Strategic Storytelling

Are you having trouble with branding your business?  Maybe you've gotten tired of the whole process. You wonder if you need to bother with branding at all.  That's because you may be trying to "brand like the big guys."  As a small, service-based business, you can't use the same approach.  You'll learn... ...why big companies use brands like a beach towel (and solopreneurs can't) ...why your brand...

In this episode, I'm joined by Dr. Michelle Mazur, a message strategist and marketing consultant. Her slogain is, "Make marketing suck less." Let's face it: Most of us didn't go into business to be marketers. But it's something we have to do. It will always suck for a lot of people...but she helps make marketing easier and more fun. Storytelling is one of the ways to make marketing more fun. For M...

Business owners, especially those with small businesses that offer professional services, often get advised to, "Make your mess your message."  This is awful advice for marketing. In this packed-tight-with-information episode, I show how sharing your mess can actually harm your business. You will learn: 1 - Where "Your mess is your message" really comes from (and how TV anchor Robin Roberts used t...

Online course creation has become a major industry. If you're a business owner, your course gives you new opportunities to grow your business, find clients and gain credibility.  Designing a course can be challenging. How do you know what to include? How do you figure out how to sequence the modules?  Explore a new way to design your course by starting with a story. You'll appeal to more students...

Your story's location may seem trivial or straightforward.  "It's a beach story."  "One day I was in my home office..." "Mary went home to apartment 3701..." Don't those locations bring a special vibe to your story? The story's location tells a lot about your characters and about you. If Mary lives in apartment 3701, she'll seem different from someone living in apartment 301.  She'll seem even mor...

Branding and selling are very different activities in business.  A branding story introduces you to your audience. It tells something about you and how you provide the service.  A selling story makes the audience say, "I want what she's having!"  In this episode I explain the difference and show that one story can be both. I illustrate with 4 powerful examples of good stories.  One story is purely...

It's really important to be innovative in your business.  Being innovative is one of the ways people realize you are credible. You've gone beyond the basics to develop your own framework or explain your ideas in a new way. But will you market yourself as an innovator? That's a different question. In this podcast we will ... ...explain the difference between innovation in business and innovation as...

You've probably heard that "your story must bring out emotion in your listeners." And that's because you've also heard, "People buy on emotions."  But is that always true?  Lots of times people make buying decisions based on logic and rationality. They evaluate the offer coolly, based on their needs.  The truth is, sometimes people make buying decisions without bringing emotion into the picture at...

Does your story contribute to your strategy? Is your story a part of your brand? You get all kinds of advice to "be sure your content includes a story." The real question is, what is the purpose of your story? Will you motivate people to buy? Or are you telling the story to get people to like you more? Or do you want to build their trust, so they believe you'll solve their problem? In this episode...

Calling yourself a "healer" brings special challenges in marketing.  And in some ways, everyone is a healer. We all pay money to relieve our pain. But when you call yourself a healer, people get confused. Just what do you do, anyway? You might be a reiki practitioner, EFT practitioner, a psychotherapist, a health coach...or just a "healer."   But if you're a healer, how do you explain what you do?...

Have you ever told a story -- a brilliant story! -- and your audience just looked at you blankly? They just didn't get it. Or they couldn't relate: they couldn't put themselves into the story.  Stories succeed when people put themselves in the picture. They're in the airplane seat. They're in the room you're describing. They can feel the problem: their chest gets tight, their stomach hurts...it's...

"What niche am I supposed to target?" That's always a popular question when I meet a group of fellow business owners. Even if they're experienced veterans, they wonder, "Did I let some people get away? Am I being too narrow in my focus?" It's a familiar struggle…and we keep going back to it. Even though we think we've got a niche we want to revisit. Men? Women? Married? Single? Age bracket? Sound...

So you've got something to teach people. You're the only one...or one of the few. But your audience isn't stupid. They know a lot already. Who likes being treated like a child...especially a stupid child? Who likes being treated like a newbie when you're not?    In this episode of Strategic Storytelling, I'll show you three ways to use stories to get past the barrier. Instead of saying "you should...

"I have many happy clients. How can I get them to share testimonials?"   That's what my reader asked me when I was looking for new applications for. telling stories. It's a complaint I hear from other service business owners too. Let's face it: if you're a small, service-based business, you need credibility. Nobody wants to be your first client! In this episode of the  Strategic Storytelling podca...

There's something appealing about telling stories. We all want to talk about what happened to us..especially the bad parts.   But when you're writing for business, it's important to tell your story only when you have a purpose for that particular story.  Too many people write stories for validation. They say, "My cat died. Here's how I feel." Or they say the business hit a wall. Here's what happen...

Of the five archetypes I've identified, the Celebrity holds greatest awe and power.  ***If you're new to my community, you can download a free report featuring the five archtypes when you click here. Think of Taylor Swift and think of those folks in People magazine. We don't want to BE a Celebrity, but we can learn from Celebrities. It's no accident that real celebrities tend to be spokespeople fo...

As you know, I've got five story archetypes for basic branding for small, service-based businesses. You can learn more about them in my free report here. http://cathygoodwin.com/arch I talk a lot about the most common archetypes - the Role Model and Educator, and sometimes the Innovator. But I rarely talk about Celebrities or Passionate Advocates...with good reason. You feel, "I'm already passiona...

We have lots of stories of celebration, where people talk about their wins. What we need are more stories of pulling the plug.  For example, in this episode I talk about someone who decided not to get a drivers license. In a typical story, she'd try and try to pass the test. She'd spend hours studying.  But in this story the woman decides she won't bother. She'll move to a city where she can take...

If you're a service based solopreneur, entrepreneur or independent professional, your brand is YOU. Your About Page will be critical to your online success. And yet, if you're like most business owners, you'll tell me the About Page is the most difficult page to write for your website.   That's because most people hate to talk about themselves. And business owners are people! It's easy to feel lik...

  When we think of business storytelling, most business owners think of stories as a way to relate to clients - and certainly I encourage that direction. You can use stories to engage clients, explain a complex offer, communicate your value, and much, much more.   In this episode, we're going to talk about another way to use storytelling. We look at 3 ways to use stories to help plan your next ste...

Numbers make stories more vivid. When we say, "Apartment 101," you may get a picture in your mind of the door with the number. But there's a downside. When you use numbers to suggest how you value something, your audience will be judging you. They assign their ow values to every story. In this episode you will learn... ...how the vividness of numbers makes your story more clear (and how that can b...

This week's episode is an encore presentation. It's designed to introduce new audience members to a podcast they may have missed. And it's one of my favorites! We rarely associate"productivity" with "storytelling." But content creation is the biggest driver - and the greatest challenge - of online marketing. Storytelling helps you create more high-converting marketing content more quickly.  Using...

  Many service-based entrepreneurs tell me, "My services seem so ordinary! I want to create a sense of excitement among potential clients." It's how lots of small business owners (including me) begin looking at their websites and sales letters.   That doesn't mean inventing wild stories or digging into your distant past for inspiration. Any story comes with hidden pitfalls and many people resist g...

"Should I tell this story? I don't feel comfortable sharing." Or "I *really* feel I should tell this story, even if it makes me uncomfortable."   If you're like many of my clients, these questions arise when you're wondering about sharing a story, especially a personal story. You feel deeply about the topic but you wonder if it's a good idea to put it out there for all the world to see.   You have...

One of the biggest challenges for a business owner is getting seen as a credible expert in your field…even a thought leader in your industry. Last episode we focused on being seen as an expert. However, not everyone will promote expertise the same way.   If you're a Role Model, you want to continue to tell stories that support your promise, "If I can do it, you can do it." If you're an Educator, y...