Building A Business And The Power Of Stories
What's Your Story: How Leaders Tell Stories to Influence and Connect with Audiences
Release Date: 01/17/2025
Building A Business And The Power Of Stories
What's Your Story: How Leaders Tell Stories to Influence and Connect with Audiences
Episode: Building a Business And The Power Of Stories Guests: Hust Williamson, Mary Scott Jameson and Hodges Markwalter Welcome to another episode of What’s Your Story where we host in depth conversations with business leaders to explore how they use storytelling to engage their audiences. Taking on the journey of entrepreneurship is not an easy feat and it’s not for the faint of heart. It takes passion behind your product or service and quite a bit of gusto on how you deliver your messages to investors and potential customers. And today, we have two entrepreneurs joining us: Mary Scot...
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What's Your Story: How Leaders Tell Stories to Influence and Connect with Audiences
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What's Your Story: How Leaders Tell Stories to Influence and Connect with Audiences
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What's Your Story: How Leaders Tell Stories to Influence and Connect with Audiences
Small businesses have gotten a lot of visibility over the last two years. As the world slowed down and dealt with a pandemic, we were more aware of the businesses on the corner that weren’t focused on five-year plans but were focused on next months’ payroll to survive. It brought front and center a look at how small businesses work and interestingly, as the world reset, it seemed to inspire a whole new culture of entrepreneurs and people who’d like to be their own boss. But running a small business isn’t for the faint of heart. As the last two years have proven, the safety net looks...
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What's Your Story: How Leaders Tell Stories to Influence and Connect with Audiences
Social distancing is a term that took hold during the pandemic as a descriptive way of creating boundaries from each other. But after two years of distancing and now going back to offices and social settings with colleagues and friends, social distance may take on new meaning. At a minimum, the re-engagement in groups feels awkward at first. We’ve forgotten some of the social norms and feel a little rusty at small talk. In a corporate setting, we realize that Zoom calls didn’t allow for much of a relationship with colleagues. So, we aren’t quickly at ease as a member of the team. Virtual...
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What's Your Story: How Leaders Tell Stories to Influence and Connect with Audiences
Every day, we talk to people about practice. And we explain that to become effective at communication, you have to work at becoming good at it. And we define mastery of a skill as those who become so good at a skill that you can count on their performance and outcome consistently. And once you begin to talk about performance and outcomes, it’s easy to draw a parallel between mastery of a skill like communication and mastery of sports like the Olympics. And that’s what we’re going to do for you on this podcast: connect the concepts of practice, mastery and outcomes. And accentuate...
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What's Your Story: How Leaders Tell Stories to Influence and Connect with Audiences
In the last year, millions of workers took early retirement, which created a band of less-experienced managers and leaders in most companies. It’s a great career opportunity and accelerated promotions for several managers. But it also pushes a less-experienced leader to learn how to drive while the car is moving, and it can create risks within a company when someone is leading who doesn’t have a bank of experiences to draw on. That’s why coaching is a hot commodity. A Coach becomes a trusted advisor to a new leader. A good Coach becomes a sounding board… and a confidante. A good Coach...
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What's Your Story: How Leaders Tell Stories to Influence and Connect with Audiences
This episode's topic is The Big Pitch. And it’s a discussion of one of the most important presentations you may ever give. It has a definitive and measurable impact. It’s rarely shared with a large audience. And while the audience may be small, they are a critical one. Because their interest and reaction to the presentation may change the future of a company. And in fact, that’s actually the point. Today, we’re going to talk about “pitch” presentations. Those opportunities when a start-up, mid-size or even a large corporation wants to be acquired. The Big Pitch is a different kind...
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Disrupted! A Talent Acquisition Perspective
What's Your Story: How Leaders Tell Stories to Influence and Connect with Audiences
Disruption happens every day across the corporate world. As employees, we experience reorgs, layoffs and acquisitions, and as disrupters ourselves we move cross country, chase ideas and challenge norms. But amidst all the disruption we all experience, some of us seem to thrive in times of turmoil. These are the communicators who have mastered the two secret arts hidden within corporate disruption: learning how to establish a compelling brand and build an intriguing career narrative. They are skills that take time to perfect, but they’re the differentiator factors between those who are cast...
