Five Episodes and a Weekend Bonus That Restore the Human Signal Your AI Stack Keeps Blurring
After 12 years of producing the Business of Story podcast, I’ve had a ton of brilliant minds from around the world sharing their storytelling wisdom.
But how can a listener or viewer like you know which conversation is the perfect fit for what you need right now?
So I started curating our conversations around specific and timely topics. Like the Startup Founders Storytelling Mastery Course, where I assembled some of our top experts in the startup world.
What do you do after you’ve started up? You market with your brand story.
The natural next step is this, our Brand Storytelling With AI (Artful Intelligence) Mastery Week featuring more amazing minds.
Artful Intelligence™ is my term for human lived experience and intuition, amplified by AI. The AI half is everywhere. The human half is what most brand leaders are accidentally optimizing away.
I picked each of these six conversations from around 600 episodes of the Business of Story podcast because the guest had already solved a piece of the problem you’re living through.
Mark Schaefer, Laura Ries, Sara Connell, Joe Lazer, Joe Pulizzi, and Jay Acunzo don’t agree on everything. They do agree that the signal that survives the AI content flood is the one only you can generate.
How the Week Works
Take one episode a day, in order. Each one answers a question, and each answer raises the next.
On Day 1, Mark Schaefer shows you who your AI content is actually serving.
On Day 2, Laura Ries sharpens your position against a named enemy.
On Day 3, Sara Connell returns creative authority to you.
On Day 4, Joe Lazer names the skill no model can replicate.
On Day 5, Joe Pulizzi makes the business case for owning your audience before the algorithm does.
Over the weekend, Jay Acunzo shows you how to give that audience a premise worth acting on.
Day 1: If AI Is Now Choosing for Your Customers, Who Is Your Content Actually Persuading?
The AI Override, with Mark Schaefer
The algorithm reads your content first. Whether a person ever sees it depends on what the algorithm decides.
Mark Schaefer is a marketing author and strategist. His book How AI Changes Your Customers: The Marketing Guide to Humanity’s Next Chapter maps how AI is moving from a productivity tool to a decision-maker in the buying journey.
A friend’s bakery tip changed his travel plans and outranked the algorithm. Schaefer calls it the AI override.
What you’ll learn:
- Why reaching your customer now means influencing the algorithm as much as the person
- How to define the one emotional promise your brand keeps (Schaefer’s is “belonging”)
- Why curiosity, the habit of pushing AI past its first answer, is the skill that sets people apart
On Day 2, Laura Ries asks whether your newest hire could name the enemy your brand stands against.
The human signal is still the strongest signal. Make it audible.
Watch or listen to Mark on the website | YouTube | iTunes | Spotify
Day 2: Who Is Your Brand Standing Against, and Could Your Newest Hire Name Them?
The Strategic Enemy Framework, with Laura Ries
Ask your newest hire who your brand stands against. The pause before the answer is your positioning problem.
Laura Ries is Chairwoman of the consulting firm Ries and the daughter of positioning pioneer Al Ries. Her book The Strategic Enemy came out from Wiley in September 2025.
AI produces the mushy middle at scale. Laura shows you how a named enemy keeps your brand out of it, and our conversation on strategy in AI and branding starts at 49:50.
What you’ll learn:
- How to define your strategic enemy with enough specificity to guide real decisions
- How to sharpen your brand focus and open the door to a category of your own
- Where strategy belongs once AI is in your branding workflow
On Day 3, Sara Connell asks where your next original idea will come from when everyone has the same chatbot.
A brand without an enemy is a brand without a story.
Watch or listen to Laura on the website | YouTube | iTunes | Spotify
Day 3: When Everyone Has the Same Chatbot, Where Will Your Next Original Idea Come From?
SWOO and the Gamma Walk, with Sara Connell
The AI in your workflow draws from everything humanity has already created. So does the AI in your competitor’s workflow.
Sara Connell is a five-time bestselling author and the founder of Thought Leader Academy, which helps coaches, experts, and entrepreneurs become bestselling authors and TEDx speakers. Her work has been featured in Oprah, The New York Times, Good Morning America, TODAY, Forbes, and Entrepreneur. Her book The Download is about training your brain to access original insight in the AI era.
“I know that the AI can only generate from what we’ve all created so far.”
What you’ll learn:
- How SWOO, “Science Meets Woo,” pairs neuroscience with creative practice to surface original ideas
- Which brain states open you to creative downloads, and which one crowds them out
- How to run a Gamma Walk, spot recurring themes, and act on even fragments of what arrives
On Day 4, Joe Lazer asks what part of your brand story no model could ever tell for you.
Original insight is earned in practice.
Watch or listen to Sara on the website | YouTube | iTunes | Spotify
Day 4: What Part of Your Brand Story Could No Model Ever Tell for You?
