Business of Story

Why This Episode Matters This milestone 550th episode brings the Business of Story full circle to its foundational inspiration: Joseph Campbell and the Hero's Journey. Host Park Howell interviews John Bucher, PhD, Executive Director of the Joseph Campbell Foundation, revealing why the Hero's Journey is more than a story framework - it's a neurological blueprint for business success. What You'll Di...

What good is reach if you don't have resonance? In this transformative episode of Business of Story, host Park Howell sits down with Jay Acunzo to explore why clarity isn't enough for brand stories and how to transform expertise into influential public voice through premise development. --- ABOUT JAY ACUNZO --- Jay Acunzo is an author, speaker, and public speaking coach who helps experts become st...

Miles Spencer's SoulTech platform brings loved ones' voices back from just 10 seconds of audio, transforming grief into connection through interactive AI conversations. Discover how Reflekta created the Soul Technology category, why spontaneous conversations beat static videos 10x, and what happened when Miles heard "Tiger" eight years after his father passed. Show Notes : You know those moments w...

What if working LESS is the smartest business growth strategy for 2026? Michael Walsh went three years without a vacation—grinding relentlessly, believing scaling required personal sacrifice. Then his wife forced him to take time off. The result? He generated $10,000 in new sales—more than any previous week. He tested further, taking the last week of every month off. His income kept growing. After...

Discover why 80% of new ideas fail—even with perfect execution—and how to test market desirability before wasting time and money. Alberto Savoia, Google's first Director of Engineering who launched AdWords, reveals the pretotyping method he developed as Google's Innovation Agitator. Learn the XYZ hypothesis for turning fuzzy ideas into testable assertions, the YODA framework for collecting data th...

Damon Lembi is a 3x bestselling author, the host of The Learn-It-All Podcast, and CEO of Learnit – a live learning platform that has upskilled over 2 million people. Drawing from his more than 30 years in the learning industry, Damon brings invaluable insights into what helps organizations grow, how great leaders learn, and why learn-it-all companies outpace their competitors every time. It's all...

Are your leadership meetings killing engagement with PowerPoint bullets and 45-item agendas while your team's eyes glaze over? You're stuck in what Park Howell calls the "voice vacuum"—and there's a stupidly simple way out. Julie Lancaster, founder of Lancaster Leadership and author of Beyond Words: How Our Stories & Strategies Inspire Action, reveals the REST method that's helped her team coach o...

Shagen Ganason, author of The Storyteller's Ledger, is the Chief Audit Executive at Liva Group SAOG, and shares how to use storytelling to give memorable and enlightening context to your data and how you deliver it in your reports to create powerful meaning for your audiences that moves them to action, turning the typical adversarial role of an auditor into one of an advocate to help people excel...

Drew McLellan, CEO of the Agency Management Institute, and author of the latest Agency Edge Research Report: Leading through the AI Revolution: The New Competitive Edge for Agencies, reveals the impact AI is having on clients and agencies and why agency principals and marketing consultants should be AI leaders to create a timely competitive edge. Craft your brilliant brand story strategy in minute...

Are you a CMO or marketing leader struggling to connect scattered AI experiments into a powerful, credible brand story? In this episode of the Business of Story, Park Howell welcomes Joeri Billast—international marketing strategist and host of the "Web3 CMO Stories" podcast—to reveal how top brands transition from fragmented AI efforts to systematic, story-driven success. You'll discover: The diff...

Jason Leong, co-founder and CEO of Pocketsmith, personal finance software serving 190 countries, reveals how viewing your financial future as a narrative instead of numbers transforms anxiety into confidence. Discover the 'time machine for money' concept, 30-year forecasting technology, the household CFO positioning that reframes bill payers as financial heroes, and customer stories including the...

In this Business of Story episode, Park Howell interviews Femi Oke, distinguished international journalist with 30-plus years at BBC, CNN, NPR, and Al Jazeera, and co-founder of Moderate the Panel. Femi shares professional moderating techniques including how she stopped a president mid-speech at the United Nations, ninja methods for redirecting verbose speakers, re-engagement tactics for drifting...

