The Story Power Marketing Show

Tom Ruwitch
  • 5.0 (21)
  • Marketing
  • Weekly

Business leaders, coaches, consultants, and thought leaders, The Story Power Podcast will help you harness the power of storytelling so you can grow your business and have fun doing it. Each week, Story Power Marketing's Tom Ruwitch and his guest will share powerful stories, trade business-building insights, and have a few laughs. Tom created this podcast to... ...Help you captivate prospects and inspire them to act… ...so you can get more clients, quickly and easily. That’s what powerful storytelling is all about. That’s what this podcast is all about. 

  1. 2d ago

    How to Claim Your Authority So You Become The Obvious Choice (with Bob Graham)

    Bob Graham started out as a journalist, where taking the first answer usually meant you hadn’t asked enough questions. That instinct has carried him through more than 40 years of writing, including stints in marketing and teaching and years as a business coach. Today he runs SpearPoint Ink, where he helps experienced professionals, many of them financial advisors and coaches, turn their expertise into business books and other Authority Assets. He has helped more than 25 authors get there. Here's an example: You know your stuff. So when a prospect asks a question, you explain. And explain some more. Then the call ends, and they couldn’t repeat what you told them if they tried. Bob calls this the explanation trap. Experts jump too far ahead to the solution and bury the prospect in detail. What follows is message decay. Once the conversation ends, your message gets thinner every time someone else tries to pass it along. His answer is to build authority assets, especially books, podcasts, and interviews. They carry your thinking into rooms you’re not in. A prospect who has read your book or heard you on a show often shows up to the first call already leaning your way, and that shortens the sales cycle. Tom and Bob connect this to Tom’s Empathize, Envision, Enable framework. Meet people where they are, help them picture the outcome, then help them get there. They also warn against the credential dump, where you list every title and award and hope it impresses. What sets you apart is usually a true story, told straight, including the parts that don’t flatter you. If you’re an expert who knows you’re good but keeps losing prospects somewhere between the call and the decision, this episode shows you how to become the obvious choice before you ever get on the phone. DISCUSSED IN THIS EPISODE ~00:55 Meet Bob Graham ~02:05 The Explanation Trap ~05:19 Authority Assets That Sell ~06:37 Three Es Framework ~10:17 Ego And Message Decay ~15:49 Books Shorten Sales Cycles ~17:14 Niching And Avatars ~20:15 PLAN Story Framework ~24:04 Differentiate With Vulnerability ~33:07 Authority MRI And Book Plug ~35:58 Closing Thoughts And AI ~37:41 Final Wrap And Resources FULL EPISODE VIDEO https://vimeo.com/1239694592 CONNECT WITH BOB Website: https://spearpointink.com/ LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/bob-graham/

    How to Claim Your Authority So You Become The Obvious Choice (with Bob Graham)

  2. Oct 21

    How to Turn Your Business Into a Joy Engine (with Russell Nohelty)

    You can build a business that works and still dread opening your laptop in the morning. Russell Nohelty is a USA Today bestselling author with more than 75 books and over 20 years of running creative businesses. He's coached plenty of creators who hit their numbers and still felt miserable. That pattern led him to an idea he calls the happy capitalist. Accept that you’re running a business. Stop treating money as something that cancels out the good you do for people. Marketing, Russell says, means paying attention to your yes pile instead of the people who turn you down. Sales means helping people make a decision, especially the undecided middle he calls the “one-three-one” group. Tom ties this to his Empathize, Envision, Enable framework, and Russell adds his own piece: find the blocks and objections that keep a buyer stuck. Then Russell walks through his seven-step Easeful Joy Loop. A few of the steps: Tune in to the opportunities around you. Quit saying no to yourself before anyone else gets the chance. Take the path with the least friction. And build what he calls a Good Chaos Engine, a system that pulls the right buyers toward you without leaning on social media. If you’re a creator or business owner who winces a little every time you sell, this episode shows you how to make money without losing the joy that got you started. DISCUSSED IN THIS EPISODE ~00:54 Meet Russell Nohelty ~2:01 Origin of a "Hapitalist" ~03:08 Money Without Happiness 09:39 Getting Comfortable Selling ~11:03 Why Everyone Loves Marketing ~13:30 The Story Power "Three Es" ~15:57 Blocks Objections and Decisions ~22:20 Magnetizing Right People ~22:58 Easeful Joy Loop Framework ~28:21 Good Chaos Engine Offers ~30:06 Where to Find Russell ~31:22 Fishmonger Mindset Closing ~33:19 Wrap Up and Resources FULL EPISODE VIDEO https://vimeo.com/1237796277 CONNECT WITH RUSSELL Website: www.hapitalist.com LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/noheltyr/

