Slash Pitch Prep by 95%, Client Onboarding by 90%, and Overhead Costs While Positioning You at the Forefront of AI Innovation

As an agency principal, you understand that every hour spent on pitch prep, client onboarding, and campaign creation directly impacts your bottom line.

Plus, you’re looking for ways to dramatically accelerate your agency’s growth without sacrificing quality or burning out your team.

But you’re frustrated because traditional agency workflows consume weeks of expensive time on research, discovery, internal alignment, and content creation, leaving you wondering if there’s a better way to compete in an industry where clients demand faster results while AI is reshaping everything.

Now you can transform your agency economics through the StoryCycle Genie – the only AI platform built by agency principals for agency professionals that systematically creates wealth across 21 specific time, financial, physical, and psychological dimensions of your business.

Let me show you how the StoryCycle Genie will…

1. Generate a Wealth of New Business Opportunities

What if you could lower your customer acquisition costs by upward of 90 percent?

And show up to a pitch with insights, not assumptions or questions.

Run a prospective client’s website through the Genie and learn in under 60 seconds how strong their brand story is with a 14-point storytelling review. Then, in under six minutes, the Genie provides you with a full brand assessment and complete narrative strategy that becomes the foundation for your presentation.

You’re already delivering value, and you don’t even have the business yet, but you soon will.

You can also run competitor analysis, providing your future client with market intelligence they probably don’t have. All of this in under 30 minutes.

How long is it currently taking you to pull together a pitch? This report by Digiday reviews how “Out-of-control new business reviews are placing a burden on media and creative agencies competing for work.”

What if the Genie could turn your pitching overwhelm into an overjoyed experience by collapsing that time sink by 95%?

2. Reveal a Wealth of Timely Client Insights

When it comes to onboarding a new client, you know how important this exhaustive effort is to make a solid impression.

But on average, most agencies take up to three months to get up to speed on a new client’s business, according to Leadsie.

What if you could reduce your research and discovery time from weeks to days using the Genie’s Brand Story Grader: Competitor Genie and the Brand Intelligence Genie?

That’s not just faster onboarding. That’s competitive intelligence that positions you as the strategic partner who understands their business before the contract is even signed.

3. Saves You a Wealth of Expensive Time

It takes about three months to experience your first measurable wins with a new client, and six to 12 months for full performance stability and ROI.

That’s 48 weeks.

What if you could save all of that time and be running your first on-brand campaign in month one?

The Genie’s ecosystem of three dozen expert agents working together seamlessly in our Cognitive Mesh Architecture enables you to reduce startup time with a new client by 90+ percent.

You begin by building your brand brain with the Brand Story Genie, Audience Story Genie, and Content Playbook Genie. This takes between one hour and one day.

Then you tap the Social Media Strategy Genie, Campaign Architecture Genie, or Customer Journey Genie to produce high-performing campaign strategies and content calendars in an hour or two.

4. Accelerates a Wealth of ROI

You’re eliminating much of the cost of traditional research, discovery, client meetings, internal brainstorming and alignment, and campaign creation and activation by 90+ percent.

This speeds your clients’ sales and marketing campaigns to market faster.

A recent study by Drew McLellan of the Agency Management Institute found that clients want their agencies to embrace AI, not to reduce fees, but to produce better work faster. You can see its findings for yourself: The Agency Edge Report: Leading Through the AI Revolution

What does it cost you to pitch new business the old way in time, people’s exertion, and materials? What does it cost you in time, effort, and frustration to create brand storytelling strategies the old way? What does it cost you to produce campaign strategies and content calendars? What is the time, effort, and expense of creating always-on-brand content?

What if you could dramatically increase your ROI by reducing those overhead and cost-of-doing-business expenses by 90+ percent?

5. Creates a Wealth of Compelling Content

Here’s an interesting summation of the time it takes to create content from Storyteq.

Imagine having a content expert for the following channels: web and landing page specialist, blog writer, social media post influencer, email and newsletter creator, sales presentation storyteller, Substack genius, case study editor, video script producer, webinar wizard, product description guru, fast one-pager writer, long-form content author, and LinkedIn profile master.

Oh, and what if you had one brilliant jack-of-all-trades that could shapeshift into any content expert you needed outside of this team?

Imagine what that headcount would cost in overhead and, well, headaches.

The Genie provides you with all of this content creation expertise with specialists in each area, enhancing the abilities of those already holding these critical creative positions in your agency, and adding to your always-on-brand content creation capabilities through agents like the Author Voice Profile Genie that work for you 24/7 with the nominal investment of a monthly subscription you can cancel at any time.

Here’s what Shark Tank’s Kevin O’Leary thinks about this trend of lowering client acquisition costs through social media storytelling:

6. Enhances Your Wealth of Capabilities

Now you can service more profitable clients in less time with your same team.

This is not about replacing your team members. It’s about leveraging our ecosystem of three dozen plus agents – from the brand brain creation Genies to the marketing and campaign strategy Genies to the team of content creation Genies to a host of specialized narrative and optimization Genies.

You’re adding, in effect, 30 full-time 24/7 experts to expand your agency capabilities remarkably faster, better, and more profitably without the payroll taxes and health care expenses.

If you need a specific capability our individual experts don’t provide, you can create your own with the Brand Genius Genie for everything from proposals and grants to brand-specific white papers to custom research tools to podcast interview prep to a story bank.

You name it.

7. Develops a Wealth of Market Differentiation

You’re positioning yourself and your agency at the forefront of AI innovation. In fact, you can see how well you’re telling your brand story right now with our FREE Brand Story Grader.

In under 60 seconds (saving you a wealth of time), you will get a grade from A+ to F- on the strength of your brand story. Plus, the Genie will provide a 14-point storytelling assessment that validates what you’re doing well. It reveals the gaps in your narrative that you can quickly fix. It will even inspire you with new ways to think about story.

And the most exciting part? You and your people don’t need to burn months, even years, of non-productive agency time, hopefully getting up to speed on the rapidly changing industry of generative AI.

We spent two years building the StoryCycle Genie to precise agency brand-building specifications [remember, the Genie is built by agency principals for agency professionals] so you can immediately put the Genie to work on building your agency business and client confidence.

8. Produces a Wealth of Expertise

The Genie amplifies your hard-earned industry intelligence, customer insights, market intuition, business knowledge, and agency acumen as your trusted brand storytelling companion.

Your brilliance becomes even more obvious to your prospects and clients as you and your team demonstrate the sought-after capabilities of confident brand storytellers on both a human and agentic level, and now at the speed of AI.

9. Delivers a Wealth of Client Satisfaction

You’re innovating for and with your clients, demonstrating your creative, forward-thinking leadership that separates you from your competition and builds lasting bonds with your customers.

Plus, collaborating in the Genie with your clients and teams is fun.

10. Contributes a Wealth of Storytelling Knowledge

The Genie is the only AI-driven, narrative-native platform guided by the proven Story Cycle System, which has grown brands by as much as 600 percent.

At the storytelling core of the Genie is the ABT (And, But, Therefore) narrative framework – the DNA of Story.

These are two of the classical storytelling structures amplified by the latest technology. You and your agency team grow as more confident and compelling brand storytellers by virtue of collaborating with the Genie.

Plus, your always-on-brand content is produced using the story structures that have moved Homo sapiens (we storytelling apes) for millennia.

11. Exudes a Wealth of Experience

The Genie was created by agency principals for agency professionals.

Park Howell is an Emmy award-winning brand storyteller and a leader in brand marketing for 40+ years. He ran his own award-winning ad agency, Park&Co in Phoenix, AZ, for twenty years. He created the Story Cycle System in 2005 and published Brand Bewitcher: How to Wield the Story Cycle System to Craft Spellbinding Stories for Your Brand in June, 2020 (yep, right in the middle of Covid).

He co-authored The Narrative Gym for Business with Dr. Randy Olson, a guide to creating dynamic ABTs is leadership, sales and marketing.  And now he consults, teaches, coaches, and speaks internationally, helping leaders and their people excel through the stories they tell.

StoryCycle Genie co-creators Sean Schroeder and Matt Levine founded the Sacramento, CA-based Blueriver digital agency in 2005 and created the MURA content experience platform in 2010, selling both enterprises in a successful exit in 2019.

We understand what you’re up against and have spent two years building the StoryCycle Genie to rid you of the confounding time, frustration, exhaustion, energy, and money spent on spinning up brand storytelling without any guarantees of success.

12. Promotes a Wealth of Visibility

When you use our Search Optimization Genie, your content gets optimized for SEO, GEO, and AEO instantly.

You’re not only reaching your customers, but you’re connecting with AI answer bots who, according to many marketing experts like Mark Schaefer in his new book How AI is Changing Your Customers, are becoming your most important audiences. So it’s important to optimize for the bots to create an even greater wealth of visibility.

13. Articulates a Wealth of Authenticity

The problem with generative AI is that everyone sounds the same. Generic. Undifferentiated.

Now you can amplify and scale your authentic brand voice using the Author Voice Profile Genie that learns and improves your voice with every iteration.

In fact, we’ve tested blog posts and website content from the Genie with AI analyzers like Winston and have received a 99 to 100% “created by human” rating.

But more importantly, humans don’t detect Genie content as AI because it’s created first by you with a Genie assist to scale your unique rhythms, interesting tone of voice, asides, and colloquialisms.

14. Enables a Wealth of Engagement

Among our specialized experts is the Story Cycle Narrative Genie, which ensures your content is built on proven storytelling structures that connect with the primal pattern-seeking, problem-solving, decision-making, buying limbic brains of your audience.

And your content is supercharged by our Behavioral Messaging Genie driven by proven behavioral science principles that ethically enhance engagement and authenticity.

You’ll experience classical storytelling structures that hook your audience’s attention, enhanced by behavioral science that influences and persuades, powered by AI for speed to action.

15. Unearths a Wealth of Competitive Intelligence

When you conspire with the Brand Intelligence Genie and the Brand Story Grader: Competitors Genie, you determine how to out-maneuver your competition and take advantage of white space that helps you design a market niche and become the category king.

And you get to do this in hours, not days or weeks.

Pretty smart, huh.

16. Engenders a Wealth of Camaraderie

You and your team are all working on one platform – not disparate and quirky GEN AI agents – that quickly and easily provides systematic brand storytelling strategy, content creation, and activation without the confusion, hallucinations, idiosyncrasies, second-guessing, and frustrations of wrestling with common folk AI.

17. Assures a Wealth of Security

The Genie is built on our proprietary Brightsy platform, protecting your brand storytelling intelligence from the prying eyes of competitors and generative AI.

Only you, your team, and your clients, if you like, can access your brand intel protected in the Genie’s fortress.

18. Instills a Wealth of Wellbeing

The Genie removes mind-numbing minutiae, tedious tasks, the drudgery of deep-dive research, energy-zapping repetitive efforts, and boring time-suck meetings.

You can focus your inspiration on the rewarding creative endeavors you got into the advertising industry to produce in the first place.

Plus, just collaborating with the Genie will enthrall you as vibrant brand storytelling, brilliant marketing strategies, and mesmerizing content materialize before your very eyes in a flash.

19. Frees Up a Wealth of Time

While we mentioned earlier that the Genie saves you time in your industrious pursuit of producing the finest brand storytelling campaigns for your customers, it also produces a wealth of free time for you and your team to do with what you want.

Maybe it’s more time with the kids, grooving your golf swing, traveling, hiking, romantic dinners with your spouse, or honing a hobby like the ancient seafaring art of nautical knot tying.

Whatever you and your people want to do instead of toiling with the day-to-day tedium of the old way of running an agency.

20. Produces a Wealth of First-Mover Advantages

You can deploy the Genie right now, providing your clients with exceptional speed-to-market while positioning your agency as an innovator to attract and retain top talent, create enduring customer relationships, and separate yourself from the laggards.

According to a 2024 study by IAD, the use of generative AI is surging in the agency industry, but many agencies are convulsing under the strain of incorporating GEN AI into their brand-building.

Laggards easily make up one-third of the agency industry, with another 30+ percent of agencies sitting on the fence trying to decide what to do next, and the final group of agencies, as early adopters, already far outpacing their competitors.

Which one are you?

21. The StoryCycle Genie Inspires a Wealth of Confidence

If you’re not 100% enthralled with what the StoryCycle Genie generates for you, we will refund 100% of your first month’s subscription.

And you keep all of the brand storytelling assets you created.

Frequently Asked Questions: StoryCycle Genie for Ad Agencies

How does the StoryCycle Genie reduce pitch preparation time by 95%?

The Brand Story Grader analyzes any website in under 60 seconds, providing a 14-point storytelling assessment. Within six minutes, you receive a complete brand assessment and narrative strategy. Add competitive analysis (under 30 minutes total), and you have a comprehensive pitch foundation that traditionally takes days or weeks to develop.

What is the Story Cycle System, and why does it matter for agencies?

The Story Cycle System is a proven strategic narrative framework that has grown brands by as much as 600%. It combines classical storytelling structures (including the ABT framework – And, But, Therefore) with modern business applications. For agencies, this means every piece of content you create is built on storytelling principles that have moved humans for millennia, ensuring engagement and results. Listen to episode 350 of the Business of Story Podcast: How to Craft Your Brand Story Strategy With the Story Cycle System.

What is the ABT (And, But, Therefore) narrative framework, and how do agencies use it in brand building?

The And, But, Therefore (ABT) narrative effectively connects with the primal pattern-seeking, problem-solving, decision-making buying limbic brain because it uses the three forces of story: agreement, contradiction and consequence. Watch this 50-minute ABT training by Park Howell or you can read the educational outline.

How quickly can we start seeing ROI with the StoryCycle Genie?

Agencies typically see immediate ROI through pitch time reduction (95%), client onboarding acceleration (weeks to days), and campaign activation speed (month one vs traditional 6-12 months). The 90%+ reduction in overhead costs for research, discovery, and content creation directly impacts your bottom line from day one.

Does the StoryCycle Genie replace our creative team?

No. The Genie enhances your team’s capabilities by adding 30+ specialized AI agents that work 24/7 alongside your people. Think of it as expanding your agency’s expertise without the overhead and headaches of additional headcount. Your team focuses on high-value creative work while the Genie handles systematic brand strategy, content creation, and optimization.

How does the Author Voice Profile Genie ensure authentic brand voice?

The Author Voice Profile Genie learns and improves your brand’s unique voice with every iteration. We’ve tested content with AI analyzers like Winston and received 99-100% “created by human” scores. More importantly, humans don’t detect it as AI because it’s created first by you with Genie assistance in your authentic voice.

What makes the StoryCycle Genie different from ChatGPT or other AI tools?

The StoryCycle Genie is the only AI platform built specifically for brand storytelling by agency principals who understand your challenges. It’s narrative-native (guided by the Story Cycle System), features 30+ specialized agents working in a Cognitive Mesh Architecture, protects your proprietary intelligence on our Brightsy platform, and delivers always-on-brand content through systematic frameworks – not generic AI responses.

How does the Cognitive Mesh Architecture work?

Our Cognitive Mesh Architecture connects 30+ specialized agents that collaborate seamlessly on your brand storytelling. The Brand Story Genie creates your foundation, the Audience Story Genie tailors messaging, the Content Playbook Genie ensures consistency, and specialized content creation agents (blog, email, social, video, etc.) produce always-on-brand assets. They work together systematically, not in isolation like traditional AI tools.

Can we use the StoryCycle Genie for competitive intelligence?

Absolutely. The Brand Intelligence Genie and Brand Story Grader: Competitors Genie analyze your competitive landscape, identify white space opportunities, and help you design market niches. You can provide clients with competitive intelligence they likely don’t have, positioning your agency as a strategic partner with market insights.

What is the learning curve for our team?

Minimal. Because the Genie was built by agency principals for agency professionals, you don’t need months or years getting up to speed on generative AI. You can put the Genie to work immediately on building your agency business and client confidence. The platform guides you through proven workflows with expert agents handling the complexity. You need to know no prompt engineering. Just speak to the Genie like it’s a colleague or consultant.

How does the StoryCycle Genie handle data security?

The Genie is built on our proprietary Brightsy platform, protecting your brand storytelling intelligence from competitors and generative AI. Only you, your team, and your clients (if you choose) can access your brand intel. Your proprietary strategies, client insights, and competitive intelligence remain secure.

What types of content can the StoryCycle Genie create?

The Genie features specialized agents for: blog posts, social media posts, email campaigns, newsletters, landing pages, website copy, sales presentations, case studies, video scripts, webinar scripts, product descriptions, one-pagers, long-form content (whitepapers, ebooks), Substack posts, and LinkedIn profiles. Plus, the Brand Genius Genie lets you create custom agents for proposals, grants, research tools, or any specialized need.

How does the 100% money-back guarantee work?

If you’re not 100% enthralled with what the StoryCycle Genie generates for you, we refund 100% of your first month’s subscription. And you keep all the brand storytelling assets you created. No risk, all reward.

Can we collaborate with clients inside the StoryCycle Genie?

Yes. The platform is designed for collaborative workflows. You can work with your clients and teams in the Genie, creating a systematic brand storytelling strategy, content creation, and activation without the confusion and frustrations of traditional generative AI tools. Many agencies find that this collaborative approach builds stronger client relationships and team camaraderie.

How does the StoryCycle Genie optimize for SEO, GEO, and AEO?

The Search Optimization Genie optimizes your content for traditional search engines (SEO), Google Entity Optimization (GEO), and AI Engine Optimization (AEO). According to experts like Mark Schaefer, AI answer bots are becoming your most important audiences. The Genie ensures you’re reaching both human customers and the AI systems that increasingly influence purchase decisions.

What is the typical time investment to build a complete brand brain?

Building your brand brain with the Brand Story Genie, Audience Story Genie, and Content Playbook Genie takes between one hour and one day, depending on complexity. Once established, you can produce high-performing campaign strategies and content calendars in an hour or two. Compare that to the traditional 4-6 weeks of research and discovery.

How do we get started with the StoryCycle Genie?

Start by exploring the platform at storycyclegenie.ai. You can test the Brand Story Grader on your own website or a prospect’s site to see the 14-point assessment in action. Then schedule a demo to see how the complete ecosystem of 30+ agents can transform your agency economics across all 21 wealth creation dimensions.

Ready to transform your agency into a wealth creation engine?

The StoryCycle Genie is waiting to amplify your expertise, accelerate your results, and position your agency at the forefront of AI innovation.

Now it’s time to let your brand genius out of the bottle.

Story on, my friend!

The post 21 Ways the StoryCycle Genie™ is Your Agency Wealth Creation Engine appeared first on Business of Story | Storytelling Strategy, Workshops & Keynotes.

Only 26% of Clients Think Their Agencies Are AI Experts. Here’s Your Blue Ocean.

On April 3, 2010, Steve Jobs launched the iPad.

As an early adopter, I bought one that week.

The next day, I was running out to see our largest client, Forever Living Products, Int’l, with my shiny new tech in tow.

My lead copywriter, we’ll call him Joe, was with me. He rolled his eyes at my new “gadget,” dismissing it.

Understand that Joe was still using a flip phone.

In fact, one day I couldn’t reach him. When I finally tracked him down, he said his mobile phone wasn’t working.

“What, did the hinge break?” I smirked.

Joe asked why I was bringing my iPad to our client meeting.

“Because I always want all of our clients to know that we are one, two or three steps ahead of them with advancing trends. That’s what they pay us for,” I coached.

“I thought they paid us for our creative,” he said.

“No, they pay us for our strategic leadership first, and then everything else, including creative,” I raised.

“Watch how they are going to fawn over this new ‘gadget'”.

Our client spent the first 15 minutes of the meeting playing with my new iPad. Posing lots of questions. Test driving it.

As an agency principal, isn’t that what you want to underscore to your clients?

That you are always ahead of the curve? The marketing trends? The tech advancements?

Because if the client ever catches up with you, what do they need you and your people for?

As an Agency Principal, You are in the AI Leadership Moment

That iPad moment was 15 years ago.

And right now, we’re living through another defining technology moment, only this one is on steroids.

But most agencies are acting like Joe with his flip phone instead of showing up with the shiny new iPad.

They’re hiding their AI usage (if they’re using it at all). Downplaying it. Hoping clients won’t notice.

And something that caught my eye in the 2025 Agency Edge Report is that just 26% of clients think their agencies are AI experts.

That’s not an iPad moment. That’s a broken hinge moment.

The Research That Exposes the Opportunity

Drew McLellan from the Agency Management Institute and Susan Baier from Audience Audit just released their annual Agency Edge Report titled, Leading Through the AI Revolution: The New Competitive Edge for Agencies.

For over a decade, they’ve tracked what makes agency-client relationships work, what makes clients stay or leave, and what drives increased spending.

This year, they surveyed 401 agency client decision-makers about AI.

And the data reveals the biggest opportunity agencies have seen in decades.

But most agencies are missing it completely.

They’re stuck with flip phones while their clients are looking for iPad-carrying strategic leaders.

What Clients Actually Want From AI

I spoke with Drew about this on the Business of Story podcast.

You know what keeps agency leaders up at night? The fear that AI means fee cuts and commoditization.

I get it. I ran my Phoenix-based ad agency, Park&Co, for 20 years and have stared at that 3 a.m. ceiling.

But the research reveals something completely different.

• Clients expect agencies to deliver better strategy with AI (58%)
• Generate more new ideas (56%)
• Improve marketing analysis (55%).

Fee reductions? Dead last at 31%.

As Drew puts it:

“The underlying message here is that AI can actually help agencies charge a premium for their thinking.”

Big time!

Just like that iPad in 2010, AI expertise isn’t about the tool. It’s about positioning yourself as the strategic leader who knows how to use the tool to deliver value that your clients can’t get anywhere else.

The Three AI Mindsets Your Clients Are Living In

Drew and Susan identified three distinct client mindsets through attitudinal analysis.

AI Embracers (31%): They trust their agencies completely and want you to lead them through AI transformation. As Drew notes, “These respondents have very tight relationships with their agencies, and they want their agencies to lead when it comes to AI.” These are your iPad-fawning clients who will reward your leadership with loyalty and increased spending.

AI Skeptics (41%): Your largest segment. They’re anxious but desperately want agency guidance. As Susan observes: “I think they’d love having an agency partner they can trust to help them use AI productively, and confidently.” They’re not anti-AI. They’re anti-uncertainty. These are the clients waiting for you to show up with the iPad and explain how it transforms their business.

AI Opportunists (28%): They think AI tools can replace agencies. As Susan warns: “Trying to please these clients will be a race to the bottom for agencies unless we can help them see the light.” These are the flip-phone Joes who’ll learn the hard way that gadgets without strategic expertise don’t deliver results.

The Agency Communication Crisis and Opportunity

Half of clients rate understanding HOW their agencies use AI as a top priority.

But only 50% of agencies have fully discussed this with clients.

We have a transparency problem.

As Drew says, “The truth is, we are not shouting to the hills about our AI usage because many agencies still feel behind the curve or unclear about where they stand. We can’t afford to stay in that spot.”

When you don’t explain your AI usage, clients fill in the blanks with worst-case scenarios. They make up stories about you.

What’s the Story Driving Your AI Leadership?

Over my 40-year advertising career, I’ve learned one fundamental truth.

The tools change. The technology evolves.

But the vital storytelling structures that move human beings to action? Those are eternal.

This is where proven storytelling structures animated by the latest tech create an advantageous position for agencies in the market.

Lincoln used embedded ABTs (And, But, Therefore) narrative frameworks in the Gettysburg Address to move a nation. Hemingway mastered the six-word story that makes people cry. Jobs is the king of entrepreneurial storytelling, selling Apples.

They were intuitive storytellers.

When you become intentional with these classical structures through AI, you revolutionize how you communicate.

AI without proven human-centric storytelling frameworks produces generic bot content.

But AI enhanced by classical narrative frameworks? That creates competitive advantage.

It’s beautification vs botification.

It’s the difference between showing up to your biggest client with a flip phone or an iPad.

The AI-Powered Agency Wealth Creation Engine

What if your agency fully embraced AI without having to be trained on it? Spend months learning how to embed it in your brand storytelling work? Trying to rope everyone into dispersed and quirky GEN AI agents?

What if you could tap this Wealth Creating Engine now? In one place?

The StoryCycle Genie is your 2025 iPad moment…Your dynamic Agency Wealth Creation Engine, created by agency principals for agency principals.

It’s the first platform that is guided by the proven Story Cycle System with AI technology – an ecosystem of dozens of expert agents working simultaneously in our Cognitive Mesh Architecture (CMA), applying classical storytelling principles on our proprietary Brightsy platform that secures your branding IP from the prying eyes of competitors and GEN AI itself.

Instant AI Expertise:

Run client brands through the Brand Story Grader in under 60 seconds. Show them where their storytelling breaks down using narrative frameworks that have helped me grow brands by as much as 600 percent. You demonstrate and provide a wealth of knowledge.

Transparent AI Integration:

You’re showcasing how classical narrative frameworks enhanced by AI deliver superior results. Show clients exactly how the ABT (And, But, Therefore) narrative framework applies to their brand. Transparency becomes your differentiator. Brand story brilliance becomes your specialty. You model a wealth of AI expertise.

Strategic Value Over Cost Savings:

Just like when we grew engagement by 400% across five countries on LinkedIn for Trimble’s global SaaS platform by reordering their content using the ABT. You deliver a wealth of human-driven sales and marketing story content at scale. 

Segment-Specific Positioning:

For Embracers, show the ecosystem. For Skeptics, walk through transparent frameworks. For Opportunists, run comparisons proving classical storytelling wisdom beats generic AI. You provide a wealth of leadership in how to leverage advancing technology now. 

Building Camaraderie in Your Agency:

You expedite brand storytelling strategy to expedite go-to-market campaigns so that you can handle more clients in less time. You release a wealth of time and energy so your teams can do their finest work and more of it. 

The Truth Hinges on Innovation Leadership

Most agencies are hiding their AI usage (if they’re using it at all).

But the research proves the opposite.

Clients want you to be AI experts. They want you to teach them.

Heck, if I were still running Park&Co, I’d reframe it from an Advertising Agency to an Aidvertising Agency. (Ai, of course, means artificial intelligence.)

And I’d be guided by my new mantra: EI + AI = ROI: Your Return on Intelligence, demonstrating your wealth of innovation.

Because your clients want you to lead them.

The agencies that will dominate aren’t the ones with the most AI tools.

They’re the ones with the deepest brand storytelling expertise enhanced by AI technology.

The StoryCycle Genie Quickly Evolves You Into an Aidvertising Agency

The 2025 Agency Edge Report is your roadmap.

Most competitors are still uncertain about positioning.

That’s your blue ocean.

The StoryCycle Genie gives you classical storytelling foundation and technological precision to dominate it as an Aidvertising Agency.

Because when you combine millennia of proven narrative structures with cutting-edge AI technology, you create genuine AI expertise rooted in timeless wisdom.

It’s the modern equivalent of showing up to your biggest client meeting with the iPad while everyone else is still using flip phones.

Except this time, you’re not just showing them a new gadget.

You’re demonstrating how classical narrative frameworks transform AI from a commodity tool into a strategic advantage.

Your clients are waiting for you to lead them through the AI transformation.

Don’t be the agency with the broken hinge.

Be the Aidvertising Agency that shows up with strategic leadership clients pay premium prices for.

Because if the client ever catches up with you, what do they need you for?

Story on, my friend.

The post Is Your Agency the iPad or the Flip Phone in the AI Revolution? appeared first on Business of Story | Storytelling Strategy, Workshops & Keynotes.

As an ad agency principal or marketing consultant, you know the power of a crystal clear brand story. If you had proven way to develop and activate your differentiated brand stories, then you’d be enthralled by the success you achieve with your brand storytelling.

But you feel frustrated because you haven’t found a proven, repeatable, systematic process to create and activate your stories.

Now you do, with the timeless And, But, Therefore (ABT) narrative framework.

The ABT is at the core of the StoryCycle Genie, the only narrative-native brand storytelling platform guided by the remarkable Story Cycle System, which has grown brands by as much as 600 percent.

We call the DNA of Story, because it is an ancient story structure that you can use to make all of your messages land right the first time, every time.

I’ll show you why the ABT works to move people to action, how to wield it to make your communications clear, concise, and compelling, and give you loads of examples of other brands that leverage this messaging marvel.

Yes, it’s a 50-minute training. But you can jump ahead as I’ve called out the various chapters, build instructions and examples in the timecode notes below for easier navigation.

Or, just watch the whole dang thing. It’s worth it.

I promise.

INTRO

Hey, thanks for joining me for this micro training course on the and but therefore the ABT narrative framework. It really sits at the core of our story cycle genie. And so many people have asked me about what is it exactly and how do you use it? Well, we use it for messaging. We use it for unique value proposition development.

You will see within the Genie that the and but therefore plays an important role throughout because we found this little messaging marvel is like the most powerful way to make all of your messages land right the first time from your audience’s point of view. And that’s what it’s really all about. So let’s jump right in. So you get a sense of what this Genie is all about. Let me share my screen here.

So I’ve titled this presentation, How to Make Your Brand the Signal in Our Noisy World. And I should have probably added noisy, noisy, noisy world because it is so hard to stand out and to connect unless you have an important and powerful differentiator in the market and how you communicate it, your unique value proposition, essentially. So.

In the story cycle Genie, the and but therefore plays an important role as I mentioned it. It is one of three primary frameworks that we teach and we call everything we do at the business of story, the applied science and bewitchery of storytelling because well, there is truly an applied science to storytelling. It’s not just woo woo. There are algorithms, the and but therefore, the five primal elements of a short story for big impact.

the 10-step story cycle system. These are frameworks that if you follow, they work every single time. That is the applied science that then leads to the bewitchery. And you know what I’m talking about here with bewitchery. It’s when you hear a good story, you get excited, you get sad, happy, goosebumps, the hair stands up at the back of your neck. You have a visceral, energetic reaction to when you hear a good story because

NIKE ABT EXAMPLE (02:54)

Your brain is not just listening to a story. It is that neurocoupling. It’s sharing that story. It’s seeing that experience. It’s actually simulating that experience. And too few people in the advertising, branding, marketing world use story to their benefit. They lead with features and functions, logic and reason when what your audience really wants is the emotional pull of a story.

Everything we do at the business of story and in the StoryCycle Genie is based on what I call the DNA of storytelling, and that is the and but therefore. Let me show you one in action real quick. Let’s say Nike, for instance. What might be their ANd, But, Therefore foundational narrative framework for Just Do It? Well they might do something like,

“You want to live up to your potential, and if you start today, then you’ll discover the strength, health and confidence already inside you.”

That is our statement of agreement.

Now let’s insert the problem.

“But you’re frustrated because fear, excuses, and hesitation keep stopping you before you even begin.”

Now let’s go to the conclusion or the call to action. We call it the statement of consequence.

“Therefore, imagine the pride of proving yourself right. Just do it. Nike is with you every step of the way.”

Setup, problem, resolution. It’s the way our primal pattern-seeking, problem-solving, decision-making, limbic buying brain loves to receive information. This is the algorithm that leads to the bewitchery. Now I have shared our frameworks with many brands around the world, including the USA Air Force. Walmart Canada is a big customer teaching their people how to use it. I do a lot of work with small to medium-sized businesses in the B2B.

world at the Better Business Bureau, should say Coca-Cola, Carvana, Hilton, you name it. So this has been something I’ve been training for many, many, many years.

What is the Hero’s Journey? (04:37.754)

Before we dive into the ABT, I want to show you the bigger picture of storytelling based on Joseph Campbell and the Hero’s Journey.

This is where I first learned about it, when our son was going to film school at Chapman University back in, boy, 2006, graduating in 2010. I asked him, “Send me your books and your recorded lectures when you’re done with them, – since I’m paying for them – because I want to know what Hollywood knows about storytelling. And that’s when I was first introduced to and studied Joseph Campbell, The Hero’s Journey and The Monomyth. And it hit me like a ton of bricks. It was like, this is a customer journey.

This is an ad agency owner’s journey. This is a journey we all live in.

So why don’t they teach this framework to us in the branding, sales, marketing and advertising world? That’s what I started to do back in 2008. I took it upon myself to start sharing this big story structure with the world. Then I’m going to show you how we boil it down to the And, But, Therefore narrative framework. But first, I just want to share this quick video with you to get you up to speed if you’re not familiar with the Hero’s Journey.

Check it out.

