Strategic Storytelling
Strategic Storytelling blends together the magic of storytelling with practical strategies for marketing a small business, with a focus on copywriting, branding, and planning. Cathy Goodwin, an online strategist and published author, shows entrepreneurs new ways to use storytelling and copywriting to attract their perfect clients.
Episodes
Small service businesses walk a fine line in branding. They don't want to blend in with everyone else (like "little boxes" of the famous song).
But sometimes it's tempting to go to the other extreme: an original name to describe your service.
The middle bear approach - not too hot or too cold - begins by telling a story that resonates with your client's story. We're all hard-wired to categorize. Your challe...
As you build a portfolio of business stories, business owners often come up against a challenge: you've got a story but the audience can't relate to the context. How do you get your audience involved in a story about an experience that feels unfamiiliar - even alien - to them? That's a daily challenge for Neil Bardhan, a Philadelphia-based business storytelling consultant. In this episode, you'll hear Neil's ...
We rarely associate"productivity" with "storytelling." But content creation is the biggest challenge of online marketing. Storytelling helps you create more effective marketing content more quickly.
Learn how storytelling helps small business marketing (especially for solopreneurs) with creating content, branding, and targeting, with examples and how-tos. You'll see why we no longer think of storytelling as rig...
Noted business author and influencer Dorie Clark presented a thoughtful Ted Talk on December 21. We feel busy, she says, because we try to do the impossible, we want to feel "in demand," and (perhaps most importantly) we want to avoid dealing with something large or small. To illustrate the last point, Dorie illustrates with a story about her late cat, Gideon. In this episode, I analyze why the story works. I would classi...
Anyone can make business plans - but turning business plans into business actions mean you need to believe you can do everything on your planning sheet. You need a clear picture of what you want your business to look like. You need that that "I can do it" belief and that "I'll enjoy making it happen" feeling.
Stories help you set goals that you're more likely to achieve, instead of an abstract wish list tha...
You attend a marketing workshop, get interviewed on a podcast, Or you're being interviewed for a podcast and the host says, "So let's start with this question: What's your story?"
How would you answer this question?
Would you find yourself stopped cold, wondering what to say?
Would you bring up your tried-and-true rags to riches hero's journey story?
You have a window of opportunity to showcase your stren...
Storytellers sometimes experience external distractions. A classic example comes from the time a large black fly landed on a presenter's head during a political debate.
You can't always control outside distractions. But sometimes, the way you tell your story can send your audience's mind moving in a direction where you don't want them to go.
In this episode we look at 3 ways you can distract your audience by makin...
Ask any copywriter: Clients want their content to "sound like me." But online writing doesn't get read like a literary classic. Readers skim and scan. They notice phrases and expressions. They remember stories. Owners of small businesses and online entrepreneurs will be most productive when they focus on message - not voice. Free download on branding with story archetypes - http://mycopy.info/brandsteps
A lot of copywriting guides promise to give you a set of "power words" to jazz up your copy and get better results.
The truth is, you'll get more bang for the buck by starting with your power story. Not all "power words" will be powerful for your brand Stories will help you relate directly to your clients and their stories.
This episode gives you a detailed example of how to start with a story and then go ...
You run a small service-based business and you want to recognize the holidays. The big brands (such as cola drinks, sportswear, and beer) share heart-warming stories with universal impact. You need stories that resonate with prospective clients and reinforce your personal brand. This episode tells you exactly how to do this...with some general holiday marketing tips at the very end.
Story archetypes: http://cathygoodwin.com/arch
Can you use made-up stories to market your real business?
The short answer is “yes.” The longer answer is, “Only under certain conditions.”
In this episode, we look at 2 kinds of made-up stories that can be harmful to your credibility and 1 kind of story that will almost always benefit your marketing.
Down my free guide to 3 common storytelling mistakes - click here.
I wrote a blog post on this topic also
When you're a business owner for a service-based business, the brand you are promoting is YOU.
But if you're like many business owners, you lose clients every day because you're held back by fear of being seen as conceited and obnoxious.
That's called FOB syndrome: Fear of Bragging.
