Stories With Traction
The Stories With Traction Podcast was created to empower leaders to elevate their businesses through the art of strategic storytelling. By engaging clients and inspiring team members, leaders can significantly impact the world around them. Each episode offers insights into storytelling, marketing, sales, company culture, and leadership, providing practical tools to drive growth and influence positive change. Tune in to transform your approach and lead with purpose.
Stories With Traction
#173: Cybersecurity Meets Comedy: How Humor Builds Trust
SHOW NOTES:
In this episode, Matt Zaun sits down with Rob Black, Founder & CEO of Fractional CISO, to demystify cybersecurity for growing companies—without the fear-mongering. Rob explains how his team operates as a virtual CISO (security leader) to strengthen programs, enable enterprise sales, and translate “security-speak” into clear business outcomes.
Rob shares why security shouldn’t be priority #1 (sales and delivery come first), how to size up the risk when incidents are low-probability but high-impact, and why humor can drive far more adoption than dry policy memos.
In this episode, they cover:
✅ Prioritization reality: why cybersecurity should be priority 4–5—not 100
✅ Humor that converts: skits, wigs, and why fun content outperforms stoic lectures
✅ LinkedIn as referral fuel: staying top-of-mind vs. hard selling (and why neighbors all know what Rob does)
…and much more.
BIOS:
Rob Black is the founder of Fractional CISO, where he and his team serve as virtual CISOs for companies. A veteran security leader with an MBA from Kellogg, Rob blends operator pragmatism with clear business storytelling, often using humor to drive adoption of best practices.
Matt Zaun is an award-winning speaker and strategic storytelling expert who helps leaders inspire action and drive results through the power of story. He’s the author of The StoryBank, a practical playbook for using narrative to build culture, boost sales, strengthen marketing, and become a dynamic public speaker.