The Power of the Podcast: Unlock Your Brand's Marketing Potential

How Storytelling Helps You Elevate Your Brand & Podcast Growth

• Pedal Stomper Productions - Josh Troche • Season 2 • Episode 15

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Want to know the secret behind the most successful brands and podcasters? It’s storytelling, but not just any kind. This episode explores how to strategically use authentic narratives to build trust, humanize your brand, and make your marketing unforgettable.

Here’s what you’ll learn: why storytelling is such a powerful tool for driving business growth, how our brains are hardwired to respond to compelling narratives, and a simple framework you can use to craft your brand’s “hero journey.” You’ll also hear real-world examples of how well-told stories can convert prospects into loyal clients, plus tips on how to apply storytelling across your About page, social media content, and even internal team culture.  

If you're a small business owner or marketing manager who wants to grow an engaged audience and break through the noise, this episode is packed with insights tailored for you. 

 👉 Want to build deeper trust and stand out in a noisy market? Start using powerful storytelling to grow your brand and connect with your audience! 

If you're looking to talk podcasting and get more information on how to make your podcast shine, our 30-minute "no pitch" podcast consultation is right for you!  Click the link to sign up for a time. 
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Storytelling has been pitched as one of the great unlocks in terms of talent. I mean, it opened so many doors for you both personally and professionally and for your podcast. This is going to be an interesting and intense one. I brought along an extra cup of coffee, may want to give with yourself. Stay tuned. Oh, this week I would love to talk about how you can build your brand with storytelling. The brands that I see that are doing the best right now, whether it be large companies or small ones, are doing a really good job of telling like multiple stories. One of those stories is typically about the brand where they're coming from, where they're going, things they're doing. One of the other stories that they're telling is like how they help you, what they can do for you, how they make your life better. All those types of things come together in a story, and that story is interesting, right? Why? So let's talk about some of the things like why stories hit with an audience. First off, our brains. They crave these narratives. They we want to have this arc. We want to have this. I guess I would say almost closed loop where it starts, there's a middle and there's an end to it. And stories do that. Look at anything from cave paintings to boardroom pitches. They've all got that start of the story, what's going on and then that ending. Humans. We are just wired for this. The other thing is, there's many studies that show this. I didn't cite any of them because there's enough of them out there. I didn't want to make another added podcast about that, but really, there's enough studies out there that show that our brains light up differently when we're hearing a story, when we're when we hear that beginning, middle and end where we're engaging the areas of the brain that do more than just process facts. There's a reason why, like, if you would listen to a math podcast, I'm willing to bet they're going to tell, like, how are problems done? They're going to tell the story of the problem. You all remember story problems. Don't tell me you loved them either. Please don't. Is nonetheless the. If it's just this linear thing that there's a if there's a logical thing, I guess it would say it's not as captivating to us as humans. It's it's not. It doesn't really like I guess I would say it doesn't breathes life to us. Whereas a story is if you hear behind the scenes or if you hear why something happened in in this like in this narrative manner, that makes a huge difference in how your brain perceives it. And that's why I really want to hammer home with this. This isn't just entertainment. It's really it's stories are how we make sense of the world. That's how we come up with patterns. It's it's really it's how we it's how we connect as people. I talk about it all the time. The biggest value in podcasting is the connection that you get to make with people, be it, I mean, the person that you're interviewing, if you have an interview, podcast or the people that are spending the time listening to your podcast, like much like yourself today, there's that there is this connection that happens through that. So when you tell the story we've all got, I mean, these internal gatekeepers, how many times, I mean, have you picked up a phone call and you're like, up sales pitch click, you hang up. There's no story to that. Now, when there's a story to something like that, that really changes things. If they started out with a story for you and instead of a pitch now it's very different. So let's let's look at the first thing that I, that I really want to make as an actionable step for you. When we're talking business to business, it is very much about connecting a solution to a problem. How does your solution fit their problems? And you need to tell that story about that. Tell the story about, I mean, and when it's connected people, when it's worked for people. That's why testimonials are so, so, so powerful because of the fact you are connecting people with that solution for their problem, and you're doing it in a way that has a story involved with it. For business to consumer, it is a little bit different. In many cases it's it's aspirational living or it's it could be solving a pain point in just daily life may not necessarily be a problem, but it could be, let's just say an irritation. Or you could be adding convenience. Right now, I mean, I'm, I'm holding a cup of coffee from the gas station down the street. It once again, because I did I get it there because, like, this is the best coffee in the land. No, it solves the pain point for me. It was convenient. It saved me a couple of seconds of time because I didn't have to make