Latest / What is Business Development? / Episode 118: Top 3 Takeaways from "Brand Thinking" with Dr. Allison Steinke

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Episode 118: Top 3 Takeaways from "Brand Thinking" with Dr. Allison Steinke · What is Business Development?

• 0:03
  Speaker 1: Welcome to the Business Development podcast, brought to you by
• 0:06
  Speaker 1: the Global Business Development Association, delivering the strategies and tactics
• 0:11
  Speaker 1: to boost your career and corporate growth.
• 0:21
  Speaker 2: Hello bd pros, and welcome to the Global Business Development
• 0:26
  Speaker 2: Association podcast called What is Business Development? Let's talk about
• 0:32
  Speaker 2: what makes you believable as a business developer and what
• 0:37
  Speaker 2: will make you believable is if you read the Business
• 0:40
  Speaker 2: Development Body of Knowledge and that will help you become
• 0:43
  Speaker 2: believable as a business development professional. Where you can take
• 0:47
  Speaker 2: your Business Development Professional certification at the Global Business Development
• 0:51
  Speaker 2: Association website. That's at gbdassociation dot org. Grab your copy
• 0:57
  Speaker 2: of the book and then you can take the BDP
• 1:01
  Speaker 2: Certification exam and join the community. And let's jump into
• 1:07
  Speaker 2: this book. It's called Brand Thinking and it's building brands
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  Speaker 2: you can believe in. It's by Alison Stankey and Hessen
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  Speaker 2: Park and our guest today is Alison Stanky and Alison
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  Speaker 2: is a professor at the University of Minnesota and Alison
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  Speaker 2: has an extensive career as an award winning scholar, author, educator,
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  Speaker 2: and marketing professional with a passion for branding, innovation and solutions.
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  Speaker 2: She has a PhD in mass communications and extensive experience
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  Speaker 2: in both academia and industry, and she thrives on crafting
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  Speaker 2: influential narratives that resonate and engage various audiences. And this book,
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  Speaker 2: I suspect will resonate with many folks that are listening
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  Speaker 2: today because it's talking about brand and brands are so important.
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  Speaker 2: We talk about them in chapter two of the Business
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  Speaker 2: Development Body of Knowledge, and thinking about your brand is
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  Speaker 2: absolutely critical because, as we say in the Business Development
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  Speaker 2: Body of Knowledge, the brand is a container of trust.
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  Speaker 2: And so if you are not trustworthy, if you are
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  Speaker 2: not believable, well you'll probably have some problems in the
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  Speaker 2: field of business development. So today we're going to bring
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  Speaker 2: our guest to the stage, Alison Steinke. Alison, Welcome to
• 2:38
  Speaker 2: the show.
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  Speaker 3: Awesome, thanks so much for the intro, Tony, really thoughtful
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  Speaker 3: and love what you're doing with the certifications for business development.
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  Speaker 3: I know you mentioned in a recent podcast I was
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  Speaker 3: listening to how there hasn't been a traditional pathway for
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  Speaker 3: business development professionals and it's really awesome that you're creating
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  Speaker 3: that for people. So I think what you're doing is
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  Speaker 3: really cool, especially with a certification route.
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  Speaker 2: Oh well, thank you so much for those implements. I
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  Speaker 2: appreciate that, Alison, and I'm so excited to hear you
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  Speaker 2: talk about the book again. Folks, we're talking about a
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  Speaker 2: book called Brand Thinking. It's Building Brands you can Believe
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  Speaker 2: in by Alison Steinkey our guest today in Hessen Park,
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  Speaker 2: and there's also a ford in there by Marty Brand. Allison,
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  Speaker 2: can you tell us a little bit about Marty and
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  Speaker 2: his influence on this piece of work.
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  Speaker 3: Would love to talk about Marty.
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  Speaker 2: So.