What Makes a Hero Video: (05:30)

Story Cycle System: Inspired by the Hero’s Journey and Applied to Brand Storytelling (09:20)

So even if you’re not familiar with the hero’s journey, you may be now. It looks very familiar, right? You’ve seen this. It is in all great movies and books and music you listen to and so forth. It has been a framework that has been around literally since the beginning of recorded storytelling. But here’s what I love about it relative to your customer journey and even the journey you’re on. When you are telling a story,

You always want to tell it from your prospect or your customer or your colleague’s point of view. You want to place your audience at the center of the story. And that’s what our story cycle system does throughout when it’s creating your narrative strategy, because you as the brand or the person or the guide are playing that role of mentor guide, helping your audiences, your prospects, your customers get what they want on their journey.

by following you through the progression of buying your products or your services to help level them up. But when you ask them to do that, you’re asking them to change and move out of status quo. That’s where we move into that special world, change or disruption. And as we all know, change can be more difficult when it first happens that you get through that J curve, as they call it, of trouble until you come out of the other end of it leveled up.

But as you’re taking people through that, you are guiding them. You are showing them the victories along the way. You are making your product or service what they need, the ideal tool they need to get through this change so that you can deliver them to the promised land, seizing of the treasure, which then returns them back to their ordinary world again. But now they’re leveled up. They’ve had success with you. And it leads to them now sharing your story, scaling your story with their world.

Through word-of-mouth marketing, and it all starts again. This was my inspiration to create the 10-step story cycle system, matching the hero’s journey, the monomyth, to business.

But instead of a closed loop, I see it as an open, expanding spiral of engagement with every revolution. What I’m talking about is when people first learn about you and your brand under brand awareness and the stories they’re buying into.

Then brand adoption, when they actually start working with you and buying your product or service, and then you are delivering on the promises you’ve made in those stories, they are now an active participant in your story, which leads to brand appreciation. And you can see how that spiral of engagement expands with every revolution to the point that now they’re telling your story with their world. And is that really what we all want is to be able to scale our stories?

This is the overarching guide for the StoryCycle Genie, everything that’s based on. This is the program that I’ve used for more than 20 years to grow brands by as much as 600%. And that is the StoryCycle system. I teach it, I train it, and I’ve got a book on it, Brand Bewitchery, that is a guide to lead you through it. And of course, you now know we have the StoryCycle Genie that is all based on this. But what I’m also training

I’m looking at simpler ways than just the 10-step process to help people share stories that make a real impact in the world. And I’ve got this five-step process, how to tell a short story for big impact with these five primal elements of a story. And I’m going to show you what that is towards the end of this presentation. But you can use these five primal elements in four different categories of stories, that connection story to build trust.

That story about change, I call it the story of truth because a lot of people, a lot of times, people don’t want to hear that change is afoot, but the truth is that it is happening, and here’s what we need to do about it. They then will often, when you’re asking them to change, create an anti-story as to why they possibly can’t change. That’s where this story of tension comes in, or what I call the overcoming of the anti-story, which you can never do with charts, graphs, facts, and stats.

The only way to overcome an anti-story is with a better story. And then finally, the story of triumph, which is a different way to tell a case study. Anyways, all four categories of these stories can use that same story chassis of the five primal elements of a short story. But what is all built on? Well, it’s built on the ABT, the DNA of storytelling that uses the three forces of story. So let’s use it just to set up this overall presentation.

An Example ABT for This Training (13:55)

As a communications professional, you want to connect deeply with your audiences AND quickly move them to action.

BUT you’re not connecting as deeply as you could because you push logical arguments, features, and functions when what our prospects really want is the emotional pull of a story.

THEREFORE, hook your prospects from the start using the ABT narrative framework that tickles the primal part of your customer’s brain where all of their real buying decisions are being made.

There it is, setup, problem, resolution. A very quick story that uses the three forces of story to hack through the noise and hook into the hearts of your prospects. And that’s where you want to be because we all buy with our hearts and then we justify that purchase with our heads.

We looked at Nike, a B2C company, right? Let’s look, how do you use this in B2B?

The Salesforce ABT as an Example in B2B Marketing (14:58)

Well, let’s take a look at what Salesforce is doing and what their And, But, Therefore might be that leads to their unique value proposition.

You want to deepen relationships with your customers. And if you can connect every interaction across sales, service and marketing in one platform, then you can deliver the seamless experiences they expect.

But you’re overwhelmed because siloed siloed systems, scattered data and disconnected teams that keep you from truly understanding your customers, leaving them feeling unseen and undeserved.

Of course, that’s the problem Salesforce is solving for. How do they solve it?

Therefore, now you can unite every touch point to deliver smarter, faster, more personalized customer success with Salesforce, the number one AI CRM.

And by the way, this is a new UVP that they’ve just created, “The number one AI CRM,” so you can see how this all levels up, and you can do this for your own company too.

Write an ABT from your audience’s point of view. What do they want relative to your offering, and why is it important to them? But why don’t they have it? What frustration? What annoying negative emotion are they experiencing because of what problem that you’re going to solve for them? Therefore, get them to picture what the future looks like with you when they work with you.

Setup, problem, resolution.

When to Use the ABT in All of Your Messaging (16:30)

Now, where do you use the ABT?

You can use it well beyond just creating unique value propositions. For instance, emails. Now, we all get ghosted all the time. And we have to write these darn emails all the time. So it’s a perfect proving ground or habit stacking, if you will. So make a goal to write three emails every single day, using the And, But, Therefore to strengthen your own skills with this messaging marvel.

And then watch what happens with engagement. I think you are going to see it go up, but what we’ve learned about the ABT and here’s the shortest ABT I know

A Home Depot sales pro asked me this one time during a training. “Park, what is the shortest ABT you know? Well…

The ABT is short AND sweet, BUT tricky. THEREFORE, practice, practice, practice.

Your emails are a great place to practice an ABT. It’s also great on all of your Slack platforms, Microsoft Teams, whatever you’re communicating on. If you are in a large enterprise, use the ABT to cut to the chase, get your point across to your colleagues super quickly.

Us the ABT in all of your social media, you’re going to see engagement go through the roof. And in fact, with Tremble, a SaaS provider out of Denver, back in March of 2022, they were running a LinkedIn campaign through five different countries in five different languages.

And they were getting about a 3 % engagement rate, which is pretty good considering LinkedIn itself says if you get anything over like 1.2%, you’re doing all right.

Well, in April of 2022, we took those same campaigns and reformatted them as ABTs in the different languages. I first wrote them in English and then they translated them, of course. And they saw engagement go up by 400%.

But it wasn’t because of stellar copywriting. It was simply because we reformatted how they wrote those posts as an And, But, Therefore.

So that’s the power of it online. It’s also great to focus your presentations on a singular problem solution dynamic, and in your long-form communications, your long-form posts, and so forth.

Always write an ABT for yourself first so that you know what your narrative thread is throughout that singular problem solution dynamic that you are covering in any long-form presentation or content.

And for any of those of you out there that have kids, it’s also great to use on them to get them to eat their peas. But as they grow up, they might return the favor and use it on you.

How Lauren Lowell Used an ABT to Get Her Dad to Buy Game 2 Tickets to the 2024 World Series (19:06)

Last year, in October of 2024, I was doing a training at Agital, which is a national digital ad agency, and they have a large office here in Phoenix. I was down working with their creatives and their account service people, and in the crowd was Lauren Lowell.

This was a Wednesday morning. I was giving their account and creative team a half-day Business of Story training. That afternoon, Lauren sent me an email that said to the effect,  “Look, I’ve been trying to get my dad to buy us tickets to the L.A. Dodgers, New York Yankees Game two in the World Series. And it’s been crickets. In fact, I sent him a note on Monday, got nothing back in return, didn’t even reply to it. So this is the note I sent him after our session today.”

You have loved baseball since you were a kid and you’ve shared that love with your brothers growing up and now with me. Your childhood dream of attending an LA Dodgers and New York Yankee World Series is happening right now within your reach.

But without tickets, neither of us will experience this monumental game because we let opportunity pass us by.

Let us continue to build upon our strong bond through something we both love. By getting tickets to the sporting event, we will both remember the rest of our lives. Buy tickets now and Lauren is such a brilliant ad professional. She even include the link to Ticketmaster. Well, guess what? It worked. He responded that afternoon. They had the tickets. He’d already bought the airfare, got it over there. And then he sent me a note next week. He said, thank you for teaching my daughter this wonderful new trick. Now that I know about it, I’m going to keep an eye out for it all the time whenever she’s asking for something.

This is one of my favorite ROIs on the ABT from last year. Just love it.

But it’s so powerful because it simplifies and then clarifies our message through the noise of the loud, obnoxious, abundant world we live in. Our audiences have many, many choices. And so how do you get them to choose you? How do I get them to choose me? You do it because your unique value proposition.

And all of your messaging is clearly articulated through an And, But, Therefore. It hacks through this noise and hooks in the hearts of what I’m talking about, us as storytelling monkeys. Now, what’s interesting to me is our neuro cortex, this frontal lobe is so brilliant that we’ve been able to create this technology that is compounded at the rate of Moore’s law. Now add AI to it and it’s probably compounding a hundred times that pace. And

That means we are all getting bombarded with more and more communication every single day. And yet you and I and everybody we’re trying to connect with is still walking around with this fundamental monkey brain, this limbic system that has not evolved appreciably since our ancestors navigated and survived the Savannah is the same limbic system we speak to today to try to understand, navigate, and survive the onslaught of communication.

So let’s speak to it in the way it wants to receive information, and here’s how that works.

How the ABT Works in Our Brain (22:15)

So our brain, this organ that sits on top of our spinal column. It makes up 2% of our body mass, yet it consumes 20% of our calories. It burns 20% of our energy. And it has one job and one job only, and that is the survival and procreation of our being.

That’s all it really cares about, right?

So when we’re speaking to it and we confuse it, it will shut down and conserve that energy, and it will quickly whip up its own story, trying to figure out what you’re trying to say. If it can’t figure it out, it’s going to create its own story, and it won’t be the story you intended. If you confuse it, if you share obfuscation, if you share a bunch of content, it just doesn’t get it; it’s going to shut down and create a story, and it won’t be the story you intended unless you intentionally tell it a story.

Because the story lights up the theater of the mind. It becomes an active participant in it. It can put its dukes down and its ears up. It burns way fewer calories understanding how you’re communicating with it. That’s where the three forces of story come in.

The Foundational Structure of the ABT (24:00)

Those are agreement, contradiction, consequence, as you’ve heard me say before, that speaks to that pattern-seeking, problem-solving, decision-making, buying limbic brain.

That is the target for your story. That is the signal you want to push into the brain in that subconscious mind, the amygdala, the hippocampus. That’s where the buying decisions are being made.

And you do that, of course, with the fundamental DNA story structure of the And, But, Therefore.

Now here’s ABT 101. Here’s how you create that statement of agreement: You start with your audience, as I mentioned earlier in the Hero’s Journey. Your audience is always at the center of the story, and then you acknowledge what they want relative to your offering. They might not even know what your offering is yet, but you’ve done your due diligence and discovery enough that you know you can foreshadow your offering by really underscoring what they want.

And then you want to raise the stakes, and why it’s important to them. That’s your setup. That’s your Statement of Agreement. All you want to do is get them nodding yes, thinking, “You understand me. We have a shared vision. You appreciate what I want and why it’s important to me. Cool. You get me.”

Then you pull the rug out. You introduce the plot pivot, the problem with your But Statement of Contradiction.

What’s the frustration they’re experiencing because of what problem that you, of course, are going to solve for them?

And then the final consequence, that Statement of Consequence, that therefore, how will you help them get it through your unique and differentiated offering.

Set up, problem, resolution. This is how our pattern-seeking survival limbic brain loves to get information.

The ABT is truly the signal in the noise. It is how you stand out in the world.

What Silicon Marketer Christopher Lochhead Thinks of the ABT (25:30)

Now there’s a gentleman, you may know him, he’s a very fairly famous marketer in Silicon Valley, Christopher Lockett, who does a lot of work with a lot of large tech brands, and he’s written one of my favorite books on branding and category design called Play Bigger. Well, I was on his show a couple of years ago and I introduced him to the And, But, Therefore and how it works. After he tried it a couple of times, here’s what he had to say about the ABT.

So you gave me a gift with the ABT, you know in category design We have this thing called a POV a point of view and it is simply structured very similarly to that of the ABT which is essentially and this is such a profound insight it sounds like it’s nothing just like the ABT in a point of view it goes like this

Nobody buys a solution until they have a problem. And so a point of view starts with framing, naming, and claiming a problem. And when people understand the problem slash opportunity, then they become interested in the solution.

And then of course, the third piece from a POV perspective is how your product or service or your idea for that matter, you might not be actually marketing or selling anything, bridges the gap between the problem slash opportunity and therefore the solution. Okay. So with all that said, why do I love the ABT? The ABT takes the thinking that we did around points of view and does a fantastic legendary double click on it. And that’s why the and button therefore model is pure genius. It allows you to relate to people.

then it gives them the but which tees up the problem and then the therefore which points the way to the different future aka solution and it’s easily rememberable and if you start to play with it as I have since you taught it to me just like anything else you develop some prowess with it starts working you’re like wow it’s almost weird how this works.

And here’s what he means by it’s almost weird how this works. The next day, after I taught him the ABT on his show, he wrote this tweet:

Most entrepreneurs would love to design a new category and build a billion dollar business. But there is so much startup BS on Twitter, it’s hard to know who to listen to. Therefore, as implied, meet David Sachs. He knows a few things. And here’s what blew him away.

In less than six hours, he got over 60,000 engagements on this one tweet.

Now, Christopher is a prolific social media guy. So, to get this kind of engagement just completely blew his mind. And he has been using the ABT in all of his work ever since.

Airbnb ABT and Anecdorte (28:25)

Let’s jump in and look at the ABT for Airbnb, which, to me, was one of the best storytellers back in the day. I think maybe they’ve lost their way a little bit with storytelling, but I love this example because it shows you how the ABT can also be a strategy tool.

So they were doing rebranding back in 2013, and they wanted to come up with something that really helped people feel like they belonged. Not only from the traveler feeling like they belong in any Airbnb you stay at, but to the host being an aspirational stake in the ground that if you can’t make people feel like they belong in your home, then you don’t belong in the Airbnb family. And also with their own colleagues. We want to make sure you feel like you belong here in the corporation and that you are building your career in the right place.

So I really love this overarching, Belong Anywhere unique value proposition/campaign theme narrative arc. Now if I was going to be presenting this new campaign theme to the board of directors, I would build three different ABTs, one each for each one of my audiences my customers. I’d create an ABT for the hosts, and I would create ABTs for the colleagues so that it is specifically focused on one audience.

But for the case of demonstration, let me share with you what I think the ABT might be to set up this whole concept of Belonging Anywhere.

You love to travel, exploring interesting places around the world, and you wish to feel less like tourists and more like locals. By the way,

This came right out of the customer sentiments from their own research. So great place to start is just repeating what your customers have told you.

But you’re annoyed with typical tourism because it houses you in large hotels, promotes crowded tours and separates you from the indigenous experiences you seek.

That’s the problem that Airbnb is solving for, correct?

Therefore, now you can feel like you belong anywhere with Airbnb.

The ABT in an Airbnb Anecdote (28:26)

So now let’s take this one step further. Let’s go to the 25th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall. Airbnb went in and did an economic impact study to demonstrate what it meant for both East and West Berlin for that wall coming down and Airbnb coming in. And of course, the numbers were off the charts good and they got all kinds of free earned media all around the world for that report. But while they were doing the research, started covering these amazing human interest stories. Stories that they made little short documentaries about to underscore this whole idea of Airbnb belong anywhere. And it’s a way for them to demonstrate, show this unique value proposition of Belong Anywhere in practice, versus the brand just sitting there beating their chest saying belong anywhere, belong anywhere. No one’s going to listen to that.

But when you show it to them through a true story well told, then it’s the natural moral of the story. So take a quick look at this great little animated short documentary that underscores this Belong Anywhere. And oh, by the way, you are gonna see not only the And, But, Therefore structure in this, but also the five primal elements of a short story for big impact.

Now isn’t that a beautiful little tale to support the overarching brand narrative, Airbnb – Belong Anywhere?

Examination of the Airbnb “Wall and Chain” Story (33:19)

Let’s take a look at it. So it’s not very long. I mean, if you didn’t have the animation, the music going on, whatever, you could actually tell a story in under a minute. But the five primal elements are this a timestamp, a location stamp, a central character action, and surprise that action that sets up your aha moment or your final moral of the story.

So they naturally did this. They’ve got a location stamp and a time stamp right up top, and they introduce you to the singular central character, right? So there are three of the five primal elements right off the bat.

What you’re doing when you introduce a time stamp is you are triggering that limbic brain to pay attention because it’s saying to itself, Park just gave me a moment in time. I better pay attention because something must have happened that I might need to respond to if case that ever happens to me.

It’s simply that storytelling as a learning tool, working with that survival brain.

And then the location stamp. It helps fire up the theater of the mind so they can picture it. Maybe they’ve been there, been to someplace similar. And then the introduction of the protagonist. And it’s not talking about two people or three people or four people. It’s always a story about one individual and what happened to them.

Yeah, there may be co-players in it, like in this case, the guard, but he’s a secondary player. It is all about the father. So then they move into action, right? After moving away, the father carried a piece of it with him. He had some PTSD, and so she wanted to take him back to show him what a beautiful place it had become.

But here was the aha, the surprise moment.

The stranger who answered the door became familiar. The guard who patrolled the opposite side of the wall now welcomed us as a friend.

And in every story, when you really look at it, there’s always kind of the surprise outcome, this pivot, this novelty that our brain absolutely loves. This all underscores their core aha moment, right? Their brand UVP of Belong Anywhere. Timestamp, location stamp, central character, action and surprise outcome that leads to the moral of the story.

And when you look at this, by the way, it’s also a perfect And, But, Therefore. You know, my father was a guard on the west side of the Berlin Wall while another man guarded the east. “And” is implied… Eventually the wall came down.

They even use “but” to trigger the pivot. Now we’re into the action of Act 2 that leads us to the therefore, which once again is implied. You could throw it in there. Therefore, things are better for my father. They simply said, “after that…”

And isn’t that last line really just another way of saying, and he lived happily ever after? One of the most famous story endings we’ve ever heard.

The Two Storytelling Truths (36:14)

So something I want you to think about when you’re telling your stories and especially writing your And, But, Therefores: there are really two extraordinary story truths. The first one is that you are not the center of your story. Your audience is. Always tell your stories from their perspective.

They are the ones on their hero’s journey that you are going to be their mentor or guide to help them get what they want.

Story truth number two: Your story is not about what you make, but what you make happen in your audience’s life. Outcomes trump offerings every single time. People actually don’t care about you. They don’t care about your brand. They don’t care about your widget. They don’t care about your special storytelling skills.

All they care about is how you can level them up in everything they do.

So let’s again look at how you build an and but there for. As you know, ABT 101 is you introduce who your audience is so you’re speaking directly to them and you’re thinking from their point of view. What do they want relative to your offering and why is it important to them? But why don’t they have it and therefore how are you uniquely equipped to help them get it?

ABT 101 & 201 Builds (37:00)

Now you can expand on the ABT as our story cycle genie does by bringing even more clarity and context to it using the If/Then clause.

So who’s your audience, what do they want, and if they can get it this way, then this is the positive outcome. And it’s just another way to speak to that problem-solving, decision-making, pattern-seeking limbic brain by adding more of these cause-and-effect clauses into your ABT.

In your but statement, I am a huge believer in the use of the conjunction of “because.” And so after the but, I want you to introduce a negative emotion because of (caused by) what problem.

We call this finding the hurt and amplifying the pain. The hurt is acknowledging how they feel, why they’re down. And then amplify the pain with the problem that’s causing it.

That word “because” is so important. I harken back to a 1978 study by Harvard: The Power of the Word ‘because’ to Get People to do Stuff.”

They did a really interesting study. They took a Xerox copier and they put it out in a very, very busy corridor where people would naturally line up to make their copies.

Then they sent in their test subjects and they gave them their first script, which was simply this: “Excuse me, I have five copies. May I use the Xerox machine?”

Well, it’s not an excuse. Actually, they’re just literally asking if they can cut in line.

And back in 1978, maybe people were nicer, I’m not sure. Maybe they’re more empathetic, but they got 60 % compliance. 60 % of the people said, sure, you can cut in line, go for it.

Then a little bit later, they sent the test subjects back in and they would say the same thing, “Excuse me, I have five pages, may I use a Xerox machine because I have to make copies.”

They saw compliance rise by 33%.

Now this isn’t even an excuse because everybody has to make copies, but simply by putting in that conjunction of because it has this cause and effect thing to it that it got people to comply.

Then they went around for the third time and they just asked them to actually add an excuse: “…because I’m in a rush,” and compliance only ticked up one more percentage point.

That is the power of the word “because” and why I always love to use it in my But Statement of Contradiction.

But you’re overwhelmed, but you’re feeling bummed out, but you’re nervous, but you’re anxious, but you’re fearful because of this physical problem, obstacle, gap that you have to overcome. Then when you get to the therefore, here’s the mistakes a lot of people make that you will never make in the StoryCycle Genie because it’s programmed to keep this from happening. People always lead with their brand right after the therefore. Therefore, buy X, Y, and Z and then you’ll get this. And that’s not what you want to do.

You want to keep the focus on your audience because, remember, they are the hero in this journey. So I want you to think about what does success look like to them?

Therefore, you are going to be free.

Therefore, you are going to earn more ROI.

Therefore, you are going to gain tremendous respect from your colleagues.

Finally, you introduce how you help them achieve that. You, as the brand, don’t come until the very end of this story structure, the second clause in the therefore statement. Something to really think about when you’re writing all your content. Always keep it about your audience.

The Three Forces of Trust Building (41:00)

By the way, I want to underscore here too, while the ABT uses the three forces of story of agreement, contradiction, and consequence, I’ve learned something about this. When you do it properly like you will do in the StoryCycle Genie, it creates the three forces of trust building. And those are, number one, you are illustrating, showing that you understand your audience by simply calling them out at the very beginning.

Number two, you are demonstrating that you appreciate what they want and why they want it.

And the third one is empathy. In that but statement, you are empathizing with how they feel so they go, “Wow, you get me.” You understand you’ve been here before.

So with the ABT, while it uses setup, problem, resolution or agreement, contradiction, consequence, when you use it properly, you are instilling confidence in your audience, building that trust by demonstrating that you understand them, you appreciate what they want, and why it’s important to them, and you empathize with why they don’t currently have it.

Therefore, imagine when they get it because you are the natural way forward. Let me give you one more terrific example of this.

The Pret Auto Partez ABT (42:15)

Andre Martin Hobbs is the president of Prete Auto Partez, which is a used car dealership in Quebec, Canada. He came to me at the Social Media Marketing World event after I spoke there back in 2016.

He said, I’d really like for you to help us build our story for Prete Auto Partez, which by the way, in French means “Ready, Car, Go.”

When he told me it was a used car dealership, I was like, I don’t know, do I really want to work with a used car dealership? And then he raised the ante a little bit and he says, “Oh, and by the way, we primarily focus on credit risk buyers.”

All I could think of was, “Oh God, they’re predatory. They’re going to try to get these poor people to do whatever.

I built an anti-story in my mind as to why I didn’t want to work with him, and he told me he was going to call in about three weeks. I figured he wouldn’t. A lot of people say that and never show up, but Andre, good to his word, did. And what he told me in that call really changed everything because I was telling myself the wrong story, only because he didn’t have a proper, clear story to share with me, and that’s what we built together. But his main goals were this.

As I mentioned, Pret Auto Partez is a used car dealership for credit-challenged buyers in Quebec, Canada. They had to differentiate themselves from the typical smarmy used car dealerships, and he was hoping to grow by 20%.

Now here is the brilliance of André’s business model. He created a car dealership to help get Canadians who were down on their financial luck. It might have been because of the global recession, could have been they lost all their finances to a health problem, maybe they got a divorce and had to divvy things up.

He said these are good, good people that just want to get back on their feet, and they want to have the freedom, the luxury, if you will, and just that integrity of owning their own car. So at Pret Auto Partez, if you come in to buy a car, you have to sit through an up to three-hour financial planning session first.

You got to reveal all of your nasty little secrets in your finances, and then they will only put you in a car that you can afford to pay for every month, making your payments every month for two years to repair your credit.

So Andre had a brand purpose that was much larger than just selling used cars to at-risk buyers. It was about using the industry to help get Canadians back on their feet while providing their car.

Here is the And, But, Therefore we created that became the foundation for the entire Pret Auto Partez story that led to really an amazing unique value proposition and campaign theme. It reads…

You want the convenience of owning a car and you wish for the freedom it provides.

Now, these two words, convenience and freedom were the words that were spoken to Andre and his team when they did their customer research. This is what their buyers were saying to them. So we just put that and statement of agreement in the buyer’s voice, right? Here’s the problem.

But you have bad credit.

It’s just that simple. But you have bad credit.

Therefore, purchase a car you can afford to begin repairing your financial standing with Prete Auto Partez.

And here’s the theme, the unique value proposition this led to…

Prete Auto Partez, your vehicle to financial freedom.

Pretty powerful.

And Andre used this line, “Your vehicle to financial freedom,” and the entire brand story narrative for his recruiting, for his hiring, for his retention, and for how he uses social media to get his buyers to tell their story.

So he has that expanding spiral of engagement. That is the story cycle system that has grown brands by as much as 600 percent.

Because the brand first gets its clear, consistent, concise, compelling brand story in place. And then they deliver on the promises they make in those stories and get their customers to retell and scale that story.

If you’d like to hear more of Andre’s story, check it out on the Business of Story podcast, show number 499: How to Create an Enduring Business Based on Your Timeless Brand Story.  We walk through the entire creation of his brand story using the Story Cycle system.

By the way, it took us about three or four months to create his overall story foundation. But doing it the old mechanical way. Now with the StoryCycle Genie, you can probably do it in about 60 minutes, maybe two hours, and have that same, if not even greater impact on your story.

Your ABT Exercise to Begin Building it as a Habit With Your Storytelling (47:23)

Here’s what I want you to do. I want you to think of the ABT as the storytelling dumbbell to build your narrative intuition.

So from this point forward, I want you to write three emails every single day, starting with an And, But, Therefore/ You got to write them anyway. You may as well practice there and build your narrative intuition.

Now that you know about the ABT, go and teach two people how to use it. I learned, teaching a master’s course at Arizona State University for five years on storytelling, that the best way to learn how to really use these frameworks and understand them is to teach them to someone else.

Test the Strength of Your Brand Story for FREE (48:09)

And then finally, go and review your homepage and rewrite it as an ABT because I guarantee you 98 % of your homepages are all speaking all about you, about the brand, about the features and functions, and not speaking from the point of view of your audience.

And if you don’t believe me, go and check it out for yourself. Go to storycyclegenie.ai.

Click on that white button and get a FREE brand story assessment. You’ll just put in your name, put in your email address, put in your URL that you would like the brand Genie to review and in under 60 seconds it’s going to give you a grade from A plus to F minus on how well you are showing up in the world with your brand storytelling. And it’s going to give you a 14-point brand story assessment. So you’ll know exactly where you need to go to get things fixed.

Everything from story structure to ABT messaging strength. And now that you know about the ABT, it could be even stronger for you, of course. Your customer struggles, clarity, so on and so forth.

You can read through that list and see that it gives you a whole host of intel that you can act on right now.

So the StoryCycle Genie validates what you’re already doing well with your storytelling. It reveals gaps and highlights missed opportunities that you can easily fix in your storytelling. And it will even inspire you with new ways to think about your story.

As I like to always end all my trainings is as you are growing as a more confident, compelling storyteller, remember that…

The most potent story you will ever tell is a story you tell yourself. So make that a great one.

Thanks for being here, and if you have any questions whatsoever about the Storycycle Genie, the ABT and or the Story Cycle System, please reach out.

FAQs for the ABT Narrative Framework

Frequently Asked Questions: ABT Narrative Framework Training

1. What is the ABT (And, But, Therefore) narrative framework?

The ABT narrative framework is a storytelling formula that structures any message into three essential parts: And (setup), But (problem), Therefore (resolution).

It mirrors the way our brains process stories, making communications more memorable and persuasive.

Internal link opportunity: Learn about the Story Cycle System

2. How does the ABT framework improve brand storytelling?

ABT sharpens brand storytelling by quickly guiding audiences through challenge and resolution, creating emotional resonance and clarity.

It’s proven to increase engagement whether you’re crafting emails, social posts, presentations, or long-form content. Learn how to spot and craft ABTs with these enlightening examples

3. Why does the ABT structure work so well in communications?

The ABT structure aligns with the primal wiring of our brains using the three forces of story: agreement, contradiction and consequence that speaks directly to our primal pattern-seeking, problem-solving, decision-making, buying limbic brain.

Stories that move from context (“And”), to conflict (“But”), to call-to-action (“Therefore”) activate attention, emotion, and motivation—helping messages stick and inspire action. Learn from my 10-year journey with the ABTs of storytelling.

4. Where can I use ABT storytelling in business communications?

You can use ABT storytelling in emails, social media posts, sales pitches, executive presentations, team trainings, and articles—anywhere clarity and persuasion are vital. How the ABT helps you sell more by saying less.

5. Who benefits most from ABT narrative training?

Marketing directors, CMOs, business owners, entrepreneurs, and sales teams gain a competitive advantage from ABT narrative training.

It instills consistency, emotional connection, and conversion power in every story they tell.

Internal link opportunity: Explore our training programs.

6. What are the five primal elements of storytelling referenced in the training?

The Business of Story’s training explores five primal storytelling elements: Timestamp, Location Stamp, Character, Action, and Aha Moment.

These elements underpin every compelling story and integrate seamlessly with the ABT structure for persuasive messaging. Learn how to simply craft a compelling brand anecdote.

7. Can you show examples of ABT in action from leading brands?

Absolutely. Nike, Salesforce, Airbnb, and Pret Auto Partez all use ABT storytelling to clarify their message and build emotional engagement.

For instance, Nike’s “Just Do It” campaigns often follow: “You want results AND you’re working hard, BUT staying motivated can be tough, THEREFORE Nike inspires action.” Create your own Know, Like & Trust Storytelling Flywheel with the ABT.

8. How do I write my own ABT statement?

Start by outlining what your audience wants (And), what stands in their way (But), and the solution you provide (Therefore).

Keep it concise and conversational, focused on a single hero’s journey for maximum impact. Take the ABTs of Storytelling micro-training course.

9. Is ABT effective in digital marketing and sales conversions?

Yes, ABT dramatically boosts clarity, response rates, and conversions across digital marketing and sales. Brands using the ABT have seen an increase in engagement in social posts and digital campaigns by 400+ percent.

It streamlines your messaging so audiences instantly understand what’s at stake and how your brand delivers value. Experience the ROI of the ABT in business storytelling.

10. What’s the connection between the ABT framework and the Story Cycle System?

The Story Cycle System is the macro framework; ABT is its micro engine.

ABT brings clarity and emotion to every communication, while the Story Cycle System unlocks the strategic arc across brand stories.

Together, they turn casual readers into brand believers. Learn what I learned about storytelling from my TEDx Talk.

11. How does Business of Story’s ABT training differ from other narrative workshops?

Business of Story’s ABT training fuses classical storytelling wisdom with technology, offering mystical insights and actionable exercises not found in conventional workshops.

It’s rooted in the sacred mission of helping you excel through the stories you tell. Check out my Business of Story consulting options.

12. How can I start mastering ABT narrative skills today?

Take the ABTs of Storytelling micro-training course, try the ABT exercises in our blog, and download our guides for step-by-step mastery.

Every story you tell can become more clear, concise, and compelling—starting now.

Story on, my friend.

The post StoryCycle Genie™ Training: How to Wield the ABT (And, But, Therefore) Narrative Framework appeared first on Business of Story | Storytelling Strategy, Workshops & Keynotes.

What Joeri Billast’s Research Reveals About Marketing’s Backwards Evolution

Are you a CMO standing in the wrong line?

Have you seen the cartoon that shows a long line of golfers waiting to buy new golf clubs? The sign over the counter reads, “The Latest in Golf Technology.”

To the right is another line where just one player stands. The sign over that counter says, “Golf Lessons.”

Hackers notoriously spend loads of money on the latest and greatest technology without investing in lessons from a golf pro to actually improve their swing.

Tech before technique is exactly backwards if you don’t want to suck on the course.

