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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#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.
#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.
#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.
#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.
#476: How to Build Community and Collaboration Through the Stories You Tell
#476: How to Build Community and Collaboration Through the Stories You Tell
Have you ever started a business?
Or maybe you were responsible for launching a new initiative or enterprise within a large organization.
Either way, you probably hit one roadblock after another.
You filled your tanks with the passion to make the endeavor successful.
But the universe had different plans for you. And it just seemed like it delighted in punching you in the nose at every turn.
Sounds like the life of an entrepreneur, huh?
Today you will hear from someone I believe is an entrepreneurial phenom, Jenny Poon.
Like a jiu-jitsu black belt, Jenny grappled with every setback and turned that energy to her favor not just helping her start-ups, but countless other small businesses.
I think you’ll be as enamored with her business-building spirit as I am.
#475: 3 Ways to Find Your Funny in Your Business Storytelling
#475: 3 Ways to Find Your Funny in Your Business Storytelling
You may be like the Walmart Canada leader who asked me about when to interject humor in your business presentations.
Studies show that using humor in your business stories and presentations boosts your credibility at work. Some people suggest…
“Teams that grin together win together.”
According to the Harvard Business Review, in one experiment, presenters who used humor were rated as more confident and competent than those who gave joke-free talks.
Even if they used just one joke. Even if it wasn’t a knee-slapper.
But are you, like many professionals, reluctant to be funny because you fear looking silly or that your joke(s) may not land right?
Now you can learn how to tickle the funny bone of your audiences as gifted comedian and TV showrunner Marta Ravin, Founder of Marta Ravin Productions, joins us to show you three ways to find your funny with your business storytelling.
#474: How to Create a Customer-Centric, Go-To-Market Strategy With Your Brand Storytelling
#474: How to Create a Customer-Centric, Go-To-Market Strategy With Your Brand Storytelling
You’ve heard me say this often, “You, your brand, and your product or service are NOT the center of your business story. Your customer is. Always.”
This is the drumbeat of customer-centric brand storytelling.
Story Truth #2 is that your brand story is not about what you make, but what you make happen in your customer’s life.
Outcomes trump offerings everytime in your business storytelling.
But what if your sales and marketing team are at odds on how to tell your story?
Marketing leans into hyperbole with messages all about your wonder widget.
Sales, on the other hand, push features and benefits selling when what your prospects really want is the emotional pull of a solution story.
Phillip Swan, Managing Partner at Pi Partners and supporting the family business as the Chief Revenue Officer (CRO) at LingoAid, shares how to create gripping go-to-market strategies using customer-centric storytelling that builds affinity moving your audience to action.
#473: Why Building Trust With Your Storytelling is the Best Medicine
#473: Why Building Trust With Your Storytelling is the Best Medicine
When you see a loved one in the hospital, is your first inclination to race to their echocardiogram and review their charts?
Or do you spring to their bedside, clasp their hand, and ask how they’re feeling?
We all naturally gravitate to their story, not their data. We leave that up to the docs to translate and explain their findings later.
But first, their story.
Our guest today, Dr. Jessica Vogelsang, is a veterinarian and Chief Medical Officer of the American Animal Hospital Association (AAHA). She’s also an international speaker and bestselling author of All Dogs Go to Kevin.
As you will hear, Dr. Vogelsang is a huge proponent of storytelling in evidenced-based practices like pet and human healthcare.
#472: What’s the Point in Telling Your Story?
#472: What’s the Point in Telling Your Story?
I was sitting in a Tucson hotel conference room watching his PowerPoint presentation when I thought a 3D pterodactyl would leap from his deck and chomp off my head.
The “He” I am referring to was a brilliant social scientist from Phoenix presenting to a group of nonprofits about nutrition deserts in, well, the desert.
At least that’s what I think his big idea was because he was so obtuse about the needs of his audience that he never got to his point.
His slides were so crammed with numbers, charts, lines, and scribbles that it occurred to me that they were busier than an Autosterogram.
That’s a big word for those two-dimensional images that when you stare at them they create an optical illusion revealing a three-dimensional image.
That’s when my exhausted brain chuckled at the idea of a 3D dinosaur emerging from his intricate maze of detailed data.
Maybe he was the dinosaur in the room rendering his message extinct by the meteor of metrics he projected on us.
Another brilliant mind mired in his message. So sad.
“What IS HIS POINT?” I still wonder.
Francisco Mahfuz, a National Champion Speaker and Storytelling Coach joins us today to ensure this doesn’t happen to you or me.
#471: How to Make Your Stories Stronger by Calculating Your “But-to-And” Ratio
#471: How to Make Your Stories Stronger by Calculating Your “But-to-And” Ratio
Leonardo da Vinci said, “Simplicity is the ultimate sophistication.”
Albert Einstein said, “The definition of genius is taking the complex and making it simple,’”
But in the business world, we tend to over-complicate everything.
Especially our communications.
We find ourselves in “And Land.” And, and, and’ing our audiences to death-by-boredom.
Now you can test how clear, concise and compelling your communication is by using a tool developed by today’s guest, Dr. Randy Olson, my co-author of The Narrative Gym for Business.
If you don’t know Randy, he is a Harvard Evolutionary Biologist turned filmmaker, author and teacher of the ABT (And, But, Therefores) narrative framework.
For the past eight years, Randy has been using a tool called The Narrative Index to quantify the power of a particular communication by measuring the “But-to-And” ratio in its content.
He developed it to prove the power of the ABT in speeches dating back decades.
The higher the score (meaning replacing “ands” with “buts” and “therefore” to propel the narrative forward) the more compelling the communication is compared to thousands of competing speeches, articles, and presentations.
