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Hear an entrepreneur's premise developed in real time: Inside my coaching call with Michelle Florendo
Apple Podcasts - Spotify - List of All Players New to the show? On How Stories Happen, business communicators take us inside the crafting of their ideas into powerful stories they use to grow their audience and their cause. It's a show about what it really takes to become a
How Stories Happen: Lessons from Emmy-Award Winning Producer Jordan Geary, Sesame Workshop
Apple Podcasts - Spotify - List of All Players New to the show? On How Stories Happen, business communicators take us inside the crafting of their ideas into powerful stories they use to grow their audience and their cause. It's a show about what it really takes to become a
The Most Important Question of the A.I. Era: What Is the Purpose of Fire?
A few weeks ago, I was talking with two friends at an event. I'm very lucky these two friends possess three traits in particular: Trait #1: They were bored and/or confused enough to befriend me over the years. (This trait is the most important by far.) Trait #2: They are unbelievably hardworki
Neen James: how to create visual frameworks to elevate your business
Apple Podcasts - Spotify - List of All Players New to the show? On How Stories Happen, business communicators take us inside the crafting of their ideas into powerful stories they use to grow their audience and their cause. It's a show about what it really takes to become a
How I'd Improve the Premise of a Marketing Legend: Reworking Joe Pulizzi's 3 Signature Projects
Last week, my friend Joe Pulizzi was kind enough to cite my premise development methods and frameworks in his wonderful newsletter. Here's the full article on LinkedIn. Joe forwarded me the email version and asked, "Am I doing this right?" He wanted my input on the premises for his thr
The 2 Types of Value - Or, Why We Struggle to Explain Ourselves to Others
Imagine three different timelines where you introduce yourself to the very same prospect for the first time, three separate times: In timeline 1, they first learn about you by visiting your website . (Also in that timeline, can I be taller? Like 6-foot-2? Thanks. I needed that.) In timeline 2
How Stories Happen: Chris Ducker on why long-haul leaders need their catalyst story
Apple Podcasts - Spotify - List of All Players New to the show? On How Stories Happen, business communicators take us inside the crafting of their ideas into powerful stories they use to grow their audience and their cause. It's a show about what it really takes to become a
Resonance Over Reach: Part 2—The 3 Pieces of a Clear, Memorable, Differentiated Message
⏪ Last time, in part 1, I wrote about how to connect with your audience without shouting into the storm by turning your expertise into an influential idea. Read more about premise development and the XY premise pitch. ⏩ Today, in part 2, how to message your premise in a way that gets buy-in fr
How Stories Happen: The author of my favorite book on storytelling, Jessica Abel
Apple Podcasts - Spotify - List of All Players New to the show? On How Stories Happen, business communicators take us inside the crafting of their ideas into powerful stories they use to grow their audience and their cause. It's a show about what it really takes to become a
Don't Be the Best; Be Their Favorite
I swear it was just a normal pen, but in that moment, I prayed it was magic, with a sorcery capable of calming my boss. I'd marched into his office to say something kind of insane if your goal is to keep your job. Naturally, I needed a place to direct all my nerves. Click-click-click-click! My
Resonance Over Reach: Part 1—Turn Your Expertise into a Powerful Premise You Own
I'm obsessed with a single question lately: What if you could whisper? Marketing has gotten shouty. Creators seem to love sensationalizing their expertise and advice with gimmicks and clickbait. People keep creating mediocrity at massive scale thanks to AI. What does it take for someone w
How Stories Happen: Podcasting's top researcher Tom Webster on how to tell the stories of numbers
Apple Podcasts - Spotify - List of All Players New to the show? On How Stories Happen, business communicators take us inside the crafting of their ideas into powerful stories they use to grow their audience and their cause. It's a show about what it really takes to become a
How Stories Happen: Erin Halper on what consultants who share content need to realize
Apple Podcasts - Spotify - List of All Players New to the show? On How Stories Happen, business communicators take us inside the crafting of their ideas into powerful stories they use to grow their audience and their cause. It's a show about what it really takes to become a
How Stories Happen: Mark Schaefer on stories to create urgency in your audience
Apple Podcasts - Spotify - List of All Players New to the show? On How Stories Happen, business communicators take us inside the crafting of their ideas into powerful stories they use to grow their audience and their cause. It's a show about what it really takes to become a
Create More Mind-Blown Moments with Your Audience: A Guide to Using Metaphors
Recently, as I’ve worked with my clients on their messaging and speaking, the subject of communication “power” has come up quite a bit. What limits us so often in the business world is an insistence on communicating in more literal ways. If you’re an expert in accounting, you only talk about accou
My Most Viral Moment Ever: The Unexplainable Duality of Parenting I Tried to Explain
In the summer of 2023, I returned from an amazing weekend with some friends I’ve known since I was a child. We all have little kids of our own now, and this was a chance to bring our families together and finally, after many years apart, see each other again. At the time, my daughter was the oldes
Understanding this one thing about communication makes you far better
We communicate to convey meaning. Wait. No. I said that wrong. We communicate to create meaning. As a communicator, I can't say I "convey" meaning, because quite literally, I convey words. My words then act as little carpenters who arrive at your door. They step out of their trucks,
Six-Way Stories: How to Turn Your Observations Into Powerful Stories Audiences Love
A couple years ago, I created a system to develop and strengthen stories to resonate. I called it Six-Way Stories, because I realized as a speaker and author, developing a signature story actually meant telling the same story six different ways over time. By making that process more visible and repe
Steve Pratt on How Stories Happen: Storytelling lessons from the MTV of Canada and #1-ranked podcasts
