The Story Behind the Story: How Rachel Petzold Turns Founders Into Magnetic Brands

SPEAKER_02 1:01

Welcome everyone to Doing Business with a Servant's Heart Podcast. I'm your host, Steve Ramona. I'm thrilled to have you join us today. This podcast is dedicated to exploring the idea of doing business and yes, living life with a purpose, serving others and yes, achieving success, which we all want to do. We believe that when we approach our life, our work in our lives with a servant's heart, we could truly make a difference. I created this show and we created the show for you because we want everyone to be motivated, inspired, and educated to make an impact in your world, not the whole world, but just change your world. Hey, whether you're an entrepreneur, a community leader, or simply someone looking to bring more purpose into your daily life, this podcast is here to support and uplift you. My incredible guest is going to talk about storytelling, which I love because that's what I do with a podcast. You're going to love her. But while you're listening, I want you to think about who you're going to serve today and what impact you're going to create today. Key word is today. Don't wait till tomorrow. Do something today. Today's episode is brought to you by our amazing sponsor, Pantheon Alliance. Picture yourself joining an elite community of thriving business owners from a variety of industries all working together to create a powerful referral marketplace. It's an incredible opportunity to expand your network and elevate your business to new heights. Reach out to me uh through this podcast, or you have my contact information on the podcast, and I'll tell you more about that. With that being said, I am fired up and I'm excited. And you're just gonna love her. Rachel, welcome to the show.

SPEAKER_00 2:32

Oh, thank you so much, Steve. I am so honored to be here. So thrilled to be talking with and to everyone and excited to talk about serving the world in every way that we can. And I loved your comment about local. So to introduce myself, I'm Rachel Petzold. I work for and built a business called Gossamer because I like to think of all of us having gossamer wings where we can go off and spread great things no matter our circumstances and situations. And my business is all about product storytelling.

SPEAKER_02 3:00

And I love that. Let's dive into why is you know, you know, I've got uh let me think of a product. Well, I have a friend, or a guy I work with that had a product that was a uh a knife sharpener. He put it on Amazon, he makes a million dollars a month with it. I'm sure there's a story, but talk about storytelling tied to a product.

SPEAKER_00 3:22

Absolutely. So the great part of everybody's new exploration about product is we're all products. As humans, we productize ourselves when we go looking for a job. I go to people, businesses, and leaders, and I help them understand that the story they're telling to the world about themselves and the way they speak, but also the way they behave is the most important piece of their business success. Everybody that I work with ends up with wildfire success because they start to understand how their language and their message is the most important thing they're selling to the world.

SPEAKER_02 3:58

I love that. Now, the question that's everybody is listening or listening to the recording is how they monetize themselves, because we're all wondering that.

SPEAKER_00 4:06

Yes. Um, I had to find out the hard way myself. So I've worked in technology for most of my adult life and I worked in product management. And product management is all about taking data in and taking that data and making good decisions about it and helping to understand kind of sometimes the micro and small changes that you can make to make a business more money. What's happening in the world right now is that there's been a huge shift in employment. Senior people like myself are losing their roles, oftentimes because businesses just decide that they need to compress. And I'm at the most expensive end of the spectrum from a leadership perspective as a VP and a chief product officer, it's really hard to argue for that role if you need some people that are doers and people that are less builders and thinkers. So the world has changed and we have to change with it. And what I discovered is that most people don't know how to speak about themselves, whether it's looking for work and needing to kind of reframe your experience and your background, because you're later in your career and you just want to make enough money so that you've got money in your 401k and you're not as worried about kind of climbing the ladder, or as I did, realizing you wanted to change the world one person at a time. And so I started volunteering to help leaders, people that are CEO level or chief level, VP level, helping them understand that as they go for whatever it is they're going for next, they need to make sure that they feel confident about that. And I use a tool that's been around for a really long time. It's a marketing archetype. I'm helping people across the United States define the brand story they need to tell for themselves so they can get where they want to go.

SPEAKER_02 5:52

That's interesting. So you become the product, like you said in the beginning, you become the product of yourself. What's one mistake people make when they do try the brand or product, you know, become a product of themselves?

