Strategic Storytelling

185 How to Get Your Clients to Share Stories That Help Your Marketing

We usually talk about the stories we tell about ourselves. We use stories to showcase our marketable qualities. We explain and promote our offers. In this episode, we flip the script. We focus on getting other people to tell their stories. Often their stories will be essential for our own marketing. For example, when you interview a podcast guest, you want that guest to tell an exciting story that will be memorable to your audience. When you ask for a testimonial, you want a story about how you ...

184 Do Stories Make You Money? How Strategic Storytelling Drives Revenue

We all hear that stories are powerful—but do they actually bring in sales? In this episode of Strategic Storytelling , I break down how stories make money for your business, both indirectly (as a smart marketing tool) and directly (by increasing conversions). You'll learn what makes a story profitable, how to align your storytelling with strategy, and what to avoid if you don’t want your content to fall flat. Whether you're writing a landing page, planning a campaign, or building your brand, thi...

183 Looking for a business mentor? Don't listen to their story!

When you're a solopreneur or running a right-sized business, hiring a mentor isn’t as simple as following someone else’s success story. In this episode of Strategic Storytelling , we unpack the reasons why traditional mentor models — often built for corporate careers or celebrity entrepreneurs — don’t work for most small business owners. You’ll discover: Why their story may be inspiring... but useless to your business How to identify the right kind of support based on your business archetype Thr...

182 Use These 3 Storytelling Superpowers To Connect and Convert

What do invisibility, time travel, and telepathy have in common? It's not just a party game or a job intervew question, "Choose your superpower." These 3 storytelling superpowers that can transform your marketing. In this episode of Strategic Storytelling , we’ll explore how to: Make your writing “invisible” so your message becomes the star (not your clever wordplay) Use time travel to guide your audience from frustration to solution Tap into the power of telepathy to respond directly to your cl...

181 Why Your Own Story Is The Best Content: Ignore the gurus and "do you!"

IN this episode of Strategic Storytelling, we explore why your real, everyday stories—not dramatic or overly polished ones—are often the most powerful for your content. As an example, I talk about ]how comedian Loni Love stayed true to her voice despite pressure to "play a character," and how that lesson applies directly to your brand storytelling. If you've ever been told your story isn’t “exciting” enough, or you're not being "vulnerable" enough, this episode is for you. You will learn... Why ...

180 Finding your strategy from your story

Struggling to find the right words for your marketing? In this episode, we unpack why your business story isn’t just relatable — it’s a strategic treasure trove! You’ll discover how storytelling becomes a diagnostic tool to uncover your most powerful marketing message. Whether you're a coach, freelancer, or creative entrepreneur, your story already holds the key to your branding, positioning, and message. We'll explore three story types that reveal your value proposition, brand positioning, and ...

179 How To Sell a Service that Seems Frivolous (by discovering why it's not)

A lot of solopreneur marketing challenges become easier with a story -- and with knowing the clients' backstory. In this episode, we’re tackling a challenge many solopreneur service providers face: how to sell when your offer seems “non-essential” or even frivolous. From personal shopping to manicures, pantry organizing to lighting setups — these services are often dismissed as luxuries. But as the backstories reveal, the real value often lies beneath the surface. You will learn ... ... many non...

178 Strategic Reinvention: The Best Story to Explain How You Got Here

177 Storytelling Prompts for Business Stories

Have you ever faced a blank page, saying to yourself, “I know I need a story…a good story…for business. But I keep drawing a blank.” And most of the story prompts—those questions beginning “Tell me a story about” are not designed for business. They’re designed to get your personal stories. So you get prompts like, “What was your proudest moment…” which rarely helps your business. As I’ve said many times, a business story serves a purpose. It doesn’t just amuse and entertain. It supports your str...

176 How To Generate Buzz For Your Products With Client Backstories

If you’re a small service-oriented business, you want to get people to talk about you! But how do you do this? Small companies—especially service-based solopreneurs—can’t generate buzz the same way as big companies. They need to dip into their client’s backstories. When someone says, “You seem to be talking to me!” -- that's how your buzz begins! In this episode, I talk about what it means for a solopreneur to create buzz. It’s not the same thing as big-company buzz. You’ll get examples of stori...

