#75: Using Storytelling to Stand Out, Give Back, and Build Connections

Your alarm goes off and you grab your phone, silencing the noise to scroll social media for a few minutes before getting ready for the day.

You stream music and eat breakfast—flipping through recipes and meal plans (paper or digital, be real) and planning your grocery list. You hop in the car and head to work or the gym or wherever you start your day.

From the moment we wake up to the moment we close our eyes, we are bombarded with endless information. So much so, much of it has become white noise.

When was the last time you actually noticed the video ads between reels, voice ads on streaming platforms or printed ads on the billboards you drive past daily? And when you have noticed them, do they make you feel seen and understood? Or do they feel like a generic sales pitch?

When it comes to being a beacon of clarity in the sea of noise, you have to provide information that will actually be valuable to your audience. And to catch their attention, you’ll need to do so with a strong narrative, according to our guest Cody Gillund, VP of Marketing at Open Lending. She shares the power of storytelling in shaping meaningful touchpoints to drive sales and ultimately give back to the community.

We discuss:

• Using the Deal Accelerator program to move forward difficult deals
• Getting back to the roots of knowing one another as people, while also driving sales and marketing forward as a team
• The power of narrative and storytelling in differentiation