StoryBrand Marketing Agency
StoryBrand Your
Business Without
the Guesswork
We implement a StoryBrand-driven strategic marketing system that attracts, nurtures, and retains your ideal clients, so you can focus on what you love (which, let's face it, is probably not copywriting and marketing).
Clarify Your Message
Attract Only Ideal Customers
Focus on Your Business Growth
Struggling to implement StoryBrand?
Are you finding it challenging to create a clear, engaging StoryBrand BrandScript on your own?
Unsure how to effectively integrate StoryBrand into your marketing?
Overwhelmed with what steps to take after completing your BrandScript?
Frustrated with marketing efforts that don't resonate with your audience?
Struggling to focus on your actual business?
You have a great business, and you're excellent at what you do. But if you're caught up chasing the latest marketing tactics – from SEO to social media and more – you're losing time that could be invested in growing your business.
WHERE STORYBRAND MEETS STRATEGY
You deserve marketing that works
Experience the clarity and efficiency of a well-crafted marketing plan tailored to your business and powered by StoryBrand.
Transform your marketing with a StoryBranded message that cuts through the noise, ensuring your brand resonates with your target audience.
See tangible results as your business attracts and retains the right clients (seemingly on autopilot), leading to sustainable growth and success.
With a StoryBrand-powered plan in place, spend less time worrying about marketing and more time on what you love – growing your business, spending time with loved ones, and all that good stuff.
You deserve peace of mind
Grow your B2B business with our strategic marketing services.
Do you find the lead generation process frustrating and time-consuming?
Save valuable time and focus on serving your clients.
Gain the upper hand in your market.
Set up a strategic marketing system that attracts and nurtures your ideal clients.
Feel confident with a solid, strategic marketing plan.
Hi, I'm Vicky Sidler
A StoryBrand Certified Guide & Fellow Entrepreneur
And believe me, I GET IT! I understand the frustration of marketing that just doesn't seem to work. I know what it's like to feel lost in a sea of tactics and strategies. When I started my agency in 2020, I was just a small fish in a big pond, trying to stand out from whale-sized competitors. (I’m also a qualified scuba diver, in case you’re wondering about these metaphors…)
Since then, we developed a proven, data-driven marketing strategy (powered by StoryBrand) that has helped both us and countless clients get noticed, attract the right customers, grow their ideal client base, and make an impact with their marketing and their businesses.
We boast a proven track record of transforming marketing messages to resonate with target audiences.
As StoryBrand Certified Guides, we apply the renowned StoryBrand Framework to everything we do with impressive results!
And as a Duct Tape Certified Agency, we’ve gone through an extensive certification process to offer you a holistic, systematic approach to marketing – a system that truly works.
You don’t have to do this alone. Together, we'll take your marketing from confusing to crystal clear. Let's make your brand's message stand out and connect with the people who matter most to your business.
I used the StoryBrand ‘one-liner’ yesterday for the first time to create some awareness on my various social media platforms. I have never had so many likes and interest on one of my coaching ads before. I am booking some consultations as we speak. You guys are amazing!
Tracey Clark, Business Coach
StoryBrand Services We Provide
Clarify Your Message
From US$1,500
Let us help you refine and perfect your StoryBrand messaging. We'll work with you to fine-tune your StoryBrand BrandScript, ensuring it resonates with your target audience and aligns with your brand's identity.
We even interview your ideal customers to get their point of view and make sure you've nailed it!
Learn More About Our StoryBrand Framework Consultation
StoryBrand Sales Funnel
From US$5,000
Specializing in the creation of the Marketing Made Simple Sales Funnel, we develop effective landing pages, engaging lead generators, and persuasive email sequences - all within the StoryBrand framework.
Install the full StoryBrand system into your business.
Learn More About Our StoryBrand Sales Funnel Development
Strategic Marketing Engagement
From US$7,500
Our Strategy First Engagement is a deep dive into your current marketing, where we’ll identify your ideal clients, map out your customer journey, craft a customized marketing plan, nail your BrandScript, and more.
Make sure you're doing it right from the start!
Why Choose Us?
Strategy-First Approach
At the Strategic Marketing Tribe, we apply the StoryBrand framework as our cornerstone, ensuring that your marketing plan has a clear and coherent message that speaks directly to your customers’ needs and desires.
Consistent Lead Generation
Kiss those unpredictable and mismatched leads goodbye. Leveraging the StoryBrand principles, we help you craft messages that consistently attract the right clients, ensuring a reliable flow of high-quality inquiries.
