Permission to Kick Ass

How to leverage the "ordinary extraordinary" with April Pertuis

• Angie Colee • Episode 176

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Today's guest is April Pertuis of LIGHTbeamers, and we're on a mission to help you put yourself out there and share your story with confidence. We dive deep into why YOUR story matters... even if you think it's boring AF. We get real about the struggles of comparison, the importance of curiosity, and why those "ordinary" stories might be the most extraordinary of all. 

Our challenge to you: If we can't find an interesting story in your life, I'll give you your money back. 

Can't-miss moments:

  • The one question April swears by to spark your curiosity and problem-solving skills (even if you swear you have ZERO creativity or worthy ideas)...

  • Confession time: I didn't share my digital nomad stories because I thought they weren't interesting (and April shows me how my infamous laundry scar proves I was dead wrong)... 

  • Hitting the tipping point: April reveals the final straw that made her walk away from her news reporter role for good (it's way cooler than you might think)... 

  • Living the double life: when April's first TV reporting job didn't quite cover all the bills, she turned to a surprising side hustle... 

  • You start a podcast to get tons of listeners, right? Wrong... here's the real reason April started her Inside Story podcast (and it might change how you think about starting your own show)...

April's bio:

April Adams Pertuis is a dynamic force in the world of storytelling and visibility, empowering mission-driven female entrepreneurs and business leaders to leverage the strength of their Story to create more connection, build community, and increase deal flow. 

As the visionary Founder and CEO of LIGHTbeamers, April pioneers the way for women to use their stories as a catalyst for growth. When April speaks, audiences discover the power of their own story to create more cohesive communities, build stronger relationships, and attract ideal outcomes. The key message is always “everybody has a story” and that story is a powerful beacon used to shine a light for others.

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Angie Colee:

Welcome to Permission to Kick Ass, the show that gives you a virtual seat at the bar for the real conversations that happen between entrepreneurs. I'm interviewing all kinds of business owners, from those just a few years into freelancing to CEOs helming nine-figure companies. If you've ever worried that everyone else just seems to get it and you're missing something or messing things up, this show is for you. I'm your host, angie Coley, and let's get to it. Hey, and welcome back to Permission to Kick Ass. With me today is my friend, april Pertwee. Say hi, april, hi everybody, hi.

April Pertuis:

Angie.

Angie Colee:

I'm so excited to have you on the show. For anybody that doesn't know, I was on April's show a while back in April. Well, I'm not going to get ahead of myself.

April Pertuis:

Tell us a little bit about what you do, Ah well, to keep it short and sweet, I help women tell their story. We are a storytelling company, coaching, training company where we help business leaders, entrepreneurs, female badass, amazing humans really learn how to conquer their story so that they can get out there on bigger platforms and stages. We help them write their book, get on stage, launch, podcast and really just dominate their communications by way of learning how to tell their story. I'm a lifelong storytelling expert. Yes, I say lifelong because I feel like I've been doing this work since I was about seven years old, but I've been doing it professionally my entire career and my business name is Light Beamers and my tagline behind Light Beamers is that when you share your story, you shine a light. Believe that storytelling is not just a soft skill. It's really something super powerful that everyone has in their back pocket and inside of them that they can use, and when you use it strategically and appropriately, it can absolutely shine a big light into the world, a positive light into the world.

Angie Colee:

Oh, absolutely, and like. Two things came up for me. One was the shine a light thing. Does that have anything to do with the Marianne Williamson quote?

April Pertuis:

You know it, originally when I started Light Beamers, it had nothing to do with the Marianne Williamson quote. However, since starting Light Beamers, I've had Light Beamers nine years. I cannot tell you how many times people have sent that quote to me, which I super appreciate because it's a beautiful quote. It's really long, I can't quote it right now, but if you just Google Marianne Williamson and shine your light, you're going to find it and it's really the perfect description of what I see about storytelling. So it's a great mirror. I am driven by faith and guided by God, and Matthew 5 plays a big role. Matthew 5, right, matthew 5 plays a big role. Matthew 5, right, matthew 5, which you know is be a light and city on the hill, which I believe that again, like we all are, we have that capability. It's a choice whether we choose that or not, and I'm just choosing it, and so it's a big, a big part of the shine your light for me.

Angie Colee:

I love that. It just seemed like such wonderful synchronicity to me, because I remember when it kind of clicked for me that you know if I'm holding a candle and you're holding a candle and mine is lit and yours is not, it actually does nothing to my flame to light yours, it does nothing to diminish my light and in fact it makes the room brighter for both of us having our lights lit, so to speak. Now, so that's always just been such a beautiful like, and Lightbeamer just brings such a wonderful visual to me. So that's really awesome.

April Pertuis:

I know that's the whole idea. That's the whole idea. I want people to feel that when they hear about Lightbeamers and they see some of the work that our people are doing, you know out in the world sharing their story.

Angie Colee:

That's so funny and I love that. You talked about being a lifelong storytelling expert. That is one of my earliest memories and I think this is the first time I've told this story in probably decades. I taught myself to read at age three with Disney read along books, if you remember those books on tape? Oh, yes, I distinctly remember that the first word that I remembered was three, and this is relevant, I promise.

