Tag Archive for: The Business Of Story

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Happy New Year, Daredevil Insiders!

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As always, the new year is a great time to get perspective on the last year, ponder what we’ve learned from the inevitable mistakes we’ve made, and set some goals together.

 

 

 

I want to talk about limitations, limiting beliefs, and the stories we tell ourselves that get us in our own way.

 

story-limiting-beliefs

 

 

That’s it, you know.

 

 

 

The problem with your lack of success in the music business (which is where I assume you want to be more successful or you wouldn’t be reading this) has always been you.

 

 

story-problem-is-you

 

 

You want to succeed more than anything, but you have limiting beliefs which lead you to create a story.

 

We all have limiting beliefs.

 

 

 

The most successful people are self-aware of this fact and work diligently to think differently and overcome the mental hurdles.

 

They change the stories that they tell themselves.

 

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Limiting beliefs means that deep down inside, you don’t truly feel like you should be successful, or you don’t know how to do it, or you’re conflicted because subconsciously the idea of making a living doing what you love is rubbing up against some serious emotional and mental anchors.

 

 

 

Ultimately we all want to please other people to a degree to satisfy our sense of belonging to the families, communities, and tribes we are in.

 

For instance, if your parents don’t approve of your life path, that’s usually a biggie.

 

Maybe a significant other is renting too much space in your head about your musical aspirations.

 

 

story-the-business-of-story-logo

 

 

I got to thinking about this blog after listening to a killer podcast called The Business of Story with Park Howell. His guest was a business coach named Melanie Benson.

 

 

 

 

 

Right about now, some of you are saying, “I’m done reading, I’m an artist, not a businessperson.” – Hello, that’s a limiting belief.

 

 

Whether you like it or not, It’s also inaccurate.

 

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If you’ve EVER received one penny of revenue from a recording, live gig, studio gig, musical teaching gig, etc. you’re a businessperson.

 

 

 

 

Maybe you’re a crappy businessperson, and there is no law against that, but rest assured you’re a businessperson.

 

“I make art for the sake of art, I answer to no one, my creations are derived solely from me and no other commercial interests.”

 

story-artist-art-for-the-sake-of-art-meme

 

 

This comment, or some form of it, I hear often. My response is, that’s AWESOME! Seriously, I love that approach and believe that an artist can truly achieve pure art and find their audience now more than ever.

 

 

 

However, if after you’re done with the purest creative process ever, you venture out into the world and accept any kind of compensation for your talents, you’re a true artist and you’re also a businessperson.

 

 

Don’t be upset by this. WHEREVER there is amazing art, there is inevitably commerce!

 

 

story-amazing-art-inevitably-commerce-meme

 

 

Commerce is present because people will pay their hard-earned money to be transported emotionally.  This is what great art does for people; it moves them.

 

 

 

 

It’s worth it for them, that’s the only reason they pay.

 

That means you’re worth it.

 

Some of you, deep down, don’t believe you’re worth it. That’s a limiting belief.

 

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I’ve heard artists complaining about how they don’t want to “sell out”.   Ok, I love that too, but how is accepting revenue for a work that you creatively stand behind with pride, selling out exactly?

 

 

 

 

You are “selling out” If you’re derivative to become famous, OR if you feel pressured to change your art for the sake of a bigger megaphone.

 

But making money on your art alone is NOT selling out. It’s selling tickets, merch, and music.

 

 

There’s a difference.

 

story-youre-not-a-dancing-chix-meme

 

 

These mental hurdles are stories that we tell ourselves to give ourselves permission to wait, or to lose the dream, or to not be as successful as we could be on our dream.

 

 

 

Are there artists who somehow fell into the big, ugly, music business machine and ended up putting on a dancing chicken suit to please the powers that be just so they could be famous?

 

Yes.

 

Is that you?

 

No.

 

So, what the hell are you talking about?

 

Are there artists who somehow got super successful with their genuine creations despite having to get approval from 2 publically traded corporate committees before it ever saw the light of day?

story-abb-record-cover

 

Yes.

 

Is that you?