Save Time and Effort
Let us handle the complexity of crafting and applying your StoryBrand BrandScript. With our StoryBrand-focused approach, we streamline your marketing efforts, enabling you to dedicate more time to what you're passionate about – growing your business.
Gain A Competitive Edge
Elevate your business with a marketing message shaped by StoryBrand, positioning your brand as the clear choice in your industry. Our strategic, story-driven method ensures your business stands out to your ideal clients, giving you a competitive advantage.
Amazing! I needed help clarifying my message for my website. The Strategic Marketing Tribe helped me do this using the StoryBrand Framework. I can even use the BrandScript we made for the rest of my marketing material.
Matthew Van Neel, Lance Mvn
[Free eBook] 7 Steps to Small Business Marketing Success
Submit your info to download a copy of our free Book, which will guide you through the seven steps to build an effective marketing system.
How It Works
Here’s what you can expect when
partnering with us:
Book Your Free Consultation
Complete the form below and schedule a time that works for you. We’ll meet and talk about your business, goals, and current messaging.
StoryBrand Strategy Session
In our StoryBrand Strategy Session, we’ll dive deeper into your business to see what you’re doing now and where there are opportunities to integrate the StoryBrand framework effectively.
Start Applying StoryBrand
You get to keep all the ideas we come up with during this strategy session – absolutely no obligation.
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Frequently Asked Questions
Here are our answers to the most frequently asked questions about marketing and lead generation.
What is StoryBrand?
StoryBrand is a marketing framework developed by Donald Miller that helps businesses clarify their message so it resonates with their target audience. It centres around creating a story for your brand where the customer is the hero, and your business is the guide that helps them overcome their challenges and achieve their goals.
How can StoryBrand help my business?
Implementing the StoryBrand framework can transform how you communicate with your customers. It simplifies your message, making it easier for customers to understand how your products or services can solve their problems. This clear communication helps increase engagement, conversions, and customer loyalty, ultimately driving growth for your business.
What does the process of creating a StoryBrand BrandScript involve?
Creating a StoryBrand BrandScript involves identifying key elements of your brand's story, such as defining your customer's problem, positioning your brand as the guide with a solution, and outlining a plan that leads the customer to success. This script serves as the foundation for all your marketing materials, ensuring a consistent and compelling message across all platforms.
How do I choose the right StoryBrand guide for my business?
Be sure to choose a StoryBrand guide who prioritizes strategy over tactics. A strategic-first approach ensures your marketing is built on a solid foundation, preventing wasted time and resources in the long run. Look for a guide focused on aligning your core message and goals before diving into marketing actions, ensuring your efforts attract the right leads and drive meaningful results.
Learn More about StoryBrand
and Strategic Marketing Insights
From the Strategic Marketing Tribe
Take a deep dive into the world of strategic marketing insights,
where you’ll find expertise to help your business thrive.
AI Cheating Prompts Return of In-Person Interviews
By Vicky Sidler | Published 6 September 2025 at 12:00 GMT
If you’ve ever thought “This candidate sounds too good to be true,” they probably were. Especially if the interview was on Zoom and their answers came straight from ChatGPT.
That’s the problem big companies like Google and McKinsey are facing. And their solution? Dust off the meeting room chairs and bring back in-person interviews. Because apparently, the best way to detect AI cheating is a handshake and eye contact.
According to The Wall Street Journal, companies are starting to realise their virtual hiring processes are turning into prompt engineering competitions. And they’re not impressed.
TL;DR
Google and McKinsey are reinstating in-person interviews to stop AI-assisted cheating
Candidates are using AI to answer technical questions during video calls
One face-to-face round is now required at both firms before a job offer
Paper resumes and fly-ins are making a comeback
Most candidates prefer in-person interviews anyway
Small businesses should pay attention: this changes hiring, trust, and brand signals
Need help getting your message right? Download the 5-Minute Marketing Fix
Table of Contents
AI Cheating Prompts Return of In-Person Interviews
Why Big Companies Are Reverting to Human Contact:
The Bigger Trend—Old-School Is Back:
AI Is Breaking More Than Just Interviews:
How I’m Going Old School, Too:
Why This Matters for Small Businesses:
1. In-Person Builds Faster Trust:
2. Guardrails for Virtual Interviews:
4. AI Affects Your Brand Voice Too:
Why Real Interviews Still Work:
Clear Messages Cut Through AI Noise:
YouTube Shorts AI Tools: What Small Businesses Should Know
Marketing Automation's Transparency Gap Is Costing You Sales
Gen Z Social Search Shift: How Brands Must Adapt
Mastering StoryBrand Marketing: Your Guide for 2025
AI, Cybersecurity & Social Media Now Drive Small Business Growth
FAQs About AI Cheating and the Return to In-Person Interviews
Why are companies going back to in-person interviews?