it at home. And once again, it's. It's coffee. It was there. I walked in, I grabbed it, and I walked while I paid for it. And then I walked out the over. The overall theme with some of this is that emotions are going to drive. They drive action and emotions and off or off, in case what the biggest things that build that brand loyalty. If you can get people emotionally connected with your brand, not just their wallet, connect with your brand, but get them emotionally connected with your brand, you're in a very, very different place. It's why so many companies, when you look at their websites, those colors are they're intentional. Those colors are typically softer. They're meant to draw you in, like in retail sites like that. It's it's meant to drive that emotional connection. Huge thing with that. So how do we get to stuff like your brand's authentic voice? Like how do like because I talk about authentic authenticity all the time. Authenticity is what's going to build that trust. And the narrative is, is, is how you're going to do that. A line that was given to me here, show. Don't just tell it. So and it sounds like you're like, Josh, this is a podcast. In many cases. People are just listening to this. And I know some of you are listening to this, some of you are actually watching this and you're like, okay, you're you're just sitting in front of a camera. There's not much showing here, but there really is, because that podcast allows you to demonstrate your values. It allows you to demonstrate your mission. And really the biggest piece of that is it allows you to demonstrate your personality or it is your company, is your business. Is that someone that someone wants to do business with? I mean, do you think you and I would get along? I hope so, if you don't like me, there's probably a pretty good chance we're not going to do business together. So it helps you build that. And it helps you work on that. The other thing that I always have to say is it lets you demonstrate your values, your values and your mission. A big thing to me. I was on a call the other day with someone. We do our 30 minute no pitch podcast consultations. I'll put the link in in the show notes here. If you want to talk about your podcast, wait 30 minutes. I'm not going to give you a pitch. We were 25 minutes into talking, and this gentleman looks at me and he goes, why do you do this? And I said, look, success is a shared thing. That is that is our core value as a business. And, I said if like, worst case scenario, I said, I get to talk to some very cool people about podcasting, your podcast is probably going to end up a little bit better from our conversation. That's the worst thing that typically happens. The best thing is, is, hey, maybe we do get a client out of it, maybe we don't. Who knows? But to me, the fact that I put in that time and talked about that shows that we have that value. When you talk about things on camera, it shows your values. It shows where you stand on things. It shows where your ability is, are that you do that through those stories that you tell that that is such a big component about that. The other thing that I want to say is like when you use some stories like from in the business, around the business or just about your business, it gives you credibility in what I, let's call it a noisy world, to say the least. I heard it the other day. Someone mentioned there said social media is no longer social media. It's just media. And I agree with that. This is a noisy, noisy, noisy world. You're trying to compete for attention with a lot of people. So let's find your specific niche. Let's find who you should be talking to, and let's tell the stories that they want to hear. Now, once again, if I just sit here and told you, hey, we do podcasting, well, we do a lot of great things for your podcast. It's not really going to get you that far. There's no story behind that. If I start telling you stories about how we've helped people develop their podcast, about how we spend the time with people to work with them on their hook, when I give you stories about the podcast, The Business Fix, that, Christy Meyers and I do when I give you stories from that, when I give you stories from the Late to Grip podcast, because I know Bill loves it when I give him a shout out, do me a favor. If you're into racing, go watch Late to Grid. When we look at stuff like that, those stories are what really give you that credibility. You can shout what you want from the rooftops and no one's going to care. We are in an era of skepticism, and understandably so. I think authentic stories are really, truly going to be what builds that trust for you. Additionally, that's going to help you humanize your brand. Yep. We need to humanize your brand. I I've said this for years. People buy from people. They they write the check. Yes, they write the check to a company. But people buy from people. When you've taken the time to tell your stories, to humanize yourself, to humanize your brand that makes you relatable, it also makes you reliable. I mean, it really helps you in that connection piece. Business to business, one of the areas that we do most of our work in the mean business to business depends on long term partnerships. You need to build those if you can, if you can tell stories about how you've built that, about who you've built that with, that helps that that moves that partnership further ahead. If you're business to consumer, that that really helps your brand stand out. Because now you've got a differentiator. Now you have a way to stand out amongst the crowd because people will know. They will know the humans behind the brand. To me, that is just such a big benefit that so many people miss out on. People talk about. There's a lot of podcasts out there and there are, but if you do one specific to you, you will find that you now have an individual podcast. So how do we I mean, I've talked a lot about the reasons why we want to do this and that. I've alluded to some of the ways to do this. Let's dive in to really the the structure that you need to do. So pull out your pen in your paper. Or just go ahead and like listen to this ten times over again. We really want