Jeff Dudan

#384: Aligning Your Organizational/Life Purpose With Storytelling

#384: Aligning Your Organizational/Life Purpose With Storytelling

How well is your life purpose aligned with what you and your people value in your business?

How well does your brand reflect what you stand for in the world? Marketing pundits say that more and more customers are evaluating a business’s positive impact on the planet – its brand purpose – before they buy.

You’ll learn the power of aligning your purpose and values and how to tell that story.

Jeff Dudan is the Chairman and CEO of Homefront Brands, a platform of property service franchisors. He believes that the success of their franchisees strengthens the foundation of our economy, provides stability in the lives of our franchise operators, and expands the reach and relevance of the franchise industry sector, which reflects their purpose statement: Homefront Brands exist to inspire entrepreneurs to take action and positively impact communities, franchisees, employees, and families.

Jeff authored his latest book Discernment: The Business Athletes Regimen for a Great Life through Better Decisions. He is a Forbes contributor, speaker, and consultant to emerging brands as well as serving YPO as Chapter Chair of the Southeast Regional US Chapter.

Jeff’s journey as an entrepreneur began as a college athlete who founded a business to paint student housing. After graduation, he assisted South Florida in recovering from Hurricane Andrew, which led to the launch of AdvantaClean in 1994. As a leading national restoration franchise, AdvantaClean became a strategic partner with St. Jude’s Children’s Hospital to support families in need. In January 2019, AdvantaClean was acquired by Home Franchise Concepts (HFC).

Jeff’s family values include:

Live fun. Be humble. Respect others. Trust yourself to take chances and fail fast. Always do more than is expected. Never panic.

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Paul Zak

#383: How to Measure the Emotional Impact of Your Business Storytelling

#383: How to Measure the Emotional Impact of Your Business Storytelling

You’ve been listening to The Business of Story – maybe even some of you for seven years – and you’ve grown as a confident and compelling communicator.

But how do you know your storytelling is actually working? Hitting the mark? Moving prospects, customers and your people emotionally. Exciting them to action?

You’re getting a lot of thumbs-ups and likes and smiling emojis, but are they translating into sales? And by sales, I mean anything that you are trying to get your audience to *buy into*, including your product or service, your vision, your mission, and your way of doing things.

Today’s guest believes he has the answer using a Fitbit, iPhone or any digital device that monitors your nervous system and therefore the emotional impact of your stories.

Dr. Paul Zak, author of the new book, Immersion: The Science of the Extraordinary and the Source of Happiness, is a Professor at Claremont Graduate University. Paul is in the top 0.3% of most cited scientists. A four-time tech entrepreneur, his most recent company Immersion Neuroscience is a software platform that allows anyone to measure what the brain loves in real-time to improve outcomes in entertainment, education and training, advertising and live events.

He is a regular TED speaker and has appeared on Good Morning America, Dr. Phil, Fox & Friends, ABC Evening News, with his work covered by The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, USA Today, Time, The Economist, Scientific American, Fast Company, Forbes, and many others.

Paul is the author of The Moral Molecule: The Source of Love and Prosperity and his new book, Immersion: The Science of the Extraordinary and the Source of Happiness.

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Brandon Bornancin

#382: How to Use Failure as Fuel to Ignite Your Business Storytelling

#382: How to Use Failure as Fuel to Ignite Your Business Storytelling

Growing up in a difficult family financial situation was the impetus for Brandon Bornancin’s success. His mom worked at a grocery store and bank with no college degree. His dad worked at Macy’s. No college degree.

They lived off coupon clippings and bought their clothes at thrift stores before that was cool.

He and his sister were taken to endless garage sales to furnish their home.

His first job as a teenager was as a high school janitor working from 4 am to whenever the jog of scraping gum off the bottom of desks took.

Then he was introduced to sales in his second job at a call center for $7.50 per hour plus commission to get people to donate to the fire and police departments. That’s when he first recognized the power of storytelling to persuade and move people to action.

“Viewing everything as a positive opportunity. Life happens for you not to you,” is one of Brandon’s focuses.

The power of positivity will change your whole mindset.

