Business of Story

Hosted by Park Howell, Brand Story Strategist

Business Marketing

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572

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Jun 2026

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About the show

The Business of Story helps sales and marketing leaders excel through the stories they tell. Hosted by Park Howell, known as The World's Most Industrious Storyteller, this popular weekly show is ranked among the top 10% of downloaded podcasts internationally and is the #1 Business Storytelling Podcast according to Feedspot. #StoryOn!

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June 15, 202644 min

#572: How to Simplify Complex Ideas to Get Your People to Act, With Rob D. Willis

What if your deepest expertise is the very thing making you harder to understand? British music producer turned strategic story producer Rob D. Willis joins Park Howell on the Business of Story to explain why complexity kills communication — and how story structure gives your audience exactly the right combination of connections to get you, what you're about, and what you're asking them to do. Rob has spent years helping tech founders, corporate leaders, and change-makers in Berlin and beyond simplify their most complex ideas into stories that move people to act. In this episode, he brings the frameworks, the neuroscience, and the real-world case studies to prove it. What you'll discover: Why the curse of expertise turns your knowledge into noise — and how story is the antidote The four audience types (friendly, adversarial, apathetic, uneducated) that should reshape every high-stakes conversation How the Downing Street communication grid turns your story into a replicable action plan The three types of complexity — intrinsic, extraneous, and germane — and which one you actually control Why your brain runs on narrative, not logic (and what dopamine, cortisol, and oxytocin have to do with it) How a bank board member's "sand vs. stones" story changed the way Rob thinks about strategic communication About Rob D. Willis: Rob D. Willis is a British music producer turned strategic story producer based in Berlin. He helps leaders and organizations cut through complexity by applying the structure of story to high-stakes communication. Find him on Instagram and LinkedIn at @robdwillis. Resources mentioned in this episode: Connor Neal's four audience types framework The Downing Street communication grid (Alastair Campbell / Tony Blair) Paul Zak's research on narrative neuroscience StoryCycle Genie® at businessofstory.com Want to master the story of your business? Discover the Business of Story tools, courses, and the StoryCycle Genie® at businessofstory.com. Subscribe to the Business of Story wherever you get your podcasts — and leave a review if this episode helped you turn your expertise into clarity.

June 8, 202646 min

#571: AI Doesn't Replace Your Story. It Helps You Tell It Better, with James Taylor

What if the secret to staying irreplaceable in the age of AI isn't working harder — it's getting more creative? That's the central argument of SuperCreativity: Augmenting Human Creativity in the Age of Artificial Intelligence, the new book by global keynote speaker James Taylor. In this episode of the Business of Story, Park Howell sits down with James to explore how the world's top communicators are using AI not to replace their stories — but to tell them with far greater precision, resonance, and impact. From managing Rolling Stones members at the Royal Albert Hall to speaking for Apple, Cisco, L'Oreal, and PwC across 25+ countries, James brings a rare combination of creative instinct and strategic intelligence to the AI conversation. In this episode you'll discover: • Why AI is fueling a New Roaring Twenties — and what that means for entrepreneurs and business leaders • How James uses psychometric AI analysis to profile audiences before he ever steps on a call or stage • The 250-story story bank system that powers his hyper-personalized keynotes • Why your emotional promise matters even to the most analytical, data-driven audiences • What a live StoryCycle Genie® brand analysis revealed about James's Visionary Magician archetype and emotional promise of "possibility" • The standing ovation story from a billionaires' bank in the UAE that proves emotional storytelling transcends every culture and industry • How to build a speaker brand with the same discipline James learned managing rock stars About James Taylor James Taylor M.B.A., F.R.S.A. is an internationally recognized keynote speaker on creativity, innovation, and AI. He has spoken for Fortune Global 500 companies including Apple, Cisco, Deloitte, Accenture, L'Oreal, EY, Visa, and Dell, and was recently the subject of a 30-minute BBC documentary. He has personally interviewed over 750 of the world's leading creative minds and reached hundreds of thousands of people in 120+ countries. He is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts — alongside Benjamin Franklin, Bob Dylan, and Nelson Mandela. His new book is SuperCreativity: Augmenting Human Creativity in the Age of Artificial Intelligence. Connect with James Taylor: 🌐 JamesTaylor.me 💼 James Taylor on LinkedIn 📸 James on Instagram 🎙️ SuperCreativity Podcast Get your copy of SuperCreativity: 📚 Available in hardcover, paperback, and audiobook on Amazon, Spotify, and Apple Books Learn more about the Business of Story and the StoryCycle Genie®: 🌐 BusinessOfStory.com