SPEAKER_00 6:04

Excellent question. So I think one of the biggest challenges is everybody needs to go big because they're so afraid of not finding something. So there's that intrinsic fear that if I don't spread myself really broadly and try for everything, then I'm not going to get anything. And so my goal with everybody I work with, whether it's volunteering to help somebody who does not have the foundational finances that they need or businesses I'm working with, is making sure that they come up with their pinpoint. What is the one thing you do well? And guess what, Steve? When I started doing this as an individual, as a solopreneur, I went everywhere. I talked to everybody, I can do it all. And what I discovered is nobody knew how to present me to other people that I might be able to help. And so I drilled down into the product storytelling because as a child, my dad always said, I'm the town crier. I'm the one that would go out and say, Danger, Will Robinson, there's something wrong in the world. Or, oh, look, there's a party over here. I'm a talker. And so as a talker, the natural progression is to become a storyteller. But storytellers are very intentional. You have to be really thoughtful about who you are and how you want to show up in the world. And so a big part of my DNA is to help other people. And so I for six months worked for free for everybody who needed anything. If they needed an hour just to help shore them up because they were going through a tough time, I would show up. If somebody needed a story told, wanted to build their brand on LinkedIn or do some creative work so that they could get more attention, I did that. I did that for cheap or free for a while. And then suddenly these people were asking for more and had the wherewithal to be able to say, Rachel, we want more of you. Will you come work with us? And now I have nine customers, most of them in the startup space, all of them recognizing that getting our story right is going to help them get funding. It's going to help them be successful with their product and their users. And I get to help guide that. I've got the flashlight and I'm lighting the path.

SPEAKER_02 8:07

Storytelling is everything in our life from asking somebody to marry them to product support to customer. And we're telling stories every day. And the audience, if you think back just to yesterday, how many stories did you tell? I know I told eight stories. I talk about other people. On my LinkedIn, everything's about my podcast guest. You know, I told Jay, I'm gonna take Mark Spencer and I'm gonna tag him because thank you for connecting with me. So you really connect with his yeah. Shout out to Mark, yes. But a service heart's tied to the storytelling. If you don't have a good story, you can't be a service heart, right?

SPEAKER_00 8:56

Right, exactly. And then everybody I work with, the expectation is what I have given you, you need to give back fivefold and go find five people that you can help in some way, in the way that is natural for you. Not everybody is a storyteller like I am, but the people that I help, there's always that goal to let them know I helped you instead of paying me, what you need to do is go off and help five more people. And it's like that old hair commercial from probably the 80s or the 90s, where you tell two friends and so on and so on. If you, everyone who's listening and watching, if you do two things this week that are truly from a servant's heart, where you see somebody and you know there's something you can do for them, we're gonna change the world.

SPEAKER_02 9:40

Yeah, amen. And to add what you just said about you don't have a story yourself, two years ago I was told by a very wealthy billionaire. He said, Tell other people's stories. That's tight. I mean, and I said that before, but I want to reiterate that. If you're listening going, Rachel, I have a story to tell, then go to your network and see what story. There's millions of stories out there. I share other people's stories all the time. And that's a servant's heart. Hey, this guy went from here to here, and look what he did. Now he's doing this. What a great story. Well, the universe is being highlighted. So, what's your favorite? You know, there's a lot of ways to storytell, as we just said. What's your favorite form of storytelling?

SPEAKER_00 10:17

So I actually love the part where it's extracting the story in the first place. I'm certified in design thinking and human-centered design, and I've been doing it for a number of years. So I used to go into businesses and I'd be in front of a whiteboard in a conference room, and I'd put post-notes on the board, and we would start talking about the lay of the land and find the place where we knew, hey, we can make an impact here. Here's what we're gonna do. That is my favorite part in talking with people, starting to have them think about themselves as a holistic person and a holistic thing and a holistic brand that you want to go off to the world and talk about. We have to start with where you are. And so defining the current state is my favorite part because then there are so many different directions we can go and explore. And they get to decide that one feels good and authentic and let's go that way. It's not me being a branding or a marketing agency coming in and saying, Here, we did a thing, you know, we've put it out. You get it, it's what you're gonna get. I want to understand what is gonna light them up. The light bulb moment for me is the moment when they go, Wait, I am that. And I can think of a lot of people that want that thing you just helped me to find. That one sentence is life-changing.

SPEAKER_02 11:30

Well, I'm gonna do I I love this because I'm picturing the whiteboard and we see it in movies, TVs, people do it. It's great. Here's a shout-out. I'm gonna share it with you after the show. Uh, audience, the brain.com literally is those you know the brain? App okay, sorry about the show. It's incredible. It does exactly what you say. I've been using it for all my projects. It's it's a game changer. Again, the brain.com, I'll put it in the show notes as a side value that Rachel's given to you um to help you with the storytelling. What is what is somebody's attitude when they do storytelling? Should it be neutral? Should it be high energy? What is your thoughts when maybe not attitude, but energy level when they're telling their story?

