In this Business Blast Podcast episode, host Tyler Wagner interviews Rosemary O'Neill, CEO of Narrative, a reputation‑based content platform currently in alpha. The conversation begins with a sponsor plug for Authors Unite, then moves into Rosemary’s personal story of growing up as an Army kid, which taught her to be comfortable meeting strangers and building networks. She shares her core industry insight: gather and engage your community before you need them. Her broader business advice emphasizes experimentation—trying ideas, pushing boundaries, and not fearing “crazy” concepts. When reflecting on personal growth, she advises her younger self to stay on the swim team for discipline and grit. She defines happiness as the ability to laugh at yourself and life, cites The Hobbit as a reminder to leave comfort zones, and highlights “carpe diem” as her favorite motivational quote. Finally, she promotes Narrative, describing it as a creator‑rewarding platform that eliminates middlemen, returns 60% of rewards to creators, and encourages users to claim their real‑name handles early. She provides her Twitter handle (@RHOGroupie) and the site narrative.org for listeners to learn more.
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Welcome to the Business Blast Podcast. I'm your host, Tyler Wagner. This episode is brought to you by Authors Unite. Authors Unite makes the process of becoming a published bestselling author as simple as sipping your morning cup of coffee. You can learn more about Authors Unite at authorsunite.com. Now let's jump into the episode. Alright everyone, welcome back to another episode of the Business Blast Podcast. I'm your host Tyler Wagner. Today I have Rosemary O'Neill with us. Rosemary is the CEO of Narrative, a new self-governing reputation-based content platform that rewards its members, currently in alpha release. She has 20+ years of leadership in the online community space. As an entrepreneur, writer, and speaker. So welcome to the show.
Thanks for having me.
Of course. Grateful to have you here, Rosemary. We'll jump into the first one. The first question I have for you is, what is the best story from your life that has an underlying valuable message?
Well, the story of my early life was being an Army kid. And at the time, if you had asked me, there was no good about that. Moving every few years, meeting new people, getting yanked out of my school was, was it was a bad thing at that moment. But with the wisdom of, you know, several years removed, I now realize that it really was valuable in that it really kind of forced me to have those skills and meeting new people and being uncomfortable and being okay with that. So now I'm that weird person that can walk into a conference or a room and just walk up to strangers and start a conversation. So that was kind of the bad experience that turned out to be a good experience.
Thank you for sharing that with us. The next one I have for you is what is the most valuable piece of information we should know that's within your expertise or industry?
So first of all, I'll say that I would say my expertise in industry is community and networking and engagement. So my big piece of information is gather your community before you really need them. Make sure you go find them, talk to them, start listening to them. Right now, basically yesterday, and don't wait until you have a crisis or you need backup or you want information from them to start engaging.
And what is your best piece of overall business advice? So not necessarily industry specific.
I would say the biggest thing is to just try things and don't be afraid to poke the box, push the button, give it a flyer. Even if it sounds like a crazy idea, you really only get one time around. And you can't be afraid to to test things.
And if you could give your younger self one piece of advice, what would that be?
I would say, Rosemary, don't quit the swim team. Basically, I think staying on the team, building up discipline and grit and toughness, toughing it out, I think that's something that I'd like to go back and say, you know what, go see it through and go do that.
And in your opinion, what is the key to happiness?
The key to happiness is being able to laugh at yourself and laugh at life. If you can't do that, then it's all worth nothing.
I love that. And what is the best book that you've read and what was the number one thing you learned from that?
I'm a super nerd, so my copy of The Hobbit is dog-eared. The lesson from that, the number one thing I learned is get out of your comfort zone and you can accomplish great things. Even if you are a so-called nobody, you need to leave your little hobbit hole and go out and do it.
And what is your favorite quote and why?
My favorite quote is "carpe diem," seize the day. Really a reminder that every day is a new chance to do something meaningful. And I like to write that every week in my planner book just as a reminder.
Thank you so much for coming on. The last question I have for you before we let you go, and I'm excited for you to share more about this with us and where people can find it, is tell us where people can connect with you and then with Narrative, your company, tell us how people can learn more about that and get involved.
Sure. So my personal social media of choice right now is Twitter, and my handle there and a few other places is @RHO RHO Groupie with two Es. And that's actually a good lesson learned I can share. Grab your real name on as many platforms as you can when they first come out, or you will be stuck with RHO Groupie. So regarding Narrative, that one's easy, narrative.org, and that will give you the whole rundown on the platform. But essentially, we're super excited. We're building a place where you can post quality content, and you as the content creator will actually reap the rewards of that content. We're eliminating the middleman, so there's no cabal out there in a back room deciding what's good or bad content. It's actually run by the members, and 60% of the network rewards come back to the content creators in the system. So it's going to be something where content creators will finally get their due and control and own their, uh, content online.
Awesome. Thank you again for joining us.
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