Visual Storytelling Today

In this episode of the Visual Storytelling Today podcast, I chat with John Livesay, Virtual Sales Keynote Speaker and author of "Better Selling Through Storytelling." We talked about their his journey in sales at leading media brands like Conde Nast and TheDailyBeast.com, what is virtual sales storytelling, illustrative examples, tips marketers and sales folks can easily apply - and much more. Get full access to Visual Storytelling Newsletter at visualstorytell.substack.com/subscribe

In this episode of the Visual Storytelling Today podcast, I chat with Mike Brown, CEO, and Vincent Keane, Creative Director at Cyber-NY - a boutique digital agency that has pioneered virtual cinema back in Spring 2020. We talked about their unique journey breaking into video streaming, what is virtual cinema, their remarkable story of working with distributors and helping local movie theaters to use their virtual cinema platform and generate revenue during last Spring lockdown, film festivals they work with, actionable tips for brands and much more. Watch the video recording of this episode:   https://www.visualstorytell.com/blog/what-is-virtual-cinema   This podcast is brought to you by the Visual Storytelling Institute (VSI) from Miami, FL. Learn more at VisualStorytell.com To learn more about visual storytelling, Order Shlomi Ron's  book:  Total Acuity: Tales with Marketing Morals to Help You Create Richer Visual Brand Stories Get full access to Visual Storytelling Newsletter at visualstorytell.substack.

In this episode of the Visual Storytelling Today podcast, I chat with Jacqueline Elboghdadi, Regional Senior Marketing Director at Alshaya Group - a leading international franchise operator that delivers great shopping, dining and leisure experiences - based in Dubai. We talked about her journey, the process of adapting visual stories around global brands to various regional markets, success metrics, key examples, and much more. Watch the video recording of this episode:  https://www.visualstorytell.com/blog/how-to-use-visua…gional-marketing   This podcast is brought to you by the Visual Storytelling Institute (VSI) from Miami, FL. Learn more at VisualStorytell.com To learn more about visual storytelling, Order Shlomi Ron's  book:  Total Acuity: Tales with Marketing Morals to Help You Create Richer Visual Brand Stories Get full access to Visual Storytelling Newsletter at visualstorytell.substack.com/subscribe

In this episode of the Visual Storytelling Today podcast, I chat with Shizue Roche Adachi, Director of Communications & Narrative Design at Real Food Real Stories, a non-profit organization based in San Francisco with a mission to grow just connected and resilient food communities through stories. We talked about her journey entering the food storytelling, her perspectives about how she uses visual storytelling in her work, the role of emotions among other exciting topics. Watch the video recording of this episode:  https://www.visualstorytell.com/blog/what-is-food-storytelling   This podcast is brought to you by the Visual Storytelling Institute (VSI) from Miami, FL. Learn more at VisualStorytell.com Order Shlomi Ron's new book:  Total Acuity: Tales with Marketing Morals to Help You Create Richer Visual Brand Stories Get full access to Visual Storytelling Newsletter at visualstorytell.substack.com/subscribe

In this episode of the Visual Storytelling Today podcast, I chat with Ai Ching Goh, CEO of Piktochart, a web app offering users without intensive graphic design experience to easily create professional-grade visuals using themed templates. We met as Ai Ching kindly invited me to speak at the recent Business Storyteller Summit '20 her company hosted. We talked about her journey, her perspectives about the key drivers that make an impactful visual story, the virtual workplace in times of COVID, visual examples, and her take on the future of visual storytelling, among other exciting topics. Watch the video recording of this episode:  https://www.visualstorytell.com/blog/what-makes-a-perfect-visual-story   This podcast is brought to you by the Visual Storytelling Institute (VSI) from Miami, FL. Learn more at VisualStorytell.com Order Shlomi Ron's new book:  Total Acuity: Tales with Marketing Morals to Help You Create Richer Visual Brand Stories Get full access to Visual Storytelling Newsletter at visualstoryte