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  Speaker 3: I'm a professor at the University of Minnesota and Marty
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  Speaker 3: is an alumnus of the University of Minnesota' Hubbard School
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  Speaker 3: of Journalism and Mass Communication. Back in the day, Marty
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  Speaker 3: majored in the journalism school and he went on to
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  Speaker 3: become a brand consultant for his entire career. He got
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  Speaker 3: his start in Silicon Valley working with brands like Dell
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  Speaker 3: acer When International in Europe and Asia, talking with brands
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  Speaker 3: like HP and Deloitte with what it means to build
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  Speaker 3: brands and belief is something that he really keyed into
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  Speaker 3: throughout his career, really worked to figure out what it
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  Speaker 3: means to build a believable brand and wanted to really
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  Speaker 3: spell this out in a research driven manner. So Marty
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  Speaker 3: came back to the U in twenty twenty two, he
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  Speaker 3: had lunch with my director and me and my co author,
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  Speaker 3: Hassan Park and wanted to develop a research project. He
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  Speaker 3: started the Brand Fund for Brand Thinking at the Hubbard
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  Speaker 3: School of Journalism and that has helped fund the research
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  Speaker 3: that we've done, interviewing chief marketing officers, hosting focus groups
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  Speaker 3: with over one hundred consumers to date, and it's been
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  Speaker 3: really cool to see brand believability and brand thinking come
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  Speaker 3: to life. Built on this foundation that Marty started with
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  Speaker 3: his industry consultancy and True Brand is his LLC, and
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  Speaker 3: also just through his passion for these ideas, and so
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  Speaker 3: Hassan and I were able to conduct this research, write
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  Speaker 3: this book, and as lead author, I'm really excited to
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  Speaker 3: talk more about that today.
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  Speaker 2: Yeah. Well, and I think what is so clever here
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  Speaker 2: is that And of course this is a we're talking
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  Speaker 2: branding experts and communications and experts, but you said it
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  Speaker 2: was the you know, it was a fun that is
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  Speaker 2: focused on brand. And here we have Brandt's name and folks,
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  Speaker 2: if you're just listening, I'm showing the cover of the book.
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  Speaker 2: In Marty Brandt's name, the spell with at at the
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  Speaker 2: end B and d ke so very clever wording for
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  Speaker 2: the book and the grant. So I love that origin
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  Speaker 2: story for the book. Allison, can tell us a little
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  Speaker 2: bit about your origin story. How did you get involved
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  Speaker 2: in the industry, because I know you had some pretty
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  Speaker 2: exciting jobs there early on in communications.
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  Speaker 3: Yeah.
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  Speaker 2: Absolutely.
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  Speaker 3: I got my bachelor's and media studies from Wheaton College
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  Speaker 3: and Illinois, went on to get my master's degree in
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  Speaker 3: magazine editing from Northwestern University's Middle School and started blogging
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  Speaker 3: for the Chicago Tribune. At the beginning of my career,
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  Speaker 3: I started a blog called a Daily Miracle, and it
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  Speaker 3: was kind of about faith and inspiring stories I encountered
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  Speaker 3: throughout the way. And that blog actually got me my
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  Speaker 3: first job as a magazine editor at Christianity Today Magazine
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  Speaker 3: in Carol Stream, Illinois, and I did some international reporting
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  Speaker 3: on drug and sex track. I did some beat reporting
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  Speaker 3: on religion and churches over the like all throughout the world,
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  Speaker 3: and then I got another magazine editing job at Wheaton College,
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  Speaker 3: my alma mater, and I edited their alumni mag with
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  Speaker 3: their marketing department and did that for about five years
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  Speaker 3: before I realized I loved teaching. I had been adjuncting
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  Speaker 3: for several years at Wheaton, and I was like, how
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  Speaker 3: can I do this full time? And a PhD became
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  Speaker 3: pretty clear that was the pathway to do that. And
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  Speaker 3: so I'm from Minnesota originally and was thrilled to become
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  Speaker 3: part of their PhD program in mass communication. And so
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  Speaker 3: I finished up my PhD in twenty twenty two and
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  Speaker 3: got a full time job on faculty as soon as
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  Speaker 3: I graduated. So grateful to have basically been going on
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  Speaker 3: my tenth year at the U and my fourth or
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  Speaker 3: fifth year on faculty full time.
