Design a Narrative
the change that makes your world inevitable
Everyone loves a good story. Making yours land is what separates good from great.
A great origin story may have hooked your investors, attracted your first employees, or landed your lighthouse customers. But when it comes to your messaging, you're not the main character anymore. Your target audience is. The narrative has to be about them.
It's tempting to reduce this to a simple problem-and-solution statement. But across the sea of sameness, that approach always falls flat. Anyone can point out a problem, and anyone can claim a solution. In doing so, instantly becoming forgettable.
A strong narrative fiercly challenges the status quo without losing the room. It transforms market forces into a clear path towards an ideal world - one where your presence matters.
Without a strong narrative, the market gets defined without you. Brand awareness fades, pipeline quality suffers, and customer love fizzles. And once that happens, clawing back mindshare is a brutal, uphill fight.
Your narrative shows up everywhere, from first touch to final close. It starts by capturing the scenario reshaping your audience's reality, then it sharpens around the inflection that drives change, and finally lands with the undeniable advantage only you can own.
The best narratives don't sound like vendor pitches. They sound like what everyone was already thinking but couldn't articulate.
"here we go yo, so what's the scenario?" - A Tribe Called Quest
Healthy markets are never static. Compelling events continuously reshape the surrounding environment, and in turn, the decisions your audience makes. Your job is to stay acutely aware of these forces and strongly position yourself, ideally before others jump all over it.
But great messaging doesn't start with you or your position. It starts with the market forces your audience is already experiencing. Come with a strong POV to earn the right to a meaningful conversation. Otherwise, you're yet another vendor with the same old pitch.
The scenario message is your opening move. Nail the strategic context, and everything that follows hits harder.
right in the feels
If you're not experiencing the force yourself or hearing it unprompted in conversations, you're probably chasing someone else's trend instead of observing a real shift.
follow the money
Compelling events only matter when they show up in planning cycles, budget conversations, or new mandates. Otherwise it's just commentary.
call and response
When heads nod before you're done talking and they start adding their own examples, you've got it.