SPEAKER_00 12:15

It has got to be authentic. I can't tell you how many times when I was in marketing and branding, where we would sit with a brand and we'd talk to all the people on the team, and you could just see them kind of going, oh, okay, I'll go spew that out sometime to somebody at some point. And unless they have that excitement where they're like, What? That's me, then it's not right. We have to make sure when we talk about ourselves that we're talking about our true selves, our core, our soul, and our heart. And when you can find the words that tie to that, and other people can understand you and what you do because of that, you're gold and people will want to be around you. They'll want to have what you have, and they'll want to help support your goals and ideas.

SPEAKER_02 12:56

And unfortunately, I'm glad you said that, because unfortunately, in this day and age, people are not being authentic. Fear, FOMO, COVID, you know, all that. They're like, oh my God, I gotta have, you know, so they nudge the numbers a little bit, really nudge the story, and you're right. The universe will talk back. And it's I've learned that in the hard way. And I know other people that have. So thank you for sharing that. Of course. So an entrepreneur, and a lot of them listen to this. What's the best way for them to craft their story?

SPEAKER_00 13:28

Um start at the beginning. So I like to tell a story for those who can watch. For those not watching, I'm holding up a cup that has little black lines on the handle. This was my dad's coffee cup. And my dad was the epitome of the storyteller, but he told he told um fibs on his best days, and he told wild stories that weren't true on his worst. He was very much the fictional writer. When you're writing your own story, the truth is about the truth. I go out and I tell people in the world, I'm Rachel. I was homeless for 19 months when I was 15 years old. And out of that, I pulled up my bootstraps and I learned that I never wanted to be in a position where somebody else could change my destiny. And I have worked very hard in my career to get to a place where I want other people to feel like they can say their authentic truth and tell their story. And people will buy by them, by their products, by their world, by their friendship and their relationships, where that connection happens. It's magnetic when you come to the table and you are your true and honest self. And so don't ever feel like you have to be shiny.

unknown 14:35

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 14:36

We're all shiny in some way. Be the true, shiny person you are.

SPEAKER_02 14:40

You're the true Maya Angelo quote that uh, and I was gonna pull it up, but you know, it it says that they're gonna listen to you, they're gonna want to talk to you, but which how you made them feel is the most important thing. I'm probably blowing up the the quote. Everybody in my audience, I'm sure you've heard it once or a million times. I have it written up somewhere. That's what you're saying, really.

SPEAKER_00 15:02

It is, it is. Well, when we show up as who we're supposed to be, the right people come, the right work comes. It's when we try to be something we're not, or where we feel like we have to be something we're not, that we can't succeed. I've been wildly successful once I made a commitment to myself that I was done pretending to be somebody who put up with certain behaviors at work, where I would go, Oh, I'm always gonna be the peacekeeper. Now I say, I'm sorry, this isn't a good fit, and I welcome.

SPEAKER_02 15:30

That's a servant's heart. Audience, I've said this again, I'm gonna reiterate it. You say and no is serving them and you, not a fit for you, and they're not a fit. They can go out and find something where they are a fit. You've actually done them a favor. It's hard to materialize in your head because it's so it's not what we're uh born uh brought up to to think. So I love that you said that. No, and it's okay. I had a guy guest on my show mega wealthy. He turned away a whole bunch of money because he told a guy he was unkind. I only work with people that are kind.

SPEAKER_00 16:05

Wow.

SPEAKER_02 16:05

And I'm talking about millions of dollars. This wasn't like ten thousand a thousand dollars. So if a guy like that can do it, listen to Rachel because you're right. He's not homeless, he's quite successful, extremely successful. He still turned that guy away. Again, bad, you know, the bad apple in the bushel can affect the whole apple, and it's all that stuff we don't have to get into. I can't. So can storytelling is it better in person, virtually, on social media? Where do you think the best place is a storytell, or is it everywhere?

SPEAKER_00 16:38

I think it depends on your comfort zone. So, again, everybody's out there saying you need to be on LinkedIn and you need to have a blog and you need to post quotes and you need to do all these things. Well, if that feels true and honest to you, then absolutely you should do that. If you have a story you want to tell, find the place you're comfortable telling it. I love to go to in-person networking events. I'm in Dallas now, but I grew up in Portland and I lived in Seattle, and there were very few in-person networking events. I am a magical networker now in the last four and a half years because I came to a city where in-person is a big deal. And I like to go to those places and I like to be able to meet people face to face, but some of my most authentic connections have been people I've never met in person because we get on a Zoom and we chat about something and we have something in common that feels really authentic to both of us, and the relationship grows and blossoms. And I also I love to write. I probably I'm ghostwriting a couple novels for people. And as I write other people's stories, I get to be inside their head to a point where it's like, I love you because you are so you to the people that I'm writing for and what.

