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 Manifesto: Why Your Business Needs One and How to Write It
I always encourage my clients to write a manifesto for their business. And no, I don't want you to write something creepy a la The Unibomber. This isn't about blowing people up. (Just their minds.) What I'm talking about here is clarity. Clarity for you. Clarity for...
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You Don’t Need to Be Seduced (And Neither Do Your Clients)
[A poem] This isn't a sales page with secret voodoo marketing tricks. The truth is there are no secrets. And you don't need to be seduced, cajoled, or hypnotized. Your body and your heart know what's best for you and your business. I'm here to listen deeply. And help...
read more![Everything I’m Afraid Might Happen If I Ask a New Contact to Get Coffee [The Small Biz Owner’s Edition]](http://storybistro.com/wp-content/uploads/ask-for-coffee-400x250.jpg)
Everything I’m Afraid Might Happen If I Ask a New Contact to Get Coffee [The Small Biz Owner’s Edition]
You and I have some seriously MAD storytelling skills. We might not always tell the best marketing stories, but we sure do tell ourselves some pretty amazing things on a regular basis. Unfortunately, those stories get in our way and keep us from creating the kinds of...
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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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The Remarkable Purple Carrot: A Marketing Parable
How to Eat Your (Marketing) Artichoke
Wordalicious: How to Choose the Tastiest Words to Tell Your Story
"Words, are our most inexhaustible source of magic. They are our most potent forms of enchantment. Rich with the power to hurt or heal." -- Dumbledore, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Yes, words have a great deal of power. Here's a short video that illustrates...
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Your Secret Sauce: 9 Steps to Create an Addicting Brand
If you've been a freelancer or a small business owner for even a few months, I'm sure you've heard the advice, "Differentiate, or die." The experts are like a dog with a bone: "Nail down your USP, if you want to succeed,” they say. But when you're struggling to even...
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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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Turbo-Boost Your Brand using Social Media (+ 4 Unique Ways to be Human)
Four Calling Birds... It's Day 4 of the 12 Days of Branding. If you missed any of the series thus far, you can find them here. In today's installment we've got an awesome case study on how to do things that work, plus I give you four new ways to use social media to...
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Build Your Brand and Your Business Without Cash (A True Story!)
When I first started my consulting practice I used a combination of just three funding sources: savings, credit cards and a little thing called barter. Bartering can be great fun -- especially when you find someone who has what you need and who needs what you have,...
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Bigger Bang for your Marketing Bucks (and grocery dollars)
A guest post by Nicole Fende, the Numbers Whisperer™ We’re going to start by talking groceries. Don’t worry, I’ll sneak in the finance. Since Tea is the Chef, groceries seem appropriate. When you go to the grocery store you may be like me, and have a list. Big shout...
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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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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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Real-life Brands Find Clarity and Their Secret Sauce
"Clarity is power." (author unknown) Over the years, the one challenge most of my consulting clients have in common is still the same: a struggle to define themselves. Sound familiar? Most of them know what their business is about and what they have to offer their...
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From Guest Post to Published Author: An Interview with Beth Hayden of “Pinfluence”
Beth and I met last year in a guest blogging class taught by Jon Morrow, and it wasn't long before we'd hit it off. We've even managed to meet up in person a few times, and it's always an energizing exchange when we get the chance to talk. This interview was no...
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Welcome to the Zeus Experiment
If you're following the evolution of Prosperity's Kitchen, then you've already heard of The Johnny Project. But in case you're new to these parts, or if you've missed any of the game-changing explosions of late, The Johnny Project was an experiment in public...
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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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The Gamified Tribe: A Case Study
Just over 8 weeks ago, in preparation for our upcoming season of "Prosperity's Kitchen," I called for volunteers for a little experiment in gamification. You might think it's just a buzzword, but "gamification" is one way to create dynamic interactions with your...
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Case Study: Create Your Mastermind ‘Posse’
Peer-led Mastermind Groups. Everybody wants to be part of one, but the good ones can be hard to find (or create). Besides the obvious logistical challenges, you've also got to get just the right mix of personalities, expertise and commitment. And even then, things...
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Join Us in the Digital Dining Room: Confidence with a Side of More Customers
You've been looking for the right marketing coach or mentor for awhile now, haven't you? Or maybe it's the right mastermind group? You know you NEED to do things differently, but you're overwhelmed by all the advice out there? Look, I get it. It's a challenge to find...
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On the Paradox of Your (Writer’s) Devotion
It was 4 a.m. on a Monday and most of the water protectors were gathered around a bonfire near the foot of a bridge in Standing Rock, North Dakota. But not Sophia. The 21-year old woman was up on the bridge with a friend when she was hit in the forearm with what folks...
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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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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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Remember You’re Already Connected
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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Give your community a gift… just because
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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Fear. Fearless. Fearfully ready to take action?
Fears run rampant here lately. I've noticed lots of comments during coaching sessions like, "I can't do that. I'll look stupid." or "Are you serious? Me? Um, NO." Which reminded me of the time my son and I went hiking. Or, at least, he went hiking. I got as far as the...
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