Podcasts about smartest brands beat cynicism

Margot Bloomstein is one of the most prominent voices in the content strategy industry. She is the author of Trustworthy: How the Smartest Brands Beat Cynicism and Bridge the Trust Gap and Content Strategy at Work: Real-World Stories to Strengthen Every Interactive Project and the principal of Appropriate, Inc., a brand and content strategy consultancy based in Boston. As a speaker and strategic adviser, she has worked with marketing teams in a range of organizations over the past two decades. The creator of BrandSort, she developed the popular message architecture-driven approach to content strategy. Margot teaches in the content strategy graduate program at FH Joanneum University in Graz, Austria, and lectures around the world about brand-driven content strategy and designing for trust. About AIGA Design Adjacent AIGA Design Adjacent is a monthly podcast series with AIGA's Executive Director, Bennie F. Johnson, in conversation with industry leaders who are innovating and designing the future. These conversations expand beyond the design community, encompassing industries and areas that intersect with design and shift the ways in which we think about and interact with each other and the world around us. About Bennie F. Johnson Bennie F. Johnson is the Executive Director of AIGA, the professional association for design. Bennie thrives on the connections between marketing, technology, education, and innovation. With experience in strategic and consumer marketing, brand management, and innovation management, he is drawn to opportunities that allow him to lead and create new modes for business engagement. He has broad experience growing brands, businesses, and organizations with a special focus on venture launch and brand relaunch business environments. --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/aigadesign/message

How can brands build trust with an increasingly cynical audience? Margot Bloomstein believes you can win over any audience by creating consistent, high-quality content. But in order to cut through the noise, you need to build a clear content strategy and be vulnerable. As the principal of Appropriate, Inc., a Boston-based brand and content strategy consultancy, a speaker, and an author, Margot has experience partnering with a range of organizations to deliver quality messaging, including Sallie Mae, Lovehoney, Scholastic, Fidelity, Harvard University, and the American Montessori Society.She talked to us about the nuances of building trust with increasingly distrustful audiences, prototyping in public, and focusing on consistency.Show TopicsMake good on content strategy through content marketingCreate message architecture from a content hierarchyUse the same wording as your clientsNurture confidence in your audienceAdvocate for solving problems through contentRespond to cynicism by building trustCut through the noiseGuide better decision-makingPrototype in publicFocus on consistencyCheck out Trustworthy: How the Smartest Brands Beat Cynicism and Bridge the Trust GapFollow Margot Bloomstein on LinkedIn or TwitterPast guests on The Long Game podcast include: Morgan Brown (Shopify), Ryan Law (Animalz), Dan Shure (Evolving SEO), Kaleigh Moore (freelancer), Eric Siu (Clickflow), Peep Laja (CXL), Chelsea Castle (Chili Piper), Tracey Wallace (Klaviyo), Tim Soulo (Ahrefs), Sean Blanda (Crossbeam), Ilona Abramova (AppSumo), and many more.Some interviews you might enjoy and learn from:020: Spark Creativity and Generate Memorable Content with Ryan Law (Animalz)041: Actionable Tips and Secrets to SEO Strategy with Dan Shure (Evolving SEO)045: Building Competitive Marketing Content with Sam Chapman (Aprimo)009: The Long Game Podcast: Building Communities, Teams and Companies through Marketing with Sabel Harris019: Peak Performing, High-Earning Freelance Writing with Michael Keenan (Co-Founder at Peak Freelance)028: Purpose-Driven Leadership & Building a Content Team with Ty Magnin (UiPath)Also, check out our Kitchen Side series where we take you behind the scenes to see how the sausage is made at our agency:015: Should You Hire Writers or Subject Matter Experts?017: How Do Growth and Content Overlap?027: Is Organic Traffic the Best Traffic?Connect with Omniscient Digital on social:Twitter: @beomniscientLinkedin: Be OmniscientListen to more episodes of The Long Game podcast here: https://beomniscient.com/podcast/

This week on Timeless Leadership, the topic is Trust. What's the shortest distance between cynicism and hope? If you said trust, then you're aligned with Margot Bloomstein, author of Trustworthy: How the Smartest Brands Beat Cynicism and Bridge the Trust Gap. Trust also happens to be, in our opinion, the basis of any kind of relationship — and certainly of leadership. Without trust, you're a boss, not a leader. Margo Bloomstein joins us to talk about the trust gap, how building trust is about consistency and context, and how voice, volume, and vulnerability come into play.   Links The Basis of the Best Relationships Margot's website: Appropriate, Inc. Margot's book: Trustworthy: How the Smartest Brands Beat Cynicism and Bridge the Trust Gap Please leave us a rating or review so other people can benefit from Timeless Leadership. Find Timeless Leadership wherever you listen to podcasts.   This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.timelesstimely.com/subscribe

In EP56 we have the chance to learn from Margot Bloomstein, author of Trustworthy: How the Smartest Brands Beat Cynicism and Bridge the Trust Gap (2021) and Content Strategy at Work (2012). She is the principal of Appropriate, Inc., a brand and content strategy consultancy based in Boston.With Margot chat about the driving content design and strategy.During the episode we explore:The three-legged stool of content design.How to collaborate with stakeholders in content design.The upside of shared ownership to push ideas forward.Synergies of digital content and product design.Challenges of aligning Brand and Content StrategyChoosing the channel for content is key.Quality over quantity in marketingThanks a lot for your time and for learning Margot!——The GuestMargot Bloomstein is the author of Trustworthy: How the Smartest Brands Beat Cynicism and Bridge the Trust Gap (2021) and Content Strategy at Work (2012). She is the principal of Appropriate, Inc., a brand and content strategy consultancy based in Boston.As a speaker and strategic adviser, she has worked with marketing teams in a range of organizations over the past two decades. The creator of BrandSort, she developed the popular message architecture-driven approach to content strategy.Margot teaches in the content strategy graduate program at FH Joanneum University in Graz, Austria, and lectures around the world about brand-driven content strategy and designing for trust.

Margot Bloomstein joins me to discuss the topic. Join us.   Check out her book here: https://amzn.to/3xKM0hA --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/ctrappe/message

Margot Bloomstein is the author of Trustworthy: How the Smartest Brands Beat Cynicism and Bridge the Trust Gap (2021) and Content Strategy at Work (2012). She is the principal of Appropriate, Inc., a brand and content strategy consultancy based in Boston, through which she creates brand-appropriate user experiences to help retailers, universities, and other organizations engage their target audiences and project key messages with consistency and clarity. Over the past two decades, she's partnered with clients like the American Montessori Society, Sallie Mae, Lindt & Sprüngli, Harvard University, Timberland, the state of Nevada, and the Rhode Island Public Transit Authority to address messaging in both traditional and social media. A participant in the inaugural Content Strategy Consortium and featured speaker at SXSW, Margot keynotes events and teaches workshops around the world, live and virtually.