Brandon grew his multi-million-dollar sales career but at the expense of time with his family. So he automated his sales prospecting with his new platform called Seamless.AI

Author of Whatever it Takes: Master the Habits to Transform Your Business, Your Relationships, And Life, Brandon is the #1 best-selling author of 3 books, a serial salesperson (sold over $100M in sales), eight-figure entrepreneur (2x), and motivational speaker who is obsessed with helping you maximize your success.

He wrote Whatever it Takes for his 500 employees at Seamless.AI. It was so successful with his people that they suggested he release it to the world.

On today’s show, Brandon shares the top three habits you can change to make your life and career easier and more profitable, because as he says, “Life if f’ing short!”

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Kyle Porter

#381: How to Scale Your Storytelling With Measurable Success Metrics

#381: How to Scale Your Storytelling With Measurable Success Metrics

I met today’s guest, Kyle Porter, while being in a panel discussion with him, Tamsen Webster and Miri Rodriquez on the Christine Gritmon Social Media Pulse podcast.

I was impressed with Kyle’s background and how he learned to use storytelling in his brand work, especially the use of The Hero’s Journey. We all follow this monomythic structure that shapes our epic and mundane life events popularized by America’s foremost mythologist Joseph Campbell.

How to Use the Story Cycle System™ to craft spellbinding stories for your brand.

But if you’re not paying attention to where you are while on your Hero’s Journey, then you may find yourself lost.

Today we talk about how you can use this mythic story structure to scale your storytelling and measure your achievements along the way.

Kyle Porter is Conklin Media’s Director of Strategy out of Atlanta, Georgia. He’s responsible for organizing the overall direction of client campaigns, making sure that clients are able to meet their business goals and coordinating the work that each of our departments do on client projects.

Kyle uses storytelling frameworks to not only ensure the organizations he represents are on the right path to success, but to build the trusted bonds and relationships we all need to succeed.

“You have to take the time to show people that they’re important to you,” he says. “It’s the little things you do day after day that really build that strong foundation.”

For Kyle, the North Star is always making sure that clients get a clear return on their investment. He believes that we have an obligation to be clear about the business results we’re getting and the value that we’re providing.

Outside of work, Kyle loves to hang out with his kids, take his wife on dates, play with his dogs, and hit the gym. He’s also a big Georgia Bulldogs football fan and an avid reader (mostly marketing books with some epic fantasy mixed in too).

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Melissa Kwan

#380: How to Make Your Sales Story Land Right the First Time

#380: How to Make Your Sales Story Land Right the First Time

If you’re using proven storytelling structures like the ABT (And, But, Therefore) agile narrative framework, then your messages are clearer and have a much greater speed to impact.

But do you feel like you’re wasting time sharing the same sales story, onboarding session or training over and over again? Even though you have your story straight, you are getting bored telling it.

Today’s guest had the same problem as she found herself burning valuable time hosting the same webinar countless times. It was eating at her freedom to do the things she really loved. So she did something about it.

Melissa is the co-founder and CEO of eWebinar, an automated webinar solution that combines pre-recorded video with real-time interactions and live chat to deliver an engaging experience for attendees.

eWebinar is the byproduct of Melissa living in “webinar hell” for five years in her previous startup. By automating her storytelling, over 2,000 people have joined the eWebinar demo on their own time in the last 10 months, 25% converted (signed up for free trial) on their own without talking to a soul.

She believes that the power of storytelling can be scaled once you nail that pitch 🙂

“As a startup founder, all I do is tell stories every day. Stories to inspire my cofounder, my team, and my customers. One of the things I do best is to sell something that doesn’t exist yet and to get a business going from 0 to 1, and that’s all storytelling,” Melissa said.

• A lot of times, what you are saying is not what’s being heard. The best salespeople know how to align the two
• By using a framework to tell your story, you can guide people to your desired outcome
• Nobody is born a great salesperson, sales is a science which means anyone can get really good at it

Melissa spent 10 years with two startups (eWebinar is her third) and for eight of those 10 years, she struggled to get things going.

“There were many times that I could have and should have failed, but I kept pushing through and luckily, my previous startup was acquired in 2019. Going through those 10 years was almost like going through 10 years of school, which has given me the knowledge and experience to do what I do today.,” she said.

