Why Your Brand Story Isn’t a Campaign—It’s a Calling
Let’s Kill the Buzzwords First
I’ve worked on brands long enough to know when someone’s bullshitting.
You hear the pitch:
“We’re authentic. We’re disruptive. We’re telling a new story.”
Then, you check the product, the leadership, and the culture. And guess what?
Same old corporate cosplay with a different typeface.
In 2012, I stumbled on a book called Winning the Story Wars by Jonah Sachs. Didn’t expect much, just another ad book. Another marketing manifesto, right? Wrong. The thing hit like a tuning fork. Sachs wasn’t preaching storytelling as a tactic. He was sounding the alarm:
If you’re not living a meaningful story, you’re already losing.
Since then, one idea has stuck in my head like a shard of glass:
Branding isn’t what you say—it’s who you are when no one’s watching.
From Pretty Pictures to Purpose (Okay, One Buzzword)
I came up through lifestyle branding in the golden age of curated cool in the epicenter of youth marketing. You know the era—grainy filters, grungy type, mood boards, slogans that sounded poetic but said nothing. We sold vibes and aspirations. Shit, sometimes we even sold products.
But over time, something changed. People stopped buying cool and started looking for truth. I attribute this to the internet and social media. The two-way communication this opened with customers. Aesthetics aged out. Beliefs moved in.
The brands that stuck? The ones that stood for something—and didn’t flinch. The ones that invited you into a story bigger than a product drop or a logo refresh.
Lifestyle used to mean “how it looks.” Now, it means “how it lives.”
Storytelling Is Not a Marketing Strategy. It’s a Mirror.
Too many founders, CMOs, and marketing directors treat storytelling like a seasonal campaign. “Let’s craft our brand narrative,” they say, usually after Series A or the first churn spike. That’s like trying to find your voice the day before a job interview.
Real stories aren’t written in decks. They’re revealed in behavior.
Your story is what your customers say about you when you screw up. It’s how your team describes the mission when you’re not in the room. It’s what shows up in the cracks—not the commercials.
I’ve seen this firsthand. Brands whose origin story was gold—the stuff you build temples to. But internally? Pure chaos. Zero alignment. No lived values. Everything is a slogan; nothing is a system. They spend millions on marketing, but the brand still tanks.
Meanwhile, scrappy challengers with no budget but a clear “why” built a cult following. Why? Because their story isn’t decoration—it’s direction.
How to Tell (and Live) a Better Brand Story
If you’re a founder, CMO, or creative trying to build something that lasts, here’s the truth:
Your brand story isn’t about you. It’s about the people you serve.
You’re not the hero—you’re the guide, the mentor, the flawed, obsessed, relentless sidekick who helps the customer win. Here are three questions worth bleeding for:
• What tension does your brand exist to resolve?
• What values do you live when it’s inconvenient?
• Can your team describe your story without reading the About Us page on the website?
You don't have a story if the answer to that last question is no. You have a script.
This Is the Work. And the Work Is the Story.
Great brands aren’t born in brainstorms. They’re forged in repetition. In hard choices. In boring consistency.
It’s reputation delivered on. It’s character experienced.
At my first agency, our internal mantra was “Convey The Lifestyle We Live.”
The story you tell only matters if it matches the life you lead.
This isn’t about branding as a performance but as a practice.
That’s the calling. And if you’re not ready to answer it, your competition will.
So yeah, tell a story. But live one first. The customer is watching.
- -
If your brand has a story worth telling—but you’re not sure how to tell it (or live it)—I can help.
I work with founders and teams who are ready to go deeper than the deck and build brands people believe in. If you’re done performing and ready to live your brand story, let’s talk.
Drop me an email and let's chop it up.