Jane McCarthy

#488: How to Discover Your Brand’s Authentic Feminine Archetype

Early in my career, I was taught to ask my customers insipid questions like: If your brand was a dog, what kind of dog would it be?

What kind of car reflects your personality? How about a drink? Are you a cocktail? A beer? Diet soda? Energy drink?

This accepted branding process never sat well with me.

From all our insightful exploration, we have determined that your brand is a five-year-old green golden doodle named Hazel that drives an Audi Q3, enjoys Manhattaans, reads Vogue and Outisde magazines, and gives her Nordstrom personal shopper birthday presents.

Seriously, man, that was nuts. This put me on a quest for a more authentic exploration, which led to my discovery of brand archetyping.

Here at last I found a foolproof way of sculpting and authenticating a brand’s distinctive, enticing personality.

It is important to understand your brand personality because it informs the creative expression of your communications.

How do you currently look, sound, and feel to your customers? Are you a Ruler brand like American Express, a Creator personality like Lego or Ikea, a Regular Guy/Gal persona like Charles Schwab, a Caregiver identity like Oprah and her OWN Network, or do you represent the character of the Hero archetype like Patagonia?

The above is an excerpt from Chapter 6 of Brand Bewitchery, on how to identify your personal and professional brand.

But my guest takes exception to the idea of using the 12 Jungian archetypes to define your brand personality.

She says they are too masculine and don’t address feminine archetypes found in most brands.

Jane McCarthy is a brand strategist with over a decade of experience in advertising.

She has collaborated with global and local brands in a variety of categories, working with brands like SweeTarts, Southern California Edison, and Boys & Girls Clubs of America.

Jane’s emphasis is on leveraging archetypes to unlock a brand’s true essence and power.

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Sean Grace

#487: How to Ask Better Questions and What Happens When You Don’t

Have you ever been in a collaborative exercise and, with all good intentions, peppered your team member with pertinent questions in hopes of finding an innovative solution?

But you got nowhere? Maybe your questions were off-putting to the person you were working with.

Maybe they even answered your questions to the best of their ability but you got the right answers to the wrong questions.

What if the first question(s) you would be asking is of yourself? Questioning your beliefs, biases, and even your neuroses that color the character of questions you ask of others.

Your answer might be Sean Grace. He is a communication consultant, coach, and speaker, with over 25 years of experience developing and training sales, marketing, and leadership talent across diverse industries.

Sean just published his new book: The Art of The Question: Better Decisions, Deeper Connections, Breakthrough Ideas.

His unique brand of business consulting is forged from his long career in media, advertising, and the creative arts.

Sean studied music performance at the Juilliard School and SUNY Purchase, and finance at Wharton.

As an award-winning musician and multi-instrumentalist, he borrows techniques from jazz improvisation to help foster creative collaboration and cooperation within and across teams.

Sean’s track record of success as a consultant and coach has earned him a reputation as a trusted advisor and trainer to some of the world’s most innovative and successful organizations.

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Dr. Marshall Goldsmith

#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

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

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

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

#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

Paul Morton

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