to talk. We're going to start like from what I'm going to call this section is from product to purpose. And it's it's really crafting your brand's hero journey. And I mean, we're not talking ripping the shirt open and having the Super manis underneath. That's not what we're talking about. But it's going to be close, I think. So who's your brand's hero and what is their quest? If you want to draw a comic book about this, go right ahead, because I think that would be a brilliant idea. If I could draw, I probably would do that. My drawings are terrible, but really think about your brand. Think about your product, think about your service. Think about the solution that that solution is the hero to your customer's challenges or their pain points so that the those challenges, that's the quest. That is the quest that your hero goes on. So let's take instructure your episodes around these mini quests where you wear your brand, quote unquote, the hero. It helps your customer overcome an obstacle or once again, fix that pain point, or take care of a problem that they're having in their business. The example that I like to give for us, it's helping you overcome the issues that you're having, either starting or gaining ground with your podcast. There's a lot of people where time is the issue. This is a time consuming endeavor. I mean, heck, I've 15 minutes into this in terms of the recording on this, and I probably have 2.5 hours total in this. By the time we're done, we're probably gonna have four hours or so in this. It's time. So we help you overcome that time issue. We help you overcome that efficiency issue. We help you overcome those issues of of moving forward, of of getting your podcast out to people. That's that's where we're the hero. That's where we show up. If the building is on fire, you do not want us showing up. We're not going to work. We can film it, but that's not going to be terribly effective. So figure out where your brand. What? Where is it? The hero. I mean, how does it fix those pain problems? So the next piece to that case studies, can be a great like super compelling narrative. We recently help someone do one of those the same thing. I mean, case study, testimonial, same thing. You can take those and turn those into engaging stories. Too many people go up and say, look, how did we help you? Yes. Great. How do like, how do you feel about that? That's not the story. In order to really make this effective, you need to tell that whole story of first off, why did that customer come to you? So this person that's willing to give you the testimonial, why did they come to you initially? Did they know they had this pain point? Did the pain point? I mean, in so many cases, I mean so many business owners and marketing people know that when you show up and start talking about something with someone that's an expert in a field, you think you this is your pain point, and then you realize it's 15 or 20 degrees the other direction, or it it is still the pain point and you've got another one that's 15 or 20 degrees. The a different direction. Also. So craft that arc, tell that full story. And there's a way, even if you've only got 45 seconds to do it, you can still craft a great testimonial or case study from stuff like that, introduce their initial and introduce their initial struggle. That could be, let's call it the inciting incident. What? When did they have that? Oh. When did that moment hit for them that they said, oh, we got to find a solution to this, go through that journey of working together. I mean, we know in so many cases there's ups and downs with so many like business, business, even business consumer journeys. I mean, the business to consumer is often a shorter journey, but there's still some ups and downs in that go go find like talk about those ups and downs because that's what makes it real. That's what makes it a story. Like, oh. Are they going to survive this, to live another day? I mean, you know how it ends. They're sitting in the chair across across from you. It's the same as most television shows. You know how it's going to end, but you're still on the edge of your seat because you're like, oh, this is a tense moment. Bring up some of those tense moments in that. Additionally, now here comes the triumphant resolution to, this is how we stepped up. We really did well, all these other things. So and now you've got someone in the studio to help corroborate that. To me, when you do case studies, when you do testimonials, having that structure to work like that is a huge, huge benefit because once again, make it about telling the story, not just having them say, yeah, you're great doesn't mean much if they tell their story and work it in with your story. Suddenly we've got an actual story and we've got something that can be highly effective. So what's the advantage of doing this in a podcast? We know a couple of ways. I mean, we've talked about like some of the building blocks for that. We've talked about a great way for you to do it. What's the advantage that a podcast has? I mean, first off, like long form canvas, like the short social posts and everything like that, that flash through those help, those are great for giving you touch points. I heard someone the other day up it to 24 touchpoints before someone's willing to buy off of you. I mean, even if we're not there, those short ones are going to give you that the long form. It allows you to give that deeper exploration of some complex topics. It allows you to cover that full story front to back. It allows you to build and set that foundation for. Here's the base of the story. Now go ahead and build the house of the building on top of that. That is the story and is the interaction because those become huge things for you. The other thing that I would say is that when you when you look at this long form stuff, the thing and I just mentioned this on the call right before I jumped into the studio here, I was talking with someone about it. The connection that you make with your audience is huge. The also the connection you make with the person sitting across the table from you is huge. Both of them are really big things. Now why is that? We've talked