Margot Bloomstein After showing up in the content strategy world and generously sharing her expertise for more than 20 years, Margot Bloomstein has earned the trust of this community. Margot's new book, Trustworthy, shows you how to earn the trust of your customers and users. As reliance on experts fades and is replaced with crowd-sourced trust, the work of content strategists must evolve to account for these new dynamics. We talked about: the cynical era we live in and its implications for business our turn from trusted sources to distributed, democratized sources of expertise the corrosive effects of "marinating in a culture of gaslighting" how to help people learn to trust themselves again and to once again value good sources of information the three hallmarks of her approach to developing trustworthiness: voice - engaging users with content that sounds and feels familiar volume - understanding how much content is enough vulnerability - how to own up to stumbles and big mistakes and how to communicate in ways that build rapport examples of how "all businesses, regardless of their size or industry or budget, have the opportunity to engage in the work of rebuilding trust and gaining consumer confidence" the importance of undergirding trust-building work with a message architecture the shift over the past 20+ years in the understanding for the role of content on the web, from an experience that content creators thought they could control to the modern understanding that users bring a lot to content interactions her observation that content strategists are more empowered than we might think how content strategists can apply her insights to cultivate more trust in our work Margot's bio Margot Bloomstein is one of the most prominent voices in the content strategy industry. She is the author of Trustworthy: How the Smartest Brands Beat Cynicism and Bridge the Trust Gap and Content Strategy at Work: Real-World Stories to Strengthen Every Interactive Project and the principal of Appropriate, Inc., a brand and content strategy consultancy based in Boston. As a speaker and strategic adviser, she has worked with marketing teams in a range of organizations over the past two decades. The creator of BrandSort, she developed the popular message architecture-driven approach to content strategy. Margot teaches in the content strategy graduate program at FH Joanneum University in Graz, Austria, and lectures around the world about brand-driven content strategy and designing for trust. Connect with Margot online Appropriate, Inc. Twitter Video Here's the video version of our conversation: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wBEzV4wmP6g Podcast intro transcript This is the Content Strategy Insights podcast, episode number 103. Nowadays, trust is hard to come by. With authoritative figures like Walter Cronkhite fading into ancient history, experts are dismissed, and people are reluctant to accept information from unknown sources. These dynamics create a number of challenges for content strategists. Margot Bloomstein's new book, Trustworthy, shows how to create strategies that meet users on this challenging new terrain, how to get their attention, and how to earn their trust. Interview transcript Larry: Hey everyone, welcome to episode number 103 of the Content Strategy Insights podcast. I'm really delighted today to have with us Margot Bloomstein. Margot is the principal at Appropriate Inc, a consulting agency, but you probably know her, if you've ever been to any content strategy conference or your content design, any design conference, you've probably seen her on the slate. She teaches workshops all the time, you might've seen her in one of those. But anyhow, welcome Margot, tell the folks a little bit more about what you're up to these days. Margot: Thanks so much, I am thrilled to be here, thrilled to be talking with you,

Margot Bloomstein After showing up in the content strategy world and generously sharing her expertise for more than 20 years, Margot Bloomstein has earned the trust of this community. Margot's new book, Trustworthy, shows you how to earn the trust of your customers and users. As reliance on experts fades and is replaced with crowd-sourced trust, the work of content strategists must evolve to account for these new dynamics. We talked about: the cynical era we live in and its implications for business our turn from trusted sources to distributed, democratized sources of expertise the corrosive effects of "marinating in a culture of gaslighting" how to help people learn to trust themselves again and to once again value good sources of information the three hallmarks of her approach to developing trustworthiness: voice - engaging users with content that sounds and feels familiar volume - understanding how much content is enough vulnerability - how to own up to stumbles and big mistakes and how to communicate in ways that build rapport examples of how "all businesses, regardless of their size or industry or budget, have the opportunity to engage in the work of rebuilding trust and gaining consumer confidence" the importance of undergirding trust-building work with a message architecture the shift over the past 20+ years in the understanding for the role of content on the web, from an experience that content creators thought they could control to the modern understanding that users bring a lot to content interactions her observation that content strategists are more empowered than we might think how content strategists can apply her insights to cultivate more trust in our work Margot's bio Margot Bloomstein is one of the most prominent voices in the content strategy industry. She is the author of Trustworthy: How the Smartest Brands Beat Cynicism and Bridge the Trust Gap and Content Strategy at Work: Real-World Stories to Strengthen Every Interactive Project and the principal of Appropriate, Inc., a brand and content strategy consultancy based in Boston. As a speaker and strategic adviser, she has worked with marketing teams in a range of organizations over the past two decades. The creator of BrandSort, she developed the popular message architecture-driven approach to content strategy. Margot teaches in the content strategy graduate program at FH Joanneum University in Graz, Austria, and lectures around the world about brand-driven content strategy and designing for trust. Connect with Margot online Appropriate, Inc. Twitter Video Here's the video version of our conversation: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wBEzV4wmP6g Podcast intro transcript This is the Content Strategy Insights podcast, episode number 103. Nowadays, trust is hard to come by. With authoritative figures like Walter Cronkite fading into ancient history, experts are dismissed, and people are reluctant to accept information from unknown sources. These dynamics create a number of challenges for content strategists. Margot Bloomstein's new book, Trustworthy, shows how to create strategies that meet users on this challenging new terrain, how to get their attention, and how to earn their trust. Interview transcript Larry: Hey everyone, welcome to episode number 103 of the Content Strategy Insights podcast. I'm really delighted today to have with us Margot Bloomstein. Margot is the principal at Appropriate Inc, a consulting agency, but you probably know her, if you've ever been to any content strategy conference or your content design, any design conference, you've probably seen her on the slate. She teaches workshops all the time, you might've seen her in one of those. But anyhow, welcome Margot, tell the folks a little bit more about what you're up to these days. Margot: Thanks so much, I am thrilled to be here, thrilled to be talking with you,

Welcome to episode #785 of Six Pixels of Separation. Here it is: Six Pixels of Separation - Episode #785 - Host: Mitch Joel. Margot Bloomstein spends her time in the content strategy industry. She's the author of Content Strategy at Work and the principal of Appropriate, Inc., a brand and content strategy consultancy based in Boston. For more than twenty years, she has led workshops, keynoted conferences, and advised marketing teams around the world. She developed the popular message architecture-driven approach to content strategy and created BrandSort, a tool embraced by consultancies to help their clients clarify their communication goals. More recently, she published the excellent (and timely) book, Trustworthy - How the Smartest Brands Beat Cynicism and Bridge the Trust Gap. In an actionable framework focused on voice, volume, and vulnerability, her new book is about how to employ concrete tactics to help your business regain trust, respect, and customer loyalty. More importantly, how can you lead your organization and audience from cynicism toward something far more productive: hope. Enjoy the conversation... Running time: 53:27. Hello from beautiful Montreal. Subscribe over at Apple Podcasts. Please visit and leave comments on the blog - Six Pixels of Separation. Feel free to connect to me directly on Facebook here: Mitch Joel on Facebook. or you can connect on LinkedIn. ...or on Twitter. Here is my conversation with Margot Bloomstein. Trustworthy - How the Smartest Brands Beat Cynicism and Bridge the Trust Gap. Content Strategy at Work. BrandSort. Appropriate, Inc.. Follow Margot on LinkedIn. Follow Margot on Twitter. This week's music: David Usher 'St. Lawrence River'.    

