Unlock Your Way with STK

Ep80 Kevin Maney - How to Use the Category Creation Formula to Own Your Market and Make Competition Irrelevant

One pre-IPO company had been operating for 20 years. After one category design session with Kevin Maney, a veteran executive raised his hand in the conference room and said he felt embarrassed. The answer they'd found was so obvious in hindsight, he couldn't understand why it had taken two decades to see it. Kevin's response: it's like trying to be your own psychologist. Suzanne sits down with Kevin Maney, co-founder of Category Design Advisors and author of the new book The Category Creation Formula, to walk through the strategic system behind how companies win their markets. In most digital markets, one company captures roughly 75% of the category. One company. All the pricing power and market share. The Category Creation Formula is built around a simple question: why wouldn't you do everything possible to be that company? The formula is Context + Missing + Innovation = new market category. Context comes first: what's changing around your target audience, what new problems are appearing, what's no longer being adequately solved. From there, the missing piece becomes visible. Then you build the innovation to fill it. The order matters. In this conversation, you'll discover: - Why category design starts at the CEO level, before any marketing message gets written - How the Context + Missing + Innovation formula works with real clients - What a 20-year-old pre-IPO company learned about itself in one session - Why writing a book disciplines your thinking in ways that make you a clearer leader and speaker - How Kevin's advisory firm grew almost entirely through word of mouth Find all the show notes and links here: https://www.unlockyourwaywithstk.com/80

Ep79 Marcia Martin - How to Lead With Your Own Voice and Break the Childhood Patterns Quietly Running Your Business

The patterns running your business right now were set before you turned 10. Before age 10, the brain operates in a theta state — the same state as hypnosis. Every decision a child makes about how to earn love, stay safe, or fit in gets locked in as an unconscious pattern. Marcia Martin has spent 50 years watching those patterns play out in boardrooms, entrepreneurial teams, and leadership programs around the world. Suzanne sits down with Marcia, pioneer of the human potential movement, Dame, author of Sex, Power, and Transformation, and the woman who helped build the $48 billion self-help industry from the inside. She worked at the heart of EST (which became Landmark), helped Tony Robbins go national and launch Unlimited Power, and co-created the Transformational Leadership Council with Jack Canfield. In this conversation, you'll discover: * Why the personal development space has quietly shifted from helping people find their own answers toward telling them what to do, and what that means for anyone in a program right now * How the decisions you made before age 10 are showing up in your leadership, your communication, and your business today * Why your body and your mind learn in completely different ways, and what that means for actually building skills like giving and receiving feedback * The role language plays in creating reality, and how what you say today is actively shaping the future you're walking into * Why leading from "I don't know" is more powerful than projecting certainty you haven't earned yet Find all the show notes and links here: https://www.unlockyourwaywithstk.com/79

Ep78 Scott Perry—How to Build a Loyal Audience and Hit Your Annual Income Goal Without Social Media or Funnels

What would happen to your business if you deleted every social media account tomorrow? Scott Perry did exactly that. His email open rate climbed back above 50%, his annual income goal was done by June, and he runs his entire business in under two hours a day. Suzanne sits down with Scott, author of Intrepid: Dare to Make a Difference and founder of Creative on Purpose on Substack, to explore what a purpose-driven business looks like when you stop chasing every platform and start building something that actually holds. In this conversation, you'll discover: Why solopreneurs and entrepreneurs aren't working from the same resource pool, and how mixing them up leads to burnout How Scott grew from one to three new Substack subscribers per day by focusing on direct, personal, relevant connection instead of paid ads or content calendars The way he uses Substack Notes as a raw idea-testing pad rather than a growth tool, and why that distinction changes what you get from it What Seth Godin's The Dip taught him about the difference between strategic quitting and giving up Why human connection and belonging are what AI can't replicate, and what that means for how you build your business Find all the show notes and links here: https://www.unlockyourwaywithstk.com/78

Ep77 Ari Galper - How to Win Clients Through Trust Without Chasing Leads or Overcoming Objections

Ever hung up a sales call convinced you nailed it, only to hear nothing back? Ari Galper did. He also accidentally stayed on the mute line and heard exactly what the prospect was saying when they thought he'd left. Suzanne sits down with Ari Galper, the global authority on trust-based selling and author of Trust in a Split Second, for a conversation that rethinks how coaches and consultants earn real commitment from the people they're meant to serve. In this conversation, you'll discover:  * Why trust-building and relationship-building are two entirely different skills, and why confusing them is costing you sales  * How to open every sales conversation as the authority in the room, with the bedside manner of a doctor diagnosing a patient  * The exact language to use when you need to follow up with a prospect (and why the phrase "follow up" is the worst thing you can say)  * Why objections disappear when you start every conversation from a position of trust How to market the problems you solve rather than the services you offer  * What "cost of inaction" means and how to use it to help prospects see the real truth of their own situation Find all the show notes and links here:  https://www.unlockyourwaywithstk.com/77 [https://www.unlockyourwaywithstk.com/77]

Ep76 Melanie Mitchell Wexler - How to Build Real LinkedIn Momentum Without Burning Out or Playing the Numbers Game

Ever feel like LinkedIn is just a firehose of automated pitch messages from people all working off the same template? Suzanne sits down with Melanie Mitchell Wexler, executive career coach, LinkedIn strategist, and co-creator of the LinkedIn Rockstar Academy, to get into what actually builds real business momentum on this platform without burning yourself out doing it. In this conversation, you'll discover: How to reach out and start genuine conversations that actually go somewhere Why your LinkedIn profile is your real landing page and what needs to be there for people to stay How LinkedIn posts are now being indexed by Google and what that changes about your visibility strategy How to run a LinkedIn newsletter that builds an audience without writing on a rigid schedule Why waking up your existing network is more powerful than always chasing new connections How to know when a pitch is welcome and when it kills the relationship before it starts Find all the show notes and links here:  https://www.unlockyourwaywithstk.com/76 [https://www.unlockyourwaywithstk.com/76]