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Episode Overview:
Park Howell discusses the ABT framework and how it can be used by coaches to build their businesses and be more successful. The ABT framework uses the three words 'and, but, therefore' to create a story that resonates with the audience. By using this framework, coaches can simplify their message and make it clear and compelling for their audience. Park shares examples of how the ABT framework has helped companies and individuals achieve significant growth. He also provides practical steps for coaches to implement the ABT framework in their own businesses.
Additional Resources:
Skot Waldron (00:00.153)
start recording here and then we'll kind of roll.
Park Howell (00:02.958)
Did mine finally download?
Skot Waldron (00:06.873)
I don't know. But I think that what it's going to do is it's going to, it'll put it in two different clips. So it's going to, it'll say 75 % uploaded and then it's probably going to record again and then kind of continue uploading. So I mean, hope that works. I don't, I don't know. We'll see. We'll see. All right. You ready? We're going to get, we'll be a little redundant. You can truncate some of this stuff.
Park Howell (00:13.622)
Gotcha.
Park Howell (00:21.486)
You got it. Okay, sounds good.
All right, yep.
Skot Waldron (00:35.897)
Mr. Park, dude, so good to hang out with you.
Park Howell (00:39.15)
Well, thanks for having me back, Scott. Good to hang with you, too.
Skot Waldron (00:42.457)
Yeah, you are on my show unlocked and, talking about kind of leadership and using the ABT model to help, and story to help leaders and companies, build their companies and build good culture and be more efficient. But what I want to focus on is I said, this is going to be awesome for my show, how they do that, because I want coaches to understand how to use the ABT framework.
build their businesses, to scale their businesses and to be more successful. You had built an incredible company, and using a framework. And I want you to share that with us. And first of all, share with us some successes of what this impact has had on you and your company.
Park Howell (01:29.198)
Yeah. Well, the ABT framework, and we'll explain what that is in just a second, is literally a framework I wished I had learned in the third grade. I've been in the branding, advertising, marketing world for almost 40 years, and I've done a whole ton of branding and advertising on behalf of lots of customers, large and small. The ABT framework I found about 10 years ago, and it's been around since the beginning of time. Not something that I invented, but it was brought to my attention by my now good friend, Dr. Randy Olson.
And the ABT framework uses the three words, and, but, therefore, which plays off of the three forces of story, which are agreement, contradiction, and consequence. And why that is important is our primal limbic brain that's residing in the background in our subconscious is our survival mechanism. It's also our pattern seeking, problem solving, decision making apparatus with inside our head.
So when you deliver it messages and information in the way it wants to receive it, for you to set up problem resolution, having that singular problem solution dynamic in there, then it's like a Trojan horse. You sneak your messages in between the ears of your prospects. Having said all that, where I've used the ABT in the most profound ways is to help companies and maybe people like yourselves where you've got...
what feels like a complex message or a complex offering because you're so close to it. You have a hard time seeing the bigger picture. We can use the ABT and you can use the ABT to take that complex message and make it simple and easily digestible, clear and compelling for your audience. And let me give you just the quick steps in doing that. I think it's going to bring a full circle for all you coaches out there that you're trying to figure out how to talk about yourself.
The ABT is actually about your audience. It's not about you. Your audience is the center of the story. So I want you to identify who your number one audience is. What do they want relative to your offering and why is that important to them? That's your statement of agreement. Audience, what do they want and why is it important to them? But what's their frustration because of what problem they're dealing with? Why don't they have it due to...
Park Howell (03:53.486)
this major problem that's standing in their way that you're going to solve for them. Therefore, get them to picture what the outcome is going to be when that problem is solved by you doing this for them. So it's set up problem resolution, a story spoken from their point of view. And Scott, maybe one of the best ways to demonstrate this is to do it on the fly. You open if I put you on the hot seat.
Skot Waldron (04:17.977)
my gosh, can we? I love it when you do this. Yeah, man. Let's do it. Let's do it.
Park Howell (04:20.366)
Let's do this. Let's do this. So we're going to do, we're going to write an ABT for your show, this show right now to get you super focused. And you're so good at this stuff. You already probably got this thing totally dialed in, but let's start with who's your number one audience for this show? Who's your number one listener that you are attracted to?
Skot Waldron (04:28.793)
Okay, perfect.
Skot Waldron (04:42.905)
Coaches looking to build their coaching business.
Park Howell (04:47.342)
Okay. And can you be as specific as possible as to what they want relative to what you're going to be offering them? It's to build a business. Can you be even more specific than that?
Skot Waldron (05:01.177)
Let me think. They, they want to know how to do certain things because they hear about these other successful coaches that they're around or that they've seen, or maybe they got them into the business and then all of a sudden they're like, gosh, I don't know. Like I'm so frustrated. A lot of them get frustrated in that first year building your business. It's very frustrating. first year, second year, it's just, it's not scaling the way they thought it was. They see all these other people doing it and they're like, gosh, how did they.
