Business of Story

Park Howell, Brand Story Strategist
  • 4.9 (162)
  • MARKETING
  • UPDATED WEEKLY

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!

  1. #573: How to Find Your Million Dollar Story, With Elizabeth Brett

    2D AGO

    #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.

    1h 1m
  2. #567: The TRUTH Brand Storytelling Framework for Hiring, With Bryan Adams

    MAY 11

    #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.

    54 min
  3. #566: How to Access Your Genius Creativity on Demand, With Sara Connell

    MAY 4

    #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."

    54 min
  4. #565: How to Make Your Ad Agency Indespensible, With Marcus Sheridan

    APR 27

    #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

    50 min
  5. #564: From Compliance to Culture: How AI and Story Are Rewriting the Sustainability Playbook, With Bruno Sarda

    APR 20

    #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

    53 min
  6. #563: The Mistakes and Miracles of the Lovesac Brand Story, with Shawn Nelson

    APR 13

    #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.

    48 min

  7. APR 6

    #562. How to Understand the Narrative Behind Your Numbers for Growth, With Nick Jain

    BGBrand Genius Genie™ Sent on 3/26/2026, 3:09:10 PM On it — working through Steps 6, 9, and 10 now. Let me start with the Libsyn description. Step 6: Libsyn Episode Description What if the story your business is telling the world is completely out of sync with the story your numbers are telling you? Nick Jain, co-founder of Eagle Rock CFO, has spent his career helping $5–$50M businesses close that gap. A Harvard MBA who graduated top of his class, with degrees in math and physics, Nick has turned around and scaled three companies up to $100M in revenue — across trucking, software, and eCommerce. Now he delivers Fortune 500-level financial intelligence to growth-stage businesses through an AI-native hybrid model that costs roughly 5% of a traditional fractional CFO. In this episode, Park and Nick explore why most entrepreneurs are flying blind on their own financials — and what to do about it. You'll discover: Why cash flow and profit are not the same thing — and why confusing them can sink a healthy business Which metrics matter at $2M that will actively mislead you at $10M A simple CFO decision framework for evaluating new hires, major purchases, and debt How AI is democratizing financial intelligence for businesses that couldn't afford it before The UVP Nick coined live on air: "Machines handle your data. Experts handle your future." Get Nick's free 30-minute cash flow diagnostic (for businesses $5M+) and try Eagle Rock CFO's free AI dashboard at EagleRockCFO.com. The Business of Story is hosted by Park Howell, creator of the Story Cycle System™ and the ABT narrative framework. Subscribe wherever you get your podcasts.

    37 min

  8. MAR 30

    #561: Why Storytelling Is the One Skill AI Can Never Replace, with Joe Lazer

    What if the skill that made us human is the same one that will keep us relevant in the age of AI? Joe Lazauskas — CMO of Pepper, co-founder of Contently, and author of Super Skill: Why Storytelling Is the Superpower of the AI Age — spent five years inside AI companies researching exactly that question. His answer: storytelling isn't just surviving the AI revolution. It's the one skill the machines can't replicate. In this conversation with host Park Howell, Joe reveals why AI slop is flooding the web and driving up the value of authentic human voices, the four story elements — relatability, ease, novelty, and tension — that make any audience stop and listen, and how to use AI as a creative amplifier without ever letting it replace your voice. You'll also hear the science behind the vulnerability loop, why Kurt Vonnegut's rejected thesis turned out to be right all along, and how the Neanderthals — despite having bigger brains — lost to homo sapiens because they had no Wi-Fi. Joe also shares a special 20% discount offer exclusively for Business of Story listeners — including a signed copy of Super Skill, access to his Storytelling in the AI Age course, live office hours, and yes, dope socks. Guest: Joe Lazauskas | CMO, Pepper | Author, Super Skill Subscribe: storytellingedge.substack.com Connect: Joe Lazauskas on LinkedIn Podcast: The Art of the Zag with Shane Snow Test your brand story free: businessofstory.com

    1h 4m
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4.9
out of 5
162 Ratings

About

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!

Information

  • Creator
    Park Howell, Brand Story Strategist
  • Years Active
    2015 - 2026
  • Episodes
    569
  • Rating
    Clean
  • Copyright
    © Park&Co Marketing Communications, Inc. All rights reserved, 2016.
  • Show Website
    Business of Story

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