Storybuilding in conversation
In these interviews, I unpack the Storybuilding method with hosts from around the world. We go beyond slogans and campaigns to discuss how companies define who they serve, why it matters, and how to build a story that holds together internally and externally.
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31 interviews, newest first.
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Ask a child to draw something and you get a blank look. Ask for a purple animal and the ideas come pouring out. I told Mari Reisberg that story early on, because it is the part of my work people least expect…
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A friend of mine runs a governance and business continuity firm in Geneva. We asked ChatGPT for the best agency in Geneva for that work, and he came up. Good. Then it added that he was expensive. There is no price anywhere on his website…
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Early in my career I once finished a twenty-minute talk in ten. I had learned every word by heart, and nerves did the rest. Another time the technology failed in an auditorium, and people got up and left, one after the other.
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Felco is the world leader in garden shears, here in Switzerland. Farm workers use them, and some fans have the brand tattooed on their body. When Felco opened an online shop, it found a second customer: people like me, with a small yard…
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Before anyone reads your feature list or your price, they ask a quieter question: is this for someone like me? Rick Meekins and I spent an hour on why most companies never answer it, and what changes when the customer's standpoint comes first.
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Most companies can describe what they do. Far fewer can describe the moment a customer first recognises themselves in it. That gap is where brand narrative usually goes wrong, and it is where this conversation with Debra Pearlman started.
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Arshak Benlian's channel is about the road from virtue to value, which makes it an unusual place to talk about brand narrative and a useful one. We spent half an hour on why the customer, not the company, decides which story is worth telling.
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Story Building for Networking: How to Be Remembered, Trusted & Referred (Recognition–Perception–Projection)
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Workforce Alchemy Magazine wrote up my conversation with Mason Duchatschek and led with the line I would have chosen myself: the problem is not how companies tell their story, it is which story they are telling. The conversation it came from is here too.
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Storytelling in marketing is not about a dramatic origin story or a clever hook that grabs attention for a moment. It’s about building a customer-centric brand narrative that helps the right people move from curiosity to confidence.
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The technically best handyman in your town is not the one you call. You call the one who promises to turn up when he said he would. That promise says nothing about his skill — it is proof that someone has thought about your morning.
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Most companies think they have a strong story. The problem is that they are usually telling the wrong one.
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In this episode of YES, BRAND, Hersh Rephun sits down with business storytelling consultant John Elbing, creator of the Storybuilding methodology, for a lively conversation about empathy, narrative, marketing, and why so many companies t…
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A company had been making garden shears for 80 years when they discovered something unexpected: people were tattooing their brand on their bodies.
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In this conversation, John Elbing explores why the best business stories are built from the customer’s standpoint, not the company’s. He explains how Storybuilding helps brands move beyond describing what they do and start showing custom…
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John Elbing is a business storytelling consultant and the creator of the Storybuilding method. He helps organizations flip the script by building their brand story from the customer’s standpoint rather than from inside the organization.…
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Most businesses think they’re telling a strong story. In reality, they’re talking about themselves, and their customers have already switched off.
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John Elbing, the author of ‘Storybuilding: Your Brand From Their Standpoint, explores the critical differences between storytelling and story building, emphasising the importance of understanding the consumer’s perspective.
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In this conversation with Lorraine Ball on the More Than a Few Words podcast, John Elbing explores the difference between storytelling and what he calls Storybuilding. Rather than polishing a company’s story with clever techniques, Story…
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In this episode, Clarence Bongalos interviews John Elbing, a growth story architect, about the power of story building in marketing and organizational culture.
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Most brands think they’re telling great stories. Customers think otherwise. In this episode of Retail Voices, I’m joined by John Elbing, creator of the Storybuilding methodology and Chief Storybuilder Officer at Standpoint, to unpack why…
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Stop Talking at People. Start Speaking to Them.
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If you are struggling to stand out in a noisy marketplace, align your team around a clear message, or convert more prospects into loyal customers, this episode is for you.
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In this conversation, storytelling strategist John Elbing reveals how great hospitality brands are built from the outside in, not the inside out, and why the most powerful brand stories are created by employees, not marketing teams.
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In this episode of Marketing From the Front Line, I’m joined by John Elbing, strategic storyteller and author of Storybuilding, to talk about why so many businesses struggle to connect with customers, even when their product or service i…
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In this episode of the Innovation Storytellers Show, I sit down with John Elbing, Business Storytelling Strategist and founder of Standpoint, for a thoughtful conversation on how organizations can tell stronger innovation stories by shif…
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Brand storytelling has become an overused term that’s pretty vague. John’s take will give you a new take and things you can apply today to your website and marketing. He’s focused on building a customer-centered story framework you can u…
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Brand strategist John Elbing of Standpoint explains why people don’t care about your story, they care about how you fit into theirs.
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Storytelling is easy to talk about—and hard to do well. On this episode of On Brand, I’m joined by John Elbing, Chief Storybuilder Officer at Standpoint, to unpack how his Storybuilding approach helps startups and brands clarify their va…
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In this episode, Mike sits down with brand strategist and communications expert John Elbing, founder of Standpoint, to explore why clarity of story is the foundation of every successful brand. John explains why most businesses struggle n…
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Does your brand truly connect with your customers? Most companies fall into the trap of talking about themselves, leaving potential customers to guess how they fit in.
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