You are interested in growing your leadership and business storytelling skills because you know how powerful stories are to motivate people to action…

If you read Park Howell’s book Brand Bewitchery, then you will learn the three proven narrative frameworks he teaches to help you influence and persuade any audience.

But who has time for reading?

Now you can easily listen to Park’s book as he walks you through the 10-Step Story Cycle System™ by reading each chapter on his popular Business of Story podcast.

To make listening even easier, here are the links to each episode’s chapter so that you can continue to grow as a confident and effective business communicator using the power of story.

 

#420: Ch. 1, Backstory: How to Clarify Your Brand Story for Deliberate Growth

In chapter 1 of Brand Bewichery called “Backstory,” you will learn how to define your #1 position in the marketplace: what you do differently and more distinctively than anyone else.

This is the first step in crafting your brand narrative. Your brand story may be about your business, product or service offering, an internal initiative you’re launching in your organization, a community outreach effort, a marketing campaign or any endeavor where you need to create important meaning for your audience to get them to buy in.

 

#421: Ch. 2, Heroes: How to Understand Your Customers to Build a Tribe

Once you identify your #1 position in the market, then ask yourself, “Who is my #1 audience? Who do I service with my brand offering?”

Chapter 2 is called “Heroes,” because your brand story is not about you but about your customers, colleagues and the communities you serve who need your help.

Listen and learn how to prioritize your top three audiences, those important people who are at the center of your brand storytelling.

 

#423: Ch. 3, Stakes: How to Connect With the Wishes and Wants of Your Customers

Now that you’ve defined your market position and have identified your #1 customer/audience, it’s time to raise the stakes in their story to arouse their interest in your offering.

Chapter 3 will show you how to identify and connect with what your audience emotionally wishes to achieve and what they physically want to purchase to fulfill their wish.

Make no mistake, you are just like Walt Disney who said his company is in the wish-granting business. So is your brand.

 

#424: Ch. 4, Disruption: How Your Unique Value Proposition Will Win the Day

When your prospect is mired in the status quo they aren’t interested in buying from you. So you must disrupt their life or be the answer to a disruption that is currently happening to them.

This is where you craft your unique value proposition (UVP). Your UVP is a crisp articulation of what you do in the world.

For instance, the Business of Story UVP is, “Helping you excel through the stories you tell.”

Listen to this episode to articulate your UVP that clarifies why you’re the most timely, urgent and relevant offering for your audience.

 

#426: Ch. 5, Antagonists: How to Capitalize on Competitive Forces

Trevor Hill, the founder of Global Water, once told me that selling is nothing more than this three-step storytelling process:

  1. Find the hurt.
  2. Amplify the pain.
  3. Heal the wound.

Listen to Chapter 5 to determine the obstacles and antagonists that stand in the way of your and your customers getting what you want.

I call them villains, fog and crevasses. The idea is to not push against these antagonistic forces but to embrace them. Use their energy to help propel your brand forward by demonstrating how your offering overcomes these competitive forces to again illustrate why you provide the most timely, urgent and relevant solution to your customer’s problem.

 

#427: Ch. 6, Mentor: How to Humanize Your Brand With its Promise, Gift, and Personality

While the first five chapters of Brand Bewitchery focus on establishing your customer as the hero in your brand story, you play the more important role of their mentor or guide.

Now it’s time to capture the unique personality of your brand, the emotional promise you make to connect with the wishes of your prospects and the physical gift you provide to fulfill their wish.

Plus, in this episode, you will learn about how to use the 12 universal personality archetypes to find the one that best reflects the personality of your brand.

This chapter will color how you express your brand to the world.

 

#429: Ch. 7, Journey: How to Increase Customer Engagement Through the Stories You Tell

Here is where you determine what stories you tell based on the nine one-word brand descriptors you developed from Chapter 6. It’s important which stories you tell and at what point in your customer journey from brand awareness to brand adoption to brand appreciation.

I understand that customer journey mapping often includes many more steps than just these three. But I’ve found it much easier and more impactful to focus on this three-act journey (I mean, come on, we’re storytellers, right?) than the convoluted six-, eight and 10-step customer journeys you typically find. Let’s not overthink this, people.

In my experience, it all boils down to the three acts of brand awareness, adoption and appreciation.

 

#430: Ch. 8, Victory: How to Celebrate Wins on the Customer Journey From Brand Awareness to Appreciation

Instead for hoping for one big victory like a signed purchase order or immediate customer, consider the small wins you need to celebrate with your customers along their journey with your brand.

In this episode, we show you how to design ad trigger those milestones of success that will help you build brand bonding with your ideal customer.

 

More to come…

Bookmark this page because you can listen to all chapters of Brand Bewitchery as I produce and upload them here over the coming weeks.

For additional Business of Story training, listen to:

If you haven’t yet taken the quick ABTs of Agile Communications online course, then take it now.

In under one hour, through three 20-ish minute modules, you will learn the foundational And, But, Therefore narrative framework upon which all influential business storytelling is built.

And you can even email me your ABT from the course and I’ll respond with FREE coaching on how to make your ABT even stronger.

Story on!