Welcome, Storytellers. It’s me, Dan. I’ve been your host, your tour guide, your librarian for 125 episodes. That’s 125 legendary storytellers from all walks of life (two repeat guests, but one episode with three guests – do the math). Writers, video creators (including a television show creator), podcasters, social media storytellers, poets, songwriters, business storytellers… what a journey it’s been.

This… this is the finale. I’m taking a hiatus from the act of creating new episodes to work on something else. Being that this is a hobby I do in my spare time, and I have a family and other activities—including the motorcycle I’m absolutely itching to ride—it’s time to allocate my time somewhere else for a bit.

Storytelling from Entrepreneurs to Politicians

Most of us are tricked into believing that success means fitting in. Following trends. Accepting bad habits. Making people happy. That goes for life, for business and for our storytelling.

That’s where Christopher Lochhead comes in. Christopher has been an advisor to over 50 venture-backed startups, is a venture capital limited partner and a former three-time Silicon Valley public company CMO, entrepreneur, and co-author of two bestsellers: Niche Down and Play Bigger.

He’s also creator and host of two juggernaut podcasts, Follow Your Different and Lochhead On Marketing. He’s a master storyteller, even if he doesn’t admit to it.

“Your success in life and in business will be constrained in part, or enabled greatly, by your ability to tell stories.” - Christopher Lochhead on the importance of storytelling

How Story Fuels Content-Based Networking

James Carbary is the founder of Sweet Fish Media, a done-for-you service that guarantees new relationships between B2B companies and their ideal clients. He’s also an author and a TEDx speaker. His book Content-Based Networking: How to Instantly Connect with Anyone You Want to Know, is great for anyone looking to grow in their career, especially storytellers.

“I absolutely don’t think that there’s just one platform. It’s smart to video and audio. The more ‘ands’ that you can put on there… the better.” - James Carbary on storytelling platforms

Bella Vasta lives in Phoenix, Arizona with her daughter Olivia and rescue mix, Rocco the Rockstar. In 2002 she began a pet sitting company which went on to be nationally and locally award winning until she successfully sold it in 2016.

In 2007 Bella began Jump Consulting, a consulting company focusing on helping dog walking and pet sitting businesses start or expand and has grown that into a popular blog, podcast, YouTube channel, and speaking career.

Her motto is, "Always Keep Jumping.” And she’s a fantastic, energetic and compassionate storyteller.

“I don’t want my audience to leave the same way they came in. The reason [they are] there… is a connection element.” - Bella Vasta on connecting with an audience

Dan Smolen has enjoyed a truly meaningful career journey and he wants to take you along the path to finding your own. He is a nationally recognized author, podcaster, serial entrepreneur, workforce thought-leader, and heartfelt advocate for people who dream big dreams of doing meaningful work.

Dan talks about the universal themes that drive storytelling, how to find meaningful work and more in this episode.

“At the end of the day people question whether or not they feel loved. That’s a universal theme. Fear, hope, hopefulness… these are all universal themes.” - Dan Smolen

On this episode Dan welcomes a previous guest back – only the second guest to return. Joe Pulizzi first joined The Storytellers Network to close out season 5, Inspirational Storytellers. He’s a business storyteller and a “from the stage” weaver of tales. But now he’s added another bullet point to his story: novelist.

“I listened to Joe’s book when he released it via podcasting and was blown away,” Dan says. “I couldn’t stop.”

The Will to Die is a suspenseful mystery based on an everyday person solving the murder of his own dad. It’s now available in print as well (or digital download), in addition to the audio version.

For Joe, it makes sense to make the jump from business books to novels. At the core, it’s all story.

“The stories that we tell bind us together. It’s probably the most important thing we do that separates us from any other animal on Earth.” - Joe Pulizzi on the power of story.

A published Christian author, Laura writes heartwarming encouragement for your soul—especially in her romantic suspense, teen fiction, marriage, and children’s books. Laura is a chocoholic mom of three, married to her high school sweetheart. Originally from the UK, they live in Kelowna, B.C. as audacious empty-nesters.

“My reader is Kate. She’s 45 years old. She has kids. She has her own struggles. Anything I write, I write for Kate.” - Laura Thomas on writing for her audience

What would happen if an average mom became a vampire? Would she lose her humanity? Could she exist in both worlds?

