortable with, and still be true. And still share your story without violating those boundaries.”

– Amanda Mouttaki

Here are some tips from Amanda on how you can tell your story and build your brand.

• Be true to yourself. At the end of the day people want to know people and that’s what business owners forget and they try to put this corporate front to their business and they feel like people will only take them seriously if they have that very austere business persona. But at the end of the day, people want to know people, they want to do business with people, they want to know that they are like them, that they have these interests and they get interested in them as a person first and then they get interested in what they offer. This creates a sense of trust and a sense of depth of relationship that you can’t get in another way. As a brand you just have to know who you are and be true to who you are as yourself because it’s really hard to pretend.
• Know where to draw the line. How do you find the balance between building a relationship with your audience, sharing who you are and sharing things that are either really not interesting or inappropriate? That boils down to a bit of deciding and understanding where your boundaries are, because there is a place for all of it. You have to really pick and choose what works for you and you can not show the pieces that you’re not comfortable with and still be true and still share your story without violating those boundaries.
• Own up to it. If you do share something and it turns out that it wasn’t the right thing to share, own up to it. As a business owner you just have to own up to it and that’s part of your story. Your story doesn’t always have to be that you’re right, that you always have the answer or that you always make the right decision, because we don’t. Being able to stop and say-this was wrong, is part of your story too. And it’s just as powerful.
• Learn how to separate you from your business.They’re not saying no to you, they are saying no to this opportunity of your business and no doesn’t always mean no forever, but it does mean no for right now. This is especially important if you are just starting your business. It takes a lot of self-reflection and emotional strength to make that mindset shift of-okay, it’s not personal, It’s not a no to me, it’s no because that isn’t the best next step for somebody right now.
• Networking. It’s a lot easier when you have supportive people around you, when you are forming circles, networking, getting in with the right crowd. But, even when it comes to networking, you need to find out what works for you and just because such and such method of networking or forming relationships works for one person does not mean it’s going to work for you.

Action step for our listeners: find someone to have a virtual chat with. Find someone out of your comfort zone and, whether that’s having a phone call or sending an email or sending a DM, whatever is uncomfortable for you to do, Amanda wants to push you to try and do that.

Thank you for listening. If you enjoyed this episode make sure you subscribe so you never miss new episodes. And if you have a business bestie, who needs to hear this message go share this with them. See you in the next one.

Love + magic,

Maggie