127 How to Demonstrate Your Expertise By Telling Stories (Encore)

"You're the expert." How do you feel when you hear those words? You'd better get used to hearing that sentenence if you're a service-based solopreneur! Because when you sell a service, you’re selling expertise. You’re offering knowledge and skills beyond what “everybody” has. You hire a licensed electrician because a handyman might do the job...but you want to be sure they won't set the place on fire by mistake. You hire a professional decorator because you want someone with flair who adds somet...

175 Three Ways To Create More Powerful Headlines With Storytelling

You’ve got a nice draft of the copy, all set to go…but will your audience ever read that copy? The answer is: Not unless you’re reeling them in with a strong headline! The truth is, most people don’t get past the headline when they’re reading a sales letter. And yet headlines can be incredibly hard to write…unless, of course, you start with a good story. In this episode you’ll get three tips for using stories to write headlines. It’s one of my favorite topics because we tell business stories to ...

174 2 Straightforward Topics To 2X Your Selling Story

Telling the right story, the right way, can lead to more clients and more sales. You don’t have to come up with a story that keeps you in suspense--a story that could be made into a movie or a slick Superbowl commercial. The selling story for a solopreneur calls for two key ingredients. You don't have to dig into your life story to come up with edge-of-the-seat excitement. In this episode, I'll share two ways you can tweak your story to turn listeners into buyers. You will discover... ...the two...

114 Which story attracts clients for entrepreneurs: natural talent vs. hard work and struggle (Encore)

You've heard it over and over. Success come from hard work, not talent. You're not a good writer? Not a natural business person? Just work, work and work some more. So hard work is admirable, right? People are most impressed by hard workers? Wrong. Research studies asked this question directly, "What impresses employers and investors most?" Employers and investors listened to stories of people achieving success by hard work...and stories of people who were so talented, success came easily. And t...

173 From story to sale: How Solopreneurs Can Connect With Their Audience: An interview with Angela Wills.

Angela Wills created her Life Style Freedom business by making connections. She believed business doesn’t dictate your lifestyle: your lifestyle creates your business. “I’m really passionate about helping business owners find a business model that supports their lifestyle.” - Angela Willis Angela is a very down-to-earth business owner who’s built her business by understanding her clients. She understands the juggling act of being a parent and a business owner. “That is a skill," she says. "To me...

172 What's wrong with the advice, "Tell a story to be authentic"

Solopreneurs often get advised to show their real selves--to come out from behind the website and reveal who they really are. And one way to do this is to tell stories. What's wrong with this advice? First of all, "Just tell a story" means, "Curate a good story portfolio." A story may represent your self...but you have many selves. The first part of this podcast talks about this point. Which self is the Real You? At about 5.0, you'll get 3 tips to share authentic stories: 1 - know what "be yours...

171 - How A Financial Behaviorist Uses Stories To Illustrate Our Financial lives: Interview with Jacquette Timmons

When you tell stories, do you ever think, "That's all well and good for life coaches with personal stories. But I'm a technical person who wants to help people discover new ways of thinking about their actions. Talking about finance seems to call for discussions of numbers, trends and charts with percentages in three colors. Jacquette Timmons brings a different perspective. She's a financial behaviorist, someone who helps people deal with issues related to money, income and investments. Money re...

170 How to bring emotions into your business planning by using stories

Oh no...the New Year begins with two tasks a lot of us dread: planning and taxes. I can't do much about taxes, but this episode is all about making planning more realistic and more fun. Most people make plans and schedules with their left brains. So you get cold, analytical plans...or even worse, daydreams about the future. That's fine if you're a big business...if you sell cola, beer, or sportswear. But if you're a solopreneur, especially if you provide a service, you have a double role. You pl...

169 How to explain web development to a die-hard football fan

What kind of stories can you tell to explain complex or unusual concepts? What metaphors? This podcast gives just one example: How do you explain web development, especially the role of designers and copywriters? One way is to use a football metaphor. Each player on a team has a role to play. The copywriter is the quarterback and the designer is the offensive line. How do these roles work together? Why is one the quarterback and another the offensive line? That's what we talk about in the podcas...

168 Why Storytelling is Your Most Important Market Research Tool

What does it mean to know your client? This episode was created after I saw an email encouraging. entrepreneurs to know their customers. Demographics, psychographic, big problem...anything, they said. There's a better way. Find their story. What brought them here? What have they tried? Those are the questions that will help you write the copy. If they say, "The other way took too long," you how them that your way is shorter. If they say, "The other provider was rude," you show them why you're po...