Autumn Lindsey lives with her husband and three kids in a deep, dark, magical forest. Fluent in typo and fueled by caffeine, she writes Women’s Fiction with characters that bite. She is also the founder Writer Moms Inc. so, if you happen to be a Writer Mom in search of community and support, check it out! She’d love to have you join!

“…a memoir on how to pretend you’re a writer and just go for it!” - Autumn Lindsey on going for what you want

Candace Nadine Breen is of West African (Benin, Cameroon ) descent and wears many hats. She’s an author. She’s a survivor. She’s a former English teacher. She’s a wife and mother. And while raising a family, she returned to school and earned a Master’s in Human Services with a focus on Marriage and Family Counseling. She was even a real estate agent for a few years but found it unfulfilling , stressful and time consuming. After taking time to open up herself to her true path, she buried herself in metaphysical studies, earning a Master’s of Science and Doctorate in Metaphysics.

Candace is an author of several books, for adults, young adults and children, and is an inspiring storyteller.

She’s a Wall Street Journal Best-selling Author and World’s First Chief Content Officer. Ann Handley is a marketing thought leader, writer and a great human.

Ann is a digital marketing pioneer and the Chief Content Officer of MarketingProfs, the leading marketing training company with more than 600,000 subscribers. She is the Wall Street Journal bestselling author of Everybody Writes: Your Go-To Guide to Creating Ridiculously Good Content and Content Rules: How to Create Killer Blogs, Podcasts, Videos, Ebooks, Webinars (and More) That Engage Customers and Ignite Your Business. Her books have been translated into 19 languages, including Turkish, Korean, Italian, Chinese, and Japanese.

And she loves encouraging us all to write well.

“There’s a vulnerability in creating anything. The chance is high that somebody out there is not going to like it. But don’t let that stop you. Finding your community… your people, is important.” - Ann Handley

Michael Houlihan and Bonnie Harvey are the Managing Members of Footnotes Press LLC, the Founders of Barefoot Wine, and co-authored The Barefoot Spirit: How Hardship, Hustle, and Heart Built America’s#1 Wine Brand. The book chronicles the humble beginnings of the world’s largest wine brand and is a case study in more than 50 schools that teach entrepreneurship. Their original New York Times Bestselling paperback has been transformed into a dramatically performed audiobook – with voice work from actor Ed Asner.

Author and Podcast Host Kevin Wilson of Dining on a Dime

Kevin Wilson was one of the 1st people to bring the "Dining On A Dime" idea to the Philadelphia area for his restaurant blog website in 2011, it was a huge success on the website and he was asked to bring this idea to a weekly radio segment and after he saw how popular the radio segment was he brought this idea to Wildfire Radio, the show teaches people where to eat out well on a very tight budget and gives names on both the good and not so good restaurants. Author of the book “Table for One,” Kevin understands the power of story.

“I met a guy selling something and one day I start talking to him. I found out he was a drummer for the Beach Boys. You never know who you’re going to meet.” - Kevin Wilson on listening for stories

Allison Pearl is a Christian Suspense author of the 'Love and Danger in St. Claire' series with two books so far, Glazed Suspicion and Dunked in Trouble. She loves books, tea, chocolate, and watching old movies with her husband and black lab. And she loves the writing community.

“Making it in the craft is being brave enough to take something from your brain, put it on paper and show it to somebody.” - Allison Pearl on making it as an author

Author Chad Pettit grew up lost in the world of fantasy fiction but alienated from a knowledge of God. With no real direction in his life, he shipped out for basic training twelve days after high school. He continued down a path of sin and destruction through two combat tours to Iraq, but then God pulled back the blinders, and he met his Lord and Savior.

One passion that never left him was his love for fiction, and in 2013, he went back to school and earned his degree in English. This helped him develop his craft, spending long hours pounding away at the keys until his battles with guilt, fear, and shame came alive on the page.

Now he is on a mission to pull back the curtain on spiritual warfare and show others how to overcome trials through faith and start living their best lives for God.

“Stories allow us to gain empathy for other people. They allow us to understand flaws in our culture. They also allow us to understand the best parts of our culture.” - Chad Pettit on the power of story

Joy E. Rancatore writes fiction, nonfiction and everything in between. When she's not doing horrible things to her characters or dreaming up faery creatures and fantastic weapons, she beats her husband at card games, homeschools her two children, snuggles her two stinky dogs and lets her cat, Tolkien, do whatever he wants. They'd prefer to live in Middle-earth or Narnia or Hogwarts or in a galaxy far, far away; but, for now, they live across Lake Pontchartrain from New Orleans.