 

No.

 

So, what the hell are you thinking?

 

 

As Park Howell so eloquently puts it, “The most powerful story is the story you tell yourself.”

 

 

story-stories-in-your-head-are-made-up

 

 

Everything in your head is all made up.

 

EVERYTHING.

 

 

 

They’re made up from scratch, from fear, from your parents, your siblings, or bandmates, or significant others, etc.

 

Every story about politics, religion, success, money, love, music, the business, selling, health, nutrition, they’re all made up, man.

 

Right or wrong, effective or toxic, these stories in your head are made-up.

 

“I’m a creative, sales are beneath me.”

 

Good luck with that story. Ask any of your major label artist friends about how cool it is to be a major label artist and not ever have to sell.  They’ll laugh you out of the room.

 

 

story-creative-sales

Radio tour is SELLING.

 

 

 

 

You’re selling your music to the program directors, and you’re selling yourself to get them to like you.

 

Every gig you’re selling yourself to the audience but you’re selling (hopefully) good art.

 

 

“I hate the way sales people make me feel so I’m not going sell myself. My music is amazing; it will find an audience.”

 

 

story-first-time-you-played

 

 

C’mon man. That’s like me saying “I don’t like the way you sounded on the very first day you picked up that guitar so I’m not going to listen to music again.”

 

Silly, right?

 

 

 

“I can’t afford that.”

 

I’ll bet that one got your attention.

 

 

 

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Well yes, maybe you can’t afford it, but that mindset isn’t going to get you into growth, it’s guaranteed to keep you right where you’re at.

 

 

 

 

Maybe at the end of the day, you’ll keep that $100 in your pocket, but what is that approach really costing you?

 

Your dream?

 

What if you spent the $100 learning something new or delegating to some expert and it put you on a path to making a living as an artist?

 

story-tony-robbins-cassettes

 

 

The host, Park Howell, was talking about how he purchased Tony Robbin’s first cassette tape series back in 1985. He paid $39.95 (which is $89.61 in today’s dollars) and that was A LOT of money to him. He didn’t feel like he could afford it. He listened to the whole series on his Sony Walkman 8 or 9 times when he would hike his regular mountain trail in Arizona to get exercise.

 

 

 

 

 

He was fearful of spending the money but he did it and it changed his life forever.

 

Melanie Benson said something like, “That’s called stepping over dollars to pick up pennies.”

 

story-pennywise-and-pound-foolish-meme

 

 

 

My mother calls it “pennywise and pound foolish.”

 

 

 

 

 

You don’t really know marketing at all. You think you know, and some of you know some things, but I can attest that we are CONSTANTLY learning here at Daredevil Production, so you know nothing.

 

Since you don’t know, you’re going to need to learn.

 

That means you’ll have to learn to do it yourself via webinars, conferences, and books, pay for a coach, or pay someone to do it for you.

 

 

These choices require spending some time and money on either staff or education.

 

story-since-you-dont-have-the-knowledge-meme

 

 

Since you don’t have the knowledge, wisdom, experience, skills, or perspective to execute an effective marketing plan for your music project, where will these missing pieces come from?

 

 

 

What if you told yourself a different story?

 

A story like “What would you have to do be able to afford the education you so desperately need?”

 

If the made-up stories aren’t working for you, why not make up some new ones?

 

 

Stay

 

In

 

Tune

 

 

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Too many of you seem to naively rely on your musical gift as if that is the end-all-be-all to success.

habit-peacock

 

 

 

In fact, many of you seem to be utterly dumbfounded at that lack of attention you receive from the industry solely because of your musical gift (even if you’re delusional about that gift but I digress). You have a nasty habit and it has to go.

 

 

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Your brilliant talent is worthless unless you understand how to stand out from the crowd in the marketplace, amongst industry professionals, and amongst your peers.

 

 

Follow me on this, as always, I have a point.

 

I was listening to one of my favorite podcasts called The Business of Story with host Park Howell.  In this episode he interviewed habit-business-of-story-logo9-time New York Times Bestselling author and former Associate Editor of Sports Illustrated Magazine, Don Yaeger.  Wow!