    How to Turn Your Business Into a Joy Engine (with Russell Nohelty)

  3. Oct 14

    How To Create a Brand That Stands for Something and Why That Matters (with Justin Ricklefs)

    You’ve got a logo, a tagline, and a brand guide nobody opens. Your marketing says one thing. Your team does another. In this episode, Justin Ricklefs explains why he treats brand as an operating system that shapes how your people make decisions and treat customers. He walks through the Savannah Bananas’ “fans first” philosophy and his client Benefit Bay, whose mantra “we make the way” gives the whole team a shared direction. He also makes the case that care pays: in a market racing toward efficiency, it’s an advantage AI can’t copy. His advice for where to start is to get clear on why your company exists, then boil it down to a phrase your people can carry. Justin spent eight years in the Kansas City Chiefs front office, where he learned that growth follows when relationships come first. In 2017 he founded Guild Collective, a human-first brand building agency. His new book, Give a Damn: The Catalyst for Caring Companies, introduces the Fire Starter Framework for leaders who want to build companies that care. DISCUSSED IN THIS EPISODE ~02:36 Chiefs Kingdom Lessons ~05:29 Brand Under Pressure ~07:04 Brand Operating System ~07:33 Fans First Story ~11:05 Human First Framework ~13:03 Care Beats Scale ~19:06 Where To Start ~22:12 Resources And Book ~22:29 Closing And Outro FULL EPISODE VIDEO https://vimeo.com/1235649795 CONNECT WITH JUSTIN Pick up Give a Damn here: https://thegiveadamnbook.com/ Substack: https://justinricklefs.substack.com/

    How To Create a Brand That Stands for Something and Why That Matters (with Justin Ricklefs)

  4. Oct 7

    How To Use Story to Turn a Group of Individuals Into a Real Team (with Carlo D'Amore)

    Most team-building feels like homework. A slide deck, an icebreaker, a breakout room where everyone waits for someone else to talk first. Carlo D'Amore took a different route. He started out acting in New York, then began building true-crime mystery experiences based on real historical cases. Audiences didn't watch the story. They worked it. Before long, companies wanted in. Apple, Meta, Goldman Sachs, Netflix, Spotify, and Google have all brought his experiences inside. His argument is simple. You build a team by handing people a story to solve together. Solving it means taking some risks and owning a piece of the outcome. And while everyone's chasing the same clue, job titles stop mattering much. Carlo talks about what happens in the room. People laugh and feel the tension build as a group. Grown professionals start playing again. And sometimes the person who never speaks up in meetings is the one who cracks the case. If your team could use a story to solve, book a strategy call with Carlo's team. DISCUSSED IN THIS EPISODE ~01:58 Carlo Origin Story ~02:55 Immersive True Crime ~05:19 Accidental Team Building ~09:04 Shared Emotions at Work ~12:54 Theater Breakthroughs ~16:21 Storytelling Not Engagement ~19:19 Results and Transformations ~21:40 How to Work With Carlo ~24:15 Parting Thoughts ~26:28 Wrap Up and CTA ~28:28 Outro Resources FULL EPISODE VIDEO https://vimeo.com/1233261613 CONNECT WITH CARLO Website: https://www.carlodamore.com/ https://liveintheater.com/ Social Media: LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/carlodamore-creator/ Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/liveintheater Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/liveintheater/ / https://www.instagram.com/carlodamore69/ YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@CarloDAmoreLIT

    How To Use Story to Turn a Group of Individuals Into a Real Team (with Carlo D'Amore)

  5. Sep 30

    How To Get Curious About Yourself Before You Get Critical (with Antoine Wooten Jr.)