Park Howell (05:21.902)
Okay.
Skot Waldron (05:29.721)
do that thing or how they get that or how they get more business or how it's always the, like the getting over that hump of that first second year frustration.
Park Howell (05:38.99)
Okay. And then why is that important to them to overcome that hump? I think it's probably pretty obvious. They just they want to build and scale their impact and their income.
Skot Waldron (05:49.913)
Well, yes, I think a lot of them have also left a prior career and then found coaching an unregulated market saying, I can do that, you know, and get into it. Now, whether people can or not is another question for another show, but what we're trying to do is embrace the people that feel that that's their calling in life now is to do that thing. Now they're either transitioning. So they're going maybe part -time coaching.
Park Howell (05:54.83)
Mm -hmm.
Park Howell (06:01.198)
Mm -hmm.
Skot Waldron (06:15.769)
And they're going, well, I need to hold onto this income because I'm not, I don't have any clients yet. And then they eventually need to cut the cord and go full on into the coaching world. some people have cut the cord already and are full in on the coaching world, but they really need to scale it and build it.
Park Howell (06:32.334)
OK, and they're frustrated now because maybe they're doing some comparison, comparing themselves to other successful coaches or what they perceive to be a successful coaches because of what problem? What what's the main problem that you are going to help them solve by listening on this show?
Skot Waldron (06:51.225)
Hmm.
I would say it's a bunch of different problems. I'm going to, I'm, and we got to find the through line here. so marketing and sales is, is a big one. How do I get more clients? you know, coming down the pipe to that, it's like, how do I get more speaking gigs or how do I build a team of individuals or how do I get referrals for my coaching business or how do I build a podcast? How do I write a good book?
How do I, you know, et cetera, et cetera, et cetera. So how do I learn to speak more fluently and what I'm doing and be more impactful? And how do I get leads after my speech? Like there's a lot of different nuances to like the coaching thing of like the operational stuff of marketing and sales. But then you also have the other side of like, how do I coach effectively on calls? How do I make sure I'm listening appropriately? How do I ask the right questions to the right people? Like there's all of that as well.
Park Howell (07:34.382)
Mm -hmm.
Park Howell (07:52.526)
Yeah, so it really is the operations. That was the thing that popped into my mind overall operationally from sales and marketing to even when you are speaking, how do you operationalize that audience to bring them in? Right. So how do you operationalize your expertise to become the sought after person in your particular niche?
Park Howell (08:19.022)
Something along those lines. I know it's kind of generic, but it's something. Therefore. By listening to your show, can coaches initially 10 X their growth? Do you think? Forex their growth? Is there a way that you could put some sort of qualifier to it?
Skot Waldron (08:19.481)
Okay. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.
Skot Waldron (08:33.049)
for sure.
I think that there is, I've, I mean, I've heard of other people. I mean, there's other people in the world coaches I know that I've had on this show, even that talk about how much they've grown their coaching businesses through the methods that they've done. I mean, you, for example, building your own coaching business, you've scaled your company, multiple times by doing the, using the ABT model, right? What we're talking about. So, that's, that's an example. Sure. Like for example, how much have you grown your company?
Park Howell (08:47.022)
Mm -hmm.
Park Howell (08:57.518)
Mm -hmm. Yeah.
Skot Waldron (09:04.665)
been able to grow your company through using the ABT model.
Park Howell (09:07.182)
yeah. Well, it went from zero. I mean, I made that transition out of the ad agency world, but I mean, I've used the model to grow other brands as much as 600%. Mine literally went from zero to, you know, quite a large enterprise right now. I don't even know what kind of percentage I'd put on that, but I've seen, you know, I've seen the ROI of it. I've seen it lead to quarter million dollar sales where people will come back after I taught them to it. They go, my God, I've been trying to close this thing for six months, getting nowhere.
Skot Waldron (09:10.873)
So, all right.
Park Howell (09:36.622)
All I did was revamp my presentation using the ABT and I had a purchase order in two hours. I've seen it on LinkedIn campaigns. We did a AB test in March through five different countries. A SaaS provider was putting their campaign out. Then next month in April, we took the same campaign and just reordered it as an ABT and their engagement went up 400%. So those are some of the metrics of how powerful it is. But back.
to the ABT of your show. So it might be something like this. And I love to use the pronoun of you being you, the audience you're talking to. So when I'm saying you, I'm not saying you, Scott, I'm saying you, your audience. You are a dynamic, young leadership coach or business coach. And if you could dial in your operations, then you will have the impact and impact.
income you seek to make a marvelous career. But you're extraordinarily frustrated because you don't know where to turn, where to start, and how to actually operationalize your expertise to the fullest. Imagine growing your business by four times its current position in 12 months by simply listening to the
the coaching experts we have for you right here on the name of the show. What's the name of the show? How they do that. And I only ask because this is one of the first ones I haven't seen it out there yet. So sorry about that. How they do that. Yeah. Your serum for imposter syndrome.
