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Business Storytelling: How Business Storytelling Helps Entrepreneurs Build a Brand
Building a business takes more than a strong product or service. Entrepreneurs also need a compelling business story—one that helps customers understand the brand, gives investors a reason to believe and makes an early-stage company memorable. In this episode of What’s Your Story?, Mary Scott Jameson and Hodges Markwalter share how business storytelling, feedback and persistence helped them build their brands.
More about Mary Scott Jameson
An Atlanta native, Mary Scott Jameson, is Sitano’s co-founder and CEO/Creative Director. Mary Scott attended the University of Georgia with a B.A. in Art History and minor in Spanish. She began her career in fashion almost 10 years ago in the Neiman Marcus buying program. Since then, she has pursued various positions in HR, conference and event planning, and business development in various industries. She also spends time interviewing female founders on her podcast, She Had A Vision.
More about Hodges Markwalter
Hodges Markwalter is the Co-Founder and Chief Revenue Office of Atlanta-based VIVA Finance, a fintech upstart that provides working Americans access to fair and affordable credit. His responsibilities include overseeing VIVA’s growth initiatives, including digital marketing, partnerships, and revenue operations. Prior to co-founding VIVA, Hodges worked at Truist Securities as an analyst in their Equity Capital Markets group. Hodges earned a BA in Finance from the University of Notre Dame, graduating with Cum Laude honors.
Show Notes
Business Storytelling: How Entrepreneurs Find Their First Audience
00:11:50– How do you get your first audience for your business? How do you get started into changing it from an idea to a business?
00:15:00- Mary Scott takes us down a different path from VIVA Finance.
Business Storytelling: How to Get Investor and Customer Buy-In
00:17:30– Fundraising with investors and getting buy in into the next phase.
00:18:29– Mary Scott describes her story of finding different spaces to include her brand and her product.
00:19:49– Hodges talks about the early days of pounding the pavement and tells us how he created his pitch.
Business Storytelling:Why Feedback Matters When Building a Brand
00:21:47– When a company’s story or brand is really compelling, when thinking about your company what was the feedback that was helpful in the early stages when building your story?
00:22:33- Hodges talks about being nimble.
00:24:00- Mary Scott shares the feedback she received in the early stages of building her company and the feedback she continues to receive.
Business Storytelling: What Makes Investors Believe in a Business
00:25:52- What does it take to get an investor to back you? One key takeaway.
Business Storytelling: How Business Stories Make a Brand Memorable
00:28:12– Stories shared by Mary Scott and Hodges about the early days of launching their businesses.
- Mary Scott shares a story about when losing sleep became a best seller and solidified her commitment to her company.
- Hodges tells us a story about how doing something so small was the make or break moment of his company’s success.
Business Storytelling: Lessons for Entrepreneurs
Building a business requires more than developing a strong product or identifying a promising market. Entrepreneurs must also help other people understand the idea, believe in its potential and see why it matters.
That is the role of business storytelling for entrepreneurs.
A clear business story can introduce a new company to customers, give investors confidence and help employees understand what they are helping to build. It creates a connection between the founder’s original idea and the needs of the people the business hopes to reach.
As Hodges Markwalter and Mary Scott Jameson illustrate in their conversation with Sally, the strongest stories are not always carefully produced brand campaigns. They often come from the real experiences, risks, feedback and small decisions that shaped the company.
Business Storytelling: Clarify the Problem Before Explaining the Product
Entrepreneurs know every feature, decision and detail behind their businesses. Their audiences do not.
When founders begin with too much information about the product, listeners may struggle to understand why the business exists. A more effective story begins with the problem.
What was missing? Who was affected? Why did the existing options fall short? What did the founder see that other people had overlooked?
The problem creates context for the business. It helps customers recognize their own needs and gives investors a clearer view of the opportunity.
Once listeners understand the problem, the product or service becomes a meaningful response rather than an isolated idea.
