Why business storytelling matters now

Many businesses and brands today are facing the same underlying problem:
trust erosion, credibility gaps, and values fatigue.

Consumers are surrounded by “purpose-driven” messaging that often feels engineered, exaggerated, or simply unconvincing.

As a result, even well-intentioned businesses struggle to sound believable.

The term “business storytelling” has been diluted and misused by advertising and marketing culture.

In agencies and marketing firms, it’s often used as shorthand for branding or marketing tactics—
story ideas brainstormed to support positioning, campaigns, or sales goals.

This kind of advertising can be clever.
But it’s not always credible.

And today’s savvy consumers today know it all too well.

They’re increasingly fatigued, annoyed--even insulted by--marketing gimmicks and false claims too often used to sell products and services:

“limited-time” countdowns,

trip wires and lead magnets,
sales funnels,
and “free gift” ploys meant to trigger impulse rather than judgment.

At Story & Co., business storytelling means something different: we tell true stories.

Business storytelling isn’t a creative marketing exercise; it’s a journalistic one.

And at Story & Co., storytelling doesn’t begin with marketing positioning, assessments, or campaign goals—common first steps and optional add-ons used by ad agencies and marketing firms.

In the tradition of journalism, it begins with my interviewing the subject (the business)
with curiosity, discernment, and ethical reporting.

The story isn’t invented to serve a marketing strategy.
It’s revealed—one question at a time—through reporting.

To compare:

Marketing-first storytelling starts with what a business wants to say—whether true, exaggerated, or even at times false.
Journalism-first storytelling starts with what’s true—and ends there.

At Story & Co., my approach follows a disciplined method rooted in literary journalism and creative nonfiction—not story invention or positioning frameworks.

The work begins with careful, in-depth conversations and interviews with my client.
Not marketing positioning.
Not client assessments or audits.
Not pre-story frameworks.

During this process, I listen for what matters: the values that guide a business’s decisions,
the milestones, turning points, challenges, and leaps of faith that shaped it,
the true-life moments and priceless stories that reveal how the business functions when it counts.

Nothing is exaggerated.
Nothing is engineered artificially to provoke urgency or pressure a customer to buy.

The goal is simple:
to uncover and tell a real-life business story a company can stand behind and share with confidence.

The issue isn’t a lack of marketing content—it’s a collapse of trust.

Consumer trust hasn’t slowly eroded.
It’s plummeted.

Consumers are increasingly fatigued, annoyed—even insulted—by marketing gimmicks designed solely to make a quick sale rather than earn trust, respect, and loyalty:
flash sales and ad pop-ups,
false urgency and “limited-time” countdowns,
price manipulation,
and “free gift” ploys meant to trigger impulse rather than judgment.

In this environment, what holds up is not louder marketing.
It’s credible business storytelling—grounded in truth, not sales tactics.

That kind of work requires more than clever writing.
It requires someone who can produce compelling, well-written stories while adhering to journalistic standards:
independence, accuracy, accountability,
and a clear separation between truth and exaggeration.

Very few freelance writers have the professional training and experience to do that.

I do.

Story & Co. works best with businesses and organizations

That value honesty and accountability.
That are willing to be vulnerable rather than armored.
That understand trust isn’t built by an advertising campaign—it’s earned over time.
That care about how they show up in the world—not just how they sell.

Every business has a story.