SPEAKER_02 17:47

I like your networking strategy, and that's what this is all about. People know how a big super connector, I think it says it there on the screen. And I like that because we're in the people asset business. You are. If you don't have any people, and that's across the board from a massage therapist to Amazon. If neither one had people, and if the audience, you think about that. I I love that phrase I came up with a people asset. Money asset, we know it's appreciating, we're making money. If your people assets depreciating, you're probably losing money or not, your income is dropping. Um, so it's powerful how you build your story around them to draw more people and to build their people assets. That is so cool. I love that. What is your product, specially at its core?

SPEAKER_00 18:33

So I learned from a really brilliant person that I watched at a trade show once upon a time. Um, the quote from him was every time you say yes, you say no. So if you think about us, we want to say yes to everybody or we want to say yes to a lot of people because we're trying to build, we're trying to build, we're trying to grow, we're trying to expand. But every time we say yes to something, there's now something else that there's not space for. So my specialty is in helping people make sure that they are small enough in what they're trying to accomplish that they can do it really, really well. And if you say yes to everything, you're gonna be mediocre at everything you touch. If you say yes to too much, you're not gonna be able to potentially do things that are really, really important. So say yes to the things that matter and that light up your heart. And then everything else, it can wait. Put it in your backlog, put it on your post-it note, on the board, on this great new tool you mentioned, and you can have that for later and go, yeah, that's still interesting. I'm gonna grab it. Organizing your thoughts around the things that light you up is gonna make you light up the world significantly more often, and that's what we're supposed to do.

SPEAKER_02 19:43

There's so much to unpack there. One, being a servant's heart, you have more time to do that than saying yes to everybody. I did that, I changed, my life is completely changed. You nailed it. Brilliant what you just said, Rachel, because I lived through it. I had one of my best years ever because I took my calendar and instead of 10 meetings a month on a day, I dropped it to five. So I said no to five people. I'm making more in money, not less. I'm more busy, you know, I'm busier, but I'm busier in the revenue generating opportunities that your story should be telling. Ah, this is you know, this is brilliant. It's very unique. Do you also tell the story for people's products? Like, say if I have uh uh you know a pin that I developed for Apple iPad. So you do that. Talk about that real quick.

SPEAKER_00 20:32

I do. Um, so I'm a chief product officer for a number of startups. I'm helping the startup leadership, the founders, oftentimes as a co-founder myself, working through what is it we want to put out there? What is the smallest thing we can put out there? Can we say yes to a few things and no to a lot of things and have something that delights people? And then when it's ready to go to the market, it's how does it look? How do we market it? I have built so many, I was a designer earlier in my career, so I have built so many stories and so many designs to try to entice people to come in. And when you have one that is authentic to your team, it's like wildfire when you put it out there in the world. So I always do um a couple interviews with the people that are building the product or that are coming up with the idea of it to make sure that I can be really authentic on behalf of them. Because as the translator, which is another one of my superpowers, I need to translate what it does into language that the ICP that your perfect customer will want to buy it, I have to be able to do that. I have to be able to weave it together. It's like making taffy. If you've ever made taffy, you have this big lunk lump of something and you have to start working really hard to stretch it, but it starts getting fluffy and it starts growing and it becomes a completely different thing. That's how stories that are amazing and that resonate get built.

SPEAKER_02 21:55

You're you're living to your to what you do. You've told so many stories here that are. Fantastic. And again, they're not your stories, they're other people's stories to teach, educate, motivate, inspire people. And I just realized that's one of my superpowers. Because you've said that a few times. And I work with a lady that talks about finding your gene. All of you out there have a genius or a superpower. But the problem is finding it. And that's kind of what you help with. And you know, I'm just seeing the company's like, hey, we want to develop a new product around this mission. Well, you can come in and go, okay, give me some stories and literally help them craft that product or service tied to that story.

SPEAKER_00 22:33

Oh exactly. And it's different than marketing, which is the best part because marketing teams are powerhouses. But what I do is I start with that pinpoint. What is the one sentence we can say that is going to change everything? And then when we can say that, all the rest of that comes together with great and powerful marketing and advertising teams. But having that as a business, having everybody at the table, all the employees, all of your staff be able to say, this is us, and it's one sentence, it's game changing.

