Welcome to the Story Bistro blog!
Our most recent posts have been cued up for your enjoyment. This month, our focus is on blooming and deepening our online relationships.
(See the footer at the bottom of this page to browse by category.)
The Crowd Sale Experiment
What would you rather do: sell your thing one at a time to many people? Or sell your thing all at once to many people? Hmmm. I thought so. So why do we -- so often -- attempt to find new clients and customers one at a time? Group sales are not a new concept. Folks...
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Small Business Pickles: a True Tale of Trust and Betrayal
na·ive [nah-eev] adjective having or showing a lack of experience, judgment, or information; credulous: She's so naive she believes everything she reads. It's easy to see looking through the rear-view mirror that one of my biggest life lessons is trust. Who to trust....
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Spinning Your Plates: How to Find Balance and Order
A guest post by Zeus Yiamouyiannis. For those of you just tuning in, this is the latest in a series of posts for The Zeus Experiment, whereby I chronicle my learning curve and ups and downs in developing my own successful online business. Tea Silvestre is my mentor in...
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Don’t Read the Instruction Manual: It’s Time to Improvise
Growing up in a Mormon family, I was encouraged to learn things that would develop me into the perfect wife and homemaker. How to make jam. How to sew. How to play with barbies. You know, girly things. And there were always lots of instructions for these things. A...
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Quirky Much? How Your Oddities, Flaws and Peculiar Habits Help Build a Stronger Brand
You and I may never meet in real life. So there are a few things you might never learn about me. The fact that I'm 6 ft. tall, for instance. Or, that I generally operate on the "piles and post-its" filing system. (But those are just surface quirks. Not the deeper,...
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How to shovel that hype-driven snow off your business (and reset your goals)
This is a guest post by Zeus. I don’t know about you, but I’ve had enough hot air. I’m ready to breathe deep that cool, invigorating air of reality, and shovel the “snow” off my business. Yes, the pun is intentional (and seasonal!). Anyone who tells you that you just...
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This Week’s Marketing Dish: Tiramisu
Laurie Nylund, a writer extraordinaire from Sandy, Utah, emailed this week’s suggestion. Here's what she had to say about tiramisu: This Italian dessert means "carry me up" or "to heaven," which is an apt description for how I react whenever I find a piece worthy of...
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10 Ways to Spice Up Your Writing and Let YOUR Voice Shine Through
From Struggling “Jill-of-all-Trades” to Master of One: A Case Study
This week, we take a close look at a Digital Dining Room member and learn what’s possible when you focus like a laser on “one thing.” Meet Colleen Conger of Think.Web.Go. In June 2012, she was a struggling freelance graphic designer who’d never even heard of a thing...
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Wide vs. Deep: How to Choose the Right Path for Building Your Business
Just for a moment, close your eyes and picture the dining room in your home. What kind of table do you have? What wood is it made from? How many chairs will fit around it (comfortably)? Visualize that table set for a dinner party. Choose the Placemats. Dishes....
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SSC 1.1 :: The Invitation
Julia stood in the same spot she always came to when she wanted to disappear. The young adult stacks were in the far corner of the upstairs level. It was the quietest section of the store and easy to hide there. Usually. She stared at the...
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Share the Real You — in Pictures
This post is part of the 30-Day Bloom Your Online Relationships Challenge. If you'd like to play along, you can sign up here (don't worry -- it's FREE). We're all working through these small, powerful actions together and sharing our questions, learnings and...
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How to Eat Your (Marketing) Artichoke
Expressing Brand Values: 3 Case Studies
...Three French Hens! It's Day 3 of the 12 Days of Branding. If you missed any of the series thus far, you can find them here. In today's installment I give you three examples of small business brands with solid core values that know how to walk the talk. Brand values...
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The Quantum Mechanics of Manifesting Your Community
I'm the oldest of 6 kids. And I've always been overly enthusiastic about my own ideas. Which of course means, I'm bossy a natural leader. Whether I was organizing a backyard production of Cinderella with my siblings (and any other neighborhood kid lucky enough to...
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This Week’s Marketing Dish: Ice-Cream Christmas Pudding
Elizabeth Todd, the brains behind Income Trigger Consulting emailed this week’s suggestion. Here's what she had to say about this particular dish: When I first arrived in Australia I was invited to have Christmas with relatives of my girlfriend and there I discovered...
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Wanna Be My Plus One? Why I’m Falling in Like with Google + (and Why You Might, Too)
About a month ago, I made a conscious decision to spend more time over on Google+. I did this knowing that the odds are you're not hanging out there (yet) -- even if you do have a G+ account. I did this even though I have no desire to learn some newfangled social...
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From the Heart: How to Get the Best Testimonials (So You Can Attract a Hungry Crowd)
Hear this truth: Your people love you. You're conscientious. You over-deliver. You care about your clients' success. You're a big-hearted entrepreneur with the best of intentions. And hear this...
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Writing Prompt: Your Soap Box
What do you stand for? Questions to get you started: What's bugging you about how your competitors operate? What do you see happening that needs to stop? What positive changes need to be made in your industry or line of business that everyone else seems to overlook or...
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Uncorked: Janelle Hardy Helps You Reconnect to Your Creativity
Welcome to Corkers Uncorked. These are some of my most treasured interviews -- mostly because I get to know my readers (you!) on a whole different level. We focus on your astounding biz-related superpowers and origin stories. Bonus: you get to learn more about your...
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Why Your Business is Stuck and How to Move it Forward (Especially if You’re Flat Broke and Jonesing for a High-Priced Program)
Are you like Julia? She signed up for every free e-course that she could find. She's downloaded just about all the free templates, e-books and worksheets that are out there (and most -- if not all -- are languishing among digital dust bunnies on her hard drive)....
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Biggest Business Lesson of the Year: Be (Gasp!) Human
Earlier this month, I talked about the Bears (and how to keep them from eating your business). That post sort of explains the comeback to small biz ownership I made last year. But it's not the whole story. Nope. See, this is the anniversary of something pretty darn...
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Has Your Brand Reached its Expiration Date?
(Or, does it just need a little freshening up?) When we start our ventures (if we do things right), we create branding that eventually accomplishes the goal of telling our story in a way that is unique, compelling and builds community. Both the visual and written...
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No More Marketing: Why I’m Done
What I'm about to tell you might kill my business, but I have to say it: I'm done (yes, you can stick a fork in me). I've never wanted to build an empire -- at least not one whose sole purpose was "bigger, better marketing." And a 4-hour work week? Puh-lease. Those of...
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A Business Storytelling Manifesto
This isn't just another bandwagon. This is truly important stuff. Especially if you're a mission-driven entrepreneur who has some world-changing ideas, products, or services. You know that business IS personal. That it SHOULD be personal. How else will we ever fix...
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10 Quantum Leap Actions to Create a Stand-Out Brand
Ten Lords a-Leaping... It’s Day 10 of the 12 Days of Branding. If you missed any of the series thus far, you can find them here. In today’s installment I give you ten quantum leap actions from ten "Lords" of branding on how to create a stand-out brand. Laura Ries...
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Behind the Scenes of AmyTV
Some of you may have seen Amy's video series, Content Marketing Stripped. She's created a total of 20 videos so far -- each one a gem filled with storytelling, humor and value. Perhaps (like me), you found yourself giggling out loud and sharing the videos with your...
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