Strategic Storytelling
by Goodwin
Strategic Storytelling blends together the magic of storytelling with practical strategies for copywriting and marketing, especially creating content, branding, and planning. Forget about movies, bedtime stories, and fairy tales: Cathy Goodwin, an online strategist and published author, show you how business storytelling will directly impact your bottom line. No fairy godmothers allowed!
Episodes
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190 Win more clients with empathy (even if you haven't walked in their shoes)
Most business advice says: "Show empathy. Tell clients you've been there too." But here's the truth: clients don't care if you've walked in their shoes. What they care about is whether you understand their challenges—and whether you'll treat them without judgment. In this episode of Strategic...
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189 How To Sell A Service No One's Heard Of: Storytelling Strategies For Innovative Offers
How To Sell A Service No One's Heard Of: Storytelling Strategies For Innovative Offers When you're offering something that's new to your audience—whether it's brand new to the world or simply unfamiliar to your audience—you face two major challenges: they're confused about what you offer and they...
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188 The ROI of Storytelling
What is the most important question to ask about storytelling? It's not "How much did this story express your feelings?" or "How much do you want to tell this story?" or even "What is the impact of this story?" It's "What is the business purpose of this story?" Why am I telling this story? Whats...
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187 - The Ultimate Story Template - Based on a Cheesy Christmas Song
Storytelling can become more productive when you start with a template. And it's not easy to find templates for business stories. In this episode, we explore a surprising (and fun) story structure for service-based solopreneurs, adapted from a holiday classic and inspired by Ann Handley's…
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186 Don't Waste Your Origin Story: Turn It Into a Client Attraction Tool
If you've ever been asked, "How did you get started?" you know how often this question comes up in podcasts, interviews, networking events, and client meetings. But instead of giving a throwaway answer to satisfy their curiosity, what if you could use that moment to attract your next best client?...
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185 Turning Client Experience Stories Into Marketing Gold
We usually talk about the stories we tell about ourselves. We use stories to showcase our marketable qualities. We explain and promote our offers. In this episode, we flip the script. We focus on getting other people to tell their stories. Often their stories will be essential for our own...
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184 Do Stories Make You Money? How Strategic Storytelling Drives Revenue
We all hear that stories are powerful—but do they actually bring in sales? In this episode of Strategic Storytelling, I break down how stories make money for your business, both indirectly (as a smart marketing tool) and directly (by increasing conversions). You'll learn what makes a story...
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183 Looking for a business mentor? Don't listen to their story!
When you're a solopreneur or running a right-sized business, hiring a mentor isn't as simple as following someone else's success story. In this episode of Strategic Storytelling, we unpack the reasons why traditional mentor models — often built for corporate careers or celebrity entrepreneurs —...
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182 Use These 3 Storytelling Superpowers To Connect and Convert
What do invisibility, time travel, and telepathy have in common? It's not just a party game or a job intervew question, "Choose your superpower." These 3 storytelling superpowers that can transform your marketing. In this episode of Strategic Storytelling, we'll explore how to: Make your writing...
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181 Why Your Own Story Is The Best Content: Ignore the gurus and "do you!"
IN this episode of Strategic Storytelling, we explore why your real, everyday stories—not dramatic or overly polished ones—are often the most powerful for your content. As an example, I talk about ]how comedian Loni Love stayed true to her voice despite pressure to "play a character," and how…
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180 Finding your strategy from your story
Struggling to find the right words for your marketing? In this episode, we unpack why your business story isn't just relatable — it's a strategic treasure trove! You'll discover how storytelling becomes a diagnostic tool to uncover your most powerful marketing message. Whether you're a coach,...
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179 How To Sell a Service that Seems Frivolous (by discovering why it's not)
A lot of solopreneur marketing challenges become easier with a story -- and with knowing the clients' backstory. In this episode, we're tackling a challenge many solopreneur service providers face: how to sell when your offer seems "non-essential" or even frivolous. From personal shopping to...
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177 Storytelling Prompts for Business Stories
Have you ever faced a blank page, saying to yourself, "I know I need a story…a good story…for business. But I keep drawing a blank." And most of the story prompts—those questions beginning "Tell me a story about" are not designed for business. They're designed to get your personal stories. So you...
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176 How To Generate Buzz For Your Products With Client Backstories
If you're a small service-oriented business, you want to get people to talk about you! But how do you do this? Small companies—especially service-based solopreneurs—can't generate buzz the same way as big companies. They need to dip into their client's backstories. When someone says, "You seem to...
