81: Brand Positioning from Commodity to Standout Through Powerful Storytelling

Today’s episode is the first of three solo episodes centered around brand storytelling. This episode explores how rethinking your brand story can propel your business forward. Find out how to humanize your brand through storytelling, creating an emotional connection with your audience, and why it’s crucial to go beyond just competence and pricing when presenting yourself to prospects.

Timestamps:

• 00:00 Introduction: Why Brand Storytelling Matters for Growth

• 00:26 The Importance of Story in Building Client Loyalty

• 01:42 The Risk of Being Viewed as a Commodity

• 03:46 Identifying What Makes You Unique: Personal Stories and Experiences

• 05:08 The Difference Between a Story and a Resume

• 06:04 Using Universal Emotions to Relate to Your Audience

• 08:42 The Role of Vulnerability in Building Trust

• 10:19 Differentiating Your Brand in a Saturated Market

• 11:35 How to Craft Brand Stories that Inspire Action

Key Takeaways for Business Leaders:

1. Personal Stories Build Loyalty: Business leaders should focus on sharing personal stories that highlight their unique approach and values. This moves your brand from being seen as a commodity to one that clients feel emotionally connected to, fostering long-term loyalty.

2. Embrace Vulnerability for Trust: Trust is the foundation of strong business relationships. Sharing the challenges you’ve faced and how you overcame them will make your brand more relatable and human, which helps establish trust with both clients and collaborators.

3. Universal Emotions Create Connection: Whether your target audience includes CEOs or consumers, using universal emotions in your storytelling, such as fear, isolation, or triumph, allows you to connect with people from diverse backgrounds on a deeper level, making your brand memorable.

4. Inspire Action Through Strategic Storytelling: Effective brand stories aren’t just about sharing accomplishments. They should be aligned with your audience's desires or fears and motivate them to take the next step, whether that’s becoming a client or engaging with your brand in a new way.

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How to reach Christie Bilbrey

www.christiebilbrey.com

hello@christiebilbrey.com  

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/christiebilbrey/
Instagram: https://instagram.com/christiebilbrey 

Grow Your Business as a Podcast Guest: https://bit.ly/pod-guesting

Create Your Buyer Persona: https://bit.ly/3H4Q2Hw 

41: Be the Hero of Your Story

Buckle up! Today I’m sharing my beef with something that’s commonly taught in brand storytelling - that you should be the guide, not the hero. 

After years of studying storytelling, brand storytelling and otherwise, creating an online course that helps business owners share better brand stories, and working with clients to craft their brand stories, I have some thoughts on the subject.

People don’t typically go out of their way to read a great book, go to a movie, or hang a poster on their wall of a supporting character. Kids and adults all over the world love heroes. They want to see what a hero did, how they did it, what makes them tick, what they had to overcome. They want to cheer for a hero who can show them what’s possible in their own life. It’s the hero that fills them with new excitement and momentum to move forward - not their trainer or coach.

Not that coaches and trainers aren’t important or have helpful information to share, but part of teaching is entertaining and the hero is the center of the excitement. That’s who people want to connect with - someone who has been there, done that.

Listen as I share why we shy away from sharing our stories from the perspective of the hero, how to shift your perspective on sharing stories from this perspective, core pieces of great stories, how to share more of the parts your audience desperately wants to know, and a different way to think about digging into the process of finding the right details to create stories that immerse your audience in it as though they are experiencing it.

A glance at today’s episode … 

(1:10-3:35) Why I don’t think you should think of your brand stories from the perspective of being the guide. I share why I think it’s both ok and important that you show up as the hero of your story. 

(3:40-5:30) What stops us from sharing our stories as the hero?

(5:40-7:35)  How to share your story from the hero’s perspective without feeling uncomfortable doing it.

(7:40-10:00)  Share stories more effectively by including these core parts. 

(10:05-11:57) How our minds like to mess with us that make us shy away from sharing the pieces of our story that can serve our audience the best and draw them closer to us in trust and relationship. 

(11:58-13:29) Another way to think about the process of what’s involved in creating great brand storytelling. 

Ways to reach Christie

www.christiebilbrey.com

hello@christiebilbrey.com  

Instagram: https://instagram.com/christiebilbrey 

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/christiebilbrey/ 

Download my free guide: Create Your Buyer Persona

Download my free guide: 10 Tips to Grow Your Business as a Podcast Guest

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You are not your brand! In today's episode, I'm calling out a lie that's everywhere in marketing and it's holding business owners hostage in their mindset. I'm sharing my brand storyteller's perspective of why you are not your brand. You might think that to authentically connect with your brand story, it means that you are your brand.

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So many business owners make major pivots throughout the life of their business. The tricky part is effectively communicating that to your audience. Through the recent example of Kanye West's enormous pivot, this episode shares creative and practical tips that grow your business while inviting your audience in to experience the journey with you. Learn five ways Kanye has effectively communicated his recent pivot to his audience and how you can up-level your brand story through your pivot.

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The star of Discovery Channel's new show, Undercover Billionaire, has 90 days to turn $100 into a company worth a million dollars. To me, the most impressive part is that he was able to talk several people into helping him - working their hearts out for free for months to help accomplish this goal - based solely on the story of his vision for his business and his determination.