The Storytelling Lab

"Storytelling is local. But we are a global brand, so we do need consistency — and enough flexibility that everything can be used at a local level, because what resonates in China is not the same thing that resonates in Kenya." — Sydnye White

ORDER THE CHIEF STORYTELLING OFFICER HERE:
https://amzn.to/4gUVhxc

How do you keep a brand narrative consistent and cohesive across 177 countries, 10,000 events a year, and millions of athletes, volunteers, coaches, and families?

That is the task in front of Sydnye White, VP of Content and Storytelling at Special Olympics global headquarters. And in this episode, she breaks down exactly how she approaches it.

Sydnye came to Special Olympics from a broadcast background at Discovery, National Geographic, and NBC News, not because she was chasing a mission but because she needed a job. What she found on her first day—being welcomed by colleagues with intellectual disabilities who didn't care about her resume, only that she showed up authentically—changed everything. Eight years later, she's still there, still closing the gap between what people think Special Olympics is and what it actually does.

We dig into the logistics of global brand storytelling, why the most powerful content centers the athlete's own voice, how to navigate guardrails when your subjects are vulnerable, and what most brands get wrong when they chase authenticity without actually including the people they're telling stories about. This is brand storytelling as a system—operating at the largest possible scale, with the highest possible stakes—and Sydnye makes it feel both accessible and urgent.

In this episode, you will learn to:

Close the gap between what your audience thinks you are and what you actually do through intentional, consistent narrative
Center the voices of the people your story is actually about rather than just telling stories at them
Balance global brand consistency with local storytelling flexibility across different cultures and contexts
Navigate ethical guardrails when your storytelling subjects are in vulnerable or sensitive situations
Prevent creative burnout by building community, following the fun, and treating movement and rest as creative tools

Links & Resources
Follow Sydnye White:
Website → https://www.sydnyewhite.com
LinkedIn → https://www.linkedin.com/in/sydnyewhite
Creative Block Quiz → https://www.sydnyewhite.com/quiz
Organization → Special Olympics → https://www.specialolympics.org
Campaign → Take Back Sports → https://www.espn.com/takebacksports

Book → The Chief Storytelling Officer by Rain Bennett → https://www.rainbennett.com
Sponsor → VocaTales → https://www.vocatales.com

For more storytelling tips and strategies, visit:
Website → https://rainbennett.com
Podcast → https://thestorytellinglabpodcast.com

Or follow along at:
TikTok → https://www.tiktok.com/@chiefstorytellingofficer
Twitter/X → https://twitter.com/rainbennett
Instagram → https://www.instagram.com/rainbennett
Facebook → https://www.facebook.com/thestorytellinglab
YouTube → https://www.youtube.com/@RainBennett
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

"You do the story that you want to do because you believe in it and it will find an audience. You have to be passionate about something and not try and hop off what's already out there. You have to absolutely 1000% have a vision." — Leslie Zemeckis

Not all stories are treated equally — and Leslie Zemeckis and Sara DiVello are on a mission to change that. In this episode, the co-hosts of the Plot Point podcast, founders of the Santa Barbara Literary Festival and Nantucket Book Festival respectively, and bestselling authors in their own right join Rain to break down why the stories we tend to dismiss — romance, thriller, true crime, comedy — are often doing the most important work of all.

We talk about how comedy functions as a doorway to empathy, why chasing trends produces what Leslie calls Skittles books, and how to carry the story of a real person with the care and tenderness you would want someone to take with yours. Sara's research into the Great Migration and pioneering female journalists, and Leslie's documentary work shining a light on forgotten women in history, form the backdrop of a conversation about what it really means to give overlooked stories and overlooked storytellers their due.

If you are writing your first book, finishing your tenth, or simply trying to figure out what story deserves your attention next, this episode is your reminder: write the thing that lights you up, don't wait for permission, and know that every finish line is just another starting line.

In this episode, you will learn to:

1. Reject the arbitrary hierarchy that ranks some story genres as serious and others as disposable
2. Write the story that sustains you through the full marathon — not the one you think will sell
3. Research deeply and carry your subject's story with the care you would want for your own
4. Build a creative community instead of working in isolation — it will change your career
5. Stop waiting for someone to greenlight your story and go create it now

Links & Resources

Follow Leslie Zemeckis:
Website → https://www.lesliezemeckis.com
Instagram → https://www.instagram.com/lesliezemeckis

Festival → Santa Barbara Literary Festival → https://www.santabarbaraliteraryfestival.org/

Follow Sara DiVello:
Website → https://www.saradivello.com
Instagram → https://www.instagram.com/saradivello

Festival → Nantucket Book Festival → https://www.nantucketbookfestival.org
Podcast → The Plot Point Podcast (with Leslie Zemeckis and Sara DiVello)