June 1, 202653 min

#570: How to Command the Room, Connect the Dots, and Close the Deal, With Dr. Laura Sicola

Dr. Laura Sicola reveals why expertise alone won't get you heard — and the 3 Cs that turn knowledge into leadership influence. You've mastered your subject. You know your material cold. So why does the room glaze over when the stakes are highest? Cognitive linguist, executive coach, and author Dr. Laura Sicola says the gap isn't your expertise — it's the three inches between your brain and your mouth. In this episode of the Business of Story, she shares the framework that's helped Fortune 500 executives at Amazon and Kaiser Permanente stop sounding like spreadsheets and start commanding every room they walk into. Her TEDx Talk, "Want to Sound Like a Leader? Start by Saying Your Name Right," has nearly 7 million views — because the problem is universal and the fix is counterintuitive. WHAT YOU'LL DISCOVER IN THIS EPISODE The 3 Cs of Executive Presence: Command the Room, Connect with Your Audience, and Close the Deal — and why each requires a completely different skill Why the movie playing in your head is never the movie your audience is watching — and how to close that gap before it costs you the deal The neuroscience of humor: why a well-placed laugh creates dopamine, builds trust, and makes you more persuasive without sacrificing credibility How to use Chris Voss's "labeling" technique to stay curious when conversations get triggered and defensive The one counterintuitive move that makes you sound smarter, more likable, and more relatable — all at the same time ABOUT DR. LAURA SICOLA Dr. Laura Sicola is a cognitive linguist, former professor, and executive coach who helps leaders bridge the gap between their expertise and their influence. She is the author of Speaking to Influence: Mastering Your Leadership Voice and the founder of Vocal Impact Productions. Website: laurasicola.com LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/laurasicola Book: Speaking to Influence — available on Amazon in paperback ($12.95), Kindle ($9.95), and Audible (narrated by the author) FREE GIFT FROM DR. LAURA SICOLA Download two free chapters of Speaking to Influence here: [INSERT FREEBIE LINK] ABOUT THE BUSINESS OF STORY The Business of Story is the top-ranked podcast for leaders who use storytelling to grow their influence, their teams, and their organizations. Host Park Howell — known as the World's Most Industrious Storyteller — brings you the strategies, frameworks, and real-world lessons that turn communicators into leaders. Want to build a brand story that actually lands? Visit StoryCycleGenie.com to discover how the StoryCycle Genie® uses your brand's unique story to create marketing that moves people. SUBSCRIBE & LEAVE A REVIEW If this episode gave you one idea you can use today, please subscribe and leave a review on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you listen. It takes 60 seconds and helps other leaders find the show.

May 25, 202654 min

#569: From Hubspot to Harvard: What Mark Roberge Learned About Scaling That Business School Don't Teach (Until Now)

Mark Roberge scaled HubSpot from $0 to $100M in revenue as its Chief Revenue Officer — and now teaches founders and operators at Harvard Business School why most growth strategies fail. The answer isn't effort. It's sequence. In this episode, Mark shares his Science of Scaling framework: the four-stage methodology that sequences product-market fit, repeatable sales motion, customer success, and revenue scaling in the right order. He introduces the PMF Threshold — the leading indicator that tells you whether you've actually earned the right to scale — and explains why half of the founders he works with are scaling too early, the other half too late, and almost none know which half they're in. You'll also hear why the best salespeople talk less than 50% of the time, how to build a sales hiring profile from your best customers' patterns instead of resume credentials, and why scaling your sales team before customer success is working destroys retention every time. Mark is the author of The Sales Acceleration Formula and The Science of Scaling, and managing director of Stage 2 Capital. This conversation is essential listening for founders, agency principals, and revenue leaders navigating growth decisions without a clear diagnostic framework. Hosted by Park Howell, creator of the Story Cycle System™ and co-creator of the StoryCycle Genie®.