Angie Colee:

So I would listen to these books over and over and over again. I learned how to read. I memorized the entire story, and then I would be at preschool telling the entire thing with the embellishments, and holding court on the playground, and I remember just being so thrilled and granted, they weren't my story and holding court on the playground, and I remember just being so thrilled and, granted, they weren't my story, but I loved that feeling of just being there, having the rapt audience of kindergartners around me listening to me tell this story that somebody else wrote, that I memorized, but I had to put the Angie Spice on it. So, yeah, I haven't thought about that in a long time. That's what came up when you mentioned lifelong stories. I love that Well you and I come from.

April Pertuis:

You know we met, we knew we were cut from the same cloth in a lot of ways and I know that storytelling is something that has anchored both of us. You know, and even sort of a little bit of our past and our early stages of our career is quite similar, so I'm not surprised by that at all. You know when I think about you know my story at seven years old and maybe even earlier. But one of the big memories is as a kid, my bedroom, my mom had someone come in and build bookcases all on the wall and there was like a nook that my twin size bed fit into. So it was like the bookcases were built in around my bed and at night.

April Pertuis:

And I was a voracious reader as a kid and I still am to a degree. I mean life at 50 looks a lot different than it does at 70, at seven. So I don't find as much time to read but I still love to read. But back in those days I was reading, you know, quality fiction, even at seven, eight, nine, 10 years old.

April Pertuis:

I mean fiction really developed my love for storytelling and I just think about all of those books sitting over me and hovering over me while I slept at night, and it was just like by osmosis. These stories were coming in and seeping into my body and then from there, you know, my vehicle for expression of story. At that time wasn't like you, I wasn't overly animated, I wasn't someone who would go out for the school play or anything like that, but I was a big writer, journaler. I just was constantly pouring stories into my journal. I was writing poetry. I wrote poetry a ton, and it was just the way that I got my feelings out was by, you know, telling my story to the pages of my journal.

Angie Colee:

That's such an interesting. I've known from a little girl that I wanted to be a performer and also I got the message from authority figures at an early age, not too long after that, that nobody wants that. Like, stop that, stop attention seeking. You don't need undo it and go wait. But I do. I love being on stage. Being on stage is my happy place. Some people are terrified of getting up and giving a speech. Oh my gosh, I'm walking across the stage, I'm doing big full body gestures, I'm telling crazy stories and I love it. And I don't really know what points I'm making with this other than like it's okay If you love the stage, it's okay If you don't want to be on the stage, it's okay Either way. Like both, the stories that you're telling yourself about who you are like me saying I wasn't meant for stage when I was um and the stories that you're telling other people are super important. They're how we relate, they're how we learn, they're how we process stuff.

April Pertuis:

Yeah, and also just right. What you're saying is, if I may, permission to kick ass. Right, like this is your permission to kick ass. And you know, absolutely, and you know there are always kind of two stories going on in people for sure. It's the story that we really are, the story of our true life experiences, our emotions, how we feel about things, how we process the reality, the real story.

April Pertuis:

And then there's a different story that sometimes we believe or we catch on to or gets told to us and then we adopt. So you had the story of I'm going to be a performer and I love to be on stage and this makes me so happy. And you had the other story that you adopted that said oh, wait a second, you can't shine too bright, can't take that light away from someone else, even though, as we know from Marianne Williamson, totally not. You don't have that power, I'm sorry, you just do not have that power. So, but yeah, like we have these two different storylines going on and that's part of truly like when I work with my clients, part of learning, helping them figure out how to tell their story is also helping them unwind another story that they've got going on that needs to be dissolved so that they can go and shine their light appropriately.

Angie Colee:

That's interesting. I wrote down power to take away light because that was a thought that I wanted to unpack and get a little bit more curious about, because I agree with you that like I can't take away someone else's light, and I've also been on the receiving end of someone, but you were at choice.

April Pertuis:

I mean.

April Pertuis:

At the end of the day, we're all at choice whether we want to admit the fact that we chose it or not, you know, and that's in that, and that's hard, because when we're little and we're younger and we don't have as much life experiences, that's why other people are so influential Our parents, our figures in our life, our mentors, who and by and large, maybe many of them mean very well by their words.

April Pertuis:

They don't know that they're even causing harm. But, as we all know, anyone who's done any kind of personal development work, inner child work, we all are walking around with a wounded little child inside of us. And so those are the stories that we do have to unpack. So, as a kid, you know, even though you did have power, you didn't know it, you didn't know how to use it, you didn't know how to stand up for yourself, you didn't know how to speak for yourself in a lot of times, and so that's why those powers do and those stories do end up having power over us. And I always say to my clients once you learn to unwind the stories that are holding power over you, but you are still in control, like you do, get to unwind that story, you still do have the power. It's just right. Now you've given that power to something else, and so once you learn to harness the power again. That's when, truly, your story can come out and emit itself in such a powerful way.