Authors Referenced → Jeffrey Archer

Authors Referenced → Walter Mosley

Authors Referenced → Wally Lamb

Authors Referenced → Stephen Rowley

Authors Referenced → Ryan Coogler

Authors Referenced → Ace Atkins

Authors Referenced → Erica Robuck

For more storytelling tips and strategies, visit:
Website → https://rainbennett.com
Podcast → https://thestorytellinglabpodcast.com

Or follow along at:
TikTok → https://www.tiktok.com/@chiefstorytellingofficer
Twitter/X → https://twitter.com/rainbennett
Instagram → https://www.instagram.com/rainbennett
Facebook → https://www.facebook.com/thestorytellinglab
YouTube → https://www.youtube.com/@RainBennett
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

"The best of the writers know structures are important. And then they forget that they've been intuitively following a structure and tell the world you don't need structure. The rest of the people think they don't need structure and realize by the hundredth page they don't know what the story is going to be." —Anubhav Srivastava

What if there was one place where you could brainstorm your story, build your characters, map your world, storyboard your structure, and connect with expert storytellers who could help you take it further?

That's exactly what Anubhav Srivastava set out to build. Four years, 17 chapters, and over 2,000 hours into writing his own fantasy fiction novel, Anubhav built VocaTales: a visual story crafting platform designed for planners, organizers, and creative thinkers who need more than a blank page.

In this episode, Anubhav breaks down how VocaTales works, how it compares to tools like Scrivener and Miro, and why he built it exclusively for storytellers rather than corporate use cases. He also introduces UpTales, the companion platform where writers can connect with professional editors, writing coaches, and storytelling experts for short calls, long-term coaching, or workshopping their work. Together, VocaTales and UpTales form what Anubhav calls the Creator OS: a full flywheel from the first spark of an idea all the way to publication and beyond.

We also dig into what Anubhav has learned from interviewing and collaborating with great storytellers, why structure is the most underrated tool any writer has, and why he believes AI should power your left brain tasks so your right brain can stay free to do what only humans can do. This one is equal parts product demo, storytelling masterclass, and a deeply personal conversation about dharma, self-discovery, and why the best products, like the best stories, are built for the creator first.

In this episode, you will learn to:

Use structure and story frameworks as a foundation for creativity rather than a constraint on it
Understand the difference between VocaTales for building your story and UpTales for finding the right expert to help you grow it
Start distributing your creative work from day one — not after the final draft is done
Use AI for analytical and efficiency tasks while protecting your creative right-brain work from outsourcing
Apply the promise, progress, payoff framework to hook readers from your very first line

Links & Resources

Follow Anubhav Srivastava
Website → https://www.vocatales.com
Platform → VocaTales (story crafting tool) → https://www.vocatales.com
Platform → UpTales (expert storytelling community) → https://www.uptales.com
LinkedIn → https://www.linkedin.com/in/anubhavsrivastava

Special Offer → Free premium access for TSL listeners → check show notes link at vocatales.com

Books Referenced → The Alchemist by Paulo Coelho
People Referenced → Brandon Sanderson
People Referenced → J.R.R. Tolkien

For more storytelling tips and strategies, visit:
Website → https://rainbennett.com
Podcast → https://thestorytellinglabpodcast.com

Or follow along at:
TikTok → https://www.tiktok.com/@chiefstorytellingofficer
Twitter/X → https://twitter.com/rainbennett
Instagram → https://www.instagram.com/rainbennett
Facebook → https://www.facebook.com/thestorytellinglab
YouTube → https://www.youtube.com/@RainBennett
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

"A narrative lives or dies on the conviction of the most senior authorized leaders of the organizational system. The story is the strategy. A company without a story is usually a company without a strategy." — Michael Margolis | Storied, Inc.

What if your organization's stories were the new code base?

In this episode, Rain sits down with Michael Margolis, founder of Storied, Inc., and one of the most respected voices in organizational storytelling and narrative strategy, for a conversation that functions as a masterclass in how language, storytelling, and brand messaging actually drive business outcomes in the age of generative AI.

Michael has spent over two decades pioneering narrative as a management discipline, working inside Facebook and Meta across 14 product divisions, advising companies like Google, Shopify, Uber, and NASA, and now serving as an operating partner for narrative at Veridical Ventures.

This conversation goes deep into the distinction between story and narrative, two words most marketing strategy and brand storytelling content treats as interchangeable but which Michael argues are fundamentally different disciplines. A story is a closed loop with a beginning, middle, and end. A narrative is an open loop, an abstraction, an architecture that every individual story hangs from like an ornament on a Christmas tree. Michael breaks down the four waves of organizational storytelling, from early knowledge management to the social media era's democratization of brand narrative, to his seven years embedded inside Meta building the strategic narrative behind Facebook Groups, to today's narrative economy where large language models are, by definition, narrative machines.