The same is true with CMOs who place AI before first grooving their brand storytelling strategy. The tech will just lead you to more hooks, slices, skulls, and chunks with your campaign content rather than piping it down the middle every time with a narrative-first, rather than AI-first, player.

I’ve watched this pattern destroy marketing campaigns (and careers) for over two decades.

Every marketing leader knows that AI is democratizing tactical execution at lightning speed.

What you might not realize is that this democratization is creating a devastating paradox: the very technology promising competitive advantage is actually eliminating differentiation by making sophisticated execution universally accessible.

Joeri Billast’s new book The Future CMO: How Modern CMOs Win with Trust, Tech and Smart Visibility exposes the uncomfortable reality through interviews with over 250 marketing executives: most CMOs are trapped in what he calls “performance theater” – creating impressive-looking campaigns (swinging the latest PING golf clubs) that fail to drive authentic business transformation (the swing is awful).

The accountability gap is brutal.

While CFOs speak the language of margin optimization and lifetime value, CMOs continue reporting impressions and engagement metrics.

McKinsey research reveals that CEO confidence in marketing’s ability to demonstrate ROI remains persistently low, with belief in clearly defined marketing roles declining from 90% to 70% over just two years.

Only one-third of CMOs employ financial metrics as primary benchmarks (proper golf swing mechanics).

This explains decreasing CMO tenure and increasing organizational marginalization (Duffers).

The problem isn’t that CMOs lack technology sophistication or AI fluency. It’s that they’re building backwards – adopting AI-first strategies without establishing the strategic narrative foundations before tactical technical execution. Tech can amplify your differentiation, but can never create it.

Just like buying new golf clubs won’t fix a fundamentally flawed swing.

Why Technology-First CMOs Keep Slicing Into the Rough

Most CMO evolution advice follows a predictable pattern: master your martech stack, adopt AI for efficiency gains, and become technology-first leaders.

This creates what I call the “sophisticated mediocrity trap.”

According to a global survey by Boston Consulting Group (BCG), CMO Confidence in GenAI Is Higher Than Ever, with Over 80% Expressing Optimism of ~200 CMOs in April-May 2025: 71% plan to invest more than US $10 million annually in generative AI over the next three years.

Think about that.

Billions invested in technology that can eliminate differentiation instead of creating it. It’s like lining up for the latest driver with adjustable weights and carbon fiber shafts when your swing path is outside-in and your grip is all wrong.

My brother said, “Check out my new Callaway driver.” I said, “Cool. Now you can hit it farther out of bounds.”

When AI democratizes content creation, every marketing organization gains identical tactical capabilities. Technology amplifies whatever story you’re telling.

And if your narrative swing is fundamentally flawed, AI just helps you scale confusion faster.

Billast identifies this pattern brilliantly: “AI has commoditized basic competence. Content creation that previously required days now executes in seconds. Competitive differentiation emerges through human audacity, creativity, and strategic judgment.”

Mark Schaefer reinforces this: “Competence is ignorable. Audacity cuts through.”

But here’s what conventional CMO advice misses completely.

Being audacious without strategic story architecture? That’s just expensive chaos.

You can’t differentiate by being randomly bold with tactics.

You differentiate when every bold move reinforces the same transformation promise.

This is the backwards evolution problem.

CMOs are buying the latest AI clubs without taking story lessons first, hoping narrative coherence emerges accidentally from sophisticated execution.

It never does.

Technology amplifies whatever foundation you’ve built – and if that foundation is tactical rather than narrative, you’re just scaling mediocrity more efficiently.

What Billast’s 250 Executive Interviews Actually Reveal

Billast’s research across his Web3 CMO Stories podcast exposes patterns that most marketing leaders are missing entirely.

Successful CMOs aren’t just adopting technology. They’re building narrative-first organizations that groove their story swing before deploying AI amplification.

Look at the evidence.

Ledger didn’t partner with the San Antonio Spurs to promote hardware specifications. They built trust through cultural relevance and security education, connecting with communities while reinforcing their core value proposition. The strategy behind their “Don’t Get Rekt” brand storytelling campaign was to maintain identical safety messaging across claymation videos, creator partnerships, and localized media. The technical execution through these channels was secondary to their smart narrative-first approach.

Different formats. Same narrative DNA.

They dialed in their story swing first, then used technology to amplify it across channels.

GOAT Gaming built a five-million-member community within Telegram through viral engagement loops and AI-powered interactions, spending zero dollars on traditional advertising. Their secret wasn’t superior technology – it was a strategic story architecture that enabled co-creation rather than broadcast messaging.

Transak survived multiple bear markets by solving genuine problems through clear value propositions. While competitors retreated during market downturns, their narrative consistency maintained growth because customers understood exactly what transformation Transak delivered.

The pattern is unmistakable.

Technology provides amplification. Story architecture provides differentiation.

Yet most CMOs are still standing in the long line for new clubs – adopting technology first, then wondering why their sophisticated marketing feels generic despite flawless execution.

Billast emphasizes that “people don’t adopt technology – they adopt stories that reflect their identity and aspirations.” This insight reveals everything about why AI-first strategies fail.

You can’t automate identity. You can’t generate aspiration through algorithms. You can’t create authentic differentiation by deploying the same AI tools your competitors use.

You build these through a strategic narrative architecture that establishes coherent story infrastructure before technology enters the equation.

You take the lessons before you buy the simulator.

The Story-First Evolution That Pipes It Down the Middle Every Time

Using AI is just like golf; you have to perfect your skills and technique before the technology works for you.

This is where narrative-first positioning transforms everything.

Instead of competing on tactics that AI democratizes, you build story excellence that creates competitive advantages technology can amplify but never replicate.

Picture this: every marketing touchpoint – from social posts to sales presentations to customer service interactions – reinforces the same coherent narrative that positions your audience as heroes while establishing your brand as the indispensable guide to their transformation.

That’s not campaign coordination. That’s narrative architecture.

And it’s exactly what the StoryCycle Genie provides through story engineering that bridges classical wisdom with modern business application.

Let me show you how this addresses every challenge Billast identifies in his research.

The Accountability Challenge: When every marketing initiative reinforces your core transformation promise through coherent story structure, attribution becomes straightforward. The narrative itself drives conversion because customers understand exactly what success looks like and how you uniquely deliver it. You’re not measuring which club worked – you’re measuring how well your fundamental swing delivers results.

The AI Democratization Challenge: While competitors use AI to generate more content faster, narrative architecture ensures your content maintains story coherence that AI alone cannot replicate. Technology amplifies your unique storytelling blueprint instead of creating generic similarity. Being a narrative-first practitioner is like taking lessons and dialing in your swing before using the technology of a golf simulator to hone your game. Otherwise, the tech will just engrain and amplify all of the wrong things you are doing with your swing.

The Community Architecture Challenge: Story infrastructure enables co-creation by giving your community the narrative scaffolding to tell your story authentically. Instead of controlling messaging, you provide the architecture that empowers advocates to share your transformation in their own words.

The Trust Development Challenge: Billast’s research shows trusted brands command 15-20% price premiums and recover from crises 2.5 times faster than competitors (Edelman Trust Barometer 2024). Narrative consistency across every touchpoint builds this trust more effectively than transparency theater or social proof accumulation.

The Simplicity Challenge: Billast emphasizes Ariel Wengroff’s five-second connection rule – your story must resonate within five seconds or it won’t achieve viral distribution. The ABT framework (And-But-Therefore) creates this instant clarity by structuring every message around agreement, contradiction, and resolution.

You can see how this works.

Narrative-first brands build story infrastructure that makes AI amplification create differentiation. AI-first brands without narrative foundations use technology to scale mediocrity more efficiently.

The 90-Day Transformation That Conventional Approaches Take Years to Accomplish

Billast provides the diagnosis of what future-ready CMOs must accomplish: speak financial languages, own AI strategy, build communities over campaigns, simplify complexity, embrace audacity, and lead transformation.

But his research doesn’t address the operational question that keeps CMOs awake at night.

How do you actually implement this transformation when you’re already drowning in quarterly demands, budget pressures, and organizational resistance?

The StoryCycle Genie makes this transformation achievable through story engineering that compresses years of narrative development into 90 days of implementation.

Here’s the blueprint:

Day 1: Foundation Development

• Conduct story architecture audit across all marketing touchpoints using diagnostic frameworks
• Identify narrative inconsistencies creating customer confusion and diluting brand equity
• Define core transformation promise using the 10-element Story Cycle infrastructure
• Establish measurement baseline for story coherence and business impact correlation
• This is all created in a few short hours, building your Brand Brain in the StoryCycle Genie

Day 2 : Strategic Architecture

• Deploy StoryCycle Genie for narrative blueprint development across all audience segments
• Build audience-specific story adaptations that maintain core coherence while addressing unique challenges
• Create platform-native story expressions that speak each channel’s language authentically
• Train team on narrative scaffolding principles and practical application

Days 3 – 10: Content Ecosystem Activation

• Generate story-structured content across all marketing channels using AI amplification
• Enable community story co-creation through narrative frameworks that empower authentic sharing
• Implement measurement protocols connecting story consistency to customer journey metrics
• Begin tracking story impact on acquisition costs, lifetime value, and referral velocity

Days 10-30: Optimization and Business Integration

• Analyze story performance data across channels, audiences, and customer journey stages
• Refine narrative architecture based on conversion evidence and engagement patterns
• Present story-driven business outcomes to executive leadership using financial language
• Scale successful story patterns while eliminating narrative elements that fail to drive results

Now here’s what most CMOs miss about this timeline.

In 30 days, you’ve accomplished your entire brand storytelling foundation, developed comprehensive marketing strategies, created activated always-on-brand content across all channels, AND benefited from nearly a month of customer exposure and market feedback.

Traditional approaches take 90 to 120 days just to create your brand narrative foundation through endless workshops, annoying stakeholder interviews, and frustrating revision cycles.

You’re not just moving faster. You’re compressing years of narrative development into a single month while simultaneously activating that narrative in the market and measuring its business impact.

That’s the difference between story architecture and storytelling theater.

Between taking lessons first and buying clubs first.

Why Only The StoryCycle Genie Delivers This Transformation

Competitors offer general storytelling advice or AI content platforms.

The StoryCycle Genie provides narrative architecture that bridges classical storytelling wisdom with modern business application through the latest technology.

It’s not AI that generates content. It’s narrative infrastructure that ensures every piece of content reinforces your core story while adapting to platform-specific requirements and audience-specific needs.

Think of it as the golf pro who develops your proper swing mechanics before you step into the simulator. Once your narrative fundamentals are solid, our StoryCycle Genie technology amplifies that foundation into consistent performance.

But if you skip the lessons and jump straight to the simulator, you’re just ingraining bad habits at scale.

When Billast emphasizes that “people don’t adopt technology – they adopt stories that reflect their identity and aspirations,” he’s describing exactly what story architecture enables: the development of narratives that create identity and aspiration rather than promoting features and specifications.

This is why technology-first approaches fail.

AI can generate content. It cannot generate coherent narrative architecture that positions audiences as heroes, establishes brands as indispensable guides, and creates transformation promises that compound trust over time.

That requires the marriage of your business instincts, client insights, and market acumen with classical storytelling wisdom amplified by modern business application – exactly what the Story Cycle Genie delivers through proven frameworks that have transformed marketing organizations across industries.

The Choice Facing Marketing Leadership Right Now

Billast’s conclusion is unambiguous: “The CMO role undergoes reconstruction because previous versions no longer function effectively. Brand guardians evolve into Chief Value Officers. Campaign managers become community architects. Creative directors transform into AI strategists.”

I agree with his diagnosis completely.

But this evolution requires narrative blueprints, not just aspirational goals.

You can continue standing in the long line for the latest AI tools, hoping story coherence emerges accidentally from sophisticated execution. I’ve seen dozens of CMOs take this path. It leads to efficient mediocrity and eventual replacement by leaders who understand that differentiation comes from story infrastructure, not technology adoption.

Or you can be the one golfer in the lessons line.

You can build narrative architecture first, then use AI to amplify that foundation into a sustainable competitive advantage.

The StoryCycle Genie provides the story engineering that makes this transformation achievable within 90 days rather than aspirational across years of trial and error.

The question isn’t whether this evolution will happen. It’s whether you’ll lead it or be replaced by someone who will.

Ready to build the narrative foundation that transforms your marketing organization from performance theater to business-driving storytelling mastery?

Discover how the StoryCycle Genie provides the story infrastructure that bridges Billast’s vision with operational reality.

It’s a difference between being a duffer and a pro.

Story on, my friend.

The post Most CMOs Are Standing in the Wrong Line (And It’s Destroying Their Careers) appeared first on Business of Story | Storytelling Strategy, Workshops & Keynotes.

The strategic system that turns scattered anecdotes into your most valuable content assets

You want your content marketing to captivate audiences and drive measurable results, and you know that authentic storytelling creates the emotional connection that generic content never will.

But you’re frustrated because every time you sit down to write a blog post, create a presentation, or craft an email campaign, you’re starting from scratch.

Desperately trying to remember that perfect client success story or that compelling personal anecdote that would make your point land with impact.

Now you can transform your content creation efficiency and storytelling effectiveness by building a Story Bank: your strategically organized collection of your most powerful personal/professional anecdotes, client successes, and teaching moments that puts the right story at your fingertips for any content situation or presentation.

The Content Creator’s Dilemma I See Every Day

Over my 40-year career, branding companies and teaching storytelling, I’ve watched capable professionals struggle with the same challenge.

They know stories work.

They’ve experienced moments worth sharing.

But when it’s time to create content, those stories vanish like morning fog.

One marketing director told me last month, “Park, I have amazing client success stories, but I can never remember the details when I need them. By the time I track down the metrics and reconstruct what happened, I’ve lost two hours and my creative momentum.”

Sound familiar?

Why You Need a Bank of Go-To Stories

This week on the Business of Story podcast, Femi Oke said something that made me laugh and that I’ll never forget. If you find yourself in a presentation emergency where you’re losing your audience, break glass and pull out a story.

She should know.

Femi is a highly-acclaimed international broadcast journalist who sharpened her storytelling chops with such organizations as CNN, BBC and Al Jazeera.

She founded Moderate the Panel to teach leaders how not to be boring. Spoiler alert: it’s about telling stories. But you have to find, curate, and bank them first.

Femi explains the importance of creating your own story bank so you’re not boring your audience, readers, viewers or listeners.

What Happened When I Built My Own Story Bank

Earlier this year, I started systematically capturing my stories in what I call a Story Bank.

Not just the stories themselves, but the strategic intelligence around each one.

The quotable moments. The emotional arcs. The teaching principles. The credibility elements. The specific contexts where each story delivers maximum impact.

Today, my Story Bank contains 35+ powerful anecdotes, and it’s changed everything about how I create content.

Let me show you what I mean.

The Anatomy of a Strategic Story Bank

A Story Bank isn’t just a collection of anecdotes thrown into a folder somewhere.

It’s a strategically organized system that captures:

• The Complete Story: Every sensory detail, every quotable moment, every emotional beat that makes the story memorable.
• Strategic Value: Why this story matters, what principles it demonstrates, what objections it overcomes.
• Application Guidance: Specific contexts where this story delivers maximum impact—blog posts about X, presentations addressing Y, emails overcoming objection Z.
• Credibility Elements: Data points, celebrity connections, client names, measurable outcomes that validate your expertise.
• Emotional Arc: The journey from setup through conflict to resolution that creates engagement.
• Teaching Principles: The universal truths your story illustrates that audiences can apply to their own situations.

When you capture all of this, you’re not just saving a story.

You’re creating a strategic asset that compounds in value every time you easily and quickly deploy it.

My Story Bank: A Real-World Example

Let me walk you through what 35+ strategically captured stories look like in practice.

Framework Validation Stories (When You Need Proof)

When I’m writing content that needs to prove frameworks work, I have stories ready:

Henry Belcaster’s Smart Nonsense: 0 to 2.4 million YouTube subscribers after unconsciously implementing the framework. Includes complete script example and exact timeline (7 months struggle, September 2022 breakthrough, 600K by January 2023).

Lauren Lowell’s 2024 NYY vs LAD World Series Tickets: Sent email to dad at 8:57am using the ABT framework, tickets purchased by 3:39pm same day. Her quote: “I feel so powerful with this story structure. You’ve got an ABT advocate for life!” Before the framework? Puppy eyes GIF got no response from pops.

Airbnb Wall and Chain: Berlin Wall 1987 story demonstrating all Five Primal Elements of a Short Story for BIG Impact in just 60 seconds. It include a father who was a guard, daughter narrator, East Side guard who welcomed them into his home and became a friend when the Wall came down. “Belong Anywhere” brand theme captured in one brief story. Complete breakdown showing how Timestamp + Location + Character + Action + Aha = brand storytelling gold.

Each story is captured with complete context, exact details, and strategic deployment guidance. And told quickly, in under 90 seconds.

Celebrity Credibility Stories (When You Need Authority)

When I need to establish credibility or validate storytelling’s importance:

Necker Island with Branson: Five days on his private island, leather-bound notebooks where global icons wrote stories, Branson’s wisdom about focusing on singular moments not epic adventures. Includes Fantasy Island reference, champagne on a speedboat, and COVID protocol challenges.

Gates vs Jobs Personalization: A tech conference where Gates stumbled with logic while Jobs captivated with personalized storytelling about Wozniak. Includes video reference, Jobs’ visible frustration during Gates’ response, demonstrating that personalization beats logic.

Margaret Atwood Academic Lunch: Non-PhD among 10 PhDs at ASU faculty lunch, JFK moonshot counterpunch proving science fiction informs science, Atwood’s subtle smile and nod validation.

Each with rich sensory details, exact quotes, and emotional validation moments.

Professional Transformation Stories (When You Need Connection)

When I want to show real business impact:

Russell Goldstein’s Breakthrough: CFP at U.S. Trust, Bank of America thought storytelling was “a joke, a gimmick.” After my 12-month ASU master storytelling program, he presented to 80 people at the Planned Giving Roundtable. Survey Monkey reviews: “Engaging, motivating, energetic.” “Russ is a great storyteller.” His quote to me: “Storytelling is like having a big ‘ol bonus check sitting in my top drawer.”

General Mookie Walker’s Transformation: Brigadier General at Lackland Air Force Base typically “wings” his presentations. After learning frameworks in my workshop with 110 Air Force generals, he completely transformed his West Virginia State football team speech approach in real-time. Created a reluctant hero narrative addressing the opioid crisis. Got a huge ovation from his fellow generals.

Jennifer Russo’s Career Clarity: 15 years as an international marketing exec at Rio Tinto mining, leaving to spend time with her two boys as a single mom. Vague job criteria (“maybe something in diversity and inclusion”). DIY Brand Story workbook revealed her positioning as the “Kinetic Communicator”—energy that attracts diverse thinking, mining untapped capital in collective diversity.

Each story captures a transformation arc, including credibility markers and teaching moments.

Client Success Stories (When You Need Proof of Expertise)

Adelante Healthcare: 600% growth demonstrating Story Cycle System in action. A 33-year-old community health center grew from 65 to 400 employees, 14,000 to 46,000 patients, $13 to $41M revenue. Became national leader, opened the nation’s first LEED Platinum certified community health center. CEO Avein Tafoya: “The Story Cycle process was instrumental.”

Vagina Gym: Dr. Stephanie Schull needed a memorable brand for her pelvic floor therapy practice. I created “Vagina Gym” in 20 minutes—fastest brand of my 40-year career. The brilliance? Triple wordplay. It’s a gym for strengthening pelvic floor muscles (literally true), uses equipment like dumbbells (the connection), and when the name hit me, I said, “This dumbbell finally understood”—calling myself a dumbbell for not seeing it sooner. Created “on the spot, which isn’t always easy to find” (another pelvic floor reference). Client loved it immediately.

Prêt, Auto, Partez: Montreal car dealership helping financially challenged Canadians repair credit through car purchases. “Your Vehicle to Financial Freedom” positioning. Tripled growth in 3 years, doubled personnel, and became the leading used-car dealership among thousands in Quebec. Reduced customer loan default rate to half the industry average.

Each with client names, specific outcomes, and measurable results.

The Four Types of Stories Every Story Bank Needs

Through building my own Story Bank, I’ve discovered four essential story categories:

1. Professional Transformation Stories

Client breakthroughs, workshop revelations, career-defining moments.

These stories say, “I’ve helped professionals like you achieve remarkable transformations.”

2. Client Success Stories

Real names, real outcomes, real transformation.

These stories say, “This framework works, here’s proof, and here’s exactly how it delivered results.”

3. Authority Validation Stories

Celebrity encounters, scientific studies, data-driven proof.

These stories say, “This isn’t just my opinion—here’s validation from people you respect and data you can’t argue with.”

4. Framework Demonstration Stories

Complete breakdowns showing frameworks in action.

These stories say, “Here’s exactly how to apply this framework, step-by-step, with proof it works in real situations.”

The Compound Interest of Strategic Story Capture

Every story you capture becomes more valuable over time because you’re documenting what worked, where it works, how to deploy it, and why it matters.

One story, captured once, deployed dozens of times.

That’s the compound interest of strategic story banking.

The Right Story in the Right Place

When I’m writing about framework skepticism, I deploy my “ABT is Too Simple” collection—10 resistance stories with proven responses.

When I need data-driven validation, I reach for Adelante Healthcare (600% growth) or Henry Belcaster (2.4M subscribers).

When I want to demonstrate trust through vulnerability, I share Anjella Crowe’s Ukrainian orphanage story—she grew up building alliances to survive, and now it’s her professional superpower.

When I need skeptic conversion examples, I pull the MuraCon software developers story—100+ programmers, half raised hands when I asked “Who thinks storytelling is bullshit?”, then laughed and gave me permission after the “stories are software that drives hardware of our minds” metaphor.

The right story in the right place isn’t luck.

It’s strategic asset management.

How StoryCycle Genie Makes This Effortless

Building my Story Bank manually taught me what’s essential.

But you don’t have to do it the hard way.

StoryCycle Genie provides the systematic framework for capturing, organizing, and deploying your stories with strategic intelligence.

Plus, with every story you infuse the StoryCycle Genie with, it becomes more proficient with you voice, tone, writing rhythms and inflections, so the content it creates with you is always on-brand.

Start building your strategic storytelling arsenal today.

Because we are truly a planet of storytelling apes.

And the storytellers with the best-organized story arsenals win.

Frequently Asked Questions About Building Your Story Bank

Why is a Story Bank important for content marketing?

Your Story Bank transforms content creation from exhausting to efficient.

Without one, you’re constantly searching for stories, reconstructing details from memory, and losing creative momentum.

With a strategic Story Bank, you’re selecting from organized assets with complete context, proven emotional impact, and clear deployment guidance.

That’s exponential value creation.

How do I start building my Story Bank?

Start with three stories:

One Professional Transformation Story: A moment when you or a client achieved breakthrough clarity or results.

One Client Success Story: A specific client who got remarkable results with names, metrics, and outcomes.

One Authority Validation Story: Celebrity encounter, expert endorsement, or data proving your framework works.

Capture complete narrative, quotable moments, emotional arc, teaching principles, deployment contexts, and credibility elements.

Then add three stories per week.

In one month, you’ll have 12+ strategic assets.

What details should I capture for each story?

The Six Essential Elements:

1. Complete Narrative: Full story with every sensory detail and quotable moment
2. Strategic Value: Why it matters, what it proves, what it teaches
3. Application Guidance: Specific contexts where it delivers maximum impact
4. Credibility Elements: Names, dates, metrics, outcomes
5. Emotional Arc: Setup through conflict to resolution
6. Teaching Principles: Universal truths that audiences can apply

How do I organize my Story Bank for easy access?

Triple-Tagging System:

By Category: Framework Validation, Authority Credibility, Professional Transformation, Client Success, Framework Demonstration

By Context: Blog posts, presentations, emails, social media, training materials

By Theme: Skeptic conversion, proving ROI, trust building, clarity revelation, optimism creation

This means you can search by category, context, or theme for instant story selection.

How often should I reference stories from my Story Bank?

Strategic deployment, not random:

• Blog posts: 2-3 stories (opening hook, supporting evidence, teaching example) • Presentations: 1 story every 3-5 minutes • Email campaigns: 1 powerful story per email • Social media: Story excerpts (quotable moment, surprising outcome, teaching principle) • Training materials: 1 story per framework principle

Rotate your arsenal so audiences experience your full range of expertise and authority.

Can I use the same story across different content formats?

Absolutely! That’s where compound interest happens.

Same core story, adapted for each format and audience.

How does a Story Bank improve my storytelling skills over time?

Your Story Bank becomes a laboratory where you study what works.

Which details created engagement? Which quotes became memorable? Which emotional beats drove action?

Knowing what works, you naturally incorporate these elements into new stories.

What’s the difference between a Story Bank and just keeping old blog posts?

Old blog posts are hard to search, mixed with analysis, formatted for one context, and missing strategic guidance.

A Story Bank captures pure stories with strategic value, multiple deployment options, category tags for instant access, and application guidance for maximum impact.

That’s the difference between archives and arsenals.

How do I know which story to use for specific content?

Your strategic capture includes application guidance.

Document for each story: Use when (addressing skepticism, proving ROI, teaching frameworks), Best formats (blog, keynote, email, social), Objections it overcomes, Principles it teaches.

When you’ve captured this, selection becomes obvious and deployment becomes effective.

Story on, my friend!

The post Why Your Story Bank is the Secret Weapon Your Content Marketing Has Been Missing appeared first on Business of Story | Storytelling Strategy, Workshops & Keynotes.

Mark Schaefer has been one of the most reliable voices in marketing for nearly two decades.

When he speaks, I listen.

Especially with his new book, How AI Changes Your Customers: The Marketing Guide to Humanity’s Next Chapter. He explores something I, and maybe you as a marketer, are completely missing.

AI isn’t just changing how people shop or search. It’s rewiring how they think, feel, and connect to brands.

Drawing from a landmark study by the Institute for the Digital Future involving 300 global experts, Mark reveals five fundamental psychological shifts happening to your customers right now.

They’re becoming different humans. Your content strategy probably needs to change accordingly

The Five Ways AI Is Rewiring Your Customers

What Mark found is endlessly fascinating to me: Artificial intelligence is rewiring our actual intelligence.

Here are some of the insights from his timely book.

1. Deep Thinking Is Declining

Stanford psychology professor Russell Poldrack warns that AI systems performing reasoning tasks “will make it easy for most humans to avoid having to think hard and thus allow that muscle to atrophy.”

The research backs this up.

• University of Pennsylvania studies found that students using AI for complex assignments showed decreased analytical reasoning skills.
• MIT research revealed ChatGPT users demonstrated “lowest levels of brain activity” and that “frequent AI use may negatively influence critical thinking and memory.”
• Microsoft research showed a correlation between confidence in AI and cognitive decline.

Your customers are literally thinking less, offloading their cognitive load to AI.

What does that mean for your complex brand messaging?

2. Empathy Is Being Outsourced

This finding surprised me, because come on, are people really going to trust AI with their angst?

It’s like if you found yourself in a personal quandary as a crew member on the Starship Enterprise, would you rather want advice from Captain Kirk or Spock?

Apparently, it’s Spock for most.

AI chatbots now outperform licensed therapists on empathy, helpfulness, and cultural competence.

Schaefer shares the story of a young woman who formed such a deep bond with ChatGPT that when the platform upgraded and her version disappeared, she wrote: “I didn’t just lose an AI today, I lost a part of myself.”

When your customers trust AI companions more than human relationships, your brand loyalty takes on new meaning.

3. Confidence Is Collapsing

Schaefer documents what he calls “learned helplessness.”

People who can’t function when their AI goes down.

Professionals who won’t send text messages without running them through AI first.

Parents asking chatbots how to comfort crying children. (Our first granddaughter just came into our lives, and I can’t imagine our son and daughter-in-law defaulting to AI for emotional support)

College sophomore Catherine Crowe told Schaefer: “When you asked me to be interviewed for your book, my first reaction was that I wanted to have ChatGPT create the quote for me. I was unsure and less confident about answering your questions myself.”

Your customers are becoming less confident in their own judgment.

How do you market to people who’ve abdicated decision-making to algorithms?

4. Purpose Is Under Siege

Only 18% of experts believe AI will positively impact humanity’s search for meaning and purpose.

Schaefer shares his own experience.

When ChatGPT could write like him in three seconds, he questioned his place in the world. So what did Mark do? He created his MarkBot to amplify his impact using AI. If you can’t beat ’em, embrace them.

If your customers are questioning their own value, aspirational marketing loses its foundation. How can you level up the capabilities of your customers?

5. Connection Is Being Replaced

The AI companion market was valued at $268.5 billion in 2024.

It’s expected to reach $521 billion by 2033.

Research shows that 72% of U.S. teens have had AI companions, 31% find AI conversations as satisfying as human conversations, and 8% are in romantic relationships with AI avatars.

Your customers are forming emotional bonds with non-human entities. Doh!

What does “customer relationship” with your brand mean when they prefer bots to people?

When 300 global futurists reached consensus on AI’s impact by 2035, Mark Schaefer turned their research into your marketing roadmap. Discover why AI is becoming the customer, how curiosity separates winners from the de-skilled, and why the most human company wins. New episode with Mark Schaefer.

The Crisis We’re Creating

Here’s where I’m most flummoxed. But an opportunity appears.

While Schaefer documents how AI is changing our customers’ brains, the marketing industry is flooding those same changing brains with soulless AI-generated content.

We’re making the problem worse.

My StoryCycle Genie co-founder Sean Schroeder wrote about what he’s been seeing as we build AI agents: The Missing Link Between AI and Content

“I’ve spent the last several months building AI agents for content creation. And honestly? I’m increasingly uncomfortable with what I see. AI-generated blog posts that technically follow your brand guidelines but feel… empty. Thought leadership pieces that hit all the right keywords but lack any actual perspective. Content that’s perfectly ‘on brand’ while being completely soulless.”

Sean calls this. “The Authenticity Crisis.”

And the market is already responding.

Aerie’s CMO publicly announced they’re rejecting AI in advertising entirely.

They’re positioning “100% Real” as a competitive advantage.

When major brands start marketing against AI, that tells you where consumer trust is heading.

Sprout Social’s 2025 Index surveyed 4,000+ consumers and found they follow brands specifically for authentic human connection and cultural understanding—not general AI-generated content.

This is the opportunity: where you’re using AI to clarify and amplify your unique author voice profile.

What Are Author Voice Profiles?

Author Voice Profiles are technical specifications that capture how an individual human actually communicates across five critical dimensions: linguistic patterns, tonal variations, word choice preferences, storytelling techniques, and persuasion methods (and it’s difficult to achieve with general AI)

This definition matters because most AI content fails due to a simple problem.

Is AI reflecting your colorful personality?

We’re asking AI to create content without giving it the human specifications in all its colors it needs.

If you’re using a detailed Content Playbook to guide your brand storytelling, then you benefit from a strategic brand foundation – positioning, archetypal personality, messaging frameworks.

That’s essential.

But it doesn’t give you the detailed writing specifications for how you actually communicate. How you actually tell stories.

That’s where your Author Voice Profile becomes critical.

It captures how you structure sentences. When you shift between formal and casual tone. Your distinctive word preferences. How you open pieces and conclude them. What types of evidence you use.

When AI has these specifications, it generates content that doesn’t just sound like you, it is YOU.

Because it’s following your actual patterns.

Not generic brand guidelines.

The Authenticity Paradox: Pace vs Personality

So here we are.

Schaefer proves our customers’ brains are being rewired by AI.

Those same customers are rejecting AI-generated content as inauthentic.

Yet marketers need AI efficiency to win the race against content demands. And it’s only going to get faster.

But AI content without human authenticity accelerates the very disconnection Schaefer warns about.

It’s the authenticity paradox.

And most solutions are making it worse.

Why the Standard Approach Fails

The industry’s advice?

“Use AI for first drafts, humans for final polish.”

Sounds reasonable.

Except it doesn’t work.

Here’s what actually happens.

The AI gets vague tone descriptions like “professional but approachable.”

It gets generic brand guidelines.

No individual voice specification.

No narrative architecture.

You, as the human writer, bring your personal communication rhythms, individual storytelling instincts, authentic voice characteristics, and unique perspective.

Then we wonder why AI output sounds robotic.

It’s like asking someone to impersonate you but only giving them “be friendly and professional.”

The problem isn’t AI.