    Antoine Wooten Jr. is a coach, educator, and the author of It’s More Than Winning for You. His work focuses on helping people see their identity beyond productivity and performance through coaching, leadership, and mentorship. In this episode, he and Tom discuss how you can stack up titles and still feel like you're one bad season away from not mattering. Antoine knows that feeling from the inside. Athletics, training, real estate, nonprofit leadership. Every new title looked like success from the outside. Underneath, he was running from a fear of becoming irrelevant. He kept leading and kept showing up. He was also burning out, and by his own account, he was acting. In this episode, Antoine talks about where that pressure comes from. Shame, he says, grows when you measure yourself against an image or against someone else's win. Success means reaching the goals you set for yourself. Today he coaches high school athletes, and plenty of adults, to see fear for what it often is: avoidance. We build coverings to hide from it, and those coverings fuel both the performance and the anxiety. His alternative is to swap self-criticism for curiosity and get honest about what's driving you. He also walks through the model he teaches. You perceive something. You give it a meaning. You read that meaning as safe or as a threat. Your beliefs and behaviors follow from there. If you've ever wondered who you'd be without the next accomplishment, start here. DISCUSSED IN THIS EPISODE ~00:54 Episode Setup ~02:13 More Than Winning ~04:54 Titles And Burnout ~09:34 Value Beyond Doing ~11:31 Shame And Comparison ~15:05 Coaching Young Men ~16:35 Fear And Coverings ~20:00 Curiosity Over Criticism ~24:35 Perception Drives Behavior ~27:22 Get The Book ~28:11 Final Takeaways ~30:44 Outro And Resources FULL EPISODE VIDEO https://vimeo.com/1231169726 CONNECT WITH ANTOINE Instagram: Antoine Wooten Jr.  Instagram: @theseen.collective Facebook: Antoine Wooten Jr. Facebook: Seen Known Loved

    How To Get Curious About Yourself Before You Get Critical (with Antoine Wooten Jr.)

  6. Sep 23

    How To Write A Book You Don't Have Time To Write (with Jamie Dykstra)

    Jamie Dykstra is a non-fiction book ghostwriter and book coach who helps leaders turn the “I have so many thoughts” feeling into a clear message they can stand behind. She partners with executives and entrepreneurs to shape their ideas into books and thought leadership that strengthens culture, builds credibility, and extends their impact beyond the room. Your head is full of book ideas. Probably too many. In this episode, Dykstra explains how she helps executives and entrepreneurs narrow them down to one clear message. Her advice is to skip writing for Amazon sales and write for what the book can do for your business: new clients, credibility, and speaking invitations. Every project starts with a "road mapping" session to decide what the book is for. From there it runs on a plan borrowed from her years in finance and project management, so authors always know where things stand. She explains how she captures an author's voice so the finished book still sounds like them, and why handing the job to AI leaves out both your strategy and your voice. She also walks through what the six-to-eight-month process looks like. If you've been putting off your book because you don't know where to start, this conversation gives you the first step. DISCUSSED IN THIS EPISODE ~01:51 Finding Your Core Message ~03:25 Why Write a Book ~07:18 Roadmap Before You Write ~09:07 Process Driven Writing ~14:56 Ghostwriting Is Still You ~17:08 Why AI Falls Short ~20:03 When to Hire Help ~22:55 Ghostwriting Timeline ~26:51 Where to Find Jamie ~27:58 Final Thoughts and Outro FULL EPISODE VIDEO https://vimeo.com/1229097669 CONNECT WITH JAMIE Website: https://jamiedykstra.com/ LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jamie-dykstra/

    How To Write A Book You Don't Have Time To Write (with Jamie Dykstra)

  7. Sep 16

    If You Think You Need a Brand Now, You're Already Late (with Jessica Sorentino)