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Kari Nelson

#379: How to Humanize Your Hi-Tech Storytelling for Growth

#379: How to Humanize Your Hi-Tech Storytelling for Growth

You may or may not be in the tech world but you have a complex story to tell.

If you can connect on deep level with your prospects resonating with how you can make their life easier, better and more profitable, then the world is truly your oyster.

But you’re probably not connecting because you’re leading with logic and reason when what your audience really wants is the emotional pull of a story.

Today’s show is for you to show you how to turn your technical jargon, features, functions, and data into an emotional drama that will ignite your sales.

Kari Nelson is the Marketing Director, Construction Division, MEP (Mechanical, Electrical and Plumbing Engineering) for Trimble, Inc.,

Founded in 1978, Trimble is a Sunnyvale, California-based software, hardware, and services technology company that supports global industries in building & construction, agriculture, geospatial, natural resources and utilities, governments, transportation and others.

Kari’s background and expertise have focused on numerous digital transformation technologies, including servers, storage, networking, professional services, software, virtualization, ITaaS, and now construction management software.

Before joining Trimble, Kari was at Cherwell Software and spent over 15 years with Hewlett Packard Enterprise.

As an innovative and collaborative marketing executive with 15+ years’ experience in IT infrastructure (ITaaS), services, and software (SaaS) sectors, Kari generates winning, cohesive marketing strategies, prove their value, and then makes them happen—building and leading dedicated teams along the way.

Storytelling is the magic she uses to ensure “it’s all about the customer, all the time,” and thereby connect with buyers and improve customer engagement.

The B2B marketing programs Kari has created include content marketing, value proposition design, customer journey mapping, product marketing, competitive positioning, sales enablement, social media, website design, messaging, marketing technology,  and analytics.

Career highlights include:

• Led cross-organizational initiatives. Designed demand generation campaigns that contributed to a boost in the $7+ billion sales pipeline attributed to marketing by inventing storytelling methodology that simplified creation and placement of content across multiple social and digital channels, leading to deeper target audience engagement and capture of new accounts.
• Empowered sales to sell integrated portfolio. Attained $200 million rise in server gross revenue by training 3,000+ resellers worldwide on solution selling for a suite of server, storage, networking, and services through 30 training events and six eLearning sessions translated into 14 languages.
• Aligned marketing and sales. Led effort to identify customer value drivers and distill company differentiators, and then evangelize these through seller training and tools, as well as create and promote new digital content across the Buyer’s Journey. (more…)

Daniel Nestle

#378: How to Define Your Brand Niche Using the ABT

#378: How to Define Your Brand Niche Using the ABT

When someone asks you what you do, what do you tell them?

What is your personal brand story? What is the brand narrative for your offering?

When you nail your brand story, it’s concise (essentially a one-floor elevator pitch), crystal clear (your audience can’t help but get you), and compelling (it moves people to action, even if that is just asking for more details about you and your offering).

But defining your brand story is hard, unless you have a proven framework to use that clarifies your story, amplifies your impact, and simplifies your life.

Today’s guest, Daniel Nestle, learned first-hand on our show how to clarify the brand story for his amazing podcast, The Dan Nestle Show.

Dan, Leader, Communications & Corporate Responsibility at LIXIL Americas, is a global communications and marketing wizard with nearly two decades in the B2B services, manufacturing, finance, and education sectors. He specializes in digital communications, integrated marketing communications, content marketing, social media strategy, and brand storytelling.

Prior to joining LIXIL, Dan served as Vice President, Marketing and Communications at Mitsubishi Heavy Industries America, Inc. where he helped establish the global marketing communications team for this 130-year-old Japanese industrial conglomerate.

Prior to his roles with Mitsubishi Heavy, Dan held senior roles at Edelman and at AICPA. Earlier in his career, Dan spent 16 years living and working in Japan. He holds a Masters in Internet Marketing as well as a BA in International Relations. An active content creator, in 2020 he launched his bi-weekly podcast, The Dan Nestle Show, but is finally understanding how to frame his brand story.

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Darius Holbert

#377: How Music Composers Use Story Structure to Captivate Listeners

#377: How Music Composers Use Story Structure to Captivate Listeners

In January 2012, three young filmmakers who were recent graduates of Chapman University’s film school, released their film called Oh, The Places You’ll Go at Burning Man.

