Strategic Storytelling

Strategic Storytelling combines the power of storytelling with practical strategies for copywriting, and marketing. It's designed primarily for entrepreneurs, content creators, marketers, and copywriters. Most episodes are solo with occasional interviews by invited guests who bring unique insights to the topic. Host Cathy Goodwin is an online strategist, copywriter, and published author. The podcast focuses on the impact of business storytelling on the bottom line. When you start with a story, you simplify and strengthen your branding, content creation, and positioning. You also become a better business owner when you use stories to clarify your own objectives and gain self-understanding. Cathy started the podcast after she realized her clients were bewildered by what they were hearing about storytelling for business. Some of them simply couldn't understand how stories could help their businesses. Others got backlash when they dutifully followed advice to open up about themselves. As a copywriter, Cathy understood that stories for business need to be different from fairytales, campire tales and bedtime stories. That's the core focus of this podcast. Richard Branson said every entrepreneur must also be a storyteller. Cathy Goodwin adds, "But it has to be the right story."

176 How To Generate Buzz For Your Products With Client Backstories 04/10/2025

127 How to Demonstrate Your Expertise By Telling Stories (Encore) 04/04/2025

175 Three Ways To Create More Powerful Headlines With Storytelling 03/27/2025

174 2 Straightforward Topics To 2X Your Selling Story 03/21/2025

114 Which story attracts clients for entrepreneurs: natural talent vs. hard work and struggle (Encore) 03/13/2025

173 From story to sale: How Solopreneurs Can Connect With Their Audience: An interview with Angela Wills. 03/06/2025

173 From story to sale: How Solopreneurs Can Connect With Their Audience: An interview with Angela Wills. Angela Wills created her Life Style Freedom business by making connections. She believed business doesn’t dictate your lifestyle: your lifestyle creates your business. “I’m really passionate about helping business owners find a business model that supports their lifestyle.” - Angela Willis Angela is a very down-to-earth business owner who’s built her business by understanding her clients. She understands the juggling act of being a parent and a business owner. “That is a skill," she says. "To me, it comes naturally now…the ability to connect with telling stories. Being approachable as well as businesslike is a skill…when people know who you are, they don’t even look at the subject line. "They want to know you…it’ll become, ‘Angela has a course and I’m in.’” Our interview was especially fun when Angela and I gave each other new ideas for connection. I suggested that Angela focus on “connecting the dots” in her career move from chemistry to business. We talked about how she made that journey. And then I asked, "But what about people in business who have trouble making connections?" That’s a question I have. I’m not a mom and I live in the city with a cat. Can people connect with me? Angela says yes. People connect with all kinds of activities. “There are people who don’t go out a lot..but they bake bread. Or they do interior decorating.” So she had some very specific suggestions for the way I can connect to people as a cat lady in the big city. For one thing, we cat ladies have problems with time management, just as moms do. They’re just different problems. Highlights of the interview: : How Angela’s stories connect with her clients Why Angela believes everyone has the potential to connect with clients, using stories How Angela’s chemistry background helped her get started as an entrepreneur How to keep your business lean and simple (avoiding surprises and crises) Angela’s suggestions for helping me connect with an audience that’s very different from me RESOURCES: Angela's website /episode/index/show/strategicstorytelling/id/35413670

172 What's wrong with the advice, "Tell a story to be authentic" 02/27/2025

171 - How A Financial Behaviorist Uses Stories To Illustrate Our Financial lives: Interview with Jacquette Timmons 02/20/2025

171 - How A Financial Behaviorist Uses Stories To Illustrate Our Financial lives: Interview with Jacquette Timmons When you tell stories, do you ever think, "That's all well and good for life coaches with personal stories. But I'm a technical person who wants to help people discover new ways of thinking about their actions. Talking about finance seems to call for discussions of numbers, trends and charts with percentages in three colors. Jacquette Timmons brings a different perspective. She's a financial behaviorist, someone who helps people deal with issues related to money, income and investments. Money reflects what's going on in people's personal lives. If you want to understand money conflicts, you need to understand family dynamics and individual emotions. To illustrate, Jaccquette uses stories about what happens when ordinary people encounter massive shifts in money. She talks about how she realized that money reflects what's going on in our lives -- and how changes in money also change our lives. What makes this especially interesting is that Jacquette is an Educator archetype. (If you want to learn more about the archetypes, .) Her message is, "If you apply what I teach you, you will reach your goals." Her stories are told to educate readers by making a point, not to help us get to know Jacquette as "the person behind the web." On this episode, you will hear: -- Jacquette’s origin story: what made her motivated to be a financial behaviorist -- sample stories of how family background creates a ceiling on your business earnings (and the dynamics of money management in a marriage) -- why you need to acknowledge your relationship with money (and how it mirrors several relationships you have in your life) -- how Jaquette uses stories to make her clients realize they're not alone (so they're more comfortable sharing their challenges) -- how Jacquette uses stories from her own experience to help her explain complex concepts to clients Learn more about Jacquette at her website: Get a free exercise to understand your own relationship with money: You can also find her. on Instagram and LinkedIn. Learn more about me will show you how to use the archetype framework for your own marketing. You'll see why marketers are successful with different kinds of stories, depending on how they choose to position themselves. Free with Kindle Unlimited. /episode/index/show/strategicstorytelling/id/35226710

