In this episode of Storytelling for Engagement, host Miranda O’Connor speaks with Brian Gencher, a brand and marketing consultant and fractional CMO. Brian explains how storytelling humanizes a brand, builds emotional connections, and strengthens relationships with customers. The conversation dives into the critical role of brand positioning - why it’s the foundation of all marketing strategy, how it helps companies differentiate themselves, create clarity, drive customer loyalty, and attract the right talent. Brian outlines six key benefits of strong brand positioning, from influencing perceptions and simplifying decision-making to enhancing communication and long-term business success. 

Connect with Brian Gencher https://www.linkedin.com/in/briangencher/

Connect with Miranda: https://www.linkedin.com/in/mirandaoconnor-mba/

Learn more about The Art of Storytelling: https://www.theartofstorytelling.com/

Today we are excited to share our conversation with photographer and visibility strategist, Bonnie Dickson. She speaks about using photography in your brand strategy and in your story, humanizing your content and using original photos to help tell your story in a way that truly stands out.

Connect with Bonnie: https://www.linkedin.com/in/bdickson/
Connect with Miranda: https://www.linkedin.com/in/mirandaoconnor-mba/
Learn more about The Art of Storytelling: https://www.theartofstorytelling.com/

Ruth Bay is a self-proclaimed branding geek. She joins Miranda to explore her perspective on brand storytelling, design, how it differs from marketing and how organizations bridge the gap between their intended brand identity goals and how are they actually perceived by audiences.

Connect with Ruth: https://ca.linkedin.com/in/ruthbay
Connect with Miranda: https://www.linkedin.com/in/mirandaoconnor-mba/
Learn more about The Art of Storytelling: https://www.theartofstorytelling.com/

Our guest on this episode is David Gilbert, a professional voice over talent. David and Miranda discuss the importance of choosing the right voice for a project, how he embraces the character he portrays, and the impact of AI on the voice industry. As an experience and successful voice talent, David describes the amount of training and coaching required to create authentic and believable voice overs that connect the audience with the brand. Join us to explore some similarities in the strategy behind voice over and video storytelling.

Connect with David: https://www.linkedin.com/in/davidgilbertvo/
Connect with Miranda: https://www.linkedin.com/in/mirandaoconnor-mba/
Learn more about The Art of Storytelling: https://www.theartofstorytelling.com/

Dan Sieger from Stories for Good is our guest on this episode. As a writer and brand strategist, Dan believes your story is never finished. Instead, your story responds to the market and evolves over time. He uses the example of an employee -  when they join a company vs a year later, their story and their profile changes. We discuss how every company is mission driven and that the one thing you truly own is your brand story. 

Connect with Dan: https://www.linkedin.com/in/danielsieger/

Connect with Miranda: https://www.linkedin.com/in/mirandaoconnor-mba/

Learn more about The Art of Storytelling: https://www.theartofstorytelling.com/

In this episode Joel Mandelbaum takes us on his digital journey, from being a high school entrepreneur to selling his very successful transportation courier company to a competitor. That’s when his Aha! moment happened, his competitor knew more than him about digital marketing and Joel was being left behind. Joel now acts as a "Digital Sherpa" to guide business owners through the modern marketing landscape with confidence while successfully moving their brands forward. Now the most rewarding part of his job is when his clients achieve success. 

Connect with Joel: https://www.linkedin.com/in/joel-mandelbaum/

Connect with Miranda: https://www.linkedin.com/in/mirandaoconnor-mba/

Learn more about The Art of Storytelling: https://www.theartofstorytelling.com/

In this episode we talk with Parm Chohan of Conquer Leadership. He works with aspiring and established leaders to optimize peak performance through leadership development, team building and coaching. We discusses why your Mission, Vision and Values are so important to serve as a framework for decision making, and why communication is the first building block to leadership. We being it home with having a clear picture of your vision and values and being able to communicate that through your story and connect with your audience. 

Connect with Parm: https://www.linkedin.com/in/parmchohan/

Connect with Miranda: https://www.linkedin.com/in/mirandaoconnor-mba/

Learn more about The Art of Storytelling: https://www.theartofstorytelling.com/

Miranda and Jessica cover the gamut of content for various social media platforms.