Business Storytelling: Develop a Founder Story That Creates Connection
A founder story explains more than when the business began. It reveals why the founder cared enough to pursue the idea.
The story may begin with a frustration, an unexpected observation, a personal need or a conversation that exposed an opportunity. It may also include the early uncertainty and persistence required to move from an idea to an operating business.
Authenticity matters, but the founder story should still have a point. Sharing every detail of the journey can overwhelm the audience just as easily as sharing too many product features.
Choose the moments that explain:
- What sparked the idea
- Why the problem felt worth solving
- What the founder learned while taking action
- How those experiences shaped the company
- What the business now hopes to accomplish
The goal is not to make the founder the hero of every story. It is to give listeners a human entry point into the purpose behind the company.
Business Storytelling: Adapt the Story Without Changing Its Core
Entrepreneurs communicate with many audiences, and each audience listens for something different.
Customers want to know how the business will improve their experience or solve a problem. Investors consider the size of the opportunity, the strength of the model and the founder’s ability to execute. Potential employees want to understand the company’s purpose, direction and culture.
The central story should remain consistent, but the emphasis must change.
An investor conversation may focus on market opportunity and traction. A customer story may focus on an individual problem and outcome. A recruiting conversation may highlight the mission and the kind of company the founder hopes to build.
Adapting a story does not make it less authentic. It makes it relevant.
Business Storytelling: Use Feedback to Strengthen the Business Story
Early feedback can be difficult for a founder to interpret. Some comments reveal a genuine gap in the message. Others reflect the perspective of an audience that may not be right for the business.
The challenge is separating useful feedback from personal preference.
When several people ask the same question, the story may need more clarity. When listeners consistently misunderstand the value of the business, the message may be emphasizing the wrong information. When they understand the idea but do not see why it matters, the story may need a stronger connection to the audience’s priorities.
Feedback should sharpen the story without pulling the company away from its purpose. Founders need enough flexibility to listen and enough conviction to know what should remain unchanged.
Business Storytelling: Capture the Small Moments That Show What the Brand Means
Some of the most useful business stories come from moments that initially seem insignificant.
An early customer reaction may demonstrate why the product matters. A small act of persistence may reveal the founder’s commitment. An unexpected best seller may challenge assumptions about what customers want. A difficult conversation may change how the team thinks about the business.
These moments provide evidence of the company’s values and character.
Entrepreneurs should build a habit of capturing stories as the business develops. Keep notes about early customers, turning points, mistakes, unexpected successes and decisions that changed the direction of the company.
Over time, this creates a story library that can support investor conversations, customer communication, employee meetings and brand development.
Business Storytelling: It’s a Growth Skill
A company’s story should grow as the business grows.
The earliest version may explain the founder’s idea. The next version may demonstrate customer demand. Later, the story may need to communicate a broader vision, align a growing team or introduce the business to an entirely new market.
The company may change, but the story should continue to connect its purpose, progress and future direction.
That requires more than one polished pitch. It requires a clear message, a structured storyline and relevant stories that help different audiences understand and remember the business.
Entrepreneurs who want to strengthen this skill can explore SW&A’s Connecting Stories to Storylines program.
Business Storytelling: What is business storytelling for entrepreneurs?
Business storytelling for entrepreneurs is the intentional use of founder, customer and company stories to explain a business, communicate its value and connect with customers, investors and employees.
Business Storytelling: What stories should an entrepreneur tell?
Entrepreneurs should develop a founder story, customer stories, stories that demonstrate the company’s values and examples that show how the product or service creates an outcome.
Business Storytelling: How can storytelling help an entrepreneur attract investors?
A strong story helps investors understand the problem, market opportunity, founder motivation and vision behind the business. Data remains important, but the story gives that data structure and meaning.
Business Storytelling: Should entrepreneurs use the same story for every audience?
The core business story should remain consistent, but the emphasis should change based on the audience. Customers, investors and employees have different questions and priorities.
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