Mark Schaefer, author of How AI Changes Your Customers, discussing research from 300 global futurists on artificial intelligence's impact on customer behavior, marketing strategy, and business success through 2035. Learn the dual content strategy for optimizing both AI algorithms and human connection. Craft your brilliant brand story strategy in minutes, not months, and instantly create compelling...

In Business of Story Episode 530, Park Howell interviews Greg Logan, author of Creating a Blockbuster Brand and founder of Narrativity, who's worked with companies like Google and Adobe to transform brand storytelling. Greg reveals Hollywood's 27 Genres framework that aligns brand stories with audience emotional reality through classical storytelling wisdom with modern technological precision. Dis...

Jen Moss is the Co-Founder and Chief Creative Officer of JAR Podcast Solutions, a leading branded podcast agency working with clients like Amazon, lululemon, Cirque du Soleil, Wharton, and Deloitte. A former radio producer, journalist, and award-winning writer, Jen brings decades of storytelling experience to every show she touches. She's worked with CBC, Roundhouse Radio, and the National Film Bo...

Alane Boyd, Co-CEO of Biggest Goal (Workday Ninja),   explores how to avoid burnout, reach mental clarity, and increase lifetime value of your clients with better, scalable systems through automation. Craft your brilliant brand story strategy in minutes, not months, and instantly create compelling content that converts customers with the StoryCycle Genie™ #StoryOn! ≈Park

Kyle Gray is a world-class presentation coach, story strategist and author who helps coaches, startups and executives use storytelling to better communicate their unique value, and improve sales with their audience. He combines timeless storytelling with cutting edge marketing to ensure you've got the right story to tell while presenting, on a sales call or in conversation, both online and offline...

Alice Heiman, Chief Sales Energizer, shares why random acts of AI, using Ai for the sake of AI, is stalling your sales and how a real human-centric strategy first approach will always win out over artificial intelligence.   Craft your brilliant brand story strategy in minutes, not months, and instantly create compelling content that converts customers with the StoryCycle Genie™ #StoryOn! ≈Park

Laura Ries is a world-famous brand marketing expert, positioning strategist, and bestselling author of THE STRATEGIC ENEMY (Wiley, Sept 16, 2025). As chairwoman of global consulting firm RIES, she continues the legacy of her late father Al Ries, the positioning pioneer and co-author of Positioning: The Battle for Your Mind – one of the world's best-selling marketing books of all time. Laura has le...

Sara Nay, CEO of Duct Tape Marketing and Author of Unchained, Breaking Free From Broken Marketing Models , shows you how to stop renting your marketing from ad agencies and own it yourself through a new trend that is saving money and growing revenue for small to medium-sized businesses. Craft your brilliant brand story strategy in minutes, not months, and instantly create compelling content that c...

Nick Francis, Founder and CEO of Casual Films and author of The New Fire: Harness the Power of Video for Your Business , is driven by an insight from famous WWII photojournalist, Robert Capa, who said, "If your photos aren't good enough, you're not close enough." The same is true with your corporate videos. If you're not connecting with your customers, you're not close enough to their story. In th...

Dr. Robin:, Business Psychologist, Emotional Intelligence Trainer, Coach and Facilitator at EI4Change, explores how artificial intelligence is a force multiplier of emotional intelligence enabling you to make a great impact in the world with your chosen profession. Craft your brilliant brand story strategy in minutes, not months, and instantly create compelling content that converts customers with...

Park Howell, co-creator of the StoryCycle Genie™ and author of Brand Bewitchery, walks you through the 10 essential story elements that help your create a captivating brand narrative strategy in minutes, not months. Click here to start crafting yoru vibrant brand story strategy today: https://www.storycyclegenie.ai/ Story on!

Sean Schroeder and Park Howell, co-creators of the StoryCycle Genie™ with Matt Levine, introduce the five revolutionary principles of Vibe Branding and how to leverage your business intuition to craft vibrant brand stories, brilliant marketing strategy and compelling content that converts all based on your business and customer knowledge and experience. Craft your brilliant brand story strategy in...

John Whitt, Founder & President of Businesswhitt, and author of Checkmate: Winning Tactics for Translating Ideas into Money , shares why generosity is the key to building a business that serves your life and others. Craft your brilliant brand story strategy in minutes, not months, and instantly create compelling content that converts customers with the StoryCycle Genie™ #StoryOn! ≈Park