Angie Colee:

And it was the reason that that one caught my attention and why I found that so fascinating is. It has also influenced me and my coaching style and how I work with my people, because, I've said it before, I refuse to be the reason that somebody gives up on themselves. I've been on the receiving end of that too many times. If somebody that said your dream is impossible, that's not a smart choice. Don't do that thing. I just worry about you. And it can all be from the super high level well-meaning, full of love, but like, I'm not here to take that. So if you bring your dreams to me, I'm going to treat that with so much love and care. I'm never going to tell you that what you're working on is not possible or that you're not enough, or that you can't figure this out. I'm going to be over here cheering you on for as long as it takes to help you figure that shit out.

April Pertuis:

Yes, absolutely. I mean, that is the only way to be, you know, in the profession that you and I hold of helping others, it's cheerleading should be like a top, a top, a top strategy.

Angie Colee:

For sure, yeah, That'll be a top skill. Hey, I used to be the kind of asshole that made fun of cheerleaders, and now I'm over here going. I am a cheerleader too. Can I add that to my resume?

April Pertuis:

Absolutely.

Angie Colee:

So this is fascinating to me, Like how did you get into this line of work?

April Pertuis:

So through a big, long, squiggly line, like most of us. It just it just evolves as we do. You know, I did study journalism and wanted to be a storyteller and so I became a storyteller. I became a journalist and loved that work for a while. But I also realized that in journalism and specifically, the jobs that I held at the time were in television news. So I was your nightly news reporter anchor and my job at the time was to bring you the bad news right. My job was to tell you all that was wrong in the world and I was tasked with going out and interviewing the police and the accused criminals and all the crazy stuff that was going on in the world.

April Pertuis:

And man, I did not really enjoy that. That really weighed heavily on me during that time of my early stages of my career. So I kind of held in two hands this juxtaposition of like I love what I do because I get to go out every single day and do something different. Every single day I'm telling a new story. Every single day I'm interviewing new people. Every single day I'm meeting and interviewing new people and discovering their story and getting to pull it out of them and extract the story and put it together and package it up. From the creative side. I really enjoyed all of that. I'm a producer at heart. On the other hand, I was hearing a lot of really powerful stories, but my employer and the audience only wanted a piece of that story. So I often found myself wondering what would happen if we went back and did follow-up and occasionally you would go into a follow-up story, but not very often If we went and did a follow-up story, if we found that person after you know they kind of their point in time where they'd probably just made a bad decision. And I mean, haven't we all made a bad decision? Maybe our bad decisions didn't warrant us getting arrested or accused of things, but at the end of the day, that's really just the human condition. Like, we make bad decisions, we have failures, we make missteps, and I always wondered what would it look like after that to tell that story? What if those people have been redeemed? What if those people got their life together? What if those and some of them do and some of them don't? But you know what if? And we were never really telling the what if stories and that got me really curious and curiosities Huge, you know, mark of a great storyteller and I got really curious about what would it feel like if we were to tell more positive stories on the news station at night instead of focusing on all the negative ones? And there just wasn't a place for that. You know this was before social media. When I was you know the age and timeframe that I'm referencing social media did not exist exist.

April Pertuis:

So years later, as I continued to make squiggly lines in my career, I worked for a time doing scripted television. I worked for, you know, some big names like HGTV, food Network, diy and all that kind of fun stuff, and it did a lot of scripted television and that was fun for a bit, but it wasn't really storytelling. And so then another squiggly line kind of landed me in the land of doing digital storytelling for brands in the health and wellness space, in which I was allowed and tasked with telling transformational stories. So I was working for weight loss companies and we were getting to tell awesome transformations of people who had undergone, you know, big transformations in their health and wellness and how much better their life was, and we were doing stories around transformation, around financial gains and building teams. It was a lot in the network marketing industry, so you can imagine the types of stories we were telling for their conferences and things like that. And it was a lot of fun because we were actually getting to go and tell stories of transformation and I did that work for a really long time and loved it and it was great.

April Pertuis:

But there became a point where I kind of started marrying those two things together, like what would it look like if we told more positive stories instead of the negative ones? So what if we could go and tell more stories like this, stories of transformation? And you know, it's not just these people that have them. You don't have to be winning an award for your company. You don't have to lose a hundred pounds to be able to share a story of transformation.

April Pertuis:

Every single one of us has stories of transformation in our life, rolodex, but by and large, a lot of people aren't telling them. Number one, because they don't know how, and number two, we haven't really given them a platform to do that. We don't have a TV channel that gives you open platform. Well, enter social media. That was really when I started to see the opportunity on social media, because social media all the platforms that you might be on are free, open source media platforms. And, coming from the background that I did, nobody got on the 10 o'clock news unless we got you there right, like we had to go and invite you to be on. You didn't just get to choose to be on With social media, you get to choose to be on and to share your story. But by and large again, most people weren't doing it. And still to this day, by and large, most people aren't doing it.

April Pertuis:

So that's when all the ideas started clicking and I thought I could do that. I can teach people. Not everyone's going to get sent me to their house to interview them, to pull their story out, to package it up nice and neat and put it on the channels for them, but I can teach people how to do that. I can really empower them more by showing them all the nuts and guts of a good story and show them how to put it together and then encourage them, be that cheerleader to say go do it. Here's your open invitation. You don't have to wait for permission to kick ass. Go, kick ass, right.

