#503: How to Maintain Brain Health to be Your Best Storytelling Self

#503: How to Maintain Brain Health to be Your Best Storytelling Self

Top minds around the world are making artificial intelligence smarter, easier to use, and more intuitive at a dizzying pace.

Hopefully, it will make all of our lives better.

But what about your brain health?

What are you doing to become your best and brightest storytelling self?

I recently heard a remarkable presentation on creating and maintaining a healthy brain from Dr. Greg Wells, best-selling author of the new book, Power House: Elevate Your Energy, Optimize Your Health, and Supercharge Your Performance.

We both spoke at the Ascensus annual sales conference.

I was so impressed with how he translated complex neuroscience into practical strategies for peak performance that I invited him to share his brilliance with you.

Luckily for all of us, he happily agreed.

Greg is the founder of Wells Performance which helps teams, schools, and businesses become places where people get healthy, perform optimally, and reach their potential.

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#502: How a Brand Story of “Turning AI Into Actual Intelligence” is Driving Growth

#502: How a Brand Story of “Turning AI Into Actual Intelligence” is Driving Growth

Did you see Jerry Seinfeld on the Tonight Show describing Artificial Intelligence?

He said, “We’re smart enough to invent AI, dumb enough to need it, and so stupid we can’t figure out if we did the right thing.”

I still crack up at the term “Artificial Intelligence,” because as Jerry points out, most of our intelligence is artificial anyway.

And there, my friends, is the crux of the brand narrative we created for Tampa-based Green Irony, which turns AI into actual intelligence you can activate to drive smart growth.

Meet Banks, Green Irony’s flying pig mascot.

Aaron Godby, founder Green Irony, said, “We first set up shop in 2016 as a highly-specialized Salesforce integration and implementation partner.

“Working alongside technology leaders across a range of industries, we grew increasingly frustrated watching organizations become seemingly so accustomed to underperforming tech investments, that seeing a new initiative deliver tangible ROI felt akin to pigs flying. “

His journey has taken him from solving large-scale systems integration challenges for brands that include Spirit Airlines, Anheuser-Busch and Primerica, to now infusing AI into the enterprise using Agentforce as one of Salesforce’s leading partner implementers.

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#501: Fixing the Misery of Board Meetings With Engaging Storytelling

#501: Fixing the Misery of Board Meetings With Engaging Storytelling

Have you read Cormac McCarthy’s final two books Passenger and Stella Maris?

I just finished them.

They came across to me as a nihilistic meditation on the mathematical certainty of death.

Fun stuff.

McCarthy sneaks in witticisms throughout his writing. There’s one thought he shared that I can’t shake. It goes…

“You shouldn’t worry about what people think about you because they don’t do it that often.”

I thought it was hysterical given our narcissistic social media world where we all compete for attention.

But you want your brand story to stand out.

You want to draw rapt attention to your product or service.

You even worry about how it’s being communicated, because you want people to think of you often. You care about what they think.

Robert Wolfe, co-founder of Moosejaw (sold it to Walmart), CrowdRise (sold it to GoFundMe), and now Zeck, the brand that is taking the misery out of board meetings, knows how to attract and retain attention to his business.

Like the “No Pants” catalog Moosejaw published during the Great Recession because people couldn’t afford complete wardrobes.

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#500: How to Refine Your Brand Story Strategy in Minutes not Months to Rocket Your Revenue

#500: How to Refine Your Brand Story Strategy in Minutes not Months to Rocket Your Revenue

As a business owner or content creator, you probably want to create the same impact with your brand story as…

• Avein Saaty-Tafoya grew Arizona’s Adelante Healthcare by 600 percent.
• André Martin Hobbs has made Prêt Auto Partez one of the fastest growing auto dealerships in Canada.
• Sean Schroeder and his partners at Sacramento digital agency blueriver™, creators of the MURA content management platform, had a profitable exit in 2019.

They all have one thing in common: They each refined their brand story using the Story Cycle System™.

Ours is a proven process to create compelling clarity that aligns your people, engages customers, and accelerates your revenue growth (many of their stories are in the links below).

But like all approaches to branding, the Story Cycle System™ – as effective as it is – can take months of research, discovery, brainstorming meetings, and creative content development before you can start implementing your brand narrative.

What if you can accomplish the same thing in under an hour?

Sean Schroeder joins me today to show you how you can now refine your brand story strategy quickly using our StoryCycle Genie™.

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#499: How to Create an Enduring Business Based on Your Timeless Brand Story

#499: How to Create an Enduring Business Based on Your Timeless Brand Story

André-Martin Hobbs became one of the fastest-growing auto dealerships in Canada precisely because he dialed in his brand story back in 2017.

His Quebec-based auto group is Prêt Auto Partez, which means “Auto, Loan, Go” in English.

Their singular focus is to help Canadians repair their credit by purchasing a car they can afford without missing a monthly payment. In two years, their credit will be repaired.

The tagline/unique value proposition that we created using our Story Cycle System™ is…

Your vehicle to financial freedom.

But it opened up a can of worms, and by worms I mean competitors.

Other dealers recognized the power of André’s business model and have tried to copy it.

But to little success.

The reason, as he explains in this episode, is that competitors give lip service to helping people repair their credit.

“They don’t live it,” he said.

Prêt Auto Partez is the dominant category market leader because its brand narrative captures the vision, mission, and honest outcomes that the brand stands for.

