The Business of Story Podcast with Host Park Howell

Feedspot.com just named the Business of Story the #1 business storytelling podcast for 2022.

Hosted by Park Howell, known as the world’s most industrious storyteller, the Business of Story is ranked among the top 10% of downloaded podcasts internationally.

The goal of the show is to help sales and marketing leaders excel through the stories they tell.  Each episode brings you the brightest storytelling content creators, advertising creatives, authors, screenwriters, makers, marketers, and brand raconteurs that show you how to craft and tell compelling stories that sell. #StoryOn!

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Dr. Marshall Goldsmith

#486: Dr. Marshall Goldsmith: How to Live the Earned Life

#486: Dr. Marshall Goldsmith: How to Live the Earned Life

When the time is right to do something, you just know it, don’t you?

My dad, Keith, grew up in North Dakota during the Depression.

One Christmas when he was a boy he got just one present: a pair of mittens knitted by his aunt Dora.

He said it was the best present he had ever received given that there was ice on the inside of the windows in his home.

Following WWII, Keith became a successful civil engineer and president of Constructors PAMCO in Seattle.

Long after he comfortably retired, a new, expensive restaurant called The Barking Frog opened near my mom and dad’s home.

Dad told me it was something like $250 for a seven-course meal. He was curious about it.

But he had never splurged on anything that expensive until one day he did.

We were talking on the phone when he mentioned that he’d taken Mom to the Barking Frog for dinner.

Surprised, I asked him why he suddenly decided to indulge themselves.

He said, “I woke up that morning, looked in the mirror, and decided to stop saving money for old age.”

He’d earned a seven-course email.

He was living his earned life.

But today’s guest thinks we should all be living our earned life much earlier.

That’s why Dr. Marshall Goldsmith, considered by many the #1 executive coach in the world, wrote The Earned Life: Lose Regret, Choose Fulfillment.

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Fran Mallace

#485: How to Build A Positive Company Culture With Your Storytelling

I recently produced a Business of Story training for the Board of Directors and team members of the Make-A-Wish Foundation, the global nonprofit founded in Arizona in 1980 that now has 59 chapters throughout the United States and operates in about 50 countries.

They do marvelous work granting wishes to critically ill children.

During a break, one of their board members jumped on a call with a prospect and closed a deal using the ABT story structure he had just learned.

Talking about immediate ROI!

Read about six-year-old Luis and his Nintendo wish.

But can the ABT really be that easy? Can it be that effective in such a short amount of time?

Today, Fran Mallace, the President and CEO of Make-A-Wish Arizona, joins us to share how she uses storytelling to build vibrant relationships, grow powerful teams, and build a winning company culture.

And how you can too through the stories you tell.

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Hugo O'Doherty

#484: How to Share Your Brand Story With Those Who Don’t Look Like You

#484: How to Share Your Brand Story With Those Who Don’t Look Like You

When I started working with Moving2Canada on their brand storytelling earlier this year, I realized that their business model can be clearly defined using the ABT (And, But, Therefore) narrative framework.

It goes something like:

As an immigrant, you are eager to start a new life in Canada and if you are confident in the information you need to emigrate, then your move will be fast and easy.

But you’re overwhelmed because the amount of hoops you have to jump through and the waterfall of paperwork you must navigate throughout makes you feel like a stranger in a strange land long before you’ve left your current country.

Therefore, to expedite your immigration and peace of mind, your first move is to Moving2Canada.com where you’ll join hundreds of thousands of immigrants who have relied on this invaluable resource to quickly create a new, prosperous life in Canada.

In fact, I created this GIF that demonstrates their ABT business model.

It’s based on the very simple conversational ABT that underscores the singular Moving2Canada’s problem/solution narrative for immigrants. It goes:

You’re excited about starting a new life in Canada.

But immigration is complicated.

Therefore, make it faster and easier with Moving2Canada.

As you’ll hear Hugo O’Doherty, Director of Partnerships of Moving2 Canada, say a lot, their #1 job is to build trust in the immigrant community by providing timely, accurate and FREE resources to help them make their move as quick and easy as possible.

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Will Barron

#483: How to Fix Your Boring Pitches in Boring Niches

#483: How to Fix Your Boring Pitches in Boring Niches

It’s not surprising that boring rhymes with snoring.

If you, like me, believe that B2B selling shouldn’t mean boring to bored, then this episode is for you

If you’re a B2B sales and marketing pro, then you know how important it is to share your product or service offering in such a way that your prospects can’t wait to become customers.

But your sales aren’t where you want them to be because, well your pitch and your niche might be kind of boring.

Or you’re making it so by how you are trying to sell.

Remember this…

“Boring is in the eye of the beholder.”

You’ll learn today a simple three-step selling framework from master sales trainer, Will Barron of Salesman.com.

Will also wrote Selling Made Simple: Find and Close More Sales Using Proven Step-by-Step Frameworks, showing you how to turn any mediocre sales pitch into a magnificently memorable message as you thwart your arch nemesis of boredom.

I mean, when wast the last time you were bored into buying anything?

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Dave Keil

#482: How to Tell Your Purpose-Driven Brand Story

#482: How to Tell Your Purpose-Driven Brand Story

Imagine that you’re a smart, hard-working entrepreneur who can’t wait to start your own business.