May 18, 20261 hr 1 min

#573: How to Find Your Million Dollar Story, With Elizabeth Brett

How to Find Your Million Dollar Story, With Elizabeth Brett What if your most powerful business story is the one you've been most afraid to tell? In this episode, Park Howell sits down with Elizabeth Brett — former NBC reporter, creator of Story Alchemy™, and host of the Sacred & Sovereign podcast — to explore the difference between performing your story and actually living it. Elizabeth spent nearly a decade in broadcast journalism, learning to distill complex stories into 60-second narratives under deadline pressure. But it wasn't until a near-death experience in the ocean with her daughter that she discovered what authentic storytelling really means — and built a framework to help founders, creatives, and thought leaders find their own. You'll discover: • The story roadmap framework that lets you tell any story in 30 seconds or 30 minutes • Why the performance trap is killing your connection with your audience — and how to escape it • The sovereignty filter: three questions to ask before sharing any personal story in business • What a million dollar story really is — and how to find yours at the identity level • How the StoryCycle Genie® revealed Elizabeth's brand archetype as the Alchemist — and surfaced a UVP she'd never put together before Whether you're a speaker, entrepreneur, or thought leader, this episode will change how you think about the stories you tell — and the ones you've been holding back. Find Elizabeth at elizabethbrett.com and on Instagram @ElizabethSBrett.

May 11, 202653 min

#567: The TRUTH Brand Storytelling Framework for Hiring, With Bryan Adams

The TRUTH Brand Storytelling Framework for Hiring, With Bryan Adams How do you build an employer brand that attracts the right candidates and repels the wrong ones? Bryan Adams — CEO of HappyDance, founder of Ph.Creative, and employer brand strategist behind iconic campaigns for Nike and Apple — says the answer is simpler and harder than most organizations expect: tell the truth. In this episode of the Business of Story, host Park Howell sits down with Bryan to unpack the TRUTH Framework — a five-step storytelling structure that goes beyond AND, BUT, THEREFORE to help organizations find and tell the honest story that makes top talent choose them. You'll discover: • Why the truth your audience most needs to hear is more powerful than the truth you're most comfortable telling • How being "nice" is destroying your culture — and why radical candor is the kinder choice • What Bryan learned building employer brands for Nike, Apple, and VF Corporation — and how those lessons apply to organizations of every size • How HappyDance uses AI-powered conversational navigation to turn career sites into candidate experiences — achieving 12% conversion rates against a 3–5% industry standard • Why the StoryCycle Genie® assessment of HappyDance left Bryan saying the results were "spooky accurate" • How to pre-order Bryan's new book, Sell the Truth, at happydance.love/sell-the-truth Bryan Adams is the co-author of Give & Get Employer Branding and the upcoming Sell the Truth. His TEDx talk, Culture Eats Competition for Breakfast, has surpassed 1.4 million views. Connect with Bryan: Website: happydance.love Book pre-order: happydance.love/sell-the-truth LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/bryanadams Subscribe to the Business of Story podcast for weekly episodes on the art and science of strategic business storytelling.

May 4, 202654 min

#566: How to Access Your Genius Creativity on Demand, With Sara Connell

What if your best ideas aren't something you have to grind for — but something you can learn to receive? In this episode of the Business of Story, Park Howell sits down with Sara Connell — 5x bestselling author, founder of Thought Leader Academy, and author of the upcoming book The Download — to explore the neuroscience and quantum physics behind creative downloads and how to access them on demand. Sara introduces the Gamma Walk, a simple daily practice for inducing the brain's channeling state — the gamma wave state associated with flow, breakthrough insight, and original thinking. She explains the SWOO framework (Science Meets Woo), the role of the reticular activating system in filtering for creative breakthroughs, and why an MIT brain scan study should make every thought leader rethink how they use AI. You'll discover: The brain state that unlocks original genius — and how to get there without meditating for 15 hours a day Why AI slop is a beta-state problem — and what to do instead How one Gamma Walk led to a miracle that changed Sara's family forever The coincidence journal and the Download app: two tools for capturing ideas before they vanish Why protecting your human creative capacity is the most urgent professional skill of the AI age Sara has been featured on Oprah, The New York Times, Good Morning America, TODAY, Forbes, and Entrepreneur. The Download releases October 6, 2025 and is available for pre-order now. Learn more at saraconnell.com and find the free Download app on Sara's Substack: "The Download with Sara Connell."

