How to Effectively Position Your B2B Brand With April Dunford

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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#513: How to Unlock Brand Alignment to Accelerate Your Business Growth

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

#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

#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

#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 Stand Out With Deliberate Disruption

#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

#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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#507: How to Quickly Turn Minutiae into Marketing Momentum For Rapid Growth

#507: How to Quickly Turn Minutiae into Marketing Momentum For Rapid Growth

Have you ever taken one week to keep track of every critical *To-Do* on your sales and marketing plate?

Regardless of the size of the task and the effort they command, they’re important to the success of your revenue growth.

But they can be exhausting. They take your time, your attention, and can drain you of the energy you need for more creative and productive pursuits.

Our guest today, Mike Allton, has created an AI-powered Chief of Staff that you can implement to quickly turn the minutiae that are strangling your growth into momentum to build your brand and business.

Mike encourages you to start with a small pilot program to learn what AI can do to increase the efficiency of your company.

An example would be to use our new StoryCycle Genie™ to reframe and refine your brand story in minutes, not months.

Unbeknownst to Mike, I fed the Genie his The AI Hat brand using his URL, and it revealed his story: the gaps, the missed opportunities to connect with prospects and customers, and inspiration for fresh ways to think about a more clear, concise and compelling narrative.

He had me on his AI Hat podcast over the weekend where we revealed each of his brand story elements the StoryCycle Genie™ conjured.

This is just one example of how you can join the Fourth Industrial Revolution of AI to spend 80% less time on repetitive tasks and 100% of your time on building your brand and growing your revenue.

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#506: How to Tell Your Startup Lifecycle Story to Sell Investors & Customers on Your Brand

#506: How to Tell Your Startup Lifecycle Story to Sell Investors & Customers on Your Brand

We’re in frantic startup mode with our new StoryCycle Genie™.

Now you can refine your brand story in minutes, not months, as our AI Agent whisks you through our proven Story Cycle System™ which has grown brands by 600 percent.

Perhaps you’re in startup mode, tool.

Maybe you’re launching a product. Introducing a service. Or trying to get your people to buy into a new initiative within your organization.

How you craft your startup story to be clear, concise and compelling is critical to your success.

That’s why you’ll enjoy our guest this week who has conjured startup-to-exit magic for years, like selling one of his companies to eBay for north of $900 million dollars.

Gregory Shepard is the founder of StartupScience.io and author of the new book, The Startup Lifecycle: The Definitive Guide to Building a Startup from Idea to Exit.

You’ll learn the crucial steps in telling your startup story to attract investors and customers.

Or to get your people to buy into your new initiative.

I even put Gregory’s brand through our new StoryCycle Genie™.

You’ll learn from the advice he gave me on our startup.

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#505: How Audacious of a Brand Storyteller Are You?

#505: How Audacious of a Brand Storyteller Are You?

What’s one of the most audacious marketing stunts you’ve pulled for your brand?

In 1983, I interned at The Fearey Group public relations firm in Seattle, WA.

One of my jobs was to promote the Seattle Symphony Golf Classic, a fundraiser featuring no less than Jack Nicklaus and Arnold Palmer.

So I borrowed a yacht from John and Lyla Fluke, owners of Fluke Manufacturing, to cruise the Evergreen Point Bridge at rush hour the Friday before the event.

I dressed some buddies in tuxedos, assembled them on the bow, and pretended to play orchestral music as I blared recordings of the greats through speakers to the parking lot that the bridge had become.

My audacity also landed me and my fledgling career some publicity.

Time’s Columnist Michael Conant wrote about our publicity stunt in the Sunday paper.

I’m wired to find weird ways to tell our client’s stories. Plus I love to train them and their people how to find their fun and fascinating storyteller within.

That’s why I so enjoyed Mark Schaefer’s new book, Audacious: How Humans Win in an AI Marketing World.

Audacious is brimming with stories of crazy promotional stunts, whacky word-of-mouth marketing, and awe-inducing customer experiences that will inspire you to get a little nutty with your brand storytelling. (more…)