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127 How to Demonstrate Your Expertise By Telling Stories (Encore)
"You're the expert." How do you feel when you hear those words? You'd better get used to hearing that sentenence if you're a service-based solopreneur! Because when you sell a service, you're selling expertise. You're offering knowledge and skills beyond what "everybody" has. You hire a licensed...
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175 Three Ways To Create More Powerful Headlines With Storytelling
You've got a nice draft of the copy, all set to go…but will your audience ever read that copy? The answer is: Not unless you're reeling them in with a strong headline! The truth is, most people don't get past the headline when they're reading a sales letter. And yet headlines can be incredibly…
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174 2 Straightforward Topics To 2X Your Selling Story
Telling the right story, the right way, can lead to more clients and more sales. You don't have to come up with a story that keeps you in suspense--a story that could be made into a movie or a slick Superbowl commercial. The selling story for a solopreneur calls for two key ingredients. You don't...
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114 Which story attracts clients for entrepreneurs: natural talent vs. hard work and struggle (Encore)
You've heard it over and over. Success come from hard work, not talent. You're not a good writer? Not a natural business person? Just work, work and work some more. So hard work is admirable, right? People are most impressed by hard workers? Wrong. Research studies asked this question directly,...
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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...
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172 What's wrong with the advice, "Tell a story to be authentic"
Solopreneurs often get advised to show their real selves--to come out from behind the website and reveal who they really are. And one way to do this is to tell stories. What's wrong with this advice? First of all, "Just tell a story" means, "Curate a good story portfolio." A story may represent...
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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...
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170 How to bring emotions into your business planning by using stories
Oh no...the New Year begins with two tasks a lot of us dread: planning and taxes. I can't do much about taxes, but this episode is all about making planning more realistic and more fun. Most people make plans and schedules with their left brains. So you get cold, analytical plans...or even worse,...
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169 How to explain web development to a die-hard football fan
What kind of stories can you tell to explain complex or unusual concepts? What metaphors? This podcast gives just one example: How do you explain web development, especially the role of designers and copywriters? One way is to use a football metaphor. Each player on a team has a role to play. The...
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168 Why Storytelling is Your Most Important Market Research Tool
What does it mean to know your client? This episode was created after I saw an email encouraging. entrepreneurs to know their customers. Demographics, psychographic, big problem...anything, they said. There's a better way. Find their story. What brought them here? What have they tried? Those are...
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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...
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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…
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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 here at this link. I've interviewed several Role Model...
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157 How to find coachable clients with this simple story trick
When you run a service business, you need clients...the right kind of clients. Clients you can work with. Clients who will be successful when they follow your instructions. Your instructions might take the form of coaching. Or you might need to get clients to cooperate by filling out forms or...
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165 Why clients expect you to deliver magic in your services (and how you can create a magical experience realistically)
Your story has a hero and a guide. Sometimes your story has cheerleaders and a villain. But your story doesn't have a wizard or fairy godmother or magician. And you probably know the reason: Your story doesn't promise magic. But sometimes clients expect magic and you have to correct them, This...
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164 How Your About Page Sells You With Stories
What's the most difficult page to write on your website? Your About Page. People don't like to write this page because they don't like to write about themselves. It feels like boasting. It violates the rule: "The nail that stands out gets pounded down." Your About Pag has to answer three…
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023 The most important story for solopreneuur marketing
Your most important story isn't about you. It's about how you work with clients to help them reach their goals. This is your success story. Your success story has 4 parts: hero, crisis, solution, and outcome. We'll walk through examples of how these parts come together for a lead-generating…
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163 Is your story a literary production, a good business story, or both?
https://www.marketingwords.com/blog/write-copy-future-pacing/?ref=cathy_goodwin I recently came across a workshop on writing creative nonfiction. And that made me ask the question: What is the difference between creative writing and business writing? What about a course in film script writing? ?…
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162 Using Personal Stories to Build An Empire: Interview with Connie Ragen Green
Can you become an extremely successful online marketer by telling stories? Connie Ragen Green has several best-selling books and courses, as well as an international practice in business coaching. She's accomplished this goal with strong, consistent marketing and an abundance of content creation....
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161 Does your story show the prospect's state of awareness?
What is the stage of your client's awareness? You may think it's not important—but a customer stage can be like a specific niche. You target that stage of awareness. If you target the wrong stage, you lose the customer…maybe forever. For example, when I was looking for a software company, I...