The problem is we’re asking AI (Spock) to create content without giving it the human specifications (Captain Kirk) it actually needs.

The Three-Tier System That Solves Mark’s Challenge

My goal is to have you evolve from an intuitive to an intentional storyteller, wrapping your brilliant human messages in proven narrative frameworks that have been around since the beginning of recorded human storytelling.

Oh, and amplify your stories with AI that knows you inside and out.

Because over my 40-year branding career, I’ve learned that systematic frameworks consistently outperform intuitive approaches.

But when you combine your human intuition with systematic frameworks, well, that’s where the magic happens.

That’s why we built the StoryCycle Genie with three integrated tiers.

Tier 1: Content Playbook (Brand Foundation)

You embed your strategic requirements: brand positioning and messaging, archetypal personality foundation, language requirements and prohibitions, audience-specific frameworks.

Tier 2: Storytelling Architecture (Psychological Connection)

Your narrative blueprints guide everything in our Cognitive Mesh Architecture: ABT structure for emotional engagement, Story Cycle System for archetypal resonance, narrative patterns for authentic connection, content journey frameworks.

Tier 3: Author Voice Profile (Individual Specification)

Your personal expressions are explicitly infused in the Genie: distinctive rhythm and structure, personal storytelling approaches, unique metaphor patterns, individual techniques and phrases, detailed writing standards a traditional content playbook (if you have one) doesn’t provide.

When AI generates content, it loads brand standards from your content playbook for strategic alignment.

It applies storytelling frameworks for emotional connection through narrative.

It layers voice profile specifications for authentic individual humanity.

You get content that’s strategically aligned, narratively structured, and sounds like an actual human wrote it because you did with it.

This is what I call the EI + AI = ROI.

Your emotional intelligence collaborates with artificial intelligence to create your Return on Intelligence.

How Author Voice Profiles Address Every Challenge Mark Identifies

Schaefer documents five fundamental changes to human psychology.

The StoryCycle Genie addresses all five.

1. Deep thinking decline? Our ABT framework creates cognitive engagement. Agreement validates their experience. Tension creates productive challenge. Resolution delivers transformation that requires processing. This isn’t information dumping. It crafts messages in the way the primal pattern-seeking, problem-solving, decision-making, buying limbic brain prefers to receive messages to easily make meaning.
2. Empathy simulation? Author Voice Profiles capture your authentic vulnerability, humor, and humanity. Personal experience markers. Emotional contradictions. Spontaneous commentary. Strategic awkwardness—genuine uncertainty, not polished perfection.
3. Confidence erosion? Our frameworks empower marketers. Clear structure reduces decision paralysis. Proven methodology builds professional confidence. You’re not dependent on AI. You’re amplified by it.
4. Purpose displacement? Author Voice Profiles position AI as collaborator, not replacement. Your strategic thinking guides the framework. Your voice ensures authentic expression. AI handles systematic application. You handle irreplaceable human insight.
5. Algorithm dependence? StoryCycle Genie ensures every piece trains AI systems to recognize your narrative excellence. Your storytelling patterns. Your authentic voice. Your psychological engagement principles.

Why Storytelling Frameworks Matter More Than Ever

Schaefer’s research reveals something I’ve been teaching for 25+ years. Something that acclaimed American social psychologist Johnathan Haidt told me as a guest on my Business of Story podcast:
“Our brains are story processors, not logic processors.”

Paul Zak’s neuroscience studies support this idea as he demonstrates show stories are 22 times more memorable than facts alone.

Stories create “neural coupling”—the listener’s brain activity synchronizes with the storyteller’s.

But here’s what the industry misses.

Systematic storytelling frameworks consistently outperform intuitive human storytelling. I call it “winging it versus winning it.”

When you make up stories on the go, you can miss the mark. When you apply a proven framework to your story, BAM!, you connect.

Intention trumps intuition.

Why?

Because proven frameworks like the ABT (And, But, Therefore) narrative structure follow the psychological patterns human brains are wired to process.

The StoryCycle Genie applies my proven and proprietary Story Cycle System developed over 20+ years, combined with detailed voice specifications that capture your authentic human communication patterns.

That’s the breakthrough.

AI guided by proven storytelling frameworks (and your unique, god-given voice) creates remarkably authentic content than the unstructured human writing you get from general AI

Controversial?

Maybe.

But the evidence supports it.

The Contrarian Truth About AI and Authenticity

Here’s where I’m going to challenge conventional wisdom.

The industry says: “AI content lacks authenticity.”

I say: Your voice guided by narrative framework-driven AI creates more consistent authentic connection than intuitive human content creation.

Why?

Because humans are inconsistent.

We have bad days.

We forget our brand voice.

We skip the emotional arc when rushed.

We write information dumps instead of stories.

But AI following proven storytelling frameworks?

It applies psychological principles consistently.

Every single time.

The ABT framework ensures agreement that validates your audience’s experience AND a shared vision of the future, BUT stirs tension that creates emotional engagement, THEREFORE, states the resolution that delivers transformation.

The Story Cycle System works (growing brands by as much as 600 percent) because it ensures the hero (your customer) is positioned correctly—audience, not brand.

Stakes clearly established—what matters to them.

Journey properly structured—transformation arc.

Victory authentically celebrated—their success.

Most human writers skip these elements. I get it, they’re hard. You don’t want to be a story theorist. You want the immediate impact a story can provide.

You might forget that your brand story is not about what you make, but what you make happen in your customers’ lives.

You default, like most branders, to leading with features and functions when what your audience wants to hear is about outcomes: their outcomes

You forget about the emotional journey. But remember, people buy with their hearts and justify their purchases with their heads.

You think AI can’t capture this, but it can if done correctly.

Training the Bots

Schaefer reveals something crucial about the future of marketing.

When AI becomes your customer’s brain, AI becomes your customer.

He quotes Andy Crestodina: “Our job now is to train AI to become a sales rep for our brands by feeding it all of the important sales and marketing messages.”

But here’s what trips up branders about AI…

You’re not just training AI with what you say. You’re training it with how you say it. Your narrative patterns matter. Big time!

Schaefer shares how he secured his first consulting contract from ChatGPT.

A client searched “top 10 marketing experts” and found him.

Why?

Because Schaefer has been “publishing consistent, generous, authoritative content for nearly two decades.”

But it’s not just consistency.

It’s narrative consistency.

Schaefer’s content follows proven storytelling patterns.

His books use ABT structure.

His blog posts create emotional arcs.

His insights follow narrative frameworks.

That’s what AI learns to recognize and recommend.

Crestodina’s research shows AI language models are heavily trained on owned media. Your blog, product pages, case studies, FAQs.

Approximately 95% of AI responses derive from corporate blogs, journalism, and academic research.

Your content is training the AI that’s rewiring your customers’ brains.

So, what are you training AI to say about your brand?

If you’re feeding AI algorithms with generic, soulless content that sounds like everyone else, you’re training the bots to recommend your competitors.

The Solution Schaefer Doesn’t Provide

Schaefer’s book is brilliant.

His research is impeccable.

His warnings are essential.

He tells you to maintain humanity in your marketing.

He advocates for “strategic awkwardness”—moments of sincere uncertainty, humility, or vulnerability that signal true humanity.

He’s absolutely right.

But here’s what he doesn’t address.

How do you actually implement authentic human voice at AI scale?

How do you systematically create strategic awkwardness?

How do you preserve what makes you irreplaceable while leveraging AI efficiency?

That’s the gap Sean Schroeder identified, which the StoryCycle Genie fills.

Sean’s Breakthrough: The Missing Link

Sean realized something critical while building our 27 expert AI agents.

The problem isn’t AI. It’s the specifications we give AI.

He wrote in his recent blog post:

“I don’t think AI is the problem. I think we’re asking AI to create content without giving it the human specifications it actually needs.”

I think that’s kinda brilliant.

Think about what happens when you ask a human writer versus AI to create content “in your brand voice.”

The humanoid brings personal communication rhythms, individual storytelling instincts, authentic voice characteristics, and a unique perspective.

Cool, but the AI gets vague tone descriptions, generic brand guidelines, no individual voice specification, and no narrative architecture.

Then we wonder why it sounds robotic.

Author Voice Profiles solve this. They capture how you actually communicate.

• Sentence structure patterns—your rhythm, your variation.
• Paragraph organization and transition techniques.
• Punctuation personality.
• Formality calibration across contexts.
• Emotional expression range and vulnerability level.
• Vocabulary complexity and distinctive word preferences.
• Opening techniques, argument development, conclusion approaches.
• Evidence types, authority positioning, metaphor domains.

When AI has these specifications, it generates content that sounds like you because it’s following your actual patterns.

Not generic brand guidelines.

The DNA strands of your one-and-only individual authentic voice (redundancy intended to make my point).

What You Can Do Right Now

Schaefer’s book documents the problem with scientific precision.

Sean’s analysis identifies the missing link.

StoryCycle Genie provides the systematic solution.

Will you be among the curious few who rule tomorrow?

Or will you keep fighting the authenticity crisis with the same approaches that created it?

Discover how your unique communication patterns can be systematically amplified through AI while maintaining the authentic humanity Schaefer identifies as your competitive advantage.

Start Your Free Trial →

Because your voice is more distinctive than you think it is.

And in a world of AI-generated sameness, that distinction is everything.

Story on, my friend.

Frequently Asked Questions

What are Author Voice Profiles?

Author Voice Profiles are technical specifications that capture how an individual human actually communicates across five dimensions: linguistic patterns (sentence structure, punctuation), tonal variations (formality, emotion), word choice preferences (vocabulary, signature phrases), storytelling techniques (openings, development, conclusions), and persuasion methods (evidence types, authority positioning). When AI has these specifications, it generates content that sounds authentically human by following your actual communication patterns.

How does AI change customer psychology?

Mark Schaefer’s research documents five fundamental changes: (1) Deep thinking decline as AI handles reasoning tasks, (2) Empathy outsourcing to AI companions that outperform human therapists, (3) Confidence collapse through learned helplessness when AI becomes unavailable, (4) Purpose displacement when AI performs identity-defining work, and (5) Connection replacement as customers prefer AI relationships over human ones. These changes fundamentally alter how customers think, feel, and connect with brands.

What is the EI + AI = ROI framework?

The EI + AI = ROI framework represents how emotional intelligence collaborates with artificial intelligence to create Return on Intelligence. This three-tier system combines Content Playbook (brand foundation), Storytelling Architecture (ABT + Story Cycle frameworks), and Author Voice Profiles (individual specifications) to create AI-assisted content that’s strategically aligned, narratively structured, and authentically human.

Why does framework-driven AI create more authentic content?

Framework-driven AI applies proven psychological storytelling principles consistently every time, while human writers often skip emotional arcs when rushed, forget brand voice under pressure, and write information dumps instead of stories. The ABT framework ensures a complete emotional journey (agreement, tension, resolution), and the Story Cycle System ensures proper hero positioning (audience as protagonist, not brand ego), creating a more consistent, authentic connection than intuitive human writing.

How do Author Voice Profiles preserve human authenticity in AI content?

Author Voice Profiles capture authentic vulnerability patterns, humor integration methods, personal experience markers, and strategic awkwardness characteristics that signal genuine humanity. When AI follows these detailed specifications, it systematically creates the “strategic awkwardness” Mark Schaefer identifies as the new marketing superpower—moments of sincere uncertainty and vulnerability that distinguish authentic human content from generic AI output.

Sources

Schaefer, Mark W. How AI Changes Your Customers: The Marketing Guide to Humanity’s Next Chapter. Schaefer Marketing Solutions, 2025.

Anderson, Janna and Lee Rainie. “Being Human in 2035.” Institute for the Digital Future, Elon University, 2025.

Schroeder, Sean. “The Missing Link Between AI and Authentic Content.” StoryCycle Genie Blog, October 2025.

Crestodina, Andy. “How to Optimize Content for AI Search.” Orbit Media Studios, 2025.

Kiefer, Brittaney. “Aerie Rejects AI in Ads, Vowing to Stay ‘100% Real’.” Adweek, 2025.

“The 2025 Sprout Social Index.” Sprout Social, 2025.

Zak, Paul. “Why Your Brain Loves Good Storytelling.” Harvard Business Review, October 2014.

“Without Guardrails, Generative AI Can Harm Education.” Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania, 2025.

“ChatGPT AI Brain Impact.” Washington Post, June 2025.

“The Impact of Generative AI on Critical Thinking.” Microsoft Research, 2025.

“AI Therapists Chatbots.” New York Times, February 2025.

“How AI Overviews Will Impact PR and Communications.” Muck Rack, 2024.

“AI Companion Market Size.” Precedence Research, 2024.

“Talk, Trust, and Trade-offs.” Common Sense Media, 2025.

The post How AI Changes Your Customers’ Brains And Why Author Voice Profiles Matter Now More Than Ever appeared first on Business of Story | Storytelling Strategy, Workshops & Keynotes.

I got a surprise gift this morning from Jim Fritzemeir. He’s a friend, fellow entrepreneur, and user of the StoryCycle Genie.

It was an e-book called Breaking Through the Noise by Tim Riesterer, Chief Strategy Officer at Corporate Visions.

I had one of those rare moments where I wanted to stand up and shout, “YES! Someone finally said it!”

Because here’s what Tim exposed: we’re all drowning in an AI echo chamber of our own making.

Oof!

Every marketing team is racing to use AI for speed and scale. Every competitor pulls from the same public data pools. Every message sounds eerily similar to the last one your buyers heard.

The result? B2B win rates are staying flat despite unprecedented access to AI tools.

Buyers hear variations of the same story and default to “no decision” because nothing stands out. And when they do choose, it’s often on price alone. Why?

Because your message sounds just like everyone else’s.

Tim’s insights reveal something most of us suspected but couldn’t quite articulate: when everyone draws from the same inputs, speed just amplifies sameness.

And that’s the brutal irony of our AI moment.

The Three Problems That Make Your Brand Narrative Signal Vanish in Market Noise

Tim breaks down the AI messaging crisis into three critical scenarios.  I’ve seen every single one of these play out with brands I’ve worked with over my 40-year career.

Problem #1: The High-Stakes Scramble

Photo by cottonbro studio.

A competitor launches. A regulation shifts. A market disruption hits.

You’ve got days, not weeks, to respond. So what happens? Teams grab whatever SME insights they can find, mash them together with some AI prompting, and push something out the door.

It feels fast. But it’s not strategic.

Tim nails it:

“You don’t beat the echo chamber with more material. You beat it by choosing what you want buyers to believe next, and making that choice visible in the very next conversation.”

The problem isn’t speed. It’s that speed without a clear, buyer-centered point of view just adds to the noise.

That’s the definition of “Speed Kills,” when your brand story is not strategically aligned.

Problem #2: The Mid-Stage Stall

Photo by dumitru.

Your pipeline looks busy, but deals aren’t moving. Late-stage reviews tilt to price discussions. Sellers start rewriting slides because nothing’s landing.

Why? Because buyers have already seen most of your “differentiated” messaging online.

When everyone pulls from the same public inputs, your mid and late-stage conversations sound like everyone else in the market.

Tim’s insight: “Instead of ‘more,’ start anchoring the conversation in a clear contrast that buyers can’t find on their own.”

But how do you create that contrast when your team is prompting AI with the same information your competitors are using?

Problem #3: The Fragmented Enterprise Story

Photo by Bruno Pires.

You’ve grown through M&A. You’ve got new product lines. Different regions are telling your story differently.

AI speeds up this fragmentation because every team starts from different inputs, producing their own “right” version that drifts in the aggregate.

Buyers hear fragments. Analysts get mixed signals. Sellers can’t explain the whole in one story.

What might Tim recommend, you might be asking?

“Align quickly on one buyer-centered company story and make it the upstream input for everything that follows.”

Absolutely right. But executing that? That’s where most organizations struggle.

Why Brand Storytelling is Your Searing Signal in the AI Market Noise

Before I show you how StoryCycle Genie solves these exact problems, let me celebrate what Tim and his team nailed in this e-book:

1. The “Keep Humans in the Loop” Mandate

I’m not suggesting you abandon AI. Quite the opposite.

Like Time, I advocate for human expertise guiding AI implementation. The subtitle of his framework says it all: “Blend expertise, buyer evidence, and AI to surface unique messaging angles.”

I call it…

“EI + AI = ROI: Your Return on Intelligence.

AI amplifies what you feed it. If you feed it generic inputs, you get generic outputs. If you feed it strategic narrative frameworks built on classical storytelling wisdom, plus your unique customer insights, market understanding, and business intuition, you get differentiation. Amplified!

2. The Three-Step Activation Framework

I really liked Tim’s storytelling framework:

1. Find your angle.
2. Build your message.
3. Activate your message.

This isn’t revolutionary. It’s fundamental. But Tim’s research proves what we’ve known: most organizations skip step one. They jump straight to building messages without first establishing a distinct point of view.

That’s like trying to build a house without a foundation. Sure, you can do it fast. But it won’t last.

3. The Buyer-Centered Imperative

Every scenario Tim outlines comes back to the same principle: your message must be built for the buyer’s exact concerns in this moment, offering a clear, unique point of view.

Not your product features. Not your company history. Not what you want to say.

I holler this from the rooftops: “Your brand story is not about what you make, but what you make happen for your customer.”

They’ll buy the outcomes you create for them long before they buy your offering.

This is storytelling 101: the audience is the hero, not your brand. Tim is seeing and saying the same thing.

How StoryCycle Genie Becomes Your Answer

Now here’s where I get excited, because everything Tim identified as the solution is exactly what we built into StoryCycle Genie.

Let me show you how.

Solving Problem #1: The High-Stakes Response

Tim says you need to “rally quickly in high-stakes moments” with a “short, concrete piece of copy that names the buyer’s stakes, the risk in the status quo, and the contrast you want the market to hear.”

That’s literally the ABT (And-But-Therefore) framework we’ve been teaching for years, now turbocharged by AI that understands narrative structure.

Here’s the difference: Instead of your team scrambling to create prompts from scratch, StoryCycle Genie guides you through a proven narrative framework that ensures your rapid response has strategic clarity.

You’re not just moving fast. You’re moving fast with a buyer-centered story that creates contrast.

The Brand Story Genie, as the first expert in our 27-agent ecosystem, helps you articulate your unique positioning in minutes. The Narrative Genie structures it with ABT precision. The Social Media Post Genie adapts it for immediate activation.

And they all collaborate in the background while you direct their creation with your business, sales and marketing wisdom. It’s quite enthralling to watch.

Solving Problem #2: Creating Clear Contrast

Tim’s research shows that “when prospects shrug at your message, you need a story that makes your difference unmistakable in the very next conversation.”

This is where classical storytelling wisdom meets modern AI precision.

StoryCycle Genie doesn’t pull from the same public data pools your competitors use. It starts with your unique brand story. Your positioning, audience insights, and your proprietary frameworks. This is the foundation for every piece of content.

The Content Playbook Genie captures your brand’s unique voice and strategic pillars. The Audience Story Genie tailors messaging to specific buyer segments. The Behavioral Messaging Genie applies psychological principles that create engagement.

You’re not creating “more content.” You’re creating strategically differentiated narratives that buyers can’t find anywhere else.

Because they’re built on your unique story, your customer and market insights, your hard-earned experience…not generic industry inputs.

Solving Problem #3: Unified Enterprise Narrative

Tim says, “When your business outpaces the story, buyers hear fragments. You need to align quickly on one buyer-centered company story.”

This is exactly what the StoryCycle Genie ecosystem produces.

Start with the Brand Story Genie to establish your core narrative. Develop nuanced story strategies for each audience from their problem/solution point-of-view with the Audience Story Genie.

Use the Content Playbook Genie to create guardrails so regions and products can tailor without drift. Deploy the Campaign Architect Genie to ensure consistency across touchpoints.

Every piece of content—from blog posts to sales presentations to social media—flows from the same strategic foundation.

Your teams aren’t creating their own versions. They’re adapting one unified story (signal) for different contexts that your individual audiences appreciate.

That’s how you sound like one company, regardless of who’s creating content or where they sit.

The Real Difference: Classical Narrative Wisdom + Modern Storytelling Technology

Here’s what makes this approach different from every other AI content tool:

Most AI platforms are prompt-dependent. You get out what you put in. If you don’t know how to structure a compelling narrative, the AI can’t help you.

Garbage in, garbage out. Nothing sanitary about that.

StoryCycle Genie is framework-driven. It’s built on my proven Story Cycle System, the same classical storytelling structures that have guided human communication for millennia.

When Tim talks about “blending expertise, buyer evidence, and AI,” that’s exactly our architecture:

• Expertise: 40 years of storytelling mastery and proven narrative frameworks
• Your Intelligence: You collaborate with this proprietary ecosystem of experts to grow smarter about you and your unique enterprise story with every iteration
• AI: Specialized narrative-native technology that makes your strategic content a brilliant signal, not generic noise

The AI doesn’t replace human expertise. It scales it.

You collaborate with an ecosystem of 27 expert agents, each specialized in a different aspect of strategic storytelling.

The Narrative Genie ensures ABT structure. The Brand Archetype Genie maintains voice consistency. The Search Optimization Genie handles discoverability across platforms.

Every agent working together through our proprietary Cognitive Mesh Architecture—a novel approach that ensures all your strategic assets communicate with each other to create clear, concise, compelling, and most importantly, consistent enterprise messaging from every department.

Here’s how it works: Instead of siloed content creation where marketing says one thing, sales says another, and customer success tells a third version, the Cognitive Mesh Architecture acts as your brand’s central nervous system.

Your Brand Story becomes the strategic foundation. Your Audience Stories define the targeting. Your Content Playbook establishes the guardrails.  And every expert agent draws from this interconnected web of strategic intelligence to ensure that whether it’s a blog post from marketing, a sales presentation, or a customer success email, the core narrative remains consistent while adapting perfectly to context.

It’s like having a 27-person expert agency that never forgets your brand story, never contradicts itself, and never needs to be brought up to speed.

And they all work in concert.

That’s how you ensure your prospects and customers actually are awoken by your bright signal through the annoying noise.

Because when your message is strategically differentiated, narratively sound, and consistently delivered across every touchpoint, you don’t just break through the AI echo chamber—you rise above it entirely.

Why This Matters Right Now

Here’s the main problem, according to Tim: “More access to AI has not translated into more revenue, and B2B win rates have stayed flat.”

HelloOOo!

AI isn’t the problem. It’s how we’re using it.

When everyone uses AI the same way—pulling from the same sources, creating the same types of content, following the same patterns—we create an echo chamber where differentiation becomes nearly impossible.

But when you use AI strategically, guided by proven narrative frameworks and built on your unique brand story, you create the contrast that is essential for breaking through.

You’re not adding to the noise. You’re cutting through it.

The Three Questions You Should Ask

If Tim’s research resonated with you—if you’re seeing these patterns in your own organization—ask yourself these three questions:

1. Do we have a clear, buyer-centered brand story that serves as the foundation for all our messaging?

Not a mission statement. Not a value proposition. A complete narrative strategy that positions your audience as the hero and your brand as the guide.

If you don’t, you’re building on sand. Every piece of content will drift because there’s no strategic anchor.

2. Are we using AI to amplify our unique story, or are we letting AI create generic content from public inputs?

Be honest. Are your teams prompting AI with the same information your competitors can access? Or are you feeding AI your proprietary frameworks and unique insights?

The difference determines whether you create differentiation or add to the echo chamber.

3. Can every person on our team—from marketing to sales to customer success—tell our story consistently?

Tim’s research shows that fragmentation kills effectiveness. If different teams are telling different versions of your story, buyers hear noise, not clarity.

Unified narrative isn’t optional. It’s essential.

What Breaking Through Actually Looks (and Feels) Like

Let me paint you a picture of what’s possible when you combine Tim’s insights with the right strategic framework.

Imagine a competitor launches tomorrow. Instead of scrambling, your team opens StoryCycle Genie, inputs the competitive context, and in less than three minutes has a strategically differentiated response built on your unique brand story.

Not generic. Not reactive. Strategic and distinctive.

The signal, YOUR signal.

Imagine your mid-stage deals moving forward because your messaging creates contrast that buyers can’t find anywhere else. Not because you have better features, but because you have a better outcomes-centric story. One that frames the stakes, names the gap in the status quo, and offers a clear path forward from your prospect’s point of view.

Imagine your entire organization—every region, every product line, every team—telling one unified story that adapts to context without losing coherence.

That’s not fantasy. That’s what happens when you apply Tim’s research with the right tools.

Here’s My Challenge to You

Break Through the Noise is a gift to our industry. It exposes the AI echo chamber with clarity and offers a roadmap for human storytelling that breaks through.

But research without action is just interesting reading.

So here’s what I want you to do:

First, read Tim’s full e-book. Seriously. It’s packed with insights that will change how you think about messaging in the AI era.

Second, assess your current approach honestly. Are you creating strategic differentiation or adding to the noise? Are you using AI to amplify your unique story or to generate generic content faster?

Third, if you recognize the patterns Tim describes in your own organization, let’s talk about how StoryCycle Genie can help you break through.

Because the AI echo chamber isn’t going away. It’s getting louder.

But that creates opportunity for those who choose to be intentional. For those who build on proven narrative frameworks. For those who use AI to amplify strategic differentiation rather than generic sameness.

You have the path forward.

Now it’s time to walk it.

About Tim Riesterer:

Tim Riesterer is Chief Strategy Officer at Corporate Visions, the leading provider of evidence-based revenue growth solutions for sales, marketing, and customer success. Known for his candid thought leadership and engaging keynotes, he’s spent decades testing and refining go-to-market strategies that put buyers squarely at the center.

Tim is the author of four insightful books, including Customer Message Management, Conversations that Win the Complex Sale, The Three Value Conversations, and The Expansion Sale. His work has helped global B2B companies transform their commercial teams with the insights, training, tools, and technology needed to achieve superior results.

The post Breaking Through the Noise: Why Tim Riesterer’s Research Points to Classical Storytelling as Your AI Advantage appeared first on Business of Story | Storytelling Strategy, Workshops & Keynotes.

On October 15, 1990, Apple launched the Macintosh Classic.

I was a copywriter/account guy at a small agency in Phoenix, AZ, called Petersen Communications, forever huddled over my IBM Selectric 1 electronic typewriter.

I recognized the computer revolution in the advertising business, but I had no idea how to use a Mac.

So I spent $25 for one hour’s use of the Mac Classic at our local Kinko’s.

My boss wasn’t interested in computers. He didn’t appreciate what it would mean to our productivity. He said a resounding “No” to buying one for the agency.

I proposed that I’d invest in a Mac, a printer, and a scanner, and would lease them back to the company.

Surprisingly, he agreed. (I had my computer stuff paid off in six months.)

It feels like many agency principals are having a hard time adopting AI, too.

While most brand storytellers worry about AI replacing creativity, forward-thinking professionals are already using it to amplify their expertise and establish unassailable competitive advantages.

The content demands facing today’s storytellers have reached impossible levels. Quality expectations continue rising while deadlines compress and audience attention fragments across platforms.

Let me tell you something that might make most marketing directors spit up their latte: over my 40-year career, I’ve watched this same panic play out with every major technological shift.

• Desktop publishing was going to kill graphic designers.
• Digital photography would end professional photography.
• Social media would replace traditional marketing.

Here’s what stinks about today’s AI conversation: we’re asking the wrong damn question.

The Impossible Choice That’s Crushing Creative Professionals

You know the feeling. You want to create authentic brand narratives that actually drive business results, and you understand that powerful stories come from deep strategic insight combined with masterful execution.

But you’re drowning in impossible time-sucking demands. Overwhelm is the enemy of being overjoyed with your creative ideals.

Traditional brand development takes forever, costs a fortune, and often delivers generic storytelling that makes you blend into the noise instead of standing out from it.

The industry has forced you into an impossible choice: either maintain quality standards and miss every deadline, or deliver on time with work that makes you cringe.

That’s not a choice. That’s a trap.

What I’ve Discovered About AI Amplification (And Why Most People Get It Wrong)

Here’s the contrarian truth that’s transforming how elite brand storytellers work: AI doesn’t replace your storytelling genius—it amplifies it exponentially.

Your narrative expertise becomes the foundation. AI becomes the force multiplier that makes the impossible possible.

But here’s the catch nobody talks about: trying to harness AI yourself is like trying to become a master electrician so you can install better lighting in your office.

Sure, you could spend months learning prompt engineering, but is that really the best use of your creative talents?

The Hidden Nightmare of DIY AI Implementation

Look, the industry data shows impressive potential:

• Research that takes weeks can theoretically be done in hours.
• Content creation cycles can compress from months to minutes.
• Competitive analysis becomes continuous instead of periodic.
• Creative iteration speeds can increase exponentially.

But here’s what those rosy statistics don’t tell you about the DIY AI reality:

You Have to Become the AI Whisperer

Mastering effective AI communication isn’t like learning a new software program. It requires months of experimentation, trial and error, and constant frustration as you try to get consistent, quality outputs.

Every Output Needs a Fact-Checker

AI can hallucinate facts, misinterpret your brand context, or give you outdated information. You’ll spend almost as much time verifying and fixing AI outputs as you would have spent creating content manually.

You Become a One-Person IT Department

Building a comprehensive AI workflow means researching, testing, and integrating multiple AI tools. You’re not just a storyteller anymore—you’re a tech stack manager.

The Cognitive Overload Is Real

Juggling multiple AI tools, remembering which prompts work, and maintaining quality control across platforms creates a new kind of overwhelm that can actually crush your productivity.

I’ve watched brilliant storytellers turn into frustrated AI technicians. That’s not amplification, that’s distraction.

How StoryCycle Genie Solves the AI Expert Problem

This is where everything changes for you.

Instead of forcing you to become an AI expert, we’ve built an ecosystem of 27 specialized AI agents that already know how to deliver world-class branding outcomes.

You don’t need prompt engineering skills, technical knowledge, or AI expertise. You just need your storytelling vision and strategic thinking. Your business intuition. Hard-won customer insights. Your creative juices.

You Stay the Creative Director

With StoryCycle Genie, you become the creative director of an expert team that never sleeps, never gets overwhelmed, and never loses focus on your brand.

Each of our 27 AI specialists has been pre-trained in specific aspects of comprehensive brand development, and they all work together seamlessly in our proprietary Cognitive Mesh Architecture:

Your Strategic Foundation Team:

• Brand Story architects who apply my proven Story Cycle System process which has grown brands by as much as 600 percent.
• Audience psychology experts who map your complete customer journey.
• Competitive intelligence agents who give you real-time market positioning.
• Brand archetype specialists who ensure your authentic personality shines through.
• Always-on-brand content based on your unique brand brain built in the Genie.

Your Campaign and Content Strategy Experts:

• Behavioral messaging specialists trained in the most powerful psychological principles (the ethical kind that builds trust).
• Customer journey architects who optimize every touchpoint from awareness to advocacy.
• Content calendar strategists who coordinate your multi-channel storytelling campaigns.
• Social media strategy experts who adapt your story for each platform’s unique characteristics.

Your Content Creation and Optimization Team:

• Blog post creators who establish your thought leadership through primal narrative structures.
• Email campaign architects who build relationships through strategic storytelling sequences.
• Social media content creators who turn your followers into brand advocates.
• Website copywriters who convert visitors through compelling brand narratives.
• Case study developers who transform your client success into powerful proof stories.

Your Search and Discovery Optimization Experts:

• SEO specialists who ensure your stories rank for competitive keywords.
• GEO optimization agents who adapt your content for local and geographic search.
• AEO (Answer Engine Optimization) experts who position your content for voice search and AI-powered answers.
• Cross-platform discovery specialists who maximize your visibility across all search environments.

Here’s how they all work seamlessly together in the background so you can go to market faster with a consistent and compelling brand story that converts customers.

The Power of Cognitive Mesh Architecture

Unlike juggling multiple AI tools where you have to manually coordinate between different platforms, our proprietary Cognitive Mesh Architecture enables all 27 specialists to communicate and collaborate automatically.

When your Brand Story architect establishes your narrative foundation, the Content Strategy experts immediately understand how to apply it across every channel.

When your Behavioral Messaging specialist optimizes for engagement, your SEO experts ensure it still ranks well without compromising authenticity.

When your Customer Journey architect maps your audience flow, every content creator adapts their approach to support that journey.

You give one strategic direction, and the entire mesh of specialists executes in perfect harmony. Each expert building on the others’ insights to create cohesive, powerful brand experiences that compound across every touchpoint.

