YOU DON'T NEED A BETTER HOOK
You need a heartbeat—and a story that makes people feel you
Welcome to Issue #028 of Sojourn. Each week, I share two original essays to help you slow down, reconnect, and rebuild with intention (hence ‘sojourn’), in a private community that uses travel as a path to reinvention.
I’ve worked with hundreds of brands — from global corporations to creators just starting over — and the pattern is always the same:
Everyone wants to sound credible.
Almost no one wants to sound human.
But credibility doesn’t build connection.
Emotion does.
Your story is the emotional bridge between what you do and why it matters.
It’s not fluff; it’s function. It’s what makes people trust, stay, and buy — not because you have a better offer, but because you made them feel something true.
Here’s what most people miss:
Storytelling isn’t what you say after your brand is built.
It’s what builds the brand.
When you share your ‘why,’ you do three things simultaneously:
You clarify what you stand for.
You attract people who see themselves in your story.
You differentiate yourself in a market obsessed with sameness.
That’s what I mean when I say your story is strategy.
It’s not a marketing angle — it’s your most underused asset.
So many creators are sitting on a story that could transform their positioning, their pricing, and their presence. But fear — of exposure, imperfection, rejection — keeps them quiet.
And silence is expensive.
The most magnetic brands in the world — Aman, Patagonia, Alila — all sell story before product. They don’t compete on what they offer; they compete on what they believe.
Your audience doesn’t just want to buy something.
They want to belong to something.
So tell the story that made you build it.
Tell the one that still scares you a little — because that’s the one people will remember.
The truth is: your business doesn’t need a better hook.
It needs a heartbeat.
~Ana
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