 

 

 

Don has written over 25 books and interviewed over 2,500 major sports stars in his career.

 

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There was one question he asked during every interview he ever conducted and Don kept a record of each answer given over that lifetime of interviews.

 

“If you could name for me a habit or characteristic that you believe separated you from everyone else that you competed against, what would that habit or characteristic be?”

 

 

 

Most artists would answer this question by describing their most compelling gifts or talents. “My voice, my songwriting, my performances, my guitar playing, blah, blah, blah.”

habit-fail

 

#Fail.

 

 

What’s interesting is the most common answer that was given by each of these superstar winners.

 

 

 

Most of these sports heroes DIDN’T talk of their physical gifts at all. Instead, they articulated that they all had a fear of losing that surpassed their joy of winning.

 

 

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They all at some point in their lives, learned to HATE losing far more than they loved winning.

 

They expect to win because winning is a direct result of the hard work they consistently put in every day.

 

 

 

 

Winning is a byproduct of showing up.

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They hate losing.

 

 

 

 

They hate losing because it’s super painful

 

It’s this painful to them because it’s personal.

 

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It’s personal because they accept 100% of the blame.

 

They feel responsible for 100% of the outcome of any given situation.

 

 

 

Here’s the nasty habit I mentioned earlier.

 

If you make excuses, it’s not 100% your fault, is it?

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Some of you, and you know who you are, have a nasty habit of constantly shifting the blame away from yourself to ease the pain of losing.

 

It’s sucks to lose, but if it’s not your fault, it’s not your fault so better luck next time, right?

 

 

Maybe the Gods will make it different for me tomorrow.

 

Your habit is to believe that your life is a consequence of your surroundings rather than a result of the sum of your decisions.

habit-choices-bad-weather-quote

 

 

Whoa!

 

This fact was not surprising to me at all but still SUPER INTERESTING.

 

 

You have to stop making excuses when you fail. Period

 

As long as you make excuses you’ll NEVER own it and failure only hurts when you have no one else to blame.

 

You’re supposed to be an ARTIST for God’s sake, FEEL THE PAIN!!

habit-michael-jordan

 

It’s good for you.

 

Don had the opportunity to attend an “old man’s sports camp” with Michael Jordan as one of the mentors.

 

There was a situation where he was one of a few guys chosen to play one-on-one against Jordan.

 

Don is quite prideful of the fact that he actually SCORED on Michael Jordan! (who wouldn’t be?)

 

Michael was pissed.

 

He hates losing.

 

This is a mindset people.

 

Again, I am not trying to beat a dead horse here, but I received so many comments from a previous article where I revealed the secret to getting PAID was your mental mindset.

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Many of you dismissed this as mumbo jumbo, probably because you hear it so much it’s almost like words come across sounding like Charlie Brown’s teacher. “Wah, wah, wah, wah, wah, wah, wah,”

 

Michael Jordan was one of the superstars Don interviewed.

 

Michael never spoke of his 42” vertical leap; which is astounding.

 

That’s talent.

 

In fact, a 42” vertical leap is a God-given talent.

 

You can’t learn to jump 42 inches. You have it or you don’t.

 

Why wouldn’t the great Michael Jordan who was 6’6” talk about this amazing gift as the reason he was able to not only succeed, but DOMINATE an entire league of seemingly God-like 6’9” tall ability?

 

Answer: IT WASN’T THE TALENT

 

habit-result-equation

 

It was the fact that he learned to hate losing so much.

 

Some people are born with this type of drive.

 

 

Some learn it because they grew up dirt poor and never want to return to that state of living again.

 

Some learn it other ways.

 

Don’t you find it compelling that out of over 2,500 athletic superstars interviewed, the vast MAJORITY of them described this attribute as the highest contributing factor to their success over their obvious talent?

 

Doesn’t that ring a bell somewhere in your being?

 

I see it every single day in our music business.

 

The big winners have a very wide range of musical ability. Some are very talented, some are not.

 

ALL the winners hate to lose.

