How Mindset, Value, and the Words We Use Shape Everything At the beginning of a new year, we tend to do the same thing. We set goals. We make plans. We talk about growth, improvement, and momentum. But before any of that matters, there is a more important place to start. It starts with mindset. That idea came into sharp focus during a recent conversation on the Rock Solid Round Rock podcast with Felicia Reed. She is known as a…
If your customers don’t feel the story, they won’t fund the solution. The most overlooked growth lever in your business isn’t your product. It’s how you frame what it means. Most product narratives follow a tired script: “It’s faster. It’s smarter. It’s better. It does more.” That’s not a story. That’s a product brochure! What’s missing? It becomes a story about the company, not a story for the customer. The brands that break through don’t just talk about features. They…
The inventor was tired. Not the kind of tired a nap fixes. The kind that hums behind your eyes. The kind that lives in your calendar. The kind that builds up when what you build keeps getting ignored. His workshop was full. His head was fuller. Like a browser with 47 tabs open, one of them playing music he couldn’t find. “I don’t understand,” he told the mentor. “I keep improving everything. More features. More control. Smarter tech. But every…
We’re hardwired for story. Our brains crave it. And yet, every day, sales and sales enablement teams are stuck trying to sell with slides and stats instead of stories that make customers feel something. Let’s be honest. People don’t buy because of your data, even in the most technical of sales. They buy because your story reshapes the one they’re already telling themselves. Here are the three biggest storytelling mistakes I see every day: 1. Selling Features Instead of Beliefs…
How a Simple T-Shirt Turned Into a Movement in Round Rock Every town has its storytellers. Round Rock has its own rhythm and its own voice. If you have been paying attention, it also has real momentum. It is not just growing, it is booming. In six years, Williamson County’s total appraised value jumped from $89.1 billion to $184.4 billion. During that same period, 12,558 new small businesses opened. And those numbers do not yet reflect the full impact of…
There’s a moment, often too late, when people realize their message didn’t land. It didn’t inspire, convert, or persuade. And they can’t quite figure out why. It wasn’t the idea. It wasn’t the effort. It was the excess. Too many words. Too much complexity. Not enough clarity. We live in a world saturated with information and starving for meaning. In this kind of environment, simplicity isn’t a luxury. It’s survival. It’s not just a design principle. It’s not about using…
Now the Funnel Is Dying. Only Your Story Can Save You. They sold you the dream. Big Tech promised that if you could track it, you could control it. That with enough dashboards, pixels, retargeting, and funnels, you could build something that lasts. But what they never told you is this: Funnels don’t build brands. They only extract value from them. Many of you don’t have a brand. You have a set of automations wrapped around a discount code. And…
Even the most intelligent AI can’t fix a broken story. And it can’t replace a team that doesn’t believe the same thing. After thirty years helping companies optimize conversions and build persuasive systems, we’ve seen one truth show up again and again: The right message always wins. Not the best product. Not the largest budget. The message that makes sense in the customer’s world. However, most companies don’t have a single story. They have six. Everyone thinks they’re right. Each…