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  Speaker 2: Yeah. I always love to bring folks that are guests
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  Speaker 2: on the show with extensive experience both in academia and
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  Speaker 2: in the practitioner field. And it's so great that you've
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  Speaker 2: had extensive experience in the communications world, in the radio world,
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  Speaker 2: than the publishing world, which is so exciting. And then
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  Speaker 2: bring those kind of real world contributions into academia. And
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  Speaker 2: of course let's jump into the book I can't wait
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  Speaker 2: to learn again. I'm showing the cover of the book, folks.
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  Speaker 2: It's called brand Thinking, Building brands you can believe in
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  Speaker 2: So Alison, let's jump into the key takeaways from the book.
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  Speaker 2: I can't wait to hear these.
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  Speaker 3: Yeah, I think if you want to break it down
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  Speaker 3: to three tactics for business development, I think we can
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  Speaker 3: kind of do a top three list that would be helpful.
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  Speaker 3: I think we'll start with believability. I think that that
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  Speaker 3: is really the heartbeat of the arguments that we're making.
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  Speaker 3: And to get there, it's helpful to understand brand as
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  Speaker 3: a framework that we've developed in the book. Brand thinking
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  Speaker 3: is really a combination of growth, strategy, social influence, and
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  Speaker 3: belief systems. So basically, what is your brand's purpose, what
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  Speaker 3: is their culture? How is your brand designed? What sort
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  Speaker 3: of experiences do you provide for your employees, for your
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  Speaker 3: customers and for your clients. And then with regard to growth,
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  Speaker 3: communication is everything. I think that channels and outreach and
• 8:05
  Speaker 3: targeting people through market segmentation is really helpful. And that
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  Speaker 3: social influence piece, sustainability, social responsibility, how do you gain
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  Speaker 3: traction or resonance and affinity with your audience's clients and
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  Speaker 3: consumers alongside strategy. So a good strategy matters to go
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  Speaker 3: doing solid research and thinking about your brand's positioning and
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  Speaker 3: also how your brand is structured. That architecture is important,
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  Speaker 3: and all of those things build into what we call believability.
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  Speaker 3: And believability is something that we constructed in a pyramid
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  Speaker 3: format because we thought that would be effective as a visualization. Foundationally,
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  Speaker 3: is your brand authentic? Is it consistent? Is it innovative?
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  Speaker 3: Does it provide high quality products and services? And does
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  Speaker 3: it have emotional attachment among internal stakeholders, that being your board,
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  Speaker 3: your employees, your key C suite leaders, And then also
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  Speaker 3: is it credible? And those things all build believability. And
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  Speaker 3: there's a lot of elements there that we can unpack
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  Speaker 3: and I'm happy to continue doing that. But do you
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  Speaker 3: have any specific questions about any of that.
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  Speaker 2: Oh, there's a lot to unpack in that one, Alison.
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  Speaker 2: I love I'm big on brand, and more importantly, I
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  Speaker 2: like which you started off with. You said, what is
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  Speaker 2: the purpose of your brand? And for folks who've read
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  Speaker 2: the Business Development Body of Knowledge, the bad U P
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  Speaker 2: certified folks that are listening, we know that brand is
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  Speaker 2: built on what we call the brand trust. And to
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  Speaker 2: build trust within business development and in any human engagement situation,
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  Speaker 2: it requires the activation of a brain chemical cocktail, and
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  Speaker 2: those are the brain chemicals that are oxytocin, dopamine, seratonin.
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  Speaker 2: All of this comes together when we engage in a
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  Speaker 2: trusting relationship, and trust is based on purpose, empathy and truth.
