Story vs Narrative

How they're different and what they mean for our brand

There’s a moment in every brand story conversation I have with my clients where something shifts.

We’ll be talking about their journey to here and everything that’s happened along the way:

• how they started their business

• why they changed careers

• the experiences and turning points that led them here.

As I ask more questions and pull on interesting threads, the conversation begins to change.

It starts to move beyond the events themselves.

We start talking about what those experiences came to mean.

The beliefs they’ve shaped. The values they’ve uncovered. The way they see the world because of what they’ve lived through.

Often, they haven’t put these ideas into words before. Sometimes they stop halfway through a sentence and say, “I’ve never thought about it like that.”

We tend to use the word ‘story’ to hold all of these things: the events, the lessons, the emotional residue, the meaning.

But I’ve found it useful to think of it this way:

Story is what happened.

It’s the experiences, decisions and moments that make up a person’s journey.

Narrative is the meaning that connects those experiences.

It’s the thread that runs through everything and creates something bigger. More coherent.

A point of view. A belief. A way of seeing the world.

A copywriter can interview someone and write an origin story. This is where many founders stop.

What I do is different.

I listen. I ask questions. I notice the patterns. I look for the emotion.

I sift through a conversation, setting aside the details that don’t serve the bigger picture (we leave those for your ‘About me’ page) and connecting the dots until a founder says,

“Yes... that’s what I’ve been trying to express all along.”

Founders rarely have one defining moment.

They have dozens of moments that all point in the same direction. The work is recognising that direction.

Connecting the dots until a collection of stories becomes a narrative with a clear point of view.

Because your brand needs more than a biography to move hearts.