Margot Bloomstein is a brand and content strategy consultant. And author of an interesting book titled, "Trustworthy: How the Smartest Brands Beat Cynicism and Bridge the Trust Gap." Now hearing that title you might think that this episode is about branding and marketing. As I read Margot's book it struck me that the same techniques that brands use to connect and build trust with their buyers applies to B2B sellers as well. And building your own personal brand as a trusted advisor. We dive into the 3 main elements of trustworthiness that Margot describes: (1) Voice; (2) Volume; and (3) Vulnerability. And what each of those mean for individual sellers and how they connect and interact with buyers. Sponsored by: ringDNA | Transform your sales team into a high-performing revenue engine | www.ringDNA.com/andy Blueboard | A rewarding alternative to President's Club | https://podcast.blueboard.com Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

In part 2 of my conversation with content strategist and author of Trustworthy: How the Smartest Brands Beat Cynicism and Bridge the Trust Gap, Margot Bloomstein, Margot talks about accuracy vs precision, clear language, getting buy-in, design literacy and much more. --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/savingux/message

With competition getting tougher by the day, how can you make your brand stand out in the market? John Livesay has the perfect guest who can tell you which brands are doing it right and which ones are doing it wrong. He sits down with the creator of BrandSort, Margot Bloomstein. Bringing her book, Trustworthy: How the Smartest Brands Beat Cynicism and Bridge the Trust Gap, she highlights the importance of regaining the trust of cynical consumers through empathy and authenticity. While having the ability to understand and share the feelings of your customers is key, understanding yourself should come first. Margot then dives into the importance of knowing who you are as a company and brand so you can be in a better position to engage with audiences. Love the show? Subscribe, rate, review, and share! Here's How » Join The Successful Pitch community today: JohnLivesay.com John Livesay Facebook John Livesay Twitter John Livesay LinkedIn John Livesay YouTube

With competition getting tougher by the day, how can you make your brand stand out in the market? John Livesay has the perfect guest who can tell you which brands are doing it right and which ones are doing it wrong. He sits down with the creator of BrandSort, Margot Bloomstein. Bringing her book, Trustworthy: How the Smartest Brands Beat Cynicism and Bridge the Trust Gap, she highlights the importance of regaining the trust of cynical consumers through empathy and authenticity. While having the ability to understand and share the feelings of your customers is key, understanding yourself should come first. Margot then dives into the importance of knowing who you are as a company and brand so you can be in a better position to engage with audiences.Wanna Host Your Own Podcast?Click here to see how my friends at Brandcasting You can helpGet your FREE Sneak Peek of John's new book Better Selling Through Storytellinghttp://sellingsecretsforfunding.us9.list-manage.com/subscribe?u=655c123123cd21ff7a24d914e&id=6f12bc74af John Livesay, The Pitch WhispererShare The ShowDid you enjoy the show? I'd love it if you subscribed today and left us a 5-star review!Click this linkClick on the ‘Subscribe' button below the artworkGo to the ‘Ratings and Reviews' sectionClick on ‘Write a Review'Love the show? Subscribe, rate, review, and share!Here's How »Join The Successful Pitch community today:JohnLivesay.comJohn Livesay FacebookJohn Livesay TwitterJohn Livesay LinkedInJohn Livesay YouTube

In this first part of my conversation with content strategist and author of Trustworthy: How the Smartest Brands Beat Cynicism and Bridge the Trust Gap, Margot Bloomstein, Margot talks about balancing user needs and brand needs, helping orgs evolve by finding what is culturally appropriate, saying no and pushing back, and much more. Tune into the next episode for the rest of the conversation. --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/savingux/message

Margot Bloomstein, the principal of Appropriate, Inc., a brand and content strategy consultancy and author of  Trustworthy: How the Smartest Brands Beat Cynicism and Bridge the Trust Gap, explores how to build trust with your brand storytelling. Explore Park's free and premium story building tools including his new book, Brand Bewitchery: How to Wield the Story Cycle System™ to Craft Spellbinding Stories for Your Brand: http://bit.ly/StorytellingTools Like what you hear? Park offers online or in-person workshops, consulting and keynotes. Visit businessofstory.com to get in touch.  

This week, "One to Watch, One Hit Wonder or Wonderwall" returns. As my co-host, Jeff Clark, is taking a week off, David McGuire, Creative Director and Co-Owner of Radix Communications, returns to the show to fill Jeff's virtual hot seat, and we discuss A.I. writing content.   If you are into content marketing or strategy, then you will know or maybe should know this week's guest, Margot Bloomstein, internationally acclaimed speaker, author, and one of the most prominent voices in the content strategy industry. She’s the principal of Appropriate, Inc., a brand and content strategy consultancy, and we discuss her new book Trustworthy: How the Smartest Brands Beat Cynicism and Bridge the Trust Gap.We round off the week with a trip to the Rockstar CMO virtual bar, where I find my friend and content marketing guru Robert Rose, Chief Trouble Maker at The Content Advisory, who, over a cocktail, transports us away to discuss one marketing thought for the week. This week, we are allowing ourselves time to go from good to great. Hope you enjoy this episode, and, please visit these links:The people:Ian Truscott on LinkedIn and Twitter David McGuire on LinkedIn, Twitter, and at Radix CommunicationsMargot Bloomstein on LinkedIn, Twitter, and at Appropriate Inc.Robert Rose on Twitter,  LinkedIn and The Content Advisory Mentioned in this weeks episode: The Twitter thread about AI copy that David referred to Sensation Smith on SpotifyRockstar CMO Podcast #53 that featured DavidMargot's book - Trustworthy: How the Smartest Brands Beat Cynicism and Bridge the Trust Gap Robert's This Old Marketing Podcast Rockstar CMO:The Beat Newsletter Rockstar CMO on the web, Twitter, and LinkedInPrevious episodes and all show notes: Rockstar CMO FMRockstar CMO AdvisorsThe wonderful Piano Music is by Johnny Easton shared under a creative commons license.