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  Speaker 2: And so, Alison, I like how you started off by
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  Speaker 2: saying purpose, What is the purpose of your brand? Because
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  Speaker 2: really is that is the foundation? Where are we going
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  Speaker 2: with this corporation? What is our mission? And then that
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  Speaker 2: mission has to be aligned with our community, our customers,
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  Speaker 2: our prospects, our partners, everybody needs to be rallying around
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  Speaker 2: the purpose. And then that believability is created by our
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  Speaker 2: actions within the community, our actions with our customers. We're
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  Speaker 2: building the trust because, as science shows, every time we
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  Speaker 2: engage in a truthful some people use the word authentic,
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  Speaker 2: but every time we engage in a truthful engagement with
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  Speaker 2: our customer, that starts to trigger the oxytocin, which then
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  Speaker 2: cascades into dopamine and then the serotonin, and that becomes
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  Speaker 2: the brain chemical cocktail of trust, which, of course in
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  Speaker 2: your book you call a believable brand. Is that right, Allison?
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  Speaker 3: In a sense? I love the way that you put
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  Speaker 3: that and how you defined trust and the relationship between
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  Speaker 3: believability and trust is one that we're continuing to unpack
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  Speaker 3: in conversations about our book and our arguments in particular,
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  Speaker 3: mostly because we're trying to see how believability is a
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  Speaker 3: pathway toward trust, toward loyalty as well. Those trust and
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  Speaker 3: loyalty questions are really important and meaningful to stakeholders, we
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  Speaker 3: found in our conversations, and believability is kind of reverse
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  Speaker 3: engineering those things in a way in the sense that
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  Speaker 3: we hope that our pyramid provides those foundational elements that
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  Speaker 3: if somebody believes in what you're saying, much more likely
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  Speaker 3: that they will trust you, much more likely that they'll
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  Speaker 3: become a loyal brand ambassador. And so yes, I think
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  Speaker 3: that believability and trust are absolutely related. That specific relationship
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  Speaker 3: and how they're linked is something worth talking about and unpacking.
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  Speaker 3: And I think the purpose question that you mentioned, the
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  Speaker 3: reason that we were so passionate about purpose and our
• 11:54
  Speaker 3: cmos we were talking with in Consumers is because everyone
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  Speaker 3: has a problem, right, and so how can we posit
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  Speaker 3: brands as solutions to social problems, to people's personal problems,
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  Speaker 3: And that purpose we define it as an organization's why
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  Speaker 3: it's a reason for being and the things that it
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  Speaker 3: stands for, and we kind of place it because we're
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  Speaker 3: living in this post truth era where we find that
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  Speaker 3: people are having trouble figuring out what they believe and
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  Speaker 3: why they believe it. I mean, you can look on
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  Speaker 3: social media for three seconds and find so much misinformation, disinformation, slander,
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  Speaker 3: and these beliefs have become more important than facts. And
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  Speaker 3: so this is a problem for many reasons that we
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  Speaker 3: see play out in current events constantly. But it's also
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  Speaker 3: an opportunity for brands to kind of fill that void
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  Speaker 3: and provide people with a compass in a sense and say, hey,
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  Speaker 3: we're here for you. These are the values that we
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  Speaker 3: stand for and that we forward and this is the
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  Speaker 3: story that we're telling, and how we can help X
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  Speaker 3: Y or Z client consumer better themselves, better the environment,
• 12:56
  Speaker 3: better the world in whatever sort of way.
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  Speaker 2: Yeah, wow, this is great. Okay, So key takeaway is
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  Speaker 2: really understand the why of your brand, the purpose of
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  Speaker 2: your brand, and then everything kind of cascades from that.
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  Speaker 2: It's all kind of grounded in that solid foundation that
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  Speaker 2: leads us toward this pathway of believability. Just having a
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  Speaker 2: purpose alone will not you know, you have to have
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  Speaker 2: engagement in order to develop believability. But I think we'll
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  Speaker 2: probably get to that in the second major takeaway from
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  Speaker 2: the book.