April 27, 202650 min

#565: How to Make Your Ad Agency Indespensible, With Marcus Sheridan

Is your ad agency truly indispensable — or is it one AI update away from irrelevance? Marcus Sheridan — bestselling author of They Ask, You Answer and Endless Customers, and founder of AI Trust Signals — joins Park Howell on the Business of Story to deliver a message most agency principals aren't ready to hear: the three services that built most agencies are already disappearing, and the threat isn't coming from your competitors. It's coming from your own resistance to change. In this conversation, Marcus and Park dig into why identity fluidity is the agency survival superpower of the AI era, how vibe coding is already replacing $15,000–$30,000 projects overnight, why 75–80% of SEO traffic is vanishing to AI-generated summaries, and what it actually means to build an agentic-ready web presence for your clients. Plus — Park shares how he used the StoryCycle Genie to produce a complete brand assessment and thought leadership article for Marcus in under three hours. Marcus's response? "It would be a crime not to use AI." If you want to know how to make your agency indispensable in the age of AI, this episode is your roadmap. 🎧 Listen now and discover why proactivity is the key — and reactionary is the problem. Learn more about Marcus: marcusheridan.com aitrustsignals.com priceguide.ai Endless Customers (2025): marcusheridan.com/endless-customers Known and Trusted Newsletter: marcusheridan.com/newsletter

April 20, 202652 min

#564: From Compliance to Culture: How AI and Story Are Rewriting the Sustainability Playbook, With Bruno Sarda

How are you augmenting your intelligence — artificially or artfully? And which approach is actually sustaining your brand? Bruno Sarda, EY Americas Climate Change and Sustainability Services Leader, Top 10 Global Sustainability Influencer, and host of the Sustainability Matters podcast, joins Park Howell on the Business of Story to explore the intersection of AI, storytelling, and ESG strategy. Bruno has spent 25+ years helping organizations turn sustainability from a compliance checkbox into a culture-defining competitive advantage. In this conversation, he reveals why the current wave of deregulation is actually strengthening the business case for sustainability — and how AI is simultaneously the greatest superpower and the most significant threat facing ESG leaders today. You'll discover: • Why deregulation is shifting sustainability from compliance to culture • How to use AI as a force multiplier — without losing your brand's authentic voice • The real environmental cost of AI and what responsible adoption looks like • Why employee engagement is the most underrated sustainability metric • How to become the Chief Translation Officer your organization needs We all have magic now. The question is whether you know how to cast the spell. Hosted by Park Howell | businessofstory.com

April 13, 202647 min

#563: The Mistakes and Miracles of the Lovesac Brand Story, with Shawn Nelson

Why the Last Couch You'll Ever Buy Is the Most Radical Business Idea in America, with Shawn David Nelson What does it take to build a brand designed to last forever — in an industry built on replacement cycles? Shawn David Nelson started Lovesac at 18 with a hand-sewn bean bag made from his parents' chopped-up camping mattresses. He paid $25 to register the company. Today, Lovesac (NASDAQ: LOVE) operates 300+ showrooms, employs 2,000 people, and is one of the fastest-growing furniture brands in America — anchored by a product philosophy so counterintuitive it sounds almost reckless. They want you to buy their couch once. And keep it for the rest of your life. In this episode, Shawn shares the full arc: winning $1 million on Richard Branson's Fox reality show The Rebel Billionaire in 2004, surviving Chapter 11 bankruptcy two years later, and 10x-ing the company by purging 90% of their SKUs to focus on one brilliant product — the Sactionals modular sectional sofa system. He unpacks the demonstration marketing strategy that turned a showroom into a live brand story experience, the forever philosophy that redefines what sustainability really means, and the Shawnisms from his new book Let Me Save You 25 Years that distill 25 years of hard-won entrepreneurial wisdom. Park also runs Lovesac through the StoryCycle Genie brand analysis — and the results land remarkably close to Lovesac's own mission carved on the wall at headquarters: "We will inspire humankind to buy better stuff." What You'll Discover: • Why demonstration marketing drives 90% of Lovesac's business — and how it converts a showroom into a live brand story • How the forever philosophy turns sustainability from a marketing claim into an engineering commitment • The Shawnism that saved Lovesac from bankruptcy: "You can quit or you can keep going" • Why Lovesac is onshoring manufacturing to the U.S. — and why robots in America will be cheaper than Vietnam • How brand storytelling is 50% of building a remarkable product company — and why Shawn admits it's actually closer to 90% Find Shawn at Lovesac.com and on all social platforms @ShawnOfLovesac. His book and podcast Let Me Save You 25 Years are available wherever you get your books and podcasts. Subscribe to the Business of Story wherever you get your podcasts.