Apple Podcasts - Spotify - List of All Players New to the show? On How Stories Happen, business communicators take us inside the crafting of their ideas into powerful stories they use to grow their audience and their cause. It's a show about what it really takes to become a
The Internet Tricked Us, and Now We're Worse at Resonating with Decision-Makers
The strongest thinkers have gone underground. Okay, I'm being dramatic. What I mean by that is, the distribution techniques rewarded today mostly reward people with basic ideas, 101-level tips, and the level of expertise you might expect for people who share that kind of material. I just watched a
How to Create Stronger Openers: The 3 Choices You're Making Every Time
“It’s not how you start, it’s how you finish.” Ever hear that phrase? I love it so much. It’s full of hope. It lets us know we should remain resilient despite any initial moments of friction or failure, because despite a poor start, you can still finish strong. Pick yourself up, dust yourself off,
How to Fix Your Message Fast: Try the Dialogue Outline
There are many strange, wonderful things that make me proud about my body of creative work: As a kid, I starred in a cooking show pilot. I even posed for promotional photos next to salt and pepper shakers the size of a small child. I won a national award for sports journalism in college. That
Dorie Clark on How Stories Happen: Learn to turn your expertise into breakthrough ideas
Apple Podcasts - Spotify - List of All Players New to the show? On How Stories Happen, business communicators take us inside the crafting of their ideas into powerful stories they use to grow their audience and their cause. It's a show about what it really takes to become a
My Grand Delusion About Marketing (Is My Grand Delusion About You)
We begin with yet-more wisdom from Uncle Tony: "Thinking that your story is so interesting that other people will want to listen to it or read it or pay to hear it — what kind of person thinks that? A monster of self-regard. It's not normal thinking." To be clear, he's not criticizing pe
In an Era of A.I., Developing Your Tone of Voice and Personal Style Matter More Than Ever
I have some gentle yet firm words about AI and the people I most want to uplift (actual experts). I’m in a mastermind of accomplished marketing entrepreneurs. A few of these impressive humans (and I am also there, for some reason) recently voiced their concern that they're not sure how they're diff
Justin Moore: How He Altered His Storytelling & Found a Big Idea to Resonate with More People
Apple Podcasts - Spotify - List of All Players New to the show? On How Stories Happen, business communicators take us inside the crafting of their ideas into powerful stories they use to grow their audience and their cause. It's a show about what it really takes to become a
What Makes a Speech Great? Add These Overlooked "Elements of Awesome"
Being a professional at something others treat as a passion means you can ruin your own passion. In 2008, I was a PR intern at ESPN, and I had the chance to interview my baseball writing hero, Buster Olney, as part of a marketing campaign. Buster was gracious and warm and patient and everything you
The Kind of Content Marketing that Actually Works in 2025
Marketing isn't simple. But understanding it can be. I need that reminder now and again. Maybe you do too. I started my career working for brands like Google as a digital media strategist and two startups, including HubSpot, as their head of content. My last in-house job was a VP role (content and
NORTH: A System Big Thinkers Follow to Find Clarity and Build a Platform of Impact
The difference between experts with scattered ideas and voices with passionate fans isn't talent—it's clarity. More specifically, it's the system of clarity they use. They don't act like experts. They act like explorers. I'm thinking of those authors, speakers, and business leaders who build enti
Neal Foard on Why His Quiet, Powerful Stories Resonate So Deeply
Apple Podcasts - Spotify - List of All Players New to the show? On How Stories Happen, business communicators take us inside the crafting of their ideas into powerful stories they use to grow their audience and their cause. It's a show about what it really takes to become a
Laddering Down Your Ideas: Using 3 Short Phrases to Share and Get Buy-In for Your Message
⏪ Last time, I wrote about how to assess your communication style to find your natural tendencies, then craft stronger messages and content by leaning into strengths and addressing areas to improve. That's here. ⏩ Today, I want to talk about a concept I'm calling "laddering down," mea
Public Coaching Call: Author and Creator Coach Justin Moore Develops His New Keynote
I worked with the great Justin Moore, founder of Creator Wizard and sponsorship coach for creators, to help him develop the structure of his brand new keynote associated with his new book, Sponsor Magnet. In this video, you’ll see us move from zero-to-one, or maybe even -two, as we identify the spe
How to Find Your Business's BIG IDEA: Where Clear Messaging and Powerful Premises Begin
I don't have any tattoos and I'll never actually get one, but I still have a favorite tattoo. "I am certain of nothing." Anthony Bourdain had that written in Greek on his arm. It's a reminder that you bring with you expectations, but you still need to be open to learning and to changing y
Enough with the Best-Practice Shaming
We need to learn from five specific monkeys. (Here you are, going about your day, probably thinking you want to learn from all the monkeys. Silly human.) Five monkeys are sitting in a cage at the zoo: Fluffy, Duffy, Scruffy, Muffy, and Sam. One day, the zookeeper places a ladder in the middle of
A Tool to Make Differentiation Easier: Using the Idea Impact Matrix to Stand Out
I have these two friends, let's call them Mitch and Marie to hide their identities. They're both struggling to stand out right now. Mitch is the consummate expert in his space. He's a veteran marketer, having worked in-house for many years as a practitioner, then team leader. In that capacity, he
3 Types of Signature Stories to Develop and Bring With You Everywhere
One of the nerdiest thing I've done was look into the sciences to understand the concept of resonance I talk about constantly. That's where I dug up this little nugget: It's an energy transfer. De. Lish. Us. Delicious! That just tickles the brain in the best way, doesn't it? That's exactly
What Voices Who Resonate Do Differently
Last week, I wrote about a visual tool we can use to differentiate our work more strategically and with less stress. To illustrate, I plotted where two friends of mine were stuck and what they could do to break free. If you're looking for a more passionate response from your work without resorting t