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  Speaker 3: Yeah, and that actually is purpose. So if I put
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  Speaker 3: believability as the first takeaway, is building that believability through authenticity, consistency, innovation, quality,
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  Speaker 3: emotional attachment, and credibility. If we move into that purpose space,
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  Speaker 3: it's worth spending a little more time on because there's
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  Speaker 3: so much to it. Tactically, you can think about purpose
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  Speaker 3: and your brand's purpose through purpose statements for example, And
• 13:50
  Speaker 3: this is something that I bring up with brands that
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  Speaker 3: I talk with in leaders that I speak with at conferences.
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  Speaker 3: But does your brand have a purpose statement or do
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  Speaker 3: they just have a mission statement of vision statement those
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  Speaker 3: sort of things. So it's worth considering if your brand
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  Speaker 3: doesn't have a purpose statement, why not and should you
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  Speaker 3: create one? And if not, how can you infuse purpose
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  Speaker 3: into your pre existing mission and vision statements as you
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  Speaker 3: look to the future, as you strategically plan for what's
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  Speaker 3: next for your brand in this climate? And so yeah,
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  Speaker 3: that's one point.
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  Speaker 2: Okay, So we start with the believability, right, So I
• 14:26
  Speaker 2: guess I had these kind of in reverse, So I apologize,
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  Speaker 2: but but we have we start with believability and then
• 14:32
  Speaker 2: the and then we focus on the purpose. And I
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  Speaker 2: like what you said. Yeah, yeah, Okay, your company may
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  Speaker 2: have a mission and a vision, that's great, but what
• 14:39
  Speaker 2: is your purpose? Right? We have to have we have
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  Speaker 2: to be clear on purpose. Help us out a little bit.
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  Speaker 2: You know there are companies. Should it be a utilitarian purpose?
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  Speaker 2: Do you think it's Hey, look, this is our market,
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  Speaker 2: this is this is the product, this is the focus
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  Speaker 2: area for our company? Or should it be broader in nature?
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  Speaker 2: Should it be social and relate in relation to our community?
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  Speaker 2: What's your position on that?
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  Speaker 1: Yeah?
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  Speaker 3: And that kind of gets to that cornerstone element of
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  Speaker 3: believability with authenticity, something that we talk about is co
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  Speaker 3: creation quite a bit in our book, and it's very
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  Speaker 3: important for brands to consider that authentic piece of what
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  Speaker 3: do our clients, consumers, communities care about and how can
• 15:23
  Speaker 3: we reflect that back to them. It's a brand in
• 15:25
  Speaker 3: a way that's authentic and aligned with the values of
• 15:28
  Speaker 3: our organization, and so in that a purpose driven mission
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  Speaker 3: statement will look different, for example, for Patagonia than it
• 15:35
  Speaker 3: will for Ben and Jerry's, but they still have these
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  Speaker 3: elements of functional, emotional social and transformational elements within that
• 15:44
  Speaker 3: provide a brand promise to their stakeholders, to their consumers.
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  Speaker 3: So what are you promising to your consumers? I think
• 15:50
  Speaker 3: of B corporations right away off the top of my head,
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  Speaker 3: because that's a movement that we talk about in detail
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  Speaker 3: in our social influence section. But if you're a for
• 15:59
  Speaker 3: profit organized anywhere in the world, consider becoming a B
• 16:02
  Speaker 3: corporation because in that if you become a B corporation,
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  Speaker 3: you must have a social or environmentally minded mission, vision
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  Speaker 3: or purpose statement that brings you into alignment with these
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  Speaker 3: thousands of organizations worldwide that care about transparency and supply chains,
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  Speaker 3: about the ethics of human labor, about fair trade movements.
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  Speaker 3: I mean Ben and Jerry's, Patagonia, Seventh Generation, or just
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  Speaker 3: a few brands that are B corporations that reflect back
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  Speaker 3: purpose through their statements, through their alignment with B corp
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  Speaker 3: in a way that's really compelling. So that's also worth mentioning.
