Where to Find The Right Audiences for Your Brand Stories With Rand Fishkin

You can find over the past nine years and 516 episodes of The Business of Story brilliance from story artists around the world on how to tell a captivating brand and business story.

If you’ve followed their guidance, starting with the foundational story structure of the ABT (And, But, Therefore) narrative framework, then you’ve enjoyed greater engagement and conversion.

But even your best stories might be falling flat because knowing when, where and to whom you’re telling your story is as, if not more, important than he story itself.

Rand Fishkin, cofounder and CEO of SparkToro and author of Inbound Marketing and SEO: Insights from the Moz Blog, shows you how to find your ideal audiences and how to deliver your stories in the way they want to receive them. (more…)

Leadership Storytelling Similarities Between the Righteous and Riotous With Randy Olson

What do presidents Abraham Lincoln and Donald Trump have in common?

You might say, “Not much.”

But according to my guest today, they share a rare superpower: narrative intuition—the innate ability to communicate with compelling structure that moves audiences to action.

Dr. Randy Olson is an evolutionary biologist turned filmmaker and author of the eye-opening new book Lincoln BUT Trump: Narrative Metrics and Similarities Between Heroes and Villains.

In it, Randy reveals how two simple metrics—AND Frequency and the Narrative Index—can measure the strength of your messaging and diagnose the difference between boring information dumps and persuasive storytelling.

You’ll discover why leaders who win hearts and minds, whether you like them or not, don’t necessarily have better ideas—just better narrative form.

So if you want to elevate your communication, cut through the noise, and lead with clarity, you’re in the right place.

Let’s explore the science—and the story—behind impactful narratives.

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How to Build an Unforgettable Brand Using Neuroscience with Rande Vick

Do you want your brand to stick in the hearts and minds of your audience? Not just get attention, but be unforgettable?

But you’re frustrated that even your best messaging isn’t gaining the traction it could because it’s not in sync with how the brain actually processes stories? 

Today, we decode the biology behind belief and behavior so you can build a brand story that truly resonates.

You’ll learn from Rande Vick, founder of the Vick Agency in Los Angeles and author of the groundbreaking new book Neurobranding: The Brain-Based Method to Make Your Brand Unforgettable.

With a background in sales, marketing, music, and a growing obsession with behavioral psychology, Rande reveals how to apply neuroscience to build stories that bypass resistance, ignite emotion, and embed your brand into long-term memory.

Tune in and learn how to wire your brand for influence with the science and art of story.

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How to Effectively Position Your B2B Brand With April Dunford

As a B2B brand leader, you know that clear, compelling market positioning is everything. If you can land your product in the mind of your prospect with precision, then you stand a fighting chance in even the most crowded markets.

But let’s face it: getting your positioning right is hard—because if you can’t explain what makes you different, then you risk becoming just another option that gets ignored.

Today, you’ll meet April Dunford, a startup exec turned positioning powerhouse.

She’s helped over 200 B2B companies sharpen their message, launch winning products, and drive billions in acquisitions. April unpacks the proven frameworks behind her bestsellers Obviously Awesome and Sales Pitch to help you craft positioning that sells.

Whether you’re scaling a growth-stage startup or leading a legacy tech brand, you’ll leave this episode with the tools to own your space in the market—and tell your brand story in a way only you can.

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How to Unlock Brand Alignment to Accelerate Your Business Growth

When Michele and I got married 37 years ago, she had a Toyota Camry that had been rear-ended.

Although they repaired her car, it never drove right again. It crabbed its way down the road because the wheel alignment was off.

It rattled, tore through the tires, stressed the chassis and its fuel efficiency was probably halved.

So imagine what happens to your business efficiency when your brand is out of alignment.

Today we have a brand alignment expert, Brandon Coleman Jr., author of Brand On! The Hidden Power of Brand Alignment, and host of the Brand On podcast.

He is a renowned branding legend with the acute ability to cut through clutter to amplify others’ potential.

His gifted awareness and enthusiastic, all-in spirit have fueled exponential success on thousands of brand alignment engagements across many different industries spanning five decades.

Brandon will show you the communication potholes to avoid to make sure your brand is in perfect alignment to accelerate your business growth. (more…)

#512: How to Use Candor and Kindness for Profound Leadership Storytelling

Last Saturday, we celebrated our Mom’s 100th birthday.

She is an amazing woman and doing remarkably well for a centenarian.

My mom, Pat, was my first role model for using candor and kindness to make tough conversations easier.

She operates with wonderful tact and grace.

In fact, I remember when I was in the 6th grade having to tell her that a friend I was with at the time, was caught shoplifting some Flicks candy from a drug store.

I asked myself, “How would Mom approach this delicate conversation without upsetting the recipient of the news, in this case, her?”