Skot Waldron (11:08.633)
How'd they do that? You're on how'd they do that, Park. You're on how'd they do that.
Skot Waldron (11:15.449)
I haven't either, so thanks for reminding me too. Yeah.
Skot Waldron (11:25.945)
my gosh. Okay.
Park Howell (11:30.446)
So what we did there for everyone watching and viewing is we identified Scott's number one audience, what they want relative to Scott's offering and listening to the show and why that's important to them. We want to be as human and use as many as emotional little trigger words as there as possible. Then we move into the, but you're frustrated cause Scott said they're frustrated. And believe me, I've been there too. I know how frustrating it can be when you look around and you think the coaching world is passing you by and you're stuck in sand.
My thing is just go to Dr. Seuss's all the places you'll go. Read that book and he gives you permission to be stuck in the sand. It's really great. And then the therefore picture, what tomorrow could look like if you just simply listen to the experts we bring for you right here on how they do that show. How's something like that?
Skot Waldron (12:18.329)
That's awesome, man. That is awesome. So I love you. I mean, you spit it out. You spit it out. And it's so, so coaches will be able to use this when in a sales pitch, when they're presenting their opportunity, they'll be able to use this when they're listening to their clients and reflect back to them what they heard using the ABT, their clients will go, Whoa, you said that so clearly. You know, coaches will be able to use this when they're messaging their, who they are to the word, their elevator pitch.
Park Howell (12:33.87)
yeah.
Skot Waldron (12:45.593)
They'll also be able to use this and LinkedIn posts. Yeah. I mean, getting that 400 % engagement on a LinkedIn post. I think we all want that. So.
Park Howell (12:48.878)
Mm -hmm.
Park Howell (12:54.766)
Yeah. By the way, Scott, that you had mentioned the elevator pitch real quick. Here's a great way to use the ABT as an elevator pitch. I talk about being a one floor elevator pitch because that's all it takes. It's great to ask that person a question when they say, Scott, what do you do? You know, when people ask me, Park, what do you do? And I ask them a question to involve them in the story. It's my statement of agreement, basically. And I'd say something like, Scott, have you ever gone to a speaker presentation, super excited?
by the expert that's on stage and you couldn't wait to hear their speech, but you were disappointed because they came off boring. And they go, yeah, I've been there. And I say, I make sure that never happens. And then you go, how do you do that? Then I go into what I do with the business of story. So start with a question for the audience, for the person asking you, what do you do? You ask them the question that sets it up. And then, but here's the problem you probably experienced. And then they go, yeah, I've been there.
I just make sure that never happens. And then you tell how you do that.
Skot Waldron (13:58.713)
how'd they do that? See, you pulled the name right into the thing. well done, Park, well done. Gosh, dude, this is so good. Okay, very practical. What do you want people, all the people listening right now, what's the practical step they can take right now?
Park Howell (14:14.51)
Here's the thing, being a coach myself, I know a lot of coaches out there don't have a lot of investment capital to build their own thing. So what I do is I pull together a group of you all in a mastermind course. It could be anywhere from 12 to 20 people involved at any one time. And it's the most inexpensive way to go about getting our story frameworks and showing you how to tell them. If you're interested in participating in an upcoming mastermind, send me a note.
to park at businessofstory .com. That's my email. I'll get back to you within one day if it even takes that long. But if you're interested in doing that, we can talk and share with you what's involved in that, the cost of it and so forth. And then I'll let you know when the next one's available.
Skot Waldron (15:01.721)
so good. So good. You've got a show people can go listen to the business story podcast.
Park Howell (15:05.55)
Yep. The Business of Story every Monday, you were on it. You helped me kick off year 2024 with your excellent book. And yeah, been doing it for eight years. And every Monday I've got a new story artist on to help you learn how to craft and tell compelling stories that sell.
Skot Waldron (15:09.785)
Mm -mm.
Skot Waldron (15:23.897)
It's, and it's a brilliant show. So awesome. Link in with you. You're there. I've got this cool little, this cool little book. Remember this thing? Yeah. So what's your story? I got the business story field guide right here. It's really, really good. So, man, I'm grateful for you. Thanks for park for being on the show, spreading your wisdom and building the community. One bit of hope for everybody out there. What's some hope you can spread for everybody else.
Park Howell (15:33.358)
What's your story field guide? You bet, baby.
Park Howell (15:49.55)
One day that you have an incredibly powerful story to tell, find the courage and go and tell it. It'll blow your mind how it works like that tractor beam to bring business into your coaching business.
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