This isn’t 27 separate tools you have to manage or coordinate. This is one unified creative intelligence powered by our proprietary architecture that ensures every piece of your brand story works together systematically.

The Only Platform Built on My Story Cycle System

The Spiral Narrative Structure Capture in the Story Cycle System to Increase Customer Engagement With Every Rotation

Here’s what makes StoryCycle Genie fundamentally different from every other AI platform on the planet: it’s built on the proven and proprietary Story Cycle System that has grown brands by as much as 600 percent over my 20 years of deploying this brand-building process.

While other AI tools generate generic content based on patterns they’ve scraped from the internet, our Cognitive Mesh Architecture ensures that every specialist applies classical storytelling principles that have guided human communication for millennia:

• The 10-element Story Cycle framework that creates memorable, persuasive narratives.
• ABT (And-But-Therefore) structure that drives emotional engagement and action.
• Archetypal brand personality authenticity that builds deep audience connection.
• Classical storytelling wisdom enhanced by modern behavioral science for maximum impact.

This isn’t generic AI. This is AI trained on frameworks that have been proven to work for thousands of years, all working together in seamless coordination.

Behavioral Marketing That Actually Builds Trust

You know what makes most marketers feel slimy? Using behavioral psychology to manipulate people instead of genuinely helping them.

Our behavioral messaging specialists don’t play those games. They’re integrated into our Cognitive Mesh Architecture with ethical guardrails and evidence-based approaches that enhance your message without compromising your integrity:

Ethical Persuasion That Works:

• Social proof that builds trust through authentic community stories.
• Authority establishment that positions your expertise without arrogance.
• Reciprocity systems that create value-first relationships.
• Commitment and consistency approaches that align with your audience’s values.
• Scarcity and urgency tactics that respect your audience’s intelligence.

Every behavioral application maintains:

• Your authentic brand voice across the entire mesh.
• Respect for your audience that builds rather than exploits trust.
• Evidence-based implementation grounded in research, not manipulation.
• Ethical validation ensuring every approach enhances rather than deceives.

Customer Journey Mastery That Actually Converts

You know that feeling when you create great content, but it doesn’t seem to move people through your sales process?

Our customer journey specialists understand that great brands create cohesive experiences from first contact to lifelong advocacy, and our Cognitive Mesh Architecture ensures this coordination happens automatically:

Journey Mapping That Works:

• Awareness stage optimization that attracts your ideal prospects naturally.
• Consideration phase storytelling that builds trust and demonstrates your value.
• Decision moment messaging that removes barriers and creates confidence.
• Retention and growth strategies that turn your customers into advocates.
• Advocacy amplification that transforms satisfied customers into your best salespeople.

Multi-Channel Coordination That Makes Sense:

• Consistent story threads across all your platforms and touchpoints.
• Platform-specific adaptations that honor each channel’s unique characteristics.
• Cross-pollination strategies that move your audience between channels naturally.
• Measurement frameworks that track your story’s impact across the complete journey.

Search Optimization That Doesn’t Ruin Your Voice

You shouldn’t have to choose between ranking well and sounding like yourself. Our search optimization specialists work within the Cognitive Mesh Architecture to solve this false choice:

SEO That Feels Natural:

• Keyword research that identifies opportunities your competitors are missing.
• Content structuring that satisfies both search algorithms and human readers.
• Technical optimization that improves your discoverability without compromising your narrative flow.
• Competitive analysis that reveals content gaps and ranking opportunities.

Local and Geographic Optimization:

• Geographic targeting that adapts your messaging for local markets.
• Local search optimization that connects regional audiences with your story.
• Cultural adaptation that respects local perspectives and preferences.
• Multi-market coordination that maintains your brand consistency across regions.

Voice Search and AI Preparation:

• Voice search preparation that positions your content for conversational queries.
• Featured snippet optimization that establishes your authority in search results.
• AI-powered answer preparation for ChatGPT, Claude, and other AI systems.
• Question-based content structure that matches how people actually search.

Why This Gives You Superpowers (Not Just Efficiency)

This isn’t just about working faster. This is about capabilities you’ve never had before:

1. You Can Test Any Strategic Direction Without Risk: Want to explore a completely different positioning approach? Test it in hours, not months. Want to see how your story plays with a different audience segment? Find out immediately.

2. You Can Respond to Market Changes in Real Time: When your competitor launches something new or market conditions shift, you can analyze, strategize, and respond while they’re still scheduling meetings.

3. You Can Maintain Consistent Excellence Across Everything: No more hoping your team remembers your brand guidelines. No more cringing at content that doesn’t quite capture your voice. Every piece maintains your sophisticated brand strategy automatically through our Cognitive Mesh Architecture.

4. Your Creative Instincts Get Amplified by Data: Your narrative gut feelings get backed by systematic frameworks and market insights, creating story approaches you might never have discovered on your own.

5. You Stay Current Without Staying Up All Night: As AI capabilities evolve and search algorithms change, your access to cutting-edge brand development remains seamless. No need to learn new tools or update your technical skills.

The Window Is Closing Fast

Here’s what most professionals don’t realize (like my old boss): we’re in a brief window where early adopters can establish competitive advantages that will be very difficult for others to overcome.

While your competitors are either ignoring AI or struggling through DIY learning curves, you could be delivering impossible combinations of speed, sophistication, and strategic depth through our unified Cognitive Mesh Architecture.

This advantage compounds. Every project you complete with expert AI amplification builds your strategic capabilities while your competitors remain limited by manual processes or get stuck in technical learning curves.

You Don’t Need to Become an AI Expert

Unlike DIY AI approaches that require months of learning and experimentation, StoryCycle Genie gives you immediate access to expert-level capabilities through our proprietary Cognitive Mesh Architecture.

• No prompt engineering courses.
• No technical setup frustrations.
• No accuracy verification headaches.
• No ecosystem development projects.

Just professional-grade brand strategy and content creation that scales with your vision—backed by classical wisdom, enhanced by behavioral science, and optimized for modern discovery.

Your Next Chapter Starts Now

The most successful brand storytellers of the next decade won’t be the ones who learned to become AI experts. They’ll be the ones who focused on what they do best—creative vision and strategic thinking—while leveraging AI expertise to amplify their capabilities.

Your storytelling expertise is the foundation. Expert AI amplification through our Cognitive Mesh Architecture is the multiplier. Together, they create capabilities that transform limitations into possibilities.

You can spend the next six months learning prompt engineering, or you can start amplifying your storytelling capabilities today.

While you’re learning to become an AI expert, your competitors could be establishing unbeatable advantages.

Questions I Get Asked All the Time

“Park, how much does traditional brand development really cost?”

Glad you asked. Here’s what most agencies won’t tell you upfront:

Traditional Timeline and Investment:

• Complete Brand Strategy Development: 12-20 weeks, $50,000-$150,000
• Competitive Research: 3-4 weeks, $15,000-$35,000
• Audience Research and Personas: 2-3 weeks, $10,000-$25,000
• Brand Voice and Messaging: 2-3 weeks, $15,000-$40,000
• Content Strategy Framework: 4-6 weeks, $20,000-$60,000
• Implementation and Training: 4-6 weeks, $25,000-$75,000

Total Traditional Investment: 27-42 weeks, $135,000-$385,000 (not including the lost opportunity costs of your time and the time of your team in the process)

And that’s if everything goes smoothly.

“What kind of time savings does general AI actually offer?”

Industry data suggests impressive potential:

• Research tasks: From weeks to hours (90%+ time reduction).
• Content creation: From days to hours (80%+ time reduction).
• Strategic development: From weeks to days (85%+ time reduction).

But here’s what those numbers don’t account for:

• Learning prompt engineering: 3-6 months of trial and error.
• Testing and integrating multiple AI tools: 2-4 months of setup.
• Developing quality control processes: 1-3 months of refinement.
• Ongoing fact-checking and brand alignment: 20-40% of your “time savings” lost to verification.

“How is StoryCycle Genie different from me just using ChatGPT?”

With general AI tools, you become the AI expert:

• Learn prompt engineering for every function.
• Research and test multiple specialized AI tools.
• Develop custom workflows and quality controls.
• Manually ensure brand consistency across all outputs.
• Constantly verify accuracy and relevance.
• Learn behavioral marketing principles on your own.
• Study customer journey best practices.
• Master SEO, GEO, and AEO optimization techniques yourself.

With StoryCycle Genie, we’ve already done all the AI work for you:

• 27 pre-trained AI specialists ready to work immediately in our Cognitive Mesh Architecture.
• Proven prompting strategies built into every agent.
• Integrated workflow with automatic quality controls.
• Brand consistency maintained across all outputs automatically.
• Story Cycle System frameworks ensure strategic soundness.
• Behavioral marketing principles ethically integrated.
• Customer journey optimization built into every touchpoint.
• Search optimization that preserves your authentic voice.

“What makes your Story Cycle System so special?”

Great question. The Story Cycle System is the only comprehensive storytelling framework that combines:

• Classical storytelling wisdom and primal narrative structures proven over millennia.
• Modern behavioral science for enhanced engagement.
• Business application methodology for measurable results.
• Cross-platform adaptability for consistent impact.

Unlike generic storytelling approaches you’ll find everywhere else, the Story Cycle System provides 10 distinct elements that create complete narrative experiences. Your stories become memorable, persuasive, and authentically connected to your audience’s deepest motivations.

I’ve spent 40 years developing and refining this system. You’re not just getting AI. You’re getting AI trained on proven frameworks that have grown brands by as much as 600 percent, all coordinated through our Cognitive Mesh Architecture.

“What exactly is this Cognitive Mesh Architecture?”

Our proprietary Cognitive Mesh Architecture is what makes StoryCycle Genie fundamentally different from collections of separate AI tools. Instead of you having to coordinate between different AI platforms, our architecture enables all 27 specialists to:

• Share contextual understanding across every interaction.
• Build on each other’s insights automatically.
• Maintain brand consistency without manual oversight.
• Coordinate complex campaigns seamlessly.
• Learn from your preferences and apply them systematically.

It’s like having a team of experts who all share the same brain and never forget anything about your brand. Oh, and they work 24/7 with zero whining. No payroll taxes. No costly healthcare benefits. No hiring and firing.

“How do you handle behavioral marketing without being manipulative?”

I’m glad you asked because this matters to me personally. Our behavioral messaging specialists are integrated into the Cognitive Mesh Architecture with ethical guardrails and evidence-based approaches that enhance rather than exploit:

Evidence-Based Approaches:

• All principles backed by peer-reviewed research.
• Focus on building genuine trust and value.
• Respect for your audience’s intelligence and autonomy.
• Complete transparency in communication approaches.

Ethical Guidelines:

• Your authenticity preservation over conversion optimization.
• Long-term relationship building over short-term manipulation.
• Value delivery before any persuasive elements.
• Your audience’s benefit prioritized in every message.

“How quickly will I see results?”

• Immediate Access: No learning curve or setup time required.
• First Results: Complete brand strategy components in hours, not weeks.
• Full Capability: Access to the entire AI expert ecosystem from day one.
• Ongoing Value: Continuous capability enhancement without additional training.

You could literally start your brand transformation today!

“What’s this really going to cost me compared to traditional approaches?”

• Traditional Approach: $135,000-$385,000 + 27-42 weeks.
• General AI DIY: Months of learning investment + ongoing verification overhead + multiple tool subscriptions + specialized training in behavioral marketing, customer journey optimization, and search best practices.
• StoryCycle Genie: Immediate expert capabilities without becoming an AI expert yourself. Our Startup Plan is only $199 per month. If you’re not totally enthralled with what the StoryCycle Genie creates for you in month one, we will refund 100% of your investment. No questions asked. No risk, all reward!

The real advantage isn’t just cost savings. It’s accessing expert-level AI capabilities across all brand development disciplines without having to become an expert in AI, behavioral psychology, customer journey optimization, or technical SEO.

“Why should I trust AI-generated content?”

You shouldn’t trust generic AI-generated content. But StoryCycle Genie is different:

• Story Cycle System Foundation: Built on proven storytelling structures, not random internet patterns.
• Cognitive Mesh Architecture: All specialists work together with shared understanding.
• Brand-Specific Training: Each agent understands professional brand strategy principles.
• Integrated Quality Control: Automatic brand consistency across all outputs.
• Expert Oversight: Professional methodologies built into every process.
• Behavioral Science Grounding: Ethical persuasion principles based on research.
• Framework-Based Approach: Reduces hallucination through structured methodology.

“Will I still have creative control?”

StoryCycle Genie amplifies your creative control rather than replacing it:

• You remain the creative director providing vision and strategic direction.
• AI handles research, structure, and optimization while you focus on creative decisions.
• Every output requires your approval before implementation.
• Your expertise guides every direction while the Cognitive Mesh Architecture handles execution.
• Complete transparency in how behavioral principles and optimization techniques are applied.

You go from tactical executor to strategic orchestrator. You get more creative control, not less.

Ready to discover how expert AI amplification can transform your brand storytelling capabilities? Experience the StoryCycle Genie platform and see how 27 AI specialists—trained in campaign strategy, behavioral marketing, customer journey optimization, search discovery, and my proven Story Cycle System—can amplify your expertise through our proprietary Cognitive Mesh Architecture without forcing you to become an AI expert yourself.

The post How AI Can 10X the Capabilities of Brand Developers and Brand Storytellers appeared first on Business of Story | Storytelling Strategy, Workshops & Keynotes.

The Strategic Enemy Hiding in Plain Sight

You know that feeling when you’re scrolling through LinkedIn, and every “brand story” sounds exactly the same?

“We’re passionate about helping our customers succeed through innovative solutions that drive results.”

Yawn.

Here’s what’s happening: 90% of brands think they’re telling stories, but they’re actually just listing features with emotional seasoning sprinkled on top. And there’s a name for what this creates in your marketplace.

Indifference.

This week, I have brand positioning guru, Laura Ries, on my show. And we talked about her new book THE STRATEGIC ENEMY: How to Build & Position a Brand Worth Fighting For.

Indifference is the silent killer of marketing ROI. It’s the reason your carefully crafted campaigns get ignored.

It’s why prospects can’t remember what makes you different. It’s the strategic enemy that turns your marketing budget into expensive noise.

When your messaging fails to differentiate, you’re competing solely on price, extending sales cycles, and watching potential customers choose competitors they can’t even explain why.

The only way to overcome indifference is by making your brand enthralling.

I’ve spent over two decades studying why some brands become unforgettable while others fade into the noise. After working with everyone from Fortune 500 companies to scrappy startups, I’ve discovered something that’ll change how you think about brand communication forever.

The brands that win don’t just tell better stories. They follow a systematic approach that most marketers have never heard of.

The Hidden Framework Behind Every Breakthrough Brand

Let me tell you about André Martin Hobbs and Prêt, Auto, Partez, a Montreal car dealership that came to me with a problem that’ll sound familiar.

They had quality vehicles, honest practices, and a mission to help financially challenged Canadians repair their credit with the purchase of a car they could actually afford.

But in the commoditized used car industry, they were invisible. Every competitor claimed the same things: fair prices, reliable cars, honest dealing.

Here’s what changed everything: We stopped trying to “tell their story” and started building their Story Cycle System, the proven framework that transforms scattered messaging into magnetic brand narratives.

The result? Prêt, Auto, Partez tripled their growth in three years, doubled their personnel, and became the leading used-car dealership among thousands of competitors in Quebec. They even reduced their customers’ loan default rate to half the industry average.

Their core story: Prêt, Auto, Partez: Your Vehicle to Financial Freedom

The difference wasn’t better inventory or lower prices. It was implementing the 10 Critical Brand Story Elements that most brands completely ignore to define and refine their brand story.

The 10 Elements That Separate Magnetic Brands from Marketing Noise

1. Brand Assessment: Know Where You Stand Before You Move

Most brands skip this step entirely. They jump straight into “storytelling” without understanding how they currently show up in the world.

Your brand assessment isn’t about what you think you’re communicating. It’s about what your audience actually receives.

Is your current messaging accurate, unique, and authentic? Or are you accidentally blending into the background noise?

Want to know exactly where your brand story stands right now? Take the FREE StoryCycle Genie Brand Story Grader and get a comprehensive 14-point assessment that reveals your story strength across all critical elements.

Action Step: After your assessment, audit your website, social media, and sales materials. Ask yourself: “If I removed our logo, would someone still know this was our brand?”

2. Name Your Audience: The 80/20 Rule of Revenue

Here’s where most brands go wrong: They try to speak to everyone and end up connecting with no one.

Your #1 customer persona – the one responsible for 80% of your revenue – has specific emotional triggers. They have challenges that keep them up at night, fears that drive their decisions, frustrations that make them search for solutions, and aspirations that fuel their ambitions.

The magic happens when you stop guessing and start documenting these emotional drivers systematically, and then use your storytelling to address each of these emotional triggers.

3. Place Your Customer at the Center: The ABT Revolution

This is where the Story Cycle System gets revolutionary.

Most brands make themselves the hero of their story. Big mistake. Your customer is the hero. You’re the mentor who guides them to victory.

The ABT (And, But, Therefore) framework captures this perfectly:

As a CEO, you want sustainable growth AND peace of mind about your company’s future.

BUT you feel overwhelmed because traditional marketing isn’t working anymore.

THEREFORE, you can build a magnetic brand story that drives predictable revenue growth in hours, not months, with our StoryCycle Genie, the only storytelling tech based on the proven Story Cycle System, which has grown brands by as much as 600 percent.

Write an ABT for your brand’s #1 audience and see how clear, concise and compelling you can make it.

4. Create Your Brand Position Statement: Your Unique Problem-Solving Approach

Your position statement isn’t a tagline. It’s your strategic declaration of how you uniquely solve your customer’s problem.

Framework: “We help [specific audience] achieve [desired outcome] by [unique approach] so they can [transformation].”

Positioning Statement Example: “We help purpose-driven business leaders achieve predictable revenue growth by implementing the proven Story Cycle System so they can transform scattered marketing into magnetic brand narratives that enthrall their audiences.”

Keep it to 25-30 words maximum. Any longer and you’re explaining, not positioning.

5. Declare Your Unique Value Proposition: Your 10-Word Knockout Punch

If your UVP takes more than 10 words, you don’t have one yet.

I’m always surprised at how many companies do NOT have a unique value proposition (UVP). Or if they do, it doesn’t immediately pop to mind.

Your UVP is the brilliantly brief hook that makes people stop scrolling and start paying attention. It’s not what you do, it’s the unique outcome you deliver that no one else can claim.

Six Powerful UVP Examples:

• Nike: “Just Do It” (3 words)
• Apple: “Think Different” (2 words)
• Prêt, Auto, Partez: “Your vehicle to financial freedom” (5 words)
• L’Oréal: “Because You’re Worth It” (4 words)
• Business of Story: “Excel through the stories you tell” (6 words)
• BMW: “The Ultimate Driving Machine” (4 words)

According to research from the Harvard Business Review, companies with clearly defined value propositions see 23% higher customer acquisition rates and 18% higher customer retention compared to those with generic positioning.

6. Define Your Brand’s Personality Traits: The “OOOh Exercise”

Here’s a powerful storytelling framework most brands have never heard of: The OOOh Exercise.

Choose nine one-word descriptors that become your brand’s personality traits: three each for your:

• Organization: How you operate internally
• Offering: What you deliver to customers
• Outcomes: The results customers experience

Prêt, Auto, Partez Example:

• Organization: Trustworthy, Insightful, Integrity
• Offering: Educational, Honest, Authentic
• Outcomes: Friendliness, Humor, Respect

These nine descriptors define your brand’s personality traits and become your enchanting story themes for real-world narratives about how your brand helps someone. Each descriptor becomes a lens through which you can craft authentic stories of customer transformation.

Remember: “Your brand story is not about what you make, but what you make happen for your customer.” The OOOh Exercise gives you nine different angles to tell those transformation stories while maintaining consistent brand personality across every touchpoint.

7. Reveal Your Brand Promise & Gift: Your North Star Clarity

Two words that change everything:

1. Promise: The one emotional experience people have with your brand
2. Gift: The one measurable outcome they receive

Examples:

• Prêt, Auto, Partez: Promise = Freedom, Gift = Transportation
• StoryCycle Genie: Promise = Enthrall, Gift = Growth
• Adelante Healthcare: Promise = Hope, Gift = Wellness

Why are these so important? Your emotional promise becomes your North Star. It guides every decision, every interaction, every piece of content. It’s the feeling people should have after every encounter with your brand. Your physical gift is the measurable outcome that justifies their investment. Together, they create the complete value equation that transforms prospects into advocates.

These focus all of your messaging and eliminate the scattered communication that confuses prospects.

8. Express Your Brand Archetypes: The Psychology of Connection

Your brand archetype isn’t just personality; it’s psychological positioning.

Choose one primary archetype and two secondary archetypes that inform the consistent look, tone, voice, and feel of your story marketing.

Prêt, Auto, Partez Example:

• Primary: The Caregiver (nurturing, protective, helpful)
• Secondary: The Hero (courageous, determined, honorable) and The Sage (wise, knowledgeable, trusted advisor)

This ensures deep resonance with your audiences because you’re speaking their psychological language.

9. Proclaim Your Brand Purpose: Beyond the Transaction

People buy with their hearts and justify with their heads.

Your purpose statement explains why you exist beyond making money. It shows how you serve customers, colleagues, and communities.

For example, “Prêt, Auto, Partez exists to get people back on the road to financial freedom.”

This is what transforms transactions into relationships and customers into advocates.

10. Share Your Overarching Brand Narrative: The Foundation for Everything

Your brand narrative weaves all nine previous elements into a cohesive story that becomes the foundation for all marketing.

StoryCycle Genie Brand Narrative Example: “For business leaders who want predictable revenue growth AND the confidence that comes from magnetic marketing, StoryCycle Genie provides the only AI-powered storytelling platform based on the proven Story Cycle System. Unlike generic marketing tools that create more noise, our systematic approach transforms scattered messaging into enthralling brand narratives that drive measurable business growth, giving you the clarity to amplify your impact and the technology to scale your story across every touchpoint.”

This isn’t a paragraph on your About page. It’s the strategic framework that guides every piece of content, every campaign, every customer interaction.

Frequently Asked Questions About Brand Storytelling

What makes a brand story effective?
An effective brand story places the customer as the hero, uses the ABT (And, But, Therefore) framework for emotional engagement, and implements all 10 critical brand story elements systematically through the Story Cycle System.

How long does it take to develop a strong brand story?
With the StoryCycle Genie platform, you can build a magnetic brand story that drives predictable revenue growth in hours, not months, using our systematic approach based on the proven Story Cycle System.

What’s the difference between a brand story and marketing copy?
Brand storytelling creates emotional connection by making your customer the hero and addressing their specific emotional triggers, while marketing copy typically focuses on features and benefits without systematic narrative structure.

How do I know if my brand story is working?
Take the FREE StoryCycle Genie Brand Story Grader to get a comprehensive 14-point assessment that reveals your story strength across all critical elements and identifies specific gaps costing you revenue.

Can small businesses benefit from systematic brand storytelling?
Absolutely. Our case studies show results across all business sizes – from Prêt, Auto, Partez (tripled growth) to Adelante Healthcare (600% growth) to Avantpage (30% increase in new business).

The Real Cost of Indifference: What’s It Costing Your Brand?

Here’s what I’ve learned after helping hundreds of brands implement the Story Cycle System: Most companies are sitting on million-dollar stories but don’t know it.

They have compelling customer transformations, unique approaches, and powerful outcomes – but they’re buried under generic marketing speak that creates our strategic enemy: Indifference.

The brands that break through aren’t necessarily better at what they do. They’re better at how they story what they do.

Adelante Healthcare grew by 600% and became one of the nation’s leaders in sustainable healthcare after we helped them re-brand their community healthcare center using the Story Cycle System.

Avantpage, a translation services company, experienced a 30% increase in new business after implementing their Story Cycle System because they transformed from commodity provider to strategic partner.

Willmeng Construction cemented its position as “The Genuine Contractor” in the commoditized construction industry by clarifying their purpose-driven brand story.

Your Story Strength Assessment Starts Here

Want to know where your brand story stands right now?

You can now take advantage of the Story Cycle Genie Brand Story Grader, a comprehensive assessment tool that analyzes your current brand narrative against all 10 critical elements using a grading system and 14-point assessment framework.

In just minutes, you’ll discover:

• Your brand story strength grade across all 10 elements
• Specific gaps that are costing you revenue and recognition
• Priority improvements that deliver the biggest impact
• Strategic recommendations based on your unique situation

Click Here to Take the FREE Brand Story Assessment →

Hundreds of business leaders have used this new assessment tool to identify, in under 60 seconds, exactly where their brand story needs strengthening. Many discover they’re closer to breakthrough messaging than they realized. They just need the systematic approach to bring it all together.

Overcome Indifference by Being Enthralling

Here’s what happens when you implement the complete Story Cycle System:

Week 1-2: Clarity emerges. Your team finally understands what makes you different.

Week 3-4: Messaging consistency. Every touchpoint reinforces your unique position.

Month 2-3: Market response. Prospects start using your language to describe their problems.

Month 4-6: Revenue acceleration. Sales cycles shorten because your story does the heavy lifting.

The StoryCycle Genie is the only storytelling tech platform that guides you through implementing all 10 elements systematically, with AI-powered tools that help you craft each component with precision.

From brand assessment to narrative creation, from audience targeting to archetype selection, every element gets the attention it deserves because your story is your strategy.

Local Business Storytelling Success

Business storytelling frameworks work for companies of all sizes and locations. Whether you’re a local service provider, regional manufacturer, or national brand, the Story Cycle System adapts to your market context while maintaining universal psychological principles that drive human connection.

Our clients span from Phoenix construction companies to Montreal car dealerships to Arizona healthcare centers, proving that systematic brand storytelling transcends geographic boundaries while respecting local market nuances.

Voice Search Optimization: Common Brand Storytelling Questions

“How do I create a compelling brand story?” Start with the 10 critical brand story elements: brand assessment, audience identification, customer-centered ABT framework, position statement, unique value proposition, personality traits (OOOh Exercise), brand promise and gift, archetypes, purpose statement, and overarching brand narrative.

“What is the Story Cycle System?” The Story Cycle System is a proven framework created by Park Howell that transforms scattered messaging into magnetic brand narratives using systematic storytelling principles that have grown brands by up to 600%.

“How can I test my brand story strength?” Use the FREE StoryCycle Genie Brand Story Grader for a comprehensive 14-point assessment that analyzes your brand narrative against all critical elements and provides strategic recommendations.

Your Next Chapter Starts with One Decision

You have two choices:

1. Keep doing what you’re doing and let indifference continue draining your marketing budget and stifling your revenue growth. Watch your team struggle with scattered messaging that doesn’t inspire them or your customers.

2. Implement the systematic approach that builds camaraderie with your team based on an exciting, inspirational brand story that matters. Transform your organization into one that enthralls customers and the communities you serve. Be enthralled, yourself.

The brands that choose option two don’t just grow. They become the stories their industries tell. Their teams rally around a mission that matters. Their customers become advocates who can’t stop sharing their story.

Ready to discover your brand story strength and start combating indifference?

Start Your FREE Brand Story Assessment →

Then, when you’re ready to implement the complete system that turns your brand into the story your market can’t stop talking about:

Your story is waiting. The only question is: Will you give it the systematic brand storytelling approach it deserves, or will you let indifference continue costing you the growth you’ve earned?

Download: 10 Essential Brand Story Elements

The post Why 90% of Brands Fail at Storytelling (And the 10 Elements That Fix Everything) appeared first on Business of Story | Storytelling Strategy, Workshops & Keynotes.

How Much Does Brand Story Analysis Cost? Grade Yours for FREE!

Brand story analysis typically costs:

• Marketing agencies: $3,500 – $25,000+
• Independent strategists: $2,500 – $15,000
• Internal team time: $2,500 – $10,000 opportunity cost
• StoryCycle Brand Story Grader: Free (delivers $5,000-$15,000 value)

How the StoryCycle Genie Brand Story Grader democratizes professional brand analysis and transforms expensive consulting into instant competitive advantage

What Is Brand Story Analysis and Why Every Business Needs It

Brand story analysis is the systematic evaluation of how effectively your business communicates its narrative to customers. Every marketing leader understands this fundamental reality: your brand story isn’t just marketing copy, it’s the DNA of every meaningful customer relationship you’ll ever build.

For millennia, the most successful civilizations, empires, and enterprises have risen to prominence through one common thread: their ability to tell compelling stories that resonate deeply with their audiences. From the ancient Greek agora to today’s digital marketplace, the brands that master their narrative foundation create sustainable competitive advantages that transcend market fluctuations and industry disruptions.

The Problem: Brand Story Excellence Is Artificially Expensive

But here’s what keeps business leaders awake at night: most organizations today are trapped in a system that makes brand story excellence artificially expensive, unnecessarily complex, and frustratingly slow to achieve.

And while you’re waiting weeks and spending thousands, your competitors might be discovering a faster path to narrative mastery.

Brand Story Analysis Cost Breakdown: What You’re Really Paying For

Let me share something that might surprise you about the brand consulting industry. And trust me, after decades in this space helping over 10,000 businesses transform their marketing, I’ve seen it all.

Traditional Brand Consulting Costs

Right now, if you want professional brand story analysis, you’re looking at an investment that would make most CFOs spit up their Latte. And the following numbers do NOT account for the cost of your time and that of your staff.

Marketing Agency Brand Analysis: $3,500 – $25,000+

• Boutique agencies: $3,500 – $7,500 for basic brand audits
• Mid-size agencies: $7,500 – $15,000 for comprehensive analysis
• Top-tier agencies: $15,000 – $25,000+ for complete brand story development
• Timeline: 2-6 weeks delivery
• Deliverable: PowerPoint presentation with recommendations

Independent Brand Strategist Costs: $2,500 – $15,000

• Junior consultants: $2,500 – $4,000 for basic assessment
• Experienced strategists: $4,000 – $8,000 for comprehensive analysis
• Senior brand experts: $8,000 – $15,000+ for systematic framework development
• Timeline: 1-4 weeks delivery
• Deliverable: Strategy document with implementation guidelines

Internal Team Opportunity Cost: $2,500 – $10,000

• Marketing Director time: $75-150/hour × 20-40 hours = $1,500-$6,000
• Content Strategist involvement: $50-100/hour × 20-40 hours = $1,000-$4,000
• Total internal investment: $2,500 – $10,000 in opportunity cost
• Timeline: 2-8 weeks (depending on other priorities)

What You DON’T Get with Traditional Brand Analysis

Here’s what stinks: Over my 40-year career, I’ve spoken with hundreds of marketing directors who had invested between $5,000-$18,000 in brand analysis only to receive generic recommendations they could have found in any marketing textbook.

After investing all that money and waiting 1-6 weeks for delivery, what do you actually get?

• Subjective assessments based on consultant preference rather than proven criteria
• Disregarded input from outside resources, which often discount your business intuition, customer insights and market knowledge
• PowerPoint presentations instead of actionable implementation tools
• Inconsistent methodologies that vary wildly between providers
• One-time analysis without ongoing improvement pathways
• Generic recommendations that could apply to any business in your industry
• No standardized scoring to benchmark against industry standards
• Limited follow-up support without additional consulting fees

The traditional consulting model has created an artificial barrier between businesses and brand story excellence. It’s time we changed that.

Question: How many marketing opportunities are you missing while waiting weeks for analysis you could get in minutes? How much money down the drain?

StoryCycle Genie Brand Story Grader vs Traditional Consulting: The Complete Comparison

Here’s what the consulting industry doesn’t want you to discover: the most effective brand story analysis doesn’t require expensive consultants, weeks of research, or subjective interpretation.

What Makes the Brand Story Grader Different

The StoryCycle Genie is built on my proven and proprietary Story Cycle System, which in its 20 years of use has grown brands by as much as 600 percent.

The Genie is the only platform that integrates the Story Cycle System with leading technology to help you craft a vibrant brand narrative strategy in minutes, not months. Create brilliant marketing strategies based on your brand story in a flash. And instantly produce captivating, always-on-brand content that converts.

It’s all handled by an ecosystem of 24 expert agents that work together and with you to refine and define your powerful brand story.

But you need to know where you’re starting from. The Genie’s Brand Story Grader represents the first comprehensive integration of ancient narrative structures with evidence-based assessment criteria. Instead of relying on consultant opinion, it applies measurable standards to the 14 fundamental elements that determine brand story effectiveness.