Whether you're a founder building brand purpose from scratch, a CMO trying to align your messaging house, or simply someone trying to understand why storytelling has quietly become the literal infrastructure of how modern organizations operate, this episode will change how you think about every word your company puts into the world.

In this episode, you will learn to:

Distinguish between story and narrative and understand why that distinction is the foundation of effective brand strategy
Recognize language debt inside your own organization before it compounds into misalignment and confusion
Build narrative architecture using the thesis, first principles, identity layer, and evidence stack framework
Choose coherence narratives over controlled narratives to navigate disruption and uncertainty with integrity
Understand why large language models function as narrative machines and what that means for how you communicate going forward

Links & Resources

Follow Michael Margolis:
Website → https://www.storiedinc.com
LinkedIn → https://www.linkedin.com/in/michaelmargolis
Book → Story 10x: Turn the Impossible Into the Inevitable by Michael Margolis https://amzn.to/4eUdxVx
Firm → Veridical Ventures → https://www.veridical.vc
Learning Platform → Narrative Intelligence courses on Maven → https://maven.com/storied

Person Referenced → Steve Denning, founder of Golden Fleece community of practice
Person Referenced → Paul Costello
Person Referenced → Shane Curry, Deloitte Australia
Person Referenced → John Hagel, Deloitte Center for the Edge
Person Referenced → Ben Horowitz, Andreessen Horowitz
Person Referenced → Jose Velez, Curation Labs

For more storytelling tips and strategies, visit:
Website → https://rainbennett.com
Podcast → https://thestorytellinglabpodcast.com

Or follow along at:
TikTok → https://www.tiktok.com/@chiefstorytellingofficer
Twitter/X → https://twitter.com/rainbennett
Instagram → https://www.instagram.com/rainbennett
Facebook → https://www.facebook.com/thestorytellinglab
YouTube → https://www.youtube.com/@RainBennett

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Pre-Order The Chief Storytelling Officer HERE: https://amzn.to/4eihvql

"Commercials interrupt people. Shows invite them into the story world. That is the difference between traditional marketing and storytelling." — Rain Bennett

Your marketing campaign strategy is perfectly executed... and it still flops.

The visuals are crisp, the copy is tight, and nobody cares. In this solo episode, Rain breaks down the real reason most marketing fails: it isn't a production problem, it's a storytelling problem.

When your marketing isn't rooted in a clear brand purpose, it becomes what Rain calls "story yelling," which is loud, scattered, and ultimately forgettable. This is the fifth installment of the Narrative Operating System series, and it's where brand building and marketing strategy finally collide.

Rain walks through how the Chief Storytelling Officer fits into your marketing function. Not to replace your CMO, but to ensure every campaign, every message, and every piece of content traces back to the brand narrative your company intentionally chose.

The CSO's job isn't to ask "does this say what we want to say?" It's to ask "does this make people feel what we want them to feel?" That distinction is the entire difference between brand storytelling and traditional advertising.

Using Yeti, Cali BBQ, and the Neuroendocrine Cancer Foundation as case studies, Rain shows how the most effective marketing strategies aren't campaigns at all—they're story worlds.

He introduces the Content Cascade model as a practical framework for building tent pole projects, supporting stories, and audience amplifiers from a single unified brand messaging strategy.

And before you go, he breaks down which metrics actually reflect meaningful connection (watch time, saves, comments, shares) and which vanity metrics to stop reporting on entirely. If your brand purpose is clear but your marketing still feels scattered, this episode is your blueprint.

In this episode, you will learn to:

Understand the difference between story yelling and storytelling—and which one your brand is currently doing
Use the Content Cascade model to build tent pole projects, supporting stories, and audience amplifiers from a single narrative
Replace vanity metrics with story metrics that actually measure connection and community growth
Avoid the traps of trend chasing, channel hopping, and virality chasing that derail most marketing strategies
Audit your last 10 pieces of marketing to see if they stem from one unified brand narrative or exist as isolated pieces

LINKS AND RESOURCES

Episodes Referenced:
EP 225 → Brand: How It Feels to Be Part of Your Story World
EP 230 → Product: Where Your Story Gets Proven

Guest Referenced → Sean Walcheff, Cali Barbecue Media → https://www.calibbq.media
Organization Referenced → Neuroendocrine Cancer Foundation → https://www.ncf.net/
Book → The Chief Storytelling Officer by Rain Bennett → Coming August 25th https://amzn.to/4eihvql

For more storytelling tips and strategies, visit
Website → https://rainbennett.com
Podcast → https://thestorytellinglabpodcast.com

Or follow along at:
TikTok → https://www.tiktok.com/@chiefstorytellingofficer
Twitter/X → https://twitter.com/rainbennett
Instagram → https://www.instagram.com/rainbennett
Facebook → https://www.facebook.com/thestorytellinglab
YouTube → https://www.youtube.com/@RainBennett

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.