Her biggest writing accomplishment to date remains penning the cover story for the August 2003 issue of Leatherneck, Magazine of the Marines. It featured her brother, Justin.

“Words have built empires, articulated the deepest passions of the heart, defended beliefs and spread the power of dreams. Words hold great and lasting power.” - Joy E. Rancatore on the power of story

He’s the only guest to return to The Storytellers Network (He was guest #1 here). In this episode, we get to kick off 2020 with a bang. Season 9, Authors, welcomes the return of David Meerman Scott. David’s written 10 books on marketing, sales and PR and his 11th published book is just out. This one’s special because he co-wrote it with his daughter Reiko Scott. I can only imagine someday writing with my daughters… amazing.

David and Reiko explore how to turn fans into customers, and customers into fans in Fanocracy. So whether you’re in marketing, you own a business, or you’re a storyteller who wants to learn how to build your own fan base, David and I are here to bring a ton of information and inspiration.

“If we live a life of passion, it’s a better life. It’s a more fulfilled life. You can build the best relationships because you share something powerful in common.” - David Meerman Scott on building a Fanocracy

Say Hello to Chrissy of the Alphabeats

Christopher Cerf is an author, composer-lyricist, voice actor, puppeteer, and record and television producer. He is known for his musical contributions to Sesame Street, for co-creating and co-producing the award-winning PBS literacy education television program Between the Lions, and for his humorous articles and books.

Since writing and performing his first song for Sesame Street, "Count It Higher" in Season 5 in 1973, Chris has written or co-written over 300 songs featured on the program. Chris loves to have a focus for his stories, giving him a creative direction.

“If you give me a blank piece of paper and say ‘write a book or a song,’ I’m not sure what I would do. But if you tell me ‘We could sure use a song where Cookie Monster sings reggae about the letter J’ then I know exactly what to go do!” - Chris Cerf on story direction

Aaron Baskerville is what’s called a general assignment reporter for NBC10 in Philadelphia. You can watch his live reports weekdays at 4 PM, 5 PM, and 6 PM. 

Aaron joined NBC10 in August 2017. His favorite part about being a journalist is telling a story that creates change in someone’s life. A native of the Philadelphia area, Aaron is most excited to tell the stories of his hometown. 

To Aaron, story is what makes you care.

“Facts don’t make you care. The person in the story who’s compelling makes you care.” - Aaron Baskerville on the power of story

Using Story in Public Schools

Tom Page is a former director of communications for a public school system in Holland, Michigan. He’s also co-founder of a community that helps communication professionals in schools, called School Communicators Network. Tom is an entrepreneur working to help schools tell a better story.

Tom says at SCN they’ll listen to you, clarify your needs, and then create a clear and actionable roadmap that will grow support with your key audiences and community.

Whether it’s website design, content development, crisis messaging, or election or marketing campaign planning, the SCN team has many years of experience in school PR and the know-how to effectively boost your online and offline strategies and tactics.

This is the best line of Tom’s site: “We believe the story of your district’s purpose, people, and programs deserve more than from random blips and blurbs.”

In addition to helping craft story, Tom often gave advice to new teachers each school year.

“I always say that if you want to be known as a great teacher, go to your student’s soccer games, show up at the hospital… in 30 years that was how I saw parents evaluate who good teachers were. They were just good people showing up.” - Tom Page on great teachers

John Wall is an educator in the marketing world. He co-hosts the podcast “Marketing Over Coffee” which covers both classic and new marketing. John and co-host Christopher S. Penn record the show every week and publish the show on Thursday mornings.

I first discovered the Marketing Over Coffee brand on LinkedIn in the form of a group way back in 2011. Since then, I’ve wanted to chat with John – and had the opportunity to meet him at INBOUND in Boston in 2019. He recorded a live podcast with Scott Brinker. John speaks, writes and practices at the intersection of marketing, sales, and technology. And he educates others as he does it.

“There’s a whole layer of competition. If you’re in a red ocean market then story becomes the king.” - John Wall on story in marketing