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  Speaker 2: Yeah, it is. And you know, I think what's interesting
• 16:39
  Speaker 2: here and what you're saying is having that alignment between
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  Speaker 2: purpose and believability, you know, the truth of what you're
• 16:47
  Speaker 2: actually doing as a company. And I think sometimes with
• 16:51
  Speaker 2: well meaning intentions. There may be corporations out there that
• 16:55
  Speaker 2: have nothing to do with a specific area of interest
• 16:59
  Speaker 2: by their community, but yet they seem to cowtow to
• 17:03
  Speaker 2: what that community is excited about, which is fine, you
• 17:06
  Speaker 2: could be a supporter, but I think sometimes brands may
• 17:09
  Speaker 2: run into extremis. You know, if you're a company that's
• 17:14
  Speaker 2: manufacturing pencils, you know, and you're starting a bowling league,
• 17:19
  Speaker 2: I don't know. I mean, it's like what, I don't
• 17:21
  Speaker 2: understand how the two connect to each other, you know.
• 17:23
  Speaker 2: I mean it's great, ye, you know, yes, there are
• 17:28
  Speaker 2: probably bowlers that use number two pencils when they're filling
• 17:30
  Speaker 2: out their you know, scorecard when they're bowling, But I
• 17:34
  Speaker 2: don't understand the direct linkage here. Maybe if you're a
• 17:37
  Speaker 2: pencil company and you advocate for sustainable forestry, that would
• 17:42
  Speaker 2: be Okay, I get it, I get it. That's great, right.
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  Speaker 2: I mean I'm kind of being flippant in my example here.
• 17:48
  Speaker 2: I'm sure you could elaborate a little bit more with
• 17:51
  Speaker 2: with more an academia focus on this, But am I
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  Speaker 2: right here? Is you need to be kind of aligned
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  Speaker 2: with purpose but also what you're doing on a day
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  Speaker 2: to day basis, so that it's it becomes more authentic,
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  Speaker 2: as you say.
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  Speaker 3: Right, one hundred percent. And that kind of leads into
• 18:08
  Speaker 3: my third point about tactics or business development, and that's
• 18:11
  Speaker 3: your brand story. So what is the story that you're
• 18:14
  Speaker 3: telling to your employees and your board and your clients
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  Speaker 3: and consumers, and is that story consistent with your values,
• 18:21
  Speaker 3: with how you would like to support your community in
• 18:24
  Speaker 3: whatever form or fashion. And that could be told through
• 18:28
  Speaker 3: a purpose statement or a purpose driven mission statement, but
• 18:30
  Speaker 3: it's also told through everyday interactions in the office, in meetings,
• 18:34
  Speaker 3: in pr opportunities. If your c suite is giving media appearances,
• 18:39
  Speaker 3: for example, all that coaching that's involved with the narratives
• 18:42
  Speaker 3: that are being put out by your organization or brand,
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  Speaker 3: is it all consistent? Is it all authentic and aligned
• 18:48
  Speaker 3: with that purpose driven mission or vision that you have
• 18:51
  Speaker 3: as an organization. And some key tips for developing a
• 18:55
  Speaker 3: really compelling brand story that's believable are to have a
• 18:59
  Speaker 3: founder inspired purpose. That's one way that's really helpful. And
• 19:03
  Speaker 3: I understand that not all brands and organizations have their
• 19:05
  Speaker 3: founders still with them. I mean, CBS is one hundred
• 19:08
  Speaker 3: years old, so I mean their founder is no longer
• 19:10
  Speaker 3: going to be with them, but the values that have
• 19:12
  Speaker 3: been infused throughout the years and the decades may maintain.
