Dear reader, before you continue, a disclaimer:

• I could’ve written only about the benefits of having a ‘Core Story’ in the least possible amount of words to convert you as quickly as possible into a client.

• Instead, I choose to take you seriously and offer you with meaningful content that isn’t just a summary of what I want to get across, but the actual thing.

I believe we should cultivate more depth and attention in our information intake and less snacking of unconnected snippets of information. I believe that those who can no longer read books or long reads have a problem and I know, because I was one of them.

Without further ado, my vision on the importance of ‘Core Stories’.

What is a ‘Core Story’?

A Core Story tells the essence of who and what you are as an organisation, a group, project or individual, by expressing the values and principles you stand for.

• Core stories are not branding, marketing, or PR, yet they empower all of these.

• Your Core Story is what remains when all performative and symbolic layers are stripped away to reveal that which is of real meaning, value and purpose.

• Your Core Story is like a constitution through which you declare yourself openly and honestly, to help you remain anchored when the world is shifting.

A strong Core Story:

• Cuts through the noise with human authenticity and clarity

• Clarifies and expresses your values, mission and purpose

• Unifies and bonds your team, stakeholders, and audiences

• Offers direction for decision-making and communications

Developing a strong Core Story reveals the most authentic voice of your organisation, the one that connects most deeply with others in a wider context of increasing noise, artificial narratives, deceptions and propaganda.

Why do you need a Core Story?

We are living in the story gap, a strange and uncertain time in which many of the old, guiding narratives are crumbling, while the new ones are still struggling to form.

• Political, economic, and technological changes are now happening so fast that many individuals, businesses, and entire industries feel increasingly disjointed from larger structures.

• In a media landscape increasingly flooded with AI-generated content, hyper-optimised marketing, and algorithmic manipulation, authentic human stories can serve as oases of meaning and trust.

A Core Story is not a ‘nice-to-have’—it’s an existential necessity for individuals and organisations who want to remain relevant, trusted, and meaningfully connected to their audiences in an increasingly confusing context.

A Core Story clarifies why you do what you do and why others should care about that too.

Is your Core Story future-proof?

What comes up for you if you think of your Core Story right now? If you have one, is it clear enough to you? Is it clear to others? Or, do the different parts of it feel disjointed somehow? Like you have all the ingredients, but you can’t quite put your finger on it?

Many organisations are still telling old-world stories in a new-world context—and wondering why they feel out of sync. It’s as complex as it is simple: if your Core Story isn’t evolving, your relevance is at risk.

Core Story vs. Marketing

Unlike post-modern marketing approaches, which often focus on what audiences want to hear, a Core Story expresses what could emerge come from the inside out.

• A shift from outside-in to inside-out storytelling can make a big difference.

• Instead of crafting a more symbolic, performative narrative designed to please, uncovering and expressing the real story inside of you means deeper resonance with.

How I can help

I have spent the last two decades uncovering the hidden narratives within organisations, sectors, and movements.

As part of my ‘To the Core’ program, I organise and facilitate the ‘story harvesting’ process, which channels the collective voice of a group into cohesive, living narratives, that I help bring to life in different media.

• My approach is intuitive, philosophical, fact- and data-supported and deeply human-centered by cultivating and making use of the collective intelligence of groups of people who share common goals.

• Instead of exhausting, complicated interview processes or generic PR brain storming sessions, I give shape to the project by combining all of the relevant information you already have with inputs from your most important partners, clients and audiences, either through person meetups and/or questionnaires.

The more qualitative inputs and perspectives we can gather around your Core Story, the deeper and more informed it will be, leading to is result over which many feel collective ownership and responsibilities.

Let’s work on it together

I help individuals, teams, and organisations find and articulate the most resonant, meaningful version of their Core Story, one that aligns with who they really are in relation to the zeitgeist.

Whether you’re an entrepreneur, a creative, a movement leader, or an organization, I can help you find and articulate the Core Story that already exists within you—in a way that is clear, powerful, and undeniably human.

Curious what we might do together?