Author Margot Bloomstein isn't a typical guest here in the Bunker. She works in content strategy and advising. But two things brought her to Brad's attention: the first was her work with technology, and—more importantly—the second was Margo's focus on trust and inclusion, two slippery ideals in the world of technology. So, stop by for our talk about her latest book Trustworthy: How the Smartest Brands Beat Cynicism and Bridge the Trust Gap, and stay for their rumination on life, the universe, and everything. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Margot is one of the most prominent voices in the content strategy industry. She is the author of “Trustworthy: How the Smartest Brands Beat Cynicism and Bridge the Trust Gap” and “Content Strategy at Work: Real-World Stories to Strengthen Every Interactive Project” and the principal of Appropriate, Inc., a brand and content strategy consultancy based in Boston. As a speaker and strategic adviser, she has worked with marketing teams in a range of organizations over the past two decades. The creator of BrandSort, she developed the popular message architecture-driven approach to content strategy. Margot teaches in the content strategy graduate program at FH Joanneum University in Graz, Austria, and lectures around the world about brand-driven content strategy and designing for trust.Learn More: https://appropriateinc.com/trustworthyInfluential Influencers with Mike Saundershttps://businessinnovatorsradio.com/influential-entrepreneurs-with-mike-saunders/Source: https://businessinnovatorsradio.com/interview-margot-bloomstein-principal-of-appropriate-author-of-trustworthy-how-the-smartest-brands-beat-cynicism-bridge-the-trust-gap

We live in times of heightened cynicism, where people don't believe things at first blush anymore. People, in general, tend to resist new information in a protective response to the countless lies without consequences from politicians or the feeling that behind every conversation, someone is hiding, trying to sell them something. As people feel they can't trust any external sources, they only accept the truth that resonates with them; they adopt the facts that match their identities. Joining us today is Margot Bloomstein, Author, Keynote Speaker, and Content Strategist at Appropiate, Inc. She is a Lecturer in Content Strategy at FH Joanneum, and she offers industry-leading training and consulting at Rosenfeld Media. She holds a BFA in Design and Anthropology from Carnegie Mellon University. Margot is considered one of the leading voices in content strategy of the moment. She published two books, Content Strategy at Work and her recently published, Trustworthy: How the Smartest Brands Beat Cynicism and Bridge the Trust Gap.Margot kindly shared her journey in the content strategy business, how it was to grow simultaneously with the intaernet emerging industry. She talked about the humbling experience of working in an industry in constant development, where there are lots of things to learn every day. Margot brilliantly explained why cynicism grew that much in our society and why people decide to wall themselves from new information. We also discussed what companies can do to overcome the lack of trust in communication. If you want to learn more about communication, lack of trust, and overcoming the wall of cynicism around the audiences, tune in to Episode 277 of Becoming Your Best. Some Questions I Ask:Tell us about your background, including any turning points in your life that's had a significant impact on you. (2:33)Brands use voice, volume, and vulnerability to bring people closer and then drive brand engagement? How does this happen? (7:58)How do we use voice, volume, and vulnerability to overcome that barrier? (18:05)Is there a way for organizations to measure how effective they are right now with voice, volume, and vulnerability to bring their people closer and drive their brand engagement? (24:11)If you have a low return rate and high satisfaction rates, does that mean you're close to communicating in the right way? (26:45)In This Episode, You Will Learn:A humbling experience in an industry in constant growth (6:35)Companies need to rebuild trust and confidence (10:18)What happens when no new information is accepted (13:43)How can the 3 V's - voice, volume, and vulnerability - help a business to grow trust (18:39)Why vulnerability is considered a strength, not a weakness (29:10)Resources:Appropiate, Inc. WebsiteBook: Margot Bloomstein - Content Strategy at Work: Real-world Stories to Strengthen Every Interactive ProjectBook: Margot Bloomstein - Trustworthy: How the Smartest Brands Beat Cynicism and Bridge the Trust GapConnect with Margot:LinkedInTwitterBecoming Your Best Resources:Becoming Your Best WebsiteBecoming Your Best University WebsiteBecoming Your Best LibraryEmail: support@becomingyourbest.com Book: Becoming Your Best: The 12 Principles of Highly Successful LeadersBook: Conquer Anxiety: How to Overcome Anxiety and Optimize Your PerformanceFacebook Group – Conquer Anxiety See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Margot is one of the most prominent voices in the content strategy industry. She is the author of “Trustworthy: How the Smartest Brands Beat Cynicism and Bridge the Trust Gap” and “Content Strategy at Work: Real-World Stories to Strengthen Every Interactive Project” and the principal of Appropriate, Inc., a brand and content strategy consultancy based in Boston. As a speaker and strategic adviser, she has worked with marketing teams in a range of organizations over the past two decades. The creator of BrandSort, she developed the popular message architecture-driven approach to content strategy. Margot teaches in the content strategy graduate program at FH Joanneum University in Graz, Austria, and lectures around the world about brand-driven content strategy and designing for trust.Learn More: https://appropriateinc.com/trustworthyInfluential Influencers with Mike Saundershttps://businessinnovatorsradio.com/influential-entrepreneurs-with-mike-saunders/Source: https://businessinnovatorsradio.com/interview-margot-bloomstein-principal-of-appropriate-author-of-trustworthy-how-the-smartest-brands-beat-cynicism-bridge-the-trust-gap

Margot Bloomstein wanted to find out how companies can beat cynicism and build trust in this moment. Years of research and a new book later, she has the formula: voice, volume, and—the scariest for all of us—vulnerability.  Margot Bloomstein is a brand and content strategy consultant, speaker, and the author of “Trustworthy: How the Smartest Brands Beat Cynicism and Bridge the Trust Gap, just out this spring. As the principal of Appropriate, Inc., she has helped organizations ranging from Harvard to Timberland engage their audiences with transparency, consistency, and clarity. Now, in Trustworthy, Margot opens up about how brands, and consumers, can use vulnerability and transparency as powerful tools to affect change.Being able to look at ourselves in the mirror and say, “What is uniquely me? What makes me distinct,” that's hard. And I think it goes back to that point of vulnerability. We have so much discomfort about confronting not our strengths and flaws, but our humanity—what makes us unique—that the idea then of sharing that with other people, that's scary. But it turns out that is the most rewarding thing for both us and for those other people.—Margot Bloomstein, author of TrustworthyWe talk about:How “voice, volume, and vulnerability” can combat cynicismWhat it means for a company to be vulnerable and why that’s a positive thingHow to handle criticismHow to start writing, speaking, and idea-sharingPlus: in this week’s You’ve Got This, Sara challenges us to confront perfectionism and discover our perfectionist origin story. Who taught you to be a perfectionist? What else were they teaching you? And what's all this perfectionism costing you? If you want to take that challenge on, head over to https://www.activevoicehq.com/podcast.Links:Margot BloomsteinTrustworthy BookWomen Talk DesignInnovation WomenActive Voice