April Pertuis:

And so that was really the impetus of Light Beamers. That's when all the ideas came together. I'd love to tell you that, like snap, I snapped my fingers and I built it overnight. But we've been doing this for nine years and it's taken nine years, you know, just bit by bit by bit, to put different pieces into play, and we're just in a really good groove right now of really helping people tell their story for that reason but that's really the squiggly line that got me here- I love that you pointed that out, because it's super easy to look at where other people are, especially if they do something similar.

Angie Colee:

Right, and get into that comparison game. And I would say the same thing the first, the very first iteration of Permission to Kick Ass is probably 2017, 2018, somewhere in there, right? And I worked on it a little bit when I was working full with a big name clients and it wasn't really the serious thing. And then, you know, later on I added the book and I added the podcast, and then I stopped sending my newsletter and like it's all been a little bit at a time, instead of I just sat down one week and banged out the perfect site and now I've got all my shit figured out Like it doesn't work that way. It does not work that way.

Angie Colee:

That ties back to something beautiful that you said about curiosity, which I think is a superpower, not just in storytelling but in entrepreneurship, right? Because if we come to a problem, deciding that we already know what the solution is, we might miss something. That's even more incredible, we might miss an even better opportunity if we've already set our sights on like nope, I already know how to fix this. Well, what if I tried something different. What if I had a little experiment right now? We just saw how it went, and if it flops? Okay, well, that's how some experiments go. It's easier said than done, obviously.

April Pertuis:

Yeah, that's one of the greatest questions that I think people can ask in order to kind of spark their curiosity. If you're not naturally curious by nature, curiosity, honestly, just like storytelling, is a skill. It can be sharpened, it can be worked on. So, just you know, put a sticky note on your computer or at your desk or put it on your phone and set an alarm and just ask yourself periodically what might it look like if? What might blank look like if blank right, and insert some blanks and play and get curious and then that will sharpen that curiosity muscle and it will help you start, like you said, problem solve in a different way, come up with creative ideas and solutions. And you know, the whole idea of Lightbeamers and the reason I'm still here nine years later is because of curiosity. You know, it really was a time and a season, literally about 10 years ago, right before I started Lightbeamers, I was in a state of what would it look like if? And my blanks were, what would my career look like if I wasn't reliant on my current clients for a paycheck? And I said what would it look like, what would my career, what would my work look like if I could be doing, if I could really create it from a space of, like, pure imagination, right, like if I could just take, if I'm at a, if I'm operating at a nine or a 10 right now, because at that point I was pretty good at what I did. You know, I didn't. I didn't need another skill, I didn't need to go get a certification. I had been doing this work for about 23 years or so. I was pretty good and I had fantastic clients and I love the work that I was doing.

April Pertuis:

Yet, if those clients went away, I still wasn't in control of being able to create on my own. I was still reliant on, you know, those companies calling me and saying, hey, we want you to do these videos, and da, da, da, da da. And I thought, man, what would it look like if all that went away? Then what would I do? And it's like, well, you would have to get creative on your own. Okay, great, what would that look like? Well, you could, you know, go deeper into storytelling. Well, great, what would that look like, you know? And I just kept following the questions around, what would that look like?

April Pertuis:

And I just was in a state of curiosity and a state of wanting to figure out. How could I exist truly at my highest level, be of pure service to the world, like to be really living on purpose, like, okay, god, you designed me this way, you designed me to be super curious, you designed me to be a great storyteller, you designed me to do this work. I'm not. I have no intentions of necessarily abandoning this. Some people make giant pivots in their career. That wasn't me. I didn't want to make a career pivot, I wanted to make a career elevation career. That wasn't me. I didn't want to make a career pivot, I wanted to make a career elevation. And that's what I was getting curious about.

April Pertuis:

And at the time when I first started answering these questions, the idea of light beamers and all that we have today seems even remotely on the radar. I couldn't see any of it and all I saw in the beginning was okay, see any of it, you know. And all I saw in the beginning was okay. We have an open source media platform called social media and people are using it all wrong. So why don't I just get on there and start showing them how to use it right? And that was my own opinion, right. So I started there. That's where I started and I just kept being curious. So ask yourself that question on repeat what would it look like if? What would it blank look like if blank? And you got to start filling in the blanks and getting curious. And, man, that's going to be your permission to kick ass right there, I promise you. Oh, yes.

Angie Colee:

I love that, well, and a couple of other things that I wrote down. Right, sometimes when you notice something, it's really easy to dismiss as like well, I'm probably the only one, or how important is this really? But I love the fact that you wrote that there were there was no place for positive stories on the media where the media world that you came from, and that, right, there is enough for you to experiment with, for you to get curious about. Okay, well, there's not enough positive stories, and I love being able to tell stories, I love being able to talk to people, exactly like you said, and I'm just tired of talking about these horrible things without any kind of resolution. What if there was a place where we could tell positive stories and look how that led to the development of such an awesome thing?

