A New Season of Story-Driven Business Begins!

After a six-month break, Story-Driven Business Podcast returns! And this time, the pause mattered.

In this bonus episode, Susanna Rantanen opens a new season with honesty, perspective, and a powerful reframing of what 2026 is really about. Following a life-changing MS diagnosis in 2025, this episode isn't just a comeback; it's a recalibration.

This season dives into AI beyond tools and technology. Not prompts. Not platforms. But people.

Drawing parallels to the digitalisation wave of the late 2000s, Susanna explores what today's AI shift means for business leaders, experts, HR, marketers, and anyone responsible for guiding others through uncertainty.

Roles will change. Skills will evolve. Fear is real. But work doesn't disappear, and neither does human value.

This podcast season focuses on:

• AI as an operating environment, not a gadget

• Leadership communication when people feel uncertain and overwhelmed

• Why storytelling and persuasive communication are becoming non-negotiable leadership skills

• How professionals can take charge of their own development — regardless of employer support

• What it really takes to stay relevant, trusted, and influential in the AI era

You're invited into an open exploration, not polished answers, but grounded thinking, lived experience, and communication science that helps leaders make sense of change and guide others with clarity and confidence.

This is the beginning of a new season, a new direction, and a deeper conversation about work, identity, leadership, and meaning in the age of AI.

Welcome back to Story-Driven Business.
This time, it's personal.

In this episode of the Story-Driven Business Podcast, Susanna explains why budgeting employer branding for 2026 is essential for winning business leaders.

Every employer has an employer image, but a true employer brand only exists when people feel an emotional connection. Without strategic investment, your image will be shaped by others, from employees to ex-employees, and from competitors to job seekers — and not always in your favour.

Susanna shares a practical breakdown of what real story-driven budgeting looks like, including strategy and planning, creative assets, tools, resources, strategic partners, employee advocacy and thought leadership.

She also reveals how proper budgeting leads to measurable employer branding ROI through relevant, business-driven goals and objectives, creating a competitive advantage.

You'll learn:

• What to include in your 2026 employer branding budget.
• Why cutting EB budgets creates hidden, long-term costs.

Show notes are available for you here: https://modernemployerbrand.com/podcast206

Inclusive, a free Cheat Sheet for download to help you plan what you need to budget for 2026. Available in the show notes.

As AI rewrites the rules of business, emotional commitment is your competitive edge.

In this episode, I explore how story-driven leadership builds trust, resilience and clarity when everything feels uncertain.

Why do some teams rise through chaos while others resist change?

The answer lies in the power of emotional connection to your business story.

🎙️ Hit play now and start leading through storytelling.

👉 Hosted by me, Susanna Rantanen | #StoryDrivenBusiness

Find me on socials as @rantanensusanna

Enjoy!

Think storytelling in business is about career tales or brand fluff?

Think again. In this episode, Susanna Rantanen breaks down what business storytelling really is: a strategic communication method that helps you win attention, build trust, and move people—whether they're employees, customers, job seekers or stakeholders.

Discover how to apply StoryBrand framework (SP7) and Susanna's own Talent Journey of the Information Era™ to make your messaging magnetic, internally and externally.

🎧 Listen now and start turning ideas into movements.

🛠 Need help applying this in your business? Book a discovery call with us emailing us.

Find the show notes for this episode here: https://modernemployerbrand.com/podcast204

What happens when leadership, employer branding, internal comms, and business strategy all tell the same story?

You stop running campaigns…
And start building trust, alignment, and long-term traction.

In this episode, Susanna unpacks:
✅ The 4 levels of story integration
✅ Why most businesses fail at story (hint: it's fear, not complexity)
✅ Why story-driven employer branding is the true foundation of a story-driven business
✅ How to activate story in your leadership culture, not just your content

This isn't branding fluff. It's business transformation, person by person, guide by guide, story by story.

Check the show notes page: https://modernemployerbrand.com/podcast203

Get the book: https://storydrivenemployerbranding.com/

Don't forget to subscribe to this podcast!

And if you love it, share it with your boss and colleagues, and, please, rate it! 🙏

Until next week,

Susanna

What if the problem isn't a lack of talent—but a lack of trust in your brand?

In this episode of the Story-Driven Business Podcast, Susanna reveals why the talent shortage you're experiencing is actually a positioning problem and a trust issue. You will learn how to fix it by turning your employer brand into a growth strategy.

✅ Learn how to attract the right people before you even post a job.
✅ Discover why most employer brands push talent away—and how to stop doing that.
✅ Get inspired to lead with purpose, clarity, and the Magnetic Employer Branding Method™.

🎧 Listen now and dive deeper in the show notes at modernemployerbrand.com/podcast202
📚 Learn more about the method at storydrivenemployerbranding.com
✨ Explore how we help growth companies at emine.fi

What if the reason your employees aren't engaged, your strategy isn't landing, or your change initiative is falling flat isn't the idea itself, but how you're communicating it?

In this episode of the Story-Driven Business Podcast, Susanna Rantanen, the world's leading expert in story-driven, modern employer branding, guides you through the biggest shift today's business leaders need to make:

➡️ Stop being the hero.
➡️ Start being the guide.

If you want to influence change, inspire people to act, and become a more impactful communicator, this is your playbook.

Want the show notes?

Go to: https://modernemployerbrand.com/podcast201

🔥 The future of work isn't coming. It's here.

And most companies? Still marketing like it's 2019.
Still running talent campaigns that feel generic.
Still separating leadership voice from employer brand.
Still wondering why trust and advocacy are fading.

Deloitte's 2025 Human Capital Trends Report says it clearly:
Human outcomes are business outcomes.
Story is now a leadership tool—not a marketing trick.

Episode 200 of my Story-Driven Business Podcast shows how to evolve your brand—and your leadership—for this new era.

💡 Why campaigns alone won't work
💡 How story builds affinity
💡 Why leaders must market through culture and narrative—not slogans

Show notes available: modernemployerbrand.com/podcast200
📕 Learn the method: storydrivenemployerbranding.com