 

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This is a mindset.

 

This can be learned.

 

 

The habit can be dropped like a 3-foot putt.

 

 

Your success isn’t dependent on whether you have enough talent to win American Idol or The Voice.

 

And as you can plainly see, it doesn’t matter if you win American Idol or The Voice with your talent, your career success will be determined by what happens after that.

 

Lose the habit, gain success. Period

 

Surround yourself with the right people: this includes your significant other.

 

 

If he or she is not adding to your success they’re detracting from it and you’re wasting time.

 

This means your band. If everyone isn’t on board get rid of them.

 

This is “show-BUSINESS”, not “show-friends”.

 

This may sound harsh to you because y’all are friends but here is a little reality check. Imagine bringing your friend into your day job. You vouch for this friend to your boss, the boss agrees, and your friend comes in and doesn’t hold up his or her end of the deal.

How would you feel?

 

Would you be surprised if your friend got fired?

Would you be the one to fire that friend?

 

I remember an early gig my band played when we were in high school. We had about 5 minutes before the show was supposed to start and nobody could locate the new drummer.

 

We all went out into the parking lot and found him.

 

In his crappy-ass, rusted out, shit-box of a pickup truck.

 

He was surrounded by a literal SEA of empty beer cans.

 

I wanted to kill him right then and there!

If I had a lobster fork, I’d a stabbed him in the eye with it.

 

We did the show, he sucked, and then he was gone. No questions asked. (Who can’t handle the pressure of high school show for crying out loud?) sheesh.

 

The great UCLA coach John Wooden was quoted as saying, “You’ll NEVER outperform your inner circle.”

 

Think about that.habit-inner-circle

 

Then REALLY think about that while you assess your inner circle.

 

I came from a small town. There are plenty of friends who are still in that small town sitting on the same barstool making the same excuses as to why they can’t succeed.

 

Many of them are unhappy and it’s not their fault.

 

Just ask them, they’ll tell you.

 

There is a diagnosable mental dynamic that happens when your homies bring you down.

 

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I saw a video with Snoop Dogg the other day articulately describing what he called “the gap”.

 

 

 

He held one hand up in a flat horizontal fashion about 2 inches above the other one. Snoop said that in order to be friends and hang the gap has to be small like the 2 inches he was showing. Trouble is when someone starts to rise up, the gap begins to widen. Then there is only one way for the relationship to continue as it has been.

 

Somehow the gap has to close.

 

There are only 2 ways for the gap to close. Either the bottom hand has to step up or the top hand has to come down.

 

Get it?

habit-gifts

 

Are you in the habit of coming down to make your friends more comfortable around you?

 

Be honest.

 

Don’t be ashamed of your gifts and certainly don’t you dare believe that your gifts alone are all you need to break out and be successful.

 

That’s a naïve story most artists love to tell themselves.

 

You have to be a student of the game.

 

You have to hate losing.

 

habit-losing

You have to be mindful of your inner circle.

 

 

You have to hate losing so much that you learn everything else like the business, marketing, performance, writing, recording, etc. to stack the deck as much as you can in your favor to give you the best chance of NOT LOSING.

 

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Do that, and you’ll wake up one day making a living doing what you were born to do surrounded by an amazing inner circle.

 

Stay

 

In

 

Tune.

 

 

 

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Story Branding Feature MEME

If you aren’t aware of story branding yet then you’re Story Branding Fire Deer MEMEwelcome, in advance. This is your introduction.

 

It’s going to change your life and, YES, I’m going to give you a real world example in this article.

 

Do you know how those memory experts, who during a live performance, can remember 100 random things in order 1 hour after being exposed to them for the first time?

 

Story Branding Memory Expert

 

 

ANSWER:  Story branding.

 

They turn each item to be remembered into an image and then the sequential images create a little movie in their heads which makes it more memorable.

 

How powerful is that?

 

What if you could do that in your music marketing?

 

Story Branding Trojan HorseIt’s like the most awesomely effective Trojan horse that allows you to tap into the consumer brain and hijack it for a certain amount of time.