The nurture… the nurture element of like using LinkedIn or emails is really big because if you’re high ticket, they’re not going to buy. They’re going to need maybe like 10 to 20 touchpoints with you. They’re going to need case studies. So this is where the repurposing comes in, right? You have that video shoot from Miranda. Now what do we do with it? We’re going to make we’re going to make short video clips to post on LinkedIn. Maybe we’ll post one as a webinar. Hello again and welcome to our Video Storytelling for Community Engagement podcast. Today I talk with Jessica Bennett of Got Writer’s Block. Jessica and I talk all about content in this episode from different types of content for different stages of the funnel, how to repurpose content across platforms and where we think user generated content does and does not work in communications. Look out for more episodes of video storytelling for community engagement by The Art of Storytelling on all podcast platforms. We’re going to talk about all kinds of ways you can be using written and visual content in your social media and in all of your marketing. Jessica First of all, why don’t you tell me briefly what is Got Writer’s Block? I’m sure you’ve all heard the phrase before. Oh, I have got writer’s block. That’s exactly what our content agency does. So basically, when you are stuck on email marketing projects, LinkedIn writing projects, social media campaigns, we are there to help you get from that confused writer’s block to actually putting your thoughts into captions, email marketing, LinkedIn posts, and turning that into strategy. And what kind of industries do you work with? So we work a lot with health and wellness, social impact. We really like working with CEOs and founders that have a really big mission and they want to use marketing for good. As well, we definitely work with financial professionals and technology too. That’s great. Yeah. I do have quite a lot of experience with health and nonprofit as well, so. Yeah. You love it. So with your writing, what do you see that is different at different stages in the funnel? So like, what kind of content are you producing for the different stages that the customer goes through? So basically with the funnel, you have brand awareness content at the top. So these are new people who don’t know about your company. You’re not really trying to pitch them yet. It’s just more like introductory educational content, learning about the company, maybe their values, things like that. Stories are really good to pull people in. And then Mid Funnel is I’ve decided that I really want a goal, like with this health provider. I want to learn more information. So maybe that’s when you start putting out webinars, you start putting on tutorials, you start putting out case studies to try and convince them that yes, they’re the solution or you’re the solution for them and choose me. And then when it gets really targeted at the bottom, that’s when you’re really putting content to convert them. So very personalized. Like I was saying, it could definitely be very targeted towards their specific need. So maybe it’s like a physio, like here is a sample plan of what could happen when you come and visit. So very targeted to their needs versus more general at the top. Okay, great. And how are you getting stories into your content? So like for me, I often do like employee stories or customer success stories or maybe like an about us or a founder story. What kind of stories are you putting in with your content? Really similar, as well a lot about community building. Like we recently worked with a video game company and their mission is to stop like the bullying and harassment side. So then we’ll put stories from their community into the newsletters. So yeah, very similar style, like customer stories, employee stories and things like that. Nice. Okay. And so what d

Welcome back to our Video Storytelling for Community Engagement podcast. Today Miranda talks with the participants of our "Invisible in the Hills" pilot episode produced for Stories for Caregivers, Funded by Telus. And we celebrate Autism Awareness Month. We chat with Vivian, the parent and primary caregiver for her autistic son, Solomon; Breanne from Fiddlehead Care Farm that offers therapeutic support and where Solomon spends his summer camp time; and Jane from the Ontario Caregiver Organization, who is our expert support for this project. Join us as we continue to explore the power of storytelling to impact communities.

Welcome back. This is a recording of the panel discussion from the online premiere of Between Worlds. You'll hear from surfer, life coach and Aloha Award recipient Chris Dennis, Director of the film James O'Connor and Kacie Gonzalez and Duane Kenny, who were part of the dedicated team of brave people who brought Chris's story to the big screen and really opened the door on his journey into mentorship, philanthropy and surf therapy.

This is one of the most lively discussions you'll hear about content and the power it has to engage people and transform communities - video storytelling for community engagement. If you haven't watched Between Worlds or any of the other great productions our team has put out, head over to our website - https://www.theartofstorytelling.com/aos-films/

For video versions of these podcasts, go to our YouTube channel and hit Subscribe.