100 How to find your client's backstory - with Shawn Fink

“There’s a gap between what I know they need and what they think they need.” As a service-based business, you probably recognize this problem. For instance, you know your clients mostly need to build their confidence. They need to jump in and take action. But when they come to you, they say, “I don’t have the right technology.” Or “I need to learn copywriting.” That's the topic of this episode, where I interview Shawn Fink. Shawn has a unique positioning strategy. She focuses on coaching her cli...

125 The best business storytellers do these 3 things

Almost every business coach on the planet will advise you to start telling stories. They’ll encourage you to use storytelling for your blog posts, email messages, and just about any content you create. Deciding to tell a story is the easy part. Choosing a story that will help grow your business is much more difficult. That’s mostly because you get conflicting advice from different mentors. “Go ahead and share,” they’ll say. “Feeling uncomfortable? Get over it.” Even more, your inbox is filled wi...

167 Marketing as an Educator with Guest Robert Middleon

When you're a small, service-based business, you are selling yourself and your ideas. I call this marketing when the brand is YOU. Most service businesses brand with what we call the story archetypes. You can read more about story archetypes here at this link . I've interviewed several Role Model archetypes. On this episode we get a rare look at an Educator archetype. Role Models have the message, "This is what I did. If I can do it, you can too. I'm just like you." They share a lot of personal ...

157 How to find coachable clients with this simple story trick

When you run a service business, you need clients...the right kind of clients. Clients you can work with. Clients who will be successful when they follow your instructions. Your instructions might take the form of coaching. Or you might need to get clients to cooperate by filling out forms or simply delivering papers to you. If nothing else, you don't want them to make things worse by interfering with your job. So even if you're a plumber you need clients to do something...at least tell you what...

165 Why clients expect you to deliver magic in your services (and how you can create a magical experience realistically)

Your story has a hero and a guide. Sometimes your story has cheerleaders and a villain. But your story doesn’t have a wizard or fairy godmother or magician. And you probably know the reason: Your story doesn’t promise magic. But sometimes clients expect magic and you have to correct them, This episode looks at 3 reasons clients falsely expect magic. But can you make magic happen for your clients? We also look at 3 ways that you can offer magic solutions–legitimately. Well, you're not a magician ...

164 How Your About Page Sells You With Stories

What's the most difficult page to write on your website? Your About Page. People don't like to write this page because they don't like to write about themselves. It feels like boasting. It violates the rule: "The nail that stands out gets pounded down." Your About Pag has to answer three questions: 1 - Why are you in this field? 2 -Why are you passionate about what you do? 3 - How do we know you're good at what you do? Each of these questions can be answered with a story. This episode gives you ...

023 The most important story for solopreneuur marketing

Your most important story isn't about you. It's about how you work with clients to help them reach their goals. This is your success story. Your success story has 4 parts: hero, crisis, solution, and outcome. We'll walk through examples of how these parts come together for a lead-generating success story. You don't just share a hero's journey story. You can introduce a plot twist. You'll see examples of success stories that miss the mark and how to transform them so they work for you. You'll see...

163 Is your story a literary production, a good business story, or both?

https://www.marketingwords.com/blog/write-copy-future-pacing/?ref=cathy_goodwin I recently came across a workshop on writing creative nonfiction. And that made me ask the question: What is the difference between creative writing and business writing? What about a course in film script writing? ? Of course the more writing you do, the better you get. And you'll get better a storytelling. But sometimes we're tempted to share a story works as a creative story but doesn't work as a business story. B...

162 Using Personal Stories to Build An Empire: Interview with Connie Ragen Green

Can you become an extremely successful online marketer by telling stories? Connie Ragen Green has several best-selling books and courses, as well as an international practice in business coaching. She's accomplished this goal with strong, consistent marketing and an abundance of content creation. Connie has used stories extensively, especially personal stories. She has entire books where the subject is business, but the stories are directly from her personal life. However, she doesn’t just spill...

161 Does your story show the prospect's state of awareness?

What is the stage of your client’s awareness? You may think it’s not important—but a customer stage can be like a specific niche. You target that stage of awareness. If you target the wrong stage, you lose the customer…maybe forever. For example, when I was looking for a software company, I narrowed down my search to three companies. I knew a lot about the functions of marketing. I knew why I needed software. I just wanted a test drive. I was not just solution aware: I was product aware. To my a...