The First Question Most People Ask (Here's My Answer)

In most social settings, the first question people ask is, “So, what do you do?” I’ve answered that a thousand different ways over forty years — sales rep, marketing consultant, ad man, graphic designer. Then one evening on a business trip, a hotel desk clerk in New Hampshire asked me the question, and for the first time I answered it straight: “I’m a business storyteller.”

She looked confused. Fair enough — it’s not a title you see on a business card. So I told her what I’ve spent my whole career doing:

The more compelling the story you’re telling, the more likely it is that your product or service is selling.

That’s the truth of it. Whether I’m designing a brand, writing the ad copy, or working as a specialty advertising affiliate putting a client’s brand on everything from pens to apparel, it’s always been the same job underneath: helping people find the story that makes their business worth believing in.

Everyone’s got a story. How you tell it shapes what happens next — with a client, a prospect, or just yourself in the mirror. If your business isn’t getting the results you want, it might not be a strategy problem. It might be a story problem.

Share yours with me, and I’ll help you show it to the world.