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#498: Why Your Brand Story Needs a Radical Focus and How to Find It

#498: Why Your Brand Story Needs a Radical Focus and How to Find It

Imagine building a coconut water brand, nearly going broke, recovering to build a multi-million dollar business, selling it to Coca-Cola, and then buying it back, all because your refreshing brand story was crafted to survive adversity.

That’s what today’s guest did and he’ll show you how he did it.

Mark Rampolla, founder of Zico Coconut Water and author of High Hangin Fruit: Build Something Great by Going Where No One Else Will, shows you why your brand story must have a radical focus and how you can create it.

He says his book is for people who believe that it’s their duty to reach higher than just the bottom line to build businesses driven by passion, purpose, and integrity.

It’s for the new generation of entrepreneurs who want to disrupt the old model and do good by doing business.

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#497: How to Land Your Ideal Job by Telling Your Accomplishment Stories

#497: How to Land Your Ideal Job by Telling Your Accomplishment Stories

Imagine hitchhiking from Fargo, ND, to work on the Grand Coulee Dam in 1947 with little more than a suitcase and $15 in your pocket.

That’s what our dad, Keith, did as a newly-minted civil engineer following World War II.

One brisk evening on a dirt road outside of Billings, MT, a rancher in his pickup pulled over to Dad’s thumb.

“Get in if you need a ride,” the cowpoke prodded.

As they rumbled down the road he asked, “Where ya headed?”

“Hopefully to work on Grand Coulee Dam,” Keith responded.

“Hmmm,” the driver grunted.

“What?”

“You’re never going to make it,” he said.

I asked Dad how that cowboy’s comment struck him.  He said, “I thought he might be right.”

He wasn’t sure if he was shivering in the passenger seat from the cold or the fortune-teller driving the old Chevy truck.

But he did make it to Coulee City, WA, and spent a couple of years building colossal powerhouses on the northern reaches of the Columbia River.

His career took him to Seattle where he met our mom, Pat.

Pat and Keith wanted a large family, eventually having us seven kids. He knew he needed a better job and more income, maybe even becoming a partner one day.

So, in 1954, he grabbed a handful of index cards, typed out his brief story, and sent it to potential employers.

Keith Howell’s original cover letter that launched his career as a civil engineer.

Luckily for us, Keith festooned one of his “terse” cover letters to his den wall for posterity.

I find it interesting that he innately used an ABT as the framework of his short story.

And even back in 1954, he was sensitive to the time and attention of his prospective employer: “I’ve chosen this terse method of contacting you in order to save time.”

That cover letter landed him a job with a construction company that became Constructors PAMCO, where he was co-owner and president until he retired in 1985.

This short story written to time-restricted employers launched his epic construction career.

It’s no different in 2025, according to our guest, Amanda Miller, Your Career Advocate.

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#494: How to Make Culture Change Easy Using Your Stories

#494: How to Make Culture Change Easy Using Your Stories

What if you could finally create the perfect culture for your organization—the one where everyone’s on the same page and firing on all cylinders?

If everyone truly aligned with your vision, then collaboration would flow, innovation would thrive, and success would feel…well, almost effortless.

But here’s the rub: culture change isn’t a quick fix. It’s an ongoing adventure—like herding feral cats through whitewater rapids in a rubber raft (fun to imagine, not so fun to do).

That’s where your stories come in. By sharing them, you keep the momentum alive, rally your team, and make the whole process a little easier (and dare we say, more fun).

Jamie Notter, founder of PROPEL and co-author of Culture Change Made Easy: See Your Hidden Workplace Patterns and Get Unstuck, is your go-to guide for this wild ride.

With 20+ years of consulting experience, Jamie has turned messy workplace cultures into powerhouses of productivity and innovation. His four hit business books have helped countless leaders ditch outdated management and embrace the “future of work.”

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495: How to Reframe Your Personal Brand Story With the Vital Framework

495: How to Reframe Your Personal Brand Story With the Vital Framework

You hear it a lot: crafting an authentic personal brand story is crucial.

It helps align your personal and professional pursuits, enabling you to achieve success in both areas and maintain a life of fulfillment and connection.

But many entrepreneurs fail to integrate their true selves into their brand, leading to misaligned priorities in their business, burnout, and strained relationships at home.

By embracing your unique identity and following frameworks like those shared by Katie Richardson on today’s show, you can create a business that thrives without sacrificing the health and happiness of your family.

Katie built a multi-million dollar international company called Puj with distribution in 2,000 stores in the US and 26 countries.

She sold it for a fortune only after it nearly cost Katie her health and family. (more…)

#494: Speaking Secrets to Dramatically Increase the Impact of Your Stories

#494: Speaking Secrets to Dramatically Increase the Impact of Your Stories

One of the most rewarding periods in my career was when I was a Professor of Storytelling in Arizona State University’s Executive Masters for Sustainability Leadership Program.

For five years, I taught storytelling to executives worldwide in iconic brands that included American Express, Philips Electronics, and Cummins.

My promise to each student was to help them own any room with their stories: from the boardroom to the break room to the chat room to the living room.

But I cautioned them that storytelling isn’t enough. That story loses its importance if you deliver it with a boring, resting business face.

To connect, you want to tell your stories with the kinetic energy of oral pacing, non-verbal cues, and using your environment like a stage, even if you’re stuck on ZOOM.

Communication and speaking coaching, Laurie Schloff, co-author of Smart Speaking: 60-Second Strategies for More Than 100 Speaking Problems and Fears, shows you her speaking tips and techniques to help you own any room.

Even Oprah tapped Laurie for a guest appearance to teach her audience how to use their whole being to become an impactful leader and speaker.

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