Most of what we describe as marketing and brand storytelling—what we do in order to grow our businesses, is designed to help us to find more customers.

What if we flipped that thinking on its head and thought about our stories as the way we help people to find us?

There’s a subtle difference.

When your main goal is to find the most people, you grasp at every straw and you dilute your message. You fail to stand for something or to draw a line in the marketing sand which you refuse to cross. You shoot for quantity over quality.

When your goal is to help people to find you, a subtle shift in your posture takes place. You, as Krista Tippett describes, stop shouting to be heard and start listening to understand. You actively look for ways to stand out to the right people, instead of trying to appease the majority. And most important of all you begin to measure things that matter to your customers beyond traditional metrics and the single bottom line.

Image by Luvia Lazo..