But you’re disillusioned because you don’t have the start-up capital to launch a brand.

Picture a purpose-driven franchise holding company whose mission is to help create franchise opportunities for the disenfranchised.

That’s what today’s guest is all about.

Dave Keil, CEO of Franworth and Beloved Brands and founder of Franchise for Good, shares his journey from working in Fortune 500 companies to the franchise world.

Growing up and moving 15 times taught him the importance of finding his own purpose and being true to himself.

In his career, he learned the power of purpose in driving decision-making that makes a positive impact.

He shares examples of how purpose transformed businesses, such as Ecolab’s focus on saving lives through hand hygiene and Honey Baked Ham’s emphasis on making occasions more special.

Dave also discusses his role at Franworth and the diverse range of purpose-driven brands they work with.

To reflect Franworth’s commitment to helping make franchise opportunities available to the disenfranchised, they are rebranding the company to Beloved Brands.

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#481: Five Stories of Major “Aha!” Moments in Vet. Med. That Heal and Inspire

#481: Five Stories of Major “Aha!” Moments in Vet. Med. That Heal and Inspire

I bet you love what you do and you’ve probably invested tons of time, money and energy to become your customers’ go-to resource.

But you have those dark days too when you question the career track you’re on.

For instance, I recently learned that small animal veterinarians and practitioners are leaving the profession at a startling rate because the pressures of providing healthcare to pets and their human owners have them questioning their stressful career choices.

So I was invited by the American Animal Hospital Association to inspire these critical caregivers to share their stories underscoring the importance of their contributions to society.

We first taught our storytellers how to use the ABT (And, But, Therefore) narrative framework as the foundation for their story.

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David Edelman

#480: How to Ignite Business Growth With AI-Driven Personalized Storytelling

#480: How to Ignite Business Growth With AI-Driven Personalized Storytelling

I’ve been working with artificial intelligence (AI) to develop an app. for the Story Cycle System™ that will help you reduce weeks of discovery, research and development of your brand narrative down to a couple of hours.

But my first forays into AI seemed super impersonal. It was like Spock trying to tell a story that Captain Kirk should be running with.

Then the more I dialed in my prompts, the more interestingly human the output became.

Now, most of our beta testers (mostly marketers and branders) tell me that our process is one of the best uses of AI they’ve seen.

I was surprised because I didn’t think you could get AI in its current pre-pubescent state to deliver personalized brand storytelling.

But I was wrong. You can!

That’s why I was excited to host David Edelman, co-author of the new book PersonAlIzed: Customer Strategy in the Age of AI, to be released in October.

He shares how companies investing in artificial intelligence for greater customer personalization will outperform organizations merely trying to cut costs with AI.

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Paul Morton

#479: How to Craft Effective Leadership Narratives Using the S.O.A.R. Story Structure

#479: How to Craft Effective Leadership Narratives Using the S.O.A.R. Story Structure

Any legitimate storytelling consultant or coach works from proven story structures.

We, of course, train the three-word And, But, Therefore, or ABT framework to make your messages land right the first time, every time.

The ABT leads to the second story structure we teach, the five primal elements of a short story for big impact. These are the elements of compelling anecdotes that make your business points for you.

These two frameworks are used in the 10-step Story Cycle System™ to help transform your presentations and long-form communications into experiences that transport your audience.

Today, you’ll learn the S.O.A.R. story framework developed by our guest, Paul Morton, to craft effective leadership narratives.

He authored the new book, Hidden Tradecraft of Elite Managers: Unveiling Second-Nature Skills for Remarkable Performance.

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Yogi Roth

#478: How a Popular College Football Analyst Became an Emmy-Winning Storyteller

#478: How a Popular College Football Analyst Became an Emmy-Winning Storyteller

I used to get pumped about this time of the year.

Summer is ebbing. Hints of Fall sprinkle through the air.

And it’s the kickoff to NCAA College football.

That was one of my favorite parts until the PAC-12 conference imploded as colleges prostituted themselves for media money.

I’m particularly bitter because my WSU Cougs were left in the dust along with the Oregon State Beavers.

But our guest this week has a different take. As one locker room door closes another one opens.

Yogi Roth, a football analyst who I followed for the past decade on the PAC-12 Network calling games and who is now with the Big-10 Network, joined me to talk about his take on NCAA football.

But more importantly, he details how he has used his talents both on and off the football field to become an EMMY-winning filmmaker and best-selling author including his latest book, 5-STAR QB: It’s Not About the Stars, It’s About the Journey.

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Joy Spencer

#477: Learn the C.R.E.A.T.E. Process to Reframe Your Story Into a Powerful Brand

#477: Learn the C.R.E.A.T.E. Process to Reframe Your Story Into a Powerful Brand

How are you uniquely gifted?

I mean, what do you bring to the world through your curiosity, passion, and talent that no one else can?

And how do you express it through your personal and professional brand stories?

But you might be thinking, “I don’t know. I’m not sure I have a particular ability that people care about.”

Well, you’re not alone because in my experience lots of people tumble through life stumbling over their unique god-given gifts without realizing the impact they could have if they just embraced them.

Our guest today, Joy Spencer, founder of Reframe to Create shares her C.R.E.A.T.E. process. It will help you identify your gifts and share them with the world.

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