Who is bringing back face-to-face interviews?
What kind of AI cheating are employers seeing?
How is AI affecting small business hiring?
Is this shift only happening in recruitment?
Do people actually prefer in-person interviews?
What’s a simple way to make my hiring process more authentic?
Why Big Companies Are Reverting to Human Contact:
Interviews are meant to test your thinking, not your browsing speed. But hiring managers are catching on—candidates pause, then read answers like they’re narrating a tutorial.
McKinsey added an in-person round over a year ago. Google followed. On The Lex Fridman Podcast, CEO Sundar Pichai said face-to-face interviews help verify if people really understand the fundamentals.
This isn’t nostalgia. It’s risk management.
The Bigger Trend—Old-School Is Back:
Digital trust is fraying. Paper resumes are back. Some companies are even flying candidates in just to see how they respond in a live setting.
Why? Because the job market is tight and competition is fierce. Quiet layoffs and “job hugging” mean employers want more confidence before they make a hire. And AI makes it harder to trust what you see on screen.
This shift may start with tech giants, but it won’t stay there.
AI Is Breaking More Than Just Interviews:
Hiring is not the only process being rehumanised. Here’s what else is getting rolled back:
Customer service: After promising to replace staff with AI, Klarna rehired humans because bots were upsetting people.
Education: Schools ditched video proctoring and brought back handwritten exams.
Healthcare: Some hospitals stopped using AI to generate medical notes due to accuracy concerns.
Retail: Amazon moved away from “Just Walk Out” technology. It was glitchy, and customers hated it.
Finance: Banks now run manual checks alongside AI systems to reduce compliance risk.
The pattern is clear: human-in-the-loop is back in fashion.
How I’m Going Old School, Too:
I’ll give you a simple example from my own life. My boyfriend and I started watching DVDs again.
Actual, physical DVDs. From a DVD player. That we had to plug in. Turns out, those bad boys actually still work.
He already had a decent collection, and half the movies aren’t even on the streaming platforms we pay for. Second-hand DVDs are so cheap it feels like we’re doing something illegal, but it’s perfectly above board.
And here’s what’s strange—it feels better. No autoplay. No algorithm pushing you toward “one more episode.” You watch one thing, it ends, and then you go to bed like a person with boundaries.
He watches more Netflix than I do and was getting serious algorithm fatigue. I didn’t realise it at the time, but choosing a DVD feels like reclaiming your attention span. You’re not being nudged by “you might also like...” You just watch what you planned to watch. That’s it.
Sometimes the low-tech option isn’t just good enough—it’s actually better.
Why This Matters for Small Businesses:
You don’t need to hire hundreds of staff for this to affect you. If you run interviews, review CVs, or market your brand, here’s what to keep in mind.
1. In-Person Builds Faster Trust:
Meeting someone in person tells you things a webcam won’t. Body language. Eye contact. Confidence. You can’t fake those easily.
2. Guardrails for Virtual Interviews:
Still remote? Add timed exercises, follow-up questions that require thinking, or screen-sharing so you’re seeing what they’re doing, not just what they’re saying.
3. Paper Resumes Stand Out:
In a pile of AI-polished CVs, an old-school resume—hand-delivered—can show effort, originality, and actual handwriting. Yes, really.
4. AI Affects Your Brand Voice Too:
If candidates are using AI to fake answers, they’re also using it to write emails, sales pages, and job ads. If your message sounds like it came from the same tool, you’ve got a trust problem too.
Why Real Interviews Still Work:
Most people prefer them. A 2023 study from the American Staffing Association found 70 percent of adults in the US would rather interview in person than over video.
It’s not just about formality. In-person gives people a better shot at showing who they are—without a second device feeding them responses.
If you’re hiring soon, try offering both options. Then compare who shines when the chatbot isn’t whispering answers in their ear.
Three Simple Fixes:
Step 1: Add a human moment:
Even if you do most of the hiring online, include a call, live test, or short in-person meet. It doesn’t need to be long—just enough to see someone think in real time.
Step 2: Revisit your message:
Your hiring page, job ad, and interview questions should reflect your company culture. If they sound generic, candidates will treat you like a template too.
Step 3: Build trust early:
Behind-the-scenes content. Staff introductions. Office walk-throughs. All of these show what your business is like—and help filter for people who fit before they apply.