Angie Colee:

And I also, if I haven't pointed it out before, I'm curious now as to, like, when you were in the television industry. When you were in the television industry, because we might have accidentally, like crossed paths a couple of times without me knowing it. I was in the TV industry for a little while and I wanted to be in TV development when I got my master's degree and that didn't work out. For you know, obviously we're here and I've been a marketer for a long time. But you know I worked for CBS films and Warner brothers and TNT, tbs and a lot of the big majors and and tried to break in for for several years. So I guess you could say I always had those storytelling instincts too.

April Pertuis:

Oh for sure you did. I mean, I have no doubt. I mean, look at what you do now. Even in your marketing work and as a copywriter, you're helping your clients tell their story. You know for sure. And even, just like you know, you said at the beginning or maybe as before we got recording, I can't remember, but you were like you know we're here to hold space for you know what you were like you know we're here to hold space for you know what needs to come forward and if what comes forward isn't exactly it, like that, we take that out. I think we you said this before we started recording.

April Pertuis:

It was kind of like one of your rules of this podcast is that you know you're here to help your client shine or your guests shine, and if something comes up in the conversation that might feel a little raw or inappropriate, you're not here for the salacious material. That's what I felt like I was being asked to do back in the day when I was working for CBS and I was telling those stories, as I would come back to the newsroom and go there's really this whole other story going on but the news director was like no, we want that one thing, we want the sensational, we want the hyper, we want the gory details. If it bleeds, it leads right. They wanted the blood and guts and I was like, oh my gosh, there's so much more to the story besides the blood and guts. But I never in those days was granted permission to truly go and tell those stories and that drove me crazy and, quite honestly, it really drove me out of the business, because I developed and I'm not. I have my own battles with anxiety for different reasons, but I'm not naturally bent that way and I was coming home from my work in those days and I felt like there was an 800 pound elephant sitting on my chest and I would walk around the house. I was newly married to my husband and I would come home.

April Pertuis:

We had this teeny, tiny apartment, fayetteville, Arkansas, and working for CBS News, and I would just heave, you know, like you know, just, and it would take me about 30 of those to finally release the day and I didn't have language back then. You know late 20s, early 30s about this. But now I know that I am deeply empathetic and what was happening is I was going and interviewing all these people and getting their stories and I would connect so deeply with them, with what they were feeling, and I would feel those feelings alongside with them and I didn't know how to energetically release those stories from my body and it caused a major, you know, crash and that was really. That was really the thing that that got me to leave. It was a thing that was like I don't, I don't know how I can keep doing this. I want to keep doing people's stories, I want to keep staying in storytelling, but I cannot stay here because I'm going to die. You know, like this is not good and that was really the thing that sent me out.

April Pertuis:

But then, from that, that's the place that I got curious and said well, how could I keep telling stories if I wasn't working in news? And that's how I made my way to HGTV and then got over there and wasn't really doing that great storytelling. So then I got curious again well, how could I do this Work for programming and scripted television and do some other things, but have it be more storytelling based? And that's what led me to doing more producing for brands that actually wanted that. So literally you got to understand that that path, like we talked about earlier, it was definitely a squiggly line.

April Pertuis:

But, going back to what we talked about earlier, it was the curiosity piece that led me there, but it was really you know, if I'm really truthful like back in those days, doing those types of stories, like it was great, but man, that was the thing that drove me, drove me out of it too at the same time. Like it was great, but man, that was the thing that drove me, drove me out of it too at the same time, and that's the kind of sensational stuff too that can really distort it for everybody else, right?

Angie Colee:

Yeah, why should I tell this story when it's just going to be outshotted by the negative shit? Or somebody with a much more impressive background is going to come up and, like I wrote down and underlined a couple of times, ordinary, extraordinary, yeah, because those. And like I wrote down and underlined a couple of times, ordinary, extraordinary Because those. That's particularly. You mentioned that I work with my clients and I have a VIP experience is not an advertisement. I'm just I'm trying to give context, but if you're interested, reach out. So I have an experience where I try and help my clients with their marketing by interviewing them to get their stories, and I think the best part about that is how they'll just talk about a day that they were frustrated or a day that they were inspired or a favorite client or something like that, and they'll get so animated.

Angie Colee:

And I actually had it happen recently with one client. She's a human loneliness and connection expert, which is fascinating. She got really curious about mass shooters and what leads to that and did a whole bunch of research and it turns out it's a lot rooted in loneliness and disconnection and feeling like you don't have a place. Right, it leads you to seek out connection anywhere, even if it's horrible, horrible connection. Right, it warps everything and she just didn't know how to talk about what she did, even if it's horrible, horrible connection. Right, it warps everything and she just didn't know how to talk about what she did, even though she knew she was really freaking awesome at what she did.

April Pertuis:

She's given 10 talks and such important work because look at our world. I mean totally disconnected world and isolated world right now.

