Telling The Story: The Hunter-gatherer in you

Telling the story

Let me take you back to our ancestor’s hunter-gatherer days, and our social lives taking place around a rip-roaring campfire. Folk would share stories about the day’s hunt and elders would pass on stories of myths, legend, knowledge and experience. These stories helped shape the identity of the tribe, gave it value and boundaries, differentiating their tribe from surrounding ones; it was storytelling in its purest form.

In many ways, this is highly relatable to telling the story within a branding context today. That’s always something I have found fascinating, the perennial nature of fundamentals laid down by our ancestors hundreds of thousands of years ago. With all the noise in society today, when you strip it all back we are not too dissimilar from our distant forefathers of the past. Sorry, reining it in before I digress into evolution and sociology. How can you take value from this blog post and take at least one actionable element away with you?

By sharing our stories, we define who we are and what we stand for. Brands today distinguish themselves by being good storytellers which leads to inspiration, respect from an engaged audience that will listen and ultimately, success. Storytelling is an integral part of being a human being, it helps us make sense of the world. Arguably, there has never been a more poignant time in history to relate and adhere to a narrative with the ubiquitous calls and begs for our attention.

Sharing stories within the context of your brand, whether it be a personal brand or a brand you are building that is larger than one’s self, it helps your tribe better understand the conflicts of their daily lives and find explanations as to how we fit into this world.