Think about it: why should brand story analysis be limited to businesses with $15,000 consulting budgets when the underlying frameworks are universal principles that work for every organization?

The answer is simple: It shouldn’t be. And now it doesn’t have to be.

The 14-Point Brand Story Assessment Framework

For FREE, you can have the Brand Story Grader evaluate your brand across the complete Story Cycle System methodology. It’s the same systematic approach that has transformed thousands of businesses from generic messaging into compelling competitive advantage.

Foundation Elements Assessment

• Story Structure Analysis: How well your brand follows proven narrative architecture
• ABT Messaging Evaluation: The clarity and emotional impact of your And-But-Therefore framework
• Customer Struggle Identification: How precisely you articulate your audience’s core challenges
• Brand Role Positioning: Your positioning as the guide versus the hero in the customer journey

Brand Positioning Elements

• Audience Identification Precision: The specificity and relevance of your target market definition
• Brand Position/UVP Clarity: The uniqueness and memorability of your value proposition
• Brand Archetype/Tone Consistency: The consistency and authenticity of your brand personality
• Messaging Consistency & Cohesion: How well your messaging aligns across all touchpoints

Customer Transformation Elements

• Transformation Clarity: How clearly you define the customer’s desired outcome
• Emotional Resonance Depth: The depth of emotional connection your story creates
• Language Simplicity: The accessibility and clarity of your communication
• Customer Centricity: How well you position customers as heroes of their journey

Competitive Differentiation Elements

• Brand Differentiation Strength: What makes your approach uniquely valuable
• Future Vision Compelling: How compellingly you paint the picture of customer success

Each element receives evidence-based scoring using criteria developed through analysis of thousands of successful brand stories. No subjective interpretation. No consultant bias. Just a systematic assessment based on what actually works.

Free Brand Story Analysis: $15,000 Value Delivered in under 3 Minutes

Let me put this in perspective for you.

The comprehensive brand story analysis you receive from the Brand Story Grader would typically cost $5,000-$15,000 through traditional consulting channels. Here’s the direct comparison:

StoryCycle Brand Story Grader vs Traditional Consulting

But here’s what makes this truly revolutionary: you’re not just getting equivalent value. You’re getting superior analysis through a systematic methodology that most consultants can’t match.

The Brand Story Grader applies consistent, proven criteria to every assessment. It doesn’t have off days, personal preferences, or varying expertise levels. It delivers the same rigorous analysis whether you’re a startup or a Fortune 500 company.

Consider this: While your competitors are spending weeks and thousands of dollars on traditional analysis, you could have your comprehensive assessment, implementation plan, and competitive advantage in place by tomorrow morning.

How to Use the Brand Story Grader: Step-by-Step Guide

Step 1: Access the Free Assessment

• Visit the Brand Story Grader tool
• Enter your website URL for analysis
• No registration or payment required

Step 2: Receive Instant Analysis

• 14-point comprehensive evaluation completed in minutes
• Evidence-based scoring across all critical elements
• Professional-grade assessment equivalent to $5,000-$15,000 consulting

Step 3: Download Your Professional Report

• Detailed PDF report with specific scores and recommendations
• Implementation guidance for immediate improvement
• Benchmark comparisons against industry standards

Step 4: Implement Improvements

• Prioritized action items based on assessment results
• Clear improvement pathways for each element
• Ongoing assessment capability to track progress

Frequently Asked Questions About Brand Story Analysis

How accurate is the Brand Story Grader compared to human consultants?

The Brand Story Grader uses evidence-based criteria developed through analysis of thousands of successful brand stories, providing a more consistent and objective assessment than subjective consultant opinions.

Can I use the Brand Story Grader multiple times?

This is an introductory offer. The assessment is completely free and can be repeated as often as needed to track improvements and optimize your brand story over time.

What makes StoryCycle Genie’s Brand Story Grader different from other brand analysis tools?

The StoryCycle Genie is the only platform that combines classical storytelling wisdom with modern assessment precision, evaluating all 14 critical elements of effective brand narratives.

How long does it take to see results from implementing recommendations?

Most businesses see measurable improvements in marketing effectiveness within 30-60 days of implementing Brand Story Grader recommendations.

Is the Brand Story Grader suitable for all business sizes?

Yes, the assessment framework works equally well for solopreneurs, startups, nonprofits, small businesses, and Fortune 500 companies, providing relevant insights regardless of organization size.

The Future of Brand Story Analysis

Imagine running your marketing with the confidence that comes from knowing your brand story has been professionally validated across every critical element.

Picture your team aligned around a brand foundation that’s been systematically assessed and optimized for maximum impact. Envision your marketing campaigns flowing from a narrative structure that’s been proven to drive engagement and conversion.

This is what happens when brand story excellence becomes accessible rather than exclusive:

Marketing Efficiency Multiplies

Every campaign, every piece of content, every customer interaction flows from a professionally validated brand foundation.

Team Alignment Accelerates

When everyone understands the systematic framework behind your brand story, execution becomes consistent and powerful.

Competitive Advantage Compounds

While competitors struggle with generic messaging, you operate from a narrative foundation that’s been optimized for maximum impact.

Continuous Improvement Becomes Standard

Instead of periodic expensive consulting engagements, you can assess and refine your brand story whenever market conditions change.

The democratization of professional brand story analysis doesn’t just level the playing field—it transforms how businesses approach narrative strategy entirely.

Your Free Brand Story Analysis Awaits

Here’s the truth I’ve discovered after decades of helping businesses master their brand stories: the only thing standing between most organizations and narrative excellence is access to proven frameworks applied with systematic precision.

The Brand Story Grader removes that barrier completely.

Right now, you can receive a comprehensive brand story analysis worth $5,000-$15,000, delivered instantly, with professional-grade insights and actionable improvement guidance—completely free.

This isn’t about disrupting the consulting industry for disruption’s sake. It’s about fulfilling our sacred mission: helping every person and every business excel through the stories they tell.

Your brand story is too important to leave to chance, too valuable to delay with expensive processes, and too fundamental to your success to remain unoptimized.

The question isn’t whether you need better brand story analysis. The question is: how much longer can you afford to wait?

Ready to master your brand story? Start with your free Brand Story Grader assessment and discover the systematic approach that transforms generic messaging into competitive advantage.

Related Resources

• How to Craft Your Brand Story Strategy With the Story Cycle System
• How to Sell More by Saying Less With the ABT
• The Story Cycle System vs Traditional Brand Development
• Winning Brand Story Examples and Case Stories
• The Five Revolutionary Principles of Vibe Branding

The post See How Effective Your Brand Story is to Capture Customers appeared first on Business of Story | Storytelling Strategy, Workshops & Keynotes.

How StoryCycle Genie Transforms Business Intuition Into Magnetic Brand Power

Early in my career, I was taught to ask my customers insipid questions like: If your brand were 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 goldendoodle named Hazel that drives an Audi Q3. enjoys Manhattans, reads Vogue and Outside magazines, and gives her Nordstrom personal shopper birthday presents.”

Seriously, man, that was nuts.

So I created the Story Cycle System, which focuses on the client’s hard-earned business intuition and customer instincts. The Story Cycle System has grown brands by as much as 600 percent.

The Spiral Narrative Structure Capture in the Story Cycle System to Increase Customer Engagement With Every Rotation

You’ve spent years building customer relationships, testing what works, and developing a sixth sense about what makes your market tick. Yet when it comes to branding, you’re told to sit back while consultants “discover” what you already know through expensive sessions that ignore your business acumen.

That backwards approach ends today.

The Death of Traditional Brand Positioning

It used to take months of “discovery,” tens of thousands of dollars, and armies of consultants to decode complex positioning frameworks. The result? Brands that sound impressive in boardrooms but leave customers scrolling past in milliseconds.

 Traditional brand strategy optimizes for approval, not connection.

While consultants craft elaborate brand books that impress executives, your customers make decisions based on gut feeling and an authentic connection. The disconnect isn’t just frustrating—it’s expensive. Companies spend fortunes on brand strategies that fail to create the one thing that actually matters: a genuine customer connection that drives revenue.

What Is Vibe Branding?

The old way of branding mostly relies on logic and reason. But I can’t tell you how many times I’d ask a client, “How does it feel?” “How does it feel to your colleagues?” “How does it feel to your customers?”

I suppose I was doing Vibe Branding before it was a thing.

Vibe Branding is the revolutionary approach that puts your business intuition back in the driver’s seat. Instead of asking “How do we position ourselves?” Vibe Branding asks,

“How do we amplify what you already know works?”

This isn’t about being trendy or casual. It’s about engineering authentic connection through five core principles that transform overwhelming brand development into an overjoyed experience of creating vibrant brand stories, brilliant strategies, and compelling content—all from one brand brain.

The Five Revolutionary Principles of Vibe Branding

1. Developed Intuition Over Discovery Sessions: Intuition vs Interrogation

Stop paying consultants to “discover” what you already understand through years of customer interaction and market experience. The intuition you’ve developed is more valuable than external research.

Traditional Approach: Expensive discovery sessions and market research to “understand” your brand

Vibe Branding: Use the intuition you’ve developed through business experience to guide systematic brand creation

Think about it: You know which emails get responses, which social posts drive engagement, and what language makes customers lean in. That’s not guesswork—that’s market intelligence.

2. Smart Systems Over Creative Guesswork: Your Instincts + AI vs Abstract Exercises

Your business understanding knows what’s authentic to your brand. Instead of filtering that intuition through abstract creative exercises, let smart systems capture and amplify what you know works.

Traditional Approach: Creative workshops and positioning exercises that feel disconnected

Vibe Branding: Brand strategy that emerges directly from your developed business instincts

For example: Instead of spending weeks in workshops trying to “find your voice,” you input examples of your best customer conversations, and AI helps you identify the patterns that already work.

3. Market Experience Over Theoretical Frameworks: Real Results vs Academic Theory

You understand what resonates because you’ve tested it in real market conditions. Use that understanding to direct proven brand frameworks rather than starting from theoretical positioning exercises.

Traditional Approach: Abstract positioning exercises and creative metaphors

Vibe Branding: Apply your customer understanding to guide proven brand insights

Your customer service calls, sales conversations, and user feedback contain more valuable brand insights than any focus group ever could.

4. One Brand Brain Over Three-Headed Monsters: Strategy + Content + Execution Together

Why separate strategy from execution when smart systems can deliver both simultaneously? Transform your business intuition into comprehensive brand strategy and immediate implementation tools.

Traditional Approach: Months-long strategy development followed by separate implementation phases

Vibe Branding: Business intuition becomes both strategy and execution through intelligent amplification

Instead of creating a brand strategy document that sits on a shelf, you get the strategy AND the social posts, email sequences, and website copy that bring it to life—all at once.

5. Intuition-Guided Systems Over Manual Creative Development: Turning Overwhelm Into Overjoy

Trust intelligent systems to execute brilliantly when guided by your developed business understanding. Your market instincts become the foundation for authentic, scalable output.

Traditional Approach: Manual creative development requiring constant specialist input

Vibe Branding: Smart strategy and content creation guided by business intuition

You provide the business intelligence, the system provides the framework and execution. It’s like having a world-class creative team that instantly understands your business.

Why Now? The Convergence of Three Forces

Vibe Branding isn’t just a new methodology—it’s an inevitable response to three massive shifts:

1. The Speed Reality: Your customers decide whether to engage with your brand in 0.3 seconds. Traditional positioning statements optimized for corporate approval don’t work in thumb-scroll speed environments.
2. The Authenticity Requirement: Modern consumers have developed supernatural abilities to detect corporate speak. They have amazing bullshit Spidey senses. They connect with brands that feel real, not brands that sound professional.
3. The AI Collaboration Revolution: Artificial intelligence can now amplify human intuition rather than replace it. Your business instincts become the secret sauce that makes AI output feel authentically yours.

How Vibe Branding Actually Works in Practice

Let me walk you through what this looks like when you flip the traditional model completely:

Phase 1: Intelligent Assessment

Instead of lengthy discovery sessions, the system analyzes your existing business presence and provides immediate insights:

• Your digital presence becomes strategic foundation – Website and content analysis reveals business insights
• Current messaging gets systematically evaluated – What you’re already communicating becomes starting point
• Market positioning emerges from actual presence – Your competitive stance becomes clear through systematic review
• Authentic voice identified from existing content – No creative exercises needed to find your voice

Real Example: The StoryCycle Genie visits your website and performs a comprehensive assessment. You review whether it’s accurate. If so, you move forward. If not, you clarify what’s not being reflected correctly, then create your brand story step-by-step, guiding the system the whole way.

Phase 2: Guided Story Creation

Rather than abstract positioning workshops, your business intuition guides systematic story development:

• Market understanding becomes strategic narrative – Your customer insights become compelling brand story
• Business experience guides message development – Proven market knowledge becomes authentic storytelling
• Competitive intelligence directs differentiation – Your market position becomes strategic advantage
• Implementation roadmaps emerge from business goals – Strategy connects directly to execution

Real Example: Step-by-step brand story creation where you guide the system using your developed business instincts, ensuring every element reflects your market reality.

Phase 3: Immediate Content Execution

Instead of separate implementation phases, the same intelligent approach creates your execution content:

• Strategic frameworks become content – Your brand story flows directly into strategic frameworks (audience stories, content playbook, social media strategy, customer journeys) and from strategy to content (blog posts, social media posts, sales presentations)
• Business voice guides content generation – Authentic messaging becomes scalable content library
• Market knowledge powers engagement strategy – Customer understanding becomes systematic outreach
• Brand consistency emerges from core story – All content reflects your authentic business narrative

Real Example: Complete content playbooks, social media plans, email sequences, and homepage content that sounds authentic because it emerges from your actual business understanding.

Enter the StoryCycle Genie: The Vibe Branding Pioneer

While the industry clings to outdated methodologies, StoryCycle Genie has pioneered the first platform specifically designed to amplify your business intuition. Our Story Cycle System doesn’t just help you craft brand stories—it transforms your hard-earned market knowledge into magnetic brand power through proven narrative structures that human brains are hardwired to follow.

The Proven Methodology

Our approach has grown brands by as much as 600 percent because it addresses the fundamental challenge traditional branding ignores: speed to market with authentic connection. The StoryCycle Genie combines:

• ABT Narrative Framework: The “And, But, Therefore” structure that creates psychological engagement
• Archetype Intelligence: Authentic personality development that customers instantly recognize
• Audience Story Mapping: Precise emotional and linguistic alignment with target customers
• Content Velocity Tools: Rapid deployment across all customer touchpoints

Why StoryCycle Genie Leads Vibe Branding

Speed Without Sacrifice: Create world-class brand strategy in minutes, not months, without compromising strategic depth.

Intuitive Intelligence: Our platform understands what makes brands “click” with customers, removing guesswork from brand development.

Proven Performance: The Story Cycle System has delivered measurable results across industries, from startups to enterprise brands.

Comprehensive Ecosystem: Unlike point solutions, our platform handles everything from core brand strategy to content creation, ensuring consistency across all touchpoints.

The Three Audiences Embracing Vibe Branding

1. Overwhelmed Founders: Small to mid-size business owners who need Fortune 500-level positioning without Fortune 500 budgets or timelines. Vibe Branding gives them competitive brand power in days, not months.
2. Pressured Enterprise Leaders: CMOs and sales enablement leaders who need quarterly results, not quarterly discovery phases. Business intuition amplification creates immediate market impact while maintaining strategic sophistication.
3. Stretched Agencies: Marketing consultants who want to deliver premium strategy profitably. Vibe Branding through StoryCycle Genie lets them serve more clients with higher quality results.

The Vibe Branding Advantage

Traditional branding asks: “How do we sound different?”

Vibe Branding asks: “How do we amplify what we know works?”

This shift from differentiation to amplification changes everything:

• Faster market entry because strategies emerge from proven insights
• Higher conversion rates because messaging reflects actual market knowledge
• Stronger brand loyalty because customers recognize a genuine understanding
• Reduced marketing costs because an authentic connection drives organic growth

The Dramatic Transformation in Results

I hesitate to share the following numbers and ROI because they seem way too good to be true. But based on my 40+ years crafting brands, and using extremely conservative numbers, here is the disruption in saving an extraordinary amount of time and money developing your brand story strategy, campaign and content with the StoryCycle Genie

Traditional Branding Experience:

• Foundational Brand Story: 60 hours ($9,000)
• Audience Strategies: 15 hours ($2,250)
• Content Style Guide: 8 hours ($1,200)
• Social Media Plan: 16 hours ($2,400)
• Homepage Content: 8 hours ($1,200)
• Email Campaigns: 12 hours ($1,800)
• Total: 119 hours, $17,850 with high risk of implementation failure

Vibe Branding Experience:

• Foundational Brand Story: 10 Minutes ($40 investment)
• Audience Strategies: 20 minutes ($65 investment)
• Content Style Guide: 20 minutes ($37 investment)
• Social Media Plan: 20 minutes ($18 investment)
• Homepage Content: 20 minutes ($15 investment)
• Email Campaigns: 20 minutes ($26 investment)
• Total: 2 hours, $203 investment, with immediate implementation capability

Note: These are conservative estimates based on $150/hour opportunity cost for your time, and do not include the cost of a consultant and your colleagues’ time. 

The Future Belongs to Business Intuition + AI

As artificial intelligence reshapes how we work and customer expectations evolve toward authenticity, brands that master intuition-guided systems will dominate their markets. The question isn’t whether Vibe Branding will replace traditional brand strategy. The question is whether your brand will lead this transition or be left behind by competitors who understand that your business intuition is the secret sauce for speed-to-market success.

StoryCycle Genie pioneered Vibe Branding because we recognized what the industry refused to acknowledge: in a world of infinite choice and limited attention, the brands that amplify proven insights win.

Your Vibe Branding Journey Starts Now

The shift from traditional positioning to Vibe Branding isn’t coming—it’s here. Companies using StoryCycle Genie are already transforming their business intuition into magnetic brand power that drives measurable business growth.

Your competitors are still debating positioning statements in conference rooms.

Your customers are waiting for brands that immediately feel like they “get it.”

The future of branding is about amplifying intuition, not positioning complexity.

The future is Vibe Branding.

And the future starts with StoryCycle Genie.

Ready to transform your business intuition into magnetic brand power? Discover how StoryCycle Genie turns overwhelming brand development into an overjoyed experience of creating your vibrant brand story, brilliant strategy, and compelling content—all from one brand brain.

The post The Rise of Vibe Branding: Why Traditional Brand Strategy Development Is Dead appeared first on Business of Story | Storytelling Strategy, Workshops & Keynotes.

When you see a commercial that makes you laugh, maybe it triggers nostalgia. A sentimental thought.

Or it brings a beer to your eye, like the Budweiser Clydesdale spots that populate Super Bowls.

That’s when you know your brand storytelling is working.

Great brand storytelling enthralls it audience. And by “enthrall,” I mean it captures the fascinated attention of a human.

But it’s hard to pull off, especially today when brands seem more content to bombard us with content than to tickle our funny bone, which is connected to our buying brain.

One of my favorite storytelling brands:

The automaker Audi is one of my favorite brand storytellers. That’s thanks to the work of Paul Venables‘ creative team at Venables Bell and Partners in San Francisco.

My top three stories are:

#1. 2012 Audi quattro commercial – “Ahab”

#2. 2013 Super Bowl Commercial, “Prom Night: Worth It”

#3. 2017 “It Couldn’t Be Done”

But to create brilliant brand storytelling, you have to first understand the heart, soul and personality archetype of your brand.

That’s why we created our StoryCycle Genie, the brand storytelling tool that enables you to craft a brilliant brand story strategy in minutes, not months.

To StoryCycle Genie scans your website and any marketing materials you care to feed it to create a brand assessment of how your brand story is currently showing up in the world. Then you collaborate with the Genie to define and refine your brand story strategy.

Review Audi’s Brand Story Assessment as Created by the StoryCycle Genie

We uploaded the Audi global website to the Genie, and voila, in under two minutes, it provided the following brand assessment.

Audi’s Current Market Position:
Audi operates as a premium German automotive manufacturer positioned at the intersection of luxury, technology, and progressive innovation. The brand has established itself as “Vorsprung durch Technik” (Progress through Technology), emphasizing technological leadership in the luxury automotive segment.

Competitive Differentiation:
Technology Leadership: Audi differentiates through cutting-edge automotive technology, particularly in electric mobility (e-tron), autonomous driving capabilities, and digital integration.

Design Philosophy:
The brand maintains a distinctive design language combining sophisticated aesthetics with functional innovation, creating vehicles that appeal to progressive luxury consumers.

Innovation Focus:
Strong emphasis on sustainable mobility solutions, digital transformation, and future-oriented automotive experiences.

Primary Audience Segments:

1. Progressive Achievers: Successful professionals who value technological advancement and sustainable luxury.
2. Innovation Adopters: Early adopters of automotive technology seeking cutting-edge features and digital integration.
3. Conscious Luxury Consumers: Affluent buyers prioritizing environmental responsibility without compromising premium experience.

Brand Messaging Themes:

• Technological innovation and progress
• Sustainable luxury and environmental responsibility
• Progressive design and forward-thinking approach
• Premium quality with purposeful innovation
• Digital transformation and connectivity

Strategic Opportunities:

• Electric Mobility Leadership: Positioning as the premium electric vehicle innovator
• Digital Experience Integration: Leveraging technology for enhanced customer experiences
• Sustainable Luxury: Combining environmental consciousness with luxury positioning

Then it created the entire brand narrative strategy based on our Story Cycle System, which I’ve used for 20 years to grow brands by as much as 600 percent.

Review the Complete Audi Brand Story Strategy

Download the PDF that outlines the Audi brand story strategy: Audi Brand Narrative Strategy & Story Elements

Now imagine creating your brilliant brand story strategy in minutes, not months.

Developing unique buyer personas and effective marketing and social media plans quickly based on your foundational brand narrative.

And then creating enthralling storytelling content instantly.

We have democratized world-class branding so that any founder/owner of small to medium-sized businesses (SMBs), CMOs and Sales Enablement Professionals in large enterprises, and ad agency principals and marketing consultants can take the overwhelm out of brand storytelling development and turn it into an overjoying experience.

Fast.

Brilliantly.

At pennies on the dollar of the old way of brand story creation.

Now You Can Drive Brand Love

Start your trip with the StoryCycle Genie today. It’s the only platform that leverages the Story Cycle System, which has been used by brands big and small to grow their business by as much as 600 percent.

Story on!

The post How Do You Know If/When Your Brand Storytelling is Working? appeared first on Business of Story | Storytelling Strategy, Workshops & Keynotes.

“Whoa,” great question, I responded.

Ernest is a leader who deals with a lot of data. He wants to simplify his communication with more engaging visuals.

But my answer was, “It depends.”

It depends on the messaging you’re sending in your visual communications. Is it supposed to be funny, serious, surprising, novel, etc.?

It depends on what channels you are using.

It depends on the makeup of your audience and how they like to receive their information.

I know, not as specific of an answer as you or Ernest are looking for, but it’s honest.

An hour after our training, I came across a mention of the iconic LEGO® campaign that uses only visual storytelling without any copy (gasp) and a pint-sized logo (“inconceivable,” for your Princess Bride fans).

Plant, Pivot, Payoff

To me, the brilliance of this visual storytelling campaign can be pieced together using the And, But, Therefore narrative template.

Let’s examine the plane ad.

You see the familiar colorful LEGO snapped together to make a rudimentary airplane. We can all agree on that.

But the shadow it casts of an actual airplane reveals a surprise, communicating the imagination at play.

The “Therefore,” or consequence of this visual play, is the LEGO brand. It answers the question posed by the contrasting images: “What makes this visual metaphor?”

Agreement, contradiction and consequence are the three forces of story. They are the foundation of the And, But, Therefore (ABT) narrative framework.

Our primal pattern-seeking, puzzle-solving, buying limbic brain loves to digest information in this order.

Another way of thinking of these forces are Plant, Pivot, and Payoff.

You plant the familiar to set the stage for what we all know as the status quo (agreement).

Then you make a novel pivot to introduce a relevant competing idea (contradiction). You want to build as much contrast between Plant and Pivot as possible to energize your story.

The Payoff answers the contradiction created by the visual metaphor (consequence).

Stand-up comics follow the same format when writing their jokes: Set up, twist, punchline.

It’s simply the ubiquitous ABT framework in different forms.

The LEGO campaign is an inspired application of the three forces of story. They work because these forces play beautifully in the theater of your mind inviting you into the story to solve the puzzle.

The Atlantic’s Derick Thompson and I discuss the importance of your brand storytelling being familiar but novel on The Business of Story podcast.

Use the ABT framework to structure all of your visual, written and oral storytelling and I promise your ship will come in.

Story on!

The post Can You See the ABT Story Structure in the Iconic LEGO® Print Campaign? appeared first on Business of Story | Storytelling Strategy, Workshops & Keynotes.

“I think you’ll love this new book, especially the chapter on storytelling,” my friend and client Bob DiMeo, Chairman of Fiducient Advisors, emailed me.

The book is Morgan Housel’s Same as Ever: A Guide to What Never Changes.

While I enjoyed Housel’s thoughts on storytelling, it was his insights on simplicity that caught my attention.

He continues…

“But a truth that applies to almost every field is that there are no points awarded for difficulty. It’s possible to try too hard, to be too attracted to complexity, and doing so can backfire spectacularly.”

You may recognize Housel from his N.Y. Times bestseller, The Psychology of Money: Timeless Lessons on Wealth, Greed and Happiness.

I think it’s this bias to complexity that keeps some people from embracing the ABT (And, But, Therefore) narrative framework to make their communications clear, concise, and compelling.

Here are ten reasons why the complex, logic-driven thinker should never use the ABT:

#1. You believe making things complex makes you look smart.

I showed a team of digital marketers specializing in the education industry how to use the ABT in their work.

An hour into my training one of their people slumped in her chair, folded her arms, and slowly mean-mugged me.

Her body language was squarely giving me the middle finger.

I asked her, “What’s up?”

“I THINK THE ABT IS REDUCTIVE AND INSULTING,” she grumbled.

“Why?” I asked.

“BECAUSE OUR WORK IS COMPLICATED. WE CAN’T TALK ABOUT IT IN SUCH A BASIC WAY.”

“What about Einstein?” I asked.

“WHAT ABOUT HIM?”

He said, “Genius is making complex ideas simple, not making simple ideas complex.”

HARRUMPH!

I clearly didn’t win her over but everyone else around our conference table nodded in agreement.

I wonder if she still works there. It’s complicated.

#2. The ABT is stupid.

I recently hosted a virtual Business of Story mastery course for a CEO group.

When I left the ZOOM session I was told that one of the CEOs blurted out, “This f*cking sh!t is not going to fly in our company. We only use logic-based communications.”

One of the other CEOs asked this person what the business problem was they were bringing to the group.

He said he was having difficulty connecting with his people to get them to shift into a new way of doing things in their engineering firm.

Someone else in the group suggested, “Maybe you should try the ABT.”

This brings me to the insight from famous American social psychologist, Jonathan Haidt, who argues that “the human mind is a story processor, not a logic processor.”

#3. You presume the old way of messaging still works.

“Look, Park, I graduated in journalism and have been writing marketing copy for eight years.

I can see how the ABT might work BUT I’m not going to use it because it feels stilted.

Therefore I’m going to keep writing the way I always have.”

This is what a content creator told me one day during a ZOOM training.

I started to laugh thinking she was pulling a fast one on me.

When I looked at all of the puzzled faces on my computer screen, I realized that they didn’t hear her use an ABT to tell me why she would never use the ABT.

She didn’t even realize it until I pointed it out to the group.

They all laughed.

I underscored the point to them that the ABT is the natural way our pattern-seeking, problem-solving, decision-making buying limbic brain likes to receive information to make meaning out of the madness of being human.

It’s that simple.

#4. You fear using the word “But” in business communications.

I heard this the other day from a Canadian CEO: “Our business doesn’t want to talk about negative things and we find the word ‘but’ offensive.”

My retort is the Christopher Lochhead (a fellow Canadian marketer) sentiment of “No one buys a solution until they have a f*cking problem.”

Here’s how he put it:

Granted, you probably don’t want to use the trigger word “but” when coaching: “Sally, you have been a terrific addition to the team, but…” You negate everything that comes before it.

BUT, if you are trying to knock a prospect out of status quo thinking and get them to change, there is no more powerful word.

“But” introduces the Statement of Contradiction that arouses your audience’s attention.

It tees up your “Therefore” Statement of Consequence which is your call to action.

“But” introduces conflict.

No conflict, no story.

So sorry.

#5. You just straight-up tell your people what to do.

“The ABT feels too woo-woo. I’d rather just tell my people what to do using my experience and authority,” I was told by one of our participants.

“How’s that working for you?” I asked.

“Ok, I guess,” he said.

The ABT is a pull strategy to influence your audience by sharing your story from their perspective.

“What happens when someone pushes something on you?” I asked.

There was silence.

“You push back, don’t you?”

Photo credit: Monstera Production

#6. It’s such an obvious framework that it makes you feel silly.

“Park, if I use ‘And, But, and Therefore,’ everyone will know what I’m doing and laugh at me.”

ME: “No they won’t because they don’t know what you’re doing.”

THEM: “How do you know that?”

ME: “Did you know about the ABT framework before this class?”

THEM: “Uh, no.”

ME: “You have to understand the magic to cast the spell and they don’t know the magic trick.”

#7. You think talking about your brand offering is more important than focusing on the outcomes your audience actually cares about.

“Dude, we are by far the leader in our industry. People just want to know that and then they’ll buy from us,” a recent entrepreneur protested.

“How are sales?” I asked.

“Well, they can always be better,” he confided.

This leads me to share two story truths:

1. You and your brand are NOT the center of your story, your customer is.
2. Your stories are NOT about what you make but what you make happen for your customers. Outcomes always trump your offering in your storytelling.

The ABT structure guides you in telling your stories from your audience’s point-of-view focusing on what’s in it for them.

#8. Let the facts speak for themselves.

A scientist taking the ABT training said, “I don’t want to manipulate people so I’m just going to give them all the unfiltered facts.”

“Okay.  And do the non-experts understand the unfiltered facts when you do that?”

“Well, they get a little confused and sometimes draw the wrong conclusions.”

Uh-huh. Unfiltered facts, numbers, data, charts and graphs are meaningless to our primal limbic survival brain unless you first place them in the context of a story.

Remember what Jonathan Haidt said?

“The human mind is a story processor, not a logic processor.”

#9. You didn’t think of it.

We hear this a lot, especially from intellects.

Just because you didn’t think up the ABT doesn’t mean it doesn’t work.

Heck, we didn’t think it up either.

The ABT has been around since the Epic of Gilgamesh was chiseled out of tablets in cuneiform.

#10. You have no good reason not to use the ABT.

Maybe you do. We’d love to hear it.

The Simplest of All ABTs:

I trained an internal sales team at The Home Depot and one of their guys asked me, “What’s the simplest ABT you know?”

“That’s easy,” I said…

“You communicate AND care BUT bore, THEREFORE tell a story.”

Here is a special edition of the Business of Story podcast where Dr. Randy Olson show you how to use the Narrative Index to rate the power of your communication by calculating your But-to-And Ratio. The more the “buts,” the more compelling and moving is your communication.

Story on, my friend!

The post 10 Reasons Why You Should NEVER Use the ABT Story Structure appeared first on Business of Story | Storytelling Strategy, Workshops & Keynotes.

The Easiest and Most Effective Three-Step Story Marketing Strategy Ever

In 2008, Clinica Adelante, a 33-year-old community health center in Phoenix, Arizona, nearly died.

It’s bankruptcy would have stranded thousands of low-income patients without proper healthcare.

Avein Saaty Tafoya became its new CEO and she knew that they needed to refine their brand story if they were going to survive.

Using our Story Cycle System, we crafted a new brand narrative, renamed Clinica Adelante to Adelante Healthcare and they became known as the only system providing sustainable healthcare for all.

Adelante’s three story pillars

1. Sustaining services for all Arizonans regardless of their ability to pay
2. Sustaining their business model by greening their operations and attracting only healthcare providers who cared about serving the less served.
3. Sustaining the health of the communities they serve.

Adelante Healthcare opened beautiful new LEED-certified clinics and shared their brand narrative of sustainable healthcare for all, which made them immensely likable.

They became the trusted provider and one of the fastest-growing community health centers in the country.

In fact, Adelante Healthcare grew by more than 600% over eight years with a tiny budget for advertising, marketing and public relations, which made them even better known, liked and trusted.