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Disrupted! A Talent Development Perspective
What's Your Story: How Leaders Tell Stories to Influence and Connect with Audiences
Disruption happens every day across the corporate world. As employees, we experience reorgs, layoffs and acquisitions, and as disrupters ourselves we move cross country, chase ideas and challenge norms. But amidst all the disruption we all experience, some of us seem to thrive in times of turmoil. These are the communicators who have mastered the two secret arts hidden within corporate disruption: learning how to establish a compelling brand and build an intriguing career narrative. They are skills that take time to perfect, but they’re the differentiator factors between those who are cast...
info_outlineEpisode: Building a Business And The Power Of Stories
Guests: Hust Williamson, Mary Scott Jameson and Hodges Markwalter
Welcome to another episode of What’s Your Story where we host in depth conversations with business leaders to explore how they use storytelling to engage their audiences.
Taking on the journey of entrepreneurship is not an easy feat and it’s not for the faint of heart. It takes passion behind your product or service and quite a bit of gusto on how you deliver your messages to investors and potential customers.
And today, we have two entrepreneurs joining us: Mary Scot Jameson and Hodges Markwalter.
Here’s a little about each of them:
00:01:55- MARY SCOTT JAMESON, CEO AND CO-FOUNDER OF SITANO- An Atlanta native, Mary Scott Jameson, is Sitano’s co-founder and CEO/Creative Director. Mary Scott attended the University of Georgia with a B.A. in Art History and minor in Spanish. She began her career in fashion almost 10 years ago in the Neiman Marcus buying program in Dallas, TX as an assistant buyer. Since then, she has pursued various positions in HR, conference and event planning, and business development in the multi-family real estate and alternative asset management industries. She enjoys sketching, running, playing tennis, hanging with friends and interviewing female founders on her podcast, She Had A Vision. She resides in New York with her husband, Walter.
· Instagram: @sitano_official
00:06:27-HODGES MARLKWATER, CRO AND CO-FOUNDER OF VIVA FINANCE- Hodges Markwalter is the Co-Founder and Chief Revenue Office of Atlanta-based VIVA Finance, a fintech upstart that provides working Americans access to fair and affordable credit. His responsibilities include overseeing VIVA’s growth initiatives, including digital marketing, partnerships, and revenue operations. Hodges also assists with operations and personnel matters at VIVA. Prior to co-founding VIVA, Hodges worked at Truist Securities as an analyst in their Equity Capital Markets group. Under Hodges and his brother Jack’s leadership, VIVA has originated over $180,000,000 in consumer loans and improved the financial health of 30,000+ customers. Hodges earned a BA in Finance from the University of Notre Dame, graduating with Cum Laude honors.
· https://www.viva-finance.com/
· https://www.linkedin.com/company/viva-finance/
· https://www.linkedin.com/in/hodges-markwalter-b46421102/
LAUNCHING A COMPANY:
00:11:50- How do you get your first audience for your business? How do you get started into changing it from an idea to a business?
00:15:00- Mary Scott takes us down a different path from VIVA Finance.
GET BUY IN:
00:17:30- Fundraising with investors and getting buy in into the next phase.
00:18:29- Mary Scott describes her story of finding different spaces to include her brand and her product.
00:19:49- Hodges talks about the early days of pounding the pavement and tells us how he created his pitch.
FEEDBACK AND BUILDING A BRAND:
00:21:47- When a company’s story or brand is really compelling, when thinking about your company what was the feedback that was helpful in the early stages when building your story?
00:22:33- Hodges talks about being nimble.
00:24:00- Mary Scott shares the feedback she received in the early stages of building her company and the feedback she continues to receive.
INVESTORS:
00:25:52- What does it take to get an investor to back you? One key takeaway.
STORIES:
00:28:12- Stories shared by Mary Scott and Hodges about the early days of launching their businesses.
· Mary Scott shares a story about when losing sleep became a best seller and solidified her commitment to her company.
· Hodges tells us a story about how doing something so small was the make or break moment of his company’s success.