Angie Colee:

Yes, yes, and I remember like I asked her one question I don't even remember what it was, but she went off on a rant and I remember like I asked her one question I don't even remember what it was but she went off on a rant and I just like sat back, nodded, said yeah, okay, yeah, ooh, tell me more about that, right? She ranted for a good 20, 30 minutes and immediately apologized and went oh, I'm sorry, like that was a big tangent, and I went never apologize for a tangent with me. That's where the gold is coming from and here's where the gold is coming from and here's where this matters. Right, I send her the work which was redoing her website in part and I got to show her actually on one of the pages.

Angie Colee:

I was like remember that rant you apologized for? Here it is nearly word for word, just organized into neat little bullet points right here on the page, and she was like I said that, oh my God, that is incredible. I said that, yeah, you said that. And that ties back into my philosophy of like you don't have to be extraordinary. Often you just need the perspective of somebody else to show you just how awesome and ordinary, extraordinary you are right, you can connect with people. One thing that I wrote down I don't know if you've ever seen A man Called Otto, which is a movie that came out a couple of years ago.

Angie Colee:

That's a great book. Great book and movie. Yeah, talk about ordinary extraordinary. This is a movie about an elderly man who has lost his spouse and is incredibly lonely and he tries here's your trigger warning. He tries several times to shuffle off this mortal coil and every single time he is accidentally thwarted by the neighbors who need his help for something or like something happens and he stops and eventually he gives up on this idea of I need to not be here anymore and creates a wonderful relationship with them and like that's not a you know, I went out to save the world. We destroyed Manhattan fighting with the aliens type story and it's so much more powerful to me than the world was saved from aliens and all those other stories that we see out there.

April Pertuis:

That one sticks with me to, because I think in our world today, especially our social media world, where the loudest and proudest and the ones with the most following and the ones with the biggest, giantest story gets recognized right Like. It goes back to like if you've climbed Kilimanjaro with one leg, you've got a big story. If you've conquered cancer five times, you've got a big story. If you've conquered cancer five times, you've got a big story. So that leaves a lot of other people feeling and this is really where I fell in my own category around storytelling, because I have had the liberty of and the pleasure of telling people's stories Literally for the last 30 years. I've interviewed over 10,000 people in my career and I've told a lot of stories and a lot of them have been those big stories. But there's so many other ones that haven't been that that a lot of people do judge themselves and say, well, my story is not big enough. One of the biggest reasons I hear from my clients why they're not telling my story, their story, is because they say, well, my story wouldn't matter, my story isn't that interesting, my story isn't that important, my story is kind of boring, I haven't had anything happen to me that would warrant me. Go and tell my story, because in their minds, and even though, yes, I'm helping clients step on stages and write books, you still do not have to have one of those stories to be able to write a book, to deliver a talk, to use your social media to go and have an impact.

April Pertuis:

It's the quiet stories, it's the everyday Janes and Joes, I call them. Those are the interesting stories. It's the people who them. Those are the interesting stories. It's the people who, you know, just navigate the daily challenges. It's the people who, you know, maybe never thought about climbing Kilimanjaro, but they get up and navigate. You know a chronic illness, you know, just maybe chronic pain, or just, you know, dealing with a sassy child. I mean, it's just like the day-to-day stuff, you know. You know dealing with a sassy child. I mean, it's just like the day-to-day stuff. You know that we don't really realize those are actually the stories that are gonna connect so much more with an audience, because guess who is also listening to those stories has those same experiences going on in their house, right? These are the things that actually will create such more powerful connection with the audiences when you learn to tell the micro stories of your everyday life instead of the giant stories that you think you might not have.

April Pertuis:

I mean, I have a hypothesis, though, that if we dig deep enough, and if you've lived any time on this earth and you've got some blood pumping through your veins, there will come a time that you're going to have a big story. Everyone's got a story. Every single person has a story, and it is one that might be a little bit bigger than the everyday stuff. Most of the time when someone is like I don't have a story, that my life is boring, you know, nobody would be interested.

April Pertuis:

Chances are there is still a story there, but it's been shoved down because of just exactly what you talked about earlier. Oh, I can't tell that story. That story is too much. That story would take away a light from someone else. You know, there's usually some reason behind some story. They've been told that they buried that story in the back corner and recesses of their life, that they've almost forgotten about it, and what happens is we start to dig and then, eventually, that story comes up and then we realize oh, there we go. That's a story that's still holding power over you. Now we get to do the great work of releasing that, untangling it and then using it in a positive, powerful way. But you know like, there are those stories trust me, they're hiding in everybody. But generally speaking, the most reasons why people don't embrace storytelling or think their story is worth sharing is because they do kind of feel like, well, I'm just kind of an ordinary person, like you said, and there's some extraordinary storytelling in the ordinary, absolutely.

Angie Colee:

Yes, absolutely Well, and you said that you know I've heard that with clients before too, especially folks that are in the earlier stages of their business Like, well, my story is not interesting, I don't, I haven't really accomplished anything, I haven't made my million dollars yet. Yeah, it breaks my heart that that person feels like they don't have anything to contribute. If that's you listening, stop breaking my heart, stop it. You are special. You are one of almost eight billion people, one that is like miraculous, um and like think about it this way too. Right, we're all inspired by big stories, especially people who have triumphed over incredible odds, and also, like the other, the flip side of that coin is how well do you relate to those extraordinary stories?

