In this episode Shaun Whynacht introduces the concept of the "expression economy," arguing that modern consumers now drive brand messaging. He urges small‑business owners to abandon the pursuit of universal appeal and instead express authentic, human viewpoints—even if that risks offending some. Shaun critiques corporate marketing bottlenecks and promotes DIY tools like Canva for quick, unpolished content. He explains why Instagram/Facebook Stories generate higher engagement than polished feed posts and launches a 14‑day challenge: post raw, day‑in‑the‑life content as stories and track the response. Throughout, he emphasizes authenticity, simplicity, and the power of personal voice, ending with a call to email him at shaun@bluecowmarketing.ca for feedback. A second speaker offers a brief motivational tribute to small‑business owners, reinforcing the episode’s supportive tone.
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You know, back in 1989, Madonna released her hit single Express Yourself. And here we are in 2022. And who would have thought that the expression economy is in full force when it comes to marketing your business? What do I mean by that? Well, I watched a great keynote video and I'm going to share the link to the podcast here. I'm not going to give too many details about it because I want you to watch it. But in essence, your customers and your consumers are really driving the brand. Message, and that's extremely important. That's what I want to talk about in today's episode. So let's get right into it and we can start to express ourselves. Thanks for catching up again. Another great week in business. I don't know how you did, but things are looking very promising in the world of digital marketing and small business. So let's talk about what I, what I mentioned in the teaser to the episode was about expressing yourself. And if you've spent any time on the different social platforms, mostly TikTok and Instagram, you see a lot of people really kind of taking hold of their own messaging. And this could be from a business that's doing it really well, and really understands what it is that I'm talking about to actual just your friends and your family who have opinions and views on things and they're posting content that you can really see and you're like, you know what, I can grab ahold of that, I can understand that, I can relate to that view. We just need to look at giving up the idea that you're trying to appease everyone. You're trying to appeal to the masses. And it's very hard, especially as a business, to put out messaging that is going to resonate 100% with every single person out there. So we need to be human. We need to look at what do we believe in? What do we stand for? What do we feel comfortable with expressing ourselves? Because when our audience sees that we have a view, we have an opinion, we are human and we're not afraid to get it out there in our content, then they're going to be attracted to us more. Now, you might be saying, you know what, what if I offend somebody? And what I'm gonna say to you is, so what? What if you offend one person? Look, I mean, look at the world we're in. I guarantee there's not a single time you cannot open your Instagram, your Facebook, and somebody is not offended about something. We are such a soft society now that people are just so upset about every single thing that's out there that you're going to ruffle some feathers. It's just natural. But you're also going to attract people that are going to be like, good for you, I believe in that, right? Now don't go out there and purposely try to piss people off. Don't kind of take a a stance because you want to be controversial. If that's not who you are, don't pretend to be that person. So what I mean by all this, and if you watch the video that's in the show notes to this episode, you will see that when employees, when businesses just make decisions and don't worry about having to go through all these hoops and bounds, like if you've worked in any kind of corporate situation that has a marketing department, you know freaking hard it is to get an idea to market because it has to go through all these hoops and these jumps and these, these approval processes and the right fonts and the right colors and everything like that. But you know what? You're a small business. You make the darn decisions yourself. So, you know, you got a logo, you want to do something, get a Canva account. Like, you can get some really awesome designs that are templated there that you can just make it yourself. You can customize it, you can put a quote in there, upload a photo, And it's gonna do a great job in all the different platforms that you put out there. So don't feel that you have to like outsource all this content, get people to create stuff. Figure out who you are, what's your message, and what do you believe in, and start to express that. You know, if you see something that makes you chuckle, that's you. Snap a picture of it, throw it on your story, Be like, hey, this made me laugh today. I guarantee people are going to love it. You don't have to be like, okay, well, should I say this? Should I say that? No, just say it. Just do it. I guarantee if you do this and start to do it and don't overthink it, you're going to start to see some positive engagement. Okay. So here's the challenge, what I want you to do. Over the next 14 days, 2 weeks, I want you to start to be a little more free in the content that you put out there. By that is, take your audience through your day through your eyes. Snap pictures, take more stories. And the reason that I'm saying stories is because I've seen, not only with other clients but more so with myself because I'm doing it a lot more, that We're getting more engagement, more feedback from stories than we are in post feeds. So you use your post or your wall, you know, Instagram or Facebook, for content that's going to stick around a lot longer, right? Use your stories for those moments, those things that aren't as polished, those things that really you just need to get out there. They only stick around for 24 hours, so that's the essence of it, but people are engaging with stories a lot more than they are with your wall posts, and you're going to see a lot more uptick on that type of content. Just to recap, the last or the next 14 days, start to post some content that is just through the eyes of you from your phone. And this is not you taking a picture and then going back and throwing it into Canva or Photoshop and starting to polish it up. I want you to take those pictures and just post them as stories and see after 14 days what type of engagement you get. And I'd love to hear from it. Hear from you about how that went. So hit me up, give me an email, shaun@bluecowmarketing.ca. And, and, you know, I just, I, I feel for you and I'm, I'm here rooting for you. I guarantee you're going to see some positive engagement. So have a great week until we meet next Friday at the next episode, Growing Your Business. And by then you should be halfway through that challenge. Take care.
Running your own business is hard. Those long hours, the doubt, the challenge to meet demands. But you're resilient, strong, dedicated. You do all of this for more than profits, success, or money. You do it because you care. You care about the people who You shop here, eat there, drink here. You care about your community. You care about your team. Despite all else, you care. No matter what life throws your way, you power through it with grit and perseverance. You are the epitome of dedication. You are a small business owner. For this reason, Blue Cow Marketing salutes you.
