with Steve Pratt, Author of the hit book Earn It
with Steve Pratt, Author of the hit book Earn It
CASE STUDY
Company size
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They already have an endless supply of business advice:
What they rarely have is access to experienced founders who are willing to share what actually happened when the stakes were real.
American Express wanted to strengthen its relationship with entrepreneurs, but it understood that trust cannot be built through product promotion alone.
The opportunity wasn’t to create another branded business podcast, but to create something genuinely useful.
The challenge was designing a show entrepreneurs would choose to spend time with even if the American Express name disappeared from the artwork.
Before deciding on guests or production, JAR worked with American Express to define the Job, Audience and Result.
Give entrepreneurs practical mentorship they could immediately apply to their own businesses.
The podcast wasn’t created to explain American Express.
It was created to help business owners navigate difficult decisions with greater confidence.
Early-stage founders and growing business owners looking for practical guidance from people who had already solved similar problems.
These listeners needed experience, not motivation.
Success meant creating a podcast entrepreneurs would finish, recommend and return to while strengthening American Express’s reputation as a trusted partner for business owners.
Once those objectives were clear, every editorial decision became easier:
Everything served the same purpose.
Together, American Express and JAR built Business Class: Build It Braver around a simple editorial idea.
Every episode paired an entrepreneur facing a genuine business challenge with an experienced founder who had already lived through something similar.
That structure immediately changed the dynamic of the conversation.
Rather than interviewing successful entrepreneurs about their careers, the podcast focused on solving real problems in real time.
Listeners weren’t hearing polished success stories.
They were listening to practical mentorship unfold.
JAR partnered with American Express to:
The result was a branded podcast that created value long before listeners were ever asked to think about financial products.
The success of Build It Braver did not come from talking more about American Express.
It came from talking more about entrepreneurs.
By applying the JAR System, American Express defined a clear job for the podcast, identified the audience it wanted to serve and established what success would look like before production began. That clarity shaped every editorial decision, from the mentorship format and guest selection to the way each conversation unfolded.
The result was a podcast that entrepreneurs genuinely wanted to hear, one that held attention, strengthened brand perception and proved that useful content can create measurable business outcomes without feeling like advertising.
| Before | After applying the JAR System |
|---|---|
| Build a podcast around American Express. | Build a podcast around entrepreneurs’ biggest challenges. |
| Share business advice. | Facilitate mentorship between founders. |
| Lead with the brand. | Lead with audience value. |
| Measure downloads alone. | Measure engagement, brand lift and audience attention. |
| Publish branded content. | Build trust through useful conversations. |
American Express already had a trusted brand. What it needed was a reason for entrepreneurs to spend time with it.
The breakthrough came when the podcast stopped trying to communicate what American Express knew and started helping entrepreneurs solve problems they were facing right now.
Every episode delivered practical mentorship before asking for anything in return. That shift changed the role of the podcast from branded content into a trusted learning resource, creating measurable improvements in engagement, awareness and brand consideration.
The lesson wasn’t that brands should hide themselves.
It was that audiences reward brands that consistently create value before promoting themselves.
Listeners completed approximately 90% of every episode, demonstrating exceptional engagement and suggesting the mentorship format consistently held attention from beginning to end.
Brand lift research showed a 6% increase in awareness and category recognition among listeners, demonstrating that useful content strengthened brand perception without relying on promotional messaging.
Listening to the podcast increased consideration of American Express by 6%, showing that trust built through valuable content translated into measurable business impact.
Business Class: Build It Braver reached #8 in Apple’s Canadian Business category, helping expand the show’s visibility among entrepreneurs actively seeking business advice.
“It sounds like you’re sitting across from someone who gets it, not listening to a corporate production.”
Build It Braver listener