In this episode, I chat with Nina Jacobsen, Co-founder, CEO, and Helle Jabiri, Co-founder, CCO of Biites.com, a brand film platform headquartered in Copenhagen, Denmark. We met on LinkedIn where we realized that we shared the same vision of how visual storytelling can effectively bring to life brand narratives. Nina and Helle are looking to revolutionize branded long-form films and give them the center stage they truly deserve. In this sense, think of Biites as the Netflix for branded visual stories offering high-quality visual storytelling without any ad interruption, and viewed in an optimal cinematic experience.   Some of the questions we discussed: What is our definition of effective visual storytelling? Why Biites believes an increased focus on quality in the distribution of brand films will help increase your engagement time with an audience? How long-form branded entertainment formats are on the rise? Why do we believe that brands have a crucial role to play in the education of society and consu

What do you get when you mix together storytelling and geography? In this episode, I chat with Brian Alonso, Co-Founder at Built Story. I have recently come across BuiltStory a new mobile app that’s doing just that: creating self-guided tours where each stop is, in essence, a chapter of a larger story you’re telling about your town or other places you’re visiting. Not only that, but the app also allows you to sell your tours and getting other people to appreciate the stories behind your favorite places. How cool is that? Some of the questions I asked Brian: – What was the most emotional moment that got you to start BuiltStory? - What is BuiltStory’s business model and market coverage? - How does visual storytelling fit into BuiltStory?   - How do you see brands using tours to create emotional bonds with their audiences?   - How can tour takers see a place through the eyes of tour creators using an image, video, sound, and text? And much more! Watch the video recording of this episode: https://www.visualstor

As the raging pandemic is pulling the rug from under our feet, some voices are less heard than others. To unpack this topic and discuss how stories of underrepresented voices drive social impact, I am excited to have Chris Colbert Founder/CEO, DCP Entertainment. With a passion for connecting audiences with innovative and inspiring content, Chris Colbert founded DCP Entertainment; giving a platform to People of Color, Women, and LGBTQ communities, as well as highlighting stories around mental health, disability, and overcoming adversity. What you will learn? – Can you share more about the visual storytelling programs you run at DCP Entertainment? – Can you share a few success stories and discuss how the visual story was created? From concept to developing the visual storytelling strategy and delivery? Are you after specific emotions? And what was the public response? – How are you elevating stories of underrepresented communities during the coronavirus pandemic? – Can you share any failures or obstacles while

As we’re all locked down at home for a couple of weeks now to slow down the expansion of the coronavirus pandemic, I realized there is a unique storytelling dynamic at play here that begs the question: How do you adapt your personal and brand story in uncertain times? You see, if you let your personal worries take over and the story you tell yourself is negative, how can you expect to tell an inspiring brand story to your employees and customers? And this is the topic for our show today. To unpack this topic and discuss the threads that connect the personal and brand stories we tell, I am excited to have Natalie Kusturic, a Licensed Marriage And Family Therapist, and Jennifer Hudson, corporate communications strategist at Think Beyond Public Relations. Watch this episode on Youtube: https://youtu.be/C8CFSNPPXT8 Learn more about our guest on VSI blog: https://www.visualstorytell.com/blog/how-to-adapt-your-personal-brand-stories-in-uncertain-times This podcast is brought to you by the Visual Storytelling Instit

In this episode, I chat with William Warren, Founder & CEO of The Sketch Effect. His company is harnessing the power of visual communication to make their clients’ ideas understandable, memorable, and shareable. The art of live sketching at events is a fantastic example of visual storytelling at its best.  What you will learn? What is live sketching? Are there several types? What benefits does it provide? And in what contexts? How do you define Visual Storytelling from a live sketching perspective? Can you share a few examples and discuss how the visual story was created? Particular surprising elements you include? Target emotions? And what was the audience's response? Visual grammar or vocabulary means a) basic narrative elements and b) branded elements, right? How are you customizing a visual vocabulary for your clients? Live sketching is in essence real-time translation of the spoken word in events into a visual story. Can you talk more about the process of Active Listening your artists apply? Can you