 

Every movie, book, sitcom, some songs, some commercials are built around story branding.

 

What is story branding exactly?

 

 

 

A story, in its most basic form is a three-act play.

 

Story Branding Act I

Act I: Set up

Act II: Conflict is introduced

Act III: Resolution

 

 

 

 

Here’s the deal, we are wired up to remember stories because we cannot help but place ourselves into the story and begin to compare how we would behave in the situation at hand. It doesn’t matter how unrealistic the story is (think summer blockbuster movies) we all, automatically, put ourselves into the story and begin to make comparisons within ourselves and our own lives.

 

Story Branding Wired Up

 

We think consciously and subconsciously, “Here’s what I would have done.”

 

 

 

Even the best scriptwriters who are EXTREMELY AWARE of the structure of the story at hand, cannot help but get emotionally involved; it’s like kryptonite.

 

Think about that I’m going to repeat it!

 

Even the best scriptwriters who are EXTREMELY AWARE of the structure of the story at hand, cannot help but get emotionally involved.

 

How freakin’ powerful is that? They know what’s going on but cannot exclude themselves from the result that is desired by the writer. They get pulled in when it’s executed correctly.

 

Wow.

Story Branding Boring Boardroom meeting

 

This is so powerful that huge corporations are beginning to require executives to serve up the boring quarterly status reports, typically rife with mind-numbing charts and power point slides, in the form of a story.

 

Everyone remembers, nobody falls asleep.

 

 

You may remember when I wrote How to Actually Get Paid Living As An Artist, I took a lot of heat from the community because I “didn’t offer an exact method to actually get paid, instead it was all this ‘mental mindset’ mumbo jumbo”.

Story Branding How To Get paid

 

A bunch of people didn’t get it and felt I duped them.

 

Story Brand Duped Me

 

 

I’m going to connect the dots in a real world way right now by explaining my line of thinking, so follow me on this, ok? Here is why this mental mumbo jumbo is ACTUALLY THE ANSWER.

 

 

 

I am extremely aware of story branding and content marketing from my reading. For weeks I was wondering and thinking about how to incorporate this power into the marketing for my artists.

 

Execution is certainly required, but with a company like Daredevil Production, LLC, we content market and story brand pretty well. We have a service and information that has the capability to change artist’s lives and careers.

 

When I share little golden nuggets of that information via my blog Story Brand Gold Nuggetarticles and my podcast, it is valuable to the artist community because it’s relevant and personal to them.

 

It helps them.

 

 

Therefore, my messages are mostly anticipated and not ignored like some commercial or ad they choose to ignore 3,500 times a day (real number).

 

Of course, when I have put that info into a story, which I often do, it sticks better, they receive this important information more efficiently.

 

Here’s the rub. With an artist, THEY are the product. So how does one dole out information that is valuable to that artist’s community without sounding obnoxious or narcissistic?

 

Story Brand Narcissistic

 

ANSWER: It can’t just be about the music, there has to be more to humanize the brand and make them relatable. After all, the relationship with the artist will come BEFORE the audience hears the music so this is our “in”.

 

 

 

 

If they like the artist, they’ll listen to the music.

 

This challenge was rattling around in my head for weeks.

 

I was asking the right questions!!!!

Story Brand Brain

Then my subconscious rewarded me.

 

The gift came in the form of a conversation with Kevin, who is Bailey James’ father.

 

Again, because I was asking the right questions and open to all forms of input (all that mental mindset crap if you haven’t figured it out yet), I was able to recognize this information as a game changer.

 

Instead of chalking that exchange up to a random conversation it became my muse because I was looking for it.

 

I was telling Kevin about my ex-girlfriend’s (we were dating at the time of this conversation) youngest daughter, Meryn, who is 9-years-old.

 

Story Branding Messy Room

 

Her room always looks like a bomb went off in it. Typical for that age right? Mom fusses at her to clean her room, Meryn has other plans so she pushes everything on the floor and all visible surfaced under the bed.

 

 

 

Well the day came when Meryn wanted a friend to come over and it was time to deep clean her room which meant under the bed. Mom and I understood that Meryn was overwhelmed and we offered to help her.