SPEAKER_02 23:06

You're a hell of a bridge for marketing teams because you start here and then you they go, okay, XYZ marketing company, here's what we got. Yeah, you make the marketing team's job so much easier. Oh my god. Hopefully, hopefully. Well, and the idea is give them more specific specificity niching instead of like, hey, we want here's what we got. You're too general. How can we market something? You got to always niche down problem. We won't get into marketing because that's a whole different show. Um, we're coming to the end here, but got a couple personal questions for you. Yes, sir. You ready? Yes. You're a storyteller. You love telling stories. Who inspires you?

SPEAKER_00 23:44

Oh, who inspires me? So today I am inspired by my my close family, my husband Keith, my daughter Sarah, and my son Sean. I am inspired by my partner founders because they let me go crazy and loose and rein me in when I need to be reined in and help remind me that the work I'm doing is valuable to everybody, even the people that are really close to me on a daily basis. And then people like Mark that you mentioned earlier, they showed up for me when I lost my job and I had no idea what to do next. They showed up and they planted the seeds and left breadcrumbs in ways they probably didn't even realize. So I'm inspired by the people that leaned in to help me. I want to be like them. I aspire someday to be at their level of brilliance in what they do. And so it is it is the close factors during this really difficult time that have been amazing.

SPEAKER_02 24:41

Great. All successful people, and you're becoming successful. I mean, we all have mentors with or people that inspire us. I mean, I think it's I think Warren Buffett, Leon Musk, Jeff Bay. I mean, think about those Tony Robb. If you ask them, they all had mentors, or somebody inspired them. So I love that question. Great answer. This is a fun question, but it's going to make you think a little bit.

unknown 25:00

Okay.

SPEAKER_02 25:00

So we got you're going to a restaurant, a table of four, you're sitting in one table, dead or alive. Who are the three people in those seats? And what food would you order?

SPEAKER_00 25:10

Oh, who are the three people in those seats? David Bowie, Ruth Bader Ginsburg, and my dad.

SPEAKER_02 25:19

What an ecolectic. I just heard that word. I ecolectic group. Wow. And why all three?

SPEAKER_00 25:25

Um, because those three people are so very different in their behavior and perspectives, but all of them have a level of brilliance that I either have been around or want to be around, been around with my dad, want to be around with with Ruth and and with Bowie. Um, I think it's always aspirational when I have a dinner party for me to bring together really unique people that would never have met anywhere else. And so I want to be the person at the table that gets to experience that a little bit. And what would we eat? Um it would be pie because I'm a pie maker. And so it would be meat pie followed by cheese pie, followed by dessert. It's probably a strawberry rhubarb because that's my specialty. Or maybe it's huckleberry. I'm not sure. One of the two.

SPEAKER_02 26:12

Maybe we'll I just bought a strawberry. Me and my wife just started bought a strawberry rhubarb at a farm on our way back from Reno for Father's Day for her father, who loves it. He fell in love with it. So I'm glad you said that. I liked that. I never had it before. It's very good. It's delicious. I guess that's a great question to ask you since you host dinner parties. So I'm glad I asked. It's such a cool question to learn about people. I want to thank you so much for being on the show. Time flew by, we're 24 minutes, but it you educated, motivated, and inspired everybody. So now that you've done that, how could people find you or get a hold of you?

SPEAKER_00 26:47

Absolutely. My company is gossamer.global. So it's gossamer.global at the www. Um, you can email me at rachel at gossamer, g-o-s-s-a-m-er.global. You also can find me on LinkedIn, and I am always willing to have a 15-minute conversation with anybody that just needs a moment of light in their life. And I love to connect people to other people. So please connect with me on LinkedIn. And also know that out there are lots of people like me that are here to help lift you up when you need it so that you can do the same when the time is right.

SPEAKER_02 27:23

Blessings. You are just a servant's heart. So glad you're on the show. You perfect fit. An audience, reach out to her, comment on the YouTube. It'll go out in a couple days. Comment on, I'll get the information to her if you can't find her contact, or reach out to me and I'll get you connected with her. And she is a great connector, a super connector like I am. And that's what a servant heart does. And don't forget our TV show. Together we serve every Friday at 2 p.m. Pacific, 5 p.m. Eastern. And me and Rachel want to thank you guys so much for watching and listening to this show. And we'll see you on the next episode of Doing Business with a Servant's Heart. See you all soon.

SPEAKER_00 27:59

Thanks. Thanks for being amazing, Steve.

unknown 28:02

Bye.