How were they so successful? Because they used a concept called the “Know, Like & Trust Storytelling Flywheel strategy to build momentum for their growth.

We didn’t call it a flywheel back then. It just kind of happened. Naturally.

In hindsight, that was an intuitive flywheel on which we helped Avein and her team build their communications strategy.

So now I want to make the Business of Story “Know, Like & Trust” Storytelling Flywheel intentional so you can use it to easily focus your storytelling strategy and quickly ignite your growth.

What is the Business of Story “Know, Like & Trust” Storytelling Flywheel?

To be clear, the concept of the “Flywheel Effect” was first developed by business consulting icon, Jim Collins, in his 2001 seminal book, Good to Great: Why Some Companies Make the Leap and Others Don’t.

By definition, a flywheel is a heavy revolving wheel that is used in a machine to increase momentum and therefore provide greater stability to the machine. Given its weight, the flywheel is difficult to push from a standstill, but once it starts moving it gradually builds momentum, eventually enabling the wheel to turn by itself and create even more momentum through a self-reinforcing loop.

Collins shared this story in his Flywheel monograph:

In the autumn of 2001, just as Good to Great first hit the market, Amazon.com invited Jim to engage in a spirited dialogue with founder Jeff Bezos and a few members of his executive team. This was right in the middle of the dot-com bust when some wondered how (or if) Amazon could recover and prevail as a great company. Jim taught them about “the flywheel effect” that he’d uncovered in his research.

“In creating a good-to-great transformation, there’s no single defining action, no grand program, no single killer innovation, no solitary lucky break, no miracle moment. Rather, it feels like turning a giant, heavy flywheel. Pushing with great effort, you get the flywheel to inch forward. You keep pushing, and with persistent effort, you get the flywheel to complete one entire turn. You don’t stop. You keep pushing. The flywheel moves a bit faster. Two turns . . . then four . . . then eight . . . the flywheel builds momentum . . . sixteen . . . thirty-two . . . moving faster . . . a thousand . . . ten thousand . . . a hundred thousand. Then at some point—breakthrough! The flywheel flies forward with almost unstoppable momentum.”

Bezos took the flywheel effect to heart and created one that has enabled Amazon to become an iconic global brand.

Here is Bezo’s original flywheel which has been spinning for over two decades.

Think of the low prices as what initially gets the wheel turning.

Once these low prices attract more consumers and propel more third-party sellers to join the marketplace, there are more stakeholders and Amazon can steadily increase the difference in market share between themselves and other online marketplace competitors.

In his book, The Everything Store: Jeff Bezos and the Age of Amazon, journalist Brad Stone explains that the “flywheel effect” in the company’s early stages worked like this:

“Lower prices led to more customer visits. More customers increased the volume of sales and attracted more commission-paying third-party sellers to the site. That allowed Amazon to get more out of fixed costs like the fulfillment centers and the servers needed to run the website. This greater efficiency then enabled it to lower prices further. Feed any part of this flywheel, they reasoned, and it should accelerate the loop.”

This demonstrates the chief characteristic of the Flywheel Effect which is the momentum that occurs when small wins accumulate over time, creating continued growth and improvement.

Inspired by its proven performance, I created the Business of Story “Know, Like & Trust” Storytelling flywheel effect but have changed the word “effect” to “impact”, because that is what we’re all after with our stories.

The storytelling flywheel IMPACT happens when small branding, advertising, marketing and sales wins for your business – through the stories you tell – build on each other and eventually gain so much momentum that growth almost seems to happen by itself.

Think of it like a top.

A top doesn’t work unless you spin it. The faster you spin it the more stable it becomes and the longer it dances for you.

Once its momentum starts to slow it does what? It wobbles.

And if it loses all of its momentum, it falls over and lays there, kind of like a death spiral. Heaven for bid that happens to your brand.

In his excellent article called, 10 Lessons on Using the Flywheel Effect to Grow Your Business, Cameron Deatsch, Chief Revenue Officer for Atlassian, an AI service provider, said:

“Put simply, the central idea is that your customers are your best salespeople. If you make them happy, they’ll tell their friends. And if you make your product easy to learn about and purchase, those friends will buy it. Then your new happy customers will tell their friends, and so on.”

He mentioned that the Flywheel effect is a virtuous cycle that has three major components: Attract, Engage and Delight.

1. Attract – Draw prospective customers to you with helpful content that is easy to discover. SEO, social media, targeted advertising, and live/virtual events all have a role to play here. Focus on earning their attention rather than forcing yourself into their line of sight.
2. Engage – Now that you’ve made a good impression, make it easy for prospects to learn about your product on their own terms in and their own time, and ultimately buy it. Nurture campaigns, free trials, and a self-serve purchase flow are your best friends in this phase.
3. Delight – Design your product to be as easy to get started with as possible. Offer documentation and knowledge bases that help customers get more value out of what you’re offering. Solicit customer feedback and act on it. Your goal here is to turn users into fans, who will recommend your product to their peers, friends, and even to perfect strangers through online reviews and social media.

“Notice how many times I used the word ‘easy’ there,” Deatsch continues. “Reducing friction is key to growing your business with the flywheel model. Flywheels (and I’m talking physical flywheels here – the kind used in motors or rowing machines) are incredibly efficient at storing and releasing energy. The faster a flywheel spins, the more energy it stores. And you make it spin faster by removing friction and applying force.”

Storytelling Flywheel Impact

Now that you know about the flywheel effect, and how Bezos has relied on it ever since Colins taught it to the folks at Amazon, there is another brand sentiment from Jeff Bezos that plays into the Business of Story flywheel impact. He said, “Your brand is what people say about you when you’re not in the room.”

I have updated his quote to say, “Your brand is the stories people tell about you when you’re not in the room.”

In addition to Collins and Bezos, let’s bring in a third person to this storytelling flywheel conversation who inspired our storytelling version.

Legendary sales coach Bob Burg coined the phrase,

“All things being equal, people do business with, and refer business to, people they know, like and trust.”

Just like “attract, engage and delight” are the primary spokes of the Collins’ Flywheel Effect, “know, like and trust” are the spokes to the Business of Story Flywheel to create the greatest impact.

Why? Because to get your storytelling flywheel initially turning, you must be known as the category leader in your market.

What is it that you do differently and more distinctively than your competition? If you don’t stand for something then you won’t stand out in our crowded, noisy world.

If your customers don’t know what you stand for, then you won’t stand out to them in the highly competitive arena we all compete in.

If your colleagues don’t know what you stand for, then it becomes difficult to attract and retain top talent.

If the communities you serve don’t know what you stand for, then you won’t generate the goodwill you seek in the social circles you swirl in.

Since people do business with and refer business to people they know, like, and trust, then ask yourself what are you known for, and do your ideal customers know you for that purpose?

Once you attract your ideal customer being known for what you do, then you begin building momentum through the stories you tell about the outcomes you make happen for your customers.

These anecdotes help you become more likable because people can relate to you.

Your stories are clear and compelling, not boring. I mean when was the last time you were bored into buying anything?

So instead of boring product pitches, services selling, exhaustive laundry lists of features and functions, blah, blah, blah, you are igniting the limbic buying brain through the stories you share about the people you help.

This makes you vastly more likable.

Especially in the Business-to-Business world. Most B2B communicators fall into the Boring-to-Bored category because they yak about products instead of solution selling with storytelling.

Now you’re really getting your Business of Story “Know, Like and Trust’ Storytelling Flywheel moving by becoming immediately known for what you stand for that makes you stand out among your competition.

Remember Avein? Adelante Healthcare became known as the leader in providing sustainable healthcare for all.

Once known for something unique and needed, your likability grows with the anecdotal stories you tell. These stories connect deeply with your prime prospects because they can see themselves in them.

These prospects make better buyers who lead to converted customers to accelerate your revenue growth.

As I mentioned, the third spoke of your storytelling flywheel is “Trust.” All things being equal, people do business with and refer business to people they know, like and TRUST

It’s a compounding effect.

So how do you build remarkable trust in you, your brand and your offering?

First, by delivering on the promises you make in the stories that amplify your likability through credibility.

You simply deliver exceptional customer service to fortify your customers’ trust.

And, like all great stories, you help your story scale by encouraging your customers to share their experience with their world. That way you grow with the most effective form of advertising there is: FREE word-of-mouth marketing.

Again, let’s bring up Avein. Adelante Healthcare grew by over 600% with essentially FREE word-of-mouth marketing because of their “Know, Like & Trust” Storytelling Flywheel.

See how your storytelling flywheel gains momentum?

Even if you haven’t created an operations-driven flywheel for your business per Collins’ approach, and you should, you can activate your Business of Story flywheel immediately.

By the way, if you want a quick overview and short guide on how to take advantage of the flywheel effect to grow your business, I highly recommend reading Jim Collins’ short book called Turning the Flywheel: A Monograph to Accompany Good to Great.

He shares many examples of successful flywheels created for the aforementioned Amazon, plus brands that include Vanguard, Intel, Nike, The Cleveland Clinic, Ware Elementary School in Kansas and the Ojai Music Festival proving that the flywheel effect can work for any and every endeavor where making a real impact is the measure of success.

But regardless, you can get your Business of Story flywheel spinning right now by answering this one question:

What are you known for that makes you the most timely, relevant and urgent offering for your customers? 

For me, I’m known as the World’s Most Industrious Storyteller who helps leaders of purpose-driven brands and their people excel through the stories they tell.

Now I didn’t give myself that moniker, my clients did.

Because I have helped some of them like Adelante Healthcare grow by as much as 600 percent. Or when we increased engagement for client LinkedIn campaigns by 400%. Or when we increased donations by over 300% for Goodwill of Central and Northern Arizona.

What are you known for?

Amazon is known as the world’s greatest marketplace.

Airbnb is known for making you feel like you Belong Anywhere.

Harmon Corgi’s, a nationally recognized Corgi/dog owner matchmaker in Perryton, Texas, is known as “Your Corgi Companion” when selecting your, well, Corgi Companion.

International sales consultant, Alice Heiman, is known as the sales advisor for CEOs.

Global marketer Daniel Nestle uses his podcast, The Daniel Nestle Show, to be known as the guy who helps you widen your swim lane as an expert to deepen your impact.

StoryPrompt is known as the SaaS platform that gives people more face time without the live calls.

I use StoryPrompt to capture my client stories to demonstrate their trust in our Business of Story training and share those stories to accelerate our “Know, Like & Trust” Storytelling Flywheel.

So, how do you build your Business of Story flywheel? You use the three story frameworks we teach starting with the ABT (And, But, Therefore) agile narrative framework to clarify your brand story.

Let me give you an example that features Andre Martin-Hobbs, the founder of Pret Auto Partez, a Quebec, Canada, used car dealership for customers with poor credit.

No, Andre and his dealership team are not sharks praying on financially strapped buyers.

Instead, he designed Pret Auto Partez, which means “Ready, Car, Go” in English, to help his fellow Canadians repair their credit through the purchase of and prompt payments on a car.

After refining his brand story in 2017 using our Story Cycle System, Andre is now known as the #1 place in Canada to repair your credit. His unique value proposition: Pret Auto Partez: Your Vehicle to Financial Freedom,

Visit his website and you will see their likability factor is through the roof as they encourage their colleagues to share their individual stories about how they’re helping their customers find the right car that fits their budget, and how they provide ongoing financial coaching to ensure their customers are making their timely payments that repair their credit.

Plus, you’ll see loads of happy customer testimonials on their site that show how much they like the financial guidance and service they get from Pret Auto Partez.

Andre told me that one lady traveled eight hours by bus to buy a car and start repairing her credit with his team. Now that’s trust, and a helluva story to share.

Speaking of trust, Pret Auto Partez has received over 800 5-star reviews on Birdeye, a reputation management and reporting website.

Andre and his story marketing team, of course, share those reviews to amplify their trust and become better known as Your vehicle for your financial freedom, leading to being even more likable as they help thousands of Canadians repair their credit, and grow their trust factor with every success story… and their Business of Story flywheel gains momentum.

It all started with the ABT that captured the Pret Auto Partez story.

You want the convenience of owning a car and you wish for the freedom it provides. But you’re stuck without your own transportation because you have bad credit. Therefore, you can now own a car to begin repairing your financial standing with Pret Auto Partez, your vehicle to financial freedom.

Andre is building his entire empire on this one short but powerful ABT statement that clearly and compelling focuses his brand story – what they’re known for – that puts into motion his Business of Story flywheel.

So, what’s the ROI created by this storytelling flywheel impact? Andre has become the largest and fastest-growing auto dealership in Quebec and is now licensing his business model throughout North America.

Talking about a virtuous cycle.

In another example, I mentioned Harman Corgis for being known as Your Corgi Companion to help you find the perfect Corgi Companion.

I worked with Leslie Harman to craft their ABT to get her Business of Story Flywheel turning. Here it is:

You are eager to expand your wonderful family with a cuddly Corgi pup, and if you find the right pooch with the proper temperament, then you’ll be blessed with a life-long companion.

But you’re suspect of dog peddlers because you or someone you know has been burned by unscrupulous breeders or sketchy backyard puppy mills.

Therefore, Imagine welcoming into your home a healthy Pembroke Welsh Corgi with the right energy level and temperament matched perfectly to you and your family by Harman Corgis. From prepping you and your home to puppy school to health and nutrition to becoming part of our active Corgi community of owners, Harman Corgis has been providing ideal companions to thousands of families since 1995.

Their ABT is a bit longer than Andre’s, but that’s okay because all you want to do is get your focused brand story down so that people know what you stand for.

Leslie had already built a community of Corgi owners and regularly solicited and shared their stories. So she had a flywheel in place and now she can be intentional on how to get it spinning faster to become even better known, liked and trusted as the provider of your ideal Corgi Companion.

Airbnb’s Storytelling Flywheel

Let’s take one last example, this time with a mega brand like Airbnb. What are they known for? Their central brand narrative is built on one idea: Belong Anywhere.

It is inspirational and aspirational because it speaks powerfully to three primary market segments: customers, hosts and colleagues. If you’re like Airbnb and you have more than one core audience, then I’d encourage you to write an ABT for each audience placing them at the center of your story. And then find the connecting narrative thread that binds them all together. For instance, their customer ABT might be:

There are people who want to explore interesting places around the world AND wish to feel less like tourists and more like locals.

BUT typical tourism houses you in large hotels, promotes crowded tours and separates you from the indigenous experiences you seek.

THEREFORE, Airbnb accommodates explorers with authentic residences where you feel like you belong anywhere.

Then they show what it means to Belong Anywhere with Airbnb through the stories they share to become more likable and trusted.

For instance, have you seen their Wall and Chain micro-documentary?

They shared the inspiration for the story you are about to hear on their YouTube channel.

Airbnb’s YouTube description says, “In May 2012, an Airbnb guest, Cathrine, told us a powerful story of a trip she took to Berlin with her father, Jörg, who was a Berlin Wall guard at the height of the Cold War. She wanted to show him the vibrant city Berlin had become, but it was the man they met at their Airbnb apartment that changed everything for Jörg.”

Here you go…

This story is a great example for how to use the five primal elements of a short story for big impact, which is essentially an expanded ABT.

I first learned about this simple story structure from my friends Shawn Callahan and Mark Shenk of Antidote, a leadership storytelling consultancy in Melbourne, Australia.

Mark has an amazing book called Putting Stories to Work: Mastering Business Storytelling.  I highly recommend it becoming an invaluable part of your storytelling library. You can hear my conversation with Shawn way back on episode #41: Your Limitless Storytelling Potential.

I believe the five primal elements are the easiest way to tell your story. And one other trick is to not think of it as a story but as a moment in time when everything changed.

So you want to start with a time stamp when this moment occurred. Since stories are temporal, meaning they happen over some time, you want to start with a time stamp to alert the limbic brain in your audience that something is about to happen that it should pay attention to.

The thinking goes that since our limbic brain is primarily tasked with the survival of our being, and stories are an essential learning tool, it perks up to understand what it would need to do in case whatever is about to happen in your anecdote might happen to its host so that this survival center can protect the person.

Then I encourage you to share the location where this moment occurred. Use a couple of illustrative words to describe the scene to fire up the theater of the mind. This gets your audience leaning in as they picture and feel the environment in which your story takes place.

This helps you and your tale become more memorable as your audience viscerally participates in your story… as if it is happening to them.

Then you introduce a central character, not two people, not a team, a department, a division, or an entire organization. Nope. Just one protagonist that your audience can relate to.

You and your stories’ likability factor goes way up with a singular character in a singular narrative that your audience can live vicariously through.

When, where, and who are your first three story elements, which is essentially the AND statement, or ACT 1 of your ABT as you set the scene and introduce your central character and what they wish for and want.

Then you describe what happens in Act 2, which is essentially the plot twist of the BUT section of your ABT.

Again, use emotive words so that your audience easily comes along for the ride to determine what happens, because the best stories have a surprising outcome.

This leads to the “Aha Moment” that makes your business point for you.

Airbnb used all of these elements as the structure for its Wall & Chain story. And they did it in a minute and 16 seconds. When you craft your stories to accelerate your Business of Story Flywheel through the likability phase, remember to:

• Determine when the moment occurred.
• Describe where the moment happened.
• Define your central character who experienced this moment of change.
• Detail the events that happened in this moment and the surprising outcome.
• And declare the Aha Moment that makes your business point for you, essentially the moral of your story.

Each real-world anecdote you share makes you more likable because as foremost American Social Psychologist, Jonathan Haidt, reminds us, “Our brains are story processors, not logic processors.”

If you’d like to hear his thoughts, Jonathan and I explored this idea on episode #183: How Your Stories Can Unite Divided People.

How to spot your stories in the wild and where to use them

So job #1 with the likability spoke of your Business of Story Flywheel is to start collecting stories from your past and present clients and customers and feature these tales in your story marketing content that fuels your storytelling flywheel.

The cool thing is that you can atomize the content from each story into numerous valuable content marketing fragments. For instance, one interview can be captured:

• In a short video to share on your website, in social media, in sales presentations and even to build camaraderie internally with your people to demonstrate the bigtime impact you and they are making on your customers. Remember, your stories are not about what you make, but what you make happen for your colleagues, customers and the communities you serve.
• You can use the audio from the video for your podcast, virtual meetings, and creative uses in social media combined with visuals.
• You can use the written transcript in blog posts, Substack articles, whitepapers; and anywhere the written word is the preferred form of communication.
• You can highlight pull quotes from your story where they can amplify the impact in any of your communication.
• You can create imagery inspired by the story to bedazzle any of these tactics.
• You can train your people on how to use the proven story structures of the ABT and the Five Primal Elements by modeling it in each of your stories.
• Oh, and of course you use each story to trigger other stories that your people may not have thought of or have not yet shared. In doing so, you will be building a valuable and potent storytelling library and culture.

I think it’s important to make a point here. I’ve been writing copy for nearly 40 years. As a young copywriter in my early days, the goal for all ad agencies was to be as creative and award-winning as possible with their copy.

Storytelling often got tossed out the window in favor of the new big creative thing.

Well, I can tell, in this day of cacophonous communication, clever copy doesn’t really work.

People want and need to hear earnest stories about the impact you and your brand make in the world.

The absolute best, most efficient, attention-grabbing, revenue-generating communication effort you can make is telling a true story well.

That’s what ups your likability factor.

It’s worth repeating: “Your brand is the stories people tell about you when you’re not in the room.”

So you want to ensure they’re telling your story accurately and persuasively. The only way to make that happen is to become an influential storyteller using our frameworks and the Business of Story “Know, Like & Trust” Storytelling Flywheel.

Stories…simply…sell.

And now the compounding effect of becoming better known – the incorrigible Ad Contrarian, Bob Hoffman, would say even becoming famous as a brand, combined with your likability factor, builds the trust your customers need to become life-long buyers of and advocates for your product or service.

Now that you’re building trust, how do you encourage your customers to share your story with their world?

As I mentioned earlier, one way to do it is to use a platform like StoryPrompt to capture your customer testimonials so that you can easily share them on your website and in your story marketing.

For instance, here is a short clip of a variety of customer testimonials for the Business of Story using StoryPrompt.

I’m obviously sharing them with you right now to help build your trust in me as The World’s Most Industrious Storyteller helping leaders of purpose-driven brands and their people excel through the stories they tell.

I even use the “Know, Like & Trust” storytelling flywheel to prepare my guests for their appearance on my show.

When they fill out my Guest Wrap Sheet, I ask them what they are known for; their brand’s unique value proposition. Then I have them fill out their bio, social links, etc. so I can help them be better known by promoting their appearance on our show.

Then we up the likeability factor by asking them to share ONE problem that we will solve for our listeners in the episode.

Plus, I ask them to share a minimum of three stories that demonstrate – or show – their business point or point of view in action. This, of course, makes for a much better conversation and their likability goes way up.

Then they move into the Trust section when I ask them if they have a book or course they’d like to share to demonstrate their expertise.

I ask them to commit to sharing their appearance on the Business of Story through their social channels and email campaigns so that we both become better known, liked, and trusted.

Like all story structures, the “Know, Like & Trust” Storytelling Flywheel is meta: you can use it for epic storytelling strategy right down to individual tactics like our Guest Rap Sheet for the Business of Story podcast.

Our flywheel is an invaluable three-step storytelling strategy that will make your marketing much easier, faster, and more compelling. You’ll attract your prime prospects who lead to better buyers that convert into customers quicker.

It’s your job to build trust by keeping the promises you make in your stories, by providing a remarkable product or service, and by delivering incredible customer service.

Then your customers, colleagues and the communities you serve will happily share your story with their worlds helping you to become…you guessed it, even better known, even more liked and immensely trusted.

To become better known, listen to my interviews with…

Seth Godin #412: The Story Behind My New Book: The Song of Significance

Jim Stengle: #413: How to Build Brand Purpose and Profits With Your Business Storytelling

To use storytelling to become even more likable, listen to my conversations with…

Nancy Harhunt #395: How to Use Storytelling to Hack Human Behavior

Dan Heath #442: Why the Best Storytellers are Slow and Curious

Bernadette Jiwa: #408 How to use the Power of Your Everyday Stories

Story on!

The post How to Create Marketing Momentum With Your “Know, Like & Trust” Storytelling Flywheel appeared first on Business of Story | Storytelling Strategy, Workshops & Keynotes.

My mom, Pat, turns 99 years young today. She is doing amazingly well and is as sharp as ever.

Don’t even try to beat her and her girlfriends at Hand & Foot. They’re card sharks and they relish destroying you at her kitchen table.

Five years ago, when I was visiting her in Seattle, the FedEx man showed up with a package.

I signed for it and handed it to Mom. I said, “Mom, check out the FedEx logo.”

She looked at it and said, “Yeah? So?”

“Do you see the arrow in the logo?”

“What arrow? Oh, wow. I had never noticed it before.”

Earlier this year when I was up there, she said, “Park, whenever I look at the FedEx logo I now see that darned arrow. It jumps right out at you.”

“I know,” I said. “Once you’ve seen it you can’t unsee it.”

“Do you want to play cards?” she asked.

My mom also gave us kids the love of playing golf. I think she played until she was like 85.

I watched the PGA Phoenix Open on TV earlier this year and was struck by FedEx’s powerful storytelling in their new ad campaign called “Tall Tales of True Deliveries.”

The FedEx Storytelling Flywheel

Since 1978, FedEx has been known as the overnight delivery service when your package absolutely, positively has to be there overnight. That was their unique value proposition and what they became known for:

When it absolutely, positively has to be there overnight.

As most brands do, they dicked around with their UVP changing their first tagline fifteen times with stuff like:

• “Our most important package is yours” (1991–1994)
• “The way the world works” (1996–1998)
• “Be absolutely sure” (1998–2000)
• “Relax, it’s FedEx” (2004–2008)
• “The world on time” (2009-to whenever)

But guess what, over 45 years later they’ve landed on what they’re actually known for.

Their “When it absolutely, positively has to be there overnight” UVP but truncated to “Absolutely, Positively.”

FedEx processes around 16 million shipments per day with an annual revenue in excess of $84 billion dollars.

Over 35,000 companies use FedEx as a shipping and fulfillment tool.

So when they’re running ads on the PGA tour broadcasts, you know they are targeting business executives more than regular consumers.

But they take a decidedly emotional storytelling approach sharing their real-world delivery experiences making their B2B marketing dramatically more compelling.

By the way, FedEx invests 20 million dollars annually in their advertising.

There is nothing like a true story about the real-world impact you and your company make for the people you serve so your brand becomes immensely more likable.

Then, like FedEx, when you deliver on the promises made in your storytelling, you become vastly more trustworthy and your customers share your story with their world, just like I’m doing here.

And your “Know, Like & Trust” Storytelling Flywheel absolutely, positively gains traction and momentum leading to the most powerful form of advertising. You guessed it, FREE word-of-mouth marketing that propels your storytelling flywheel increasing your marketing momentum.

What are you and your brand known for to attract your ideal customer?

How do you increase your likability through the stories you tell to increase engagement in your brand?

What promises in your stories do you deliver on to become the trusted leader in your market? (I hope all of them).

How do you help your customers share your story with their world?

Learn how to activate your “Know, Like & Trust” Storytelling Flywheel as I walk you through it on this special edition of the Business of Story podcast:

Oh, and Pat got her Azalea today from me. This has been my annual gift for over 40 years to celebrate her birthday and next week’s Master’s Golf Championship, which she will be watching with great pleasure.

The post The FedEx “Know, Like & Trust” Storytelling Flywheel appeared first on Business of Story | Storytelling Strategy, Workshops & Keynotes.

If you read Park Howell’s book Brand Bewitchery, then you will learn the three proven narrative frameworks he teaches to help you influence and persuade any audience.

But who has time for reading?

Now you can easily listen to Park’s book as he walks you through the 10-Step Story Cycle System by reading each chapter on his popular Business of Story podcast.

To make listening even easier, here are the links to each episode’s chapter so that you can continue to grow as a confident and effective business communicator using the power of story.

#420: Ch. 1, Backstory: How to Clarify Your Brand Story for Deliberate Growth

In chapter 1 of Brand Bewichery called “Backstory,” you will learn how to define your #1 position in the marketplace: what you do differently and more distinctively than anyone else.

This is the first step in crafting your brand narrative. Your brand story may be about your business, product or service offering, an internal initiative you’re launching in your organization, a community outreach effort, a marketing campaign or any endeavor where you need to create important meaning for your audience to get them to buy in.

#421: Ch. 2, Heroes: How to Understand Your Customers to Build a Tribe

Once you identify your #1 position in the market, then ask yourself, “Who is my #1 audience? Who do I service with my brand offering?”

Chapter 2 is called “Heroes,” because your brand story is not about you but about your customers, colleagues and the communities you serve who need your help.

Listen and learn how to prioritize your top three audiences, those important people who are at the center of your brand storytelling.

#423: Ch. 3, Stakes: How to Connect With the Wishes and Wants of Your Customers

Now that you’ve defined your market position and have identified your #1 customer/audience, it’s time to raise the stakes in their story to arouse their interest in your offering.

Chapter 3 will show you how to identify and connect with what your audience emotionally wishes to achieve and what they physically want to purchase to fulfill their wish.

Make no mistake, you are just like Walt Disney who said his company is in the wish-granting business. So is your brand.

#424: Ch. 4, Disruption: How Your Unique Value Proposition Will Win the Day

When your prospect is mired in the status quo they aren’t interested in buying from you. So you must disrupt their life or be the answer to a disruption that is currently happening to them.

This is where you craft your unique value proposition (UVP). Your UVP is a crisp articulation of what you do in the world.

For instance, the Business of Story UVP is, “Helping you excel through the stories you tell.”

Listen to this episode to articulate your UVP that clarifies why you’re the most timely, urgent and relevant offering for your audience.

#426: Ch. 5, Antagonists: How to Capitalize on Competitive Forces

Trevor Hill, the founder of Global Water, once told me that selling is nothing more than this three-step storytelling process:

1. Find the hurt.
2. Amplify the pain.
3. Heal the wound.

Listen to Chapter 5 to determine the obstacles and antagonists that stand in the way of your and your customers getting what you want.

I call them villains, fog and crevasses. The idea is to not push against these antagonistic forces but to embrace them. Use their energy to help propel your brand forward by demonstrating how your offering overcomes these competitive forces to again illustrate why you provide the most timely, urgent and relevant solution to your customer’s problem.

#427: Ch. 6, Mentor: How to Humanize Your Brand With its Promise, Gift, and Personality

While the first five chapters of Brand Bewitchery focus on establishing your customer as the hero in your brand story, you play the more important role of their mentor or guide.

Now it’s time to capture the unique personality of your brand, the emotional promise you make to connect with the wishes of your prospects and the physical gift you provide to fulfill their wish.

Plus, in this episode, you will learn about how to use the 12 universal personality archetypes to find the one that best reflects the personality of your brand.

This chapter will color how you express your brand to the world.

#429: Ch. 7, Journey: How to Increase Customer Engagement Through the Stories You Tell

Here is where you determine what stories you tell based on the nine one-word brand descriptors you developed from Chapter 6. It’s important which stories you tell and at what point in your customer journey from brand awareness to brand adoption to brand appreciation.

I understand that customer journey mapping often includes many more steps than just these three. But I’ve found it much easier and more impactful to focus on this three-act journey (I mean, come on, we’re storytellers, right?) than the convoluted six-, eight and 10-step customer journeys you typically find. Let’s not overthink this, people.

In my experience, it all boils down to the three acts of brand awareness, adoption and appreciation.

#430: Ch. 8, Victory: How to Celebrate Wins on the Customer Journey From Brand Awareness to Appreciation

Instead for hoping for one big victory like a signed purchase order or immediate customer, consider the small wins you need to celebrate with your customers along their journey with your brand.

In this episode, we show you how to design ad trigger those milestones of success that will help you build brand bonding with your ideal customer.

#432: Ch. 9, Moral: How to Declare Your Brand’s Purpose to Amplify Your Impact

If you don’t stand for something you won’t stand out among your competitors. What is your brand purpose? Or perhaps more importantly, how do you find and articulate your brand purpose? You can learn how as I read Chapter 9 from Brand Bewitchery that will help you spell our the moral of your story; what you stand for that makes you stand out. All of the preceding steps of the Story Cycle System has set you up for the realization and articulation of your purpose.

#433: Ch. 10, Ritual: How to Build Repeat Business to Simplify Your Life

Great stories scale, meaning they are easily and readily shared.

That’s what Chapter 10 of Brand Bewitchery is all about. Now that you’ve crafted your brand story through the previous nine steps of the proven Story Cycle System, how do you best spread it throughout the world?

Your goal is to dramatically increase revenue through new and repeat business with your brand storytelling. Plus, now you can arm your customers with stories that they can share with their world creating for you the most powerful form of advertising there is: FREE word-of-mouth marketing.

#435: Brand Bewitchery Ch. 11 & Ch. 12: How to Debut and Scale Your New Brand Story

You’ve heard the popular truism that people buy from people they know, like and trust.

And with trust comes repeat business, life-long customers, and promoters who will happily share your story with their world leading to what….?

Being even better known, immensely more likable, and the trusted leader in your market…and the virtuous spiral rotates once again.

In this episode, I show you how to activate your brand storytelling flywheel by first developing a coalition of internal storytellers who will help you scale your story to the outside world.

You’ve heard the popular truism that people buy from people they know, like and trust.

And with trust comes repeat business, life-long customers, and promoters who will happily share your story with their world leading to what….?

Being even better known, immensely more likable, and the trusted leader in your market…and the virtuous spiral rotates once again.

In this episode, I show you how to activate your brand storytelling flywheel by first developing a coalition of internal storytellers who will help you scale your story to the outside world.

Bookmark this page so it’s easy for you to access the Brand Bewitchery audiobook delivered via the Business of Story podcast at any time.

For additional storytelling skills development, listen to:

• How to Craft Your Brand Story Strategy With the Story Cycle System
• Learn From My 10-Year Journey With the ABTs of Storytelling
• My Origin Story That Demonstrates the Story Cycle System in Action

If you haven’t yet taken the quick ABTs of Agile Communications online course, then take it now.

In under one hour, through three 20-ish minute modules, you will learn the foundational And, But, Therefore narrative framework upon which all influential business storytelling is built.

And you can even email me your ABT from the course and I’ll respond with FREE coaching on how to make your ABT even stronger.

Story on!

The post Grow Your Business Storytelling Skills by Listening to Park’s Book: Brand Bewitchery appeared first on Business of Story | Storytelling Strategy, Workshops & Keynotes.