    Jessica Sorentino is an author brand strategist with more than a decade of experience helping writers and thought leaders connect with their audiences in meaningful, lasting ways. She has worked with top publishing houses, including Simon & Schuster and Macmillan Publishers, where she developed deep expertise in positioning authors for commercial success and authentic reader engagement. She is the voice behind Open Book: Where Storytelling Meets Strategy on Substack and co-host of the Third Glass: Reading Between the Wines podcast, where she explores the intersection of storytelling, publishing, and personal brand. Her insights have also been featured on many industry podcasts. In this episode, Tom and Jessica discuss why authors and thought leaders should build their brand early. Jessica distinguishes branding (what you’re known for) from marketing (targeted, ROI-driven campaigns) and argues that branding belongs at the start to give time for building trust. She recommends clarifying who you serve rather than focusing on logos, websites, or origin stories and recommends identifying a specific audience, finding non-transactional common ground, and using relationship-building tactics to shape messaging and niche. To round out the conversation they talk about balancing one-to-one relationships with scalable systems, the importance of word-of-mouth for books, avoiding the “professional persona” trap, and protecting creative wellbeing to prevent burnout. For anyone looking to build a personal brand or write a book, this episode is a must-listen. DISCUSSED IN THIS EPISODE ~01:59 Branding Versus Marketing ~04:11 Start With Audience ~06:31 Stop Making It About You ~10:37 Niche Down With Joy ~15:07 Relationships And Scale ~19:28 Sell Books Like Readers ~24:16 Creative Wellbeing Boundaries ~31:00 Where To Find Jessica ~31:47 Final Thanks And CTA FULL EPISODE VIDEO https://vimeo.com/1226871996 CONNECT WITH JESSICA Social Media Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/jessicasorentino Substack: https://jessicasorentino.substack.com LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jessicasorentino/

    If You Think You Need a Brand Now, You're Already Late (with Jessica Sorentino)

  8. Sep 9

    The Founder Trap When Your Story Sells But Your Team Can't (with Jorge Chavez)

    Jorge Chavez is the founder and president of Topaz Sales Consulting in Austin, Texas. With more than 30 years of experience in sales and leadership, he created the Buyer Facilitator philosophy, a buyer-first approach that helps CEOs, founders, and sales leaders build high-performing teams rooted in trust, curiosity, and mutual fit. He is also a keynote speaker and mentor passionate about reshaping how companies think about sales, leadership, and human connection in business. Jorge focuses on how painful the “founder bottleneck” can be and how tough it is to build from nothing to something. He explains that in his experience it's usually driven by being too precious about what's been built already and being reluctant to find the right help or leaning on weak hiring and screening for sales talent. He and Tom discuss how he mentors owners to get past it and why sales conversations should focus on trust, truth, and saving time by helping buyers make informed decisions rather than pitching. If you're having a hard time finding quality talent and want a fresh look about what could be going wrong, this episode's for you. DISCUSSED IN THIS EPISODE ~00:54 Meet George Chavez ~02:13 The Founder Trap Pain ~04:40 Founder As Bottleneck ~07:45 When Owners Get Help ~08:12 Buyer Facilitator Approach ~10:26 Hiring Pain Story ~12:28 Scaling Storytelling ~14:10 Topaz Purpose Story ~16:34 Culture And Delegation ~19:10 Letting Go To Exit ~20:41 Next Generation Growth ~21:37 Letting Go as Leader ~22:11 Choose Small or Scale ~24:27 Freedom to Stay Put ~26:44 Buyer First Selling ~29:03 Trust Truth Time ~32:54 Curiosity and Presence ~35:42 Empathetic Listening ~37:08 Multipliers Ask Questions ~38:53 Storytelling Full Circle ~40:50 Resources and Wrap Up ~42:05 Final Thanks and Reviews FULL EPISODE VIDEO https://vimeo.com/1225101660 CONNECT WITH JORGE The Buyer Facilitator Podcast - https://www.topazsalesconsulting.com/podcast/ Website: https://www.topazsalesconsulting.com/ Social Media: LinkedIn personal: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jrchavez/ LinkedIn Company: https://www.linkedin.com/company/10129970 YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCW_f261ztwFo7HJv3D-Hi5Q

    The Founder Trap When Your Story Sells But Your Team Can't (with Jorge Chavez)
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5
out of 5
21 Ratings

About

Business leaders, coaches, consultants, and thought leaders, The Story Power Podcast will help you harness the power of storytelling so you can grow your business and have fun doing it. Each week, Story Power Marketing's Tom Ruwitch and his guest will share powerful stories, trade business-building insights, and have a few laughs. Tom created this podcast to... ...Help you captivate prospects and inspire them to act… ...so you can get more clients, quickly and easily. That’s what powerful storytelling is all about. That’s what this podcast is all about. 

Information

  • Creator
    Tom Ruwitch
  • Years Active
    2021 - 2026
  • Episodes
    225
  • Rating
    Clean
  • Copyright
    © Copyright Story Power Marketing, Inc.
  • Show Website
    The Story Power Marketing Show