Storytelling as the Super Skill, with Joe Lazer
You can feel the part of your story a model could never write. Joe shows you how to name it before AI averages it away.
Joe Lazer built his name at Contently and has served as marketing lead at A-Team and CMO of Pepper.
“Writing is thinking,” Joe told me. That’s why he brainstorms on his own before he opens any AI tool.
What you’ll learn:
- Why storytelling, the evolutionary technology that let humans coordinate in large groups, rises in value as AI handles more technical work
- How the four story elements (relatability, ease, novelty, and tension) work together
- How to use AI at three levels to amplify a story you’ve already mastered
On Day 5, Joe Pulizzi asks how many people would find you tomorrow if the algorithm stopped sending them.
Master the story first. Then use AI to amplify it.
Watch or listen to Joe on the website | YouTube | iTunes | Spotify
Day 5: How Many People Would Find You Tomorrow If the Algorithm Stopped Sending Them?
Being Known Is the Moat, with Joe Pulizzi
The audience that finds you through an algorithm belongs to the platform. Joe shows you how to build one that belongs to you.
Joe Pulizzi founded Content Marketing Institute and is credited with coining the term “content marketing.” He wrote Burn the Playbook and publishes the newsletter The Tilt.
“Being known is going to be the moat.”
When we recorded, Joe gave humans a 12-to-24-month window to build a discoverable audience before AI-driven algorithms make it far harder.
What you’ll learn:
- How to find your tilt by matching about 10 things that make you distinctive to an audience’s needs
- Why email and direct channels give you an audience you own
- Why in-person speaking and relationships carry more weight as content turns synthetic
Over the weekend, Jay Acunzo asks why an audience that understands you still isn’t acting.
Own your audience. That’s where the whole week was headed.
Watch or listen to Joe on the website | YouTube | iTunes | Spotify
Weekend Bonus: Your Audience Understands You. So Why Aren’t They Acting?
Resonance Over Reach, with Jay Acunzo
AI made clarity easy to produce, so every brand in your category now sounds clear. Jay shows you what moves an audience once clarity is table stakes.
Jay Acunzo is an author, speaker, and public speaking coach who helps experts become stronger public voices. His clients include bestselling authors, TED speakers, startup founders, and seven-figure coaches and consultants. He started in sales at Google, later worked at HubSpot, and hosts the podcast How Stories Happen.
“Clarity is just, I get it. I understand. Is that enough to spark an action? Probably not.”
What you’ll learn:
- How to build a premise, a defensible assertion that acts as a lens on your domain
- How the six-beat narrative argument moves an audience from their current approach to action
- How strength creates the resonance that turns understanding into action
Day 5 gave you an audience you own. Jay shows you what to give them.
Being their favorite starts with a premise only you can hold.
Watch or listen to Jay on the website | YouTube | iTunes | Spotify
Let’s Build Yours
Artful Intelligence is only as powerful as the story it amplifies.
This week introduced you to six thinkers who have each mapped a piece of that challenge.
I work with brands, agencies, and leadership teams through storytelling workshops, keynotes, and consulting. Together we build a brand story strong enough to hold its shape as your AI content scales.
The Business of Story podcast has around 600 conversations like these. This week’s six are one way in.
To apply the week every day, use StoryCycle Genie®, the tool built specifically to help brands govern their story and stop narrative entropy.
Which story will your AI tell about your brand next week?
Let’s put Artful Intelligence to work on yours.
FAQ
What Is Artful Intelligence?
Artful Intelligence is Park Howell’s term, coined January 31, 2026, for human lived experience and intuition amplified by AI. People supply the original insight, and AI supplies scale and speed. It is the organizing idea behind Brand Storytelling With AI (Artful Intelligence) Mastery Week.
How Should I Take Brand Storytelling With AI (Artful Intelligence) Mastery Week?
Listen to one episode per working day, in order, for five days, then save the Weekend Bonus with Jay Acunzo for Saturday or Sunday. Each episode builds on the one before it. The sequence moves from the market stakes on Day 1 through positioning, original insight, and craft to owning your audience on Day 5.
Do I Need to Be Technical to Benefit?
You need no coding or technical background. The week is designed for CMOs, brand leaders, agency owners, and founders who use AI to produce content and want a stronger brand story. The conversations focus on strategy, craft, and creative practice.
Why These Guests, in This Order?
Mark Schaefer sets the stakes, and Laura Ries sharpens your position. Sara Connell returns creative authority to you, Joe Lazer teaches the craft, and Joe Pulizzi closes on owning your audience. Jay Acunzo’s Weekend Bonus shows you how to give that audience a premise worth acting on. Each episode answers the question the one before it raises.
How Does StoryCycle Genie® Fit In?
StoryCycle Genie®, the tool built specifically to help brands govern their story and stop narrative entropy, turns the week’s frameworks into a system your whole organization can use. It keeps every piece of content you create with AI consistent with your brand story.