There was a time when businesses thought they needed to stay completely neutral and not ever take a side or have any opinion at all. Times have changed, and consumers now like and trust businesses that they can relate to and have opinions they support. It's really about looking for ways to build trust with potential customers and consumers by building them up and giving them information that is empowering.    Margot Bloomstein is a content strategist, author, and keynote speaker. She's been a content strategist for more than 20 years, and she's consulted with clients from a wide range of industries and backgrounds. Margot is the author of Trustworthy: How the Smartest Brands Beat Cynicism and Bridge the Trust Gap and Content Strategy at Work: Real-World Stories to Strengthen Every Interactive Project. She's also the principal of Appropriate, Inc., a brand and content strategy consultancy based in Boston.    We tackle some of the concepts in her new book and look at unique ways that brands can build trust that just may not fit traditional methods. We also talk when there is a place for novelty and a place for comfort. Margot explains how voice, volume and vulnerability play significant roles in the trust equation. We have a great discussion about how to help your audience and create an environment they can identify with.    And be sure to subscribe to The Self-Employed Life in Apple podcasts or follow us on Spotify or wherever you listen to podcasts so you don't miss an episode.   Everything you need can all be found at jeffreyshaw.com    Margot Bloomstein thank you so much for being here!   Remember, you might be in business FOR yourself but you are not in business BY yourself.  Be your best self. Be proud and keep changing the world.   Join 17,000 subscribers looking to do "business with a soul" and sign up to receive my Self-Employed Nutshell Newsletter! Sign up here!   Highlights –   [01:59] Margot is really excited about promoting her new book Trustworthy: How The  Smartest Brands Beat Cynicism and Bridge the Trust Gap. She's really excited about the friends and mentors that have been helping to guide the process. [04:58] Sales can fall flat when audiences don't trust their own knowledge. People need courage in their own convictions to do the research and make the correct decisions. [06:21] We need to rebuild our customers' confidence before building their confidence in us. [09:55] Socially responsible businesses do well.  [14:22] The people we want closest to us are the ones that build us up and make us feel smarter in the world, not those who tear us down. The same goes for businesses. [18:31] Tapping into our customers aspirations. People purchase things from a point of optimism. [21:44] Creating trust through voice, volume, and vulnerability. [22:33] You empower the consumer by making your brand distinct. They understand who you are and how you are by your voice. [23:09] Voice is the consistent and familiar way that you engage in with your audience. [23:54] Understand your goal and then you can make choices around the words you choose and your color scheme. [26:42] Having balance between consistency and novelty. This may not be the time for brands to reintroduce themselves or launch a new logo. People may be surrounded with enough novelty currently.  [29:05] How trust and comfort play nice together. [31:37] Precision in language is not as important as being approachable and familiar. Familiar can be more valuable and useful than precise. [34:12] Use language to meet people where they are, but also introduce other terminology and perspectives to bring them where they need to go. [36:44] Volume. There are different levels of detail visually and verbally and it all goes back to whether you are putting a burden on your audience or helping them. [39:59] You know you've said enough when your customers feel good about the information they have and can make decisions based on that. [41:43] Vulnerability. Different points of view can lose or gain more customers. Sales can go up when you speak up. [45:56] The risk of making your values visible helps your audience find you. [49:48] Margot shares what she does everyday and how to elevate your business by helping others and more in the Rapid Round.    Guest Contact –   Appropriate, Inc.  Margot Bloomstein Twitter Trustworthy: How the Smartest Brands Beat Cynicism and Bridge the Trust Gap   Resources –   643: Jason Dorsey - How Gen Z Will Change the Future of Busines‪s‬ America's Test Kitchen Cook's Illustrated MailChimp   Contact Jeffrey – Website Coaching support My book, LINGO: Discover Your Ideal Customer's Secret Language and Make Your Business Irresistible is now available! Watch my TEDx LincolnSquare video and please share!   Have Your Website Brand Message Reviewed! Is your website and are all your marketing materials speaking the right LINGO of your ideal customers? Often it's not which is why you're not converting traffic and leads to clients and attracting your most profitable customers. Fill out the simple LINGO Review application and I'll take a look at your website. If I have suggestions for you to improve your brand message (I almost always do), we'll set up a complimentary 30-minute call to discuss. A select number of websites are also chosen for my LINGO Review Video Series. Fill out the application today and let's get your business speaking the right LINGO!   Host Jeffrey Shaw is a Small Business Consultant, Brand Management Consultant, Business Coach for Entrepreneurs, Keynote Speaker, TEDx Speaker and author of LINGO and The Self Employed Life (May 2021). Supporting self-employed business owners with business and personal development strategies they need to create sustainable success.  

This Thursday, join us for Show & Tell Spotlight with @mbloomstein, author of Trustworthy: How the Smartest Brands Beat Cynicism and Bridge the Trust Gap. Free to attend, rsvp for the link! http://indyhall.org/spotlight