170 How to bring emotions into your business planning by using stories 02/14/2025

169 How to explain web development to a die-hard football fan 02/11/2025

168 Why Storytelling is Your Most Important Market Research Tool 01/31/2025

100 How to find your client's backstory - with Shawn Fink 01/26/2025

100 How to find your client's backstory - with Shawn Fink “There’s a gap between what I know they need and what they think they need.” As a service-based business, you probably recognize this problem. For instance, you know your clients mostly need to build their confidence. They need to jump in and take action. But when they come to you, they say, “I don’t have the right technology.” Or “I need to learn copywriting.” That's the topic of this episode, where I interview Shawn Fink. Shawn has a unique positioning strategy. She focuses on coaching her clients to find the courage and clarity to make significant life changes. Shawn's business explains exactly why we need to respond to the client's backstory. Clients rarely know just what they need or even what they want. The coaching process begins with the backstory but then morphs in surprising directions. Clients rarely arrive with the statement, “I know what I want and how to get there. I need the courage to move forward.” Shawn’s marketing has to integrate her unique offer with the client’s backstory. We first learn a little about Shawn's coaching goals and the beliefs that underlie her work with clients. Next, we take a closer look at the client's backstory. We talk about why you need to separate the client's perspective from the offer when you plan your marketing. Some highlights: 6:04 – Clients face a choice when the next step seems scary: uplevel or pivot. 11:34 – Begin a discussion of the client's backstory. 18:50 – From backstory to marketing story 21:40 – Dealing with the different backstories: each is unique but you can find a common thread that drives your marketing. 27:16 - Generic tips on "being brave" to leave with our listeners 29:12 – Shawn rejects the common advice to feel the fear and do it anyway. It's BS, she says...and here's what to do instead. 34:94 - Don't miss the thoughts Shawn wants to leave with out listeners. Resources: - Learn more about backstories and the 3 steps we covered. /episode/index/show/strategicstorytelling/id/26768907

125 The best business storytellers do these 3 things 01/18/2025

125 The best business storytellers do these 3 things Almost every business coach on the planet will advise you to start telling stories. They’ll encourage you to use storytelling for your blog posts, email messages, and just about any content you create. Deciding to tell a story is the easy part. Choosing a story that will help grow your business is much more difficult. That’s mostly because you get conflicting advice from different mentors. “Go ahead and share,” they’ll say. “Feeling uncomfortable? Get over it.” Even more, your inbox is filled with emails from all kinds of marketers, each beginning with a story. It’s so easy to decide, “I’m going to create a story like theirs.” Even worse, you can decide, “I have to stay away from storytelling. I could never tell a story like theirs.” The truth is, business storytellers need a unique approach. You aren’t trying to sell tickets to a movie. You want to sell your products and services. The first thing a successful business storyteller does? They don’t think of themselves as storytellers. They’re business owners. They’re marketing strategists. In this podcast, I’ll share 3 essential tips to use storytelling to build your brand and your business. We’ll talk about… …why you need to frame your stories as a business owner first …examples of stories that “stick” in a good and bad way (and why that’s critical to your success) …why some business owners wish they could take back their stories (and you can avoid having this happen to you) This is the one podcast I’m recommending for any entrepreneur who’s decided to add storytelling to the marketing mix. It’s delivered in my usual direct style and guaranteed to rub at least several business owners the wrong way. RESOURCES & MENTIONS: FREE download: - Find the best way to use storytelling, given your archetype and your business. : Replace Story-telling with Story-selling - Affordable course (no coupon needed) Book: Grow your business one story at a time. . Book: Intuition for business and career decisions. My website: Contact: /episode/index/show/strategicstorytelling/id/28660028

167 Marketing as an Educator with Guest Robert Middleon 01/09/2025

167 Marketing as an Educator with Guest Robert Middleon When you're a small, service-based business, you are selling yourself and your ideas. I call this marketing when the brand is YOU. Most service businesses brand with what we call the story archetypes. You can read more about story archetypes . I've interviewed several Role Model archetypes. On this episode we get a rare look at an Educator archetype. Role Models have the message, "This is what I did. If I can do it, you can too. I'm just like you." They share a lot of personal information. On the other hand, Educators share the message, "I have knowledge of what works. I want to share that knowledge with you. If you use my knowledge, you will be successful." Robert Middleton has been a business coach for many years, working with small businesses and solopreneurs. He is the quintessential Educator archetype. On this episode, you will learn... ...how Robert built his business as an Educator ...how Educators use stories (and the kinds of stories Robert tells in his business) ...why an Educator is also an experimenter and a learner ...how good Educators have in-depth understanding of processes ...the importance of learning one-on-one from a coach as compared to a book or video ...how Educators study the process of training (and what kind he feels will work best) ...how Educators study what doesn't work as well as what works ...the importance of making an idea a business reality ("making it happen") instead of overthinking, delaying and seeking perfection...how Robert is still an Educator in his new role as a podcaster ...the most important component of success in business (and it's not book learning) Stay to the end and you'll get Robert's analogy with cooking! You can learn more about Robert and his new venture at his website a Go to his site and get his guide to ChatGPT--free. You'll be added to his list (but he's no longer selling!). If you'd like to learn even more about the story archetypes, and using then to brand your small business, be sure to read my next book, coming out soon on Amazon. to be notified when the book is ready. Are you looking for ways to brand your business with stories? and fine-tune your brand and messaging. This can be especially important if you are changing direction. You'll need a new story as well as a new brand. /episode/index/show/strategicstorytelling/id/34563750