• 19:16
  Speaker 3: And same with Chipotle. Their founder, Steve Els, was very
• 19:20
  Speaker 3: passionate about a high quality experience for his consumers and
• 19:24
  Speaker 3: visitors who had come to his restaurant, and he initially
• 19:26
  Speaker 3: had a thought to have a high end, sit down
• 19:29
  Speaker 3: restaurant experience for people, and he pivoted that innovation into
• 19:34
  Speaker 3: an open kitchen concept that has now scaled nation and worldwide,
• 19:39
  Speaker 3: and so he was able to really kind of innovate
• 19:41
  Speaker 3: but maintain that authenticity with high quality ingredients and that
• 19:44
  Speaker 3: authentic presentation of transparent. You know, you go through the
• 19:47
  Speaker 3: line at Chappottle, you see exactly what you're getting. Their
• 19:50
  Speaker 3: ingredients are often formed a table. They care about solar
• 19:53
  Speaker 3: power and sustainable efforts and a lot of their initiatives lately,
• 19:56
  Speaker 3: especially so that founder inspired purpose has really come through
• 19:59
  Speaker 3: with Chipotle in particular. Patagonia is another brand we talk
• 20:02
  Speaker 3: about with the schun'ard family and the way that they
• 20:05
  Speaker 3: founded the purpose trust that the brand's now based on.
• 20:08
  Speaker 3: They give so much away to help the environment, and
• 20:10
  Speaker 3: they have done that since day one. So Ever, since
• 20:13
  Speaker 3: Patagonia began, they've really cared about giving back to the environment,
• 20:17
  Speaker 3: and they've done that in a very strategic way that's
• 20:19
  Speaker 3: consistent over the decades. And so I think that consistent
• 20:22
  Speaker 3: communication about Patagonia as a brand. About Chipotle, you pretty
• 20:26
  Speaker 3: much get the same experience regardless of where you're experiencing
• 20:30
  Speaker 3: that brand. But in that brand is all about experience,
• 20:33
  Speaker 3: and we care about stories, like you're mentioning the psychology
• 20:35
  Speaker 3: of trust, the psychology of storytelling, like the emotions that
• 20:39
  Speaker 3: are involved with that, and all the touch points that
• 20:41
  Speaker 3: a brand can have with employees, consumer stakeholders, Like every
• 20:45
  Speaker 3: encounter matters, and so it's important for us to really
• 20:48
  Speaker 3: weigh the words that we're using and the narratives that
• 20:50
  Speaker 3: we're telling, making your story sticky, making it spreadable. So
• 20:55
  Speaker 3: when a client leaves a meeting with your sales team,
• 20:58
  Speaker 3: what are they telling their colleague, what are they telling
• 21:01
  Speaker 3: their network? Is it something that is believable, is it
• 21:04
  Speaker 3: something that is purpose driven, or is that something that
• 21:07
  Speaker 3: you can work on as a brand or an organization.
• 21:09
  Speaker 3: Kind of putting your ear to the ground and listening,
• 21:12
  Speaker 3: whether it be formally through social listening, platforms like Hootsweetters
• 21:15
  Speaker 3: brought social various things or just conversations in communities and
• 21:19
  Speaker 3: with other thought leaders kind of what does your brand
• 21:22
  Speaker 3: mean and how is it being experienced out there in
• 21:26
  Speaker 3: the world. So listening but also providing a consistent, authentic
• 21:30
  Speaker 3: brand story is like super important.
• 21:32
  Speaker 2: Yeah, it's so important. We talk about the power of
• 21:35
  Speaker 2: stories in the science of stories in the business development
• 21:39
  Speaker 2: body of knowledge. So folks who are listening, who are
• 21:41
  Speaker 2: business developers, you know how important the stories are. Well,
• 21:45
  Speaker 2: it's important to us as business developers because we're the
• 21:48
  Speaker 2: ones telling the origin story when we meet our prospects
• 21:51
  Speaker 2: for the first time. And then what becomes so powerful
• 21:55
  Speaker 2: is not just the origin story, but also the stories
• 21:58
  Speaker 2: are prospects in customers tell their friends, their family, their colleagues.
• 22:03
  Speaker 2: That becomes the organic, living story of your corporation. And
• 22:08
  Speaker 2: our mission as business developers is to help tell the
• 22:11
  Speaker 2: organs and story and then help build a live, growing
• 22:17
  Speaker 2: story that our prospects, our customers tell, because our mission
• 22:22
  Speaker 2: as business developers is to build raving fans who tells
• 22:26
  Speaker 2: fantastic stories about their experiences with our corporation. All of
• 22:30
  Speaker 2: that pours into the massive container of trust. We call
• 22:34
  Speaker 2: the brand the brand trust. And the more believable our
• 22:38
  Speaker 2: stories are, the more purpose driven our stories are, the
• 22:43
  Speaker 2: more our corporation grows. Allison, this is such a fascinating topic.