In this episode, I chat with Stephanie Paterik, an Executive Editor at Adweek. With the growing popularity of content marketing in recent years, we’ve started seeing more and more brands like Marriott, Verizon or Amex that instead of outsourcing their visual storytelling programs, bring them in-house and in essence operate like media companies. With this mind, I had a great time chatting with Stephanie about How to Tell Visual Stories Like A Media Company and this way have her share tips and best practices for you, the marketer who plans to start or revamp your in-house visual storytelling operations.  What you will learn? - How do you define Visual Storytelling as a media executive? - What was your journey starting the Visual Newsroom at Adweek? - What storytelling tactics do you use to emotionally connect with your audience? - Can you share 1-2 success stories and how do you measure success? - Where do you see the future of visual storytelling is headed? Any particular trends marketers should pay attention

In this podcast episode, I chat with Natalie Kusturic, a Licensed Marriage And Family Therapist, based in Ft Lauderdale, FL to discuss How do Stories Shape Reality? We talked about the incredible parallels between how visual storytellers rewrite stories of their customers to drive product sales and enhance brand narratives, whereas therapists rewrite painful stories their clients tell themselves in order to achieve self-awareness and joy. You'll find a ton of inspiration and fresh perspectives. What you will learn? - What is the most common roadblock clients need help rewriting painful stories? - How does the end-to-end story-rewriting process work? - What is the visual storytelling strategy to change the story’s meanings or resolution from negative to positive? What are the mental and physical reminders you use? - In marriage therapy, there are naturally two conflicting stories that create a gap where a negative reality is born. How do you meld distinct stories from “my story” to “our story”? - Can you share

In this episode, I chat with Jaime Permuth, an award-winning photographer and professor at the School of Visual Arts in New York. With the tremendous growth in photo sharing (people share 95 million photos on Instagram every day!), I am often asked how can you tell a story in a single photo? With video, it's much easier as it's, in essence, a sequence of images where you can tell a complete story with different characters and scenes. But what you do when you need to compress an entire story into a single scene? I discussed with Jaime about his storytelling approach, the key narrative elements he uses. Jaime also presented a few photos and discussed their backstories and the visual storytelling technique the photographer used. Fascinating discussion! What you will learn: What was the journey that led you to be involved in photography? What are the key elements that constitute a visual grammar of a photo? How can you use these visual grammar elements to tell a compelling story in a single photo? How do yo

In this episode, I chat with Vince Jeffs, Senior Director, Product Strategy, Marketing AI & Decisioning at Pegasystems. We talked about what is hyper-personalization in the age of AI and what are the implications for visual storytellers. A bit about Vince, he is Senior Director, Product Strategy, Marketing AI & Decisioning, at Pegasystems, where he’s responsible for Product Strategy, positioning, messaging, and thought leadership for Pega’s Decision Hub – “Always-On Customer Engagement Brain”, which uses artificial intelligence & machine learning to optimize customer engagement. Vince has over 25 years of experience in Marketing Technology (Martech) and CX / CRM systems, working for IBM, Unica, and Saas to name a few. I especially like the two mind-boggling examples of hyper-personalization Vince shares: the first brand got it wrong and annoyed its audience, while the second brand even though got it right, crossed into the creepiness zone and created an uproar. Watch the full stories. What you wil

In this episode, I chat with Sanjay Sarathy, VP Marketing at Cloudinary, a global powerhouse in providing comprehensive media asset management and automation for some of the world’s most recognizable and engaging brands. Throughout our discussion, we homed in on the opportunities that visual media – both images and video – present for capturing and retaining consumer attention. We discuss actionable best practices for managing visual assets in a fast-moving and hyper-complex digital environment, including a framework for evaluating the tradeoff between time spent manually curating assets and automating most of the workflow. We talked about what is visual storytelling in today's fragmented communication landscape, how marketers can manage their visual content on cloud-based platforms, how the end-to-end process looks like, key industry examples, AI and content personalization, common misconceptions about visual content platforms, how to measure success criteria of your visual content, the future for cloud-base