Margot Bloomstein is the principal of Appropriate, Inc., a brand and content strategy consultancy. Over a twenty year career, she has consulted in a wide range of industries. Margot is the author of Content Strategy at Work and of a new book, Trustworthy: How the Smartest Brands Beat Cynicism and Bridge the Trust Gap, which is the subject of our conversation today. Show notes Appropriate, Inc. @mbloomstein on Twitter Timberland Publicis Sapient Trustworthy: How The Smartest Brands Beat Cynicism and Bridge The Trust Gap by Margot Bloomstein Mistrust: Why Losing Faith in Institutions Provides the Tools to Transform Them by Ethan Zuckerman Gartner Edelman Crutchfield gov.uk Mailchimp Black Lives Matter Banana Republic Indiebound BookShop.org Some show notes may include Amazon affiliate links. I get a small commission for purchases made through these links. Read the transcript Jorge: Margot, welcome to the show. Margot: Thank you so much. I'm excited to be here. Jorge: Well, I'm very excited to have you here. For folks who might not know you, would you please tell us about yourself? About Margot Margot: Sure. I was born at a very young age. I've been working in content strategy for about 20 years. My background before that, I have my BFA in design and I still consider myself a designer. I focus on brands-driven content strategy. So that means I work with organizations to help them clarify their communication goals and then figure out how to sort of solve for X. Knowing who they are and knowing who their target audience is and what they're trying to achieve, how do we kind of span that unknown space between what they're trying to accomplish, what their audience needs and then the right content types and tools and affordances that will help them get there. And I guess I still think of myself as a designer in that context because even though I'm solving problems, not through typography and the density of information on the page and color, but more through editorial style and tone and content types and that sort of thing. It's still around problem solving to facilitate communication and manifest those ideas. Jorge: And you practice as a consultant, is that right? Margot: Yes. Yeah. I've been an independent under the umbrella of Appropriate, Inc. since 2010. And before that I was in a couple of different mid-sized agencies that had hired me to develop their content strategy departments. Kind of around like 2003, 2004, up through 2010, as that was becoming something that their clients were requesting more by name or were interested in seeing how it would complement visual design and information architecture, and that three-legged stool of user experience design. And prior to that, I spent a year in house at Timberland. And then really, I think my graduate school was a couple of years at Sapient in kind of the height of the .com boom and bust. Trustworthy Jorge: I've been aware of you and your work in content strategy for a long time. The reason I wanted to speak with you now is that you have a new book out called Trustworthy. And I'm wondering if you could give us a high-level overview of the book, what it's about. Margot: Sure. So, Trustworthy: How the Smartest Brands Beat Cynicism and Bridge the Trust Gap. I think that subtitle is... It's optimistic and hopeful, because I see that there are problems around us in our communication and in our society and how we interact in our society. And I think there's a real opportunity for brands to approach that problem with a fresh mindset and with new perspectives that we're not able to find from government or large institutions anymore. And this is something that Ethan Zuckerman writes about in Mistrust that recently came out. He looks at how we've lost trust in institutions and what people can do to respond to that. How we can kind of do our own bit of saving, as it were. And I look at how, within this context of the rise of cynicism, as we've lost trust in government, in politicians, in media, if we ever had a lot of trust there to begin with... We've seen how the effects of gaslighting in those realms have affected people. How people have turned away from those large institutions and maybe media outlets that they used to trust. Big organizations that they used to trust. How instead, we've kind of turned to our filter bubbles to people that are quote unquote, just like us, to say, "Well, what should I know? What's everyone else's experience with this? What should I be reading? What should I be eating? Where should I be going out to eat when I can do that again?" And in that context, we've kind of become more aware of our filter bubbles, and certainly how some brands end up gaining those filter bubbles. How ratings and reviews are skewed. And I think as people have become more aware of that reality, they've pulled back even further to kind of go with their own gut instincts to say, "well, if it feels right to me, that's going to be my test of reality and veracity. If it feels right, it must be right." The only problem with that is that over the past few years, as more of us have been affected by gaslighting from politicians, from the media, from news organizations saying, "don't look anywhere else. We're the only source of truth." That affects our gut instincts. We've lost our gut instincts and our ability to evaluate information from multiple sources and to feel good about our information analysis and our understanding of the world. And with that kind of outlook, people are shaky and susceptible to bad information. We've grown, sort of immobilized in our ability to make decisions. And that's why we see how sales cycles take longer and so much marketing falls flat. And that's why I think that even though those problems maybe started in the realm of politics and the media, those issues around indecision and cynicism undermine any kind of organization or industry that engages in marketing. If you're trying to sell something, if you're trying to offer a service, even if you are a government entity that is offering things for the public good, people now approach it with more cynicism and doubt. And that's a problem because our work suffers. Our work falls flat. And I think if this is the mindset of so many consumers, so many citizens, and readers and shoppers and voters. We need to meet them where they are and help them move forward. Help them kind of break out of that. And that's really the message of Trustworthy. So, I look at that problem, analyze the why and the how behind it, and then propose a new framework for designers, copywriters, content strategists, creative directors, marketers in general, to move forward and help their businesses move forward. Because I do believe that business can be a force for good, beyond merely corporate-social responsibility efforts and corporate philanthropy. Those things are certainly important. And those are oftentimes activities and areas of focus that are relegated maybe to an HR department. But I think there are things though that everyone can do that works in design or copywriting or content strategy or marketing. We can make changes to how we do work and the things that we prioritize in our work to help business be a force for good. To move things forward and ultimately better serve our users. Jorge: I'm glad you mentioned this idea of business as a source for good. Because it is a question that I had in thinking about two of the words in the subtitle of the book, "brands" and "cynicism," in that I see a lot of... this loss of trust extends to companies, right? And it extends to entire capitalist framework. In some cases, I see a lot of people ranting against that online. And yet the book does come across as being very much an optimistic take on trying to overcome that kind of cynicism through what — if I might characterize it, you talked about the framework — it came across to me as a framework for communicating more trustworthy-ily? I don't know if that's a word. Margot: Hmm. With a greater degree of trust? Measuring trust Jorge: Yes! With a greater degree of trust, that's a better way of putting it. I'm wondering, is there a way to measure degrees of trust? I mean, there's so much about this that is quantified. By "this," I mean, communications through digital media. Are there ways for organizations to know the degree to which they are trusted by the public? Margot: Yes. And I mean, we definitely see different surveys, kind of public opinion research. Gartner publishes on this. Edelman publishes on this. Edelman publishes their annual trust survey and most trusted brands. But I think that businesses can look for other markers - other indicators of trust - as well. And this issue, it kind of parallels the discussion that has... I don't want to say plagued content strategy as a practice for so long, but very often we wonder, and we hear clients wonder too, right? "If I make these changes, how do we measure if our content strategy is working? What are our metrics of success?" and I think that that's a valid question, but I think that we don't always ask it appropriately. I think we need to ask that question with a bigger, a wider-angle lens, I think, looking at the context. Because you cannot measure the success of content strategy by looking at a single element of content and saying, did it work? Did it not work? However, we can measure the results the same way that we can measure the effect and impact of trust by looking at other metrics from around the organization. So, for example, one of the brands that I profiled in Trustworthy is Crutchfield, the electronics company. They publish a tremendous amount of content in a wonderful, rich level of detail using a lot of different content types. They've got a lot of really long, long pages on their site and what they've discovered in looking at user research, in testing, and even just looking at