about it with podcasting. First off, people are giving you a large chunk of their time. I mean, well says, hey, let me talk into your ear for half an hour. I mean, really, who else talks to you for half an hour every day or every week in a situation like this, you've got that leverage with that. That is what's going to give you that connection. Now, if it's the person sitting across the table from you, you're now you're I hope you're asking direct questions and you're asking like different questions, like then you're going to ask in just a regular conversation, we're going to ask one question in a conversation. We're going to ask another question. Let's face it, podcasts are performative. In a performative situation where you're trying to get to these deeper, like bigger questions, you're going to ask them. You're not going to ask those necessarily in the conversation. So you're building two really good connections. I mean, with that. And when I say connections, it's it's it's a personal connection. We're connected. That's really what it comes down to. The other piece to that is podcasting really helps you foster that tribe. So to say it's foster the community. I mean, shared stories, create a community when you tell someone else's story. In so many cases, I mean, everyone has their own individual stories, but we can always associate with pieces of other people's stories. So when you hear someone else's story, you're like, oh yeah, yeah, I, I've been in some way similar. I've done something similar in that it really allows you to build that loyal audience with that, because now you've got shared ground. There's common ground there. There's there's one of those things in there that can really help to connect you. This to me, is invaluable when it comes to building that know, like and trust that we've talked about so many times. And additionally, I mean, it's just it's going to help you build that base for your business. I don't want to make this just about podcasting. So we're going to talk about storytelling beyond the mic. I mean, how do we how do we put this in our in our daily business? No, I am not telling you to just walk around like some old man telling stories in your business. Probably not productive. But if you tell stories, well, if you tell stories effectively, that can ripple across all your marketing channels. This isn't just podcast. I mean, when you tell that story correctly, that can be done on a social media post, that can be done in your email newsletter, that can be done in a blog post, and those are all varying lengths. So just realize that how long of a book, a story you're going to make for that. Even when you look at something like your website's About Us page, that should be a story that shouldn't just be high. Here's the thing we do. We do the thing well. And you know, there's a reason why most of those start with something like Pedal Stopper Productions was formed in March of 2017 as a way to help businesses capture video and photo and, elevate their podcast. I mean, there's a reason why there's there's that story behind it because that's what's going to connect you people don't care about the numbers. You don't care. It was in 2017. But when I tell this part of the story, you realize, hey, we've been around for a while. That is where it becomes a big difference. The other thing to say is seek out storytelling opportunities. I mean, look for ways to explain complex things to customers, simplify them, but make it a story. Prepare for these types of things. When you're walking into a meeting, it shouldn't just be X and y. As I kill the cord for my laptop, it shouldn't just be X and Y, it should be. How do we get from X to Y? And if we got from X to Y already, why did we do that? How did we do that? What? Give us the full story behind that. The other thing stories like this, I have found often can really do a great job of motivating a team because once again, it can show. It builds that, hey, I may have been there in a similar situation if you just say do the thing that way. Yeah. People are. People may not follow that. If you say, hey, do the thing that way. Because you know what? Before we had an issue where a customer came in and this went sideways because of that. So if you do it that way, it prevents that. Suddenly you've used a story to get your employees motivated to get things moving in the right direction, rather than just barking orders at them. The other, the last thing that I want to say and this this applies in your business. This applies on your business. This applies to the marketing of your business. And I'm just going to read this exactly as I wrote it. Framing information as a story will make it more memorable and impactful. And think about that for a second. Any time you talk to your employees, if you add a little bit of a story as to why something's done, it's more memorable. It's more impactful. Don't we want that from our employees? In the same sense, when you frame things as a story in your marketing, it's going to make it more memorable and impactful and really, like, isn't that exactly what we're going for with marketing? Is making it memorable and impactful because there have been many, many times and I know we all have stories where marketing just, I mean, didn't hit the mark, and that's because it didn't have the right story behind it. That all being said, do me a favor. I would love to hear your questions. I am here for them. Put those in the comments for me. Also, if you could give us a review, I would greatly appreciate it. Additionally, if you have podcasting questions and you'd like to just talk about it, sign up for our No Pitch podcast consultation. There is 100% no pitch in that. We'll sit. We'll talk for half an hour. We'll go over things that you can do in your podcast to make it better. We spend a ton of time on these and I absolutely love them. I thoroughly enjoy them and the enthusiasm comes through on that. That all being said, do me a favor. Take care of yourself. You can take care of someone else too. I will see you very, very soon. Oh.

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Josh Troche

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