In this episode, I chat with the crypto artist, also known as FractalEncrypt, Founder at ShamanicHarmonics.com. I met this fascinating artist at a local networking event in Miami where he along with other speakers shared the wonders of blockchain and in particular cryptoart. Since we typically hear about blockchain in the context of Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies in the fintech space, I decided to cover a new angle. This episode is all about the nascent space of narrative cryptoart that leverages the blockchain to run global transactions of digital art, including early experiments in marketing.   What you will learn: What is blockchain? What is cryptoart in the context of visual storytelling? What is the end-to-end process of creating stories using cryptoart? What are the early marketing applications? And much more  Learn more about our guest on his blog post: https://www.visualstorytell.com/blog/how-to-tell-stories-using-cryptoart This podcast is brought to you by the Visual Storytelling Institute (VSI

In this episode, I chat with Steve Dutton, Founder at Avenue 3 Miami an urban movement that aims to reduce the problem of homelessness using technology and a clever loyalty value exchange model. We talked about his dramatic journey of becoming a non-profit organization founder, his experience going through our visual storytelling framework, lessons her learned down the road and much more. About our guest In memory of my husband, Thomas Lang, I am focused on increasing housing opportunities and support services for homeless residing in Fort Worth TX and Miami FL, helping local nonprofits expand and enhance their existing resources. What you will learn: How to transform a personal story into an urban movement? How does the end-to-end process look like going through VSI's My Visual Story 9-step framework as part of developing his visual storytelling strategy for his non-profit, Avenue 3 Miami? What are some of his lessons and successes he learned along the way? What are the most important tips any founder or b

In this episode, I chat with Kirk Francis, Portrait Photographer, and Artist. We talked about his journey of becoming an expert portrait photographer, his end-to-end process for maximizing first impression, tricks and tips, client examples and much more. About our guest It's not about cameras, pixels or film, lenses or photoshop, it's the joy of capturing the human experience. Getting someone to understand they ARE a beautiful human, their message is important and capturing that in a portrait. Creating portraits that help people impact the difference they hope to make in the world is what gives me joy. Kirk's goal is to empower humans with Confidence - Personality - Approachability - and a serious dose of Lookability and help them accomplish the change they want to make! What you will learn: How does portrait photography relate to visual storytelling? What are the key visual storytelling techniques you could use in his photography? How does the end-to-end process look like for creating a winning portrait pho

In this episode, I chat with Yannis Angelis, Narrative Futurist, and co-founder at Beyond Storytelling Network. We talked about his journey as a business storyteller, and how he applied visual storytelling in his e-learning programs while working for a medical device company. About our guest He has been working for more than 25 years in organizations in different roles, mainly Training, Strategy planning, Marketing, and Communication. His work is informed by the principles of Gestalt Psychology, Theory U, Narrative Therapy and the Art of Hosting. He facilitates teams on storytelling, collaboration, learning strategies, innovation and future making in a disruptive world. He coaches and curate individuals on their career path, and designs and hosts events on organizational change and personal transformation such as INTAGIO, and BERLIN CHANGE DAYS - to name a few. He has recently co-authored "Beyond Storytelling", a book which demonstrates how to work with stories in organizations, communities and as an individu

In this episode, I chat with Rafael Baldwin, Digital Media Storyteller at Miami's renowned New World Symphony. We talked about his journey, growing up in Mexico in a family with a long tradition of TV and film production, his work as a film producer and his thoughts about how to take advantage of emerging visual media to tell compelling stories. About our guest Single, multi-camera, and VR/360° immersive television director and producer working at the intersection of filmmaking, sound and music production, computer programming, and human interaction. I've been responsible for coverage and special transmissions of the BAFTA Awards, Cannes, Venice, Berlin, San Sebastian, Sundance Europe, and London Film Festivals, The Royal Wedding in Britain, the Coronation of King Philip VI of Spain, the London 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games, and the NFL at Wembley. I directed the award-winning Virtual Reality documentary "Mission: Frost Science" in collaboration with the Frost Science Museum of Miami. I am the Digital Med