The truth is, your clients want you to brag - but not by declaring how amazing and successful you are. They want you to reassure them...
Entrepreneurs and small business owners often wonder about the whole storytelling thing. They figure stories just help entertain and captivate your audience. That's true, but stories do a lot more...if you have the right story.
So now you've got a story with lots of the right qualities: a hero, guide, and a suspenseful plot. How can you assess the business value of the story...will it help grow your business or just bring ...
Many business storytellers encourage us to learn from Disney movies and classic epic journey stories. In this light-hearted episode, I suggest that you might do better to take lessons from old-time country-and-western songs. PBS recently called attention to the universality of this music with an 8-part primetime series, so maybe it's getting more cool. What bears study is the way these songs communicate fairly complex stories...
If you're the least bit unconventional, sooner or later you'll be advised to brand yourself as a maverick, renegade or rebel. t
That's a really bad idea, because it...
...violates the "show don't tell" rule. Real mavericks don't have to explain who they are.
...doesn't communicate a benefit
...may actually backfire.
Understanding the pitfall of this branding approach will highlight principles of br...
Lots of small business owners work hard on website marketing, yet feel like something is missing. They've done everything right and yet they don't get the results that should be theirs.
With Halloween around the corner, I remember the days when my website felt more like a haunted house than a warm, friendly place to welcome clients.
Today my clients tell me they feel the same way. Their sites are haunted by ghosts of past ...
Entrepreneurs, solopreneurs, and small business owners often get advised, "Tell the origin story for your business."
But where does your business origin story fit your business marketing strategy? Tell your story to highlight your passion for your business, your expertise and skill, the way you differentiate yourself, and your credibility.
In this podcast we analyze 3 examples of origin stories - 2 from medium-sized compa...
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. The original "mess to message" comes from psychologists, who meant, "Your mistakes are telling you something! You need to stop and pay attention."
They didn't mean, "Make your mess your business message."
They weren...
Entrrepeneurs and small business owners often hear that "What's your story" really means, "Tell your origin story."
But business storytelling has a purpose. So you can choose from different kinds of origin stories, depending on what you need to communicate to your ideal clients.
What makes a good origin story? And what are the pitfalls of origin stories for business storytelling? That's what we talk about he...
Business storytelling experts tell you to share your journey story. Usually that means a story of your struggles to go from broke to successful entrepreneurship
But what if you never were broke? What if you didn't go through a struggle? Or what if you actually turn your audience away by sharing Too Much Information?
In this episode we'll look at examples of journey stories that backfired. We'll admire an amazing story ...
Popular Podcasts
If you can never get enough true crime... Congratulations, you’ve found your people.
BOB SAGET’S HERE FOR YOU is a podcast that is like no other— For one, this podcast has guests who are friends of Bob’s, or just really interesting people who many of you know and love. Secondly, this podcast is unique because it goes inside Bob Saget’s mind, and then quickly filters out through his mouth. Bob has a way of calming people he has conversations with as well as being entertaining and often informative. Bob talks with his guests with genuine empathy and humor, while reaching his unusually diverse audience that he talks to as a friend, Bob is the dad with great advice, the irreverent funny guy who’s always there when you need a laugh, and the free-associative Bob who goes off on crazy tangents then returns to the subject at hand, as serious or as comedic as it may be, to wrap up each episode in a way only Bob can do. Because he really does believe, “He’s here for you."
Current and classic episodes, featuring compelling true-crime mysteries, powerful documentaries and in-depth investigations.
According to the official story, on April 4th, 1968, a lone gunman assassinated Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. at the Lorraine Motel in Memphis, Tennessee. That man, James Earl Ray, pled guilty and for most people the case was closed. The MLK Tapes, a new true crime podcast from the creators of Atlanta Monster and Monster: DC Sniper, explores rare recordings of eye-witness testimony and new interviews with people who were there to reveal the true story of the plot to kill Dr. King.
This is what the news should sound like. The biggest stories of our time, told by the best journalists in the world. Hosted by Michael Barbaro. Twenty minutes a day, five days a week, ready by 6 a.m.