So I didn’t say he was “busted stealing.” Instead, I said he “tried to take something without paying for it.” 

It worked. Instead of mom getting mad, she shrugged her shoulders and said, “That’s too bad.”

I was reminded of this simple moment when I interviewed our guest, Betsy Petrie.

Betsy is a dynamic and experienced workforce development consultant specializing in strategic interpersonal communication for leaders and teams. She wrote the book RAILS-TALK: A Tough Conversations Workbook for People Managers.

You can use it to stay on track when approaching complex topics— without derailing the conversation with unnecessary friction from excessive small talk, judgment, or sugarcoating

Betsy deeply believes this is the key to unlocking individual potential, increasing productivity, and sustaining growth.

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#511: How to Avoid Fauxthenticity With Your Brand Story Using the 50% Rule

You’ve heard about the power of being authentic if you want to be successful in business.

But you hear it so much it almost sounds inauthentic. A trending buzzword. A trite insight.

So what if you approached authenticity in a different way?

Erin Hatzikostas joins us today to share how to bring the actual real you to the world with her 50% rule.

She is the founder of b Authentic, a global keynote speaker, and a former Corporate CEO turned professional pot-stirrer, and has written two best-selling books including The 50% Rule, which we will explore today.

Erin is the co-host of “b Cause Work Doesn’t Have to Suck” podcast.

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#510: How to Use Your Growth Mindset to Craft and Share a Lucrative Brand Story

Famous American Author, Kurt Vonnegut, said that every story is about a man getting in a hole and getting out.

“It needn’t be about a man and it needn’t be about a hole. People LOVE that story,” he proclaimed at the beginning of his entertaining presentation, “The Shapes of Stories.”

But as you may know, getting out of a hole can take patience, perseverance, and grit.

Shane McLaughlin believes there is one more ingredient for success when life throws you blows: a healthy, positive mindset.

He should know.

Shane and his team of eight content creators at Intuit just got replaced by AI even though they built self-help experiences that realized millions of dollars in efficiency for the company.

But that hasn’t shaken his optimistic mindset. It’s supercharged it.

Shane is a communications and content strategist with a proven track record at several Fortune 500 companies.

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#509: How to Make Your Brand Story Standout With Deliberate Disruption

I just heard a great insight about the disruptive force of AI in marketing from John Jantcsh, founder of Duct Tape Marketing.

We were on a call last week talking about how we’re leveraging AI to disrupt the brand story-creation process.

The problem we’re solving with our StoryCycle Genie™ is this: It takes months of misery, toil and trouble to craft a compelling brand story strategy (if you’re lucky).

Solution: Now you can do it in minutes. At a fraction of the cost.

You can iterate real-time in the Genie™ to define and refine your story.

And it produces content instantly in the tone, voice and positioning of your brand.

Just upload your website URL and some marketing materials (optional), and the Genie reveals how you’re showing up in the world.

The StoryCycle Genie™ follows our Story Cycle System™ and produces your brand story narrative in about two minutes.

Two minutes!

It gets you 80 to 90 percent there with your brand narrative strategy. Then you bring 100 percent of your creative energy to perfect the last 10 to 20 percent of your brand story (check my math).

John said that it’s “IQ vs EQ.”

We can’t compete with the intellectual quotient of AI, but it can’t outperform the emotional quotient humans bring to communication. At least not yet.

We can’t compete with the intellectual quotient of AI, but it can’t outperform the emotional quotient humans bring to communication. At least not yet.

So let’s use AI to work smarter, not harder.

If Bernadette McClellan had been on our call, I know she would have agreed.

Bernadette doesn’t just embrace disruption. She causes it.

Founder of the Deliberate Disruption Academy, she wrote SHIFT AND DISRUPT: Stop Selling Widgets. Start Selling Wisdom.

The idea is that you can let developments like AI disrupt you, or you can leverage it to be the disruptive force that propels your growth and that of your clients.

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#508: How to Apply Mediocrity Repellant to Your Brand Storytelling

Ever wonder what it takes to survive the insane career of advertising?

Cameron Day, author of the acclaimed “Advertising Survival Guide” trilogy, is here to show you how.

Cameron brings four decades of experience from the creative trenches, where he’s developed crazy disruptive campaigns that have transformed brands.

From the profound influence of his father’s wisdom – who was Guy Day, co-founder of the iconic ad agency Chiat Day – to navigating ageism in a youth-obsessed industry, to harnessing AI as a creative superpower—Cameron shares the kind of insights you can only gain from being a creative gladiator in a soul-crushing coliseum.

From his mediocrity-repelling mind, he’ll inspire you to find those fundamental human truths that make advertising magic happen and your career extraordinary.

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