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.)
Bad Table Manners: 39 Ways to Kill Valuable Business Relationships
No man is an island. -- John Donne You've probably heard the Golden Rule of Sales: that folks only do business with those they know, like and trust. It's true. The Better Business Bureau's Standards of Trust are built on this maxim. Luckily, most of my business...
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Get ‘er Done: Write Your Marketing Copy and Content
You're just like me. A small business owner who doesn't have their own marketing department (or who can't afford to hire an expert). Who wears all the hats and later wonders why you have a "bad case of hat head" (as one of my clients likes to say). And whose arms are...
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10 Totally Unique Ideas for Your Next Blog Post
Nobody ever wants to "phone it in." Our blog posts reflect who we are as a brand and a small business. The more you're able to think creatively about your content, the more you'll be able to generate engagement and interest, right? So I asked some of the brightest...
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Brainstorming 2.0: 15 Juicy Ways to Use the Internet
When we were kids, we had no problem accessing our imaginations. We also had no Internet, barely any TV (I remember a whopping FIVE channels!), and video games? Fuhgettaboutit. When we wanted to have fun, we had to make that sh*# UP. I remember creating whole fantasy...
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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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Tipping Sacred Marketing Cows: The Hero’s Journey as Ideal Story Structure
This month, I got curious about the best practice of using The Hero's Journey (aka The Monomyth) as THE structure for our best stories. For me, the problem is that this structure comes with the metaphors of battle built into it. And those metaphors bleed out...
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The Nemesis: Tell Your Marketing Story Better with a Character (or three)
One of the things you want to do is personify the problems of your customers. Why? Because it helps you tell better stories about how you fix those problems. I've done this for my own business, and was able to identify almost a dozen evil characters that stop my...
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Closing the Deal: Building a Business that Generates Income
This is a guest post by Zeus Many of you, like me, are putting in a lot of time, energy, and money into developing an online business. And yet concrete outcomes (substantial business income, successful products, etc.) sometimes seem so far away. We're taught to be the...
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Does this Business Make Me Look Like a Fat Failure? (Or, How to Silence That Voice in Your Head)
How're you feeling about your business and where it's headed? Hunky dory? Or just hunky? Is there a nagging voice in the back of your head screaming that your projects will never be Grade-A material? Are you constantly taking one course after another in order to get...
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(Infographic) If Your Blog Were a Beer, What Kind Would it Be?
I always love when food (or in this case, drink) and marketing come together. Once you've read thru this infographic, share what flavor you think your blog is in a comment below... If Your Blog Were A Beer... infographic by...
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If You Had Clients Like These…
...You'd Be in Love, Too Few business owners are as lucky as I am. I don't talk about them often enough, but I have some of the BEST clients in the world. Each of them are doing amazing things -- changing and shifting, growing into more confident and glowing versions...
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How to Tell a Compelling Story with Your About Page
Do you dread writing your About Page (like you dread cleaning out the fridge)? You're not alone. We all know we need one. And yes, it's probably one of THE most-visited pages on your entire site. (Have you checked your Google Analytics lately? Go do it. I'll wait.)...
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Tipping Sacred Marketing Cows: “You MUST Have an Elevator Pitch”
Want to be different and stand out from the crowd? One of the best ways to do that is to challenge the status quo. And over at the Business Luminaries’ Roundtable, that’s exactly what we’re doing. Talking about the elephants in the various rooms of our industries....
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Tell a More Engaging Brand Story: Use a Villain!
One of the things I have my clients do over the course of our time together is create a persona (or three) for their customers' Big Challenge/Desire. (It's part of the Biz Story Outline.) We ask the question: Who, or What stands in the way of your client...
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Must-Have Kitchen Tool: The (Sales) Funnel
Small Biz Finance Forum: Interview with Nicole Fende
Nicole Fende, aka The Numbers Whisperer, interviews Tea about cooking up a killer brand. Check out the podcast on her BlogTalkRadio show: The Small Biz Finance...
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Return on Influence: The Revolutionary Power of Klout, Social Scoring and More (an Interview with the Author)
Mark Schaefer stopped in at the Word Café last week and we had a chance to talk recently about his new book, Return on Influence. Here are the highlights: Q: How did you decide to write this book? I have to be honest...I've been watching this whole Klout thing from...
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The Great Email Experiment (or, Why Your Inbox is the Best Social Media Channel to Grow Your Biz)
Last month, a couple of folks I know (yep...Carney folks!) were lamenting the fact that there seemed to be an unusual number of people unsubscribing -- or, worse! complaining about SPAM -- every time they sent an email to their lists. Feelings of panic, fear and...
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After the Sale: How to Create Strong Client Relationships
Everything is about relationships. (Marketing, too.) That extends to things we do after the sale. After all, it's much easier to keep a client than to find a new one. If your client relationships aren't as strong as you'd like them to be, it may be time to put your...
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Case Study: Create a Content Strategy to Support Your Launch
Last month in the Digital Dining Room, the group's mission was to identify their main business goal for the final quarter of the year and then to develop a content strategy to support it. Here's how we got them there: Step One: Brainstorm ideas using a mindmap. Start...
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Flying By the Seat of Your Pants: A Marketing Plan Love Story
Do you have a marketing plan for your business? No, I don't mean all those plans you've got in your head. A plan that's written down. (Or, more likely, typed into that thing you stare at most of the day.) If you're like 99% of the folks I talk to, you don't. Because...
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Storytelling: How to Captivate Your Prospects and Grow Your Business
Humans. We all love a good story. Especially if they're true. Ever watched a movie based on a true story? This weekend, I found myself engrossed in "Big Miracle." It's based on the true story of the international effort to rescue a family of grey whales in 1988 off...
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What Small Biz Owners Can Learn from Superbowl Ads (Besides How to Waste Ungodly Amounts of Money)
I must confess: beyond the pleasures that come with watching a slew of manly men in tight pants run around and get sweaty, I'm not really a fan of football. I watch to support Mr. Perfect's interests and because (let's face it) he's holding the remote. What I DO love...
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Over-Exposed: When Too Much Marketing is Bad for Business
It happens about the same time every year. We all get a barrage of emails and see a tsunami of ads, blog posts, and offers for a certain program that starts with a B. Affiliate marketers -- even people we trusted! -- were hawking their bonuses left and right, and...
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Can You Fail-proof Your Business?
(Hint: Not Bloody Likely) You've all heard Ben Franklin's infamous quote: "...in the world nothing can be said to be certain except death and taxes." Yes, we've got a slew of new technology now, but unless there's a magic spell I missed, I'm pretty sure you still...
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How Well Do You Tell Your Brand’s Story?
This past weekend I attended (via simulcast) Andrea Lee's Lasting Lead Generation event. It was three days of fabulous teaching, coaching and delivery of actionable content. And I gotta say, she really knows her stuff! One of the first exercises she had us do was to...
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Go Old School: Have a Real Conversation
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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