Angie Colee:

There's a certain part of most people I feel like that listens to that person on stage who's made their millions right and goes well, I just can't relate to that. I have no context or understanding and this just doesn't. You know it's a great story and I don't relate to that. I have no context or understanding and this just doesn't. You know it's a great story and I don't see how that reflects, like in my personal life, right. So and that's not to denigrate or anything I want to make clear I don't see a distinction between like these are the extraordinary stories, these are the ordinary stories and like one's better than the other. But I mean, if, if we're talking about getting out there and telling your story and giving yourself permission, allowing yourself to tell your story, isn't it better that you have a small story that relates to someone who suddenly feels seen on a deeply personal level than someone who's going well? I mean, you're out there climbing Kilimanjaro and I'm at home with three kids trying to build a business.

Angie Colee:

I don't get it, it doesn't relate.

April Pertuis:

Yeah, that's one of the biggest reasons when I have a program that we take and help people learn to speak and share more and tell that story out in public and use speaking to grow their business. And that thing is we're not looking for some gigantic motivational speech here, we're looking for the story that's truly going to allow you to connect with your audience on a deeper level. And, like I said, everyone's got those types of stories. So you may not think you see yourself as a speaker.

April Pertuis:

I don't see myself as like a Tony Robbins or a Brene Brown, but by golly I know I can get out there and I can speak and I can share my stories and I can just be April right, and when I do that and I agree to take up some space in this world, I give myself permission Listen. Every time I do that my business grows. Every time you know like it just happens. And so that is, everyone has that ability and I agree like we can't compare to the stories that have like these giants that are out there, because that is not usually where your audience really even is, and so the more you can be like even closer to your audience and be kind of just like them, but that's the gold that so many people are missing.

Angie Colee:

Yes, yes, yes, and you are so not the best, most objective observer of your stories, right? Yeah, exactly, I think a lot of people know this about me by now. But they're also super surprised when I mentioned it, that I spent several years on the road as a digital nomad and the most common question I get was like well, you didn't write about it, you really didn't share a whole lot. Like I posted some Facebook pictures of different places I was exploring and different people that I was meeting, but I never wrote really in my emails about what I was doing or why or what I was learning. I didn't make a big production about it, and so that surprised people and I would just tell people I don't understand what, why people are so curious about this. This. I mean, to you I'm a digital nomad and this is interesting and exciting, and to me, I'm moving into somebody else's Airbnb and working and doing the dishes.

Angie Colee:

And I used to joke with people like what kind of stories do you want from me? Like hashtag, doing the dishes, digital nomad life, like it's just my life. It doesn't feel all that new and exciting to me, but then I started to talk with people who would point out. Right Perspective, outside perspective, outside my head, that would point out. Well, like I have so many questions, though.

Angie Colee:

How do you manage life on the road while you're doing this? What do you even do about like laundry? And I was like, oh, I got a great laundry story. I fell down the stairs and thought I was going to die from gangrene Like I hurt myself doing laundry. I have a lot of laundry. And then I started going oh okay, oh, so I fell down the stairs. This is how I do laundry and manage laundry as a digital nomad. These are actually interesting and informative to people, and I never would have thought that if I stayed in my head and just kind of, and I turned off curiosity and I shut down this idea, it's just my life. There's nothing useful here for people.

April Pertuis:

Well, and that's the thing about tapping into some stories that we all have that do fulfill some sort of like vicarious need from others. So the fact that you were traveling and you were running your business from afar and going to different countries and popping around and doing different things is a bit abnormal. It is a bit it's not something that every American woman is doing currently, right, and so you sharing those stories allows other people to go. Oh well, I've always wondered what it would be like to travel around. I'm probably not going to do that because I'm at home raising the three kids right now, so that's kind of off the table. But while it's off the table, I'd love to hear more about Angie's story, because that I get to like live vicariously through you in that, in that moment, and I think those are really like good, and you're right.

April Pertuis:

It's very hard to see that when it's your own story, which is honestly like why you know the work that you and I do is important, because we can be those sounding boards for people. We can interview them and kind of help them see like, ooh, those are the curious points of your story that probably more people would wanna know about, and then they go, really they wanna know about that. And you're like, yes, they do, go talk about that story. And then they say, we're right, but it's hard to see that sometimes. But a great thing to do then is just to talk to the people that are around you.

April Pertuis:

Hey, what do you find interesting about my story? Like the ones who really know you the best, right, you can just ask them. That's a great exercise to ask your sister, ask your best friend, ask your neighbor, ask the person that you do volunteer shifts with every week or whatever it is you're out doing Maybe you have an assistant that works with you in your business Ask them, hey, you know a little bit about me. You've heard me talk about some things. What do you find the most interesting thing about me that maybe you think our audience would want to know? You know. So it's like again, what would it look like if? So that's again a way to tap into those stories and find them, when you may not think that they're there, but they are there, I know.

