The founder's guide to brand & storytelling
Attention is new gold
How to make your brand and stories stand out in the most distracted era in human history. TRUTH storytelling, behavioural science, and 6 field lessons.
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the guide
We've spent years helping founders and scale-ups build brands that people actually pay attention to. This guide is the practical distillation — the frameworks and lessons we use every day.
Why Attention Matters More Than Ever
The average person encounters 4,000–10,000 brand messages a day. Why founders need a different approach to cut through.
The Cornerstones of Brand Value
Valuable, Relevant, Differentiated, Trustworthy — why all four must compound before your brand has any real value.
The TRUTH Framework
Topical, Relevant, Unusual, Trouble, Human — a storytelling framework you can run every piece of content through before it ships.
8 Behavioural Science Principles
Social Proof, Loss Aversion, Authority Bias, Reciprocity, Default Effect, Cognitive Fluency, Anchoring, Peak-End Rule — and how to combine them.
6 Field Lessons
From real brand-building: relevance beats reach, founder voice is an unfair advantage, story structure is a skill, consistency compounds, and more.
Quick Reference
The TRUTH checklist, 8 behavioural principles, 6 lessons — plus the master formula for every story worth telling.
The TRUTH framework
Run every piece of content through TRUTH before it goes out. If it fails more than two of the five, rework it. The Tension test is the one most founders consistently fail.
Topical
Connected to what matters right now — in the world, your industry, or your audience's daily life.
Relevant
Speaks directly to your reader's real situation. Not about you — about what they're trying to solve.
Unusual
Contains something surprising or counterintuitive. Predictable stories are forgettable stories.
Trouble
Every great story has a problem at its centre. Without tension, there's little reason to keep reading.
Human
Feature real people, real stakes, real emotion. The more specific and human, the more universal its appeal.
8 principles of behavioural science
Customers don't make rational decisions. They make fast, intuitive ones — and then rationalise them afterwards. Understanding the cognitive shortcuts that drive behaviour is one of the highest-leverage things a founder can learn.
Social Proof
Lead with specific customer numbers and verbatim quotes.
Loss Aversion
Reframe around what they're losing by not acting.
Authority Bias
Earn and display authority signals — press, awards, advisors.
Reciprocity
Give genuine value before asking for anything.
Default Effect
Make the behaviour you want the path of least resistance.
Cognitive Fluency
Clarity signals competence. Complexity signals risk.
Anchoring
The first number shapes every subsequent judgement.
Peak-End Rule
Obsess over onboarding and the renewal/referral moment.
6 field lessons
The lessons that actually move the needle. Each one comes with a concrete takeaway you can act on this week.
You Don't Have an Attention Problem, You Have a Relevance Problem
“Be unmissable to the right 1,000 people, not invisible to the wrong million.”
The Founder Voice Is an Unfair Advantage
“Write in your actual voice about things you actually believe. Safe content is invisible content.”
Story Structure Is a Skill, Not a Gift
“Most people think X, but I've come to believe Y, which means Z.”
Consistency Beats Virality
“Define your minimum viable content commitment — what you can honestly sustain even in a bad week.”
The Medium Is Part of the Message
“Ask where your ideal customers are already paying attention voluntarily, not where they're being targeted.”
Distribution Is at Least Half the Work
“Most founders spend 90% on creation and 10% on distribution. It should be closer to 50/50.”
Get your free Attention Guide
6 pages of frameworks, principles, and lessons for building a brand that cuts through the noise.
Get the free guide
6 pages of practical frameworks — TRUTH storytelling, behavioural science, and field lessons from real brand-building.
Want us to help build your brand?
We work with founders and scale-ups to build brands, craft stories, and win attention that converts. If this guide sparked something, let's talk.