Clear Messages Cut Through AI Noise:
AI is everywhere. But when everyone’s using it to sound smarter, the real edge is sounding human. That’s what builds trust.
If your brand message is clear, confident, and real, it will outlast the trends and outshine the noise. That’s what the 5-Minute Marketing Fix helps you do.
Because even the best prompt can’t replace a real conversation.
Related Posts
YouTube Shorts AI Tools: What Small Businesses Should Know
If AI is making hiring feel robotic, it’s also creeping into your content. This piece shows how AI video tools can make your brand sound inauthentic—and how to fix it.
Marketing Automation's Transparency Gap Is Costing You Sales
Just like AI in hiring, AI in marketing can leave you in the dark. This article dives into how automation without oversight can quietly drain trust and conversions.
Gen Z Social Search Shift: How Brands Must Adapt
If your future customers crave realness over polish, this is your wake-up call. Learn why Gen Z is choosing authenticity over algorithms—and how your business should respond.
Mastering StoryBrand Marketing: Your Guide for 2025
You can’t fake clarity. This guide shows how to build trust and connect with people using simple, human messaging that cuts through the AI noise.
AI, Cybersecurity & Social Media Now Drive Small Business Growth
Want the full picture? This trend report breaks down how AI is reshaping hiring, marketing, and customer engagement—and what small businesses need to do to stay ahead.
FAQs About AI Cheating and the Return to In-Person Interviews
Why are companies going back to in-person interviews?
Because AI is making virtual interviews unreliable. Candidates are using tools like ChatGPT to answer questions in real time, especially during technical interviews. In-person settings make it harder to cheat and easier to assess real skills.
Who is bringing back face-to-face interviews?
Google, McKinsey, Amazon, Anthropic, Cisco, and Deloitte are among the major companies reinstating in-person interview rounds. Some even require candidates to sign agreements not to use AI tools.
What kind of AI cheating are employers seeing?
Candidates are using AI-generated answers during live interviews, faking resumes with AI, and in some cases using deepfake technology or hiring proxies to sit interviews on their behalf.
How is AI affecting small business hiring?
Smaller companies may not face deepfake-level fraud, but they’re still dealing with overly polished, AI-generated applications and rehearsed video answers. Adding a human layer—like a phone call or in-person meeting—helps cut through that.
Is this shift only happening in recruitment?
No. Education, customer service, finance, retail, and healthcare are all seeing a return to manual or hybrid systems. Many businesses are finding that AI introduces complexity and compliance problems that outweigh its benefits.
Do people actually prefer in-person interviews?
Yes. A 2023 American Staffing Association study found 70% of US adults would rather do in-person interviews than virtual or phone-based ones. People want real connection, not a performance.
What’s a simple way to make my hiring process more authentic?
Start small. Add one in-person round or a case-based question that can’t be Googled. Or require a short writing task done live. Anything that gives you a clearer view of the person—not just their prompts.
How do I keep my brand from sounding AI-generated?
Use your own voice. If you use AI to draft content, edit it until it sounds like you. Better yet, start with a clear message written by a human.The 5-Minute Marketing Fix helps you write one powerful sentence that connects with people—no robot required.
Become the Next StoryBrand Success Story
In the world of business, feeling overwhelmed by marketing strategies that don't deliver can be disheartening.
At the Strategic Marketing Tribe, we understand that you might be unsure on how to effectively apply the StoryBrand framework and perhaps hesitant about investing in yet another marketing solution.
Our approach is designed to alleviate these concerns:
We offer a completely free strategy session that’s designed to help you with some great ideas for marketing your business. These ideas are 100% yours to keep – and there is no sales pitch to endure (not even a secret one).
What’s the catch? Well, if you’d like help with finalizing your StoryBrand Framework or implementing any of the tactics we discuss, we hope that you’ll consider us.
Best of all? If you’re not completely blown away by the work we do for you, we’ll give you a full refund. Sure, it’s a massive risk for us because we can’t undo the delivery once it’s been made, but we are so confident in the value our service provides that a guarantee is a no-brainer.
With our expert guidance, you can shift your focus from marketing worries to what you do best – growing your business, spending time with those you love, and enjoying the success that comes with clear, effective strategy.
Ready to take the guesswork out of your StoryBrand marketing?
Let’s get started
Ready to take the guesswork out of your marketing efforts? At Strategic Marketing Tribe, we create a tailored marketing strategy for your business that attracts, nurtures, and engages not just any lead, but your ideal customers.
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