Stories That Stick: How Storytelling Can Captivate Customers, Influence Audiences, and Transform Your Business

do
come true! Princesses 
can
defeat the odds! It
might sound as crazy as transforming from a mermaid to a human or a puppet to
a real boy, but it 
is
possible. The founder story blurs together with my own story,
and I become a brand loyalist as a result.
Done right, the founder story does this. It taps into the desires that stir at the

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core of every human. No matter where the founder currently is on her or his
quest for entrepreneurial success, the story of the early days often reads like a
fairy tale. Which is exactly why you should tell it and never stop.
Of course, there are plenty of brands and companies to whom consumers are
loyal in the absence of the founder story. But if you are a small business
struggling to differentiate yourself, never underestimate the power of your
founding story. Even if you’ve hesitated to tell it because it doesn’t seem as big
or exciting or dramatic as a Disney movie. When it comes to a founder story, it’s
not the magnitude of the story that matters; it’s the decision to tell it.
Which is exactly what Jerry Meek at Desert Star Construction decided to do.
His story wasn’t a big one. It wasn’t a tearjerker. Hollywood probably won’t
turn it into a movie anytime soon. But Jerry didn’t care about Hollywood; all he
cared about was being able to better articulate his passion for building and why
Desert Star was the best construction partner for building a dream home. To
accomplish that, Jerry had to go back, way back.
He went all the way back to when he was a kid. While his friends were
playing sports and G.I. Joe, he didn’t do either. Instead, he built things. Real
forts with slope roofs. Forts that required hammers and nails and wood. He once
built a fort so big it took up half his backyard. Jerry would sit on the roof of that
fort and dream about what he might build next.
Are you weeping at this point of the story? Probably not. Has this story
changed your life? Likely no. That’s okay, because that’s not what Jerry was
going for. What Jerry needed was for clients to understand he didn’t casually
become a builder; he was born one. If a client chose Desert Star Construction to
build their home, Jerry’s team would approach the project with the same sense of
wonder, coupled with decades of luxury-building experience, to create a
dictionary-definition dream home.
Jerry decided the best way to tell this story was via video. He would hire a
crew, deliver the story direct to camera, and shoot B roll at one of his luxury
construction sites to fill the visual space. It took weeks to write the script,
coordinate, and finalize things. It seemed to be the perfect plan—until suddenly
it wasn’t.
In a twist of fate, the day the production was scheduled to commence was
also the day an extremely high-profile potential client wanted to meet regarding
their Personal Resort®, which would be one of the largest homes ever built in
America. Desert Star Construction was one of the finalists, and Jerry was excited
about the incredible opportunity. He prepared to present his pitch that afternoon,

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which meant the video team had a fraction of the time to get the project filmed
before Jerry had to jet to make his final pitch for a project he desperately wanted
to be part of.
They pulled it off. They got the footage, Jerry told his story, and no sooner
did the crew say, “That’s a wrap!” than Jerry was on his way to the pitch of a
lifetime, which is where the real story happens. As Jerry stood in front of the
client’s team, ready to make his standard pitch, he remembered the fort story
from the shoot that day.
In a Hail Mary decision, rather than open with a mission statement that
sounded exactly like what his competition would say, Jerry told the story of
building forts as a kid and how, each day, whenever he leaves a construction
site, he thinks back to that first fort he built and can’t help but wonder what he
could build next.
Desert Star got the job.
The very, very big job.
Of course, much like the contestants on