onsite analytics: when people get to the end of those really long pages, they click to keep going. They want to read more and that's because their audience gains greater confidence in their ability to make decisions around maybe it's a really high-ticket purchase, a new home audio system or something for their car, or even maybe just a high-end camera lens. Their audience gains confidence in their own knowledge and in their ability to make good decisions by taking in more content. They spend a lot of time with it. And then they know that that audience is feeling more confident about it because when those people then are able to move forward with the purchase to put an item in the shopping cart, go ahead and check out, and then eventually get that purchase on their doorstep? They don't see a high rate of returns. There's not a lot of buyer's remorse there. So, I think when we look at asking, "are these brands trusted?", we're not asking the question in a way that is sufficiently broad enough because we should also be asking, "do our users, do our audiences act in a way that indicates that they trust themselves? That they're confident in their own knowledge?" And that's a lot of what I get at in Trustworthy. So much about brands earning trust and gaining the confidence of their audiences really is about how we enable those people to feel more confident in themselves; how we enable them to feel like they can make good decisions and then feel good about the decisions that they make. And we can measure that in the rate of product returns, time spent onsite. If they're going back and forth a lot between putting something in a shopping cart, as well as then in doing research in focus groups and talking with our users. One of the other examples that I include is gov.uk, when they went through a big effort to kind of reign in their content. So, in contrast to the example from Crutchfield, they realized that they published so much content. I think, information about government services in Britain was available across some nine different websites, 75,000 pages. And you could bet they weren't all consistent in message. Like it was a maintenance nightmare! It wasn't good for internal users, and internal content creators and designers, and it certainly was not good for British citizens. And they realized in going through a process of scaling back their content, adopting this mantra that government should only publish content on the topics on which only government can publish content. They pulled back. They said we don't need 75,000 pages of content. They went through a big audit process and reigned it back to about 3000 pages, then brought people in and asked them to accomplish certain tasks on the site. And again, and again, they were hearing from people, "oh, Oh, is that it? I guess I'm done! Great!" that kind of response, because they were giving them cues that said, "you can feel confident that this is all the information you need to access a certain type of tax paperwork," or to file for certain benefits. By giving them those cues that said, what you have received is everything that we have to say, and you can rest assured that you don't need to keep poking around the rest of the greater internet to find more information? That's what their audience needed to feel confident in their own knowledge. Jorge: I loved the gov.uk example in the book. It was used to illustrate, as you mentioned, the volume of content in the site. I also loved the discussion of the tone of voice that gov.uk adopted and how they made changes to – I'm going to paraphrase here – but to translate kind of ‘government speak' into language that was more understandable to a broader portion of the population. The question in my mind about both of these examples, Crutchfield and gov.uk — and by the way, the book is filled with examples from a wide range of organizations, which is really great because it really does a good job of illustrating these principles at work Margot: and something for everyone! Jorge: There's something for everyone, yeah! One thing that stood out to me is that many of these organizations have been around for a while. Like of course the government of the UK had a relationship with the public that preceded their website. And Crutchfield has also been around for a while. I remember one of the examples in the book is MailChimp, which is more of a startup, I think, but still it's been around. It's not a new startup. Margot: Right. Yeah, they've been around a long time. When they first started out, they were a small business, serving other small businesses with email marketing needs and now they support something like 60% of the world's email marketing messages go through MailChimp. No more small business there. Building trust Jorge: Right. I use them myself for my newsletter. The reason I'm bringing up the longevity of a lot of these organizations is that trust strikes me as one of those things that takes a while to build. It's not something that you can develop overnight. Is that fair? Margot: Ooh, that's a good question. I think more often, what we talk about is that trust can be destroyed overnight, and it takes a long time to regain. That's not to say though that even startups can't start from a position of trust because nothing exists in kind of a void. And if you're a startup, or if you're supporting and working for a startup that's in an established industry, there's that halo effect of the industry. And that may be good or bad. I think if you're a startup in an industry where there's a history of trust problems, where people do approach more transactions and more relationships with cynicism than excitement or connection or engagement or faith, then there's a real opportunity there. Is yours the startup that says, "we're doing everything differently, so expect better from us"? Because that's a bold statement. And then I think if you can back it up with tools and interactions and messaging that enables people to feel more confident in you and feel more confident in their own interactions with you? I think there's no reason to believe that you can't build trust fairly quickly there. At the same time, I think if you're a startup in an industry where there already is a strong sense of trust and accountability and empowered audiences that expect to retain that kind of strength. I think you can build on that as well. So, I think both ways there are opportunities for kind of new players to come into a space and make it their own and make things better for their audiences as well as their employees and everyone that is helping to kind of support the brand. Jorge: The distinction between building trust and regaining trust, I think is an important one. And I agree with you; that expression also came to my mind, that it takes a while to build trust and you can destroy trust in a moment. I'm wondering about the ability for organizations to put in place trust-building initiatives when incentives tend to be short term. So, a lot of organizations are measured quarterly, right? And they want indicators to make sure they're making progress against their goals. I'm very interested in initiatives that are more long-lived, and this strikes me as one area where building an authentic relationship with your audience should be a long-term aspiration and I'm wondering if there's a tension there between the fact that building and maintaining trust is this long-term goal, and the drive that so many organizations have for frequent updates or results. Margot: Yeah, I think you're right. It's a long-term goal, but I think it comprises a lot of short-term steps Short-term steps that are the responsibility of everyone in the organization. Like we always say in design that God is in the details. And I think it's in those details that organizations build an example of consistency and sustainable trust. So, for example, I think that now looking at short-term goals in many organizations, they might be thinking about like, "well, what's the next big campaign?" Or with all the kind of upheaval in our society, around the pandemic and a variety of different social issues, we need to jump into that conversation too. What's our position? You used the term " authenticity." And I think that that's a term that we throw around a lot; that's a term that marketers love to throw around. Who wouldn't want to be authentic? And I always wonder, authentic to what? Do you know who you are? Know thyself first, and then you can determine, "well, how do we align our actions with our values?" Because that's how we measure authenticity: it's the distance between our actions and our words, all of that external stuff and our values. And I think for many organizations, they can jump into kind of the national conversation, into the international conversation, around many of those social issues and say, "here's what we're doing. Here's why we support this. Here's what we're doing internally. And here's what we're doing externally to make this better for everyone." To put a stake in the ground. And they can do it building on that long-term, authentic investment in their values. If they've built those values over time, if they've invested in like... maybe their big cause is around diversity and inclusion, maybe in the context of Black Lives Matter, and they say, "yes, we believe this too." Okay, well, what are they doing and what have they been doing historically, to make sure that they're recruiting candidates that represent diverse viewpoints? That they are promoting from within and ensuring that they're bringing about a dialogue that benefits from diverse representation. What are they already doing there? I think that there's an opportunity though for organizations that jump into that fray that want to be a part of that conversation and then realize, wait a second. We don't walk this walk internally