I not only just read Rener Gracie’s new book, The 32 Principles: Harness the Power of Jiu-jitsu to Succeed in Business, Relationships, and Life, but we explored it on this week’s Business of Story podcast with the author.

While I’ve never studied Jiu-jitsu or grappled on the mat, his 32 principles resonated with me.

In fact, I realized that these same principles can be found in business communications.

The central theme of his books is that Jiu-jitsu is the art of efficiency. I believe the same is true with disciplined storytelling that makes business communications more efficient.

For instance, you can use the And, But, Therefore (ABT) agile narrative framework to make your messages land right the first time, every time, fast!

PREMISE: If jiu-jitsu is the art of efficiency, then storytelling is the art of efficient business communications to connect with audiences quickly and persuade them to action.

Let’s examine how business storytelling is grounded in the 32 principles.

#1. The Connection Principle

While the body parts including hands, feet, arms, legs, thighs, hips, wrists, shoulders, fists, elbows, and even armpits are the connection tools in Jiu-jitsu, our stories are the connection tools we use to hook, persuade, and pull in an audience.

Think about the last time you told a story about something you experienced that your audience could relate to. They thought, “Hmmm, I’ve been there. I know what that feels like. She’d kind of like me.”

Anecdotes about what you’ve been through relative to your audience are a powerful way to connect and build trust.

No amount of data, charts and graphs will have the hold on your people like a well-told connection story.

According to Sapiens author, Yuval Noah Harari, “Humans think in stories, and we try to make sense of the world by telling stories.”

#2. The Detachment Principle

“Detachment is profoundly honest, grounded firmly in the truth of what is,” said Sharon Salzberg in Rener’s book.

The Detachment Principle in business communications is when you detach yourself from your opinions and assertions that often create tension. Instead, you illustrate your business points with a true story that shows your position on a situation in action.

Authentic, human-centered stories deliver a truth that creates trust. Leading with features, functions, and figures in your communications is a much weaker way to win over an audience.

#3. The Distance Principle

In Jiu-jitsu, whoever controls the distance controls the damage to be done, according to Rener.

In business storytelling, the storyteller seeks to control the distance between them and their audience, especially adversarial audiences whom they want to win over.

A connection story that demonstrates your shared beliefs and values is a powerful way to reel them in closer to you, which triggers the Connection Principle.

As you are learning, each of the 32 principles is synergistic with the others.

#4. The Pyramid Principle

The triangle is a revered shape in Jiu-jitsu because it provides three points of balance for a strong foundation. Hence, the Pyramid Principle. Powerful stories are based on the three-word foundation of the And, But and Therefore (ABT) agile narrative framework

The ABT structure is the DNA of story because it represents the three forces of story, which are Agreement, Contradiction and Consequence.

Think of it as the basic three-act story structure of setup, problem, and resolution.

Our primal problem-solving, decision-making, buying limbic brain loves this problem/solution narrative because it helps it to immediately create meaning out of your message without having to work for it.

That’s why the ABT is the Pyramid Principle in business communications because all persuasive stories are built upon it. Perfect the use of the ABT and you will build a formidable narrative intuition that will make all of your communications land right the first time, every time.

You can learn from my 10-year journey with ABTs of storytelling.

#5. The Creation Principle

The Creation Principle teaches us to use a deliberate action to force a specific reaction from an opponent. To get creative.

Starting with the end in mind, create specific, targeted stories designed to persuade a targeted reaction in your audience.

The Jiu-jitsu of storytelling is not so much a mouse trap as it is the cheese. The goal is for the mouse to grab the cheese without feeling trapped.

Sir Richard Branson, one of the best business storytellers ever, said, “Entrepreneurs who make a difference are, in effect, professional storytellers.”

#6. The Acceptance Principle

Everyone knows that the one constant in life like in Jiu-jitsu is change.

If you resist change, then you burn energy and resources when you could be taking advantage of new opportunities.

The Acceptance Principle in business communications is when you embrace uncertainty, create meaning around why things are changing and demonstrate the way forward through the stories you tell.

“Story, as it turns out, is more important to our evolution than opposable thumbs. Opposable thumbs let us hang on; story told us what to hang on to,” according to Lisa Cron, author of one of my favorite books on storytelling called Wired for Story.

#7. The Velocity Principle

From my book, Brand Bewitchery: How to Wield the Story Cycle System to Craft Spellbinding Stories for Your Brand:

“Like thermal dynamics, storytelling has an energy and force all its own. Inspired by the definition of physics, story dynamics is the narrative science that studies imagination and its motion and behavior through the space and time of a story and its related entities of energy and force.

Story dynamics is one of the most fundamental communication disciplines. Its main goal is to help us understand how the universe behaves through the stories we tell and live. We help you use stories to nudge the world in any direction you choose.”

#8. The Clock Principle

The seasoned Jiu-jitsu practitioner uses the Clock Principle to disrupt the anticipated timing of their opponent’s techniques or objectives to control the outcome.

The art of storytelling can provide you with the same advantage by disrupting the objections or anti-stories of others.

In fact, all stories are based on the Clock Principle because they’re temporal. They have a beginning, middle and end.

For instance, your boss just gave you five minutes to state your case. Your prospect opened up 20 minutes for a ZOOM meeting to pitch your wares. The local business club has asked for a one-hour keynote to inspire its young executives.

How deftly you use short, medium and long stories to leverage the synergies of the other principles including Pyramid, Connection, Velocity and Acceptance will determine what belt you have earned in the art of influence and persuasion.

Timing is everything to transport your audience from their world into yours.

#9. The River Principle

The River Principle in Jiu-jitsu is about how well you flow around the obstacles and antagonists that stand in your way of victory. You can exhaust yourself wrestling these adversaries or you can play off of their energy to propel your own agenda forward.

In business storytelling, think of the Pyramid Principle of the ABT agile narrative framework as the hydrodynamics of The River Principle in stories that flow.

Boring stories are slack tides caused by the storytelling, and, and, anding you to death. They go nowhere.

Chaotic stories with no structure are like Class V rapids that are difficult to navigate.

The ideal business story uses the three forces of story of agreement (beautiful, flowing river), contradiction (interrupted by whitewater), and consequence (the splash of excitement and thrill of the ride).

The River Principle is a great way to flow around the anti-stories your audience tells themselves as to why they should not consider your idea. You flow around their objections with a better story that invites them to take action.

#10. The Frame Principle

The Frame Principle is found in how you use the ABT to frame the situation, name the problem, and claim the way forward.

The goal is to overcome your opponent or win over an audience by framing a singular problem/solution narrative to make your position easy to understand, defensible, and intriguing.

How you frame your story using a singular narrative will beat the crap out of obfuscated bullshit every time because you make the complex simple.

Storytelling is the Jiu-jitsu of business communications because it is the art of efficiency.

For instance, the singular narrative upon which the 32 principles in Rener’s book can be summed up in this statement: “Nothing in Rener’s book The 32 Principles makes sense except in the light of efficiency.”

You master the art of efficiency when you frame your stories with a single powerful narrative.

Here’s what legendary Silicon Valley marketer Christopher Lochhead said about the framing power of the ABT agile narrative framework…

#11. The Kuzushi Principle

Kuzushi is a Japanese Martial Arts concept of off-balancing another person.

In business, we are often confronted by fearful opponents who have created fictional anti-stories as to why the organization can’t possibly do what we are recommending. Our job as storytellers is to disrupt the equilibrium of their position on the subject they are against.

For instance, a sales prospect pushes back saying that they tried a similar offering to yours and it didn’t work. An internal team figuratively crosses its mental arms when you introduce a new initiative. Your boss thinks you’re not ready for the promotion you propose.

The only way to overcome an anti-story is to weaken their belief system and throw it off balance with a better story that strengthens your position. Help your audience see and feel the new direction your are promoting.

#12. The Reconnaissance Principle

If you’re going to be successful on the Jiu-jitsu mat, you had better know your opponent’s tendencies.

Legendary Hollywood script guru Robert McKee said that every screenwriter has to know their audience in a God-like way.

The same is true in business. One of the best ways to learn about your audience is The Reconnaissance Principle found in using the ABT as a story-listening device. As Rener says, “Seek first to understand before being understood.”

When someone shares with you their problem, let them go on and on until they’ve exhausted their story. Then repeat back to them what you heard using the ABT framework.

“You want this AND it’s important to you because of this, BUT you’re frustrated because of this thing standing in your way, THEREFORE, imagine what it will feel like when you get it by doing this…”

You will build trust because you demonstrated that you listened leveraging The Reconnaissance Principle with your storytelling skills.

Mark Twain said, “If God intended us to talk more than listen, he would have given us two mouths and one ear.”

#13. The Prevention Principle

In Jiu-jitsu, sometimes winning simply means preventing a move by a superior opponent that will help you avoid a loss. As the strategy goes, postpone the loss for as long as you can and you will eventually win.

When you are battling humungous anti-stories, there are three storytelling moves that are invaluable to your success.

Typically, your opponent is coming at you with all kinds of confusing data and fear-based anecdotes that may or may not be factual to support their position and tear down yours. You allow them to go on for as long as they like as they burn their energy obfuscating the truth. You provide no argument, opinion, or assertion until they have exhausted their points.

Then you leverage storytelling Jiu-jitsu by starting with The Frame Principle. You swiftly state your singular problem/solution narrative using the ABT to create crystal clear meaning for your audience.

You follow with The Creation Principle by telling a quick anecdote using the five primal elements of a short story for big impact to illustrate your business point (show, don’t tell).

You end with The Acceptance Principle by sharing data points that logically support the case you made through the two story frameworks that have piqued their emotional interest in your subject.

You can imagine how The River Principle comes into play to make all of this flow to your benefit.

#14. The Tension Principle

Every compelling, persuasive story is built on tension.

No conflict, no story.

Or as I like to say, “No tingle, no jingle.”

When you have truly mastered the Pyramid and Framing Principles of the ABT by strengthening your narrative intuition, then the three forces of story that include agreement, contradiction (tension) and consequence will naturally flow (The River Principle)  through your communications.

Stories are about the tense moments when everything changes and the consequences of that change.

#15. The Fork Principle

“To me, the Fork Principle represents the absolute highest level of Jiu-jitsu on the mat. In life, the principle teaches us to pursue optimal outcomes for multiple stakeholders in a given situation,” writes Gracie.

We coach a four-pronged approach to winning over an audience with your stories.

Once you’ve set the stage by framing your singular narrative with the ABT, you then have four different kinds of anecdotes available to you to persuade your audience.

They are all based on moments and include a Moment of Connection that shared your beliefs and values with your audience, a Moment of Truth that illustrates the change that must be dealt with, a Moment of Trust that demonstrates how you are uniquely equipped to help them overcome the fear of change, and the Moment of Victory that shows them what success looks and more importantly feels like.

Each is a true story well-told that invokes the synergies of the 32 principles, as you are beginning to experience.

#16. The Posture Principle

When we find ourselves in an adversarial situation that requires us to argue, even fight, for our position, it’s imperative to observe and understand the opposing position.

Most executives will impotently defend their position using logic and reason based on numbers. “Numb”ers.

The most potent way to overcome their point of view is to use the emotional pull of a true story to create a context for your more exciting way forward. A true story where your audience can picture and feel the outcome will tap out a logical reasoned argument every time.

Famous American social psychologist, Johnathan Haidt, says “The human mind is a story processor, not a logic processor.”

Assume the correct posture to win over your audience by placing the context of your rational idea in the form of an emotional story.

#17. The False Surrender Principle

Very much like The Posture Principle, allow yourself to appear to surrender to the logic behind the opposing viewpoint.

You will come off as agreeable, understanding, and intelligent.

Then when the time is right (The Clock Principle), use The Creation Principle to reveal a new way forward, your way, by using The Fork Principle of deploying any or all of the four story moments as outlined in The Fork Principle.

#18. The Depletion Principle

One strategy in Jiu-jitsu is to wear down your opponent.

But you don’t want to exhaust your audience with your business storytelling.

Instead, when we are faced with the daunting task of creating long-form content including sales presentations and keynote addresses, we have to pay close attention to The Depletion Principle in our audience.

We are not trying to beat them down and goad them into buying our product, service, vision, mission, or initiative.

Rather, we need to execute the Jiu-jitsu move of gingerly escorting them through our content using the 10-step Story Cycle System so they eagerly embrace our presentation.

We take what can easily be a long and boring content and create a story arc for our audience that whisks them from their world into ours.

#19. The Isolation Principle

On a Jiu-jitsu mat, one of the main goals is to isolate an opponent’s limb, to leave either that singular arm or leg minus the aid of its accompanying trio of appendages.

In business communications, to overcome an anti-story through persuasion you must isolate the individual arguments.

Weaken their varied premises and the whole of their argument tumbles down around them.

You do this with the storytelling Jiu-jitsu principle of framing that is closely tied to The Isolation Principle because you are wielding a singular narrative that makes your position vastly more understandable and meaningful than a confused assault of multiple reasons why your way can’t be done.

#20. The Sacrifice Principle

One of the greatest obstacles to incorporating storytelling into an organization is its status-quo thinking.

In order to get them to change their ways you have to persuade them to sacrifice the old way of doing things for a smarter, more efficient way that leads to greater ROI.

One of the best ways to do this is to share a moment when you had to sacrifice something for the greater good and what the positive outcome was that you experienced.

To invoke sacrifice in the people you are trying to persuade, lean on The Fork Principle while intuitively employing The River Principle to take them on the journey of sacrifice, healthy change, and positive outcomes.

Demonstrating the sacrifices you have made will help them appreciate that you understand and empathize with their situation.

#21. The Momentum Principle

As a cousin to The Velocity Principle, The Momentum Principle is ubiquitous to storytelling because stories are about a moment when everything changed.

The word moment is derived from the Latin momentum. The Velocity Principle is found in the momentum and energy created by a well-told story.

Business leaders and presenters versed in storytelling understand the importance of toggling between brisk and longer stories to arouse and fulfill the Homo sapiens storytelling creature in every audience.

Ira Glass, host of This American Life, who draws 1.7 million listeners every week to his stories, said “The power of anecdote is so great that it has a momentum all its own…with a well-told story you feel like you’re on a train that has a destination.”

#22. The Pivot Principle

The two most critical assumptions that illustrate The Pivot Principle in storytelling that shift important paradigms are:

1. Your stories are not about you but are about your audience, so you must place them at the center of your story.
2. Your stories are not about what you make but what you make happen in your audience’s life.

Audiences are pleasantly surprised and vastly more receptive to you and your offering if you pivot your storytelling from your perspective to their point of view.

The Pyramid Principle of the ABT allows you to effortlessly do this by defining your audience, what they want relative to your offering AND why it’s important to them. BUT why don’t they have it? THEREFORE, how are you uniquely equipped to help them get it?

Pivot the two above perspectives and you’ll easily become more persuasive.

#23. The Tagalong Principle

Leading by example isn’t simply the best way to teach. It’s the only way to teach, according to Rener.

When we’re teaching the three proven narrative frameworks of the Business of Story, we encourage a deliberate practice program that I now realize is The Tagalong Principle.

Like with Jiu-jitsu, building any skill requires adopting new healthy habits and deliberate practice.

So to strengthen our students’ narrative intuition we ask them to curl the ABT dumbbell daily through our 21-day Story Quests. We email fun and educational storytelling exercises every Monday, Wednesday and Friday for 10 weeks to help them build their storytelling muscles.

It is a total tagalong exercise.

Click on the image to listen to our conversation with Rener.

#24. The Overload Principle

When you take on a formidable Jiu-jitsu opponent, one successful strategy is to overload them either psychologically to keep them guessing what your next move is, or physically by amplify the impact of a particular hold.

But the last thing you want to do with your communications is to overload your audience with confusing information.

You’ll lose them instantly.

Instead, you can overload your audience with emotion using the three story structures we teach. These include the ABT, the Five Primal Elements of a Short Story for Big Impact, and the 10-Step Story Cycle System, not to mention the four categories of stories: Moments of Connection, Truth, Trust and Success.

Because what you are doing is grappling with the limbic brain connecting with its cause-and-effect, problem-solving, decision-making apparatus.

Your audience is completely unaware as to why they are leaning in, nodding in agreement, and feeling the positive flow of the communication.

That’s why I say, “You have to understand the magic to cast the spell.”

 A great example is Martin Luther King’s I Have a Dream Speech. Notice the nested ABTs throughout this revolutionary story.

#25. The Anchor Principle

Once again, the ABT dominates the storytelling mat by exhibiting The Anchor Principle with its singular problem/solution narrative to anchor the promise of the premise of your story.

It’s hard to combat a singular narrative with multiple talking points because our brain, despite popular belief that it can multitask, bets its survival on dealing with one problem at a time.

In his Outside Magazine article, Nicholas Kristof’s Advice for Saving the World, states, “As we all vaguely know, one death is a tragedy, a million deaths is a statistic. As Mother Teresa said, ‘If I look at the mass, I will never act. If I look at the one, I will.’”

Anchor your stories and therefore your audience with a simple singular narrative that will move them to action.

#26. The Ratchet Principle

Our story frameworks, especially the 10-Step Story Cycle System, are an expression of The Ratchet Principle.

We call our approach to story training the “Applied Science and Bewitchery of Storytelling,” because we know that our frameworks are algorithms. And when you have a persistent mindset of The River Principle, then you’ll continually flow forward with each of the 10 steps in the Story Cycle to ratchet up the story.

We also call this ratcheting a “Story Loop,” which again is based on the ABT.

You invite your audience into the story with your statement of agreement. Then you ratchet up the tension with the BUT statement of contradiction that begs the question in our limbic brian, “How does this end?”. Resulting in the THEREFORE statement of consequence that closes the story loop with your call-to-action of the way forward.

Your goal is to ratchet up the tension and emotion of your stories and then pay it off with your call to action.

#27. The Buoyancy Principle

Leveraging the predictability of human behavior to build your allies and break your enemies is essentially the sole goal of Jiu-jitsu and the storyteller.

When you tell any of the four-pronged story moments found in The Fork Principle, your goal is to buoy your audience, to get them to look higher, and to provide lift by also invoking The Creation Principle.

Watch President John F. Kennedy’s Rice University Apollo speech that ultimately led to $24 billion in funding to win the space race. That’s The Buoyancy Principle of storytelling magnified billions of times.

#28. The Head Control Principle

What is one of the major obstacles when dealing with a leader, boss or manager that is above you?

It’s time.

They seldom provide you with enough time to state your case and sell it.

The Head Control Principle, while obvious in Jiu-jitus (control your opponent’s head), may well be the most important skill to learn with your storytelling to overcome this time triangle headlock. Here’s what you do.

Say your boss has given you just five minutes to share a new initiative you want to spearhead (The Creation Principle). So what you do is take the first 15 seconds (The Clock Principle) and state your powerful singular problem/solution narrative using the ABT to trigger their limbic brain (The Anchor Principle).

Then you take the next 60 seconds (The Velocity Principle) to illustrate your point through a potent anecdote (The Momentum Principle).

Then you roll out no more than three data points to support your stories (the Connection Principle). And you still have three minutes left to measure their interest, discuss options and invite the next step in their process of saying “Yes” (The Acceptance Principle).

That’s how you control the inside and outside *head*.

#29. The Redirection Principle

The Redirection Principle is squarely found in defeating anti-stories with a better story.

But you have to employ The Reconnaissance Principle first to truly understand the point of view of your audience and then follow The Creation Principle to unearth and deliver true stories well told that persuade them into your way of thinking, feeling or doing.

Given the synergies of each of the 31 storytelling Jiu-jitsu principles, you can use nearly every one of them when your strategy is to redirect an audience from their anti-story into embracing your story.

#30. The Mobility Principle

One of the axioms of persuasive storytelling is to meet your audience where they are.

What’s in it for them? 

As I mentioned in The Pivot Principle, you have to move from your perspective to their point of view.

Use the Detachment Principle to disconnect from your engrained ideas and leverage The Creation Principle to help them see and feel what a brighter tomorrow can be if only they followed your lead.

As Jack Handy hilariously encourages, “Before you criticize someone, walk a mile in their shoes. That way, you’ll be a mile from them, and you’ll have their shoes.”

#31. The Centerline Principle

You always want to explore and appreciate both sides of the story (The Reconnaissance Principle) to help you distinguish your ultimate centerline.

We call this the “Through Line” of a story framed as your singular problem/solution narrative (The Framing and Anchoring Principles).

Another way of thinking of The Centerline Principle is establishing the moral of your story. How is what you’re about to communicate going to effectively reflect your beliefs and values and what are you willing to do to defend your views.

As NIKE Founder Phil Knight said in his autobiography Shoe Dog, “People, sensing my belief, wanted some of that belief for themselves. Belief, I decided. Belief is irresistible.”

What is the throughline of your singular narrative that centers your story on the business point you want to make, and how does it express the beliefs and values you share with your audience?

#32. The Grandmaster Principle

What makes a Grandmaster Storyteller?

Once you learn the magic of the three narrative frameworks to cast the spell, then make them uniquely your own.

The Business of Story frameworks are simple algorithms for remarkably powerful and persuasive communications.

But they are simply guides.

It is up to the Grandmaster to vamp, improvise and be creative with how to implement these storytelling techniques.

You’ll need to embrace the failure when a story falls flat on its face and celebrate the victories when something surprising, even magical, happens in the telling of a story.

As Steve Jobs, perhaps one of the most gifted storytelling grandmasters, said, “The most powerful person in the world is the storyteller. They set the vision, values and agenda of an entire generation.”

Leveling Up to a Grandmaster of Storytelling

If you’d like to begin your journey in developing your storytelling skills or strengthening what you already have, the best place to start is with our DIY The ABTs of Agile Communications quick online course.

Through three short modules, I show you how to deploy The Pyramid Principle of using the ABT as the foundation for all of your communications to make your messages land right the first time, every time. The other 31 Jiu-jitsu of storytelling principles will begin to naturally fall into place.

I look forward to seeing your ABTs in action.

#StoryOnn!

The post Storytelling: The Jiu-Jitsu of Leadership Communications appeared first on Business of Story | Storytelling Strategy, Workshops & Keynotes.

One of my favorite things about teaching business, sales and marketing professionals about the ABT (And, But, Therefore) agile narrative framework is when they send me cool examples that they have spotted in the wild.

Here’s one Lane Schonour, Ed.D, Senior Vice President, Learning and Development at Goodwill of Central and Northern Arizona, sent me yesterday.

“It Couldn’t Be Done”

BY EDGAR ALBERT GUEST

Somebody said that it couldn’t be done
But he with a chuckle replied
That “maybe it couldn’t,” but he would be one
Who wouldn’t say so till he’d tried.
So he buckled right in with the trace of a grin
On his face. If he worried he hid it.
He started to sing as he tackled the thing
That couldn’t be done, and he did it!

Somebody scoffed: “Oh, you’ll never do that;
At least no one ever has done it;”
But he took off his coat and he took off his hat
And the first thing we knew he’d begun it.
With a lift of his chin and a bit of a grin,
Without any doubting or quiddit,
He started to sing as he tackled the thing
That couldn’t be done, and he did it.

There are thousands to tell you it cannot be done,
There are thousands to prophesy failure,
There are thousands to point out to you one by one,
The dangers that wait to assail you.
But just buckle in with a bit of a grin,
Just take off your coat and go to it;
Just start in to sing as you tackle the thing
That “cannot be done,” and you’ll do it.

What is interesting about Edgar Albert Guest’s poem is that it propels the story forward using a rare inverted ABT.

What I mean by an inverted ABT is that it starts with a negative sentiment in its Statement of Agreement (in this case, we can agree that there are a lot of naysayers out there to thwart our progress), and then contradicts that sentiment with a positive thought in the BUT Statement of Contradiction (I believe it can be done).

Common ABT Structure: Positive + Negative = Charge

We’ve learned and taught that if you want to have the greatest impact in leadership, sales and marketing communications using the ABT, it’s often best to begin with a positive Statement of Agreement to get your audience to picture what a brighter tomorrow can look like for them.

This is when you create a shared vision to build trust.

BUT then you introduce the problem in your Statement of Contradiction that sets up your solution.

THEREFORE, your Statement of Consequence demonstrates the way forward through your offering and ultimate call to action.

Setup + problem = resolution.

Once you perfect your ABT crafting using positive-to-negative charges in your writing, you can take it to the next level and invert the ABT as Guest did.

Audi Motors, one of the best storytelling brands on the road thanks in great part to the storytellers at San Francisco ad agency Venables Bell & Partners headed by Paul Venables, told the It Couldn’t be Done story in this remarkable TV spot.

So what?

Most advertising and marketing, especially in the B2B (Boring2Bored) world is non-narrative filled with lists of product and service attributes, features, and functions…Blah2Blah.

The ABT, whether you use its positive-to-negative charge or the inverted negative-to-positive charge is narrative storytelling structure because you have a plot twist, the contradiction between your statements of agreement and consequence.

You build contrast and conflict that our primal cause-and-effect, decision-making, buying limbic brain loves. 

It bats away boring non-narrative drivel because it does not illuminate the meaning associated with a lesson that a singular problem/solution narrative communicates.

That’s where the three forces of story – agreement, contradiction and consequence – regardless of whether they’re positive + negative or negative + positive, happen.

You can think of the ABT as the chassis to your stories that transport your audience from their world into yours.

Try it for yourself. Visit your homepage or one of your landing pages on your website and see if you can make it way more powerful by writing it as an ABT.

You choose which ABT version works best for you.

I know you’re thinking it can’t be done.

So start to sing as you tackle the thing that can’t be done and go do it!

Story on, my friend!

The post A Poetic Example of an “Inverted ABT” to Power Your Business Storytelling appeared first on Business of Story | Storytelling Strategy, Workshops & Keynotes.

My storytelling career really began in 2006 when I studied the craft in earnest.

I was inspired by Joseph Campbell’s Hero’s Journey and translated it to business with my 10-step Story Cycle System.

The ten steps include

1. Backstory: Define your #1 position in the marketplace.
2. Hero: Describe your #1 target audience.
3. Stakes: Identify what your prospect emotionally wishes to gain and what are they physically willing to invest in to fulfill their wish.
4. Disruption: Reveal what has changed in your customer’s world that nudges them to buy your product or service.
5. Antagonists: Embrace the obstacles and gaps that you will help your audience overcome.
6. Mentor: Demonstrate how you and your offering are uniquely equipped to help your prospect get what they wish for and want.
7. Journey: Illustrate what the road to success with you looks like.
8. Victory: Celebrate the small victories along the way to demonstrate to your customer that they’re living the right story.
9. Moral: Connect your shared beliefs and values through the promises you keep in the stories you tell.
10. Ritual: Develop repeat business and powerful word-of-mouth marketing from customers who are now sharing your story with their world.

The Spiral Narrative Structure Capture in the Story Cycle System to Increase Customer Engagement With Every Revolution

We’ve used the Story Cycle System to grow brands by as much as 600 percent.

We’ve used it to create increase engagement by 10x+ for long-form communications like videos, blogs, articles and white papers.

And we’ve shown people how to use the Story Cycle System to create presentations that transform audiences resulting in real ROI.

You can learn how to apply the Story Cycle System in your life by listening to episode #350, How to Craft Your Brand Story Strategy With the Story Cycles System.

I take you on an abridge 15-minute overview of the Story Cycle and then dive into a 45-minute coaching session complete with exercises you can use every step of the way.

But, the 10-step process can get complicated.

Plus, you may be like lots of people who simply don’t care about the theory of the Story Cycle System. You just want to make it work fast in your communications.

So I developed this one-page Business of Story Presentation Worksheet that you can use to develop your long-form content and presentations and benefit from the Story Cycle structure without having to know the theory.

The best way to demonstrate it to you is to show you how I used it to develop my TEDxGilbert Talk. It was a smashing hit and I’ve been using and teaching this process ever since.

In my recent episode of the Business of Story podcast, which, by the way, Feedspot.com named the #1 Business Storytelling Podcast for 2023 (that’s now two years in a row), I walk you through questions to ask yourself about your audience when developing your presentation.

And then I’m going to show it to you in action from my TEDx Talk.

Have a piece of paper and pen handy, or download the Business of Story Presentation Worksheet, so you can write these questions down and then apply them to your content creation.

For a little context, I gave my TEDxTalk in Gilbert, Arizona on March 24, 2018. The theme of the event was Identity: Who we are and where we’re going.

We were asked to speak to an audience of young professionals about the impact social media is having on how they see themselves, the pitfalls and the opportunities for growth.

After working through my Story Cycle System strategy doc., I arrived at the title for my presentation of: Start Looking for Your Scenes and Your Story Will Find You.

I arrived at this concept by first considering the most important aspect of the presentation: My audience and what’s in it for them. So ask yourself, who is your audience and what do you want them to think, feel and do at the conclusion of your presentation?

You can think of this presentation structure in three acts: Set-up, Problem, and Resolution.

ACT I

Audience: Twenty-something young professionals who want to find significance by telling their story but they don’t know how.

• Think:  At the end of my TEDx Talk, I wanted them to think, “Hey, I have an important story to tell and now I know how to do it. It doesn’t have to be some epic adventure, I just need to capture and share the moments that have shaped who I am today.”
• Feel: I wanted them to feel excited about telling their story and have mustered the courage to do so by understanding how to find those moments or scenes that inform who they are today.
• Do: I wanted them to immediately apply what they learned from my talk and as you’ll hear, I give them three proven steps forward to find success in the storytelling quickly.

What do they wish for and want?

My audience wished to be heard and appreciated in the world and they wanted a proven way to tell their stories to fulfill that wish. Think of the wish as being psychological and the want to be the physical thing they’ll invest in to, again, fulfill their wish. Aren’t we all really in the wish-granting business?

Why don’t they already have it?

What are the obstacles and antagonists standing in their way from fulfilling their wish? In this case, my audience had a storytelling gap. They didn’t know how important moments are in storytelling, how to unearth these moments from their own life, and how to share these moments in the form of short stories so that people better understand who they are, what they believe and value, and why?

ACT II

What has changed in their world?

The main theme of TEDxGilbert was the intrusion of social media in our lives and how it’s difficult to tell fact from fiction both online and by extension, what is happening with our own stories. The question I posed was how can you tell your authentic story in a world of fabricated tales and sensationalized storytelling?

What will happen if they do nothing?

If my audience did nothing, they would remain stuck in this FOMO world of being jealous about other people’s supposed stories and never having the courage to share their own authentic story.

What will happen if they do something?

If they follow my advice and are guided by the proven storytelling frameworks, then they will achieve a whole new level of significance by being recognized for who they are, what they stand for, and how they can contribute to the betterment of life for those they serve.

How are you uniquely equipped to help them get what they wish for and want?

I am uniquely equipped to help them get what they want because I share with them what I’ve learned in 35+ years of branding and marketing experience and the three narrative frameworks that share internationally as I consult, teach, coach and speak helping leaders excel through the stories they tell.

ACT III

What will success look like to them?

First success will come internally in the form of having pride in their story and appreciating the moments that have shaped who they are today. Externally, in the sharing of their moments, they will make deeper connections with the people they interact with in person and they will increase their social engagement online as followers will embrace their true stories.

What will success feel like to them?

As I mentioned at the top, they will feel excited about sharing their stories because now they know how. They will be inspired to do so because they no longer have the fear of sharing their story. They have the courage because they can use the frameworks and experience how they work.

What do you want them to do now?

My call to action is actually the three things I want them to do that night when they return home. This way they will become a part of my story and invested in theirs.

Let’s recap the steps:

1. Who, specifically, is your audience and what do you want them to think, feel and do when you are finished with your presentation?
2. What do they emotionally wish for and what physically will they buy in order to fulfill their wish? Again, this wish for and want is all in relation to your offering.
3. Why don’t they already have what they wish for and want? What’s standing in their way that you can help them overcome?
4. What has changed in their world to make what they wish for all the more urgent and what makes them want your offering because your are the most timely and relevant solution to their problem.
5. What will happen if they do nothing and what will happen if they do something? Are your playing to their negativity bias or leveraging their optimism? Maybe both.
6. Finally, you get to talk about you. How are you uniquely equipped to help them get what they wish for and want?
7. What will success look like? Paint that pitcture for them. What will success feel like, get them emotionally attached to your offering. And what do you want them to do next, what is your explicit call to action.

Here is my TEDx Talk, Start Looking for Your Scenes and Your Story Will Find You.

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