Matching minds with mission applying the Magnetic Employer Branding Method™.
Hello, and welcome back to my relaunched podcast now going by the name Story-Driven Business podcast! If you are new to this podcast, my name is Susanna Rantanen and I am known as the world’s leading modern employer branding expert and innovator.
I recently published a book called Story-Driven Employer Branding with 340 pages of inspiration, insight and examples on how to convert your campaign-led employer branding into a systematic method applying the science of story and the science of persuasive communication. This book is available on Amazon and through storydrivenemployerbranding.com.
Today, I share with you the 11 steps to matching minds with mission using the Magnetic Employer Branding Method™ I created, and explain in my new book.
I’m going to warn you, this episode may cause an uncontrollable urge to grab my new book and binge it like your favorite Netflix show.
Let’s get started! I hope you enjoy, and take notes!
Episode 190: The 11 Must-Know Steps to Matching Minds with Mission
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Matching minds with mission through 11 steps from identifying your organization persona to assessing and amplifying
1. Start With Your Strategic Company Culture
“Your culture is not your office snacks. It’s your brand’s soul.”
To truly succeed in matching minds with mission, we begin by understanding the persona of your organization — your leadership culture and organizational behaviour.
This isn’t about the perks or the pretty career pages. It’s about the DNA of your business.
Your company culture is the personality of your organization.
Random personalities are for dating apps — not for leading organizations like yours will be.
[For this] You need a Strategic Company Culture intentionally aligned with your business strategy. When your culture and strategy dance to the same beat, you don’t just manage people; you inspire them to move mountains.
In the Magnetic Employer Branding Method™, we begin by turning your default culture into a strategic culture.
You want to avoid branding your culture by accident, because then you attract people by accident.
When you design a Strategic Company Culture intentionally, you turn your organization into a magnet for those who will build your business’ future together with your people.
✨ In the book: Learn how to identify your strategic culture type (hint: it’s the secret sauce to your talent magnetism).
Learn more about the Strategic Company Culture:
Episode 91 – Why growth companies should ditch the Fun at Work culture
Episode 96 – Why your employer brand gets its DNA from your company culture
2. Align Employee Experiences with Your Culture
“Your employer brand isn’t what you say — it’s what your people whisper.”
If culture is the promise, employee and candidate experiences are the proof.
Every touchpoint — from first interviews to exit interviews — must feel like an authentic episode of your brand story.
Modern talents have a BS radar so strong it could detect fake promises from space.
If your employee experiences don’t prove your culture, your employer brand will collapse like a soggy soufflé.
✨ In the book: Discover how to design, measure, and amplify experiences that make your people your loudest, proudest brand advocates — without begging for Glassdoor reviews.
3. Craft Your Transformative Employer Branding Mission Statement
A magnetic employer brand without a mission is just noise.
This mission statement is your rallying cry — a crystal-clear message defining the better future your organization promises its people. It’s not your corporate mission.
You don’t just exist to hand out salaries. You exist to transform lives, careers — and futures.
A clear Employer Branding Mission Statement focuses your team, fires up your leadership, and turns your employer brand into a movement people want to be part of.
✨ In the book: Get your hands on the step-by-step framework to craft a mission statement so sharp, it could cut through the noise of a thousand competitors.
4. Set Goals, Objectives, and KPIs to Drive Focus
”A dream without a plan is a hallucination.”
If you can’t measure it, you can’t manage it — and you certainly can’t prove your employer branding deserves investment.
Set clear goals for your employer branding work. Measure what matters — not vanity metrics but actual, strategic impact.
Your goals must go beyond “get more applications.” They must drive brand awareness, affinity, and conversion — with crystal-clear KPIs that make the C-Suite sit up straighter.
✨ In the book: Learn the art of connecting employer branding to real business ROI (and why it’s your new best friend for C-Suite love).
5. Define and Understand Your Target Talent Audience
Not everyone is your hero.
Modern talents are no longer persuaded by flashy perks. They’re searching for meaning, identity, belonging.
Focus on the ideal and most relevant audience by creating Talent Personas and understanding their Work-to-Life Riddles — the deeper life-related motivators behind their career decisions.
This is about connecting at a deeper, transformative level, not spamming generic job ads like an overenthusiastic parrot.