The film was the brainchild of Teddy Saunders and co-directed, shot and produced by Will Walsh and our son Parker Howell.

The seven-minute film blew up on YouTube and was one of the first films to capture the Burning Man experience through the eyes and dialogue of burners.

While the colorful characters capture the individuality and artistry of the annual gathering in the Black Rock Desert of northwestern Nevada, the soundtrack brings the film to life.

Today, the film’s composer, Darius Holbert, shares how to create more depth and impact with your storytelling.

Darius is an award-winning composer of music for film, TV, and new media.

I learned that music was originally added to early films to “drown out the sounds of the projector”. In his storied music career, Darius has drowned out some of the best of them.

Darius has written scores for such film and TV luminaries as Robin Williams, James Franco and JJ Abrams. He has scored a number of award-winning films at Sundance, Tribeca, LA Film Fest, winning “Best Original Score” at NYC’s Moondance Festival and “Best Score” at the Los Angeles Film Awards.

His work has been featured in hundreds of hit TV shows like American Horror Story, Grey’s Anatomy, American Idol, and Better Call Saul, and in a multitude of video games and commercials.

Darius has appeared on TV shows like the Tonight Show, The Ellen Show, and Fox Good Day.

Darius studied at University College London and the University of North Texas. He has been commissioned to compose operas, modern dance pieces, large-scale concert and chamber works. He has worked for major record labels in production and artist development.

He’s played in front of 100,000s of people at festivals all over the globe, and a million little honky-tonks throughout the American South. He appears on numerous records from various projects, including five albums from his critically acclaimed solo project “DARIUSTX.”

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Steve Rawling

#376: The Three Business Storytelling Habits You’ll Want to Break

#376: The Three Business Storytelling Habits You’ll Want to Break

You tell stories as a business, sales or marketing leader because you know how they connect and build your influence.

But we all default to bad storytelling habits, like telling instead of showing. Leading with NUMBers instead of drama to place your data into context. Or worse…

Today, you’ll learn from a former BBC journalist, Steve Rawling, author of the new Storytelling Tactics card deck, which bad business storytelling habits to look out for and how to overcome them.

Steve is now an international business storytelling consultant. He helps designers, entrepreneurs and academics tell great stories about their work. Steve reckons he has told over 20,000 stories in his career – so can probably help you tell yours.

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Mark Lachance

#375: How to Make Your Own Luck With the Right Storytelling Formula

#375: How to Make Your Own Luck With the Right Storytelling Formula

What if I told you that luck in business is not a fluke but a formula?

I+E+A=Luck.

And what if you could trigger that aspirational algorithm the moment you step out of bed?

But you’re probably thinking, “Whoa, Park is getting pretty woo woo.”

You might change your mind after engaging with our guest this week, Mark Lachance, author of The Lucky Formula: How to Stack The Odds In Your Favor And Cash In On Success.

He knows a thing or two about luck after being mired in a deep, dark hole and reframing his story of success by triggering luck in his life.

Mark is currently the CEO and lead investor of Maxy Media Inc., one of the largest TikTok, Facebook, Snapchat, and Google Display Network performance marketing agencies in the world. Currently, Maxy Media is the number one advertiser in terms of monthly spend on the TikTok platform in Canada and top ten in North America.

In 2016, Mark successfully sold EVO Payments International Canada, an end-to-end payment solutions provider and merchant acquirer that he founded in 2009. He guided the company from its inception with one employee to over 200 colleagues across Canada.

Prior to founding EVO, Mark was one of the founding members and president of VersaPay Inc, a payments solutions provider, which was taken public in 2010. Before joining VersaPay, Mark was a founding member of Pivotal Payments, which is now a multi-billion-dollar public company. He helped set the foundation and drive the company’s sales and revenues before his triumphant exit from the company in 2006.

Mark has made several other highly successful investments in various industries such as payments, cryptocurrencies, marketing, nutrition, fitness, and sports. Over the past twenty-five years, he has invested in and consulted for dozens of other ventures, which have resulted in highly positive returns.

In his new book, Mark asks readers to look around them. Most people are waiting for something. A lucky break? Random chance? The reason is irrelevant, but the flaw of waiting is still fatal.

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