Brand Narrative & advocacy
People connect to stories, not slogans. Especially when the story is true, the stakes are real, and the brand isn't trying to be the hero.
Brand narrative is the story your customers tell themselves about you when you're not in the room. Advocacy is what they're willing to say out loud to other people. Neither happens by accident, and neither survives a brand that's afraid to mean something specific.
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I find the true version of the story through interviews, not workshops, then compress it until it survives a single paragraph. The work has to land culturally before it lands commercially, especially for mission and identity-based programs, where the audience can smell a focus group from a mile away.
Brand story
The single page that says what you stand for, who you're for, what you'd never do, written in a way someone could memorize, not just remember.
Mission & manifesto
For founders, anniversaries, IPO years. The version that actually moves a room because it isn't trying to.
Cultural moment plays
Heritage months, cultural conversations, news cycles. When to speak, when to listen, what to say, vetted with the community first.
Community strategy
How your brand shows up in fan and stakeholder spaces over time, not just at launch. Reputation is built between launches.
Thought leadership
For your founders and SMEs: ghostwritten op-eds, keynotes, podcasts. Their voice, sharper, with the receipts.
Crisis & reputation
When the story breaks the wrong way: short, honest, well-built statements that don't pretend the audience is dumb.
How I work
Find the truth
Interviews. Not a workshop. I talk to founders, customers, critics. The brief writes itself when you've heard the real story three times.
Frame the story
One narrative, one paragraph, three proof points. If it can't survive that compression, it isn't the story yet.
Test with community
Before it ships externally, the right people inside the audience read it. Quietly. The edits from this round are usually the best edits.
Ship & steward
Launch, then guard. I write the lines your team uses for the next 12 months, interviews, decks, hand-offs, so the story does not drift.
Founders at an inflection
Anniversary, raise, IPO, rebrand. The moment you have to say what the company is actually for, out loud and on the record.
Mission-driven brands
You stand for something real and the standard marketing language keeps flattening it. You need narrative that holds up to a skeptical room.
Teams entering a cultural moment
Pride, a heritage month, a hard news cycle. You want to show up with something honest instead of a gesture that gets ratioed by lunch.
Narrative one-pager
Manifesto (spoken + written)
Cultural-moment playbook
Spokesperson talking points
Stewardship retainer (optional)
The whole brand, distilled onto a single page.
- Founder + stakeholder interviews
- One narrative, one paragraph
- Three proof points
- Messaging pillars
Mission, manifesto, and the activation around it.
- Mission / vision / values
- Spoken + written manifesto
- Cultural-moment playbook
- Spokesperson talking points
Guard the story in the long gaps between launches.
- Quarterly narrative review
- Op-eds + keynote support
- Q&A bank upkeep
- Crisis statements on call
Where this actually shipped
positive sentiment
Three years of canon-faithful, community-vetted storytelling.
Read the case → Sandy Hook Promise Emmy®win PSA
A piece that earned its weight without ever raising its voice.
Read the case → World of Wonder, Drag Race Culturalinstitution voice
Social leadership for a franchise where every word is dissected by the audience.
Read the case →Is this PR?
No. PR is who tells the story. Narrative is what the story actually is. Most PR problems are narrative problems wearing a suit.
What if our founders are private?
Even better. Quiet founders make sharper narratives, there's less ego in the way. We do the work; they approve the words.
Do you handle crisis comms?
For existing clients, yes. As a one-off, only if the work is genuinely about a brand that wants to be honest. I'm not a spin shop.
Will you sign an NDA?
Yes, and I'll usually offer to sign it before the first real call. Trust is the actual product.
Let's make something worth reading.
Tell me about the brand, the audience, or the weird idea you can't stop thinking about. I write back within 48 hours.