Learn how to create Talent Personas based on Work-to-Life Riddles™, tapping into your target audience’s deepest hopes, fears, and dreams.
✨ In the book: Unearth the hidden motivators behind career decisions — and why targeting psychographics, not demographics, gives you a magnetic edge.
6. Build a Modern Work-to-Life Promise
“The EVP is dead. Long live the Work-to-Life Promise.”
Forget corporate clichĂ©s like “we care about our employees.”
If you want to promise something, you must promise something above standard expectations.
An employer caring for their employees isn’t your competitive advantage, it is a standard expectation of every single employee and job seeker.
Your Work-to-Life Promise shows how working for you transforms not just careers, but lives.
This is the emotional bridge that makes people choose you — not just once, but over and over again.
✨ In the book: A revolutionary framework to craft a promise that speaks to the heart of modern talent.
7. Shape Your Desired Employer Brand Perceptions
”If you don’t brand your reputation, Glassdoor will.”
Strategic perception-building is the emotional DNA of your employer brand. Don’t leave your reputation to chance (or grumpy Glassdoor reviews).
Be deliberate about how you want talent to feel about you. Engineer the emotional DNA of your employer brand with precision.
You’ll learn how to engineer perceptions that make talents feel something powerful — hope, excitement, loyalty — the feelings that fuel decisions.
✨ In the book: Get the tools to differentiate yourself in a sea of sameness — with desired perceptions so strong they become your unfair advantage.
8. Develop Key Story Themes to Guide All Communication
”Random content is random results. Story Themes create movements.”
No more random acts of content! Key Story Themes are your golden threads, weaving your culture, promise, and employee experiences into an irresistible narrative.
Using Key Story Themes guides you in building coherent, magnetic narratives, kind of like the scaffolding for content that keeps your audience hooked and your brand consistent.
Without them? You’re just another brand shouting into the void.
✨ In the book: Learn to create endlessly renewable story frameworks that align internal culture with external magnetism.
9. Communicate Through the Four Phases of the Talent Journey
”Because while love at first sight is great — we all seek for sustainable relationships.”
Talents don’t just jump into your arms.
You’ll guide them through:
- Winning Sustainable Attention (first spark)
- Growing Employer Awareness (getting known for WHY you exist)
- Building Employer Brand Affinity (creating emotional attachment)
- Converting Employer Brand Value (turning attention into results)
Each phase respects the psychology of your audience, gently guiding them to fall in love with your brand at their own pace.
✨ In the book: Get the complete Talent Journey Framework™ — the secret to turning passive prospects into passionate advocates.
10. Build Magnetic Content with the Three Content Pillars
”Likes don’t pay salaries. Strategic content builds brands.”
Not all content is created equal — and the wrong kind will lose you the right people.
The three content pillars — Aspirational, Informational, and Tribal — form the beating heart of your story-driven and magnetic brand communication strategy.
These three content pillars help you create a strategic, story-driven, irresistible employer brand presence and help you attract, pursue and win over the right kinds of audiences.
✨ In the book: Master the magnetic trifecta of content types that fuel loyalty, growth, and unforgettable employer brands.
11. Keep It Rolling: Assess, Adjust, and Amplify
”Employer branding isn’t a one-time makeover. It’s a lifestyle.”
Employer branding is not a one-night stand.
Indulge in data-driven assessment to fine-tune your strategy and ensure ROI.
Keep evolving your story. Keep deepening your audience’s loyalty. Keep matching minds with mission — day in, day out.
✨ In the book: A proven system to future-proof your employer brand and turn it into your organization’s ultimate business advantage.
The Story-Driven, The Magnetic Employer Branding Method™ is not just a process; it’s a philosophy.
It’s about moving from transactional hiring to transformational belonging.
It’s about building a brand story so real, so powerful, that the right people don’t just want to work with you — they can’t imagine their future without you.
If you think employer branding is about job ads and career pages, think again.
The Magnetic Employer Branding Method™ will help you to build a legendary movement around your company.
A future where the right minds match with your mission — and create a force unstoppable by competition, layoffs, or market crashes.
Want to double the impact? Apply the same method for your B2B customers!
Listen, this book is your master key to a story-driven future. Why not get it today!
Until next time, stay magnetic, be story-driven.