 

HOLY CRAP!

 

You can’t imagine the things that we pulled out from under the bed. Bones, dead bodies, sandwiches, brand new outfits/shoes that have never been worn, plates, forks, glasses, OMG (some of those items are false and sarcastic and some are real. I leave it to you to decide).

Story Branding Clean Room

 

Disgusting.

 

Kevin and I were in stitches as I was telling this story and he retorted, “Oh that’s nothing, Bailey has that beat!”

 

He went on to explain that Bailey’s room was always spotless. When Bailey was required to clean her room BEFORE a friend could come over, she would take everything off the floor and all visible surfaces, put these items in a garbage bag or laundry hamper and put it in a closet down the hall that the family hardly uses.

 

The friend comes over NOW and the parents aren’t any wiser until a couple weeks later when mom starts to miss outfits.

 

I thought to myself, “This is GENIUS”.

 

Story Branding Epiphany

 

Ding! Then the light switch went off. If you remember, when we started this Bailey James project, I wanted Bailey’s fans to feel like she spoke for them; the 9-14 year olds.

 

 

 

Taylor grew up.

 

Her lyrics went from “You wear high heels, I wear sneakers, you’re Cheer Captain and I’m on the bleachers” to “I have a long list of ex-lovers, here’s a blank space, you can write your name.”

 

Who’s speaking for the kids now?

Story Branding Bailey TSG Logo

 

All these thoughts came together with story branding in this epiphany.

 

Bailey’s Teen Survival Tips.

 

What If we created a series of say, 30 videos, where Bailey shares her stories on how to deal with common pre-teen and teenage issues? Some issues could be serious, some could be fluffy, but they would all be relevant and personal to Bailey’s audience.

 

Bailey’s audience all have had similar experiences and it’s nice to hear from a peer that you’re going to be ok, right?

 

Story Brand Anticipated

 

 

Which would make these videos anticipated (instead of obnoxious and ignored).

 

 

 

 

Issues like:

  • How to clean your room and get that friend over, right now!
  • How to deal with catty girls.
  • How to deal with a mean teacher.
  • How to deal with peer pressure.
  • When your crush doesn’t like you back.
  • Boys fashion guide.
  • How to deal with mean boys.
  • The right way to eat a cupcake.
  • Some embarrassing moments for Bailey.

 

Are you picking up what I’m putting down?

 

These videos would be quick between 30 seconds and 3 minutes so they’re easy to consume.

Story Branding Relationships

This would be an AMAZING way to create a relationship between the audience and the artist.

 

 

She serves these little teenage value bombs up in the form of real stories. In most of these videos, there is a set-up (act I), conflict (act II), and a resolution (act III).

 

We are about to release this video series this week. I’m going to play with the intervals at which we release the videos but the meat is on the bone.

 

Story Branding Vulnerability

 

We have a story, we have relatable information, we have vulnerability with the artist (which makes her “one of them”), it’s served up in a video format which is far more engaging and sharable than any other format, it feels like the artist is talking directly to the consumer, and it can be multi purposed across all social media platforms to drive traffic to her YouTube Channel.

 

 

 

 

Oh yeah, I forgot to tell you, guess what’s playing in the background of every video during each story?

 

Yep. Her current single. (drops mic)

 

FYI, we spent about $30 on the logo via Fiverr.com and about $100 getting the bumpers created with our video house.

 

Here is an example of one of these videos.

 

FYI, you can story brand everywhere.

 

 

Here’s a “right” question to ask yourself. How can you create a story in a Tweet? Could the image be the set up? Could an image be the set up and the conflict leaving 140 characters to proffer a resolution?  I digress.

Story Branding Twitter MEME

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Story Branding The Business Of Story Logo

 

If you want to dig into story branding more, I recommend this free podcast The Business of Story.

 

 

 

Story Branding Donald Miller

 

 

 

…and this one, Building A Story Brand with Donald Miller

 

 

 

 

 

Stay

In

Tune

 

 

 

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