Angie Colee:

You may not think that they're there, but part of me feels called to issue a challenge. You know what I'm going to issue a challenge If you work with me and April can choose to co-sign on this or not. If you work with me and I cannot find an interesting story that makes you go oh damn, that makes me sound really smart. Oh, that, that makes me sound really interesting. If I cannot find a story that you can tell about yourself, I'll give you your freaking money back. Heck, yeah, I know it's there, that's an easy one. I know it's there and I love reflecting people's awesome back at that. And I know we're running up against time. I want to keep talking for like two more hours before I get before I ask you about your business. I have one curiosity question. Yes, let's ask it. You were a reporter. Is the reporter voice a thing that they train?

April Pertuis:

You know it's so funny. It's to this day when I am on the phone and if I'm like leaving someone a message, my husband, if he's there with me, he's like you're using your TV voice. You know, so funny. It is a bit ingrained and, yes, they do train on it, to be honest with you, because nobody talks like that, Nobody, right, we don't talk like that at all. And it was really funny when I was at my very, very first official job at a CBS station in Corpus Christi, Texas here I am fresh out of journalism school in Corpus Christi, Texas here I am fresh out of journalism school I had been a radio DJ kind of through school, but not really doing a lot of reports.

April Pertuis:

I was just like slinging records and giving the weather reports at the top of the hour, that kind of thing. And they say you know, I got the job and I had this really cause I'm from Texas originally, I had this really thick Texas accent at the time and they needed me to get up to speed very quickly because this was the type of station that all new journalists start at, which means it was a revolving door of journalists getting their feet wet and then onto the next thing. So it was just constantly a revolving door. So here I was in, fresh, you know, and they're like, okay, we need to get you up to speed because we know you're going to be leaving soon for bigger and brighter things.

April Pertuis:

So they didn't pay me very much money, it was pennies on the peanuts, let me tell you. I mean, even back then it was terrible. It was like $11,000 a year that I got paid to be a reporter for CBS affiliate in Corpus Christi, Texas, which was not enough to pay for anything. So I total side story. But I worked. I took an extra job working at a bingo parlor on the weekends and people would come into the bingo parlor and they would recognize me and they're like, how do I know you? And I'm like you do not know me, you do not know me, Pay no attention to the woman behind the curtain.

April Pertuis:

Don't pay any attention to that.

April Pertuis:

Thank you for indulging me on that. It was so funny. But they sent me to the station, invested in sending me to a voice coach and that voice coach just beat it out of me, helped me get rid of the thick Texas accent. I still have a Texas accent, but it wasn't as country as I want sounded, and they and it really was about teaching this kind of methodical, very monotone, you know reporter style voice that it's still in me. I can call it up when I need to, but yeah, they really do train on that.

Angie Colee:

Oh, that's funny, Like the monotone, because I always picture the like and the school bus overturned on the corner. More about that at 11. So funny, oh goodness. Thank you for indulging me on that. I know that was a random question, but that makes me super happy.

April Pertuis:

I love random questions.

Angie Colee:

So this has been a fantastic conversation. Thank you so much for joining me on the show.

April Pertuis:

Tell us a little bit more where we can learn about you and Light Beamers. Well, another great place to come is you need to come over to our podcast, the Inside Story. As Angie said, she's been a guest on the show, so you need to look up her episode for sure, and the many other episodes that we have. I do teach a lot on storytelling for my solo episodes and actually, you know, as a lifelong storyteller, the podcast the Inside Story podcast has been a place for me to continue to extricate stories of my own. Like I get to kind of perform my own wizardry on myself, which is hard to do, but it's kind of fun and it was a good challenge and that's actually why I started the podcast.

April Pertuis:

Most people start a podcast. They're like I want to reach thousands of people. I'm like, no, I want to just figure out how to tell my own story, because I should be good at that, and that was really why I started the show and it's been so much fun to um, we're now in our fourth year of production and it's been. It's been great and I love getting to interview other people and you know, it's just a place that I love to talk about storytelling and teach storytelling and illustrate great storytelling and other people's stories as well. So come check that out.

April Pertuis:

Number one that's a free resource that you can binge on and learn a lot more about Light Beamers, but all the rest of the juicy stuff that we offer can be found on our website at lightbeamerscom. You could be connected to our community. You can follow us on our social media channels. You can come connect with me. We have a great couple of free resources right there on the homepage that you can download to get started thinking about your own story. So I highly encourage you to do any of those things and come say hello if you do.

Angie Colee:

Awesome, absolutely. Thank you again for being on the show. I'm going to have clickable links in the show notes so people can check you out as easily as possible. Highly highly recommend that you go check April out. We are both big proponents of your story is amazing exactly as it is. We'll help you tell it in the best possible way. So go tell it already. Go tell it, yes, go tell it. Shine your light. Yes, shine your light so that we can make this damn planet brighter. Thank you so much for being on the show. I appreciate the hell out of you. Thank you, my friend. That's all for now. If you want to keep that kick-ass energy high, please take a minute to share this episode with someone that might need a high octane dose of you can do it. Don't forget to rate, review and subscribe to the permission to kick ass podcast on apple podcast, spotify and wherever you stream your podcasts. I'm your host, angie coley, and I'm here rooting for you. Thanks for listening and let's go kick some ass.