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160 How to Write Client-Pulling Copy by Telling Stories and Choosing Words
How many times have you gone to a website and found it was just plain boring? Like, it felt like reading one of your old college textbooks? In this episode, we explore ...why there's so much wimpy copy out there ...parallels between writing wimpy copy and getting stronger by working out ...why...
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159 Three lessons solopreneurs can learn from cat stories (even if you're not a cat person)
What's a cat story? People who have cats tend to be fanatical about them. They tell stories about how cute the cats can be, how spoiled they are, and how they drive their owners crazy. If you're been on Facebook for more than 5 minutes, you realize that people can't get enough cat stories. But...
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158 Add stories to your course design: Interview with Lisa Yoder
Want to improve your learners' experience of your course? Get them to remember your course content? Teach complex concepts in a framework that makes sense to them? When learners have a good experience, they return for more. As a marketer, that's what you're hoping for! Course designer Lisa Yoder...
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157 Telling a Big Story. To Illustrate a Small Concept
Have you ever heard a story that was so memorable you couldn't forget it? A story that taught you a hard lesson -- but made you smile at the same time? This week I'm doing something a little different. I've collected three of my favorite stories that appear over and over again. I see them in...
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156 Tell a story to introduce yourself to prospective clients: Interview with Copywriter Nicole Kepic
How do you introduce yourself to prospective clients? Nicole Kepic introduced herself to her email list with a traditional origin story -- solid credentials, burnout, and reinvention as a copywriter to female entrepreneurs. Nicole tells that story to show us the person behind the website. She…
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052 When Nobody Understands What You Do, Tell These 2 Stories - Encore presentation
A few weeks ago I was attending a special event when someone asked "How can I explain my service to other people? I'm going into a new market and people don't get what I do." Of course, the answer is, you explain with a story. But what kind of story can you use? Besides having a new market, you…
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155 Should Your Origin Story Make You Seem Lucky or Good?
A recent article in Inc magazine asked this question: What makes you look better? A story like, "I started with no talent or luck and worked my butt off;" Or, A story like, "I had lots of talent and I got lucky." Believe it or not, audiences valued luck and talent more. This episode raises the...
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033 Bragging 101 Build Your Personal Brand With Strategic Storytelling
How can I write about myself without sounding like a conceited jerk? That's the subject of this podcast. You may have internalized messages like, "The nail that sounds out gets pounded down" You may have been criticized or ridiculed for doing well. But in business, you have to brag about…
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154 It's a numbers game: how to sell with numbers on sales pages and stories
Numbers can be extremely powerful when you know how to use them -- and sooner or later you have to use them. You use numbers in your stories and also in your copywriting, especially on sales pages. The way you present your numbers can make your price seem small and your outcomes seem large. You…
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153 Business storytelling: 4 key reasons to share that story
Lots of business owners have been advised, "Just tell a story. Any story." Or they're told, "Stories hold your audience's attention. Stories captivate your listeners." All that is true. Absolutely. But stories can do a lot more than entertain your audience. And when you tell a story as a...
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152 4 Ways Your Business Story Will Make Your Marketing Easier
Storytelling for service-based solopreneurs isn't just for fun. It's not a device to gain attention and draw in a crowd of people from your niche. So what can a story do for your business? In this episode, you'lll learn how to use stories to make y.our marketing easier. You will learn... ... 4…
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151 The Guide Character in Your Selling Story
Episode 151 - The second-most important character in your selling story is—drumroll, please—the guide. That is you! The guide is the person, spirit or animal who helps the hero solve their problem or problems. The way you write yourself into your story will have a huge impact on your audience....
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150 The Surprising Character in Your Business Story: The Cheerleader
We've talked about the hero in your story. We had an episode about the villain. And today we're going to talk about the character nobody mentions: the cheerleader. You can't be with the hero all the time, no matter how good you are. The cheerleader helps the heroes achieve their goals by just…
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149 The Hero in Your Business Story
In this podcast episode we are going to look at casting the characters in your story. We've already talked about the villain. The other characters are the hero, the guide and the cheerleaders. Who is the hero of your story? The hero has a problem. Often it's a serious problem. Sometimes it's...
About this show
Strategic Storytelling blends together the magic of storytelling with practical strategies for copywriting and marketing, especially creating content, branding, and planning. Forget about movies, bedtime stories, and fairy tales: Cathy Goodwin, an online strategist and published author, show you how business storytelling will directly impact your bottom line. No fairy godmothers allowed!
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Goodwin
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