452 Pivot Point: Who is the One You Trust for the Hard Moments?
Featuring Mark Blum
Your stories don't define you, but how you tell them will.
Mark could have shared this story from the perspective of a victim - of COVID, of a collapsing business, of a his own failure. But he didn't.
What you'll hear in Mark's brief story is one of awe and gratitude for having exactly the right person in his life to have the ideas and the courage to pivot when things went sideways.
That's the thing about the best storytellers, they always ALWAYS include other characters. Those characters aren't always people. In some of my stories the mountain I hike on almost every day becomes a character.
The other character in Mark's story is his wife. Instead of agreeing with him that the sky was falling, she immediately saw the potential pivot of his side business to become his primary source of income. It was an unlikely and almost accidental pivot, with no business plan and no preparation. Just immediate, strategic action.
"'...let's go to the computer.' So she kind of walked me through because my mind was racing and she was so calm. And she goes, Okay, let's get you a domain name. Like, we didn't write a business plan - she came up with seo249.com. And we kept making pivots, and the business took off so much that we had over 50 employees at one time, just on seo249, which is smart, but we grew into becoming a major player in the seo world."
Listeners, now it's your turn:
Did Mark's story remind you of an experience when exactly the right person showed up at a pivotal moment and supported you in a meaningful and maybe unexpected way?
How do other characters contribute to the story so you can demonstrate your values and talents through it?
Episode Highlights:
Crisis: Mark's newspaper business collapsed overnight with the March 2020 COVID-19 lockdown, causing him intense fear.
Pivot: His wife provided the calm, strategic clarity he needed. She suggested leveraging an existing, minor SEO service he offered.
Action: Her advice was simple: Sell the service for $249/mo (cost: $100/mo). They immediately registered seo249.com.
Outcome: The business grew to over 50 employees and became a major industry player, enabling a location change to Colorado and a remote-first lifestyle.
Analysis: The story reveals Mark's trust, vulnerability, and belief in a true partnership. His willingness to listen to his wife's advice was key to the pivot's success.
About Mark:
Mark Blum is a marketing professional with over two decades of experience, having worked in the industry since 2000. Originally from Los Angeles, he now calls Colorado Springs home, where he lives with his wife, Kasia, and their dog, Coffee. Mark is the founder of SEO249.com, a Colorado Springs SEO agency built around a proprietary Cluster Authority SEO methodology, and he leads Blum Marketing Group along with several related ventures. He and Kasia also co-founded Giving Group Colorado Springs, a local nonprofit organization. A lifelong Chicago Cubs fan, Mark brings the same loyalty and long-view thinking to his work that he brings to his team — he's driven by a love of challenging himself and finding smarter, unconventional ways to solve problems rather than settling for the obvious approach.
Visit Mark's website, connect with him on LinkedIn, and check out his nonprofit site!
Lately I’ve been focused on brief, less than 20-minute episodes that keep your attention while still offering insights and entertainment.
What you’ve been hearing is a brief story of a pivotal moment, and then a thread pulled to generate insights about it.
I have two goals for you:
One – to uncover your related story for you to add to your collection to practice and have ready when the opportunity presents itself.
And two – to demonstrate storytelling in a practical, approachable way so you hear how I compose my words, phrases, and use tone-of-voice to add dynamics and meaning.
I’ve often said that your stories don’t have to be epic, they need to be meaningful. My point is that everyday moments of joy, grief, and humor, can be far more relatable than the “I almost died” or celebrity sighting stories.
But there is a time and a place for an epic story, for the entertainment value, and for the long tail it generates of meaningful moments in the days, months, and years afterward. The lessons you learned, the evidence of resilience you carry, and the relationships that grew and changed as a result of that epic experience.
After more than 430 episodes of this podcast, I was recently inspired to change the format of the show.
The new format for my show aligns with what I’m learning about narrative identity (how the stories we tell about ourselves internally and externally influence our identity) and demonstrates what I’ve been teaching for years: Sharing a story to reveal who you are and what matters to you.
My hope is that future episodes will offer more clarity about great storytelling and how to find and explore pivotal moments to demonstrate who we are.
About Sarah:
Sarah is a Montana based workplace communication trainer, TEDx speaker, DisruptHR speaker, public speaking coach, professional storyteller, musician, and podcast host. Her workshops and coaching packages with teams and their leaders are known to address and reduce miscommunication – the most common cause of tension and stress in the workplace. Using the team’s results from the StrengthsFinder assessment, she guides teams in learning to speak each other’s “language”, learning to value each other’s strengths and connecting with each other through enhanced self-reflection and effective listening.
Sarah’s nearly 20 years working in government agencies inspired her to complete her MBA and to achieve her StrengthsFinder certification to improve work environments for others, guiding teams toward increased satisfaction, productivity, and happiness.
Visit her website to purchase her book, Your Stories Don't Define You in paperback or audiobook.