Strategy Note 10: Your Story Starts in the Wrong Place

Your brand story is boring because it starts in the wrong place.

Most brand stories begin with success. We started this company because we saw an opportunity. We created this product to fill a gap in the market. We have been serving customers since 2015.

This is competent. It is also forgettable.

No one remembers origin stories that begin with opportunity recognition. They remember origin stories that begin with struggle, with transformation, with a problem so personal that solving it became unavoidable.

The stories that create connection start in a different place entirely.

Start with struggle.

What problem were you solving for yourself before you ever thought about solving it for others? What frustration, what gap, what impossible situation forced you to create something new?

The struggle makes you human. It creates identification. Your audience has struggles too. When they see their experience reflected in yours, they trust that you understand what they are going through.

Show the transformation moment.

What changed? Not the moment of success—the moment of recognition that something had to be different. The insight, the breaking point, the realization that the way things were could not continue.

This is the hinge of your story. Before and after pivot on this moment. It is where your brand was born, even if the company came later.

Connect to your customer's journey.

Your transformation is not the point. It is the proof. The point is what becomes possible for them.

The best origin stories are not about you. They are about your customer, told through you. Your struggle mirrors theirs. Your transformation suggests what might be possible for them. Your story becomes their story.

End with possibility.

What does the future hold for someone who works with you? Who do they become? What becomes available to them that was not available before?

The ending of your story is the beginning of theirs.

I think about my own origin story and how long it took me to tell it honestly. For years, I led with credentials and services. I work with brands. I develop strategy. I have been doing this for X years.

None of that matters until someone understands why I do this work. Until they hear about the years of playing it safe, the masks, the realization that the careful, bland approach was a different kind of risk—the risk of invisibility, of never mattering, of building something that no one would miss if it disappeared.

The struggle is not the embarrassing part you should skip. It is the part that makes you human enough to trust. It is the reason anyone should believe you understand what they are going through.

Tell that story. Skip the resume.

Stay Curious,