Episodes

Can you be both a disciplined, focused business leader and a deeply creative person? For us here at StoryBrand, the answer is a resounding yes. In fact, the worlds of creatives and business leaders overlap more than we might assume. If you’re...

If you’ve ever smelled that warm and buttery smell in the mall, and minutes later, had an Auntie Anne’s pretzel in your hand, you’re not alone. Auntie Anne’s has 2,000 locations in 26 countries. They’ve made 1.8 billion pretzels -- enough to...

Is it possible to live a life of service and sacrifice even while pursuing a career that matters deeply? When you look at the life of sportscasting legend Ernie Johnson, Jr., you can’t help but say yes. On this episode of the Building a StoryBrand...

What if there were a roadmap that showed you all the major milestones your business was going to hit as it grows? Wouldn’t it be great to know what’s coming next and how to navigate well? That framework exists, and we’re going to explore it in...

The better we understand people, the better leaders we’ll be. And one of the best tools for understanding yourself and those around you is the Enneagram. If you haven’t encountered it before, the Enneagram is simply an ancient personality...

What’s the most powerful tool in the world for captivating the human brain? It’s storytelling. As business leaders, sometimes we struggle to keep our audience’s attention for a few seconds. But storytellers have figured out how to keep an...

Most of us business leaders are glued to our phones. Work can feel all-consuming. We end each day fatigued and overloaded, and everything suffers as a result. But life isn't supposed to look like this. We need what Juliet Funt calls “white space”...

Why do some companies stay young, agile, and competitive, while others get bogged down and decline? That’s the big question that this week's guest, Chris Zook, set out to answer. After years of research, he and his team at Bain Insights found...

Why do leaders fail? It’s not because they don’t know what they’re doing. It’s usually because they’ve failed to listen to and develop their staff. They’ve failed to respect and communicate well with them. Basically, they’ve failed at...

Motivation is overrated. If you want to accomplish the things that will grow your life and your business, you can’t rely on it. And today’s guest on the Building a Story Brand podcast, Mel Robbins, is with me on this notion that motivation isn’t...

Why are most meetings so awful? A lot of us leave every meeting feeling like we’ve wasted our time and gotten nowhere on a problem -- only to get back to our desks farther behind on our “real jobs.” But with a little intention, we can make...

There’s nobody like Elon Musk. As the founder and CEO of both SpaceX and Tesla (among other ventures), he is arguably the world’s most visionary entrepreneur. And on the podcast this week, Donald Miller interviews Ashlee Vance, the man who wrote...

Why do leaders crash and burn, taking their companies and families down with them? Is it the inevitable result of pressure or a character flaw? Or can it all be prevented? In this episode of the Building a Story Brand podcast, Donald Miller sits down...

If you’re trying to start and grow a business, you know it’s not an easy road. Rewarding, yes. Eventful, yes. But easy? Not at all. But like any journey, you’re better off if you’ve equipped yourself properly for it. And that’s why I am so...

According to Greg McKeown, the author of Essentialism, most of us have been living under the assumption that we can have it all -- we just have to cram it all into our lives. As a result, we end up busy (not necessarily productive) and stretched too...

For business leaders, public speaking skills are critical. Whether you’re delivering a major keynote or simply leading a staff meeting, you’ve got to be able to engage your audience and communicate powerfully. That’s why public speaking expert...

As business leaders, we often get so focused on the details of our company that we forget to step back and understand things from our customers’ perspective. As a result, we talk over our potential customers’ heads in our communication and...

We’re passionate about growing our businesses, aren’t we? But that doesn’t mean it’s easy. In fact, the path of scaling a company is lined with landmines and pitfalls, both personal and professional. This week on the Building a Story Brand...

As a business leader, you’d never start a year without a working budget or a sense of your profit margin, would you? But most of us don’t have the same kind of awareness and discipline when it comes to our personal finances. That’s why we’ve...

If you’re good at marketing, you know how to make people understand what you offer. But if you’re good at branding, you know how to make people feel a certain way about it. When you master this, you can create exponential value for your business....

A lot of us believe that killer negotiators are born, not made. But that’s not true. When you know a few key strategies, you can become a great negotiator and land great outcomes for your business. Best of all, you can do it while treating others...

Welcome to 2017! If you’re wondering how to make this year more productive and meaningful, try the 30-day process we walk you through in this week's episode. This system won’t take you more than a few minutes each day, but it will unlock new...

Get our best wisdom from 2016, compressed into a single episode! As we close out the year, we’ve selected clips from 10 conversations we’ve had on the podcast and highlighted our biggest takeaways from them. If you’re traveling over the...

As good as your gut may be about your customers, there are some aspects of your business that are too important to guess at. That’s why I’m thrilled to have David Kinnaman joining us on this episode of the Building a Story Brand podcast. He’s...