• 22:48
  Speaker 2: It's so fundamental to business development and business growth. Thank
• 22:55
  Speaker 2: you so much for sharing your ideas with us. And
• 22:58
  Speaker 2: again we'd like to think you but Hessen Park, your
• 23:01
  Speaker 2: co author, and also Marty Brandt for not only the
• 23:06
  Speaker 2: cleverly worded grant that he provided and the program that
• 23:09
  Speaker 2: you have at the University of Minnesota wonderful, wonderful program.
• 23:13
  Speaker 2: But you know, without folks like him and his contributions
• 23:19
  Speaker 2: to our community, the academic work that is so critical
• 23:22
  Speaker 2: to our profession would never be able to be created.
• 23:25
  Speaker 2: So thank you Alison so much. Thank you to Marty,
• 23:27
  Speaker 2: thank you to Hessen. Folks. Just to summarize what we
• 23:31
  Speaker 2: talked about today, tactic number one and the key takeaway
• 23:35
  Speaker 2: here is building the believability of your brand, and that
• 23:39
  Speaker 2: is done through identifying your brand's purpose, not the mission
• 23:44
  Speaker 2: and the vision. Yes, those are all good, but you
• 23:46
  Speaker 2: need to have that purpose. And then with that focus
• 23:52
  Speaker 2: on the authenticity, the focus on the purpose, then you
• 23:56
  Speaker 2: start cultivating the origin story that then builds upon itself
• 24:01
  Speaker 2: and becomes that living, breathing story that your ravingfan customers
• 24:06
  Speaker 2: tell their friends, their family, their colleagues, and that becomes, folks,
• 24:11
  Speaker 2: the exponential organic growth that we all seek as business
• 24:16
  Speaker 2: developers business owners. Alison, how can folks follow your work?
• 24:21
  Speaker 2: How can they connect with you?
• 24:23
  Speaker 3: Yeah, I'm all over socials, LinkedIn and ajstinky dot com
• 24:27
  Speaker 3: is my website, so you can find updates and blogs
• 24:30
  Speaker 3: and things of that nature on my website ajstinky dot
• 24:34
  Speaker 3: com and Brand Thinking. The book itself is available anywhere
• 24:37
  Speaker 3: books are sold, so can Google find out on Amazon, Bloomsbury,
• 24:40
  Speaker 3: Barnes and Noble, target, you name it. So would love
• 24:43
  Speaker 3: to hear everyone's feedback on our arguments and thoughts. This
• 24:46
  Speaker 3: is just the beginning of many many conversations, I'm sure,
• 24:48
  Speaker 3: so I hope this is all very helpful.
• 24:51
  Speaker 2: Well, it was certainly helpful today, Doctor Allison Steinky, Thank
• 24:54
  Speaker 2: you so much. Folks again, grab your copy of the book.
• 24:57
  Speaker 2: It's available. It's Brand Thinking Build brands you can believe
• 25:01
  Speaker 2: in by Alison Steinkey and Hessen Park and doctor Steinky.
• 25:06
  Speaker 2: Thank you so much for joining us. And as your
• 25:09
  Speaker 2: story continues, we'd love to have you back on the
• 25:11
  Speaker 2: show again soon.
• 25:12
  Speaker 3: That's awesome, Tony, thanks for this opportunity. It was so
• 25:14
  Speaker 3: good to meet you.
• 25:18
  Speaker 1: Thank you for listening to the Business Development Podcast. Join
• 25:22
  Speaker 1: our free community of corporate partners and business development professionals
• 25:26
  Speaker 1: advancing the art, science, and ethics of the business development
• 25:31
  Speaker 1: profession at Gbdassociation dot org.