Find Your One Word and Become Impossible to Ignore | Brian Burkhart | Business of Story Podcast

Most brands compete on price and features — and lose. Brian Burkhart reveals the one-word positioning framework Fortune 500 brands use to escape the commodity trap and become impossible to ignore. What if the most powerful thing you could do for your brand came down to a single word? In this episode of the Business of Story podcast, host Park Howell sits down with Brian Burkhart — founder of Square Planet, Fortune 500 brand and communication strategist, and author of "Stand for Something: The Power of Building a Brand People Authentically Love" — to explore why most organizations fail to articulate what they truly stand for, and what it costs them every day they don't. Brian walks through the famous Don Draper "It's Toasted" moment from Mad Men, unpacking how one word transformed Lucky Strike's entire brand positioning — and why that same discipline is available to every business willing to find its core belief. From presentations that fall flat to brands grinding through the endless race to the bottom on price, Brian diagnoses the problem with precision and prescribes a powerful remedy: his 10-step ancient Stoic framework for any presentation, pitch, or keynote. Most importantly, he reveals why Steps 1 and 2 — tease the problem and state your core belief — are the only two that truly define success or failure in front of any audience. 📌 IN THIS EPISODE, YOU'LL DISCOVER: • Why most organizations can't articulate their core belief — and how that silence traps them in commodity competition • The commodity trap explained: what happens when you compete on features and price with no differentiation • The Don Draper "It's Toasted" lesson from Mad Men — and what one-word brand positioning looks like in practice • How to find your one word by reverse-engineering your daily actions and decisions • Brian's 10-step ancient Stoic framework for presentations, pitches, and keynotes • Why Steps 1 and 2 — tease the problem + state your core belief — are the only two that truly matter • The idea that will reshape how you think about brand communication: "Art is the unnecessary done on purpose to make someone feel" • Enthrallment as the north star of brand communication — and the Pageant of the Masters as its most perfect example • How to take one-word positioning from concept to your next Monday morning presentation 🎯 ABOUT BRIAN BURKHART: Brian Burkhart is the founder of Square Planet, a brand and communication strategy firm that has partnered with Fortune 500 companies to transform how leaders present, pitch, and position themselves in the marketplace. A former Disney submariner and sought-after keynote speaker, Brian is the author of "Stand for Something: The Power of Building a Brand People Authentically Love." He has spent his career helping organizations escape the commodity trap by discovering and standing on their one-word core belief — the most powerful act of differentiation available to any brand. ABOUT THE BUSINESS OF STORY PODCAST: The Business of Story is hosted by Park Howell, creator of the StoryCycle System™ and one of the world's leading brand story strategists. Each week, Park brings together the world's top brands, marketers, storytellers, and changemakers to show you how the power of story drives business growth, deepens audience connection, and builds market differentiation that lasts. Whether you're a marketer, entrepreneur, speaker, or executive, the Business of Story delivers practical, evidence-based storytelling tools you can use today. 🔔 Subscribe so you never miss an episode — new conversations every week: → Click SUBSCRIBE and the Bell icon for weekly insights 🎧 Listen on your favorite podcast platform: Spotify | Apple Podcasts | Amazon Music | Google Podcasts → https://businessofstory.com