yet ourselves. There's still an opportunity for them to build trust by leaning into, like you mentioned, volume, before. One of the other parts of the framework is vulnerability. By having that vulnerable, open and transparent conversation with their audience that says, we believe this is important, but we realized we don't do that so well here ourselves. Doctor, heal thyself. So, here's what we're going to do to take steps to act on those goals. And I think it's by sort of prototyping in public. Making their values known so they can act as a beacon for others and then saying, "here's what we're going to do so that we improve in this regard as well. And here's how you can hold us accountable." That kind of transparency builds trust too. And that can be something that is a long-term growth opportunity over time. Where they are bringing people into their evolution, bringing people into that discussion, so that their audience is not just consumers, but also champions of their work. So, they feel like, yeah, they've seen the growth and they want to continue to support that kind of growth. And I think that works both long-term as well as short-term figuring out what those initiatives are and how they are making good on them over the next quarter. Leadership Jorge: I would imagine that core to that is having a clear set of organizational values where we know what we stand for. And my expectation would be that that needs to come from the top. Is that fair? Margot: Yeah, I think the goals come from the top. The execution comes from the bottom and we meet in the middle and hope that the railroad meets up and aligns. Jorge: Well, I'm thinking specifically of one of the examples in the book, the pre-Gap era Banana Republic. I thought that that was a particularly apt illustration of this idea where it seemed like they were very clear on who they were and their communications and the way that they, for example, structured their physical stores, their physical environments, were all manifestations of a pretty clear understanding from the founders of what was right for Banana Republic and what wasn't right. Margot: Right! Yeah. Mel and Patricia Ziegler, an illustrator and a journalist. They envisioned this place that felt like a Safari outfitter. That brought the idea of adventure home. And they scorned the idea of thinking of themselves as tourists. They didn't want to just dip into other cultures and then bring back the evidence of their travels. They wanted to, in some ways, bring the world a little bit closer for their target audience. And the passages that you're referring to there, talking about what they did with the store design to bring this kind of color to their audience and in their descriptions of the products, in how they were sourcing and creating some of the clothing and attire and whatnot, they sold... even their investments eventually in creating a travel desk to help people prepare for whatever sort of journeys they wanted to take through the world. That was all in alignment around this very consistent, cohesive brand. And then eventually when they were acquired by Gap Inc., they saw a lot of financial benefits to it around production and distribution and sales, but ultimately it scuttled that original idea of the store. The original idea of Banana Republic. That, yes, now we look back with some mix of... of maybe admiration as well as cringing? Because there are certainly aspects of their story that don't play today. That are an increasingly white Western worldview. That certainly wasn't their goal at the time. But as we talk about in vulnerability and evolution, you live and learn and then do better. However, what they did, after they were acquired by the Gap, wasn't necessarily better. It was in many ways more expected, homogenous, and milquetoast. They lost what made the brand distinct. Getting to your point around the values, I think organizations need to know what they stand for so that they can put that stake in the ground and manifest their values visually and verbally. In the first section on voice, we talk about that a lot. Like first, knowing who you are and a lot of the work that I've done with organizations over - certainly over the past 20 years in content strategy - nearly all of my engagements with clients start out with first figuring out their communication goals. Helping them wrap their arms around a message architecture or a hierarchy of communication goals. So, they know, "is it more important for us to project this idea of adventure and inspiration and innovation? Or do we really want to be more the brand that projects a sense of reliability and tradition and maybe responsiveness or warmth, and what's most important in that equation?" it's only after we figure out those things after we've established that message architecture that then we can move forward with that idea of brand driven content strategy and brand driven design. To know that if it's most important for us to project maybe a sense of innovation or of being really, really reliable, let's say. Okay. That's why we embrace longer sentence structures. Maybe more paragraphs in our copy rather than just bulleted lists. Maybe more, more Latinate rather than Germanic verbs. And also, that's why we adopted a typeface as our standard typeface with Serifs and that has this sort of bold kind of feeling to it. All of those kinds of decisions, those tactics, manifest the communication goals and manifest their values. Closing Jorge: So, that was very well put. And as you mentioned earlier in our conversation, it's something that strikes me as being much needed in this world where folks are losing a sense of trust in institutions, politicians, companies. And this idea that in being in touch with your organizational values and then finding ways to authentically convey those values to the world can help regain trust and build better relationships between organizations and their customers. At least that's what I got from the book. I think it's a valuable contribution to this conversation and to the field, and I encourage folks to read it. It should be out by the time that you listen to this, or if you listen very quickly, it might be on pre-order. But folks can get it in Amazon and all the usual places, right? Margot: Yes! Yeah. Support your favorite small local bookstore as well! You can always order through them through IndieBound or bookshop.org and, yeah! Or go to your favorite big, giant bookseller as well. Jorge: Well, fantastic. It's interesting, that clarification there, because it speaks to these issues of trust, right? We have a different relationship with the local bookseller than we do with a larger, more impersonal organization. Margot: Right. And oftentimes because at your local bookstore, you might know some of the booksellers there, or you might know them through their recommendations. And I think it's that... that kind of personal connection that it effectively curates your reading experience. To bring different ideas and titles in front of you to say, "Oh, if you're looking at that right now, you may want to also consider this!" Better than any sidebar recommendations or algorithm can necessarily offer. And I love that right now there's been such a rise in ways to connect with independent bookstores and independent booksellers. Certainly through the tour that I'm doing around Trustworthy, I'm trying to work with a lot of them in cities where I know I've spoken over the past 10 years and where there is a big design and content strategy community. To have them come out - even if it is over Zoom - to come out to an event where we're looking at the book in conversation and talking about the themes in it and how they relate in that city to small businesses and big businesses and everyone in between. Jorge: Well folks, you heard it here. Get Trustworthy at your local bookshop and join Margot on her tour. And where can folks follow up with you to find out about the tour? Margot: You can find me online at appropriateinc.com. If you go to appropriateinc.com/trustworthy, that's where you can sign up for my newsletter. And I always kind of put all the info there first, but yeah! Or find me on Twitter @mbloomstein, hashtag right now is #trustworthybook. And you'll see a lot of chatter on that as well. Jorge: Fantastic. I will include those in the show notes. Thank you so much, Margot, for being with us. Margot: Thank you. This was so much fun.

Margot Bloomstein is the author of Trustworthy: How the Smartest Brands Beat Cynicism and Bridge the Trust Gap (2021) and Content Strategy at Work (2012). She is the principal of Appropriate, Inc., a brand and content strategy consultancy based in Boston, through which she creates brand-appropriate user experiences to help retailers, universities, and other organizations engage their target audiences and project key messages with consistency and clarity. https://www.linkedin.com/in/mbloomstein/

Margot Bloomstein is one of the leading voices in the content strategy industry. She is the author of "Trustworthy: How the Smartest Brands Beat Cynicism and Bridge the Trust Gap" and "Content Strategy at Work: Real-World Stories to Strengthen Every Interactive Project" and the principal of Appropriate, Inc., a brand and content strategy consultancy based in Boston. As a speaker and strategic adviser, she has worked with marketing teams in a range of organizations over the past two decades. The creator of BrandSort, she developed the popular message architecture-driven approach to content strategy. Margot teaches in the content strategy graduate program at FH Joanneum University in Graz, Austria, and lectures around the world about brand-driven content strategy and designing for trust. You can pre-order Margot's book at https://www.amazon.com.au/Trustworthy-Smartest-Brands-Cynicism-Bridge-ebook/dp/B08R12TLYX/